Technology Archives - Page 5 of 7

Portable Vertical Wind Turbine Fits in a Backpack

May 14, 2014

by Derek Markham

For portable power, there are a bunch of options for small solar chargers, which can allow you to charge your mobile devices with the sun’s energy, but there aren’t too many options when it comes to using the wind to produce energy on a small scale. There is one small 15W vertical wind turbine, called Trinity, which is in the midst of a successful crowdfunding campaign, and appears that another, more powerful, version of a portable vertical wind turbine has…

Is This the World’s Fastest Solar Charger?

May 12, 2014

by Derek Markham

It’s really exciting to see the advancements being made in solar power over the last few years, especially in the small scale and personal solar charger industry, as they seem to keep getting smaller, more efficient, and more affordable. But how small can solar chargers go, while still being powerful enough to handle our mobile device charging needs? I’m no stranger to solar chargers, as I own and use several of them regularly, from the tiny Waka Waka solar light…

This App Crowdsources a Map of Quiet Spaces in the City

April 30, 2014

by Derek Markham

The city has a lot to offer us, from play to food to work to socializing, but the constant buzz and movement in urban spaces can leave us looking for places within the city that can offer us a quiet and tranquil refuge from all of that. If you want some peace and quiet to eat your meal, or to read and write and relax, or perhaps you just need a calm place to get some work done, there’s a…

Web App Calculates Carbon Footprint Of Every Purchase

April 28, 2014

by Derek Markham

Do you know what the climate impacts of your everyday actions are? Aside from calculating the carbon footprint of each activity, and adding them together and keeping tabs on them all, which is not only time-consuming, but doesn’t take into consideration how your behaviors compare with others, there isn’t a really comprehensive method of tracking personal climate impacts over time. However, thanks to a partnership between Oroeco and Mint.com, there’s now a personal virtual climate dashboard that can put a…

Open Source Smart House Building Blocks Offer Peel and Stick Simplicity

April 21, 2014

by Derek Markham

If you’d like to start turning your home into a smart house, but are overwhelmed by the seemingly complex solutions offered for smart home technology, a new system of open source wireless building blocks promises to give anything in your home a higher IQ. The smart house of the future might include intelligent lighting, smart appliances, connected outlets, and wirelessly-controlled locks and windows, but until an affordable and simple whole house smart home setup hits the market, most of us…

GE + Saudi Aramco: Energy Efficient Seawater Desalination Open Innovation Challenge

April 21, 2014

by Derek Markham

Lack of access to freshwater is a major touchpoint of our times, as we require it for drinking, washing, and a wide variety of industrial processes, and one of the biggest challenges facing nations in arid regions is supplying fresh potable water in a cost-effective and energy-efficient manner. Because the largest source of water for many countries is the ocean, using seawater desalination plants to render the ocean’s water drinkable has become the focus for many countries, but the process…

Algae Biofuel Process by Algenol Yields 8000 Gallons per Acre at $1.27 per Gallon

April 17, 2014

by Derek Markham

The future of domestic renewable fuel production could be a bright one, if the work of Algenol is scaled up to commercial levels, because the company can already produce continuous yields of 8000 gallons of algae biofuels per acre per year, without using any arable land that would be better suited to food production. Biofuels are a controversial topic for some environmentalists, because for certain feedstock crops, such as corn, the benefits of producing ethanol biofuel on arable land may…

Researchers Harvest Renewable Energy from Flushing Toilets

April 16, 2014

by Derek Markham

Finding new and different methods of harvesting renewable energy is a key component of building a more sustainable future, and while solar power, wind power, and ocean energy are often the focus of large-scale renewables research, it turns out that something that we take for granted, our toilets, could be used to also generate electricity. Researchers in South Korea have developed a method of harvesting electricity from the motion of water, which could be from anything from drops of rain…

New Tablet-Sized Solar Charger is a Crowdfunding Hit

April 9, 2014

by Derek Markham

Solar power for mobile devices is the wave of the future, but many of the small portable solar chargers on the market aren’t big enough to efficiently power tablets and other gadgets that have a larger battery capacity, and they don’t often include an onboard battery pack for charging devices after the sun goes down. However, a new entry to the portable solar charger market aims to fix that, by offering a small yet powerful system to both harvest and…