First New US Solar Thermal Power Plant in 20 Years Approved

Posted by Green Patents

Recently, California has granted approval for a new solar thermal power plant, the first solar thermal power plant to be licensed in US in nearly 20 years. It is expected that commercial operation will start by the third quarter of 2011.

Beacon Solar, the new project, will be an array of solar focusing parabolic troughs spread over a 2,012 acre site in Kern County, California. The approval process required a solution to local residents’ objections to the great amount of water the project would require. The final agreement will have the project use recycled water from a nearby community instead of drawing directly from the local aquifer. The project expects to use nearly 1600 acre feet (1.97 million cubic meters) of water annually.

The state of California has mandated that 20% of its electrical power come from renewables by 2010. While it does not look like that target is going to be met, the approval of several hundred megawatts of solar thermal power will help get the state closer to that goal.

via ecogeek

Special Glass Designed for Birds

Those bird keepers that live in the high-rise buildings tend to glue some pictures on their windows to help their bird not to hit the glass. This is acceptable for dwellings but not for office buildings. Therefore, scientists has developed a new kind of glass that resembles the ordinary glass in appearance, i mean, if identified by naked eyes. But for birds, they can see the patterns on it that can’t be seen by human beings.

Headrest with Reading Light

This pile fabric headrest is equipped with the LED reading light, which can not only relieve fatigue but also be helpful for those who like reading!

The Creative Outdoor Advertising II

Here’s another edition for Creative Outdoor Advertising. Let’s check it out!

This is an advertisement made by a toy company. The kid looks down at the traffic stream, as if the cars were his toys.

The huge LG refrigerator on the street of Spain attempts to impress the passers-by with its huge-capacity.

How poor are those sparrows! They don’t even realize the sharpness of the razor！

It’s the street advertising made by Google. The arrow on the floor indicates that this street can be found on Google map, which makes people can’t help trying to find it on Google map.

This is an painting ad.: a painter is doing the painting work. Can you distinguish where he has painted from the sky?

Peugeot Introduces World’s First Diesel Hybrid

Written by Megan Treacy on 25/08/10

Green car enthusiasts rejoice! At last a car has been unveiled that marries the fuel efficiency of a diesel and the lower emissions of a hybrid. As we predicted, Peugeot has beat other automakers to the punch and has introduced the world’s first production diesel-hybrid vehicle.

The Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 is outfitted with a 163bhp 2.0-liter turbo diesel unit that powers the front wheels and an electric motor powered by NiMH batteries that drives the rear axle with a total system output of 200 horsepower. As is standard with hybrids and EVs, the car also features regenerative braking.

The car achieves impressive fuel efficiency with a rating of 61.9 MPG. Performance-wise, the car has a max speed of 130 mph and can hit 62 mph in 8.8 seconds.

The car can be driven in front-drive only, rear-drive only or all-wheel drive modes and the car also offers four different operating modes: Auto mode, where the change between diesel engine and electric motor is handled by the car’s electronics, ZEV mode, where the car uses the electric motor only for a maximum of 2.8 miles, 4WD mode has both power trains operating together, and Sport mode puts power ahead of efficiency.

The 3008 Hybrid4 should hit car lots in Europe early next year.

via ecogeek

What’s this? II

What's this?

Have any idea?

er... it's something we use for our personal hygiene....

hah, bingo!! It's a camera-shaped soap!!

What's this?

What's this???

A: Fridge Magnet!!!

Creative Furniture

Following are some creative furniture, hope to bring you a breeze in this hot summer. Here we go!

The greenhouse made of light bulb

The hollow chair looks fragile, yet unbreakable in fact.

may appears weird, but comfortable to sit in.

house on fire

Lighting shaped shelf makes you shine with the radiance of wisdom. Besides, it’s easy for your search..

Portable Solar Light

Compact in size, this foldable solar light can be easily put into your pocket. On the top of the light, there is a solar panel that can store the solar light in the built-in battery. Besides, the 2 ends of it are equipped with a magnetic tape, which can help you to hang your solar as you like.

Incandescent Light Powered by Marsh Gas

The Park Spark Project aims to set up a collection place for pets’ droppings to eventually generate marsh gas to lighten the incandescent light by processing the droppings, which is quite environmentally friendly both in energy saving and environment protection.

Ipod knife and fork base

Modified from the waste forks and knives, this iphone base well interpret the intimate relationship between itself and the user.

A small question: how many knives do you see from the pic.?

via patsnap. com

Ipod belt

This belt-shaped packet can be used to store your ipod, iphone, and headsets; besides the buttons on the belt can help to connect and control your ipod or iphone.

via: www.patsnap.com

Men’s Tough Solar Digital Sports Watch By Casio

By Anita (EnviroGadget Writer) on August 10th, 2010

Posted by Green Patents

This Solar Digital Sports Watch provides a user with many features usually associated with an expensive watch in a more affordable package. The watch runs from solar energy which helps to free you from worries over battery replacement.

This Solar Digital Sports Watch (WL500-1A) by Casio comprises a tough, water resistant digital watch face attached to a resin band with a traditional buckle fastening. The watch has many useful functions, for example it can be used to set up to 4 daily alarms and has a snooze function on these, it also has a stopwatch function which can record split time. The watch has a built in day and month calendar and an LED light with afterglow technology to allow you to clearly read the time even when its dark.

The Solar Digital Sports Watch is powered through solar energy, which is stored in its rechargeable battery. The quartz movement watch does require regular exposure to sunlight to stay operational. The watch has a battery indicator to alert you to when it requires charging in the sun. The watch offers an affordable digital watch package that helps to make solar watches accessible to all.

via envirogadget

Solio Mag – Solar Powered Charger

By Dan (EnviroGadget Writer)

The Solio Mag is a solar powered hybrid charger by Solio. Designed to maximize efficiency by being both an incredibly powerful charger and a highly versatile one, the Mag is a modern looking charger for use on portable electronics anywhere.

The Solio Mag is made from a magnesium alloy casting which helps make it very durable, helping to protect it from heat and impact. The design allows the three inbuilt solar panels to be positioned to best take advantage of light in an area to charge the devices internal 1800Amh Lithium-Ion battery.

Solio state that the Mag is compatible with over 3200 devices like mobile phones, PDAs, iPhones, iPods, MP3/MP4 players, GPS devices, cameras and many other portable electronic devices. Able to charge from both USB ports and mains sockets as well as from the solar panels the device ensures you are always able to ensure it is fully charged and ready to go when required. The Mag can achieve full charge in around 10 hours from the solar panels. This allows it to charge a standard mobile phone twice, or provide more than 20 hours of charge for an MP3 player.

via envirogadget

Hyundai Aiming for 50 MPG Fleet Average by 2025

Written by Megan Treacy on 06/08/10

We talk a lot about electric cars, but gains in gasoline fuel efficiency are just as important right now as advancing vehicle battery technology. So it's pretty exciting that Hyundai is aiming for a fleet-wide average fuel economy of at least 50 MPG by 2025. The automaker is already on track to hit the federal fuel economy requirement of a fleet-wide average of 35.5 MPG a year in advance of the 2016 deadline, and they're hoping to keep upping that efficiency far beyond that marker. The car company is planning on achieving this through improvements in powertrains, gasoline direct injection, turbocharging, the addition of hybrids and PHEVs to their fleet and utilizing lighter materials. It's great to see an automaker independently shooting for these types of efficiency gains that we really need to see across the board. via ecogeek

Apple Patents Solar-Powered iPod, iPhone

Posted by Green Patents

Apple Inc. Portable Device

Forget the iPhone 4 that everyone is talking about today, there is a far cooler Apple-related news item to discuss.

Apple has filed a patent for a full range of “media players with integrated touch sensor solar panel surfaces.” Basically, we may soon be seeing solar-powered iPods, iPhones and even iPads.

The neatest feature of this patent that puts it a few steps above your typical solar-cell-covered cell phone is the placement of the solar cells underneath the multi-touch surface. Your iPhone will still look like an iPhone, but it will run on the sun’s energy.

The recent switch from a metal backside on the iPhone to a glass one (see the iPhone 4 details) would allow for an internal double-sided solar panel, as shown in the patent diagrams. This makes it clear that Apple is moving in the direction of integrating solar cells.

The patent shows that the solar cells would charge the rechargeable battery, which will run the media player or the battery can run the media player directly (i.e. you’ll still be able to charge it the old-fashioned way).

For detailed photos of the patent, head over to www.patsnap.com and read their full description.

via ecogeek.org

New Approaches to Wind Power in Massive 10MW Turbine Design

Written by Philip Proefrock on 27/07/10

Although the technology seems settled, new wind power designs are still being developed, especially as engineers try to extend the generating capacity of turbines. The Aerogenerator X is a new 10 MW wind turbine designed for off-shore use combining the best of horizontal axis and vertical axis designs. The engineering firm Arup and architects Grimshaw developed the design (based on an earlier Grimshaw design from a couple years ago) on behalf of the British company Wind Power Limited.

The familiar, three-bladed, horizontal axis turbine is a well established design, but increased stresses as the size of these turbines increases makes it difficult to enlarge them further. Because of the square-cube law, larger wind turbines produce exponentially more power, so there is an incentive to build larger and larger turbines. This led to the innovative design, inspired by the sycamore leaf.

Aerogenerator X has a very large swept area, like a horizontal axis turbine. The span of the turbine is 275 meters (over 900 feet). But the Aerogenerator X is also only half the height of an equivalent horizontal axis turbine. And like a vertical axis turbine, the generator and equipment are located at the base. Stresses on the blades are reduced in this configuration, making it easier to design and build something of this size. This also makes maintenance much easier, especially for an offshore turbine.

Project partners also include Rolls-Royce, Shell, BP, EDF, EON, Caterpillar, and the UK government. The first full-scale versions of this turbine are expected to be completed by 2013 or 2014.

via ecogeek

Sticker-Like Lens Improves Solar Panel Efficiency by 12.5%

Written by Megan Treacy on 02/08/10

Posted by Green Patents

solar PV

SolOptics, the solar division of Genie Lens, has created a new lens design that improves solar PV performance by 12.5 percent. The new thin-film design can be applied to any PV module, just like a sticker.

The new design is created by the company's ray tracing software that embosses microstructures onto thin polymer film. That film can then be applied to solar panels much like tinting film can be applied to a window. In testing, the microstructures in the lens improved PV efficiency by 10 to 12.5 percent.

The microstructures in the lens provide greater light absorption, an anti-reflective coating that allows more light capture, even if the light is off-center or off-angle, and lengthen the path of light so that more electrons are stimulated and therefore more electricity generated.

Another great feature is that the lens can be applied to PV modules, regardless of what they're made of -- silicon, CIGS or cadmium telluride -- and to newly-manufactured or already existing units.

via Greentech Media

GM Announces MSRP for Chevy Volt, EV Competition Heats Up

Written by Philip Proefrock on 27/07/10

The unusual electric car concept that we started following a few years ago is now close to arriving at auto dealerships as the 2011 Chevy Volt. And today, Chevrolet announced the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the Volt will be $41,000. With the full $7,500 federal tax credit, the price comes down to $33,500, and even lower with additional state incentives.

Nissan has tried to position itself as the competitor to GM with its all-electric Leaf, and that is playing out in a number of ways. While the list price of the Volt is several thousand dollars more than the Nissan Leaf, both vehicles will be available for lease at almost identical cost: $350/month for the Volt or $349/month for the Leaf.

Furthermore, on the same day that GM announced the pricing for the Volt, Nissan fired back with an announcement that it, too, would offer a warranty similar to the eight year, 100,000 mile warranty GM has announced for the Volt’s battery systems.

The initial markets selected by each company are also interesting to compare: Nissanplans to roll out the Leaf in Texas and Hawaii in January of 2011, then in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, Alabama and Washington, D.C., in April 2011 and eventually nationwide by the end of that year. None of these are particularly cold-weather states. The Volt will initially be available in California, New York, Washington, D.C., Texas, Michigan, Connecticut and New Jersey in late 2010, and will be expanded into nationwide availability (as well as to Canada) in the following 12 – 18 months.

This will be interesting to follow as both companies (as well both existing manufacturers and new startups with other electric vehicles and hybrids) push the industry further along in developing alternatives to simple internal combustion drive vehicles.

via ecogeek