Technology moves forward really fast. And, luckily, it does too green lighting technology. Recently LED technology, a much more efficient lighting and displaying device than conventional ones has come up strongly. But parallel, a LED based technology has been developed too. It’s been named OLED technology, because this new LED is made of organic compounds that emits light when an electric current passes through it.
Due to their comparatively early stage of development, OLEDs typically emit less light per unit area than inorganic solid-state based LEDs similarly designed for use as point-light sources. Despite this, OLEDs are used in television screens, computer monitors, mobile phones and PDAs, watches and can also be used in light sources for general space illumination and in large-area light-emitting elements.
But traditionally, OLEDs have had some disadvantages. Probably the biggest technical problem was the limited lifetime of the organic materials (historically around 14,000 hours compared to 60,000 hours of LCD or LED technology). And a second issue has been a color unbalance problem, because material used to produce blue light degrades significantly more rapidly than the materials that produce other color. And there has been also a final problem, the power consumption. While displaying primarily black images with an OLED would consume around 40% of the power of an LCD, the proportion is over three times as much power to display an image with a white background. But quick improvements have changed this situation radically!
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The San Francisco Bay Area is ready to install 50 fast-charging electric vehicle (EV) stations along highways, 2,000 public stations for public parking lots and participating company-owned parking lots, and 3,000 residential charging stations. This will be possible thanks to a $5 million investment from the Department of Energy, that will be distributed as part of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s “Spare the Air” program.
In February 2009 the city of San Francisco announced that it was installing three EV charging stations as part of a pilot project. The aim of the project is to allow the Bay Area attain and mantain state and national air quality standards. Fostering the use of electric vehicles will be a key action to reduce pollution, since in the Bay Area the transportation sector accounts for more than 50 percert of air pollution.
In November 2008, the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose announced their ambitious goal of turning the Bay Area into the electric vehicle capital of the country. In December 2008 the San Francisco Mayor’s office released a nine-point plan to foster the implantation of the electric vehicle:
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The Fuller Wind Turbine was developed about 5 years ago with an investment of £215,000. It harnesses the viscosity of air over the rims of thin discs to generate energy. This way, a housing is able to swivel in a silent way, as it was designed with urban rooftops in mind.
“This enclosed turbine should produce significant power at half the life-cycle cost of the windmills” says Howard Fuller, its inventor.
By rebalancing the blades of conventional wind turbines, the inventor was able to eliminate the up-tower maintenance.
A proof of concept model exists and a prototype is expected to generate 10kW, with production units ranging from 5 to 100kW. An insignificant amount, perhaps, compared to a 3MW windmill, but – argues Fuller – power generation can be scaled up by grouping arrays more densely, with blade clearance no longer a concern.
“The fact that people are coming up with such a variety of solutions testifies to the vibrancy and viability of the wind energy market, and shows that there is a lot of potential”, said Nick Medic of Renewable UK
Whether the Fuller can boost micro-wind for the home remains to be seen.
Via: World Changing
We have already told you about the Solar Impulse, the first solar plane able to flight at night.
Now we want to introduce you an even more amazing project: an unmanned solar-powered plane. It is called Zephyr: a super-lightweight, carbon-fiber craft, weighing only 50 kilograms, with a giant wingspan of 22.5 meters. The wings are covered in thin-film solar panels that charge its lithium-sulphur batteries, which power the engines when the sun goes down.
You may have wondered why electric plains were built but never an electric helicopter. The truth is it has been a concept that has been studied for years, but never applied. Until now.
The main reasons it took so long to design an all-electric helicopter were the weight of the batteries and their low capacity. But fortunately advancements in battery technology brought as an outcome the development of the next-gen batteries. These batteries are not only lightweight, but energy dense.
And Sikorsky proves that time has arrived for batteries to be used to power helicopters.
Scott Faris is the CEO of Planar Energy, a spin-off of the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL). Scott looks happy. Why? His startup has developed new manufacturing techniques that could improve the stability and lifetime of batteries used in electric vehicles.
Conventional batteries use a liquid electrolyte which can suffer from chemical reactions that damage the battery’s cathode. Solid-state batteries are an option, but their production requires complex and costly methods, and have been difficult to scale up to the size needed for vehicles. Planar Energy has opted to replace the liquid electrolyte with a solid ion conductor. This technique improves battery stability, lifetime and allow to reduce its size. Furthermore solid electrolytes are also compatible with a wider range of battery chemistries that could potentially offer higher power or storage density.
The thickness of solid-state batteries is crucial for a higher energy storage capacity. For this reason thin-film batteries are used only in small devices. But efforts to use printing processes to make thicker solid-state batteries have been stymied by the lack of a printable solid electrolyte material.
For this purpose Scott is clear: “the key to Planar’s technology is its printing process”. And Sudipta Seal, director of the Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center at the University of Central Florida, adds: "They’re able to make a solid electrolyte using a roll-to-roll process–that’s their strength".
Palestina is sadly known for its never-ending conflict. But today a bright light ray is appearing among dark clouds. In Palestina there is also space for the green technology. At least is what engineering students from Hebron have demonstrated.
Three students at Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU) in Hebron have built the first solar-powered car of the region, as a part of a project developing renewable energy sources to replace the diesel, petrol or donkey power in the transportation sector. The car is bedecked with banks of solar panels and doesn’t manage to reach a speed much above 19 mph (30 kmph) – but it is being lauded as a feat of creative engineering in the face of limited funds and scant resources.
“It was a complicated project and our students designed and built everything in this car from scratch," says Dr Zahdi Salhab, director of the mechanical engineering department at PPU in Hebron. Salhab also stresses the importance of the project in a region where there is “almost no industry, so nearly all our pollution is from vehicles".
Strictly hybrid versions of the Honda Civic are expected next year, and will be the only sold on the Japanese market. The decision has to do with Honda´s initiative to turn the company to more sustainable practices.
This shift to hybrid technology suggests that Honda is looking to invest in initiatives that will bring them to a point where they can produce an effective vehicle at a price that can attract a significant number of buyers.
Great initiatives that we applaud and expect other companies will follow!
Via: Inhabitat
When the second richest man on earth, Bill Gates, invests its money in a project it means that is worth it. And if this project is intended to save emissions produced by cars, this means that all of us are happy with it.
Jointly with Vinod Khosla, from Khosla Ventures of Menlo Park (California), Bill Gates has invested $23.5 millions for engineering and testing the EcoMotors International trademarked opoc™ engine technology. EcoMotors is working on its sixth-generation engine and the new funds may be used for the next engine configuration.
Gates said in a statement that “the technology may be a stepping stone in advancing affordable, low-emission transportation”. Khosla adds that “the only truly disruptive technologies are those that can provide not only payback in months but also economic and carbon benefits to large segments of the world’s population without the need for subsidies or massive infrastructure investments. Among next-generation propulsion systems, the opoc™ engine is broadly applicable and can provide lower carbon emissions than almost any other technology.”
EcoMotors, based in suburban Detroit, says the opoc™ architecture allows its opposed piston-opposed cylinder engines to use 50 percent fewer parts than standard engines, while providing 50 percent more fuel efficiency.
Thus, according to EcoMotors the revolutionary opoc™ architecture of opposed pistons and opposed cylinders provides unparalleled benefits:
× High Efficiency: The unique engine architecture – which offers true modular displacement capability — delivers up to 50% greater fuel efficiency compared with conventional engines of similar output, along with a corresponding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
× Half the weight and half the size of conventional engines: The opoc™ engine provides unparalleled power density and flexibility in automobile and truck design as well as other engine applications.
× Low Cost: With 50% fewer parts than a conventional engine, the opoc™ is less expensive to manufacture, to purchase, to operate and to tool up.
How does the engine work?
As EcoMotors reports, the opposed-piston opposed-cylinder engine patented design “creates a ground-breaking internal combustion engine family that will run on a number of different fuels, including gasoline, diesel and ethanol. The engine operates on the 2-cycle principle, generating one power stroke per crank revolution per cylinder. It comprises two opposing cylinders per module, with a crankshaft between them, and each cylinder has two pistons moving in opposite directions. This innovative design configuration eliminates the cylinder-head and valve-train components of conventional engines, offering an efficient, compact and simple core engine structure. The result is an engine family that is lighter, more efficient and economical, with lower exhaust emissions compared with conventional designs. Here you can see this revolutionary 2-stroke engine in operation, which helps to illustrate the simplicity, elegance and compactness of its design”.
Via: AutoWeek | Eco Motors
Imagine you are about to get the top of a 3,000 meters mountain height. The sunset is amazing and the potential shot is the one you were expecting for long time. And suddenly the batteries from your camera run out!
In that case you would be really pleased to Yanko Design, the website which hides the name of the designer of a new concept of a camera strap, capable to power your camera only with the help of the sun. The Solar Camera Strap is a sturdy strap to secure the camera and to power it via thin solar panels across the width of the strap.
The Solar Camera Strap concept was an idea of Weng Jie, and consists of a row of tiny flexible solar panels on the strap that enables the camera batteries to be charging whenever the photographer is shooting in daylight. And what happens when the night is coming? No problem, the strap also contains a storage battery into each end of it.
The strap is a new pilot design, so it’s not clear if cameras would need some modification to allow them to be powered by the solar camera strap itself. At first sight it is a good charger gadget since power requirements for modern cameras are very low. Thus the solar camera strap may be more successful than other existing solar chargers, like the ones used to power smartphones.
At the moment, the strap is only at the concept stage and is not yet available and there is no word on when or if it will ever be commercialized.
Yanko Design is a website focusing on introducing modern designs in a wide range of fields, including interior design, architecture, fashion, and industrial design.
Via: Physorg
Just in time for the World Cup games, Greendix, a Taiwan-based company known for making leaf-shaped solar panels, came up with a new and even cooler product: the word´s first solar powered soccer ball.
At first sight it may appear to be a regular soccer ball, except for the iconic black pentagonal patches, which have been replaced with solar cells.
But Greendix has even more ambitious plans for this soccer ball: using motion-sensing technology that the company is currently developing, the ball will allow visually impaired people to play soccer. This way, and thanks to an audio device, each time the prototype is kicked, it emits a tracking sound.
“The main goal of this project was to prove that solar panels can be integrated into any object that we interact with on a daily basis and to push the limits of what is possible with solar panels,” explained Joseph Lin from Greendix.
Wouldn’t it be great to see this solar powered ball being used at the next World Cup?
An average standard mouse can use dozens of alkaline batteries in a year. Let us introduce you a better option. This is Corky, a mouse which does not rely upon disposable batteries, it’s made from 100% recycled plastic components and recycled and biodegradable cork. And the best… it powers itself from its usage! Every movement, click and roll of the scroll wheel generates power to keep the mouse going.
The wireless mouse relies on piezoelectric elements to generate power, a technology that is available and has made an appearance in some watches. Thanks to an innovative design, which includes regional sourcing and assembly, product take-back and recycling and availability of disassembly data to recycling centers, Corky participated in the 2010 Greener Gadgets Design Competition. It didn’t win but a 5th place, out of 18, is not that bad.
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