15Nov

Nazi Bunker to Become Europe’s Largest Solar Power Plant

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Nazi Bunker to Become Europe's Largest Solar Power Plant

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A former Nazi bunker located in the Wilhelmsburg district of Hamburg, Germany is about to get full-scale makeover. The building, which sorta looks like a giant LEGO, is set to become Europe’s largest renewable energy power plant.

When it’s all said and done, the power plant will supply 3,000 homes with heating and 1,000 of those with electricity, cutting 6,600 tons of CO2 per year.

Come 2012, this nine story structure (called a Flaktürme in German) will boast a 110 kWh rooftop photovoltaic system and a south-facing 0.6 GWh solar-thermal unit. And the building’s interior is being reserved for even further renewable expansion. It will include both a 10.5 GWh woodchip combined heat and power plant and a 3.7 GWh biomethane plant powered by a nearby industrial plant, for example. Waste heat will also be stored. That sounds like a lot but this building could house around 80 single family homes. It is that big.

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15Nov

How Much Can You Really Save with Solar?

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How Much Can You Really Save with Solar

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I just returned from the Solar Power International (SPI) show, an annual event for the solar industry, and there were a few things I kept hearing over and over.

One was: “It’s simple: People can live better with solar.” The second was: “The price of electricity will rise over the next decade.”

Over the last 40 years, Americans have been fortunate to have largely consistent electric rates. But as utility providers need to replace aging systems and fuel costs rise, experts predict that homeowners will soon need to pay more for electricity.

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14Nov

Solar Skyscrapers are Nearly Here

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Solar-Skyscraper

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Living skyscrapers? Not quite. While organic solar cells are one of several types of photovoltaics currently being explored, Scientific American reports that work is being done that could lead to windows acting as solar panels, by using a compound very similar to chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll, as we all remember from elementary school, is the green chemical in leaves that turns water and carbon dioxide to oxygen and glucose with the use of sunlight (through a horrible cycle learned once in bio class and then forgotten forever). A chemist by the name of Michael Graetzel of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology thinks he can use it to build a better solar cell.

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12Nov

Recycled Plastic Bottle House Built in Nigeria

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Recycled Plastic Bottle House Built in Nigeria

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Thousands of pieces of trash that would otherwise be clogging waterways and landfills in Nigeria have been turned into sturdy, and surprisingly attractive, construction materials in the village of Yelwa, where the country’s first plastic-bottle house is drawing curious visitors and plenty of press.

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12Nov

How to build your own solar powered cellphone

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10 concept cellphones designed to be powered by self generated electricity

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You have to make call, it’s urgent. And you see your cell phone battery has run out of charge. That’s very annoying. With no nearby cellphone charger you might feel like tearing hairs apart or kicking in your own rear badly. Don’t worry; many of us felt the same way several times in our life. But hold on. You can avoid the pity. With little effort you could build a solar powered mobile phone. The job is not much tricky and requires very few inexpensive resources. Once done you would only need to keep your mobile phone lying on open daylight and battery would start running again. With solar panel, installed on the back side of the phone, you won’t need to carry anything extra separately. So there is no chance of forgetting. Just carry the phone wherever you go. (more…)

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11Nov

PEE POWER: Bristolian Scientists Make Breakthrough In Using Urine as a Viable Power Source

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PEE POWER Bristolian Scientists Make Breakthrough In Using Urine as a Viable Power Source

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We have run many stories in the past about urine being used as a power source, but this week scientists appear to have made a breakthrough discovery. A research team from Bristol have published the world’s first research paper on work that tests the viability of urine as a potential fuel for Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) that directly produce electricity.

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11Nov

Five futuristic rescue systems that are green too

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Five futuristic rescue systems that are green too

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Rescue systems include all essential tools, equipment, machinery and anything that helps emergency personnel such as police, fire fighters, coast guards, military, etc. in emergency situations. These tools, that are included in the rescue system, are used as a part of safety measures in risky, emergency situations or for rescuing people who are in danger. No wonder that the best equipment of the latest technology are used for this purpose. But now that an effort to go-green is being made in every area and every invention, even rescue systems are being modeled in the same lines for future use. Here is a list of five such futuristic rescue systems that would help the environment gain its balance again:

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3Nov

Poop to Plastic?

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Poop to Plastic

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When making a list of the most promising new sustainability innovations, sewage probably wouldn’t be the first topic that springs to mind. Let’s face it – beyond being the butt of jokes, what other good can come out of human waste? Well, one company thinks they’ve figured out how to use sewage to reduce humanity’s environmental impact and oil dependence.

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3Nov

Virtually noise-free Eco Whisper Turbine unveiled

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Brisbane’s Renewable Energy Solutions Australia (RESA) recently unveiled the first working installation of what is claimed to be the world’s quietest wind turbine. The Eco Whisper Turbine is capable of producing 20kW of electricity despite being about half the height and having half the blade diameter of more familiar three-bladed solutions, and is able to automatically adjust the position of the blades to maximize wind capture.

Much of the noise produced by small wind turbines occurs when air spills off the tip of the blades but thanks to a unique cowl/ring design, the Eco Whisper Turbine is said to benefit from near-silent operation. RESA says that its design can produce more than 30 percent more energy than other turbine solutions over a wide range of wind conditions – that translates to up to 45,000 kWh per year in optimum conditions.

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2Nov

Five green inventions that help save money and energy

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human_waste_energy_u2ynv

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“Go Green” is the buzz these days with many companies and innovative individuals busy inventing products and machines that are eco friendly and affordable as well. The over exploitation of renewable sources of energy has brought us to a point where these sources of energy are now in scarcity and this has prompted us to invent green products which can save both energy and money. Here is the list of five green inventions that help save money and energy:

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