Even though I haven’t bought AA batteries in quite some time now (USBCells still power my Wiimotes, the only things in the house that aren’t Li-ion powered it seems), this concept for a quick and easy re-charger for AA cells is nice looking. Like a torpedo’s nose, the Febot (Fembot?), a design by Ji-yun Kim, Soon-young Yang and Hwan-ju Jeon out of Korea catches a breeze when suction-mounted to a window, which it uses to top-off a single AA inside. [Yanko Design]
A startup company named ‘Catch the Wind’ has developed a product that could increase the efficiency of wind turbines by up to ten percent. Currently, wind turbines lose one percent of their operating efficiency for every degree that the blades are out of alignment with the oncoming wind. The ‘Vindicator’ fibre-optic laser system can sense air particle movement about 300 metres out from the turbine itself then relay that information to the turbine control system. There, blade angle adjustments are made to take advantage of the prevailing winds.
Australian hippies and eco-warriors can now enjoy using bittorrent as much as the rest of us. Internode have announced that they are now using 100 percent green power for their offices and data centres around the country, drastically reducing their impact on the environment.
The move to use only renewable energy sources like wind and solar has ensured that their status as a 100% carbon neutral company is maintained. And although there is a 20 percent increase in the cost of Internode’s electricity, they currently have no plans to pass that cost onto consumers.
So now Internode customers can happily know that their hours of reading Giz are not only saving the environment, but doing it for the same price, while making you smarter and more attractive to the opposite sex (well, that’s what we tell people, anyway).
The Army is following the Air Force’s green efforts to cut their energy expenditures and, presumably, don’t see their weapons budget cut. They will install solar panels and windmills, while investing in bio-fuels and energy conservation in bases all around the country. According to Keith Eastin, assistant Army secretary for Installations and Environmen, this will be good not only for the military, but for all of us:
We like Ericsson’s idea for the original Tower Tube–take something as ubiquitous and ugly as a cell tower and add a touch of nice design and a streamlined manufacturing process that saves money and energy. Now they’re taking the idea in another cool direction by adding a four-blade vertical wind turbine to the already-efficient design, allowing it to generate much of its own power. It’s a concept in trial stages currently but something that makes a whole lot of sense. [Ericsson via PC World]
On the list of ways to go, having your lungs explode is definitely on the gnarlier side. Too bad for bats in treehugging locales, though, because that’s what’s happening to them, due to a pretty serious error with their awesome echolcation systems crossing with the seemingly benign forces of Bernoulli’s principle put into motion by the turbines’ huge spinning blades. Ouch all around.
(Photo by Steve Morse) Not to be outdone by those crazy Danish bastards out on the isle of Samso, Science Daily reports an equally crazy group of Missourian bastards in Rock Port now generate all their electricity using wind turbines. Rock Port went completely wind-powered last week, making use of the 75 wind turbines spread out across three Missouri counties, and local experts are excited about the potential for wind power throughout the state. However, PopSci thinks it won’t be so easy to make this a widespread trend in the US.
In an effort to figure out the best areas to harvest wind energy, scientists from NASA’s Earth Science Division have used several years of QuikSCAT satellite data to produce some pretty awesome looking wind power density maps. According to them, if the areas with high wind power–an average wind of greater than 30 knots (45 miles an hour)—were tapped, they could potentially supply 10 to 15 percent of the world’s energy needs.
Glastonbury Festival goers won’t have to worry about not having enough juice in their mobile phones, thanks to U.K. mobile company Orange’s green mobile phone charging stations. The freestanding tentpods draw their electricity from a wind generator and solar panels. With a peak power of 1Kw, the pod can charge up to 100 mobile phones per hour and stores unused energy in a battery bank. The tent also contains a fully functional weather station and a nifty panel that keeps track of power generated and consumed throughout the festival.
Aerovironment has developed a range of modular wind turbines designed to clamp on to existing architecture, called ‘Architectural Wind’. The units, which can be easily teamed together, sit around the edge of a structure’s roof and use specially designed low-speed turbines to take advantage of the breeze that naturally travels up tall buildings’ walls.
