Hasta La Gadget!

I am not quite sure about you, but when was the last time you saw a vacancy in the newspapers that looked for someone whose job was to clean solar panels, and solar panels alone? That does sound rather repetitive and mundane, and there won’t be too much interaction, not to mention it being rather hot assuming you were to work the normal shift hours that most of the other people put in. I guess for stuff like this, it would be far better to engage the services of a robot. After all, robots basically do not tire out (other than requiring its batteries to remain juiced), and neither do business owners have to worry about things like unions, strikes, a salary scale and all that jazz.

Miraikikai Inc. recently unveiled a prototype of what it touts as the world’s first solar panel-cleaning robot, and how does it work? It does not need to make use of water, which is a rather interesting concept, and will more or less run autonomously. Intending to market this particular robot from next year, Miraikikai will aim their focus at the Middle East and Africa, where solar power demand is rising and water being a scarce resource.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Marine Drone can help clean up the ocean [concept], Solar Electric Robot Chariot,

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

The first week of spring kicked off with a bang for the architecture community as Japanese architect Toyo Ito was awarded the 2013 Pritzker Prize. Meanwhile Christo unveiled the world’s largest inflated indoor sculpture in Germany and MIT researchers announced plans to 3D print a pavilion inspired by the technique that silkworms use to build their cocoons. Inhabitat also showcased several futuristic skyscraper concepts — including the Soundscraper, which transforms auditory vibrations into clean energy, and the Zero Skyscraper, which is a post-apocalyptic survival structure. And we profiled some fascinating adaptive-reuse projects, including a grain elevator that was transformed into a student housing complex in Oslo and a Cold War-era missile silo that was converted into an underground home in Upstate New York.

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Today Apple has updated their environmental page collection and have issued a new Facilities report, showing that at this point in history, global corporate facilities inside the Apple family are at a whopping 75% renewable energy use. Apple also reports that many of their facilities are running on 100% renewable energy, including data centers in Newark, CA, Prineville, OR, and Maiden, NC. These bits and pieces are part of a report that, on the whole, shows Apple to be heading directly toward a fully renewable energy future – one we’d all like to be a part of.

According to the report released this week, Apple has increased the renewable energy use at Apple corporate facilities worldwide by 114% between fiscal 2010 and 2012. Over the last three years, Apple’s now-75% global corporate facilities using has risen rapidly from the 35% it was three years ago. One example Apple is using as a key location where they’ve made significant progress is in Maiden, North Carolina.

Above: The nation’s largest end user-owned solar photovoltaic array providing renewable energy to Apple’s data center in Maiden, North Carolina.

Apple notes that their data center in Maiden is the only data center facility of its size and type to have earned full LEED Platinum certification. According to Apple, they’ve implemented the following in their Maiden data center location for the furtherance of energy efficiency and green building:

• A chilled water storage system to improve chiller efficiency by transferring 10,400 kWh of electricity consumption from peak to off-peak hours each day
• Use of “free” outside air cooling through a waterside economizer operation during
night and cool-weather hours, which, along with water storage, allows the chillers
to be turned off more than 75 percent of the time
• Extreme precision in managing cooling distribution for cold-air containment pods,
with variable-speed fans controlled to exactly match air flow to server requirements
from moment to moment
• Power distributed at higher voltages, which increases efficiency by reducing power loss
• White cool-roof design to provide maximum solar reflectivity
• High-efficiency LED lighting combined with motion sensors
• Real-time power monitoring and analytics during operations
• Construction processes that utilized 14 percent recycled materials, diverted 93 percent
of construction waste from landfills, and sourced 41 percent of purchased materials
within 500 miles of the site

It would appear that Apple is moving in the right direction when it comes to environmental and “green thinking” concerns, especially when you compare the raw numbers they present. The one significant up-turn that can be seen in their fiscal 2012 report is in electricity usage by business unit, with their Corporate segment staying essentially equal to fiscal 2011 while both Data Centers and Retail Stores, moving from 138 million kWh to 217 million kWh for the former and 122 to 159 for the latter.

Apple has also reported that the commute their employees take on the way to work has continued to decrease both for worldwide employees and for intercampus employees. Apple offered a transit subsidy for U.S. employees in fiscal 2012 that offered employees up to $100 USD a month for carpooling, also offering them special carpooling parking spots as a bonus. Over 11,000 Apple employees took part in this program in 2012.

This report also shows that Apple has achieved the fabulous 100% renewable energy usage goal in the following locations: Austin, Texas; Elk Grove, California; Cork, Ireland; Munich, Germany – and most Apple facilities across Australia. Apple’s Infinite Loop location in Cupertino also, of course, runs on 100% renewable energy at this time.

Head in to our massive Apple hub right this minute to get more information on the goings-on in the Apple universe and stay tuned as the 2013 product range comes raining down over the next few months – we’ll let you in on it all from top to bottom! Also make sure you have a peek at Apple’s Environment Pages to see what they’re up to in the green universe.

Apple corporate facilities hit 75% renewable energy use in new report is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

They say that a picture speaks a thousand words, so what happens when you check out an image of a Nokia Lumia handset that has the caption which goes, “Sun, sun, sun, here we come!” right under it? This particular quote might sound familiar to those who know all about George Harrison’s masterpiece “Here Comes the Sun,” although there has been some creative license attached to it that paves the way for such a change. Of course, you do not need to be a rocket scientist or a genius to figure out that Nokia could very well be working on some sort of solar charging capability with its Nokia Lumia range of Windows Phone handsets.

Remember early last year when Nokia actually laughed at the idea of relying on the sun as a potential energy source that is green, clean and affordable for smartphones? Sure, Nokia did have five prototypes to mull over the idea, whose performance of the handsets’ efficiency greatly depended on the geographical location where you are, but I guess the time is ripe at this moment to revisit the idea of solar charging capability for Lumia handsets. Surely those living in tropical countries would be able to appreciate such a move?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Paper Nano-SIM Cards Do Their Bit For The Environment, Nokia to trial solar-powered charging accessory in Nigeria and Kenya this week,

Deserts, pristine beaches and endless amounts of oil and gas are not the only things Abu Dhabi is known for. It is known for its excruciating temperatures and sunshine. When you have so much sunshine, why not use it as a source of renewable energy? The Shams Power Company is doing just that, as it has now begun operating the world’s largest concentrated solar power station of 100 MW in Abu Dhabi, called Shams 1.

Shams 1 solar power station has 258,048 parabolic mirrors that absorb sunlight. At the center of these parabolic mirrors is tubing through which oil flows. The mirrors concentrate sunlight towards this tubing so as to heat up the oil, which then goes up to a heat exchanger. This heat exchanges makes steam which power turbines that produce electricity.

It is a good step from an oil and gas rich emirate like Abu Dhabi to invest heavily in renewable energy. Fossil fuels are a major contributor towards global warming and it is high time that the world comes to terms with the fact that renewable energy projects should no longer remain in research papers and presentations.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Volkswagen E-Up Concept Now Realized, Walgreens Building A Superstore That Runs Only On Renewable Energy,