Inhabitat » Wind

Futuristic London Bridge Sprouts Solar Powered Vertical Farm

Recently Chetwood Architects unveiled a stunning proposal for a futuristic London Bridge that sprouts a towering vertical farm in the midst of the Thames river. The bridge’s solar-powered spires are crowned with wind turbines and house a self-sufficent organic farm and commercial center that takes advantage of renewable energy generation, efficient use of water, solar heating, and natural ventilation.

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‘Solar Ivy’ Photovoltaic Leaves Climb to New Heights

by Bridgette Meinhold, 07/02/09

Solar Ivy (or SMIT Grow) is a spectacular system of thin, fluttering solar panels that generate energy by sparkling in the sunlight. The wind and solar power generating photovoltaic leaves can be easily integrated on the side of a building to produce energy. The concept, designed by Brooklyn based SMIT (Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology), consists of a layer of thin-film material on top of polyethylene with a piezoelectric generator attached to each leaf. When the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, energy is being generated via Solar Ivy.

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INTERVIEW: Sustainability Advisor Lonny Grafman on The Waterpod

by Ariel Schwartz, 06/15/09

If you live in New York City, you may soon have the chance to check out the Waterpod, an incredible self-reliant eco-habitat, exhibition, and living space designed to showcase sustainable grassroots technology. The Waterpod just launched this Saturday, and it will now dock for public viewing at various locations in Manhattan’s five boroughs. We had the chance to conduct an exclusive interview with Lonny Grafman, the project’s sustainability advisor, about this floating model of self-sufficiency.

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Firewinder: The Wind Powered Outdoor Light

by Kate Andrews, 06/10/09

The Firewinder is an innovative outdoor light solution, powered entirely by the wind! Inspired and developed by young British inventor Tom Lawton, the Firewinder spins as the wind blows, turning into an eco-friendly night light. Lawton developed the light with a wish to highlight the invisible beauty and endless resource of alternative energies, and what a great job he did! Find out more about the Firewinder light here, and get your hands on one from the Guardian EcoStore for a mere £99.95.

+ Firewinder

+ Guardian EcoStore

Food City: Dubai’s Self-Sufficient Ecotopia

This past February, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce authorized the development of a “free zone” dubbed Food City. GCLA, a green landscape architect firm, proposed a master plan for the city sector to turn it into an incredible off-the-grid, self-sufficient metropolis. GCLA’s future-forward urban quarter incorporates an extensive list of sustainable urban planning ideas, including vertically stacked landscape surfaces, artificial roof landscapes, renewable energy systems, aquatic farms, and thermal conditioning.

Optiwind Accelerating Wind Turbine Taps New Energy Fields

Traditional three-blade turbines are great if you have lots of space to play with, but the Optiwind Compact Wind Accelerating Turbine is ideal for high-density, low-wind areas. The turbine’s series of small, five bladed fans funnel in wind and accelerate it, thereby cranking up wind speeds to generate more power.

Energy 101: Where Does Our Power Come From?

Today we’re excited to announce the launch of our new Energy 101 series, in which we’ll be exploring the future-forward technologies that stand to upgrade our grids, reduce our energy footprint, and slow the speed of global warming. Unless you have been living in a cave for the past few years, you’ve probably heard terms like “energy conservation”, “off-grid energy“, and “smart grid” tossed around. But before getting into the nitty-gritty of transitioning to renewable energy, we should stop and examine where exactly our power comes from now.

Groundbreaking Energy Ball Wind Turbine for Home Power

Swedish company Home Energy recently revealed an innovative wind turbine that spins in a spherical formation. Eschewing traditional rotors for a sleek orb structure, this beautiful rethinking of conventional wind turbine design utilizes the Venturi principle, which funnels wind within the turbine’s blades. The resulting spherical wind turbine features increased efficiency and lower noise levels – making it ideal for small scale energy needs such as personal home use. Best of all it’s called the Energy Ball: the fun name is an added bonus.

The Air-Powered MDI Car is Coming to the US!

India’s air-powered four wheel marvel, the MDI Air Car, will be coming to the United States in 2010! The eco-friendly air-powered vehicle will be manufactured by Zero Pollution Motors, who just licensed the technology from MDI. It’s another entry in the growing field of the subcompact class, and another challenger to the title of world’s most fuel efficient vehicle.

Transportation Tuesday: The UltraBattery Hybrid Storage Cell

While the potential of electric cars is obvious, one of the main concerns is battery life, both in its ability to hold a charge, and its shelf life before needing a replacement. But the new =UltraBattery, developed by Australia’s CSIRO, is a high-performance hybrid storage cell that runs for 100,000 miles without recharge or replacement. It combines a supercapacitor with a lead acid battery in one unit cell, providing higher power discharge and longer life.

Thousands of Wind Farms to Power England

Still think wind power isn’t mainstream? Think again. The United Kingdom’s Energy Secretary John Hutton unveiled a set of proposals to encourage the uptake of offshore wind turbines in England. The proposals call for the offshore wind industry to provide up to 33 gigawatts of energy by 2020, enough to power every home in Britain!

TRANSPORTATION TUESDAY: The Solar Sailor

One of the coolest sights in the Sydney Harbour (aside from the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the Pirate Ship) is the fully solar-powered ferry known as The Solar Sailor. This rather unique boat, designed by Robert Dane, uses both solar power and wind to reduce its emissions by half compared to standard ferries. What better way to travel?

CASTLE HOUSE SKYSCRAPER Makes its Own Electricity!

Green towers are popping up everywhere, boasting laundry lists of green features, and wind turbines seem to be a smart energy option for any tower over 20 stories. Castle House, a new residential tower project designed by Hamiltons of London and located at Elephant and Castle in South London, not only advertises itself as an eco-machine, but will generate its own power on site through a series of wind turbines and a heat and power plant.

FLYING WIND TURBINES

We’ve seen wind turbines fit for backyards, balconies, even oceans- and now pioneering wind-power engineers are looking to take wind turbines to new heights—15,000-30,000 feet in the air! Harvesting just 1% of the energy from jet-stream winds could produce enough power for everybody on the planet. Sky WindPower and Magenn Power are just two of the companies in the race to develop flying generators for high-altitude winds.

MDI COMPRESSED AIR CAR

Developed by Moteur Developpement International, the Compressed Air Engine might just be best thing to have happened to the motor engine in years. And now, one of the first commercial applications for the zero-emission engine, the Air Car, will be starting production relatively soon, thanks to India’s TATA Motors. There’s fuel, there’s renewable fuel, and then there’s uber-renewable fuel- and a car that runs off of air is sure to fall into the third category. Here’s hoping we see these on streets all over the world sooner than later!

DAVID FISHER’S Twirling, Wind-Power Tower

While David Fisher’s Twirling Tower is not the first rotating tower we’ve spotted (Dubai Tower Clocks the Sun), and not the first that generates power from the wind (Wind Shaped Kinetic Pavilion), it’s definitely the first to pack this type of power. Designer David Fisher claims his Twirling Tower can not only generate enough energy to power itself, but it will also generate enough energy to power ten additional buildings similarly sized. While details on the tower’s true ability to generate electricity have not been proven, we are definitely a fan of those willing to search out new ideas.

SKYSTREAM RESIDENTIAL WINDMILL

If you’re anything like me and find windmills both genius and oddly calming, the residential Skystream 3.7 windmill by Southwest Windpower may be the perfect addition to your backyard landscape. Available in 35-110 foot heights (determined by your site characteristics), this slim yet high-performance wind generator can produce 400 kilowatt hours of energy per month, up to 90% of an average household’s energy consumption. Skystream works efficiently with your local utility grid, too, switching back to grid power when wind speeds drop below 8 miles per hour.