Chip Ransler and Manoj Sinha, founders of the Husk Power Systems (HPS) have found a way to give electricity to parts of India which still manage without one of the most essential energies today. This company focuses on providing power to the people in villages using rice husk (rice being abundantly grown here) through a small, off-grid system. The company already has five such projects operating in various parts and hopes to increase the number to a hundred.

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Technology has always tried to make use of the forces of nature for the betterment of humankind and nature in its own way has enthused man with its perfection and aptitude. Inspired by these forces Solar Botanic has planned to generate power through artificial trees. Just like the trees outside utilize air and sunlight to produce energy for their growth, these man-made trees will now convert the wind and solar energy into electricity.

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The efficiency of an electric eel in producing electricity is commendable. This defense mechanism has now become the basis for generation of power. Scientists from Yale University have prepared an artificial model of eel’s electricity producing cells using their blue-prints. This shows the possibility of availability of a bio-battery in the future to power tiny electric devices. Read the full story »

This might be the largest biomass power plant in the world that runs only and only on chicken manure. Netherlands has come up with an innovative eco-friendly method which is expected to provide renewable electricity to somewhere around 90,000 households.

With a capacity of 36.5 megawatts, the biomass plant will generate more than 270 million kWh of electricity per year. Insiders reveal that the plant is a good way to get rid of the chicken manure, which if spread over the farm land would release a massive amount of CO2 as well as methane.
In other words, the plant is more than just ‘carbon neutral’. It will use up approximately 440,000 tons of chicken manure, which is one third of the total chicken manure produced in Netherlands every year. Indeed a good way to get rid of pollution by excess of different kinds of animal manure, a problem faced by many agrarian economies.
Via enn

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

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

Imitating nature, this may be called!! With Lianne van Genugte designing an automatic functioning device which lights up with the sun, technology seems to be going the nature way. Intertwined with flexible solar cells that receive power from the sun during the day this device provides shade to its owners or to portions of a house in need of protection from heat or bright light. This innovation has been selected as one of 64 finalists for the Golden Eye, the top award for which is to be given at Dutch Design Week in mid-October.
Though this is a step ahead towards optimum utilization of natural resources, it has its respective loop-holes. Automatic switching may lead in wastage of accumulated energy when not required. Besides this, it also requires a battery to store solar energy to reserve all the power for illuminating the nights followed by cloudy days.

Also such a solar guzzling shade can be utilized to power up few household gadgets. Like a flower opens to the sun, this device opens at daylight and closes at dusk.
Via EcoDesign

Solar parking lots have been discussed many a times by the environmental technologists. The concept speaks of putting photovoltaic arrays and parking lots together so that sunlight can be harnessed. Then again, the array functions like a canopy thus providing shade to the cars. After much talks, finally someone paid attention. A Silicon Valley manufacturer that goes by the name of Applied Materials has incorporated a solar parking lot in its campus. Since the company makes semiconductors, LCD displays among other high-tech equipment, the solar energy harnessed basically will contribute to their energy uses.

Such parking lots will be a blessing for electric cars and with the demand growing for the latter, the parking system will need to be updated with the photovoltaic arrays. After all what does a solar parking lot need but just sunlight! The benefits are plenty.

Via ecogeek