[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/53588182[/vimeo]
There are currently over 1.5 billion people in the World who have no reliable access to mains electricity. These people rely, instead, on biomass fuels (mostly kerosene) for lighting once the sun goes down. GravityLight is a sustainable lighting solution powered by gravity. (Pics)
Continue reading… “The $5 lamp that is powered solely by gravity”
The researchers used a set of modified tires set on top of the concrete.
Thanks to researchers from Toyohashi University of Technology, the dream of having electric cars without limited range is one step closer to reality. The group showcased an experiment with the ability to send up to 60 watts through almost four inches of solid concrete. Although the technique they are using isn’t exactly new, they did manage to squeeze out between 80 and 90%t efficiency is.
Continue reading… “Japanese researchers transmit electricity through solid concrete”
Living ‘off the grid’ can entail going without some common luxuries.
Eric Valli spent 3 years taking photos of people in the United States who have “decided to live light on the earth.” The photographs are terrific. It looks like Valli spent time with two clans: a frontier/settler type group, and another group that look almost like cave people. I wish he had included more information about them!
Continue reading… “Photos of people living off-the-grid in the United States”
Wind can create both power and water?
Throughout the developing world, millions of people struggle with a shortage of clean water and steady electricity. This wind turbine could solve both problems in one shot by pulling both power and water straight from the wind.
The WMS1000 Wind Turbine was invented by Marc Parent and is built by the French start-up Eole Water. Sitting atop a 24-meter mast, the machine generates electricity with a conventional 30kW direct-drive turbine in a 12-ton nacelle with a 13-meter blade diameter. The WMS1000 can self-regulate the energy it produces, allowing it to provide a steady stream of power even in gusty or choppy winds. Installing an array of the turbines, which each have a service life of 30 years, creates a small-scale, decentralized power grid perfect for remote areas…
Continue reading… “Dual-Action wind turbine generates power and water”
Researchers have generated isobutanol from CO2 using a genetically engineered microorganism with solar electricity the sole energy input.
Electric vehicles have come a long way in the past decade, but they still have many disadvantages when compared to internal combustion engine-driven vehicles. The lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles have a much lower energy storage density when compared to liquid fuel, they take longer to “refuel,” and they lack the supporting infrastructure that has built up around conventional vehicles over the past century. Now researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a process that could allow liquid fuel to be produced using solar generated electricity.
Continue reading… “Creating liquid fuel with electricity”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3A_lpEO0t8&hd=1[/youtube]
Kuraray Living and Hokkaido University have been working together to create a soft washable fabric woven with carbon nanotube coated fibers that produces heat when electricity is applied. So when it’s perfected, your electric blanket could get a lot less bulky.
Continue reading… “Heated farbric using carbon nanotube coated fibers”
Photosynthesizing Solar Cells
Andreas Mershin, a researcher at MIT, has created solar panels from agricultural waste such as cut grass and dead leaves. Mershin says in a few years it will be possible to stir some grass clippings into a bag of cheap chemicals, paint the mixture on your roof, and immediately start producing electricity.
Continue reading… “MIT creates solar panels from leaves and grass”
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles coated with cadmium sulfide produced a yellow paste that, when painted onto a transparent conductive material, generates electricity.
The next coat of paint you put on the outside of your home could generate electricity from light — electricity that can be used to power the appliances and equipment on the inside.
Continue reading… “Researchers develop paint-on solar cells”
Urine can be turned into electricity, according to scientists.
We each produce 2.5 liters of urine a day and a total of 6.4 trillion liters globally. But until now it has been widely regarded as a rather unpleasant waste product.
Continue reading… “‘Pee power’ – turning urine into electricity”
Quantum levitation
Researchers at the Tel Aviv University have created a track around which a superconductor can float, thanks to the phenomenon of “quantum levitation“. Suspending a superconducting disc above or below a set of permanent magnets – the magnetic field is locked inside the superconductor ; a phenomenon called ‘Quantum Trapping’.
Continue reading… “Quantum levitation in action (video)”
Set top boxes uses an average of 28.286 watts while off.
Electricity prices have been relentlessly rising over the past decade. That has made many consumers more conscientious about how they use electric power. Many of those conscientious people may find it frustrating — to put it mildly — that their daily or even hourly efforts to turn off devices they’re not using hasn’t delivered the results they’d expected.
Continue reading… “Top 10 worst home energy hogs”
Materials engineered to give off precisely tuned wavelengths of light when heated are key to new high-efficiency generating system.
MIT has developed a new photovoltaic energy-conversion system that can be powered solely by heat, generating electricity with no sunlight at all.
Continue reading… “MIT develops sun-free photovoltaics”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.