Here is the first outerwear product in the world that can recharge a cell phone, iPod or other device using solar power.
Italian ZEGNA presents the first commercially available jacket with integrated solar solution based on “iSolarX” – a flexible and highly efficient wearable solar technology.
The solar modules are mounted on a neoprene collar; the electricity generated from solar energy is transmitted through conducting textile leads and stored temporarily in a buffer battery or fed directly to a connected device.
The electronic basis of the new “Solar JKT” from Zegna Sport is the iSolarX wearable solar technology platform, developed by Interactive Wear AG in close cooperation with its technology partner SOLARC of Berlin. This enables the easy and convenient integration of solar cells together with their associated leads and miniaturized charging electronics (for e.g. cell phones, mp3 players or other mobile electronic devices with a USB connector) into apparel and accessories of any sort. For iSolarX applications, the main focus is on reliability, ease of use, optimal wearing comfort and high energy efficiency.
The iSolarX solar technology platform is made up of these functional elements: the solar modules, the textile integration kit, and the charging electronics. Read the rest of this entry »
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I am in the market for a new car. To my surprise there is no alternatives in Denmark to gasoline and diesel cars. It is possible to order a Prius, but no dealers has a model home I can test. It is also possible to import a hybrid, electric or plantoil/biodiesel ready car but theres is not one single place in this country I can go and see and have a spin in such a car.
Importing a car is a difficult task, there will be doubt about the tax until the car is imported and I would prefer to have a local salesman to address for service and if something goes wrong.
I do not understand why this is. All major car manufacturers have electric cars, hybrid and plant oil ready cars and they are on the market in several countries, why not here? Why do they not test the Danish market - they would find me and possible a lot of others potential buyers.
Some months ago the tax on new cars were differentiated, so it makes environment friendly cars a lot cheaper. This is said to have increased the sale of small gasoline cars - but so far no new products have been introduced. Thats a shame, now I’ll buy a Hummer instead…
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Japan was the largest producer of solar power until Germany exceeded it in 2005. European countries have been expanding their production of solar power more rapidly than Japan. Germany now accounts for 39 percent of total production, while Japan’s contribution is 38 percent. Germany, which will host the summit meeting on global warming in June, has a reputation for being environmentally conscious, and subsidies for solar power have been increased, with the stable price of such power helping to make solar power generation more popular. However, in Japan, subsidized projects by the New Energy Foundation, aimed at generating solar power for private residents ended in fiscal 2005, and now only local governments have subsidized projects.
Top Gear goes to Germany to take a look at a prototype hydrogen powered car made by General Motors. The car is the first car that has no mechanical links between the driver and the car. This allows for easy shift of body for different purposes.
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Even the daily ritual of shaving can make an environmental statement. Or so hopes Braun. The division of consumer products conglomerate Procter & Gamble (PG) said today that its line of men’s electric shaver chargers had become the first to win Energy Star certification from the U.S. government. Braun says its shaver chargers consume 64 percent less electricity than standard shavers. Based on the number of shavers it sells in the U.S. market, that translates into the annual elimination of about 5.6 metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide, according to the company.
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The Guardian runs a story today about nuclear fusion laser tech, that should be the safe, clean way to produce nuclear energy in the future.
The British-led project, which has been earmarked by the EU as a priority, is designed to leapfrog an American-funded project called the National Ignition Facility (Nif) in Livermore, California. When that is built in 2010, physicists are confident that the Nif laser will be powerful enough to start a fusion reaction. Experiments in the Nevada desert in the 1980s with underground explosions of nuclear weapons have already shown how much energy they will need to deliver with the laser. Mike Dunne, director of the Central Laser Facility at a publicly funded research site in Oxfordshire that houses Vulcan, the most powerful laser in the world, said: “The trick now is, can we get it to work without throwing a nuclear bomb at the thing?”
That is what Nif is designed to do.
Click the page to read the entire story.
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Residents of Dubai may one day experience a unique and constantly changing skyline thanks to Dynamic Architecture’s wind powered rotating skyscraper. The main idea behind their concept involves a central concrete core surrounded by 59 independently rotating levels. The skyscraper would generate its own electricity from the massive horizontal wind turbines that would be stacked in between each floor. This idea may seem outlandish or impossibly expensive, but the oil price boom in Dubai has already funded many other similarly massive and complex architectural projects. If oil prices continue to increase these rotating wonders may be seen on Dubai’s horizon within the next few years. Thanks Alt-e-news!
Each turbine can produce 0.3 megawatt of electricity, compared to 1-1.5 megawatt generated by a normal vertical turbine (windmill). Considering that Dubai gets 4,000 wind hours annually, the turbines incorporated into the building can generate 1,200,000 kilowatt-hour of energy. As average annual power consumption of a family is estimated to be 24,000 kilowatt-hours, each turbine can supply energy for about 50 families. The Dynamic Architecture tower in Dubai will be having 200 apartments and hence four turbines can take care of their energy needs. The surplus clean energy produced by the remaining 44 turbines can light up the neighborhood of the building. However, taking into consideration that the average wind speed in Dubai is of only 16 km/h the architects may need to double the number of turbines to light up the building to eight. Still there will be 40 free turbines, good enough to supply power for five skyscrapers of the same size.
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The Economist has an interesting article about different proposals to harvest wind energy from the jet stream (elevation: 10km). A San Diego, CA company called Sky WindPower wants to send giant kite-turbines into the jet stream to generate power.
“Mr Shepard’s flying generator looks like a cross between a kite and a helicopter. It has four rotors at the points of an H-shaped frame that is tethered to the ground by a long cable. The rotors act like the surface of a kite, providing the lift needed to keep the platform in the air. As they do so, they also turn dynamos that generate electricity. This power is transmitted to the ground through aluminium cables. Should there be a lull in the wind, the dynamos can be used in reverse as electric motors, to keep the generator airborne.”
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Top hurricane forecasters Dr. William Gray believes the recent uptick in strong hurricanes is part of a multi-decade trend that will lead to dropping ocean temperatures in the next five to 10 years. Link
New solar cells developed by Massey University don’t need direct sunlight to operate and use a patented range of dyes that can be impregnated in roofs, window glass and eventually even clothing to produce power. Link
US set to ban incandescent light bulbs, hoping it will lower electric prices and shed coal plants faster. Unfortunately, it will do the opposite. Link
March 27, 2007 at 11:10 am · Filed under Green Tech
I have been researching a bit more about my wind generator project, and to my disappointment the project is so unsure when it comes cost/benefit and technology that I will skip it for now. The main problem is that water heating demands so much power and many AirX owners have not been able to get the desired amps from the generator. This means that I feel the project is too risky since I would have to invest nearly 2.000 euro in generator, controllers, wire, batteries, heater, cone etc. etc. 2.000 euro is a lot of wood - about 3 years usage for us or similar to nearly 5 years electricity.
Instead I will focus on insulation, more about this later.
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March 22, 2007 at 5:43 pm · Filed under Green Tech
Engineers at the University of Hong Kong and a private renewable energy company have developed a new micro wind turbine that can generate electricity even if wind speeds are as low as two meters per second.
Lucien Gambarota , the main inventor of the technology, says this is its advantage over conventional small wind turbines, which only work about 40 percent of the time because of low wind speed.
“We never stop this machine and they never stop because there is always one meter per second wind - 365 days, 24 hours a day, they keep working,” said Gambarota. “They deliver different levels of energy because the wind changes but these turbines they keep moving, they keep spinning.”
Gambarota says the small turbines are ideal for crowded cities such as Hong Kong because they can be installed on rooftops and balconies.
Their design is simple: plastic gearwheels, each about 25 centimeters in diameter, are linked to one another and turn, moved by the wind. Groups of gearwheels can be arranged in an array of shapes and sizes, ranging from about two up to thousands of square meters, depending on how much energy is needed and how much space is available. The energy generated by the turbines is stored in a battery, which then powers electrical appliances.
“Let’s say if you have good conditions, five, six meters per second, if you are a family with one kid you need most probably three, four square meters of that then you can most probably cover at least 60, 70 percent of your energy needs.”
The technology can also help power bigger buildings. Administrators at Hong Kong’s Sea School, a secondary school offering basic seaman training, will install the new micro wind-turbines on its roof in April.
March 12, 2007 at 9:11 pm · Filed under Green Tech
Some weeks ago I wrote a story for Lemwig Müllers Magazine Aktu about energy savings at one of the largest water service companies in Denmark. The savings on the power bill is now about 30% but when the program is fully implemented the savings will be up to 60%. The cool thing is that it is solely done by writing a smart code to the PLCs (small industrial computers). that controls the various pumps at the plant.
The massive power savings came as a surprise to the water plant management. They just ordered new PLC-units to control and monitor their pumps, but the delivering company Picca had a brilliant programmer. He understood the plants function and needs and in few days he wrote a piece of code, uploaded it to the PLCs and now the plant saves power big time.
A water plant pumps water from the underground to a central buffer tank that secures the need of the costumers at peak periods like in the morning when people are showering. This is normally done with full power on the pumps just in time to fill the buffer tanks. By lowering the speed of the pumps and letting them run for a longer time, the power consumption can be lowered significantly.
The programmer at Picca, tells me that this is the first time such a project has been done and the possibilities are huge. It is estimated that 20% of the worlds total power usage is used on moving water from one place to another.
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March 7, 2007 at 12:19 pm · Filed under Green Tech
Concerns about possible accidents and radioactive waste have pushed 61% of European Union citizens to say they want the bloc to use less nuclear power, an E.U. survey showed Monday.At the same time, a majority of survey respondents said they were concerned about climate change, which they attribute to the consumption of fossil fuels.
Nuclear power is a contentious issue in Europe. While E.U. officials acknowledge it is one of the cheapest sources of low carbon energy, they are unwilling to push for more reactors.
Finland and France are unabashedly pro-nuclear and building new reactors. Other countries, such as Austria and Germany, oppose nuclear energy.
Instead of turning to nuclear power, E.U. officials are pushing fuel sources such as wind turbines and solar panels. Clean coal technology is also slated to be installed in the E.U. by 2020, writes Dow Jones.
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This is an Amazing video. Solar Tower technology is a large-scale renewable energy technology based on simple fundamentals of physics — hot air rises. Solar Tower technology has the potential to offer competitive renewable energy with equal reliability to fossil fuel generators, developers say. To me it looks both expensive and very experimental.
A smaller scale version has been build in spain:
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An electric tea kettle that boils exactly as much water as you need — not two or three times as much.
It would be nice if more manufacturers paid attention to the details like this — it takes a lot of energy to boil water.
This is how it works: The internal reservoir holds a full capacity of water ready for use, while the measuring button allows any quantity – from a single cupful to full capacity – to be released into the separate chamber for boiling.
The result? Exactly the right amount of water every time you boil –and no more waste.
If you avoid boiling 6 cups of water a day, this adds up to 1.2 KWH per day, or 430 KWH per year and 900 lbs of CO2 if your electricity comes from a coal powered plant.
Link to manufacturer, here you can also find you local dealer: Link
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Biogas- and water treatment plants are now able to produce electric power from biogas and deliver it directly to consumers over the grid. A revolutionizing micro power plant, the XRGI, has been developed and approved to produce electricity from biogas, and this gives new opportunities for the biogas- and water treatment plants.
With a guarantee for effect and low service expenses Biogas- and water treatment plants now can produce power to cover the plants own consumption and supply the grid with 100 pct. CO2-neutral power.
“The technology is now so mature that power production from Biogas- and water treatment plants is very interesting - both economically and from an environmental point of view. XRGI has been designed to run at least 30.000 hours without any repairs, and service is only to be done every 4.000 hours. This gives extremely low operating costs. ,” says Bjarne Bogner, CEO of EC Power, the company that developed the technology behind the XRGI-systems.
February 24, 2007 at 10:54 am · Filed under Green Tech
Popular Science reports that companies like Startech are blasting trash with plasma and producing clean fuels like hydrogen as a byproduct. Basically, you put tons of trash in one end of a plasma converter, and a superheated plasma arc obliterates the trash into its molecular components. The process is called “plasma gasification”. There are two byproducts: one is a “syngas” composed mostly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which can be converted into fuel. The other is molten glass that can be sold for use in household tiles or road asphalt. Amazingly, plasma converters produce enough energy to power themselves, and actually produce an excess of energy that can be sold to the grid. Still, some environmental scientists have warned that the residual substances may contain toxic heavy metals.
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February 18, 2007 at 12:28 pm · Filed under Green Tech
When I wrote the post below I had this feeling that I has seen the technology somewhere before. Hilli pointed out to me that the VentureOne is nearly a copy (but a green one) of the CarverOne introduced in Europe a couple of years ago. Have a look at here:
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February 16, 2007 at 10:19 pm · Filed under Green Tech
As global warming shows its signs automotive manufacturers are showing increasing concern over making world a safer place and the result is showing already in civilized countries, where hybrid vehicles are note a rarity anymore. One interesting concept is VentureOne, a 3-wheel hybrid. It is like sitting in a car but it carves the curves more like a motorcycle.
VentureOne was developed by BMW Group DesignworksUSA
‘When killer tornadoes destroyed the mobile home of Joe DeMar earlier this month, the Lake County man just managed to escape with his life. But in the hours after the storm, he faced another crisis: no electricity to power his nebulizer, an electric device that pumps oxygen and misted medication into his damaged lungs. Before state or federal help arrived, Joe got a visit from Bill Young with UCF’s Florida Solar Energy Center asking if his solar-power generator could help him out.’
I promised to tell you more about our use of solar energy. After having re-build our house last year we now make us of solar energy in 3 ways:
* Solar cells for 220 Volt on-grid electricity
* Solar panels for heating water combined with floor heating
* Passive heating through a huge thermo glass area facing south.
First we got the photo-voltaic cells. Our roof is perfect for this, facing south in an angel of 45. The disadvantage of this system is the price, but in 2003 we got selected for a project called “Sun 2000″ in which different organizations and state subsidies paid 60 pct. of the total price. Our price was about 6.000 euro, but what really made this project interesting from a financial perspective was the agreement with the local power company: The system is build to produce 220 V and it is connected to the grid. Normally if you produce electricity for the grid you will only get paid the basic price pr. kW. But when you buy you will have to pay the basic price plus taxes. Since the taxes make about 3/4 of the power bill this would not be interesting for at all. Instead we now can sell power at the same price as we buy as longs as we produce less than we use pr. year. This is great because the system produces about 1/3 of our total power consumption. The system is build of 6 BP panels at 170 WP each which will produces about 800 - 1000 kWh/year. To generate 220 V for the grid and our own use we have 1 Fronius micro inverter. This is no in longer in production, but has been replaced by a new series of Fronius inverters, the IG series. Read the rest of this entry »
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Here is the first outerwear product in the world that can recharge a cell phone, iPod or other device using solar power.
Japan was the largest producer of solar power until Germany exceeded it in 2005. European countries have been expanding their production of solar power more rapidly than Japan. Germany now accounts for 39 percent of total production, while Japan’s contribution is 38 percent. Germany, which will host the summit meeting on global warming in June, has a reputation for being environmentally conscious, and subsidies for solar power have been increased, with the stable price of such power helping to make solar power generation more popular. However, in Japan, subsidized projects by the New Energy Foundation, aimed at generating solar power for private residents ended in fiscal 2005, and now only local governments have subsidized projects.
The Economist has an interesting article about different proposals to harvest wind energy from the jet stream (elevation: 10km). A San Diego, CA company called Sky WindPower wants to send giant kite-turbines into the jet stream to generate power.
Engineers at the 
1 Vind Generator Air X Land - 24V. (US build with integrated chargecontroller)
Some weeks ago I wrote a story for Lemwig Müllers Magazine Aktu about energy savings at one of the largest water service companies in Denmark. The savings on the power bill is now about 30% but when the program is fully implemented the savings will be up to 60%. The cool thing is that it is solely done by writing a smart code to the PLCs (small industrial computers). that controls the various pumps at the plant.
Popular Science
