Renewable Energy
Students designed and built a house covered in solar cells
The Solar Decathlon is a competition organized yearly by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, since 2002. Teams of college and university students can participate by designing and building solar powered houses. The goal is to help [...]
Pushing the limits of technology: the World Solar Challenge
The World Solar Challenge is a race that has been run every year since 1987. It was created by Swiss pioneer Hans Tholstrup, who crossed Australia from west to east in 1982 in a solar car he made with his [...]
The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act and the environment – Part II
Last week, here in Sustentator, we summarized what the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act is doing to improve energy efficiency on a national scale. Today, we’ll look at the funds being destined to renewable energy research, development and deployment programs. [...]
Samso: 100% renewable energy island
It seems like a school project, or a game, too perfect to be real. Yet it does exist; Samso Island, in Denmark, uses nearly 100% renewable energy. In 1997, it won a competition launched by the Ministry of Energy of [...]
Solar thermal energy could generate up to a quarter of the world’s electricity
The initials CSP stand for “Concentrated Solar Power.” As we have mentioned, this is our preferred alternative energy source, especially since it uses salt (NaCl) in a liquid state to keep turbines moving when the sun disappears. According to a [...]
China unveils the world’s largest solar-powered office building
The world’s largest solar powered building is located in Dezhou, Shangdong Province, in northwest China. The facility has a 75,000 square meter surface which was built based on the sun dial structure. The innovation in the design and construction of [...]
Malmo: an example of a green city, in Sweden
Some cities wait for legislation to be passed before starting to evolve to a more sustainable way of functioning. And some others lead the way, and I dare say they will even be an inspiration for those future laws I [...]
A green neighborhood, in Boulder, Colorado
A neighborhood of 12 net-zero energy homes (which consume as much energy as they generate) is being built in the north of Boulder, Colorado. They are designed to meet green building standards, specifically LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) [...]
The US and India agreed on climate change and clean energy initiatives
US president Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a number of agreements to work together on climate change and energy security. This is great news, being the US the second largest carbon-emitter, and India the fourth. The [...]
B-Green. Sustainable urbanization in costa rica
Lake Arenal is located in the mid-north of Costa Rica. This great lake is the principal source of energy of the country by using hydro power and wind power generation. Around the lake, you can find hotels, restaurants and homes [...]
