The Bloom Box: a power plant for the home

This should give the BIG ENERGY execs some pause.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Solar and Agriculture: Double Cropping Energy and Food

What sets this project apart is that it aims to not just co-exist with productive farm land, but actually enhance the agricultural process.

Solar and Agriculture: Double Cropping Energy and Food : TreeHugger

The Air Car

National Grid Wants Your Roof!

This looks very promising. It would be wonderful if utility providers all over would consider offering such incentives to businesses and individual home-owners. Think about all the roofs and roof-tops that are currently sitting vacant, absorbing the sun's energy but giving nothing in return.

With solar panels on those roofs they would actually be generating energy and income for their owners. Sweet!

National Grid Wants Your Roof! Utility Looking to Install Solar Panels on Customer’s Homes & Businesses

National Grid Wants Your Roof! Utility Looking to Install Solar Panels on Customer’s Homes & Businesses : TreeHugger

Mag-Wind Vertical Axis Turbine for your Home

This looks like a good option for urban areas.

It's a "Magnetically-Levitated Axial Flux Alternator with Programmable Variable Coil Resistance, Vertical Axis Wind Turbine' , and it has just come on the market. Designed by Thomas Priest-Brown and Jim Rowan in Canada and manufactured in Texas, it"solves 11 different problems that previously limited the development of vertical-axis wind turbines for generation of electricity ."

The center hub floats on a magnet, and the coils that generate the power are at the outer ring, with magnets at the tips of the blades flying over them at high speed. It is designed for home installation in urban settings; It is only 4 feet high, so neighbours are unlikely to complain about its appearance. We asked about issues with ice and snow, and were assured that there was no problem. We also asked about noise (often a complaint) and was told that it was inaudible.

Unlike normal turbines, it doesn't mind a little turbulence, works well in developed areas, and gets an extra kick from something called "the roof effect" -evidently "A roof with a 10-foot vertical rise and a 30% angle will provide nearly a 200% increase in the amount of wind energy that is available to be turned into electricity. Compared to the same turbine just sitting on a pole, the roof effect increases the power yielded by operation of the wind turbine dramatically."

Mag-Wind Vertical Axis Turbine for your Home : TreeHugger

Subaru Tests R1e Electric Car in New York City, Previews G4e

Subaru will test its R1e electric vehicle in New York City this summer. It will provide two R1e electric cars to the New York Power Authority (NYPA)...

The R1e is a small two-seater city car (50 miles range, 65 mph top speed). We're guessing Subaru's using it mostly as a learning platform; its first mainstream electric car will probably be based on the G4e concept, a hatchback very similar to Nissan's Versa that will have a longer range (124 miles/200 km) and carry 5 passengers.

Subaru Tests R1e Electric Car in New York City, Previews G4e (via Treehugger)

Volkswagen Turbo Diesel-Electric Hybrid Golf

I wonder if we'll see this car in the US.

"Fuel economy is still rated at 3.4 L/100km, or 69 miles per US gallon, or 83 miles per imperial gallons. CO2 emissions are pretty low at 89 g/km. In comparison, the Toyota Prius hybrid emits 104 g/km of CO2, though emissions of NOx and particulate matter are lower than the Tier 2 Bin 5 Golf diesel-electric hybrid."

More Details: Volkswagen Turbo Diesel-Electric Hybrid Golf : TreeHugger

Trev, the Two-seater, Renewable Energy Vehicle

"Staff and students at the University of South Australia have designed and built a prototype of what they reckon might be the future commuter car for Australian cities. Trev sounds rather impressive. [It] goes from 0 to 100kph in 10 secs, has a top speed of 120 km/h, with a travel range of 150+km between charges of his 7kWh 44kg lithium ion polymer battery.

When charged from mains power [it] costs you $1 AUD per 100km to run, using what is said to be 1/5th of the energy of conventional car."

Meet Trev, the Two-seater, Renewable Energy Vehicle : TreeHugger

Electric car? You already have one

Listen to this news report on Public Radio's Marketplace on how you can convert your existing vehicle into an electric vehicle using a kit from Electro Automotive.

"Instead of waiting until you buy a hybrid to reduce your eco-footprint, why not make your vehicle electric now? James Nestor has more on a company that has been converting gas cars to electric for decades."

Marketplace: Electric car? You already have one

Windspire : Wind power in your backyard

Don't know how economical it is in the long run--they claim it pays for itself in about 20 years--or what percentage of your daily energy needs this can replace. In any case, it's a good feeling when you can switch to a renewable energy source in your own backyard.

"Windspire is a low-cost, easy-to-install wind power appliance that provides a safe and attractive method for harnessing power from the wind. At only 30 feet tall and 2 feet wide, Windspire is safe for birds and people, and is distinguished by its sleek propeller-free design, silent operation, rugged construction, simple installation and affordable pricing. Designed for operation where we live and work, it sells for $3,995.00 and comes complete with the inverter, poles, and an installation kit."

Mariah Power - Windspire Overview

Can Think's electric car revolutionize the auto industry?

The "Think Car "looks very promising. A fun, small electric car from Norway looks like just the ticket for everyday commuting.

"Have you driven a Fjord lately?

Think's zippy little Web-enabled, carbon-free electric driving machine could help reverse 100 years of automotive history...

Taking a cue from Dell , the company will sell cars online, built to order. It will forgo showrooms and seed the market through car-sharing services like Zipcar. Every car will be Internet-and Wi-Fi-enabled, becoming, according to Willums, a rolling computer that can communicate wirelessly with its driver, other Think owners, and the power grid.

In other words, it's Web 2.0 on wheels. 'We want to sell mobility,' Willums says. 'We don't want to sell a thing called the Think.'"

Can Think's electric car revolutionize the auto industry? [via Slashdot]

Top 10 Computing Energy Savers

A very timely list of energy saving tips from Lifehacker.

Reducing the amount of energy your hungry computers eat up every day won't only save you money on electricity bills, it will reduce your carbon footprint. If you haven't thought about how much electricity your gadgets use up every day, now's the time. Turns out just a few changes in habits and system settings can save you money AND the environment. After the jump, have 10 ways to reduce your energy consumption and compute greener.

10. Upgrade your gear
9. Dim your screen
8. Consolidate and virtualize computers
7. Turn off peripherals
6. Kill unnecessary processes
5. Get a smart power switch
4. Enable energy saver settings
3. Unplug energy vampires
2. Spin down your hard drive
1. Shut down

Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Computing Energy Savers - Lifehacker

Never Ending Lightbulb

A UK firm has developed a bulb that is more than 3 times as efficient as CFL bulbs and will burn brightly for decades. They claim that it will burn for so long that the building or appliance that contains it will wear out before the bulb does.

The traditional light bulb remained the way it is for so long because there wasn’t enough of an incentive to change. No one bothered to develop newer, more efficient designs because they were so cheap to produce. They waste 95% of energy and don’t last long.

That is changing now with CFL bulbs, because the green movement is providing an incentive to change. Now they are becoming even more advanced. The Economist is reporting that a team of researchers has developed a bulb that lasts, for all intents and purposes, forever. It’s also far more efficient, converting more energy to light rather than heat.

UK Company, Ceravision, have created a new bulb design that doesn’t use electrodes, so cannot burn out. It uses a magnetometer to bombard a small piece of aluminum oxide with microwaves to create an electrical field. Gas is then passed into a hole in the aluminium, in order to ionise it and create a glowing plasma. Traditional bulbs convert only 5% of energy to heat, CFLs make use of around 15%, but this new design converts over 50%.

There are other bonuses as well, both financially and environmentally. The bulbs are expected to last for decades, so will need replacing far less often. This means less carbon emissions from production, and lower costs. It also doesn’t have the traces of mercury that CFL bulbs have, so will be easier and cleaner to dispose of once it does burn out.

Never Ending Lightbulb [via TreeHugger]

Lightning Looking to Zap Tesla

The Tesla Roadster is impressive; it's one of the first electric cars to be desirable to TreeHuggers and petrol-heads alike. However, a bit of competition never hurt anyone, and is great for us consumers. That's one reason that the Lightning electric car is good news. The other is that it has 700 bhp and does 0-60mph in 4 seconds.The company is taking orders on their three different models now, with production planned to start in 2008. There's a luxury model, a lightweight sporty model and an extended range model with a range of 250 miles.

Lightning Looking to Zap Tesla (TreeHugger)

Green Power Network: Buying Green Power

If you are wondering, "Can I Buy Green Power in My State?" go to the Green Power Network website to find out which organizations offer green power in your state.

Green Power Network: Buying Green Power

VentureOne: Plug-in Hybrid Car

Here's a pretty cool looking hybrid car/bike/airplane (well, not quite an airplane); but it's really cool. Check out the video of this concept vehicle. Hope this makes it to the streets soon :-)

VentureOne, a revolutionary 3-wheel, tilting, plug-in Hybrid vehicle. This unique 2-passenger flex-fuel Hybrid vehicle will achieve 100 miles per gallon with a top speed of over 100 mph.

VentureOne thanks to Robb for bringing this to my attention.

Tesla: The Hotest New Green Car

Check-out the hottest new green car - the Tesla, an electric car that has zero emissions and goes from zero to 60 in less than four seconds.

Be prepared to shell-out a lot of $$$$$$ for this one and wait for a year or more for delivery. One can dream ;-)

ZAP Smart Car

ZAP has some interesting looking electric cars, fuel cell cars, and hybrid cars in the pipeline.

Check it out.

MIT's Stackable, Foldable "City Car"

Researchers at MIT are building a prototype of a lightweight electric vehicle that can be cheaply mass-produced, rented by commuters under a shared-use business model, and folded and stacked like grocery carts at subway stations or other central sites. It's called the City Car, and the key to the concept lies in the design of its wheels. The MIT team has transformed the lowly wheel into a robotic drive system that will power the City Car. Embedded in each of its four wheels will be an electric motor, steering and braking mechanisms, suspension, and digital controls, all integrated into sealed units that can be snapped on and off.

Via Boston.Com and TreeHugger

Electric Mini: 0-60 in 4 Seconds

This is an older news item but worth a revisit. If this car ever goes into commercial production, my dream of a Green Mini will come true ;-)

A British engineering firm has put together a high-performance hybrid version of BMW's Mini Cooper. The PML Mini QED has a top speed of 150 mph, a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds. The car uses a small gasoline engine with four 160 horsepower electric motors — one on each wheel. The car has been designed to run for four hours of combined urban/extra urban driving, powered only by a battery and bank of ultra capacitors. The QED supports an all-electric range of 200-250 miles and has a total range of about 932 miles (1,500 km). For longer journeys at higher speeds, a small conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) is used to re-charge the battery. In this hybrid mode, fuel economies of up to 80mpg can be achieved.

Electric Mini: 0-60 in 4 Seconds: It Has Motors In Its Wheels (TreeHugger)