Nadim Inaty

Green wheels on a simulator, which converts the kinetic energy produced by the human body into electricity. Several machines are connected to a central storage unit of energy, where electricity can be supplemented with road lighting and traffic lights. Designer Nadim Inaty imagines that the device can be placed in public places, and allow users to donate a portion of its running time in exchange for a place to start. If you are in any case, why not?

By James Holloway

Walney wind farm off the coast of Cumbria in the UK yesterday became the world’s largest offshore wind facility. One hundred and two turbines over 73 sq km (28 sq miles) provide a maximum output of 367.2 MW. It’s claimed the facility will provide enough power for about 320,000 homes – half as many again as the total number in Cumbria.

The project’s first phase, Walney 1, has been providing power since January 2011 from 51 137-meter-high (450-ft) turbines, each with a 107-m (350-ft) rotor diameter. The completed second phase, Walney 2, adds another 51 turbines of even greater size to the installation. These 150-m (492-ft) tall turbines have three 18-tonne (19.8-short ton) blades with a total diameter of 120 m (394 ft). Despite the differing dimensions, all turbines are Siemens-made 3.6 MW turbines. All told a single wind turbine weighs a hefty 550 tonnes (606 short tons). The Walney 2 installation was completed in an impressively tight six-month window.

By Britt Mauriss

Going solar is a beautiful thing. It not only saves money on your electrical bills for decades to come—it conserve the earth’s precious resources as well. But where to turn for current, insightful resources on solar panels, pricing, financing and incentive options in 2012? How to know how much energy your home consumes right now, and how much you can save down the road with solar-powered renewable energy?

I’ve gathered eight amazing resources to get you started on the path to solar independence. Here’s how to go solar in 2012.

By Miriam Widman

The tanks look like they could hold propane, gasoline or any other form of conventional energy.

What if generating solar energy at home required little more than mixing some grass clippings with inexpensive chemicals? That’s exactly what MIT researcher Andreas Mershinhas found to be the case. The scientist says creating a solar cell could be as easy as mixing any green organic material (grass clippings, agricultural waste) with a bag of custom chemicals and painting the mixture on a roof. Once the efficiency of Mershin’s system is improved, this type of solar technology could make cheap energy available in rural places and developing countries where people don’t have access to affordable energy. Read on to see a video of Mershin’s findings

Last year, Google invested more than $915 million in clean energy projects — solar, wind and transmission.

That’s a lot of money, even for Google, which had $38 billion in revenues in 2011. The investments don’t appear to be core to the company’s mission of organizing information, and they have attracted criticism, as well as some careless reporting, implying that the Internet giant is exiting the alternative energy business.

India’s remarkable growth in solar power, which TreeHugger has been following for some time, has gained the nation another superlative: According to new analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, India led the world in 2011 for green power growth.

In 2011 India invested $10.3 billion in renewable energy, creating 52% growth in the sector. Solar power growth was particularly impressive, with investment increasing 700% over 2010 levels last year. Even then, the $4.2 billion invested in solar power in 2011 slightly trailed investment in wind power, which reached $4.6 billion.

Designer Omer Sagiv’s futuristic Solar Powered Vehicle (SPV) is an ideal vehicle for long rides in deserts or other open lands. The SPV is a typical solar vehicle design. The aluminum structure mounts plenty of flexible thin film modules, which can generate much energy for long rides. In form, the SPV almost resembles Nuon solar car, developed by Delft University.

K-TOR has added a new portable charging device to its lineup. The new Power Box puts your legs to work toward converting kinetic energy to electricity. Use it enough and you might just get your weekly workout. It is quite simply a pedal-powered generator equipped with a dual-pronged outlet so that you can plug in an AC adapter and charge your device directly from your leg power. The box works for devices rated 20W and below, including low-power netbooks, tablets, smartphones, video devices and portable game systems.

Every year the EPA releases its list of top green power purchasers in the business world. We’ve dutifully reported on them for a while now on that annual schedule, but as it so happens these stats are updated on a quarterly basis. Relaying that info that frequently probably isn’t necessary, but the latest quarterly stats, just announced, do have some changes that are particularly notable.

The UK’s only Green MP, Caroline Lucas, takes to the pages of The Guardian to launch a broadside against the UK Government’s investment policy in relation to solar energy.

The UK Government this week lost an appeal in the High Court against a lower court’s ruling that its retrospective attempt to change the solar feed-in tariff rates imposed by the previous Labour Government was “legally flawed”. The Cameron Government had tried to reduce the rates before the agreed consultation period had expired.

The court’s decision is considered to be a victory for the UK solar industry however the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) is threatening to take the case to the Supreme Court. The future of solar investment therefore remains in an unhealthy limbo.

Intriguingly the Hon. Ms Lucas touches on a theme returned to often in these pages: certainty.

Last October, the SolarWorld GT solar-powered car set out from Darwin, Australia on a drive around the world. It has since driven 3,001 kilometers (1,865 miles) across Australia, logged 1,947 km (1,210 miles) crossing New Zealand and been shipped across the Pacific Ocean. This Friday, it will embark on the U.S. leg of its journey, as it sets out across America from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Smartphones of today

The world of cellphones is expanding with new models being launched almost every day. Back in 1973, when the first cellphone was made; it was a bulky object with not many functions other than that of making and receiving calls. Now, cellphones have become like mini computers with multipurpose cameras, capable of storing substantial amounts of data, recording videos and music, linking to the internet, playing games and a whole host of other features. These phones fall under the category of smartphones owing to their intelligent capabilities. So essential have they become to consumers that the third quarter of the year 2011 saw 115 million units of these phones being sold worldwide.

In recent years, run-of-the-river hydropower projects have emerged as a viable, low-impact alternative to existing large-scale projects. Run-of-the-river facilities use conventional hydropower technology to produce electricity by diverting river flow through turbines that spin generators – before returning water back to the river downstream.