Though an e-book is considered to a green alternative to printed newspaper, BenQ intends to make it greener by unveiling a solar powered e-book reader. Unveiled at its 2010 Global Distributors' Meeting, Taiwan, the BenQ K60 e-book reader with a built-in PV power supply will be launched in 2011. Though this product has hit the production stage, the company also lured keen consumers with a solar powered notebook concept. This green notebook is designed with a PV panel built on the external surface of the cover. Hope such a sun-feeding notebook gets a green signal to hit production too!

[DigiTimes]

Sanyo Electric has teamed up with public transport operator, Ryobi to installed solar cells on the roof of a city bus, dubbed Solarve, in Japan. Sanyo claims that this is the world's first solar-cell-equipped public bus. Ryobi has developed this green futuristic bus to commemorate its 100 year anniversary. All set to start rolling on the streets of Okayama from next week, the solar powered roof of Solarve will illuminate the LED lights inside the bus. A total of 798 watts from Sanyo’s solar cells will power the interior lights and when sun shies away, the storage batteries of the bus will take over. Much expected from the land of rising sun!

More...

Plastic vehicles will soon replace heavy metal based trucks to clear waste in UK. In a bid to reduce their own carbon footprint a Kent based waste firm, Verdant, plans to introduce eight plastic trucks which in turn will drive to save up to 11 tonnes of carbon per year. Manufactured by Linktip, these trucks will help to save about $3,900 worth fuel per vehicle per year. At the same time these 'polybuilt' vehicles can ship up to twice the load compared to current traditional waste-carrying trucks. Weighing just 3.5 tonnes, these vehicles are based on either Mitsubishi Canter or Mercedes Sprinter chassis and sport a tipping rear body made of polypropylene plastic. Smart way to keep our environment as well surroundings clean!

[Greenbiz]

Clayton Homes’ i-houses apparently didn’t hit it off well last year and hence the company is back with an upgraded version dubbed, i-house 2.0. This new "plug and play" dwelling spreads out over three bedrooms, two bathrooms and flexible indoor-outdoor space. With an expanded butterfly roof, this larger prefab model may lure eco-buyers this year. Though there is no official word on the pricing for i-house 2.0, you can have a look at the video of the lay out provided by Clayton.

More...

Apple is not transparent about its green moves and hence turned down UK’s first green cellphone ranking system. Though other big brands like Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have signed up, Apple has shied away. O2 has launched the scheme which intends to cover 93% of the devices used by its clients. Based on their environmental footprint, the cellphones will get a rating of zero to five. It will judge right from the use of raw material to manufacturing process and packaging. Features like energy efficiency, recyclable and long-lasting will also have an impact on the ratings. Though Apple is not citing clear reasons to avoid being a part of this green ranking, the company is taking green shade under its environmental reporting online. However note that Sony Ericsson Elm tops the rating as the most sustainable mobile phone with 4.3 out of five.

[Treehugger]

Back in 2009, we reported about hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle Buckeye Bullet 2 breaking records. This time again Buckeye Bullet 2 has set new records but in a battery-powered avatar. Teaming up with Monaco-based electric car manufacturer Venturi , Ohio State University team has replaced the fuel cells with lithium-ion batteries. This boosted the average speed to 291 mph which is a new battery-powered vehicle record. Expect such a green beast to hit the roads in 2011!

[Engadget]

The guys at Washington DC are sure striving hard to keep their city clean and green, and the streets sparkling. The SmartBike program, the first of its kind in the United States, a bike sharing program, is all set to expand and grow. To be based on Montreal’s Bixi, there will soon be ten times more stations and bikes in this program. Currently, the SmartBike program has just 120 bikes and 10 stations, though the new initiative will extend to 1,100 bikes and 114 stations, spreading around the district and into Arlington County too. The costs of memberships will double up too, increasing from the current $40 to $80 for a year.

More...

Making a little craft flower isn’t the only way to reuse and recycle pencil shavings now. You can make an eraser out of it too! Pull your jaw back on and get a hold of this. Designed by Hao Gin Weng, Siang Yin Ke, and Che Hao Li, this little machine uses the shavings from a pencil to make erasers. Now there are a few doubts as to how exactly would bits of wood combined with lead help erasing pencil marks off paper, but the designer has thought about that too while putting this baby together. So all you need to do is, draw out a picture, then somehow break the pencil point, stick it into the sharpener, turn the crank, have a sharp pencil, and an eraser too!. A great way to put to use all those bits off wood shopped out of your pencil by the sharpener. This indeed is the best way to recycle, at your study table. Source

Ever wondered what would come between the A1 and the A3? Well, Audi now have the new A2, waiting to be unleashed. The new A2, unlike all the other A series cars will be a green and clean one though. The car will be a fuel electric vehicle, to give the BMW Megacity and a similar Mercedes-Benz a bit of competition. The previous A2 was phased out by Audi five year ago and used an aluminum space frame construction. The new A2 however will use traditional steel, to instead of aluminum, due to costs. The car will also borrow some of its styling from the older version, meaning that it might retain its tall one-box design structure and narrow tracks. Audi is sure to take the EV industry by storm with the new A2. Source

The automobile industry is slowly but surely turning towards the greener horizon, with green designs, cars and technology being developed on a regular basis. Well, Sanyo has made its mark in the Guinness World Records now with some of their electric vehicle technology. Sanyo pepped up a Mira EV, powered by a Sanyo lithium-ion battery, and set out to break the world record for the longest drive in an electric vehicle on a single charge. And that’s exactly what happened, with the car travelling 1,003.84 kilometers without charging the battery. The Japan EV Club drove 555.6km last month on a single charge, from Tokyo to Osaka. This time the distance was doubled, using a Sanyo lithium-ion designed by 8,320 cylindrical lithium-ion batteries. The Mira EV ran for 27 hours at a speed of 40km/h, completing the journey and breaking the record. An awesome efficiency indeed, hopefully our future electric cars go this far on a single charge. Source

Quite a few of us have been cursing the sun for burning into our skin and scorching our lives this summer. So to keep the sun away and cool you down, designer Tyson Steele came up with a design of a Solar Arch to cover roads. Well, keeping the sun at bay isn’t all that the Solar Arch system does. It also generates electricity that can be used to power up highway lighting and satisfy the electricity needs of areas nearby. And when the weather changes and the sun hides away, the Solar Arch comes handy yet again, by helping reduce icing problems in winter. The designs have been compiled with AASHTO Standards for US interstate bridges and passageways with a ground clearance of over 18 feet and have a width of 40 feet with 10 feet long sections. The Solar Arch will be a welcome addition to roadways around today. Source

Give a modern artist to create a wind turbine and he’ll probably come up with something like this. Eddy is a modern art rendition of a wind turbine, and no, it’s not meant for an art museum. Instead, it’s made to sit comfortable atop your home. The turbine manufactured by Urban Green Energy uses the vertical axis design, enabling it to harvest the power of the wind from all directions. Eddy measures 1.38 meters wide and 1.6 meters tall. The system weighs just 81 kilograms. The vertical axis design of the Eddy wind turbine makes it ideal for use in urban areas where buffeting occurs due to obstructions and obstacles. The turbine boasts a rated power of 600 watts with a cut-in speed of 3.5 meters a second and a maximum safe wind speed of 120mph and above. The blades made of carbon fiber and fiberglass spin at a maximum of 200 revolutions per minute. Eddy is designed to live for 20 years, a whole lot of time to generate enough green energy to power up your homes. Source

’s mass transit system goes greener by the day and will be at its greenest by 2025. The entire bus fleet, about 1,300 of them in all, will go electric by the time 2025 looms. And if all goes as planned, Montreal will be the first North American city with an all-electric bus fleet. Currently, The Societe de Transport de Montreal (STM) awaits the arrival of 380 high-efficiency diesel buses, ordered to replace the old exhaust spewing aged ones. The city is also eager to add hybrids to its fleet in the near future. By the start of 2012, all the fleet additions will either be electric or hybrid, with electric bus testing beginning in 2011. These electric buses will be powered up by overhead wires, similar to trams, and will commute on the cities busy routes. By the year 2025, the cities 1,300 strong bus-fleet will be clean and green, with zero emissions. Other cities around the world should follow this sparkling green example by Montreal. Source

New Jersey is going a shade greener, this time with an all green port. A new container port is being built in Bayonne, New Jersey. Being constructed together by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the port will consume energy equivalent to that used to power up 2,000 homes! But fear not! Put your skin back on, the wind will do the work of powering up this port, without exhausting the grid. The port is currently being chiseled out, and the wind turbines will follow suit. Five 288 foot tall turbines will be built on a 70 acre area just east of the Global Terminal. The port will play host to huge cargo ships increasing the cargo intake above its current 323,000 containers annually. After all, there isn’t a better way to power up a port than the wind itself, earlier responsible for powering up old sail-boats too. Source

Who said beer drinking is bad for the environment? It might have been, but beer manufacturing is clearing up its act, and choosing to go green, to produce the world’s favorite alcoholic beverage. Well, Anheuser-Busch have decided to use solar energy help them aide beer manufacturing. The brewery at Newark, NJ brewery will generate about 525,000 kilowatt hours a year of solar power. The array will be set up on the roof of the brewery and will power up the machinery used to make that cool glass of golden frothing liquid. The system, designed and installed by Orion Energy Systems is just another green initiative taken by the company. Anheuser-Busch also uses wastewater-to-biogas recovery systems at 10 of its 12 U.S. breweries. Cheers to the green beer! Source