Designer Harc Lee has created a “naked” Coca Cola can that forfeits Coke’s typical bold red and white stripes in favor of au naturale silver. The aluminum can is created without using any paints or dyes, and stands to greatly reduce pollution and energy use associated with producing and recycling soda cans.

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Post tags: Coca Cola, Coca-Cola Classic, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke, Gizmodo, Harc Lee, naked can, paint-free soda can

We’ve seen some pretty energy efficient homes here at Inhabitat, but houses that actually give back to the grid seemed to be a thing of the future — until now. Swedish designers are currently constructing Villa Akarp, a residence that aims to combine energy conservation, energy recovery and energy generation technologies. If all goes as planned, the home will actually produce more energy than it uses and provide the excess to the grid.

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Post tags: E.ON, Green Building, Karin Adalberth, Lund Institute of Technology, Malmo, positive net energy home, sustainable design, Villa Akarp

Imagine a building designed with the latest green technologies that also showcases innovative technologies of the future. Kind of blows your mind, right? Well that’s exactly what Spain’s green roofed and solar powered BTEK Technology Interpretation Center accomplishes. Designed by architecture firm ACXT, the new building is part of Spain’s Vizcaya Technology Park, where it will serve as an interpretation center that introduces student visitors to all kinds of forward-looking technologies.

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Post tags: ACXT, BTEK, energy efficient buildings, Gonzalo Carro, Javier Perez Uribarri, Technology Interpretation Center, Vizcaya Technology Park

We’ll admit it: We’ve never totally understood Nascar’s appeal. I mean, come on, it’s just a bunch of cars going round and round a track like a zillion times! But the World Solar Challenge? Now that is one car race we can really get behind. The event, which started way back in 1987, features solar-powered vehicles created by some of the world’s top engineering colleges. Using the power of the sun instead of polluting fossil fuels, the cars race across thousands of miles in order to advance solar and electric vehicle technology — and to achieve the satisfaction of winning, of course.

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Post tags: chevy volt, delft university, Global Green Challenge, Nascar, solar vehicles, Tokai Challenger, tokai university, university of michigan, world solar challenge

If you’re like the rest of us, you’ve got a pile of chargers left over from retired cell phones. You can’t use them with your new phone, but finding an innovative way of recycling the tangled up mass of wires can be difficult — quite the ecophile’s conundrum. Luckily, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) aims to revolutionize the cell phone industry. The UN group recently unveiled its Universal Charging Solution, a charger that can be used in all future cell phone makes and models — as long as cell phone companies comply.

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Post tags: eco-friendly cell phone, GSMA, International Telecommunication Union, universal cell phone charger, Universal Charging Solution

Scientific American recently reported that Sweden uses a pretty strange source for some of its heating fuel: rabbits. Stockholm has an overabundance of the cotton-tailed critters, and the hungry bunnies are decimating city parks. To cut back on bunny populations and create a greener source of heating fuel for Swedes, city employees round up the rabbits, shoot them, freeze them and then ship them to a heating plant where they’re incinerated. And yes, the thought of it makes our soul hurt, too.

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Post tags: biofuel from rabbits, biofuels from animal byproducts, bunnies in Stockholm, ConocoPhillips, Der Spiegel, heating fuel from bunnies, Konovex, Tyson

Harvard scientists believe in the power of the good earth — literally. A team at the Boston-based college have created microbial fuel cell (MFC) batteries that derive energy from naturally occurring bacteria in soil. If the product takes off, the eco-friendly batteries could provide power for some of the 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to electricity.

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Post tags: bacteria-powered batteries, Breakthrough Awards, green tech in Africa, green tech in developing nations, lebônê, microbial fuel cells, popular mechanics

As the United States government continues to drag its heels on passing climate change legislation, it’s encouraging to see folks in Europe making moves in the right direction. Last week, the French government announced it would dedicate $2.2 billion to creating a network of battery-charging stations for electric vehicles. The plan came as part of a much larger initiative that aims to move France towards a cleaner transportation system involving electric vehicles.

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Post tags: battery manufacturers in France, cleantech, electric vehicles, electric vehicles in France, France plans battery-charging stations, PSA Peugeot-Citroen, Renault

Creating the perfect solar cell (i.e. a cell that’s both efficient and cheaply produced) is certainly a work in progress. Researchers across the world have attempted to create cells from silicon, plastic and even human hair! Now, researchers at Cornell University came up with another concept: crafting solar cells from carbon nanotubes. Though still in the very early stages of development, if perfected, carbon nanotube-based cells could provide a more efficient method of converting light to electricity.

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Post tags: carbon nanotubes, cheap and efficient solar cells, cornell university, green design, Paul McEuen, plastic solar cells, renewable energy, sustainable design

Fast food lovers may finally feel a little less guilty about getting greasy burgers. One New Jersey Burger King recently equipped its drive-thru with a speed bump that harvests electricity from cars that pass by. The speed bump is part of a pilot project from New Energy Technologies, and if all goes well, drivers could see energy-harvesting speed bumps at drive-thrus, toll plazas and even shopping centers.

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Post tags: electricity from speed bumps, energy from speed bumps, flywheels, motion-powered energy harvesters, new energy technologies, supercapacitors

The field of geo-engineering has launched all kinds of outlandish ideas for combating climate change, from dumping iron into the world’s oceans to shooting mirrors into space. A report published last Thursday from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) suggested that a forest of 100,000 artificial “trees” could be “planted” near depleted oil and gas reserves to trap carbon in a filter and bury it underground. The carbon suckers look more like fly swatters than actual arbors, but researchers say that once fully developed, the “trees” could remove thousands of times more carbon than a real tree.

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Post tags: artificial trees, geo-engineering, growing algae to capture carbon, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Institution of Mechanical Engineers geo-engineering report, iron-seeding, space mirrors

Homer’s beloved character, Odysseus, may have garnered international acclaim by traversing the globe in a ship, but we think the famed traveler’s latest namesake represents a much hotter way to roam. Aurora Flight Sciences has unveiled a solar-powered concept plane, the Odysseus. The autonomous surveillance craft boasts the ability to fly above the earth for up to five years straight, deriving power solely from its solar panels.

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Post tags: Aurora Flight Sciences, green design, Green Transportation, plane with solar panels, solar plane, solar powered plane, solar surveillance plane, sustainable design

Ever since the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang came out, fans across the country have awaited a flying vehicle that doesn’t produce CO2 emissions. While a flying car powered by magic really isn’t feasible (unfortunately), members of the Human-Powered Flight Club of the University College London’s Student Union (HPFC UCLU) are in the process of developing the next best thing: a hovercraft powered by pedaling. Dubbed the Steam Boat Willy, the craft recently completed a test run across the Thames River, and was even displayed at the UK Hovershow this July.

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Post tags: green vehicles, human-powered hovercraft, pedal-powered hovercraft, people-powered vehicles, Steam Boat Willy

Plastic sure has gotten a bad rap lately — it takes petroleum to produce it, most kinds are notoriously difficult to recycle and it can leach harmful chemicals like BPA. But that hasn’t stopped researchers from using plastic for good — many are trying to make inexpensive, organic solar cells from the substance. Now, a team of University of Washington researchers has overcome a major hurdle is making those plastic solar cells a reality by creating a way to study plastic cell structure at the nano-level. The team’s findings could significantly speed up the plastic cell development process.

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Post tags: green tech, plastic solar cells, Solar cells, Solar Power, university of washington

Recently Edinburgh-based company Aquamarine Power unveiled plans to install a new type of wave power system in place in the seabed off the Orkney Islands coast. Dubbed the Oyster, the system utilizes an on-shore base that is much easier to maintain than standard wave power designs, and the system is capable of operating at shallow depths, making it more consistent than systems that operate far out at sea. Each unit is capable of producing 300-600kw of electricity, so a commercial farm of ten units could provide clean energy for a town of 3,000 homes!

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Post tags: aquamarine power, Electricity, green design, oyster power plant, renewable energy, sustainable design, wave power