Windlens Three Times More Efficient Wind Turbine Developed in Japan

After the Fukushima disaster wiped out the future of nuclear energy, wind energy has taken on a new swing: a wind turbine that could generate twice or even three times the energy that regular turbines put out so far.

Ever since March last year, a team at the Kyushu University have been testing their “Windlens” – turbine units with a capacity of 70 to 100 kW (blade diameter of 12.8) – in an attempt to bring down wind power costs so it can rival coal and nuclear energy.

The idea behind them is to introduce to the Japanese and eventually the global market a brand new wind turbine concept, since previous models left a lot of users and policy makers disappointed: the turbines were underdeveloped, which led to a short, inefficient and noisy life.

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A team of scientists from Seattle-based AltaRock Energy, Inc. and Davenport Newberry Holdings LLC has announced plans to harness one of Mother Nature’s most powerful energy sources by pumping 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon. The team hopes that the water will return to the surface boiling hot, at which point it can be used to generate clean and cheap energy – without the explosive side effects and liquid magma associated with active volcanoes.

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Air-powered bike for the future

Design student Dean Benstead has produced a bike that runs on nothing but compressed air.

He says that with further development there is a place in the future for compressed air as an economical and environmentally-friendly option.

“I wanted to explore the viability of compressed air as an alternative fuel, and my childhood experiences riding dirt bikes led me to design the motocross bike based around the Engineair engine,” says the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Industrial student.

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As many of you know, a broken and then repaired thing won’t ever be as it was before, no matter how much we try. This truth applies as well to electronic circuits, that once broken are not very easy to fix. Despite these, a team of engineers at the University of Illinois managed to create self-healing circuits for electronics and batteries.

How many of you have not tried to open a TV or a laptop and when you had to put it back together it was already broken? I guess you know what I’m talking about, and I also guess you know this kind of question often asked by your not very happy parents: “You wanted to see why it worked, huh?”.

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What's Next Eco friendly hybrid energy generating systems

As we move towards a time of increasingly depleted energy resources, we find ourselves faced with the question of how to sustain ourselves and the planet. As it is not feasible to continue using conventional sources like coal and natural gas, we’re leaning more towards renewable sources like solar, tidal, and wind energy. They can produce as much, if not more, power than conventional sources, provided they are harnessed properly using the right technology.

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China Launches the World’s Largest Battery – a $500 Million Behemoth the Size of a Building

China just took a massive step forward for renewable energy as it flipped the switch on the world’s largest battery, which will help integrate a solar project and a wind farm into a smart grid. Capable of storing 36 megawatt hours of power and taking up the area of a football field, the giant battery bank was built as a joint venture between solar and electric car company BYD and the State Grid Corporation of China to improve a large wind and solar electric installation’s efficiency by 5-10%. It looks like we have a race to see who will have the largest battery in world as utilities struggle to make solar and wind technologies usable for longer periods of time.

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Who needs a road Chinese designer creates eco-friendly

A Chinese inventor has come up with an incredible new design for a car that will work on tarmac, sand, ice… and even water.

The all-terrain vehicle, which has a top speed of 62mph and works like a hovercraft, can move seamlessly between different surfaces.

Designer Yuhan Zhang, 21, created the spectacular car – called the Volkswagen Aqua – for a competition sponsored by the German car manufacturer.

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Five eco friendly wearable chargers for those mostly on the move

What could be more annoying than your gadgets running out of juice while you are on the road? As the technology has brought forward a plethora of gadgets, our lifestyle has changed drastically and we completely rely on these devices for almost everything. These devices require a lot of energy in the form of electricity to keep them working. In order to make sure that you beloved gadgets never run out of battery on the go, wearable chargers seem to be a great option. Since, the chances are rare that you will find an electrical socket at every place you go, you might love to consider the idea of having an eco-friendly wearable charger for your electronics. Hit the jump to see some of the most amazing and stylish green wearable chargers, from solar panel vests to sound absorbing T-shirts, which will provide juice for your gadgetry the very moment you need it the most.

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Tiny crystals called quantum dots emit intense, sharply defined colors. Now researchers have made LED displays that use quantum dots. Five years ago, QD Vision demonstrated its first, rudimentary one-color displays, using the nanoscale crystals. This year it demonstrated a full-color display capable of showing video. The company says it could be another five years before the technology appears in commercial displays. Samsung might get there first—it’s also developing quantum-dot displays, and demonstrated a full-color one in February.

Quantum-dot displays could use far less energy than LCDs. Another ingenious way to reduce energy use is make displays that emit no light at all, but instead reflect ambient light, an approach being taken by Qualcomm with its full-color Mirasol displays, which use only a tenth of the energy of an LCD. The technology has started to appear in tablet computers in South Korea.

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Supply Risks for 16 Materials Key to Clean Energy Technologies

The transition to an economy powered by clean, renewable energy sources is under way. Successfully building on recent success and ultimately achieving that goal critically depends on the ready availability of a range of raw materials with potential supply risks, however. In a comprehensive annual report, the Dept. of Energy (DOE) “identifies strategies of addressing these risks and provides background that may be helpful for stakeholders working in this area.”

Drafted by the DOE Office of Policy and International Affairs, the “2011 Critical Materials Strategy” report examines the role of rare earth metals and other materials in the clean energy economy,” raw materials critical to the manufacturing of a wide range of clean technologies, including wind turbines, electric vehicles (EVs), thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and energy-efficient lighting.

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