Posts by author:

jasminejaconde

by jasminejaconde on February 6, 2009 · 0 comments

in COMMUNITY

This week, the X Prize Foundation announced a pair of California students won the $25,000 prize for their crazy green idea, an “ultra capacitor” to store energy. This is a new approach to the age-old problem of how to leap forwardin battery design.

The foundation applauded all participants for their innovative ideas including finalist Alan Silva who proposed an off-grid house.
The ideas generated by Silva and more than 130 other participants are being used to help shape a future prize in energy and environment.
A technology consultant and video producer, Silva didn’t have to cast far for an idea. He needed only to look at last summer’s gas- pump prices at $4 a gallon and his own home energy expenses to get his entrepreneurial juices going.
His proposal? Make affordable homes that can provide all of the energy its occupants use. “Being off the grid would save hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, promote energy independence and provide energy security,” says Silva.
The nonprofit X foundation fosters “revolution through competition” to benefit humanity and has awarded prizes up to $30 million in space travel, genomics and transportation.”We were all impressed by the sheer number of ideas submitted and their level of sophistication,” said Peter H. Diamandis, the foundation’s chairman and chief executive officer. “It truly demonstrates how important this issue is to the public at large.”

»Keep reading 'X-prize announced'

Art anywhere

October 31, 2008
Art anywhere

Jet set disaster junkie: Villinski Artist Paul Villinski likes to pop into disaster zones. He fetishises the tools people use in emergencies. His Emergency Response Studio is a solar-powered, mobile artist's studio, repurposed from a salvaged trailer.

»Keep reading 'Art anywhere'

Wave powered computers

September 12, 2008
Wave powered computers

From big oil to big wave The data centres at the heart of the global Internet may soon all be off-grid. Google has filed a patent for a datacentre that uses wave motion to power on-board computers and the ocean's water to cool them

The search giant has filed a patent for a 'floating datacentre' that uses wave motion to power on-board computers and the ocean's water to cool them.

»Keep reading 'Wave powered computers'

Crofting boom

January 13, 2008
Crofting boom Back to the future The off-grid population is growing in the Scottish Highlands at an unprecedented rate. �For the first time in a thousand years that there are more people moving into the Highlands than are moving out,� Professor James Hunter told the Financial Times. If the trend continues, the Highland population will be back at 1851 levels within 20 years, says the professor of History. By 2001 the population of the Highlands and Islands had risen to 434,000, compared with 378,000 40 years before. And, according to the Highland and Islands Enterprise Network, more than half of the newcomers are English. In a region that had been a byword for depopulation the turnaround is extraordinary. A thousand people are on the waiting list of the Crofters Commission, a government agency that establishes whether refugees from the rat-race are in a position to herd cattle. The number of applicants has swollen by a fifth in the past two years, and some people have been waiting 11 years for a croft. Almost half registered are under the age of 40.

»Keep reading 'Crofting boom'

The Drain Brain

December 2, 2007
The Drain BrainEco-plumbing - we're on it! Do you have any questions about off-grid water management? From boreholes to hot showers, rainwater harvesting to greywater treatment, our resident Drain Brain, Cameron McNiece, can help answer your questions. She was one of the first in America to call herself an eco-plumber, and as well as living off-grid herself, she wants to help others make the change. Cameron, from Washington DC, trained as a plumber in San Diego, and has worked for many eco-communities across the continent, installing everything from composting bathrooms to hydro power. She is planning to set up an eco-plumbing course in Cambridge, Mass, and she is looking for other plumbers in the area who are similarly interested.

»Keep reading 'The Drain Brain'

How to be in when you’re out

October 2, 2007
How to be in when you’re outWelwyn says "Get a rug" Off-gridders bent on eking out the last of the warm temperatures and living outdoors as much as possible have propelled demand for decorative outdoor rugs. Diehard Astro buffs can still get their retro fix. The biggest seller is made of 100-per-cent Olephin. And it's now available in a range of shades of green. Consumers' refined sensibilities and tastes are forcing designers to get more creative and make outdoor rugs with an edge, says landscape designer Welwyn Wong. "People are starting to wake up to the idea of outdoor rooms, and rugs help define these outdoor spaces, much the way they do indoors," says the landscape designer, ...

»Keep reading 'How to be in when you’re out'

Sustainable travel? Try walking.

August 13, 2007
Sustainable travel? Try walking....and if you are tired of walking Bedouin Paths, an ethical tourism company based in London, is launching quality hiking tours in Sinai, Egypt. With a sustainable future and the local community in mind, Bedouin Paths will be dedicating a large percentage of the profit from its trips to fund English classes for Bedouin children and develop the Wadi huts in the mountains. The hikes begin in early October.

»Keep reading 'Sustainable travel? Try walking.'

Setback in Wales as planners reject off-grid house

July 27, 2007
Setback in Wales as planners reject off-grid houseWrenches - they'll never give up The first test of a new policy to promote off-grid housing in the Welsh county of Pembrokeshire has ended with a defeat for Tony and Jane Wrench who built a roundhouse in a beautiful field ten years ago and have been fighting the planning authorities ever since. The Pembrokeshire planners decided earlier this month that the hobbit-style home is not suitable for the area, even though it is built entirely of natural materials and uses renewable energy and rainwater. The application for retrospective planning permission was declined on the grounds it could not make a positive environmental contribution and has an adverse impact on the semi-natural habitats in this location. The officers also stated that the development cannot meet the basic needs of the applicants in the long term, because of the yield from the woodland.

»Keep reading 'Setback in Wales as planners reject off-grid house'

State by state guide to green tax incentives

May 29, 2006
State by state guide to green tax incentives

price riseUSA Today last month carried a full list of every US State with details of whether it offered tax rebates or grants for installing renewable energy. The chart on the USA Today web site also offered details of which States mandate net metering – allowing customers to sell power back to the grid. Only New York, California, Oregon, Massachusetts and Maryland are running all three – incentives, rebates and net metering.. Fourteen states are offering just one of the three, and Idaho is offering none – no benefits, no incentives and no metering.

»Keep reading 'State by state guide to green tax incentives'

← Previous Entries