Plug-in electric vehicles are in the first phase of their road tests and are about to hit the roads by 2010. In this scenario, debates were on at the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Smart Garage Workshop on its first day on the subject whether it would be wiser to use the much advantageous and eco-friendly V2G PHEVs to power the grid. A wide range of opinions have been expressed on this. While the participants of the workshop support the suggestion, it sure looks like a possibility that is a decade away.

Mujeeb Ijaz, Director of Automotive Applications engineering at A123 Systems says that the V2G plug-in hybrids will attract customers because of their ability to store and discharge power and help them reduce their electricity bills, and the batteries wouldn’t reduce the performance on being used daily. Further, he agrees that the battery’s chemistry wouldn’t support it for fast charging and hence makes them unavailable for long distance travel.

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Now have an environment-friendly travel. In what can be treated as a step towards government’s endeavor to fight pollution by vehicles, Volvo announced the launch of its new entry into the diesel-electric hybrid bus market. The hybrid Volvo 7700 is a 12-meter low-floor city bus that gets up to 30 percent better fuel economy and emits 40 to 50 percent less nitrous oxide and 30 percent less carbon, the company said. In addition, a smaller engine and nearly a third of the bus’ components are developed in-house by Volvo.
The hybrid Volvo 7700 uses “parallel hybrid” technology which allows the bus to be powered by either the electric motor or the diesel engine or both at the same time. I-SAM, the company’s hybrid technology, plans to use the same technology in its trucks and construction equipment after the buses go into mass production in 2010. Though the hybrid bus weighs more or less the same as a diesel-driven bus, it has a better weight distribution, which allows the hybrid bus to take more passengers than a comparable diesel bus.� As a result, the bus’ performance is enhanced and fuel consumption is reduced.

According to a report by United Press International, the first of Volvo’s hybrid buses will begin testing on city streets in London and Gothenburg, Sweden, later this fall. Volvo is believed to start delivering hybrid diesel electric buses to customers in 2009 with mass production beginning in 2010.

Via igreenspot

With the benefits of Windmills come common concerns like the whooshing sound that regular turbines produce, as well as their divisive visual aesthetics. Keeping in mind the volatility of the speed of wind in the urban environment, the QR (Quiet Revolution) has been designed. A new type of wind turbine intended to address both of these issues, Quiet Revolution’s QR5 Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, or VAWT for shawt, is smaller, quieter, and way better looking than your typical windmill, plus it should produce the equivalent of its £25,000 price tag in clean energy within 15 years or less. The elegant helical (twisted) design of QR ensures a robust performance even in turbulent winds. It is also responsible for virtually eliminating noise and vibration.

At five metres high and three metres in diameter, it is compact and easy to integrate, and with just one moving part, maintenance can be limited to an annual inspection.

Though the energy output will vary according to the wind speed but is likely to be between 6,000 and 10,000 kWhrs on a typical site. And if that wasn’t all, according the usage of such windmills will also lead to reduction in CO2 emmisions.

Via trendir

Finally something to fight the food shortage problem!! Conceptualized by Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University, this is sure to be both environmentally friendly and economically profitable. Added to this the dream of preserving a little of the country in the city is a utopian one which now will help fight global warming too. The professor believes that only by allowing significant portions of the Earth’s farmland to return to forest do we have a real chance of stabilizing climate and weather patterns. Merely reducing energy consumption would not suffice.

Allowing forests to regrow where crops are now cultivated, he believes, would reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Besides, with the world’s population expected to increase to 3 billion by 2050 and almost 80 per cent of farming land in use, the idea has never been more relevant. The best way very rationally Despommier argues, is to change the way we farm.

Dr. Despommier estimates that it would cost $20 million to $30 million to make a prototype of a vertical farm, but hundreds of millions to build one of the 30-story towers that he suggests could feed 50,000 people. “I’m viewed as kind of an outlier because it’s kind of a crazy idea,” said he. The revolutionary scientist envisions blocks of vertical farms in the world’s biggest cities, each structure 30 stories high that could potentially be as productive as 588 acres of land and grow up to 12 million lettuces a year.

Currently he is in discussions with potential investors to build the first prototype. For Dr. Despommier, the high-rise version is on the horizon. “It’s very idealistic and ivory tower and all of that,” he said. “But there’s a real desire to make this happen.”

Via dailymail

The concept of ‘green buldings’ seems to be catching up in India. These structures are truly eco-friendly as they harvest their own water and not to forget the solar power systems. Not only this, they even have their own waste re-cycling system.

Plus the greenery in the otherwise concrete junglse that metros in India have become, is sure bliss. The construction has been done so that more than 50 per cent of the bulding is covered with glass like it is in Japan, which reflects the sun’s rays and keeps the indoor cool; thus, saving power.

When the fad was at a nascent stage, a 20,000 sqaure feet green building was consructed in Hyderbad in 2004. But now, the green attitude is catching up. You will be surprised to know that the green buldings (please read 315) in India today cover over 235 millin square feet.
Via zeenews

With the West in a water crisis, it’s not surprising to see a machine that pulls water from ambient air at West Coast Green. Though not an innovation, these machines require a lot of energy which has been dealt with by Element Four who have addressed the issues of energy use for creating water. The unit uses just 300 watts; a relatively low amount for these machines, the Watermill senses its environment and acts accordingly.
The Watermill checks its environment every three minutes to determine the dew point and keeps itself operating at just a few degrees below that dew point. This way, it maximizes efficiency of the energy it uses to operate by maximizing the amount of water it can pull from the air 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
It can pull an average of 13 quarts of water each day, which is plenty of potable water for an average family of four. The water is essentially distilled, but a filter can be added to restore organic minerals if the user wishes.

And if that wasn’t all, a solar powered version of the machine is in the works and will be available in about six months. So, this one is sure to tackle the water needs and the environmental issues with utmost efficiency.

Via geekologie

Imagine you making an effort and 70% of the energy getting wasted. That’s the plight of your engine which blows about 70 percent of the energy it creates straight out of the tailpipe in the form of heat. As Eric Mattessich realized the truth, he marched on the journey to make power plants more efficient to work on hybrid cars by adapting the kind of heat-recapturing mechanisms. Though not an absolute innovation, Eric’s design is certainly a better packaged one as the size has been worked upon.

The mechanism uses two turbine generators; in the first, the pressure of escaping exhaust spins the turbine to generate electricity. The second uses waste heat from the exhaust to turn water into steam; the steam powers the generator before traveling into a condenser, where it turns back into water and starts the loop again. Both turbines feed electricity back into the hybrid system’s batteries for a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions and a 20 percent more efficient vehicle.

In the pipeline, Mattessich is working on a prototype and applying for a patent. With this he is also looking for an automaker interested in testing by incorporating the system into new cars thereby realizing the efforts put-in in working on the noble cause.

Via inventorspot

Scientists at Oxford University are all set to take the legend of Einstein a step forward by working upon the 1930 invention by Albert Einstein to develop an environmentally friendly refrigerator which they claim will run without electricity.� Determined to fight the repercussions of modern fridges that emit greenhouse gases called freons and as a result damage the environment, the Oxford team is developing appliances that can work without electricity and thereby reduce the gases.� Motivated by contemporary newspaper reports of a Berlin family who had been killed when a seal in their refrigerator broke and leaked toxic fumes into their home, Einstein and his colleague, the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard patented an absorption-type refrigerator which has no moving parts and requires only a heat source to operate.

The machine is a single-pressure absorption refrigerator, similar in design to a gas absorption refrigerator. The refrigeration cycle uses ammonia, butane and water, has no moving parts, and does not require electricity to operate, needing only a heat source, e.g. a small gas burner besides taking advantage of the fact that liquids boil at lower temperatures when air pressure is lower.

The forgotten fridge alongside being greener also is better fit for rural areas where there is no electricity. The modus operandi is that by introducing a new vapors above the butane, the liquid boiling temperature decreases and, as it boils off, it takes energy from the surroundings to do so which in turn makes it cold. Pressurized gas fridges based around Einstein’s design were replaced by freon-compressor fridges partly as they were not very efficient.

Electrical engineer Malcolm McCulloch at the University of Oxford is reviving the design and is looking into solar energy to kick start the process, though in future the team will also experiment with different types of gases to improve the mechanism’s efficiency.

Via popsci

From being fuel based to natural gas, to electric hybrid, electric, and now a great possibility of a fueless cars running on air, technology seems to have come a long way. The Magnetic Air Cars, Inc., the San Jose-based company claims that it is working on the world’s first fuel-less car using no gas, fuel, or external recharging device, only air to propel the vehicle. Utilizing three on-board substations to harness compressed air, the resultant airflow is channeled, modulated, and converted to torque that propels the car. The Magnetic Air Car uses compressed air technology for propulsion, but unlike Tata Motors air engine, or DiPietro, theirs uses a different design.

Standing lofty in the San Jose’s West Coast Green conference last week, the car is one of a kind and is supposed to be produced by 2010. Using a silicon salt battery having 30% more mass power than a lead acid storage battery, it can completely charge in one hour. The battery is also environmentally friendly: it’s 95% recyclable, and it can be used in almost extreme conditions: from -40 to +50 degrees Celsius.
A prototype of the car is being built at Club Auto Sport in San Jose. So for all you lovers of innovation, grab this one and go green!!
Via Cleantechnica

This may be called living for a cause!! When we are trying to make everything environmental friendly, why not die the same way? The German made Uono Cocoon is a customized product manufactured exclusively by hand to reinterpret the traditional coffin design. Uono, representing premium quality selection of materials as well as the high-class workmanship is an innovative and exceptional natural product.

The model COCOON combines aesthetics and functional simplicity. Its organic space reminds us of a timeless sculpture. As Cocoon, the coffin symbolizes a feeling of security and care as well as the crossing of something transcendental. Available in 14 colors, it weighs only 20 kgs making it easier to carry, move and lay out.� Endowed with high-gloss finished varnish, extendable handles of stainless steel and noble lining it degrades in 10-15 years, is CO2 neutral, the gloss finish is water based, it can be used in the cremation process, and is made from renewable primary resources.

Although the manufactures aren’t ready to divulge details about the material being used to make the Cocoon, they state that it is hand shaped, placed in a mould, heated and hardened in an oven, then finished by hand. Besides, it comes to you in a secure wooden box and with a special base frame.
So for all those who want to leave the mortal world as much in style, as they led in while alive, this is one important purchase before you close your eyes to the world.

Via uono.de