Hasta La Gadget!

In 2013 the town of Roskilde, Denmark will be adding a new towering spire to its skyline. But it won’t be from a new church or cathedral, but instead from a waste-to-power incinerator that can turn unwanted trash into energy.

Designed by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat, the incinerator has a striking design that combines its industrial heritage with a cathedral-like appearance. The plant will be able to process around 260,000 to 350,000 tons of waste each year, which can then be used to power 60,000 local homes.

“It is a contempoprary cathedral, close to the ground we shaped the building to reflect the angular factory roofs of the immediate surroundings”, van Egeraat explained. “We then let the building culminate in a 100 meter tall spire, which is an articulation of a fascinating and sustainable process in creating energy.”

Via Inhabitat.

If you’re running a little low on space for all of your music, movies, and photos, or you’re planning on building a NAS to keep all of your files backed up, Western Digital’s new 3TB Caviar Green Hard Drive brings you storage space and energy efficiency all in the same package. The drive is a 5400RPM model, which doesn’t sound that special until you hear it also features four 750 GB platters and WD’s proprietary Advanced Format technology which lets them squeeze every possible GB out of those platters without losing too much to formatting data.

The new 3TB drive is a 3.5-inch model, perfect for desktop systems and external storage arrays. The new drive will set you back $239 list price, but if that’s a little out of your price range Western Digital also offers a 2.5TB version for $189 retail. Both versions are available now from select retailers. You can read more about the announcement at PCMag.com!

The mega-brains at MIT have developed paper-thin solar
cells–the future of solar power.  These tiny solar cells are deposited onto simple tracing paper in five layers, using inexpensive, abundant, organic materials.  

When laminated, the cells are flexible and could easily be attached to roofs, function as window blinds, or used indoors.  With cells this thin, the possibilities for application are nearly limitless.

Eni,
an Italian oil company, is funding this research and development to produce cheaper
solar power and new techniques for cleaning up oil spills. Although the efficiency of the solar cells is
currently  one percent, which is enough to power one small LED light, this new technology will
only continue to develop and improve, and a commercial product could be available in, as little as, five years.  

Photos via CNET

Post by Hilary Scott

PepsiCo has unveiled plans to reduce both the water usage and carbon output of its farms, by using a new “precision farming” technology called i-crop. The software is expected to help the company reach its goal of reducing carbon emissions and water output by 50 percent by 2015.

Created in conjunction with Cambridge University, i-crop will help farmers manage the amount of water they use and the emissions they output, while at the same time allowing them to yield a larger number of crops. “The food industry is starting to recognize that in order to fully embed sustainability and biodiversity in its business practices, a large part of the focus must be on the agricultural supply chain,” said Richard Perkins, Senior Commodities Adviser at WWF. “In this respect PepsiCo U.K. has taken a leadership role in recognizing that it is, at its heart, an agricultural business.”

i-crop is currently being put through a trial phase in 22 farms across the UK, and is expected to then spread across Europe and the United States in 2011. Farms in India, China, Mexico and Australia, meanwhile, are expected to start using the tech in 2012.

There are plenty of options for home owners when it comes to renewable energy sources, but not so much for apartment dwellers. To solve this, designer Jonathan Globerson has come up with a concept for a device that will allow people in apartments to harness the power of the wind and sun.

Called the Greenerator, the device can be hung out on a balcony. It features a flexible solar panel on top and a compact wind turbine in the middle, which allows it to gather energy from both sources. According to Globerson, the concept could potentially save owners 6% in energy bills yearly, and reduce carbon dioxide output by up to 2000 pounds.

Via Inhabitat.