The Energy Ball Wind Turbine

It sometimes seems a little odd that in a country far more famed for its gales than for its bright sunshine we would rely more on generating energy through solar power than through wind turbines. When it comes to alternative home energy, though, solar chargers and solar powered devices are the craze. Granted, wind powered chargers and devices do have some glaringly obvious difficulties but the possibility exists.

The Energy Ball from Dutch company Home Energy International could be the start of things to come (ok, maybe we’re getting a bit carried away). While you might look a bit of a tool carrying round a phone charger that uses one of these use as its alternative source of energy you could certainly erect one in the majority of back gardens.

It’s that effective that it can be used to harness the wind’s power even when it drops to less than 4.5mph (that’s probably a good 360 days of the year generating energy then) and the design that looks like a cross between an aeroplane and an egg whisk is certainly an improvement on the extremely industrial looking turbines that we normally see.

Greenbird Forced To Cancel Its Wind Powered Land Speed Record Attempt

An attempt to break the land speed record by a wind powered vehicle has been called off due to bad weather. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the winds that picked up with rain and collected water being the reason for the failed attempt by the Greenbird team. Lake LeFroy was set to be the venue for the event because the 500km stretch of lake is typically dry at this time of year.

Despite the usual dry surroundings, this year the area has been plagued by late rains that led to the attempt being cancelled. An even bigger problem for the wind powered vehicle was that the winds dropped to near non existence. The Greenbird team are said to be disappointed but that they haven’t failed to see the irony in the situation.

Attempts like this are partially undertaken to show that we can get around with depleting the world’s fossil fuels any more than is completely necessary but, as the team pointed out, its the effects of using fossil fuels that has led to their attempt being cancelled before it even began. They are now moving on to attempt to break a similar record but for ice yachting.

Formula Zero Racing

The red car and the blue car had a race… but it was the zero emissions, hydrogen fuelled, formula zero car that won. Rotterdam was the venue for the first ever formula zero race featuring hydrogen powered carts cleanly zipping around a track and the result was impressive to say the least. The event is already recognised by the FIA as being an official motorsport race and various events were held including sprint races and endurance races.

The sprint race was won by the Spanish team EuplatecH2 clocking up a time of 36 seconds while Delft University from Holland won the rather nauseatingly titled zeroth place in the endurance event Teams from five countries including the UK took part in the event over the weekend and because it proved such a success it looks highly likely that the new event will continue.

Four similar kart races are planned for 2009 while it is expected that the zero emissions formula, as it were, will develop into formula three and then full size racing classes too. Of course, it begs the question of just what kind of transporter they use to get the karts to the event because if they stick the kart in the back of a transit that bilges out hideous emissions it’s kid of defeating the ethos of the event.

The Solar Powered Tie

When I read the term “solar powered tie” I have glorious images of an automated tie that harvests the power of the sun in order to loop itself around and around in an intricate and elaborate attempt to perform the perfect bow but then perhaps that says a lot more about me than it does the actual solar powered tie.

Despite the name being something of a misnomer (which is a good thing - would you trust anything that might go wrong to tie something around your neck?) the concept is pretty good and while the design, which reminds me of the neck of a guitar complete with frets and everything, may not be to everybody’s taste it’s certainly unique and like may of the gadgets we seem to be featuring at the moment it takes being green to the extreme (there’s an advertising slogan that somebody that should use).

While it doesn’t tie your tie it does harvest the power of the sun’s rays and by slotting your mobile phone into the pouch at the back of the tie you can charge your phone while going about your daily business – although, obviously, your daily business should be conducted in high natural sunlight to get the best results possible.

GreenCore 10200 - The Solar Air Con Unit

A solar powered air conditioning unit is one of those inventions that just sort of makes sense. After all, the times you need to turn the air con on are those times when the sun is beating down and a solar panel would be at its most productive. The problem, though, is that air conditioning does require a fair amount of energy in order to continue running.

GreenCore has created the 10200 solar hybrid air conditioning unit that relies on a combination of solar power cells and standard outlet mains power. The idea is that when it’s a sunny day, the unit can be recharged using the solar panel or, alternatively, it can be plugged into the wall at night when costs are lower. Realistically, in fact, it can be plugged into the wall at any time – the effect is still the same.

The single solar panel that is included with the GreenCore 10200 doesn’t generate enough green juice to run the entire unit but you can buy bumper packs of solar panels and with fifty or so (rough estimate) you can take your air conditioning to the next level of eco friendly happy goodness.

Intelligent Solar Powered Street Lights

Welsh inventor Ross Lovegrove recently created the solar street lamp that resembled a kid’s cartoon of a tree and several of them were unveiled in Vienna where they apparently went down a real hit. As a result, Ross is now working on an updated version of the solar street lights that will this time include several intelligent and adaptive features that should improve their use, prevent them from being damaged and, frankly, scare the crap out of people.

The branches of the tree will follow the sun, avoiding shadows, and resting in the brightest area they can in order to increase the amount of solar energy they are able to harness. They will also bunch up when it’s windy, making them less of a health risk in high winds, and they will then return to their full branched glory at night when they’re needed to do something quite radical like provide light.

Perhaps even more bizarrely, it is also the vision of Lovegrove to include air purification into the street lights so that they effectively purify the air around them in much the same way as a real tree does. Awesome idea, but I’m not sure how much of their annual budget local councils will pour into buying a set of these.

Toyotron Hunter Electric Motorcycle

It looks decidedly Retro, but the Toyotron Hunter is one of a range of electric motorcycles from the Thai based company. Electric motorcycles haven’t exactly faced the same kind of surge (so to speak) as hybrid motorcars with the majority of motorbike makers reluctant to scare their existing customers off by producing such an oddball contraption. That’s left the market (if there actually is one) wide open to others.

To be fair, though, it most definitely works out to be cheaper than running a scooter, which we all know can do about 300 miles for the cost of 2 litres of cider. It also charges from a standard power outlet and has a reasonable range to boot. While it might prove popular with certain groups of people I don’t see it being that regular a feature on British roads.

First off, Toyotron claims that the Hunter will cover a range of 70km on a single overnight charge plugged in next to the fridge. Based on Taiwan’s current electricity costs that’s about one tenth of a penny in running costs. That’s a lot cheaper than the Red Bull it would take for me to cycle there and the Hunter can apparently reach a top speed of 43mph, which is most certainly better than I could manage.

The Green Dance Floor

Innovation is going to be key to our fight against climate change and some individuals and companies have definitely got it while others are left watching in bemusement. Club4Climate is a one such innovative idea; founder Andrer Charalambous has had the unique idea of using the motion created on dance floors to generate electricity, which can then be used in part to provide power for the club.

The entire project is based around improving clubbers’ energy consumption and diminishing the negative effect on the environment. Organic beverages and waterless urinals (most clubs in my area are not only waterless but urineless too) will be combined with a wind turbine, solar power generator, and a piezoelectric dance floor.

The dance floor converts the motion of clubbers into a usable form of energy to power the pumps, lighting and other electrical devices. It does this through a combination of ceramics and quartz crystals. Any energy that is left over from the sustainable devices will then be fed back to the grid so that it can be used by houses and other buildings in the area.

Club4Climate even provides free entry to anybody that can prove they walked or cycled to the venue – sweaty armpits, windswept hair, and that kind of thing must presumably be the method of proving it.

It puts a whole new perspective on carbon footprints.

Grow Your Own At Work - The USB Greenhouse

The USB Greenhouse is a quite unique little gift that is the perfect gift for the special botanist in your life (you know who you are, right?). The egg shaped green house is not just the perfect size for a small plant to grow healthily and your computer doesn’t just act as a power source to give the plant ideal growing conditions, but it will even monitor its growth and conditions to ensure that you haven’t killed it and aren’t in the process of doing so – it’ll even tell you when it needs watering.

It includes a hydroponic soil variant and growth light as well as a removable tray and some marigold seeds to get you started. Next time you’re called to a meeting that you really don’t want to attend you could try using the excuse that your plant needs watering and even provide emailed evidence to back up your story. It might well get you fired and then you’d need a new home for your little plant, but because the USB greenhouse is compatible with any Windows 2000 or XP based computer it shouldn’t be too difficult to find another.

Home Hydrogen Refuelling

Hydrogen fuel receives mixed opinions from scientists. While many believe it is the fuel of the future poised and ready to be developed so that it can power cars and home systems, others believe it is too expensive to convert into a usable power rendering it essentially useless. Whichever side of the line you fall on you might be interested to learn about the home hydrogen fuel station.

Realistically, the home refuelling system in its current iteration is unlikely to be used for refuelling a car. While the system is capable of generating enough gas over the space of an evening to propel a car for a distance of around 25 miles, it would need an ultra expensive hydrogen compressor pumping the price up by another £20,000.

However, IMT, the company that has created the home hydrogen refuelling system has created a Sheffield based show home. This home uses the refuelling centre to run various systems including air conditioning and heating.

IMT has claimed that the unit may be available later this year and also believes that the cost of the unit once under mass construction would not need to be more than £2,000.

Many potential users will be put off by the fact that the system requires the use of electricity in the electrolysis process. It uses vastly lower amounts of electricity but still carries a carbon footprint.

< 1 2 Next Page »