Every drop fills the ocean. So every action that generates kinetic energy potentially can be converted to something worthwhile like power. Even an action as futile and flushing a toilet. But the HighDro system sees but potential source of energy in this futile action as well, enough to power the resident building. Targeted towards bigger commercial setups than home users, the system works like a small scale hydroelectric dam that converts water gushing out of the soil pipes into electricity with the help of a a four blade turbine.

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Imagine powering your night lamp with the salt and the sun! The sun in the night? Yes, you didn’t read wrong. The Archimede plant at Sicily is just on the verge of opening the first of its kind facility with will use concentrated solar power (CSP) using molten salt as its heat collection medium. Molten salt is known to hit temperatures over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, it can also generate more heat than synthetic oils generally used in CSP plants, which is why they can produce electricity even after the sun has set for the day. The receiver tubes are designed in such a way that they maximize energy collection along with minimizing emission levels using a vacuum casing to ensure temperatures are high as molten salts tent to solidify at around 425 degrees F.

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Water resources seem to be drying up in several countries, and loss of flowing water not just results in draught-like conditions, it also means lack of hydro electricity. But now there is an solution that these countries can use courtesy Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. By 2015, the company will begin commercializing the world’s first solar thermal power generation system that generates electricity without water. This system can generate electricity in deserts too and can cut power production costs by 20 to 30% for conventional systems.

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Airports seem to grow larger, and some of them also turn greener. At least that's what the new Domestic Terminal at Brisbane, Australia aims to be. And for that the international design studio Urban Art Projects (UAP) have collaborated with artist Ned Kahn to give the Brisbane Airport Corporation an eight-storey kinetic public art project, which with replace their short-term multi-level car park. American artist Ned Kahn is will use natural elements like wind and light into his art for the 5000 sq m kinetic frontage for the short-term car park.

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Supercomputers usually need a lot of power to run, considering the massive applications they run, so it's really great if a Supercomputer goes green. Taking the title of the world's Greenest Supercomputer is the Grape-DR, a supercomputer located at the Department of Information Science at the University of Tokyo. This machine spots 64 Intel Core i7-920 processors and an accelerator chip to draw 200 gigaflops with only 50 Watts of power, improving the efficiency five times over.

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Most tourists form opinions about the place of visit with whatever catches their eye first. But it's all going to change for one city, Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. The city will have a brand new solar powered gateway which will connect the new Abuja Airport to the city and freeways. This design by Ehrlich Architects was picked from an international competition. The green design will comprise of green roofs for buildings, a giant solar canopy and bricks made from the local laterite clay. One side of the gateway will be home to a public space spotting a photovoltaic canopy for solar power and to provide adequate shade from the sun.

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When I go out for a relaxing and much deserved vacation, the one thing I hate the most is keeping tab on all mu chargers. Think about it, there's your cell phone, your MP3 player, digital camera, the camcorder, (may be your laptop if you're doing outdoors). You lose one and the device is unusable till you find a makeshift charger! Moreover you are on a perennial hunt for charging points too. But a brand new technology which is being developed by RCA might just be the life saver we need. A new emergency power unit called the AirPower chargers is created to charge itself using Wi-Fi signal. Once charged fully, which takes about 5-6 hours; you can charge low-power devices using a USB connection, and you can use the device as it recharges too.

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What do you when you're company is hit by recession and each of the employees is extremely important? You cut down costs in other areas. Once such step you can take is the cut down on your power consumption. But how do you ask? Take a few cues from the secret black boxes that eBay uses to have save almost $100,000 in electricity charges that too in nine months alone.

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Some people can make art out of anything and everything, and make it so appealing that it sells for big bucks! Artist Sayaka Ganz, 33, has created beautiful animal art using nothing but thousands of plastic spoons, knives and forks! She has managed to create a dog, eagle and fish, and a set of galloping horses ranging from 18 inches to eight feet in length, with around 500 pieces of junk, including sunglasses, cutlery and bendy baskets. Some of the wireframes are quite complicated and can take up to nine months to make. And seen as a collector's item, you can get one for yourself at $10,895.

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A green fashion show with clothes made out of eco-friends things called the 'GreenShows' kick started with the Brit-designer Gary Harvey. He put on display 22 stunning gowns from recycled material, focusing on vintage garments like Levi's 501s, '70s floral print maxi dresses, logo tees, and the pages of the Financial Times. Most of the dresses features were composed of several individual garments like laundry bags, souvenir scarves from around the world, baseball jackets, trench coats, army jackets, t-shirts with slogans, etc.

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When you know that electricity is a rare and cherished commodity, every effort for alternative sources is welcome, especially in developing nations. And so MIT has come out with a refrigerator that can run on solar power. This system designed by Promethean Power Systems can be used as a commercial cold-storage especially where there are a lot of power failures. This will help store perishable food items especially if the time-to-market is considerably long. It will also create a cost-effective solution in the cold-chain food distribution system. The environmental benefits are an added plus.

[Zikkir]

I prefer smart casuals to a rugged and tattered look. So I prefer washing my jeans once a week, but that in turn means that they have a life shorter than what I would like. So a Brazilian fashion label called TriStar has come up with an innovative idea to help me save my blue jeans in a green way or at least retain a bit of their original color. And if you decide to heed their advice your jeans will go inside cold storage, that too quite literally! The recent denim collection from the label comes with direction to freeze-clean your jeans! The label CEO quotes ' After use, just put them inside a plastic or cloth bag and leave them in the freezer for 24 hours to kill the bacteria'.

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What happens when a company is growing but cannot keep up with the power bills? It decides to go green! But I don’t think that's what happened with Facebook. Their new Oregon data center will now be powered by a coal plant in Idaho to reduce costs. According to a report from the Energy Information Administration, the last 5 years the data center's power consumption has grown to 1.4 percent of the total energy use in the country! But in a bid to reduce their overall carbon foot print, the Pineville-based data center would be equipped with an outside-air intake system to cool the massive data servers, thus creating a health mix of renewable energy based power-grid!

[Treehugger]

If you struggle with frequent load shedding or are just plain environment friendly and want to restrict the use of electricity in your daily chores, why not move to an energy efficient vacuum cleaner instead? Miele Hybrid is said to be the first vacuum cleaner that can work with lithium-ion batteries, for a chord-free cleaning experience. You can charge the lightweight and powerful lithium-ion batteries automatically by using the power chord. These batteries are clean and can last for 10 years. It also guarantees enough power to the 1,800 watt motor, so that you can clean with the same efficiency. They require 3-hours to charge. Once charged, the batteries can be used for a non-stop 20 minutes without power assistance.

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Now it’s the turn of South Korea to turn eco-friendly yet again! And with the assistance of Samoo Architecture, a part of the upcoming National Ecological Institute(NEI) of South Korea site, a sprawling area consisting of 33,090 sq m will be provided with the most favorable conditions for a housing a relatively huge ecosystem. The Eden Project of the South or the Ecorium Project, will spot several interlinking domes appearing as wedge-shaped greenhouses. The technology will be backed mainly with the use of solar energy without any shades, but only a simulation of it by special arrangement.

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