We doubt that charging your electric vehicles using solar will become passé any time soon, but when it does, at least we have options when comes to fossil fuel-free electrons. Urban Green Energy is teaming with General Electric to create charging stations that funnel power from the wind directly into your EV's batteries. They even have a clever name: the skypump.
According to the UK's government statistics, 13 of the past 16 months have been less windy than average – while 2010 was the "stillest" year of the decade. Furthermore, meteorologists warn that a shift in the Atlantic jet stream could alter wind patterns over the next 40 years, leaving many of the UK's power-generating turbines without sufficient wind.
Technip, along with partners Nénuphar, Converteam and EDF Energies, recently launched Vertiwind, an offshore floating wind turbine project. The Vertiwind concept, which eliminates the laborious process of installing fixed wind turbines, could enable offshore wind farms to pop up in numerous countries across the globe.
Look no further than the ocean to see what will power our future. That's what a recent study suggests, anyway. That report, presented by the Marine Board of the European Science Foundation (ESF) at the EurOCEAN 2010 conference, outlines several marine renewable energies that have not been exploited to their fullest. The findings suggests that when these yet-to-be utilized sources of energy are tapped – possibly by 2050 – Europe could become the first continent to harness the power of
DDWFTTW Car – Click above to watch video Sebastian Blanco
It seems like a strange question, but have we run out of good places to build wind farms? On the face of it, one would think that a country as large at the U.S. is a long, long way from a time when we don't have the space to put up another turbine, but that's the question that Renewable Energy World is asking. Their answer?
When we heard that Mitsubishi and the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIoT) were working on a way to use power generated while a windmill spins at night, it got us thinking. What's so special about wind power produced overnight?
Now that Audi is finally moving into the arena of electric cars, it has decided to also invest in renewable energy production. The German automaker has already installed an extensive array of solar panels at its main factory in Ingolstadt, which will be supplemented by up to 14,000 megawatts of wind power in the future.
From time to time, we've been known to ponder some stuff that non-greenies would have no interest in, but that's what happens when a passion for all things green takes over. For example, we've always thought that a great Google Earth app would be one that shows automotive plants across the globe, but why stop there. Throw in things like locations of wind farms, solar parks and a hyrdo-plants and we would start to drool. Well, General Motors either
A lot of interesting conversation takes place annually at the SAE World Congress. The conference brings together heads of companies, scientists, engineers and people from many other walks of life. With so much diversity present at a single event, it's only a matter of time before some off-the-wall idea got bounced around for adamant attendees to duke it out.
One of the reasons that a vehicle powered by something other than gasoline is such a popular idea in the U.S. is that it helps us become less reliant on other countries for our transportation needs. To this end, biofuels and electric vehicles offer great potential to use local sources of energy in our vehicles. To get a handle on how much green electricity – wind, geothermal, solar, etc. – is available in the U.S., the Insitute for Local Self-Reliance
Not only has a name been decided on – the Nemesis – but Ecotricity founder Dale Vince's pet electric car project is now sitting in Vince's driveway. Well, it is when he's not out driving it.
MINI E - click above for high-res image gallery
Click above for a high-res image gallery of the wind-powered Kia Soul
A British man named Richard Jenkins has just broken the world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle. The high-tech contraption he used is called the Greenbird, the fifth wind-powered vehicle Jenkins has built. The resourceful Brit designed Greenbird himself over the course of a decade and built the machine almost completely from carbon fiber. Interestingly, Greenbird was sponsored by Ecotricity, the company currently working to build
Click above for a gallery of the Wind Helmet
click above and scroll down to watch the video
One of the primary reasons that current wind turbines have to be so large is that most of the energy is lost as the air flows off the end of the blades. That size increases the cost and reduces the density of turbines that can be installed. FloDesign has developed a wind turbine that incorporates ideas from jet engines, including a shroud to duct air over the turbine blades. Unlike previous ducted turbine designs, this one is claimed to be able to self align and still work effectively at up to 2
vaxomatic via flickr.com on a Creative Commons license
