King Island is a small island off the Australian coast, near Tasmania. King Island isn’t connected to the mainland power grid, and apart from its own small wind farm it relied for a long time on diesel generators for its electricity. That changed in 2003 when the local utility company installed a mammoth rechargeable battery… [Continue Reading]
0 to 60 MPH in Under 1.5 Seconds, Electric KillaCycle Sets New World Speed Record
April 5, 2007 by 3 Comments
The KillaCycle, the world’s electric motorcycle, and the official world record holder in the ¼ mile drag, broke the world record again using its lithium-ion batteries. The official record for any electric vehicle worldwide in the ¼ mile is set now at an elapsed time of 8.16 seconds. Weighing just over 165 pounds, the A123Systems… [Continue Reading]
Bottle Crusher For Bars and Restaurants
April 4, 2007 by 11 Comments
An Australian company, BottleCycler, has developed a machine that crushes glass bottles, reducing the volume taken up by the bottles by 80%. Bottles are fed into the BottleCycler through an opening in the top of the device, which then quietly slices the glass into recyclable pieces. The glass falls into a garbage bin, which is… [Continue Reading]
Sweet: Jeans Made Out of Sugar Cane
April 4, 2007 by 9 Comments
A Japanese company is making jeans out of a blend of sugar cane and selvage denim. The cane used is Sweet Sorghum, otherwise known as Sweet Millet. It’s a type of grass grown all over the world for making a molasses-like syrup and animal feed. The Sugarcane jeans that feature this fiber have a faint… [Continue Reading]
LED Wind Turbine Toy
April 4, 2007 by 2 Comments
The world’s smallest wind turbine. That’s what The Blow Light claims to be. You blow on the rotor to light up the blue and green LEDs. It’s more fun and educational than a comparable battery power toy. It’s available from Nigel’s Eco Store for £9.99.
IKEA’s Affordable Houses: Now Under Construction
April 3, 2007 by 4 Comments
BoKlok (pronounced “book look”, Swedish for “smart living”) is Ikea’s biggest idea yet. Having seized the market for affordable home furnishings in the past decade, the Swedish retail giant is now planning to provide the homes themselves. They’ve already built some 3,500 BoKlok dwellings across Scandinavia, now they building homes in the UK. Each apartment,… [Continue Reading]
11 MW Solar Tower Complex Opens in Spain
April 2, 2007 by 5 Comments
Europe’s first concentrated tower open recently near the sunny southern Spanish city of Seville. The 11 megawatt plant took four years to build — it was created by a Spanish energy company, Solucar. The tower project is called “PS10″ and it uses 624 large movable mirrors called heliostats. Each of the mirrors has a surface… [Continue Reading]
Delaware May Become Home To The Largest Wind Park In The U.S.
March 31, 2007 by 1 Comment
Delaware may become home to the largest wind power plant in the United States. A wind energy developer, Bluewater Wind, hopes to build a 600-megawatt wind park in the waters just off Delaware’s coast. The wind park would power 130,000 homes for over 20 years, at price cheaper than coal or gas, according to Bluewater… [Continue Reading]
IKEA To Start Charging For Plastic Bags
March 30, 2007 by 2 Comments
IKEA will begin charging customer five cents for disposable plastic bags. IKEA hopes that this move will be the first step in ending their use altogether. The company said the decision was aimed at reducing the amount of plastic bags that are thrown away. IKEA is believed to be the first major retailer in the… [Continue Reading]
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