Considering that there will probably be an increase of electric vehicles on the road in the next few years, it’s nice to see that the Evatran Plugless Power Station is already thinking of ways to improve the charging process for these electric cars.

It works with the user installing a shoebox-sized adapter in the car, which works as a wireless power receiver. The car with this apparatus gets near this power station’s parking block, and the charging takes place.

When I say “gets near”, I mean that the car probably has to park directly over this parking block. Only a distance of two inches is allowed, which is dangerously close when dealing with under-the-car devices like this. At least it is better than the in-touch charging devices like the Powermat.

Another bug in this particular process is that the Plugless Power Station only operates at eighty percent capacity, but hopes to achieve ninety at launch.

Clearly, what is going to sell this product is the time it will take to charge an electrical car wirelessly vs. the time it will take to do this with a plug-in wire. If Evatran can do it even ten percent faster, it will be worth the investment from electric car drivers.

The company hopes to launch this by April 2011, with a $800 pricetag.

Source

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The first time I saw this picture, I thought I was looking at the entrance to the Vivos underground shelter. These are actually dwellings for the “first bioclimatic holiday village in the world”.

I have to admit that I never heard that this term until I read my source, but here is what it means. These are self-sufficient houses that are “built in individual designs utilizing different technologies, where it will function as a living experiment in sustainability”.

There are about 25 of these off-the-grid houses in all, and it will serve as a temporary shelter for tourists as well as science laboratories for this experiment. Apparently, sensors “constantly feed back information on their temperature, humidity and air movement in order to determine which techniques are the most efficient”.

This village is located on Tenerife, which is in the Canary Islands, about 800 miles from Spain and 185 miles from the coast of Africa. I wouldn’t mind living in one of these things myself, just so I would know what it is like to not be dependent on the electric company. Personally, I believe that this is where we are going.

By the way, it took 15 years in development to make these houses, and cost about 13 million. I wonder how much it costs to stay a single night.

Source

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The serious Mac fans out there can’t help but show their fanboy side just every now and then.  Well if you are one of those fans then you might enjoy this USB drive.  Especially since carrying around this drive means you’ve rescued a little bit of plastic from making it to the nearest landfill.  It never hurts to be just a little extra eco-friendly from time to time.

The drive is made by using old recycled keys straight from a MacBook.  Within the drive itself is 4GB of storage space for you to transport all of your important files.  Beyond that it’s a pretty basic drive.  To pick one up it’ll cost you $60 through Etsy, which truthfully is a little steep.  At least you’ll get to show off your Mac loving side.

Source: TechFresh

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This is the Tree Hotel, designed by Swedish architects Tham and Videgard. As you can see, it is nearly invisible as it is a box made of mirrors.

It was once a concept that others mocked, saying it was “computer-generated eye candy, impossible to build, and death for birds”. There is apparently a special film that is visible to birds and applied to the glass.

As you might have guessed, it is a somewhat eco-friendly resort. It was constructed from sustainably harvested wood, has an electric radiant floor heating and a state-of-the-art incineration toilet.

The designers want to maintain the beauty of this untouched forest, and they are on record as saying:

“This is untouched forest, and we want to maintain it the same way. We decided, for example, to not offer snowmobile safari which is very common up here,” says Selberg. Instead, wilderness walks will be offered.

This is one of apparently six mirrored cubes that is planned to be built at this location, and it is located about 40 miles south of the Arctic Circle.

I certainly wouldn’t mind staying here, but I hope that it stays warm in the wintertime. Something tells me that the snow would make this mirrored cube very visible. I hope the architects took these factors into account. Let’s just say they did.

Source

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If you’re looking for something a little different as far as solar lights go you could pick up these Wild Grass Solar Garden Lights.  You can jam the stakes into the ground and make it appear as if you have random tufts of grass glowing in the dark.  If you have any extra gullible friends you could always convince them that the grass is a special variety that glows every single night.

The set includes 3 sprigs of grass packed full of LED lights.  Then of course there’s a handy little solar panel that charges up the rechargeable battery all day long.  At night the lights kick on automatically and then shut off when the sun starts to come up.  In order to run it’ll need 8 hours of sun to run for 6 hours in the evening.  You can choose to keep the light steady or to flash.  You can purchase it for $19.95 through Amazon.

Source: Envirogadget

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These attractive little gadgets look a little mysterious.  They don’t appear to be anything more than a charging dock or a colorful toothbrush sanitizer.  With all of that color it never occurred to me that these were actually meant  to take care of your electric car.  Not only do these have good looks, but they can charge much faster than the standard stations out there right now.

These GE WattStations are capable of charging a car in 4 to 8 hours.  That’s a whole lot faster than the usual 12 to 18 hours that the usual stations provide.  It can handle level 2 charging, that’s 240V.  The specialized home version of the gadget is supposed to become available later in the year.  Then it’s supposed to hit globally next year and you’ll find them on the city streets.

Source: Ubergizmo

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Going out for camping can be fun, but you can bet your bottom dollar that mosquitoes will be part of the equation, so it makes perfect sense to protect yourself from those irritating bites as you would much rather donate your blood to those who need it instead of feeding off the current generation of mosquitoes so that they can multiply even more and bite you and your kids all the more during your next camping trip. The Clip On Mosquito Repeller might just come in handy compared to chemical-based sprays, since it will clip on (as you can tell by its name, obviously) to a belt and repel mosquitoes which are within a 15′ radius of wherever you go. In older days, you might even be deemed to be a wizard with such great power that even nasty mosquitoes prefer to take the path less flown. This is made possible thanks to the device automatically emitting a subtle floral scent of geraniol, a plant-derived essential oil which is also a natural insect repellent. In laboratory tests which were performed by a University of Florida entomologist, geraniol proved to be way effective compared to DEET, a chemical that sees action in most bug repellents. Since the Clip On Mosquito Repeller runs off a silent fan, you need not worry about it driving you nuts instead of the buzzing of mosquitoes. Each geraniol cartridge (two included with each purchase) can last up to 120 hours, where it has a button to turn it on or off. Powered by a couple of AA batteries, give yourself some relief from mosquitoes with this $24.95 purchase.

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Instead of purchasing an eco-friendly water powered calculator and tossing out your old one, only for it to slowly rot in a landfill, you could make your own.  It seems to be a whole lot more eco-friendly to convert your current items into something eco-friendly rather than replacing the gadgets you already own.  Thanks to a tutorial, you could easily make your own earth friendly calculator.

The tools you’ll need include a calculator, carbon or copper rod, a 1 by 1 inch piece of aluminum foil, a small cylindrical container, two 3 inch wires, multipurpose pliers and a glue gun.  The materials are pretty basic, nothing you couldn’t get from your local hardware store.  I imagine this will work like any other calculator powered by water.  You just need to make sure to refill the battery with water when it’s needed.

Source: Instructables

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Recently I wrote up a Philips Kettle that promised to save energy and give you a hot cup of water fast.  However, I have to say after looking over the Breville Hot Cup, I like it a whole lot better.  Granted my reasons may seem a little silly, but I imagine it’ll appeal to a great deal of others.  This device boils just as fast, saving you energy, but you don’t have to refill the water quite so often.

With this you just fill up the tank and then set the size of the cup you’d like to fill.  It’s all pretty basic as far as the usage goes.  Thankfully, despite the simple usage it has a smart design that’ll help you save on your energy bill.  You can purchase it for £59.99 or about $90 through Nigel’s Eco Store.

Source: Envirogadget

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Some of you might remember when we first brought up the Solar Impulse and how it succeeded in making an 87-minute long flight at 5,000 feet. I’ve just learned that the Solar Impulse has completed a 26-hour flight, and it reached an altitude of 28,543 feet.

I believe that I reported a few months ago that they were hoping for a 36 hour flight as part of their next stop, and I am not certain if this last flight exceeds or lowers expectations.

Some of you are probably wondering how the Solar Impulse could achieve its historic flight of 26 hours when there isn’t 26 hours of sun on any given day. The answer is simple: batteries. I’m not certain if these batteries were charged before or during the flight, though.

Either way, it proves that solar power is a definite power source for the airways, which could change just about everything! Assuming that the program is still on track, there is a plan to get the Solar Impulse around the world in 2012.

Of course, you realize that the Solar Impulse is a light plane with 12,000 solar cells, and a jumbo jet would be a whole lot heavier. In other words, there is a whole lot of bugs to be worked out before we flying a solar-powered friendly skies.

Source

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