At the Plug-In 2010 conference this week in San Jose, California, Evatran debuted the Plugless Power, a hands-free, wireless electric-vehicle charging station. Rather than remembering to plug in the car at the end of the day, drivers simply have to park next to the station, which charges the vehicle's battery using electromagnetic induction.
15 years, 10 monthsApple has just released a new Battery Charger, which comes replete with 6 AA nickel-metal hybrid (NiMH) rechargeable batteries.The charger cuts off the power once the batteries are fully charged, reducing its "vampire draw" from the usual 315 milliwatts to a mere 30.
15 years, 10 monthsScientists at Colorado State University in Fort Collins have created a new map of the world's forests: one that organized not by types of trees, but by their height. The map (shown above) was created using satellite data; the tallest trees are blue, and the shortest are red. Gray patches show where trees cover less than 70% of the land's surface.
15 years, 10 monthsMukesh Doble and Trishul Artham, of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, grew cultures of three different kinds of fungi on polycarbonate plastic (including the industrial strength white-rot fungus, which has been shown before to effectively biodegrade industrial pollutants). Duble and Artham found that the fungi grew best on plastic pretreated with ultraviolet light and heat. On the pretreated plastics, the fungi achieved substantial decomposition of the plastic, with no release of BPA. On the untreated plastic, there was almost no decomposition at all over a twelve-month span.
15 years, 10 monthsMicrosoft Hohm, a free online service, helps users track their energy use based on an online profile; Blue Line's PowerCost Monitor measures energy use within a household. With their Hohm profile linked to the PowerCost Monitor, users can see graphs of their energy use based on daily routines, conservation efforts, and seasonal changes.
15 years, 10 monthsThe website "How Much Energy Does Your Site Use?" provides both a total count and an item-by-item analysis of how much energy each image uses for each page load.
15 years, 10 monthsUV light can show up oil that's difficult to see, whether because it's mixed with mud, or a relatively light stain on sand. Under UV light, clean sand appears purple or black. Some minerals, such as calcium carbonate (i.e., seashells), glow blue. Oil, as in the photo above, glows a fluorescent yellow-orange.
15 years, 10 monthsThe refrigerant currently in use, R-134a, lasts on average more than 13 years, resulting in a global warming potential (GWP) of over 1,400. The soon-to-be-implemented HFO-1234yf, in contrast, lives only 11 days, resulting in a GWP of 4--an improvement of 99.7%.
15 years, 10 monthsLast week, I had the chance to interview de Rothschild as he entered the Tasman Sea, beginning the final leg of his voyage down Australia's eastern coast to Sydney. The 60-foot Plastiki had just encountered its first really rough weather, including 70-mile-per-hour winds and 30-foot waves (naturally, the crew posted a video of the experience here). Once things had quieted down, de Rothschild spoke about technology and connectedness on board the Plastiki, the history of plastics and how they ended up in the oceans, and the Plastiki's emphasis on sustainability.
15 years, 10 monthsDavid de Rothschild and crew just completed an 8,000-mile, 130-day trans-Pacific voyage from San Francisco to Sydney in a ship whose hull was created from 12,500 plastic bottles. PCMag talked to him about his journey.
15 years, 10 monthsThis smart coffee mug--the "Smug"--features an RFID chip that stores a customer's order history and account information. With it, frequent coffee drinkers could breeze through an automated system--no wallets, and, if you have a favorite, particularly complicated order, it could also save time when you order.
15 years, 10 monthsSolarbuzz is predicting a tenfold U.S. solar market growth by 2014, from a demand of about half a gigawatt in 2009 to 4.5-5.5 GW.
15 years, 10 monthsMobile Deluxe is offering a "Green Edition" of Sudoku. Players can donate their points toward planting real trees, through the Trees for the Future nonprofit. Granted, the game itself costs $2.99, and players can donate three trees total, so it still comes about to about $1 per tree. The game is compatible with mobile phones, Blackberry and the iPhone; it is available here or at the iTunes store.
15 years, 10 monthsGoogle just announced on their blog that they have entered into a 20-year green Power Purchase Agreement with a windfarm in Iowa (pictured). The deal includes 114 megawatts of wind power from the NextEra Energy Resources facility in Story County, Iowa, at a predetermined rate. The power is enough to supply several energy centers for Google.
15 years, 10 monthsGoogle has announced that the company has entered into a 20-year green Power Purchase Agreement with a windfarm in Iowa.
15 years, 10 monthsRecently, MAPLight mapped out the BP oil disaster in terms of the bills introduced banning or supported drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, compared to how much money these politicians are getting from the oil industry. The result is an elegant line graph that, unfortunately, will surprise no one.
15 years, 10 monthsIt's still more than a month away, but Power IT Down Day is coming up on August 27. According to the press release, "On Power IT Down Day, individuals in government and military, as well as the industry that serves them both, will pledge to turn off their computers and peripherals at the end of the day."
15 years, 10 monthsResearchers at the University of Maryland are working on a new metal alloy for refrigeration and air conditioning systems. The shape memory alloy is "thermally elastic" and can act as a solid coolant to replace the fluid coolants in refrigeration and AC systems. It's also up to 175% more efficient than the coolants currently in use, and so saves on greenhouse gas emissions, environmentally harmful liquid coolants, and energy bills.
15 years, 10 monthsEnergy Star has awarded its first rating to a data center, after implementing new data center requirements on June 7. The first award went to NetApp's Research Triangle Park, located in North Carolina, which won 99 out of 100 points on Energy Star's scale--well above the 75 points necessary for a rating.
15 years, 10 monthsCalifornia's Cash for Appliances fund still has $20 million left. This may be due to their stringent requirements for energy efficiency, and the limited numbers of appliances to which the rebate applies. Rather than changing the energy efficiency standards, California is expanding the scope of the rebates.
15 years, 10 months