The world’s largest wind-farm, the London Array has finally begun generating energy. Located in the Thames Estuary, the project will be worth 630 MW when completed. Currently, just 15 of the total 175 turbines have been installed, with the rest being set up. The remaining turbines are expected to be constructed by the end of this year.
Trust the Chinese to come up with some of the most unconventional ways to baffle and inspire the world. The country has chalked out a 78 million square foot site outside Chengdu in central China. The space will be developed into a one-of-a-kind city that will require no cars! To play home to nearly 80,000 residents, the city will be built from ground up, literally, and is a project by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture. Called the “Car-Free City”, this project will significantly decrease the requirement of a car!
Nestled in the South Pacific lies a paradise-on-earth, called Tokelau. In essence a group of islands, this beautiful country has now been crowned as the world’s first nation to go 100% solar-powered! Using a one megawatt array spread across three atolls, Tokelau is capable of powering 1,400 residents’ lives with renewable energy, generating enough power to satisfy 150% of their electricity needs!
When it comes to putting trash to peace in the best possible way, Sweden deserves a standing ovation. The Nordic country has recently stepped into the spotlight with its energy generation program that uses garbage! The program has in fact been so successful, that Sweden has nearly run out of trash to feed this green monster! Currently, only 4% of Sweden’s trash ends up in landfills with the rest being used to generate electricity.
Samsung has been leading the world of technology and has turned into one of the world’s largest consumer electronics giants lately. The Samsung Heavy Industries has now moved towards the greener horizon and has announced plans for an 84-megawatt offshore wind farm. This will be Korea’s first and will be built jointly with Korea Southern Power Co in Jeju Island.
Whoever said you need a plush apartment to satisfy all your residential needs! Designer Michael Jantzen’s latest design beats the traditionally designed home and is in essence a huge transforming house made up of 5 modular sections! Each of these rotate to change the function of the home’s interior, allowing users to mix and match their homes as per their preferences!
In a land-strapped urban world where searching for a little greenery is like a treasure hunt in vain, vertical gardens are quickly turning into an acceptable and practical way to keep the ecosystem alive. This vertical garden in Singapore at the tip of the Malay Peninsula is an oasis in a concrete jungle. Built by Sky Greens Farms, this vertical garden includes 120 aluminum towers and stands 30 feet high.
And if you’ve been thinking the Renault Twizy electric city car to be nothing more than a seemingly cramped-up way to travel around your neighborhood, think again! The French automaker has just unveiled a firefighting version of this tiny car that could somewhat do the job of a full-fledged fire-truck!
The Toyota Prius has been deemed to be one of the greenest cars money could buy. This bestselling plug-in hybrid just got greener, with Toyota’s inclusion of a new feature in the “Prius” hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and the “Prius PHV” plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). A simple tweak to the Prius now allows users to hook the Prius to homes and use the car’s energy in case of power outages.
The world’s largest furniture retailer, IKEA, has just unveiled plans for a greener tomorrow. The company has come up with the “People & Planet Positive” initiative that will make IKEA more sustainable. As part of the plan, IKEA will invest nearly $1.95 billion in renewable energy by 2015, hoping to produce as much renewable energy as it consumes. Also, the company aims to improve the energy efficiency of its operations by at least 20% by 2020.
