Category: Energy systems
IFA 2008: Portable Solar Panels from Onlink
In the video above, Dan checks out a company called Onlink who have a great idea for a product – solar panels built into your laptop case. Their cases have two pockets – one for your laptop and one for two big solar panels that then attach to your laptop and help you charge while on the go…
Akhter Computers launch PC which uses less energy than a lightbulb
The world of technology isn’t exactly known for environmental friendliness. Greenpeace regularly rate a bunch of tech companies on their website and no-one is currently scoring higher than 5.1/10. Some companies score extremely poorly. Nintendo score just 0.8/10.
I’m a big fan of green tech. I studied Meteorology at University, and that came with a bunch of climate change and renewable energy classes. Both taught me a lot about what we really should be doing with our planet. Unfortunately, I also really like having new shiny gadgets full of pollutants and toxic substances. That internal conflict makes me sad sometimes, but I brightened up considerably when I saw the LoCO2PC…
The Dubai Ziggurat – environmentally sound housing for one million people
If the Egyptians required social housing, this would’ve been it. This staggering pyramid design is the latest in Dubai’s attempts to make it the playground – and architect lunatic asylum – of the world, a building capable of housing one million people.
The concept behind this “city of the future” is for the entire project to be off-grid and power itself, presumably by the methane emissions of one million people…
Turning roads into solar collectors – why has no-one thought of this before?
Roads get really hot. Really really hot. But 2cm below the surface of the road gets hotter still, and some researchers at Worcester Polytechnic University reckon that we could use that heat in power generation…
Ikea to sell solar panels. Some assembly required?
IKEA must be feeling a bit guilty about cutting down all of those trees to manufacture flat-pack furniture, as they’re pouring €50m into ‘GreenTech’ projects and will be selling solar panels, water conservation and purification devices and “alternative light sources”…
Sanyo bringing wireless battery charging to Nintendo Wii Remotes
Wireless electricity. Another wild gadget fantasy, only this is a fantasy MADE REAL in recent years thanks to the arrival of special batteries and charging pads.
Sanyo has announced it’s bringing this (possibly alien) wireless charging technology to Wii, using a variant of the fantastic Eneloop battery and a “magnetic induction” (MAGIC for short) pad. So, instead of…
Club Surya – first eco-nightclub opens in Kings Cross, London
The first eco-nightclub has opened here in the UK in the distinguished and yet decidedly unsavory part of town that is Kings Cross. Surya is made of all manner of reclaimed bottles, timber and budgerigars but it’s the dancefloor that really adds the interest as far as I’m concerned.
Using the ever-popular piezoelectricity – essentially a way of changing kinetic energy into electrical – every badly jigged step on the boards is harnessed in tiny underfloor crystals…
Wingless electromagnetic air vehicle (UFO! UFO! UFO!) set to take off this year
Technically, that flying saucer to the left there is known as a wingless electromagnetic air vehicle, or WEAV for short. We’ll just scream “UFO!” and run from it in terror, though, if that’s OK.
It’s powered by “magnetohydrodynamics” – a way of propelling vehicles by ionising air with an electrical current then shooting it out at great speed. The thing also spins, to help keep it stable. It is, basically, your archetypal flying saucer.
The dream-machine of the University of Florida scientist Subrata Roy, WEAV will be undergoing test flights…
Weza: foot-powered portable energy source – enough to jump-start your car
It does make me feel all virtuous when I can wax lyrical about eco-friendly gadgets and, as it goes, the Weza portable energy source foot pump…
The Orange "Dance Charge" – power your mobile through motion
The Orange Dance Charge is a motion-powered kinetic charger full of magnets and weights, designed to keep your phone juiced-up simply from the movement of your arms. How many words do you think we’ll get into this update before resorting to crude references to masturbation?
We’re not particularly excited about what’s clearly a novelty item designed to generate a bit of publicity during the UK’s festival season and help Orange make a token effort to look like it’s a “green” company, but you sort of have to use awesome promotional photographs like this:
It weighs a teeny 180grams…
