Green Options

In Taiwan, a new charger technology claims to be able to charge phones without even being plugged into an outlet. That’s because it taps into the power of hydrogen as a fuel source, and is expected to help put Taiwan in the list of purveyor of green technologies.

Scientists from Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute recently unveiled a charger powered by hydrogen. According to source, the device can fully charge a phone within a couple of hours, although the amount of hydrogen fuel used for that span of time wasn’t mentioned. Tsau Fanghei of the research team says they “hope the hydrogen-powered device can replace current mobile phone recharge systems in 2012.”

Alternative-fuel supercars really seem to be picking up steam. Hybrid Lamborghinis? Electric Gullwings? All very cool stuff, but the field is quickly becoming crowded by competitors to the eco-supercar crown. A new California-based company called Steenstra GCM has announced the Styletto, “the first 200-mph-plus super sports car to be built in California” according to the press release.

After less than a year of construction, the Sierra SunTower Plant that’s touted the first of its kind in the USA was finally officially launched by eSolar.

Located in Lancaster, California, this is the first eSolar concentrating solar thermal power plant with 24,000 mirrors instead of the company’s usual 12,000. The entire plant was built less than a year through the use of eSolar’s pre-fabricated components. Within that span of time, the plant’s heliostat mirrors have been utilized in various occasions, not to harness energy, but to greet the company CEO on his birthday and celebrate USA’s Independence Day. As was intended by Southern California Edison and eSolar, the 5-megawatt Sierra SunTower plant was connected to the grid this August 5 to power 4,000 homes in California’s Antelope Valley.

NASA claims it’s currently planning what would be the greenest building in the federal government. To be called the Sustainability Base, this is slated to be one of NASA’s most ambitious eco-friendly projects.

The $20.6 million building will utilize current alternative energy technologies such as water recycling systems, fuel cells and solar panels to achieve a LEED-certified edifice. NASA will even use some of its technologies developed specifically for space exploration. The aim is to build a self-sustaining structure that consumes no net energy and 90 percent less potable water than other buildings its size. According to Steve Zornetzer, Associate Center Director at NASA Ames, the name Sustainable Base is an homage to Apollo 11’s Tranquility Base.

With the fluctuating price of oil, a finite resource, and concerns over CO2 emissions, many energy companies and developers have turned to utilizing biomass as alternative fuel (biofuel). This trend is actually taking two pathways: using biomass to convert to ethanol to power automobiles (which has been around for awhile now), and, converting biomass to electricity to power electric (or hybrid) vehicles (a more recent alternative). The question of which path is most efficient, sustainable, and less carbon-intensive is an [...]

A group of American scientists headed by Michel Maharbiz believe they have devised a way to produce energy using evaporation.

Hailing from the University of California in Berkeley, the University of Michigan and MIT, these electrical engineers devised a process that mimics the natural occurrence of evaporation in plants. In a process called transpiration, water absorbed by the plant roots travel upwards to be excreted by the leaves. The scientists recreated leaves in the laboratory out of glass wafers etched with tiny water-filled channels that resemble veins. The glass leaves allow the water to evaporate through the open-ended veins, causing a continuous draw of fluid at the rate of 1.5 centimeters per second.

A two year study led by the University of Leeds in the UK aims to develop a system that can harness kinetic energy from marching soldiers.

The $1.5 million plan will focus on finding a way to convert human energy into usable power for military field applications. It is part of the larger “battery-free soldier” project that also includes development of solar and body heat-harvesting technologies for the military.

Soldiers carry around electronic equipment such as large flashlights, and power sources in the form of batteries can weigh as much as 10 kilograms of a foot soldier’s usual 75 kilogram pack. Clearly, having a power source they can carry around will be beneficial. Research leader Professor Andrew Bell of Leeds says,

“As well as the obvious green issue of using so many batteries, [the system] could also reduce a soldier’s pack weight by around 15 per cent. And this technology could potentially have lots of applications in civvy street too.”

It is estimated that 3 to 7 percent of American children suffer form Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

That adds up to over 2 million kids, one in every class of 25.

Traditional treatments involve medications such as Ritlin and Adderall, as well as other prescription drugs.  Side effects linked to ADHD medication include depression, anxiety, loss of appetite, inability to fall or stay asleep, rapid heartbeat…the list goes on and on.

Research has shown that nutrient deficiencies can exacerbate ADHD symptoms.  For many children, proper nutrition may effectively work as an ADHD alternative treatment.  (If your child is currently taking prescription medication for ADHD, don’t stop the medication without discussing it with your physician first.)

Harnessing the Earth’s Heat for Food and Power

As the rumbling temblors beneath Yellowstone National Park continue (over 900 hundred such weak quakes in 2008), media attention shifts to two topics: the possibility of a super-volcanic eruption (not likely, according to most geologists), and secondly, the harnessing of geothermal energy.

This latter consideration is all the more fashionable these days as America struggles to embrace an alternative and sustainable energy future.

Geothermal energy offers the promise of a virtually unlimited source of power. Although less energetic in terms  of total constant power output compared to the sun, harnessing the geothermal venting from a single, sufficiently high-grade, hot-spring could conceivably provide power for a population of tens of thousands, and it’s not weather dependent.  But there are also plenty of “lower grade” springs that can be put to other uses, such as growing hothouse produce (and the spring water is also used for watering the plants) and  naturally warming water for fish farming (the Talipia species, a popular dinner fish, is one species farmed this way). Not all animals that are farmed this way are used for food, some, like the farmed alligators in Mosca, CO (see photo), are raised for their skins primarily (though some do eat the meat).

Australian researchers have figured out a cool new way to tackle the threat of global warming, by setting up a network of ‘talking’ fridges.

But wait, the idea isn’t as crazy as it might sound. The fridges feature cutting-edge technology enabling them to communicate with each other via a network to share and store energy from renewable energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbines.

According to inventor, Sam West, “The fridges are designed to talk to each other, negotiating when it’s a good time to consume electricity and when it’s better not to.”

The UK’s Daily Mail recently posted this great John Lawson-penned cutaway drawing of the upcoming Cadillac One, the heavily armored limousine that President Barack Obama will be cruising home in immediately after his inauguration.

Explore Cadillac One inside and out (to varying degrees of precision) after the jump.