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Texas Town Builds Largest Battery in the U.S.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, right? Well, in keeping with their motto, one Texas town, has built the largest battery the United States has ever seen. Dubbed BOB (Big Old Battery), the NaS (sodium sulfer) battery, which is currently charging, can store up to four megawatts of power for eight hours. That’s roughly the energy needed to fully power 4,000 homes per megawatt-hour (MWh).

The town of Presidio in West Texas only has one link the the U.S. Power Grid and that transmission line is over 60 years old. That’s why they sunk $25 million into building this thing and promised another $44 million to build a second, 60-mile transmission line by 2012. BOB  will be used as emergency backup for the numerous power outages in the area which are caused by the line going down quite frequently.

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Danish Hotel Pays Its Guests to Generate Electricity on Bikes

Here comes one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a long time. The Crowne Plaza hotel in Copenhagen has rigged a couple bikes to a generator and they’re luring guests into generating electricity by giving away a $36 food voucher in exchange for a 15-minute stationary bike ride.

The hotel, which initiated the project to help reduce its carbon footprint has hooked up iPhones to the bicycles so that guests can see just how much energy they are generating during their session. Each 15-minute ride generates 10 watt-hours of electricity, not a bad start.

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last update: May 17, 2012

Energy:

Europe’s Electricity to be 100% Renewable Energy by 2050

According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, all of Europe’s electricity needs could be satisfied by renewable sources come mid-century. The plan, dubbed the SuperSmart Grid, would allow for power management independent of where the power is actually originating from.

[photo via Liberty Park]

Using the current grid, natural resources, and current established weather patterns, the plan would include the following with the goal of reducing carbon- based fuel reliance:
Continue reading Europe’s Electricity to be 100% Renewable Energy by 2050

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Solar Impulse Takes Off For First Time

The Solar Impulse aircraft has been in development, design, manufacturing and testing for nearly 6 years now. The project is an airplane that can take off, fly and land autonomously, day and night and all while using only solar energy. This is possible of course by using the energy gathered throughout the day to power it through the night, all while using no fuel and creating no pollution.

Just this past week they were able to launch it on its inaugural test flight and successfully flew it for 2 hours. The group behind the project hope to one day be able to circle the globe and see this as a huge first step. There will be a couple more tests flights in the near future.

With the success of the inaugural flight, we can now envision 2 more test flights in order to determine with precision the performance of the airplane. This will assist us in the preparations of a second airplane in which we plan to do an around the world flight.

Life:

Clean Technologies That Will Change The World

Recently the Mother Nature Network put together an very nice list of clean tech innovations that could change the world. From nanotube power brought to you by the minds at MIT that could provide the same energy output as a lithium-ion battery but at 1/100th the size to vertical farming from companies like Valcent that produces near prefect crops all in less area and using less water.

Check out the entire post here but other innovations include:

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The Peepoo: A Tiny Solution to a Huge Problem

If it seems that the world is moving a mile a minute… it is. The proliferation of the Internet and the convergence of media has given us the ability to connect with information as close to real-time as may be possible. With such hi-tech innovations being introduced every second, it can be hard to sit back and appreciate the simple things. Like the Peepoo, a product which weighs only 10 grams but has the potential to save close to 2.6 billion lives.

THE PROBLEM: Every 15 seconds a child dies due to complications from exposure to contaminated water. That’s four children every minute or 40 children in the time it takes to take a shower.

Continue reading The Peepoo: A Tiny Solution to a Huge Problem

Energy:

Primer On Home Solar Energy

Here is a short video that gives a pretty comprehensive introduction to solar photovoltaic energy generation. While this video pertains to home installations it gives you a basic understanding of how solar panels operate. Although the idea of harvesting solar energy came on the scene in the U.S. a long time ago, it is only now gaining the momentum it intended from the beginning. Companies are doing quite a lot with solar energy, and creating a lot of desirable products that run off this natural energy source.

Continue reading Primer On Home Solar Energy

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