Hasta La Gadget!

Need to know how much it would cost you and your town to generate 2,500 megawatts of pure green energy? Your wind and solar farm infrastructure costs will come to 7 billion CAD (just under 6.7 billion in US currency), which includes a 437 million CAD “sweetener” to get Samsung on board. Plenty of curmudgeons have emerged from the woodwork to trash the deal as costing above market prices, but this appears to be the largest venture of its kind, so we’re not entirely sure “market prices” exist yet. For its part, Samsung will create 16,000 jobs in the area, 4,000 of them permanent, as it builds toward the stated goal of providing enough energy to fully power 4 percent of Ontario’s population.

[Thanks, Dan]

Ontario and Samsung seal $6.7 billion renewable energy deal originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boy, if it’s not car dashboards, it’s thermostats — you just can’t get away from touchscreens these days. The latest 7-inch temperature regulator from Silverpac comes with a bunch of extra goodies to entice the touch control-loving generation into the energy conservation game. With WiFi built in, the Silverstat 7 can pump data out to the internet or your home network, and is equally adept at streaming photos, music and other content back from those connections. A full week’s worth of water temperature instructions can be programmed into the device, which can also inform you of weather conditions and your home’s energy consumption. The latter part is most intriguing, as you’ll be informed of power usage on a per-appliance basis, which can be mighty beneficial when a certain bit of home hardware gorges on electricity without you knowing. June 2010 is set as the release date, but the wallet damage remains unrevealed.

Silverpac Silverstat 7 provides energy usage data, responds to touch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With a down economy and high/rising energy costs, Sanyo figures it’s the perfect time to introduce electric bicycles to the U.S. market. The world’s largest manufacturer of rechargeable batteries has been selling them in Japan for 15 years, and now the company has brought the Eneloop (“Energy-Looping”) electric bicycle to the U.S. It was officially introduced here late last year, but many journalists got their first-up-close glimpse of the ride-assist bike at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it was named CES’s number-one green product for eco-design and sustainability.

The bike looks a lot like a rugged, slightly old-fashioned bicycle. Under the wide, comfortable seat is a rechargeable battery–you remove it to recharge. Sanyo execs said the Eneloop is actually a sophisticated melding of the company’s three core competencies: motors, rechargeable batteries, and electronics. Together, they give the bike torque sensitivity, the ability to charge while you’re coasting and braking and to give you a significant boost as you’re pedaling.

The Eneloop can travel up to 46 miles on one charge at speeds of up to 15 miles an hour. The bike does not drive on its own, but as soon as you start pedaling, it assists: Soon you’re traveling at 15 miles per hour, which feels faster than you might think. Stop pedaling, and the bike slows down, like an ordinary bike.

Don’t worry, you don’t need a license. Thanks to a U.S. law passed in 2008, any vehicle that has pedals, uses less than 1,000 watts, and travels at less than 20 MPH is still considered a bike.

The Eneloop is available through Best Buy and costs… wait for it… $2,299.95. Being green ain’t cheap, but think of all the money you’ll save on gas in the long run. Watch the video for my full hands-on report.

Meysam Movahedi’s latest concept certainly isn’t the first revolutionary tweak to the tried-and-true power outlet, but it’s easily one of our favorites. Put simply, the Rambler Socket is an in-wall box that contains 1.5 meters of extra cabling along with a traditional AC outlet. Granted, you’ll need a pretty deep wall to make something like this work (in theory, of course), but the result is nothing short of brilliant. If your AC cord is long enough, you simply plug it into the socket per usual; if you need a little extra length, the built-in extension cord pulls out with a gentle tug. Once you’re done, you simply tug on the cable once more and watch as it recoils back within the wall. GE, or someone — can we get a contract to this guy, pronto?

Rambler Socket tucks a recoiling extension cable, pinch of genius within your AC outlet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not going to spend any more time on this than absolutely necessary. After all, Steorn’s claims haven’t changed a bit in the three years since the histrionics began. But we will point you to Steorn‘s live free energy demonstration so that you can ponder for yourselves how Orbo “uses magnets to gain energy” on a trio of live cams. If you look closely, you might even see a leprechaun dancing after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Steorn Orbo livestream begins: Look, fairies!

Steorn Orbo livestream begins: Look, fairies! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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