Tag Archives: green energy

Smart sustainable urban highway that runs on 100% renewable energy to open up in Dubai

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Say hello to the world’s smartest running and cycling infrastructure – the Loop. Located in Dubai, the Loop is a 93 km sustainable urban highway designed by URB. Designed to be a zero-emission transport system, it aims to connect more than 3 million residents using a healthy mode of transportation – one that involves walking and cycling. The Loop utilizes kinetic energy to run on 100% renewable energy, and it is also irrigated with 100% recycled water.

Designer: URB

With the Loop, URB plans to change and transform how people get around and commute in Dubai. Since, at the moment, the city is overrun by cars, and hence with the Loop they want to make a smooth and efficient switch to more eco-friendly modes of transportation. The environment of the highway will be controlled all year long, in turn, encouraging walking, running, and cycling among residents of the city. Around 80% 0f residents will be encouraged to cycle and bike within the next few years.

“Dubai is the best place for entrepreneurship in urban mobility. THE LOOP project is an embodiment of that entrepreneurial spirit, which aims to make Dubai the most connected city on earth by foot or bike. In Europe, most people ride bicycles or walk to get to work. In Dubai, our aim is to get more than 80% of people to use a bike on a daily basis,” said URB.

By encouraging people to walk, run or cycle not only does the Loop support eco-friendly modes of commute, but it also boosts and encourages public health. It will nudge people to be more active, and use their feet, and transform Dubai into a “20-minute city”, ensuring that residents are within 20 minutes of major attractions by bicycle or foot. This will encourage people to bypass cars, and instead opt to walk or cycle so they can reach places faster.

The interiors of the smart and sustainable highway are designed to be biophilic – that is it is full of plants, and loads of greenery. It will be a highway-park hybrid that will feature waste recycling stations and kinetic energy tracks that supply power to the smart energy grid.

The post Smart sustainable urban highway that runs on 100% renewable energy to open up in Dubai first appeared on Yanko Design.

This hand-built motorcycle runs entirely on methane gas harvested from local ponds for power!

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Relying only on DIY solutions and minimal hardware, Dutch inventor Gijs Schalkx built a motorcycle by hand that runs entirely on methane gas sourced from local ponds and roadside ditches.

It’s difficult to integrate alternative energy sources into today’s world. While harnessing green energy for electricity and power is at the top of our minds, advancements in the technological world and societal norms constantly create new barriers and change the rules of the green game. Dutch inventor Gijs Schalkx knows this better than most. His most recent invention, the Slootmotor is a handbuilt scooter that runs entirely on methane gas sourced from local ponds.

Schalkx first begins by collecting methane gas with his homemade, manual well and pump. Built from what appears as a heavy-duty rubber swimming tube and some household appliances, including a steel air pump, Schalkx places the well and pump in a local pond or roadside ditch to harness the methane gas for Slootmotor. After giving the contraption some time to collect the methane gas from the pond’s or landfill’s surface, Schalkx connects the well and pump to his Slootmotor’s energy converter and pumps the collected methane gas by hand to be converted into power for his Slootmotor. Schalkx formed Slootmotor on the basis that methane gas will outlast preexisting alternative energy sources, considering the availability of methane gas in shallow waters like ponds and small ditches.

Requiring minimal hardware and DIY solutions to actually harvest the methane gas for energy consumption, Schalkx’s Slootmotor boasts an affordable and feasible build that can be deconstructed and rebuilt any number of times. Keeping all the tools and material needed for construction in a small leather pouch, riders of Slootmotor can rest assured knowing that even if the scooter breaks down, they can rebuild Slootmotor by hand from scratch. Additionally, the Slootmotor’s tiny engine keeps the scooter’s overall energy consumption low given that it doesn’t reach conventionally high speeds, reaching a maximum speed of 43 km/h (26 mph).

Designer: Gijs Schalkx

Orbital Marine Power’s latest renewable energy project is a tidal turbine that can provide electricity for 2,000 homes!

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Tidal turbines are some of the most efficient renewable energy producers, offering predictability, reliability, and low-cost upkeep (albeit following an expensive construction period). Harnessed by free-floating turbines or ones contained within barrages, tidal energy produces power from ocean surges during the rise and fall of tides. Orbital Marine Power, a renewable technology company, recently launched their very own tidal turbine called O2 off the coast of Orkney, Scotland.

O2 is a 74-meter, free-floating, 2MW tidal turbine that will be able to provide sustainable, renewable energy for the next fifteen years with the potential to fulfill an annual electricity quota for around 2,000 homes across the UK. Stationed in the Orkney Isles, O2’s location was specifically chosen for the powerful tidal currents resulting from the confluence of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. In fact, O2 is anchored in the Fall of Warness, a location known for its high-tidal energy, reaching tidal flow velocities of 3 m/s, or around six knots. Taking advantage of the sea’s perpetual tidal energy, Orbital Marine Power cabled O2 to one of Orkney’s onshore electricity networks to begin collecting and generating renewable energy. In building O2, Orbital Marine Power equipped the vessel with a two-bladed pitching hub, 1 MW nacelle, and a 20m rotor to allow for bidirectional navigation and optimize tidal flow.

Orbital Marine Power is a privately held company that found support in public lenders and various green initiatives from the Scottish government and E.U. to help fund O2’s launch. Michael Matheson, a supporter of O2 and cabinet secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport notes, “With our abundant natural resources, expertise and ambition, Scotland is ideally placed to harness the enormous global market for marine energy whilst helping deliver a net-zero economy…The deployment of Orbital Marine Power’s O2, the world’s most powerful tidal turbine, is a proud moment for Scotland and a significant milestone in our journey to net-zero.”

Designer: Orbital Marine Power

O2 has the potential to generate enough power for 2,000 homes across the UK.

Following a lengthy and expensive construction process, O2 was built to harness energy from tides and produce power.

The 74-meter long turbine features a two-bladed pitching hub, 1 MW nacelle, and a 20m rotor.

Dynamic power cable connections are located on both ends of the turbine, connecting it to onshore electricity networks.

O2 also comes complete with boarding and loading decks so researchers can delve into the science behind acquiring tidal power.

The tidal turbine is located in the Fall of Warness, a high-tidal energy environment resulting from the confluence of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.

Orkney’s coast is known for high tidal action.

Spherical Transparent Sun Power Generator

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SONY DSC

Cleaner, cheaper and more efficient energy is the future and also the now, with the Rawmelon Beta.ray 1.00 generator being one of the more intriguing products in this field we’ve seen recently.

The Beta.ray 1.00 comes with a hybrid collector to convert daily electricity and thermal energy at the same time. It features what the company calls a breakthrough patent pending micro dual axis tracking unit for full environmental integration with very little weather impact, while coming at what they call an affordable price (€6,000).

How it works

Back to the point of the hybrid collector, the conversion happens while  reducing the silicon cell area to 25% with the equivalent power output by using an ultra transmission ball lens. At night time  the Ball Lens can transform into a high-power lamp to illuminate your location, simply by using a few LED’s.

The Beta.ray.100 is also designed for off grid conditions as well as to supplement buildings’ consumption of electricity and thermal circuits like hot water. It’s easy to transport and install, with a support frame that includes the plugs necessary in order to connect with the local grid including a security panel behind the collector. For more details, go here.

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Lockheed Martin Say It Will Be Making Truck Sized Fusion Reactors Within the Decade

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There’s no good solution to our energy problems right now. Solar and wind power are helping, but they’re not the quick and easy fix that the American public demands. Germany has managed to use solar and wind power for 17% of its energy needs, but that’s still just a drop in the bucket. The thing we’re all waiting for, but has never arrived, much like Dr. Dre’s Detox or or a Lincoln that’s not just a Ford wearing a mustache, is nuclear fusion.

lockheed fusion reactor 620x387magnify

According to a press release and video from Lockheed Martin, we might only have to wait a few more years. The company claims to have a design for a reactor that would fit in a shipping container and produce enough energy to power 80,000 homes. That’s huge news. Of course, being a defense contractor, when the first tests start happening in five years, it will probably be on Navy vessels, but the potential for emissions-free planes with unlimited range and very fast space ships is quite real as well. Lockheed also says that distributing these as powerplants around the world would not further the proliferation of nuclear weapons, since a fusion bomb and a fusion reactor are built so differently.

On a more pragmatic note, the fact that this is being developed by Lockheed is also a very good thing. Oil companies have a lot to lose from this much energy being available from sources that have nothing to do with oil, but Lockheed certainly owns enough politicians to push back hard.

The future is going to be cool.

[via Lockheed Martin]

London’s Phone Booths to Become Solar Powered Charging Stations

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Solarbox

Phone booths are somewhat of a cultural symbol of London, and that not only because of a 50-year old TV series about a mad man with a box. Since it would be a pity to throw them away, two entrepreneurs figured out that these would look great as solar powered charging stations.

Solarbox, as the project developed by Kirsty Kenney and Harold Craston is called, couldn’t have become a reality with Boris Johnson, the mayor of London. Of course, in order to repurpose something that’s on the public domain, the two London School of Economics (LSE) graduates would’ve needed some official permissions from the city hall, but that’s not it. Johnson organized the Low Carbon Entrepreneur competition, and Kenney and Craston are this year’s big winners, as they managed to get $8,000 in funding.

In an interview with the BBC, Creston explained how he came up with the idea of repurposing one of London’s emblems: “I lived next to a phone box in my second year at uni and walked past it every day. I thought, ‘There are 8,000 of these lying unused in London and we must be able to find a use for them.’”

The first Solarbox was unveiled yesterday on Tottenham Court Road in London, while the second one will be put in service in January. More such solar-powered green boxes will follow, and that can only be considered good news, especially since using them will be free of charge. That’s right, anyone with phones, tablets, cameras and other devices whose batteries are running low will be able to charge them using the Solarbox.

As Mayor Johnson pointed out, “In our modern world, where hardly any Londoner is complete without a raft of personal gizmos in hand, it’s about time our iconic boxes were update for the 21st Century, to be useful, more sustainable.” The boxes will be able to charge up to 100 phones a day, but I wonder exactly how they are planning to pull this one.

The green color of the repurposed phone booths makes sense, since it’s green energy that we’re talking about. However, after changing them from blue to red, it will take people a while to get used to the new color, especially the shade they went for is pretty strident.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the two-faced 12-foot tall touchscreen payphone concept and the Goldfish aquarium phone booths.

In Case of Emergency Use the Solar E Power Cube

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Solar e Cube 1500

Now that green energy is at most people’s fingertips, at least in the developed countries, relying on gasoline-powered electric generators is a big no-no.

There still are plenty of situations when a power bank comes in useful, and not all of them are emergencies. When a backup source of electricity is required, solar panels are the most cost-effective, even though at the moment their efficiency is not that great. The Solar E Power Cube is exactly what the doctor ordered, as it can collect energy without harming the environment, and then it can store it for prolonged periods of time so that you can use it when needed.

Made by Wagan Corporation (Wagan Tech), a company that specializes in power inverters and other related goods, the Solar e Cube 1500 is not exactly a new product. In 2012, when it was first showcased, it won the “Best in Class” award at the DIY (Do it Yourself) Network and the National Hardware Show.

Chad Youngblood, the General Manager of the DIY Network had only words of praise back then: “This baby is stylish and portable. It houses all of the modern power connections and mobile devices people use today. [It] could play a role in keeping my family safe and comfortable.”

Alex Hsu, Wagan Tech Vice President of Sales, explained that “We have spent years developing a solar generator that is not only ‘plug-and-play’ but also fully portable. We were pleased to see that our hard work and dedication to this project had attracted to so much attention. Winning Best in Class really showed us that consumers understand the problems with current gasoline generators and are looking for other cleaner forms of power, which we are able to offer.”

The Solar e Cube 1500 makes use of 5 solar panels to collect 80W of energy in a 100Ah hybrid AGM-gel battery. It packs 2 USB ports and everything else you need to power up your gadgets when there’s a storm. In addition, it can also be charged from an AC power outlet, just in case you live in an area where there’s not much sun, and use it in case of emergency.

The Solar e Power Cube is a tad pricy, since you will have to spend $1,299 to get one. It’s currently available on Kotulas, should you be looking for a backup solution.

Ironically enough, I’m listening to Hans Zimmer and The Magnificent Six – My Enemy, which is basically Electro’s theme in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I don’t like dubstep at all, but there’s something really catchy about this tune.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the solar-powered V-Tent that charges and protects electric vehicles, and the electric shock gaming headset that helps you stay focused.