Category: Green Tech

Kudos to LG Electronics for creating the Most Obvious Product That No One's Ever Made. With all these new-fangled concepts coming out for solar-powered cellphone chargers and drink coasters and what-have-you, it makes the most sense to craft an eco-friendly device that performs the best in high-sun seasons and whose traditional counterparts are electrical siphons of the worst sort. We present to ...

As the world continues to partake in the effort to avoid environmental disaster, individual consumer behavior has become increasingly important -- especially when it comes to energy consumption. With this in mind, Belkin has just introduced a new line of gadgets to help you kilowatt-hour counters out there to be a little more vigilant about consumption. Included among the lineup of Belkin ...

A new solar light bulb could be a safer and more affordable lighting option for people who live in developing nations. According to CNET News, the Nokero N100 solar LED bulb can provide up to four hours of light on a single charge -- making it the world's first solar-powered light bulb. The N100 is about the size of your average incandescent bulb, but the green plastic housing holds four solar ...

If you pay exorbitant amounts for ink cartridges, you might as well make sure they go to good use, right? That's exactly what Australia's National Park Service has decided to do -- by utilizing used cartridges to create a 347 mile (170 kilometer) bike path between Alice Springs and Simpsons Gap in the Northwest Territory. Australian company Repeat Plastics Australia is constructing the trail out ...

The fastest electric motorcycle ever built is set to hit the track today in one of the world's toughest races. According to Popular Science, the MotoCzysz E1pc can reach 140 mph, thanks to its 10 built-in batteries. It has 10 times the battery capacity of a Toyota Prius and 2.5 times the torque of a Ducati 1198 motorcycle. The bike will need every bit of that power during the Isle of Man TT, ...

A new line of 'green' windows could change the way architects design buildings and houses. According to Engadget, Hua Qin recently unveiled its Chin Hua solar glass window at Taipei's International Optoelectronics Week. The slightly opaque window shown in the picture above can generate about 2 watts of clean energy, which is apparently enough to power a mini-fan. But depending on how opaque you ...

Nokia announced that later this year it would begin selling a dynamo-powered charger kit that will charge a cell phone while you ride your bike. The $18 (€15) pedal-powered charger is targeting developing nations, but will ship globally and may find success in bike-friendly cities like Portland, New York, Paris and Amsterdam. The kit will come with a handlebar mount for a phone, a dynamo ...

Share Everyone's worried about energy, right? Whether it's the thought of a peak-oil catastrophe (while a zillion gallons fester in the Gulf), or just an ecological desire to go green, we've become a country that frets about our future power sources. And what about pacemakers, or artificial kidneys? We can't very well expect those to go solar, but it turns out that a sugary diet might be able to ...

In the near future, commercial airplanes could see a total design overhaul. It's a necessity since air travel, as Boing Boing points out, should double in frequency by 2035. As part of a $2.1 million research contract with NASA, MIT recently unveiled two new commercial airplane designs that could lead to more efficient and cheaper travel. The 180-passenger D ("double bubble") series and the ...

The bright red, double-decker Routemaster bus has long been an iconic symbol of the city of London, and Londoners were introduced to a new generation of green Routemasters this week that hopes to retain the original's distinct charms. Fast Company reports the original Routemaster was phased out of service in 2005, but London Mayor Boris Johnson pledged to bring in back. The sleekly redesigned ...

Share Copenhagen residents could find love in a totally new and unexpected place: the city bus. According to The City Fix, transportation company Arriva has installed red "love seats" on about 100 buses that circulate through the Danish city. This stunt, which began May 3rd and will last two weeks, has a dual purpose. First, these seats are really meant to help folks make a love connection during ...

When we mentioned the new, hyper-efficient bulbs from General Electric (GE) and Phillips, we suggested that, at $40 and $50 a pop, consumers wouldn't be eager to jump on board that lighting train. But according to Engadget, The Home Depot's new EcoSmart LED is cheaper and almost as powerful as the ones soon to be available from GE and Phillips. The EcoSmart LED, which is the equivalent of a ...

To make the roads safer for all, electric cars might soon be equipped with unique sounds that would warn pedestrians of their presence. According to the Daily Mail, automotive regulators in Europe, the U.S. and Japan might require manufacturers to incorporate sounds -- from the roar of a muscle car engine to the buzz of a 'Star Wars' spacecraft -- into electric cars. This news comes on the heels ...

Scientists at the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Research Center have successfully developed the first solar cells printed on paper, using a process similar to inkjet printing. Organic semiconductors in the form of carbon-based dyes were applied to paper, resulting in a solar cell with a 1.5- to 2-percent sunlight conversion efficiency rate. (Current thin-film solar cells have achieved record efficiency ...

Don't look now, but soon HP could know about every move you make. According to CNN, HP will start depositing "smart dust" around the globe in the next two years. The term was coined in the 1990s by UC Berkeley researcher Kris Pister, who envisioned "smart dust" spreading rice-grain sized sensors across the Earth (think a more mobile version of Helen Hunt's tornado trackers in 'Twister'). These ...