Alexbenady

Water Powered Charger

Time was, the phrase ‘water powered’ meant driven by the force of a river or torrent. Lately, it acquired a new resonance with the launch of a pocket-sized charger that needs just a few drops of the stuff to make it work.

The Powertrekk  from Swedish company myFC was launched at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, with the slogan ‘Instant Power Anywhere’.

On the down side, the Powertrekk only works with devices that use a USB, but it has the potential to make being off-grid easier. The company says it needs just a tablespoon of water to work.

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Energy

Not enough wind to go around

Windpower not infinitely sustainable as thought previously – wave power also affected

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Mobile driving millions off the grid and on the cloud

The demand for mobile phone services has outstripped grid-bound electricity supply in 32 countries

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Off-gridders flee ‘solar Katrina’

One Florida family has bought an old chicken coop in West Virginia as an off-grid bolt hole fearing solar storms that could do twenty times more damage than hurricane Katrina

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People

Chinese greener than US

The common perception of China is a culture so hell-bent on economic growth that it doesn’t have time for the luxury of environmental awareness. That view needs to be revised if a raft of recent surveys of Chinese attitudes to the environment are to be believed.  Study after study has found that Chinese consumers are in fact significantly greener than their western counterparts when it comes to concern for the environment and preparedness to act on global warming.
As the number of Americans worried about climate change declines, Chinese consumers are undergoing a green revolution according to a survey by market research company Nielsen and Oxford University.  31% of Chinese consumers identify the environment as a higher priority than the economy, compared to 17% of U.S. consumers and 28% of UK consumers. The number of Chinese consumers who describe themselves as “very concerned” about the environment has increased in the last year from 30% to 36%.

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Water

Can this bucket save the world?

Pieter Hoff’s Groais is an off-grid tree incubator that could help reforest an area the size of Canada wiping out our carbon emissions in the process.

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Can solar crash the grid?

Uptake of solar in Germany has been so great that the sudden appearance of the sun could generate so much power that it blows the county’s grid.

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Energy

Power for remote cell-phones (and everything else)

Fenix International has launched a new battery designed for the rigours of life off-grid in the developing world

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NPower rips its customers again

One of the UK’s biggest power companies has been caught with its hand in its customers pockets –again, and has been forced by regulators to pay back nearly $100m in refunds.

Electricity giant NPower which was fined nearly £2m last year for mis-selling contracts is to pay 1.8m customers an average of $50 each following a three year row over changes to its pricing structure. The internet is alive with furious customers telling the tales of their own rip-off, like this customer who calls the company  “the devil’s own vomit.”

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Events

Low-tech Biomimetics – wag the dog

How a clothing company invented a better moutaineering jacket by learning from a damp dog.

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Events

World’s first pedal-powered Sub

Step.hane Rousson madce the world’s first pedal powered air ship. Now he’s made the world’s first pedal powered sub marine

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For millions, nowhere to turn

With 15 percent of all household loans are already past-due or in foreclosure, off-grid living is the only solution for many Americans.

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