Hasta La Gadget!

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.

It’s difficult to think about winter in the middle of a very hot summer, but if you live in Norway, winter never seems too far off. There, engineers have come up with a creative solution for the lack of winter sunlight by setting up a cluster of large mirrors to direct natural light toward the town of Rjukan, which sits in a valley. In the US, scientists are developing new techniques to harvest the power of the sun, as a team of researchers from the University of Maryland has developed a long-lasting battery that’s made from wood. 3D printers are capable of amazing feats, but a new study finds they release a high amount of ultrafine particles into the air, which can be harmful if inhaled. Star Wars fans will be saddened to learn that migrating dunes in Tunisia are threatening to destroy one of the most famous filming locations captured in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. And in the week’s most inexplicable example of environmental destruction, the US military dropped four bombs on the Great Barrier Reef as part of a training exercise.

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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.

This week aviation fans witnessed a world’s first as AeroVelo’s human-powered helicopter won the elusive $250,000 Sikorsky Prize by hovering 10 feet off the ground for more than 60 seconds. The Solar Impulse sun-powered airplane also broke boundaries by completing the first sun-powered trip from coast to coast — and Inhabitat was on the scene at New York’s JFK Airport to meet it. In other green transportation news, ABB recently announced plans to build the world’s largest nationwide network of EV fast-charging stations in the Netherlands. NASA’s autonomous solar-powered polar rover, the GROVER, completed initial sub-zero field tests in Greenland, proving that it can withstand 30 MPH winds and temperatures of -22 F. Roads are an integral part of our carbon-heavy automotive transportation system — but a new type of smog-eating pavement could actually combat emissions and clean the air. And Inhabitat took a look at the world’s most beautiful urban street, a gorgeous tree-lined oasis in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

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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.

Summer is finally upon us, and polluting companies are feeling the heat as President Barack Obama announced a groundbreaking climate action plan this week that calls for cutting CO2 emissions and building more resilient communities in the face of climate change. Meanwhile, innovators around the world are continuing to tackle some of our biggest challenges. Rust-Oleum launched NeverWet – an incredible new spray that can completely waterproof any surface or object. IKEA unveiled a new solar-powered flat-pack shelter that could be easily deployed as emergency housing. Cardboard Technologies announced plans to mass-produce a $10 bicycle made almost entirely from recycled cardboard. And in one of the week’s most exciting green transportation developments, England’s Drayson Racing set a new land speed record for electric cars this week, shattering the previous mark by nearly 30 MPH.

Filed under: Misc, Transportation, Science

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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.

By now “reinventing the wheel” has become a tired euphemism — but that’s exactly what skateboarder David Patrick did when he created the SharkWheel, a cube-shaped wheel that’s surprisingly smoother and faster than conventional skateboard wheels. Patrick isn’t the only inventor to challenge conventions this week, though. In an effort to develop a more sustainable source of protein, designer Mansour Ourasanah developed a terrarium for growing edible insects in your home. That invention might be a tough sell for some people, but this one is sure to be a crowd-pleaser: English telecommunications company Vodafone unveiled a sleeping bag that uses body heat to charge your gadgets as you sleep and a pair of shorts that harness kinetic energy to charge your cellphone. Meanwhile architect Richard Moreta Castillo unveiled plans for a solar-powered, man-made island that will clean up the ocean while generating renewable energy, and Tokyo installed an impressive bicycle elevator that can store as many as 144 bikes underground.

Filed under: Misc, Science

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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.

What would you give for a working lightsaber? This week Inhabitat reported that a laser hobbyist created an awesome (but totally dangerous) DIY lightsaber that can burn through wood. In renewable energy news, Scotland announced plans to build the world’s largest wave farm, and an ingenious inventor created a bike-powered generator hidden inside his patio furniture. On the consumer tech front, Apple announced plans to produce a new line of Macs in Texas, and Intel is set to release its new Haswell chips, which could boost laptop battery life by 50 percent. Scientists discovered Arctic plants that have come back to life after being frozen for 400 years, while ninth graders conducted a science experiment to show that plants don’t grow as well near wireless routers. And Ukrainian carpenter Valerii Danevych carves functioning watches — including the gears — entirely from wood.

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