Yet another reason New Yorkers might be jealous: the city of San Francisco has just announced 19.2 million dollars in new funding for energy efficiency programs. The bulk of the funds will go to EnergyWatch, a program that provides free energy efficiency assessments and low-cost retrofits for businesses and multi-family residences in the city.
North America’s oldest and largest taxicab fleet recently announced that it is going green! Yellow Cab’s parent company, Yellow Group, runs about 3,000 taxis in the Chicago area, and they just unveiled plans to add 100 new compressed natural gas (CNG) taxis to the fleet, with plans to add more in the future.
At Inhabitat we often wonder, with so much great green technology out there, why are we so far behind other countries in renewable energy? Gearing up to watch Obama’s State of the Union Address last night I was hoping for a bit of an explanation. Last night, as it is becoming ever apparent in US politics, the divide between the parties was distinct and almost unchanged throughout and Obama agreed that this partisanship might very well be what is holding our country back.
This just in - world-renowned super designer Philippe Starck has just revealed two highly-anticipated wind turbine designs for home use! Dubbed “Revolutionair,” the sleek turbines were officially debuted after a lengthy 2 years of research and work. We brought you news of the quadrangular turbine when it was first revealed, and we were pleasantly surprised to see a brand new, never before seen helix-shaped version of the Revolutionair unveiled by Starck today.
What if we could combine turbines with tourism – turbism? Tourbines? That’s what one design firm, On Office, wants to do on Norway’s coast. Their brainchild, called Turbine City, houses a posh hotel, swanky spa and culturally-stimulating museum right inside the base of a towering wind turbine!
Imagine 3,000 communities and 10,000 volunteers across the country in a one-day celebration of solar power. That’s why we are reminding you that the American Solar Energy Society kicks off their 14th Annual National Solar Tour TODAY in collaboration with more than 240 local groups as part of National Energy Awareness Month. Participants can take a peek at …
We’ve been reading here and there that research is beginning to show that wind speeds are slowing down due to climate change — making wind-powered energy less promising. Some would simply call this incredibly ironic, but we consider this a call-to-action to change the way we think and behave in an on-going effort to preserve the environment we live in. Wind is a precious …
By far one of the most wasted spaces of every residence is the roof – of course it is there to protect us from the elements, but surely it can be put to better use. Aiming to innovate upon conventional roof cladding, researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently unveiled a new breed of flexible and moisture resistant solar panels that are designed to be rolled out en masse as energy-generating roof tiles!
Underwater turbines that harvest tidal currents have already become an established technology in the world of clean energy. So in order to push the frontier further, a group of engineers at Oxford have been tinkering away on a design that promises to be even more powerful and efficient. The group recently introduced an innovative Transverse Horizontal Axis Water Turbine that will not only collect more energy but require 60% lower manufacturing costs and 40% lower maintenance costs.
Light Wind, the fabulous new design innovation from Dutch design house Demakersvan, combines lighting technology with clever Dutch design and the clean energy technology of Dutch windmills. Made of stainless steel, wood, and sail fabric, the 7.9 ft. tall freestanding structure converts wind power into light with a sizable 6.5 ft propeller. Unfortunately, cost and installation details are not available on their site, so interested buyers should contact the designers directly, here >
Conventional wind turbine technology has been a bit out of reach for most residential consumers living in urban areas—until now. Researchers at Hong Kong University and Lucien Gambarota of Motorwave Ltd. have developed Motorwind, a micro-wind turbine technology small enough for private use in both rural and urban environments. Unlike large-scale wind turbines, Motorwave’s micro-wind turbines are light, compact (25 cm rotor diameter), and can generate power with wind speeds as low as 2 meters/second.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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