Month: May 2011

Top 10 clean energy states in U.S.

Promoting green technology is on the rise.

An extensive study released Wednesday by consulting firm Clean Edge offers some results.

The survey used more than 3,500 data points to evaluate all 50 states in the U.S.

Factors for evaluating each state included: the amount of green-tech related patent activity; the amount of green-tech venture capital being invested; the number of alternative fuel, electric, and hybrid vehicles registered in the state; and the percentage of electricity produced from clean sources.

The following states are ranked in the Top 10 for leading in green tech:

1.     California
2.    Oregon
3.    Massachusetts
4.    New York
5.    Colorado
6.    Washington
7.    New Mexico
8.    Minnesota
9.    Connecticut
10.  Vermont

California has the most money for backing up all those green-tech projects and has some of the most progressive environmental policies.

The state attracts more green-tech venture capital than all the other states in the U.S. combined.
California is also leading in clean-energy:

1.    California
2.    Massachusetts
3.    Oregon
4.    Colorado
5.    New Jersey
6.    Connecticut
7.    New York
8.    Maryland
9.    Washington
10.  Minnesota

The new generation of green rocket

U.S. military researchers have developed a new generation of green rocket fuel.

The new green rocket fuel emits less corrosive and toxic chemicals than the conventional rocket propellants.

Typical rocket fuel is very toxic and creates environmental pollution because the fuel has a structure of propellant which contains high grade kerosene, rubber and chemicals like hydrazine, nitrogen tetroxide and nitrous oxide.

‘One of the important requirements in the development of less hazardous liquid bipropellants for rocket propulsion is reduced vapor toxicity of oxidizer and fuel,’ says propellants expert John Bellerby of Cranfield University, UK.

Also Bellerby adds that hydrogen peroxide is an attractive low-hazard alternative oxidizer and finding a fuel with low vapor toxicity that is hypergolic with this oxidizer and also produces a high performance has proved difficult.

Repeated tests have proved the hypergolicity of the hydrogen rich ionic-liquid fuels with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidizing agent, which can be considered as green bipropellants for the future.

This type of ionic liquids as the pioneer in liquid bi propellants and in the future and will bring out better and green performances.

Green kitchen system powered by solar energy

Whenever we think of kitchen appliances, numerous contraptions like refrigerators, stoves and ovens come to our minds.

But what if there was a conception that included all of these mechanisms into a single exclusive system? Well, Iran’s Milad Taleghani has exactly conceptualized that, and rather notched up a green level by envisaging this system to be powered by clean solar energy.

Christened as the Funva, this avant-garde appliance (already runners-up in LG conceptual life contest, 2011) will feature a plethora of kitchen friendly attributes.

The artistic form of Funva goes along practical lines, as the collective element is conspicuous in the whole system.

One end of the sole-shaped table features the main control panel (the ‘kitchen’s heart’ according to the creator).

This panel is the major component that is fed by the house solar system, and it will comprise of numerous features that range from solar lighting fixtures, cooking system, dishwashers to even holographic displays and digital color pallet.

The other end of this table is incorporated with a small refrigerator and flanked by futuristic seating arrangements.

Mirroring the collective element of the design, Taleghani has also thought of kitchen walls as giant LED screens.

One can fascinatingly change the colors of LEDs and, in effect, of the walls by controlling aforementioned digital color pallet.

So at the end of the day, we have an advanced appliance that caters to all kitchen considerations by itself, albeit with a clean, sustainable demeanor.

Empower your iPhone with the solar window charger

Solar energy undoubtedly is one of the best eco-friendly discoveries in the world.

The XD Design solar window charger uses the solar energy to the optimum level.

This window charger can be attached to the window easily and it comes with a small as well as big USB output.

The charger works on a simple mechanism – the outside body catches the sunlight and the smoothly designed inside charges the gadget.

It comes with a 1400mAh rechargeable lithium battery and a mini usb cable and costs a whopping 49, 90 €.

It’s made of plastic and weighs a light 0.135 kg.

This small solar gadget is a wonderful eco-friendly product and am sure many households would welcome such a product with open arms.

With the rising problems in electricity supply and burning of non-recyclable energies, solar energy seems to be a superb way out.

Beauty always comes with a price.

Another kind of renewable energy: Human Waste

Another renewable source is biomass and is a biological material produced from living organisms and their byproducts, such as food waste, wood, excreta etc.

An excellent biomass is now considered the human waste.

More companies are turning to renewable energy from biomass.

The anaerobic digestion is the best method, which produce biogas, comprising of methane and carbon dioxide, which is used directly as cooking fuel.

The advantages of using human waste is that this will help protecting natural resources when the resultant product is used for cooking, fueling and will benefit to lower the greenhouse effect.

All you need to know about eco-houses

Today, everyone wants go green to save the world.

The eco-houses are designed in such a way that the energy consumption per house will be 20-30% lesser than a regular home.

Also, an eco-house meets certain guidelines for energy effectiveness standard.

On the market the eco-house demands are increasingly.

The eco-houses not only save energy but also help in the improvement of the environment by avoiding the excess usage of the non-renewable energy and the burning of fossil fuels.

If you choose an ecological house you’ll use less energy and avoid causing excess air pollution.

In U.S. the green homes for sale have a blue Energy Star mark, which is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, to ensure that a new home is energy efficient.

Eco-homes are effectively insulating with advanced insulating systems installed in various parts of the house.

These houses maintain the same level of temperature throughout the house while using less energy than regular houses.

The windows need to have protective coatings and newly improved frames that help to keep the house warm during cold days and dissipate it out during the summer time and fluorescent bulbs.

If you are lucky maybe the house will have solar thermal panels for hot water and heat.

These homes really do consume 20-30 % less energy than regular homes.

Solar Impulse completes world’s first solar powered flight

Solar Impulse, first solar energy plane made the world’s first international flight powered by the sun.

The solar plane took off from an airfield at Payerne in western Switzerland on Friday morning, the Solar Impulse completed its solar powered trip to Brussels airport after 13 hours of flying.

The 10 year project worth 90 million Euros and was demonstrate what the technology can do in terms of renewable energy.

The Solar Impulse project has involved engineers from Swiss lift maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay.

The solar plane which requires 12,000 solar cells embarked on its first flight in April 2010 and completed a 26-hour flight, a record flying time for a solar powered aircraft, three months later.

The Solar Impulse has an average flying speed of 70 km/h (44 mph) which can not be compared with existing jets velocity which is much higher.

A larger prototype is scheduled to fly around the world in 2013.

Audi engines will use wind power

Audi wants to build vehicles with clean power and zero- and low-emissions.

The manufacturer plans to use wind power for its upcoming electric and natural gas vehicles.

Like other large companies, Audi is financing the construction of four wind turbines off the North Sea that will generate annually up to 53 GWh of electricity and from this electricity, the manufacturer plans to use a portion of the wind power to charge its electric e-tron vehicles.

Audi can power fuel cell vehicles, including the Audi Q5 HFC by harnessing the power of wind to produce hydrogen through electrolysis.

Audi currently uses e-gas to power a CNG version of the A3.

The A3 TCNG will be even more environmentally friendly; Audi plans to break ground on its own synthetic methane facility in July. Using CO2 from a connected waste-biogas plant, Audi’s facility will produce annually 1,000 metric tons of e-gas.

This fuel will be added to Germany’s natural gas network, which serves 900 CNG stations.

All you need to know about geothermal energy

Geothermal energy can be defined as a sort of renewable energy derived from the heat generated deep in the earth’s crust.

The temperature of the earth crust rises one degree Celsius for every 30-50 meters and the heat is brought to the surface by thermal conduction.

This clean renewable energy is used in some countries for cooking and heating for thousands of years.

Geothermal resources can be harnessed into electricity, for hot water and for heating your homes.

Electricity generation technology consist of three methods: dry steam method that uses steam as it comes from the underground source to drive the turbines, flash steam method which makes use of the underground hot water (360 degrees F) is pumped to the surface where it flashes to steam and drives the turbines and binary method that makes use of heated underground water and runs it through a heat exchanger where it heats a fluid with a lower boiling point that flashes to steam and drive the turbine.

In the top producers of electricity from geothermal energy are United States, Philippines and Indonesia.

Currently only 24 countries have geothermal power stations.

Finding a suitable build location is a major drawback to geothermal energy because to trap geothermal energy must provide hot rocks in the layer of the Earth’s crust that would heat the water pumped into the well at suitable level and not all the locations are completely reliable.

Investment costs in geothermal energy are very high.
Drilling is more than half the cost.

The other ugly part of geothermal energy is the hazardous gasses and minerals such as mercury, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and arsenic come upon the surface along with hot water.

In conclusion geothermal power in the long run is seen to be very cheap, but the initial cost of installing the power will definitely be high and has some risks.

Google unveils Android LED Light Bulb

In a few months Google has made many investments in renewable energy, the last one we read being a wind farm.

Now, search engine major Google hits again with a new investment in bulb manufacturing.

People will be able to buy an LED light bulb controllable from an Android device by the end of this year.

The new LED bulb can be controlled by any Android device using the company’s new open-source wireless networking protocol.

Google partnered with Lighting Science Group to bring out this 60-watt equivalent LED bulb that works with any android equipped laptop, tablet pc or a smart phone.

The smart bulb is the perfect test bed for Google’s new protocol, which stands to open the door to a new wave of energy-efficient home systems.

This A19 bulb was created to ensure low energy consumption and it features a built-in radio that interfaces with Google’s new open-source wireless protocol.

The price of the android LED lights will vary between 20 USD and 35 USD for 60-watt equivalent.

The A19 LED bulb was unveiled at I/O developer in San Francisco and caught the attention of the people.