Instead of acting as one of the most bland parts of city landscapes, what if manholes served a purpose? That’s what designers Cheolyeon Jo and Youngsun Lee propose with their “Eco Sign“, an electronic manhole cover that gives directions to the closest train or bus stop.

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Post tags: bus, Electricity, green design, hydroelectric, kinetic energy, manhole, rainwater, renewable energy, sustainable design, train

The Birds and the Bees have inspired one startup to send forth a hovering turbine. Green Wavelength, “committed to finding ways of applying nature’s solutions to our man-made energy problems,” presented its xBee prototype to an entrepreneurial buzz at The Perfect Pitch 2009. This biomimetic windmill sports 19-ft. wings of aluminum and carbon fiber that rotate to and fro — à la bumblebees, hummingbirds and dragonflies — to produce 1-10 kW of wind power suitable for homes and small businesses.

+ Green Wavelength

Via TreeHugger

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Post tags: "wind power", bumblebee turbine, green design, green wavelength, renewable energy, sustainable design

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

Any one point on a busy street can receive up to 50,000 steps a day, so imagine if you could take all that foot traffic and turn it into something useful – like energy! A new product designed by Laurence Kemball-Cook, the director of Pavegen Systems Ltd., can do just that. With a minuscule flex of 5mm, the energy generating pavement is able to absorb the kinetic energy produced by every footstep, creating 2.1 watts of electricity per hour.

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Post tags: crowdsourced energy, energy generating pavement, green design, kinetic energy, pavegen, renewable energy, sustainable design, Urban design

The problem with most built-in solar gadget chargers is that it just doesn’t make sense to stick your pricey phone in the sun for the whole day while you wait for it to charge. But the Regen ReNu modular solar panel takes care of that issue–the combination solar panel and battery pack attaches to the back of an iPod/iPhone dock or USB device for easy access to solar power. When you want to charge the panel, just remove it and place it near sunlight!

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Post tags: modular, regen, renu, solar panel, Solar Power

Rooftop solar panels are unlikely to elicit complaints from neighbors–they’re silent and relatively unobtrusive. But loud rooftop wind turbines? That’s where the virtually NIMBY-proof Ridgeblade turbine comes in. The turbine, designed by a former Rolls Royce turbine engineer at UK-based The Power Collective, boasts a sleek profile that is both powerful and visually pleasing.

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Post tags: "wind power", "wind turbine", green design, power collective, renewable energy, ridgeblade, sustainable design, wind energy

Synch your workout with a little river detox, then rehydrate with a cup of the fresh water you just filtered. This people-powered water purification island, designed by Jakub Szczesny as part of the Synchronicity architecture and art festival in Warsaw, Poland, hooks up basic exercise machines to kinetically pump polluted water through four filters into overhead tanks that spill into a large drinking fountain at the end of the cycle. This floating platform on the Vistula River aims to empower citizens toward environmental clean-up, and apparently would work on any body of water with enough local bodies willing to pedal for their potables.

+ Centrala design collective

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Post tags: centrala design collective, green design, kinetic energy, pedal powered water purification, sustainable design, synchronicity festival, water purification

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

The serene back-and-forth movement of a rocking chair is nothing if not relaxing. It can also be useful and productive, according to Rochus Jacob. The designer’s Murakami Chair, a winner in designboom’s Green Life competition, uses the kinetic energy produced by rocking to power an attached OLED lamp.

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Post tags: Design Competition, eco-friendly furniture, Furniture, green lifestyle, home design, kinetic energy, Lighting, OLED, rochus jacob, rocking chair

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.

Read the rest of Harvard Scientists Create Dirt Powered Bacteria Batteries

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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

At first glance, Graft Lab’s dazzling complex in Dubai may appear to have a cluster of sparkling geometric pools at its base. But upon further inspection, the web-like structures are actually something even more desirable than a place to take a dip in the hot desert – a means of collecting the scorching rays of the sun and transforming them into energy. Dubbed the Vertical Village, this multi-use building and accompanying massive array of solar collectors was designed to work smarter, not harder, which is expected to earn it a LEED Gold certification when it is completed.

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Post tags: "solar energy", desert, dubai, graft lab, Green Building, green construction, photovoltaic, Solar Power, vertical village

Fall is here, and If you aren’t part of the lucky few to still be basking in the sun (ah, Italia!), don’t fret – we have some great news that will surely brighten your day and warm your house. Recently Boulder-based company Cool Energy, Inc. unveiled SolarHeart, a specialized engine that can convert low temperature solar power and waste energy into enough electricity to provide 80% of a home’s heat, all of its hot water, and 60% of its electricity!

Read the rest of SolarHeart Generates Energy and Heat in Cold Climates

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Post tags: cool solar, Energy, green design, renewable energy, sustainable design

The concept of harvesting energy from river waves to power New York City just got more enticing. Earlier this year we brought you GRO Architects notable concept, which stood out among the entries for Metropolis Magazine’s 2009 Next Generation Design Competition. Brian Novello, one of the partners in the project, also has a beautiful design to expand these modular docking stations in energy-collecting floating houses, and it looks so cool that we had to spread the news.

Read the rest of Flood Harvesting Housing Brings Tidal Power to New York City

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Post tags: Architecture, brian novello, concept, flood harvesting, GRO architects, hydropower, new york city, Next Generation 2009, richard garber, river turbine

For most sustainability-minded architects, a net zero energy building is the holy grail. But Elithis Tower, located in Dijon, France, has surpassed the net zero energy ideal to become the first energy positive office building, meaning it creates more power than it uses. The building, which was designed by Arte Charpentier Architects, also produces six times fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional office structures.

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Post tags: Architecture, arte charpetier architects, elithis tower, energy positive, net zero, solar

While scientists work to increase the efficiency of photovoltaics, designers are striving to make them sleeker, more adaptive, and easier to install. Case in point: SRS Energy’s Solé Power Tile, a beautiful solar shingle that is designed to fit into standard Mission style roofs while generating electricity. We caught up with these ingenious modular solar panels at West Coast Green this year, where they stole the show alongside several other innovative solar designs.

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Post tags: Armageddon Energy, green design, renewable energy, Soalr Panels, solar tiles, SRS Energy, sustainable design, west coast green