January 2, 2012 New PumPing Tap concept literally ejects power cords to save energy
For years, environmentalists have warned that keeping electronics plugged in all the time wastes energy, even when a device is switched off. Even for less green-conscious consumers this lost energy can add up on the electric bill each month, so disconnecting unused devices or switching them off at the wall is really a good habit for anyone to get into. But let’s be honest, it’s hard to remember to unplug each gadget every single time it’s used. To help with this, designers have created the PumPing Tap, a concept electrical socket that can detect an unused power cord and physically eject it from the wall.
The PumPing Tap is actually pretty simple in design. Sensors in the circuit detect whether the plug is actively using electricity, and, if it isn’t, the light on the outside turns from blue to red. Ten minutes later, if the device is still switched off, a spring-loaded mechanism pops the plug out of the socket like a projectile from a toy dart gun. As far as methods for cutting down on power consumption go, this one is very direct. The PumPing Tap was even one of the winners of the Red Dot Design Concept award.
Of course there are some obvious drawbacks to this method of energy conservation. For one, most people have at least a handful of outlets hidden behind furniture specifically to keep them out of the way, so plugging an electrical cord back in could mean rearranging the living room. Plus there’s the lingering question of how much energy needs to be used for the cord to stay plugged in. It’s too easy to imagine a fully charged mobile phone’s power cord being ejected from the wall, leaving the phone’s battery to slowly drain.
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November 16, 2011 France to Boast World’s Biggest Tidal Energy Farm
Looking to harness the power of tidal flow in the English Channel, Irish technology company, OpenHydro, and French utility company EDF are teaming up to build the world’s largest tidal energy farm.
The $55 million project, slated for completion in 2012 off of France’s northern coast near Paimpol, Brittany, will boast four, 850-ton turbines that will provide enough energy to power 4,000 homes in the region.�OpenHydro will provide the 2 Megawatt turbines, are 72feet in diameter and will be anchored to the seabed, 115 feet below the water’s surface.
The company’s innovations in marine turbine technology and renewable energy has recently garnished some awards. Last month, OpenHydro won the the Engineers Ireland Continuing Professional Development Company of the Year award. On Monday, they took home top honors in the Best of Renewable Energy category at the 2011 Later Stage Awards put on by the Global Cleantech Cluster Association (GCCA), known as the global voice of clean technologies.
“In each category, these companies are making both broad strides in their global industries as well as working closely with their regional cleantech clusters to build sustainable green economies and jobs,” Ben Taube, Chairman of the GCCA, said in a press release.
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November 16, 2011 Nazi Bunker to Become Europe’s Largest Solar Power Plant
A former Nazi bunker located in the Wilhelmsburg district of Hamburg, Germany is about to get a full-scale makeover. The building, which sorta looks like a giant LEGO, is set to become Europe’s largest renewable energy power plant.
When it’s all said and done, the power plant will supply 3,000 homes with heating and 1,000 of those with electricity, cutting 6,600 tons of CO2 per year.
How? The nine story structure (called a Flaktürme in German) will boast a 110 kWh rooftop photovoltaic system and a south-facing 0.6 GWh solar-thermal unit come 2012. The building’s interior is being reserved for even further expansion. By 2013 the structure will house a 10.5 GWh woodchip combined heat and power plant (CHP), and a 3.7 GWh biomethane plant powered by a nearby industrial plant, for example. Waste heat will also be stored. That sounds like a lot but this building could house around 80 single family homes. It is that big.
via Nazi Bunker to Become Europe’s Largest Solar Power Plant
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November 9, 2011 Airdrop Design Pulls Water From Air to Irrigate Deserts
The winner of this year’s James Dyson Award is one that focuses on the water crisis in Australia. A continent faced with severe droughts, it is no wonder that Edward Linacre from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne wanted to come up with a solution that will provide fresh water where there is no source on the ground.
A press release notes, “Edward studied the Namib beetle, an ingenious species which lives in one of the driest places on earth. With half an inch of rain per year, the beetle can only survive by consuming the dew it collects on the hydrophilic skin of its back in the early mornings. Airdrop borrows this concept, working on the principle that even the driest air contains water molecules which can be extracted by lowering the air’s temperature to the point of condensation. It pumps air through a network of underground pipes, to cool it to the point at which the water condenses. Delivering water directly to the roots of plants.”
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- Posted under Ecology
October 3, 2011 Paris launches world-first electric car-share scheme
Self-service electric cars appeared on the streets of Paris Sunday, as a French group launched a public car-hire scheme modelled on the capital’s popular bicycle-sharing system and designed to become the world’s largest of its kind.
The Autolib’ venture set up by Vincent Bollore, a prominent businessman with ties to President Nicolas Sarkozy, kicked off a two-month testing phase with around 60 vehicles scattered over 10 stations. The programme is expected to be scaled up to 250 vehicles on December 5 and could include 2,000 of the small four-seaters over 46 municipalities around the French capital by the end of June 2012.
“This service will complement public transport and taxis. Our aim to widen the range of available transport,” deputy Paris mayor Annick Lepetit said at the launch.
The Bollore group predicts it will need 80,000 users to make a profit and hopes to attract customers with a low fee of 12 euros a month for an annual subscription.
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- Posted under ecocars
October 1, 2011 Researchers unveil innovative solar cooling project
Using solar thermal energy to power an air conditioning unit can be difficult and expensive. But a team of researchers at the University of California, Merced, have added a game-changing advance to the process that could make it much simpler, less costly and more effective.
UC Merced professor Roland Winston and his team of student researchers have designed and developed a system that gathers and concentrates sunlight onto specially made collector tubes. The heat generated can then be transformed using existing technology for cooling, heating and a number of other potential uses.
The key factor in their design is this: The collectors are entirely stationary. Typically, solar collectors must move and track the sun to achieve optimal energy production, necessitating additional equipment that can be costly to install and complex to maintain.
The UC Merced design — called an External Compound Parabolic Concentrator (XCPC) — generates solar thermal efficiency of 60 percent at temperatures up to 400 F, achieving thermal performance previously seen only in tracking systems. And in contrast to tracking systems that work only on clear, sunny days, the UC Merced design can work in hazy conditions because it “sees” most of the sky, allowing collection of both direct and indirect sunlight.
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September 22, 2011 Rainwater Pump Runs On Sunlight
ITT Flow Control recently announced the development of their new, solar powered RainPerfect Water Pump, which takes harvested rainwater in a barrel and pumps it through devices like garden hoses and sprinklers. This way, the rainwater is recycled, and consumers can water their gardens and lawns or wash cars without putting strain on the public water supply.
The pump, which comes through ITT’s Rule Innovation brand, sits atop a conventional rain barrel, and can be hooked up to most garden hose fixtures. It pumps water with enough force to be used with a low-pressure sprinkler, the company says.
The pump is completely solar powered, coming with its own solar panel that powers arechargeable nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery. The battery is capable of providing enough power to pump about 377 liters of water, the company says, which in most cases will be the full capacity of the barrel. The company calls the solar component especially useful during high-use periods in the summer, when homes and businesses run air conditioners.
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- Posted under ecohome
September 16, 2011 Melting Vitruvian Man
As the Arctic sea ice melted back this summer to the second lowest level on record, Greenpeace commissioned aerial artist John Quigley to depict Leonardo da Vinci’s famous sketch ‘Vitruvian Man’ melting into the Arctic ocean.
The crew on board the Greenpeace icebreaker Arctic Sunrise tethered their ship 800 kilometers from the North Pole on sea ice in the Fram Strait between Greenland and Norway’s Svalbard Islands. There they helped Quigley create what he called the ‘Melting Vitruvian Man.’
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- Posted under Ecology
September 12, 2011 Ford electric E-Bike Concept packs a Galaxy S II on the bars, motor in the wheel
Ford already wowed us with the Evos concept, but the slinkiest hybrid we’ve seen so far here in Frankfurt has not four wheels but two. It’s a concept bicycle from Ford called — wait for it — the E-Bike Concept. It packs an electric motor built into the front wheel that can power it up to a maximum speed of 25 km/h, driven by a 9.2Ah battery. Or you can power it the conventional way by pedalling, torque conveyed to the rear wheel over a carbon belt. (Oily chains are so last century.)
Perhaps even more interesting is what rests up on the handlebars. No, that’s no iDevice — refreshingly it’s a Galaxy S II. Through some custom software, riders will be able to change suspension modes and of course monitor battery charge, not to mention get a little assistance from Google Navigation and maybe pump out some Pandora too. The word “Concept” in the title here and the spindly frame design should give you a clue about when this thing will see production — probably never. But, we’ll be back with an update if that ever changes.
via Ford electric E-Bike Concept packs a Galaxy S II on the bars, motor in the wheel
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- Posted under ecobikes
