Tiago Barros Designs a Passing Cloud that Lets You Float Through the Sky

Who hasn’t dreamt of floating on a cloud? Whether we are looking up at the sky or gazing out of an airplane window, those giant beds of fluff are irresistible. New York designer Tiago Barros is on the same wavelength and created an incredible, cloud-like balloon that takes travelers for a floating ride around the country. While the project, called Passing Cloud, may be making all our dreams come true, it is also a treat for the environment as it may turn out to be one of the greenest forms of transportation yet.

(more…)

Share

A news release was recently issued on California’s 10 leading residential solar cities. The information was released by solar company SunRun, citing data compiled from its PV Solar Report.

The list of top solar cities list is based on the California Solar Initiative’s (CSI) database of residential rebate reservations through August 31, 2011.

(more…)

Share

5 best ways to green your house that you didn't try till now

In US, more than 90 percent of building roofs are dark colored. During peak summer, dark color roofs absorb more heat and buildings require more energy to cool off. Remedy to this problem is coloring roof with lighter shades to promote better heat reflection and emission that keep the building cooler. Using CFLs instead of conventional filament based light bulbs saves around 75 percent of electricity consumptions. Similarly, insulating water heater and hot water pipes reduce heat wastage and promote efficient heat utilization. These techniques are very common and generally used by many to make their homes environment-friendly. But green homes are becoming major area of interest in modern building construction business and everyday new products and technologies are evolving either to recapture lost energy or to lower the energy usage at first place.

(more…)

Share

Solar Powered Stadium in Bordeaux

On Monday, the city of Bordeaux announced Swiss architecture firm, Herzog & de Meuron, as the winners of the design competition for the new stadium in Bordeaux. The airy, prismatic stadium is set to be completed in time for de l’Euro 2016 de football and will serve as home field for Girondins de Bordeaux. Accessed via public transportation, the 43,500 seat stadium will hold various events like football (soccer), rugby and concerts and will help raise the level of sporting in the area. As part of the development, (if we understand our French correctly) a large photovoltaic plant will pump out renewable energy for the area and the stadium.

(more…)

Share

Massive solar system installed University of Queensland

Australia’s largest flat-panel photovoltaic solar power system has been installed at The University of Queensland in Brisbane. The system generates 1.22 megawatts of power from the sun, harvested from 5004 panels on the rooftops of four of UQ’s biggest buildings.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield said the UQ Solar Array would provide between five and six per cent of peak electricity demand at the St Lucia campus.

(more…)

Share

LOW3 Self-sustaining solar house becomes 'Living Lab' at ETSAV's campus

Over the years, Solar Decathlon (a competition organized by the U.S. Department of Energy) has showcased a myriad of energy efficient conceptions that has influenced and rather inspired our senses. And last year it was no different as the LOW3, a self sustaining solar powered house designed by students of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), took the top honors in the category of Architecture.

(more…)

Share

Incredible Solar-Powered Shape-Shifting Bridge Also Purifies the Air

It’s no wonder that the judges of the Building to Building Pedestrian Bridge International Challenge awarded this mind-blowing, shape-shifting helix bridge by Sanzpont first place. Featuring a tensile fabric that allows the bridge to move as visitors walk across it, it also captures energy from the sun. If that’s not enough goodness for our strictest technophiles, check this out: the bridge also lights up at night with linear LED technology, and purifies the air in its immediate environment. We’ve got more images of this incredible design so click through our gallery to see them all.

(more…)

Share

Daedal Generic Warehouse project to harness renewable wind energy

The Daedal’s Generic Warehouse project was to plan for a ‘branded’ warehouse for a logistics-based organization. The warehouse was designed to speak for its company and its philosophy and be a sustainable building at the same time. It is designed in a way that is simple yet dynamic – constructed by putting together bays of different sizes to accommodate specific requirements based on volume.

(more…)

Share

Solar-Powered Recycled Pavilions Unveiled for the 2012 London Olympics

A recent design competition for the London Olympic Games Information Pavilion generated a remarkable array of projects that make use of recycled materials and solar power. A group of Portuguese architects won the international ideas competition with an Olympic rings-shaped pavilion that showcases recycled steel. Sustainability plays an important roll in the info pavilion – solar panels installed on the top generate power for use in the pavilion. The 2nd and 3rd place winners of the competition hosted by [AC-CA] make use or recycled materials and renewable energy as well – hit the jump to check them out!

(more…)

Share