green

Everyone with a live mind who happens not to work for an oil company knows that we must harness our energy.

The possibilities are vast. Consider, for example, Heather Patron of Studio City, Calif., and her Prius. Everything plastic on it began to melt. The side-view mirrors, for example.

This seemed a little odd. She took it to Toyota. The company said there was nothing wrong with the car.

And then she noticed her neighbor's energy-efficient windows that seemed to be directing a concentrated beam of energy-efficient light towards her energy-efficient vehicle.

Patron told CBS Los Angeles: "I'… Read more

Despite the spectacular collapse of solar panel maker Solyndra, which declared bankruptcy after receiving more than half a billion dollars from the Obama administration, President Obama said this evening that he doesn't want to give up on government-backed alternative energy projects.

The president used the opportunity of his State of the Union address to say it's time to "double down" on the concept but pointedly avoided mentioning Solyndra by name.

"The payoffs on these public investments don't always come right away," Obama said. "Some technologies don't pan out--some companies fail. But … Read more

Green Car Journal announced five finalists for the publication's annual Green Car Vision Award. The award recognizes innovations in fuel efficiency, low emissions, alternative fuels, or electric power.

To be considered for the Green Car Vision Award, vehicles must be in demonstration on public highways today or nearing commercialization but not yet widely available to consumers, Green Car Journal said in a press release.

The five finalists include the BMW i3, the Cadillac ELR, the Ford's C-MAX Energi, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell, and the Tesla Model S.

The 2012 Green Car Vision Award winner will be announced at … Read more

If you've ignored the naysayers, saved enough money, and splashed out on an electric car, you're probably now looking for a dedicated home-charging station. If that's the case, look no further--architect Giancarlo Zema has teamed up with Luminexence to design a bonkers yet beautiful leaf-shaped example known as the Lotus.

The Lotus--no relation to Norwich's premier manufacturer of mid-life-crisis mobiles--is a giant solar-powered piece of faux flora that delivers pure, carbon-neutral electricity captured from the sun. It comes with nighttime lights plus an optional information screen, seat and car charging port.

The Lotus is a modular system that's designed in a variety of colors and sizes. The smallest component, a single-leaf design, can be supplied on its own, or mated to other single-leaf units to form double, triple, or quad leaf setups. A large leaf, which provides 19 square meters of photovoltaic panels, is also available. Both leaf styles can be combined to resemble a curious water lily configuration.

Read more of "Luminexence Lotus solar car charger is a tree-shaped carport" at Crave UK. … Read more

Here's an intriguing design concept that's been stirring the currents of the blogosphere lately: an electrical wall socket that unplugs plugs as a way of saving power.

That's right--if your toaster sits idle for too long, the "PumPing Tap" lets you know it's time to toast or get out of the slot. It detects the drop in current and fires a spring-loaded mechanism that in turn fires the toaster's plug across the kitchen (or at least onto the counter--and hopefully not into the butter dish).… Read more

If Ford engineers had their way, Santa Claus would be delivering packages to all the good girls and boys on Christmas Eve in a Ford sleigh concept.

The muscle car-inspired, bright-red, concept sleigh is powered by a 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine and boasts 125 horsepower, with 170Nm peak torque (with 200Nm overboost)--giving it the highest power density of any Ford production engine to date.

Ford engineers apparently presented the concept sleigh design to Santa and Mrs. Claus, along with its environmental and cost-saving advantages.

Each Christmas Eve, Jolly Old St. Nick reportedly circumnavigates the globe--124,421,727 miles--in a … Read more

Termites--those pesky insects that you fear might invade and destroy your home--may actually be responsible for the new wave of eco-friendly batteries, if Sony has anything to do with it.

At the Eco-Products 2011 exhibition in Tokyo, Sony showed off a bio-battery prototype that gets its power from shredded paper. In the demo, pieces of paper and cardboard were dropped into a water mixture to magically turn on a small fan. Instead of magic though, the Japanese electronics company took a lesson from nature. … Read more

GreenVolts is blasting the equivalent of 1,300 suns onto a solar cell to survive in the cut-throat solar industry

The Fremont, Calif.-based start-up today announced it has raised an additional $35 million and unveiled a redesigned large-scale solar array. The series D funding brought $20 million from industrial conglomerate ABB which will market GreenVolt's solar system to businesses and utilities.

The solar industry is undergoing a brutal price war driven by the rapidly falling price of conventional silicon solar panels. GreenVolts has designed a concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system, where powerful Fresnel lenses focus light onto several super-efficient … Read more

U.S. consumers continue to turn to the Internet for their holiday shopping, according to new figures released today by market researcher ComScore.

Online sales for the holiday season to date (since November 1 to Friday) totaled $24.6 billion, a 15 percent increase over the $21.4 billion spent during the same period last year, ComScore reported. Last week's spending totaled $5.9 billion, also a 15 percent increase over the corresponding period last year.

"These highlights represent another very positive sign for the holiday shopping season, as the week following 'Cyber Week' often experiences relative softness … Read more