In an effort to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality, the Chinese city of Guangzhou is imposing a lottery for new car license plates. City officials said 120,000 license plates will be issued yearly; the lottery began last month. “The average bid for a license plate for a … [continued]
Maybe you write more coherent memos while in your pajamas, or you aren’t as tempted to shoot the breeze with your colleagues around the coffee pot. Reasons surely differ, but a new Chinese study supports the supposition that employees working from home are measurably more productive than their office-bound … [continued]
In the beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the world’s first test site with multiple floating vertical-axis wind turbines is going to be installed. The offshore wind project is called INFLOW — Industrialized setup of a floating offshore wind turbine — and is funded by the European Commission’s … [continued]
The new 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV is showcased in the two above videos with close-up shots of the car’s interior, exterior, and engine. I’m not much of a car person, but I found the top video with interviews of the Toyota and Tesla engineers fairly entertaining. It’s nice to … [continued]
The winds of change (as in dollars and cents) are blowing through Ethiopia, according to a Chinese government-funded study. HydroChina International Engineering Company (HCIE) is reporting that Ethiopia is home to more than 1,300 GW of wind energy. Chinese companies are in the hunt, with a 51-megawatt plant near Adama, … [continued]
To be well-rounded renewable energy warriors, we have to admit some downfalls of green power, and how to solve those issues. One of the issues facing Europe’s renewable energy sector (and eventually America’s) is the intermittent nature of wind and solar power and the impact that variability can have … [continued]
Add Japan to the list of countries setting up innovative wind farms. On Wednesday, Japan’s first floating wind turbine began operation about half a mile off the coat of the Nagasaki prefecture. The 100-kilowatt turbine will be replaced with a 2-megawatt turbine next summer, once data regarding performance and … [continued]
The macdaddy of buses has hit the scene. Meet the AutoTram Extra Grand: a 98-foot, 256 passenger carrier. The bus, which concept developer Fraunhofer IVI hails as the largest bus in the world, has some green features, including a battery storage system that enables all-electric operation for up to … [continued]
The UN’s Green Climate Fund (GCF), a body organized to assist poorer nations in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adjusting to changing environmental issues, isn’t making much headway in basic decisions. As reported in Business Green, the $100 billion fund is struggling to make headway on “key decisions — such as … [continued]
Sticker shock gets even the best of us, but a report from Pike Research says the low cost of electric vehicle charging, compared to traditional fuel, brings the total cost of ownership of electric vehicles below that of internal combustion engine vehicles! Senior research analyst Lisa Jerram said electric … [continued]
