Published on November 2nd, 2009
The simplest ideas are best at harnessing underwater wave energy. You don’t want lots of parts in the harsh marine environment (for machine parts) under the ocean. Here’s an idea from a diver from Finland who was almost hit in the head by a shipwreck door that inspired this invention: the WaveRoller.
Now the EU is funding the diver; Rauno Koivusaari, with $4.4 million for his company AW-Energy to build the first full scale demo of his invention.
Each one at full size weighs 20 tons and produces 300 KW.
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Published on October 21st, 2009
A new Kansas-based company called EcoFit Lighting believes it can make the transition to LED street lighting not only much easier, but also much cheaper.
EcoFit’s design is a retrofit module that slides right into place in existing streetlights, eliminating the need to have a full replacement. The company claims using their product would bring down costs from $700 to $900 (for a complete replacement) to just $400. Savings also come in the form of energy efficiency and extended lifespan as EcoFit’s LED lights are 60 percent more efficient and last six times longer than sodium streetlights. Additionally, as it’s estimated that replacing street lights with EcoFit LED lights would take just five minutes (as opposed to taking up to 30 minutes to fully replace the head), labor costs are also expected to be reduced.
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Published on October 11th, 2009
Solar power technology is moving forward by leaps and bounds, with some new advancements being built out into usable installations virtually every day. Design concepts once thought to be ‘pie in the sky’ ideas are being implemented, and making a simple solar panel array look like old-school technology. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on October 5th, 2009
In Taiwan, a new charger technology claims to be able to charge phones without even being plugged into an outlet. That’s because it taps into the power of hydrogen as a fuel source, and is expected to help put Taiwan in the list of purveyor of green technologies.
Scientists from Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute recently unveiled a charger powered by hydrogen. According to source, the device can fully charge a phone within a couple of hours, although the amount of hydrogen fuel used for that span of time wasn’t mentioned. Tsau Fanghei of the research team says they “hope the hydrogen-powered device can replace current mobile phone recharge systems in 2012.”
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Published on September 29th, 2009
John Rowe, Exelon CEO, said yesterday that climate change legislation is an urgent issue. At the same time, he announced that the nation’s largest utility would not be renewing its membership with the US Chamber of Commerce because of the Chamber of Commerce’s opposition to climate legislation.
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Published on September 25th, 2009
A new tool in Google Earth shows you the “effect” of climate change in your area.
Using Google Earth, you can look at climate effects under three different scenarios — 1) Confronting Climate Change — “with Al Gore”, 2) IPCC High Emissions Scenario, and 3) IPCC Low Emissions Scenario. Other new tools let you examine other aspects of climate change and how to adapt to climate change.
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Published on September 22nd, 2009
Climate Action Will Pay for Itself, and More.
The United Nations (UN) stated earlier this month that the cost of avoiding climate change was at least 1% of global GDP — $500-600 billion dollars. Despite this major cost, Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the UK, and The Climate Group, presented a report to the UN yesterday saying that a strong climate deal will “boost growth in all major economies & create millions of new jobs.”
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Published on September 15th, 2009
Australia has passed the US as the new world leader in CO2 emissions per capita. That is not the only climate change problem in Australia, though.
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Published on September 8th, 2009
Carolina Solar Energy developed the newest solar energy park in North Carolina. The park is a small one, powering about 60 homes in Person County.
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Published on August 31st, 2009
A team of scientists from the University of Texas at Austin has developed a type of spray-on solar cells that could lower costs of production dramatically.
The concept of spray-on solar cells is by no means a new approach – the Australian National University has been working on one for the past three years. The University of Texas at Austin team led by engineer Brian Korgel uses copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) as the main component for the ink used to manufacture the solar cell. This nanoparticle ink allows manufacturers to completely deviate from the conventional expensive method of solar cell production. Using this ink, solar cells can be made through a roll-to-roll printing process, similar to how newspapers are printed. Plastic substrate and stainless steel are a couple of possible bases for the printing.
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