Hasta La Gadget!

As fleshy meatbags, we tend to give off a lot of excess heat as we futilely live our lives. Fujitsu wants to help capture every last particle motion, and all the other warmth we generate through the myriad of other inane activities like driving cars, firing rockets, and trying to not freeze to death. But, it’s not just happy with that, developing a new “hybrid energy harvesting device” that does double-duty by also capturing light from the sun. It’s a process shown after the break but, with no hard numbers to go with that pretty picture, we’re not sure just how efficient it is at doing either. Still, there are some 6.7 billion people worldwide. How efficient does it really need to be?

Continue reading Fujitsu hybrid energy harvester makes power from light or heat, gets us closer to human batteries

Fujitsu hybrid energy harvester makes power from light or heat, gets us closer to human batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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 we saw renewable energy take the world by storm as Spain announced plans to construct the world’s largest wind turbine and a team of engineers made waves with plans for an underwater turbine modeled after whale flippers. We also saw Boeing shine light on plans to produce a new breed of ultra-efficient solar panels that are suited for space, while researchers in Japan developed a potent new kinetic generator that’s as tiny as a pencil tip.

Innovative eco transportation also picked up the pace as China rolled out plans to produce the first fuel cell powered light rail train and the world’s largest solar-powered boat made its successful maiden voyage across the Atlantic. We also applauded the Nissan Leaf as it took first place as the European Car of the Year and we were wowed by Mercedes’ next-generation concept car, which may one day be grown in a lab.

We also showcased several new ways that technology stands to wire our lives — starting with an electronic smart wallet that curbs spending by clamping shut like a clam. We also looked at Harvard’s plans for a laptop computer powered by biogas and we were impressed by Nike’s next-gen design tools for producing environmentally efficient clothes. Finally, we wrapped up the week with two exciting advances in tablet tech – India is testing a solar-powered I-Slate tablet geared at children in need and Substrata rolled out a gorgeous wooden iPad case that goes light on the earth.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: pencil-tip generators, the Nissan Leaf, and the world’s largest wind turbine originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NRG Solar (get it?) and SunPower — neither of which are strangers to extracting juice from that glowing ball of fire in our sky — have just linked up to build one of the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plants. The tandem will start construction in San Luis Obispo County next year, creating around 350 jobs in the process and helping California inch ever closer to realizing its 33 percent renewable portfolio standard. The 250-megawatt plant still pales in comparison to a few others (namely this guy in Arizona), but it dwarfs the vast majority of factories in operation today. The project is expected to stretch out for three or four years, but when all is said and done, around 100,000 homes (yeah, even the home of one Vincent Chase) will be given sun-sourced energy thanks to this here installation. That said, the actual energy bills for Californians everywhere probably won’t sink — but hey, at least you’re throwing Ma Earth a well-deserved bone, right?

Continue reading NRG and SunPower partner on 250-megawatt solar plant, plan to power 100,000 California homes

NRG and SunPower partner on 250-megawatt solar plant, plan to power 100,000 California homes originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boeing’s Spectrolab subsidiary has been working on making solar cells more and more efficient for years now, and it looks like it’s now set to put its latest record-breaking cells into mass production. Those come in the form of the company’s new C3MJ+ solar cells, which boast an average conversion efficiency of 39.2 percent, making them the most efficient mass produced cells to date. What’s more, Spectrolab says that since the new cells are so similar to its current C3MJ production cells, it should be relatively easy for customers already using those to upgrade to the new cells. Still no word on a price, it seems, but the new cells should be available in January. And, yes, Spectrolab is also hard at work on breaking its own record — it hopes to crack the 40 percent mark later in 2011.

Boeing’s Spectrolab subsidiary set to mass produce 39.2 percent efficient solar cells originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 16:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Let’s skip right past the cringe-worthy “Declaration of Energy Independence” slogan and look at what the Eagles are actually doing with their pro sports venue. The franchise that dresses in midnight green is aiming to smarten up its eco-green credentials with a new partnership with SolarBlue that will provide all of the Eagles’ stadium energy needs for the next 20 years, after which point the team will be free to resell any surplus electricity back to the grid. 15 percent of the total output with be generated with spiral wind turbines erected around the top rim of Lincoln Financial Field, another 15 will come from 2,500 solar panels to be installed near the stadium, and the rest will be obtained from a biodiesel / natural gas plant. So it’s not all renewable, but a nice step in the right direction, nonetheless.

Philadelphia Eagles going self-sufficient on stadium energy from 2011, 30 percent of it renewable originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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