Scientists from Purdue University have prepared a new solid propellant with explosive results. The fuel, a combination of nanoaluminum and ice, is a new kind of environmentally friendly solid rocket fuel that could someday be used in missions to outer space. With the motive to minimize fuel consumption onboard, the fuel has been successfully field-tested [...]

Power that literally ROCKS!

Rochus Jacob designed and built the Murakami Chair. As the user rocks back and forth during the day, the chair charges a battery that powers the lamp. Jacob writes: I was looking for opportunities to generate energy through activities we naturally do. The final result is a rocking chair that enables the [...]

A U.S.-Chinese venture is out to prove the benefits of quick-charge buses.
Municipal transit agencies have tried to reduce the carbon footprint of their bus fleets using a range of options over the years, from biofuels and hydrogen to batteries and hybrid-electric diesel. Now a Chinese company and its U.S. partner say that ultracapacitors could offer [...]

How much do you actually know about crows? Other than they are loud and sit on the tops of trees and make a bunch of noise? They always seem to lurk around and stare you in the eye a little too long for comfort, right? Well, turns out they are much smarter than you might [...]

By now we’ve all seen our fair share of green energy cars and devices, but there remains a dearth of public works-centric green tech innovations. Helping to fill the void of cool green-tech-meets-public-works design ideas, Taiwanese designers Cheng-Tsung Feng, Yao-Chieh Lin and Bo-Jin Wang created this solar-powered traffic light that easily could have emerged from [...]

Bike To  Berlin Brothel For Bangin Benefits!

A brothel in Berlin has leapt on the “green” bandwagon by offering discounts to clients who can prove they arrived by public transport or bicycle.
“Everyone’s a winner,” explained Regina Goetz, a former prostitute who runs the “Maison d’envie” (House of Desire) brothel in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg, a district in [...]

KITE POWER!

The Italian firm KiteGen Research is developing a generator that harnesses the wind through kites. As a kite flies into the air, it unspools a cord that cranks the turbine. Carina Storrs writes in Popular Science:
The company developed a prototype that flies 200-square-foot kites to altitudes of 2,600 feet, where wind streams are four [...]

Featured Invention at the Colorado Inventor Showcase 2009
Environmentally-friendly mobile power generation has arrived. SolaRover™ Mobile Solar Power Systems provide pure, consistent electricity for all types of commercial, industrial and emergency applications — wherever and whenever needed. Categorically clean, absolutely silent and far more economical than comparable diesel generators over the long term, SolaRover systems offer [...]

Pedal for Power!

The One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC) hopes to distribute a simple but useful laptop computer to impoverished children in developing nations at a very low cost per unit. One recurring problem in the project has been power supply. So the Afghan IT company Paiwastoon has developed this prototype pedalling machine that allows [...]

LG’s solar-powered e-book
If we were stuck on a desert island with only one book, this recently unveiled solar e-book would be at the top of our list! Designed by LG Display, the sleek reader features a wafer-fin photovoltaic cell that provides it with a steady stream of solar energy. Whereas most e-books run the risk [...]

Taichung Convention Center
Taiwan’s new Taichung Convention Center will be covered in solar-powered skin that naturally ventilates the structure reducing energy consumption. (Pics)
 

A blast from a heat gun has turned most of the black tile in this image white.
Anyone who has ever stepped barefoot onto blacktop pavement on a hot sunny day knows the phenomenon very well: Black surfaces absorb the sun’s heat very efficiently, producing a toe-scorching surface. In the wintertime, that can be a good [...]

Featured Invention at the Colorado Inventor Showcase
Sculpture Brick is the newest veneer application process on the market today. Over the past 30 years this product has been developed into what is now patented versatile mortar enhancement process that simulates the appearance and texture of brick, but at up to half the cost. It can provide [...]

Featured at the Colorado Inventor Showcase 2009
FunRide is a unique car sharing service that uses alternative fuel vehicles, offering members and visitors the opportunity to reduce their transportation costs.
 

Windmills have opened many doors for William!

William Kamkwamba, a teenage boy in Malawi, saw a photo of a windmill in a textbook at the library and decided that if he could build one it would be useful to his village.

Mr Kamkwamba, who is now 22 years old, knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, [...]

E-Tron concept electric car
Audi has unveiled its new electric car concept, the Audi e-tron at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany.  The all electric car is basically a modified Audi R8 sports car, but slightly smaller in all dimensions. The car delivers a massive 4500 Nm (3,319 lb-ft) of torque and 233 kW (313 horsepower), [...]

Boston architects Howeler + Yoon and Los Angeles digital designers Squared Design Lab have designed a conceptual structure for Boston, where an unfinished building would be covered in modular pods growing algae for biofuel.  The pods would be continuously rearranged by robotic arms (powered by the micro-algae produced) to ensure the optimum growing conditions for [...]

The latest fashion statement in geek mobility
Honda’s new “personal mobility” device looks like a unicycle, but all you need to do to zip around on it — sideways as well as forward and back — is lean your weight into the direction you want to go.
The U3-X — available for a test-run for reporters in [...]

Power Flower
Small-scale wind has been taking a beating lately, with local zoning ordinances throughout the United States that fly in the face of the technology.  People confuse small wind power in residential areas with big, commercial blades, and have concerns about noise and aesthetics, mostly.  An art project could solve that.

Bozen, Denmark’s E-Move Charging Station is the work of that country’s entrepreneur, Valentin Runggaldier, and — while those renders make it look like a flight of fancy — it’s actually real and going through a series of tests. (Pics)

A new green clean

Washing dishes in a full-loaded dishwasher without pre-rinsing saves water (particularly expensive hot water) over washing by hand. This steam dishwasher designed by Vincent Liew saves even more water and energy!

As the title suggests, this dishwasher uses pressurized steam to dislodge food particles on dishes and sanitize them. A hearty rinse after [...]

Volkswagen L1
The Frankfurt Motor Show will play host to the latest round of concept car teasers this season and the latest stunner is the Volkswagen L1. Somehow this amazing concept vehicle simultaneously screams muscle car “and” protective family car cocoon.
 

Researchers merged meteorological and wind-turbine modeling to map China’s wind-energy potential.  Potential output of 1.5 MW wind turbines is shown as a percentage of maximum output over time.
China has doubled its installed wind power capacity every year for the past five, and is on pace this year to supplant the Unied States as the world’s [...]

Energy consumption from a new perspective

Sweden’s Energy Aware Clock hangs on the wall and depicts a permanent visualization of your energy use. Every hour, it chimes to remind you to feel guilty about the size of your residence.

Just yesterday San Francisco saw the unveiling of the world’s first algae fuel-powered vehicle, dubbed the Algaeus. The plug-in hybrid car, which is a Prius tricked out with a nickel metal hydride battery and a plug, runs on green crude from Sapphire Energy — no modifications to the gasoline engine necessary. The set-up is so [...]