When designer Harikrishnan P K decided to come up with a jolly green way to get around, ordinary wasn’t enough. Called the Hercules Topgear-S, this fabulous bicycle is a futuristic rendition of the current bicycle available in the market and is a paradigm shift away from the conventional bicycle.looks apart, what sets this one away from the rest is its automatic gear system, enabling you to glide through traffic without fiddling with manual gears. Using a contactless dynamo that charges the onboard battery pack which in turn powers up the bicycle’s quick-shifter, the headlights, the horn and the turn signals with the controls all integrated in the handlebar, the Hercules Topgear-S also sports a USB charging port to juice your smartphone or portable media player on the go!
Dubai will soon play home to 340,000 square feet worth of pure green architecture, the first sustainable building to show up in the Emirates. Commissioned to be used by the water and civil division of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, this sustainable piece of modern architecture will generate nearly 600kW of solar energy on-site, which will be used by the building to reduce its complete reliance on grid power. To be completed over the next few months, the building is located at Shaikh Zayed Road in Al Quoz and will make use of high efficiency insulation and smart building systems. Apart from this, the building will also make use of LED lighting technology and is termed as one of the greenest buildings in the Emirates!
electronics giant Philips, also known as Royal Philips Electronics, has been drawing plans to lighten up far-flung areas of Africa since quite a while now and is currently planning to invest a whopping $1.48 million in the effort. The company will soon begin lighting up 1000m2 areas in Africa with solar-powered LED lighting. These areas will then be used as spaces for education, entertainment, sports and recreation. Philips has planned 100 lighting centers of the kind and will soon unveil the sites and countries that will enjoy the benefits of the same with installation kicking off in October later this year. Currently, countries including Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morrocco and South Africa play home to these solar-powered lighting centers, each the size of a small soccer field with four 8m-tall poles each, holding LED lighting solutions. A great way to bring sustainable energy to areas off the grid, Philips’ initiative is worth a ton of praise.
Following a shark around isn’t one of the wisest things a human being would want to do, which is why we use robots these days to track down sharks and better understand their patterns of behavior and life. Researchers studying the aquatic life, particularly sharks, can now resort to a more eco-friendly way of tracking down these feared blood curdlers. Called the Wave Gliders, these solar powered underwater robots could be put to use by the likes of the Stanford University and Hopkins Marine Station and are in essence self-propelling automatons that use the energy of the sun to power up. with body designs replicating surf boards, these Wave Gliders track tagged sharks and help nearby laboratories collect information in regards to these deadly fishes, helping us better understand just what keeps our finned friends going.
Lithium-ion batteries might be the answer to powering up our electrical needs away from the grid, though these are known to take typically longer hours to charge up. Recently, a group of researchers from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have come up with a new battery manufacturing technique that helps decrease the time taken by these to charge to a few minutes! These batteries are predicted to charge 30 and 120 times faster than normal li-on batteries and are densely interwoven with conductors. A development like this could help boost the electric-car industry and subsequently make our everyday gadgetry quicker to juice up!
Solar energy is indeed a promising way to power up not just our homes but also the modes we use to travel. It could take a while for the world of aviation to finally swing away from fossil fuels and use the energy of the sun to transport people around the globe but that hasn’t stopped developers from around the globe from experimenting with the same. A new Mexico startup recently unveiled this six-foot-long unmanned aircraft that powers up completely with solar energy. Called the Silent Falcon, this aircraft is capable of staying in the skies for a good 14 hours powered by the sun alone and could very well be used for surveillance and security operations. These however aren’t being mass-produced yet and are currently priced at a whopping $250,000 to $300,000, a price most government agencies wouldn’t mind shelling out for an eye in the sky.
Posted in
Recycle on August 17, 2012
We hate watching things being tossed into waste bins and every time we come across a way to salvage this waste and put it to use once again, we simply can’t help smiling like delighted infants. Behold the P&P Office Waste Processor device, a little gizmo that quickly turns waste paper into usable pencils! Designed by Chinese designers Chengzhu Ruan, Yuanyuan Liu, Xinwei Yuan and Chao Chen, this award-winning device requires to be fed with a sheet of waste paper which in turn is wrapped tightly around a graphite stick with glue used to keep it all together. The resultant pencil works exceptionally well, just like any other you’d pick out of a stationary store! The P&P Office Waste Processor also includes a sharpener to keep your pencils well pointed and ready for use, making this device a must-have for just about any office desk!
Gas powered cars might have been the best way to get around in the past but with the dawn of alternative energy sources, fossil fuels could pretty much turn obsolete, paving the way for greener and more eco-friendly cars like this new development by Tata. Barely a looker though sincerely green at heart, the AirPod powers up with nothing but air! Using compressed air to its advantage, this three-wheeled one-seat ride from the Indian car manufacturers stables is capable of touching speeds of up to 43 miles per hour and packs a tank full of compressed air on board that requires refilling. Also, the AirPod sports an electric engine that can alternatively be used to pump in air from the outdoors, which in turn is powered by regenerative breaking. A development that could change the way we travel forever, the tiny AirPod is bound to grab tons of attention.
Powering up an EV charging station with renewable energy is indeed an eco-friendly solution to clean and green road transport unlike any other. Putting the concept to practice, General Electric and Urban Green Energy have joined hands to build and install wind-powered EV charging stations called Sanya Skypumps. The first of these has found a home in Barcelona and will be used to juice electric cars belonging to corporate and government drivers. Beautifully designed in an attempt to contribute to the surroundings and not play an eye-sore, the Sanya Skypump uses UGE’s 4Kwind turbine towers hooked up to a GE Durastation. Also, plans are currently being drawn to set up these at malls and universities across Australia before the year-end and we hope to see developments like these being put into place for personal car users too.
Electricity isn’t really an energy source that can be yet be taken for granted in certain isolated parts of Africa where more often than not, a regular supply is considered a luxury. STG International, an MIT non-profit has come up with a feasible way to power up clinics and schools in such parts of Africa using alternative energy sources instead of complete grid reliance. Using a new hybrid power and heat solar system that’s capable of providing electricity, hot water and space heating, STG International is currently drawing plans to set up five such units in Africa. With MIT graduate PHDs Matthew Orosz and Amy Mueller leading the way, these units will be tested for viability and will use ORC Engine instead of solar electric panels. Capable of providing up to 18-24kW-hr of energy and 200-300 gallons of hot water daily, this system could prove to be a boon for rural development, not just in Africa but also other far-flung areas disconnected from the grid around the globe.
