In Guatemala, over half a million homes are without electricity. That means these families rely on candles or kerosene lamps to do homework, read or eat dinner at night. Quetsol, a renewable energy company based in Guatemala, is seeking to address this with pay-as-you-go solar kits that provide affordable power. To help raise funding for the project, Quetsol’s CEO is staying in a completely dark room until the company reaches a goal of $50,000.

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Post tags: green electricity Guatemala, green energy, Guatemala Solar Power, Guatemalan power, Juan Rodriguez, Pay As You Go Rural Electricity, Quetsol PAYG, Quetsol Solar power, Rural electricity

Read the rest of NAIAS 2013: Chinese Automaker Guangzhou Shows Off Three Green Electric and Hybrid Models in Detroit

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Post tags: 2013 Detroit Auto Show, 2013 NAIAS, detroit auto show, electric car, electric concept car, extended-range EV, green cars, green transportation, Guangzhou Automobile Group, Guangzhou E-Jet Concept, Guangzhou Trumpchi 4WD Hybrid, hybrid car, Laura K. Cowan, NAIAS, north american international auto show, Trumpchi GS5-BEV

Read the rest of Brisbane’s Dramatic Ecosciences Precinct is a Model for Eco Laboratories in Australia

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", 4 star green rating, arup, brisbane, eco design, eco lab, eco laboratory, ecosciences precinct, energy efficient design, green architecture, Green Building, green design, hassell, lab, queensland, Sustainable Building, sustainable design

Electric vehicle platform maker TREXA has just unveiled a new production prototype in conjunction with filing for a patent for the company’s unique Enertube energy storage system. TREXA’s Enertube is a tubular chassis frame that serves as both the backbone of the vehicle platform and a housing for a scalable battery pack. The coolest thing about this new design is its flexibility: the Enertube can be sized up or down along with the chassis size to create a whole range of electric vehicles, from 7kWh of storage capacity for a small buzz-around-town EV to 100 kWh for a tractor trailer. And is that a hotrod-happy pushrod suspension you see in the photo?

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Post tags: alternative energy vehicle, alternative transportation, electric car, electric vehicle, Enertube, EV prototype, green automotive design, Seth Seaberg, trexa

There is a battle that rages inside every environmentally conscious driver between getting better mileage with a diesel or to go for a hybrid and cut emissions. Now, you can get the best of both worlds with the Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4, which is the world’s first production diesel-fueled hybrid vehicle.

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Post tags: diesel, hybrids, New Cars, Peugeot, Peugeot 3008

Happy Earth Day! (or screw earth day, depending on your point of view) This Earth Day, we’re feeling conflicted about the mixed meanings that Earth Day has for the environmental movement and environmental progress. Since Earth Day is meant to be a day about finding a global perspective on the state of our environment, we thought we’d take a poll of our contributors to see what Earth Day means to each of them. As we turn the page on the 39th annual celebration of the planet that we all call home, we asked our writers to share their plans on how they plan to spend April 22, 2009. From Australia and Sweden to San Francisco and New York City, here’s a look at what Earth Day means to different Inhabitat writers. We’d love to hear from you. How do you plan to spend YOUR Earth Day, and what does this holiday mean to you? Make sure you respond, because our favorite response wins an Inhabitat T-shirt!

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Post tags: earth day 2009, green design, green movement, sustainable design, sustainable lifestyle, team inhabitat