Solar panel roads 'could solve energy crisis' Asphalt roads and car parks would be torn up and replaced with glass solar cell panels capable of generating enough power to support local communities, under the scheme. A US firm is currently working on a prototype panel that could be embedded into existing roads, having won a $100,000 grant from the US Department of Transportation. The panels would also be covered with a mosaic of small lights, which could be illuminated to provide road markings and warning messages to drivers. They could also be embedded with heaters to keep the road clear by melting snow and ice. With each 12 ft by 12 ft panel capable of producing 7.6 kilowatt hours of power each day, the company Solar Roadways calculates that resurfacing the entire US interstate highway network would meet the country's energy needs three times over. A four-lane, one-mile stretch of road made from the panels could generate enough power for 500 homes, it claims.
Study Shows People Are Clueless About Energy Savings – Here’s What Actually Works. Quick, name one of the best things you can do to save energy at home. If you said “turning off the lights,” you’d be wrong. But you are not alone, most Americans say the same thing. A new survey shows most people have misconceptions about what works best to save energy. Keeping lights off isn’t a bad idea in itself, but it has significantly less impact than swapping out the bulbs for more energy-efficient ones, says Shahzeen Attari, who published a paper on the survey. In some cases, leaving energy-efficient lights on may actually be more effective: according the the Department of Energy, the lifespan of compact fluorescents, or CFLs, is decreased by being frequently switched off and on. Survey participants were asked an open-ended question on what they thought was the single most effective thing they could do to conserve energy in their lives. This graph shows survey participants’ mean perceived energy usage or savings in watts per hour versus actual energy usage or savings. 1.
We'll Never Run This Economy On Renewables (We'll Never Have To) SHAREConference/CC BY-SA 2.0 Whenever we talk about pushing for 100% renewables, naysayers start arguing that we can never run our current economy without energy intensive fossil fuels. But they forget one simple thing: We don't have to. In a world where you can address a conference from your own bedroom, or order your groceries or even publish a book without ever getting dressed, the old way of doing things just seems, well, increasingly old. Cheap Fossil Fuels Shaped Our WorldviewThe economy of today is structured the way it is because it was built on the false assumption of cheap fossil fuels. Don't Replace Fossil Fuels. Just because the dinosaur economy is coming to an end does not mean we can, or will, return to a pre-fossil fuel economy. Virtual Industries Create Real JobsFor the last 6 years I've operated a viable business using little more than a laptop, a desk, a lamp and an internet connection. I'm not saying the shift to a smarter, cleaner economy is inevitable.
Rotating Solar House Generates Five Times The Energy It Consumes What’s cooler than a rotating house? One whose solar panels produce five times the energy the house uses. That’s pretty incredible, considering that even zero-energy structures are rare. German architect Rolf Disch built the home, called Heliotrope, to follow the sun throughout the day. The structure features triple panes of thermally insulated glass to strike a balance between letting light in and keeping the house cooler inside. A giant 6.6-kilowatt-capacity rooftop solar panel called the Sun Sail slurps up the rays of energy, pumping them into the home and grid. The Sun Sail itself rotates separately from the house, adjusting itself to the best possible position at all times. The house is green inside as well. Is it nice to live in? This video tours the house inside and out. Hat tip to Inhabitat
World’s largest sustainable city developed in China The world's largest sustainable city, extending about 30 square kilometers, with urban living conditions has been developed in South Asian country of China. Rising from wastelands in China, the globe's biggest eco-city of Tianjin is located 150 kilometres (93 miles) southeast from Beijing that means less than an hour on the new high-speed train line. The city, designed to be around half the size of Manhattan Island in the United States, is slated to be enriched by the hottest energy-saving technologies. Designed by Surbana Urban Planning Group, the city is planned to have an advanced light rail transit system and varied eco-landscapes ranging from a sun-powered solarscape to a greenery-clad earthscape for its estimated 350,000 residents. A sustainable city or eco-city is a preplanned city to produce their own energy, food and water in a way that does not cause detriment to the world in forms such as waste, water pollution or damage to the air.
NASA Satellites' View of Gulf Oil Spill Over Time NASA Satellites' View of Gulf Oil Spill Over Time Two NASA satellites are capturing images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20, 2010 with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. This short video reveals a space-based view of the burning oil rig and, later, the resulting spread of the oil spill. This version updates a previous version of the video through July 14th. The timelapse uses imagery from the MODIS instrument, on board NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The oil slick appears grayish-beige in the image and changes due to changing weather, currents, and use of oil dispersing chemicals. The images in this video were selected to show the spill most clearly.
Made in IBM Labs: Collaboration Aims to Harness the Energy of 2,000 Suns Today on Earth Day, scientists have announced a collaboration to develop an affordable photovoltaic system capable of concentrating solar radiation 2,000 times and converting 80 percent of the incoming radiation into useful energy. The system can also provide desalinated water and cool air in sunny, remote locations where they are often in short supply. A three-year, $2.4 million (2.25 million CHF) grant from the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation has been awarded to scientists at IBM Research (NYSE: IBM); Airlight Energy, a supplier of solar power technology; ETH Zurich (Professorship of Renewable Energy Carriers) and Interstate University of Applied Sciences Buchs NTB (Institute for Micro- and Nanotechnology MNT) to research and develop an economical High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system. The prototype HCPVT system uses a large parabolic dish, made from a multitude of mirror facets, which are attached to a sun tracking system.
2011: The Year Data Centers Turned Green | Wired Enterprise Iceland plays its geothermal ace in the high-stakes green data center market. Photo: Verne Global The amount of data the world stores is on an explosive growth curve. According to research outfit IDC, the digital universe will grow 44 times larger over the course of the decade, thanks to the rise of worldwide obsessions with things like social media and cloud computing. And that means more data centers. But this data center boom comes at a time of high energy prices and heightened concern about carbon emissions. Data center operators are gaining control of their energy bills and earning green points by increasing data center efficiency, from server processor chips to warehouse-size buildings. Out of necessity, the huge Internet players — Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Yahoo, and Apple — are finding ways to use greener energy and get more out of the energy they use. 2011 was a banner year for green data centers, with dozens of state-of-the-art facilities opening for business.
2013-04-22 Made in IBM Labs: Collaboration Aims to Harness the Energy of 2,000 Suns ZURICH - 22 Apr 2013: Today on Earth Day, scientists have announced a collaboration to develop an affordable photovoltaic system capable of concentrating solar radiation 2,000 times and converting 80 percent of the incoming radiation into useful energy. The system can also provide desalinated water and cool air in sunny, remote locations where they are often in short supply. A three-year, $2.4 million (2.25 million CHF) grant from the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation has been awarded to scientists at IBM Research (NYSE: IBM); Airlight Energy, a supplier of solar power technology; ETH Zurich (Professorship of Renewable Energy Carriers) and Interstate University of Applied Sciences Buchs NTB (Institute for Micro- and Nanotechnology MNT) to research and develop an economical High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system. The prototype HCPVT system uses a large parabolic dish, made from a multitude of mirror facets, which are attached to a sun tracking system.
La forêt brésilienne, au cœur d’une âpre bataille avant Rio+20 C'est un conflit de longue date qui vient de monter d'un cran. Depuis deux semaines, les défenseurs de l'environnement exhortent la présidente du Brésil Dilma Rousseff à mettre son veto à une loi controversée ouvrant la voie à une déforestation accrue en Amazonie. Mercredi, 1,7 million de personnes avaient signé une pétition contre ce texte qui embarrasse le pays, presque un mois avant le sommet Rio+20 sur le développement durable. La mobilisation, entraînée par des OGN écolos, des réalisateurs (comme le cinéaste Fernando Meirelles) ou des hommes politiques (à l'instar de l'ex-ministre de l'environnement Marina Silva), s'est accélérée le 26 avril, lorsque la chambre des députés a définitivement approuvé, à une large majorité, une réforme du code forestier du pays, dans la foulée du vote du Sénat en novembre, mettant ainsi fin à près de trois ans de discussions et revirements. En 2009, le gouvernement a en effet promis de réduire de 36 % ses émissions de CO2 d'ici à 2020. Audrey Garric