The Window Socket is an idea so fabulously simple, it’s slightly amazing that we haven’t seen one before. Designed by Kyuho Song & Boa Oh, the charger sticks to a window and draws solar power to an internal battery, which enables one to either plug in small devices to the outlet right there and then, or save the stored power for use during night time hours.

Read the rest of Window Socket: Portable Solar-Powered Outlet Sticks to Windows, Charges Small Electronics

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Post tags: Boa Oh, green energy, Kyuho Song, off grid charger, off grid living, portable outlet, portable socket, portable solar, solar battery, solar charger, solar devices, window socket

The United States has been doing a good job of cutting carbon in recent years. Emissions are down 12% in the last 5 years, and half of those cuts have come in the power sector where natural gas, wind and solar have been replacing coal. But when it to comes to electricity emissions from the home, we still have a lot of work to do. In a comparison of sixty countries, we found only Saudis have bigger electricity footprints. The average American uses 4,700 kWh in the home each year, costing them $600 and generating almost three tons of carbon emissions. Getting smart about tackling your electricity use can slash both your power bill and your carbon footprint. Learn more at Shrink That Footprint.

+ Shrink That Footprint

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Post tags: average american carbon footprint, average emissions USA, cut your energy bill, emissions, emissions of the average american, green energy, reduce your carbon footprint, us emissions

Inhabitat is reporting live from the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference today, where Verizon just announced a massive $100 million solar and fuel cell energy project that will provide power to 19 of its U.S. facilities. The project is expected to be complete next year, and it’s poised to generate more than 70 million kilowatt-hours of electricity – that’s enough to power more than 6,000 single-family homes each year.

Read the rest of Verizon Announces $100 Million Green Energy Project to Power 19 US Facilities

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Post tags: "solar energy", eco design, fuel cells, green design, green energy, Solar Power, sustainable design, verizon, verizon fuel cells, verizon green energy project, verizon launches green energy project, verizon solar power, verizon sustainability, verizon wireless

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Post tags: "A liter of Light", "clean energy", david de rothschild, Eco Architecture, Green Building, green energy, hydroponics, Ilac Diaz, low tech, manilla, Philippines, plastiki, Recycled Materials, recycled plastic bottle pavilion, renewable energy, South Africa, Stephen Lamb, Sustainable Building, Touching the Earth Lightly

Lockheed Martin just announced plans to partner with the Reignwood Group to construct the world’s largest Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) plant off the coast of southern China. The OTEC process—which uses the temperature difference between the cold waters of the deep ocean and warm surface waters to generate electricity—is nothing new, but few facilities have ever been constructed. The floating pilot plant will generate 10MW of electricity – enough to power the Reignwood Group’s planned net-zero energy resort on the nearby mainland.

Read the rest of World’s Largest Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Plant Planned for China

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Post tags: "clean energy", china energy, green energy, lockeed martin, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, OTEC, reignwood group, renewable energy, ridgewood, thermal energy, water energy

The UN recently outlined its development goals for 2030 at a conference in Olso, where Director General of the U.N. Industrial Development Organization Kandeh Yumkella stated that air pollution is a bigger killer than AIDS and malaria combined. He went on to say that the transition towards cleaner energy sources could cut this death toll 50% by 2030.

Read the rest of UN Says Air Pollution Kills More People Than AIDS and Malaria Combined; Clean Energy Could Halve Death Toll

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Post tags: air pollution, Air quality, alternative energy, green energy, Kandeh Yumkella, pollution deaths, renewable energy, UN Industrial Development Organization, World Health Organization

March marked a historic month for renewable energy, as for first time ever 100% of new utility electricity generation added to the US grid came from solar power. According to a report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), seven solar projects in California, Nevada, New Jersey, Hawaii, Arizona, and North Carolina added 44MW to the grid. It may not be a particularly jaw-dropping figure, but as projects from other energy sources added no new generation, solar’s record month does point to a promising outlook for the industry.

Read the rest of Solar Power Comprised 100% of Utility Electricity Added to US Grid in March

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Post tags: "wind power", green energy, nrg energy, renewable energy, renewables grid, SEIA, solar capacity, solar electricity, solar grid, solar industry energy, solar plant, Solar Power

There’s a common belief that even as solar power takes off, utility companies will retain their hold on energy markets as the need for standard electrical grids remain. But a report from the Edison Electrical Institute (EEI), a trade group of US utilities, doesn’t have a particularly optimistic outlook for their own long-established business model. They predict solar-based off-grid power usage to take off, which could cause rates for conventional utilities to skyrocket. Ostensibly, they fear the demise of their industry.

Read the rest of US Utilities Fear Obsolescence as Off-Grid Solar Power Rises

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Post tags: "clean energy", coal power, david crane, duke energy, edison electrical institute, eei, energy cost, fossil fuels, future of fossil fuels, green energy, nrg energy, nuclear power, Solar Power, us utilities

Renewable energy just hit a new landmark in India and Italy, as Deutsche Bank reports that solar power is finally available at the same cost as traditional electricity in the two countries. The bank’s global solar demand forecast for 2014 also predicts that demand for solar power will soar 20% – particularly in China, the U.S. and the U.K. The German bank expects India and Italy’s achievement to inspire other countries, making solar power accessible to even more consumers.

Read the rest of Solar Energy Reaches Grid Parity in India and Italy

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Post tags: Deutsche Bank, eco design, global solar demand, green design, green energy, India solar power parity, Itlay solar power parity, renewable energy, sustainable design

The Algae Curtain-a is living photosynthesising textile installation that was developed as part of the Energy Futures Project by studio Loop.pH in Lille, France. Commissioned by EDF and Lille3000 for the Festival Fantastic 2012, it forms part of the ongoing research by Loop.pH studio into living metabolic textiles. The design is made up of transparent tubes knotted into large architectural drapes suspended in sunny windows. Living algae is pumped through the textile soaking up the daytime sun and photosynthesizing to produce a bio-fuel that can be used locally. Microscopic algae grow ten times faster than trees and can produce huge amounts of oil through photosynthesis. The Algae Curtain-a provides a permanent support infrastructure for the “Future Fruits” (the harvest of the energy) and together form micro-ecologies networked with a tangle of living plastic. The capsules can be considered an evolution of the everyday battery, but grown from living matter to be harvested.

+ Loop.pH

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Post tags: "clean energy", algae curtain, Algae Curtain-a, algae fuel, bio fuel, eco energy, green energy, LOOP.PH, Photosynthesizing Textile

Range anxiety is a much-discussed concern among drivers—and potential drivers—of electric vehicles, and in attempt to thwart it, automakers are trying to install more EV charging stations, offering free gas-powered rentals for longer trips and, of course, developing batteries with a substantially longer range. Israeli start-up Phinergy believes they might just have the answer: aluminum-air batteries that can go for thousands of miles on a single charge. This alone might sound like it’s on the ambitious side, but the company believes the batteries could be installed in production vehicles as soon as 2017!

Read the rest of Phinergy’s Recyclable Aluminum-Air Battery Could Power Electric Vehicles for Thousands of Miles

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Post tags: aluminum air, Car Battery, electric car, electric vehicle, ev battery, green energy, green transportation, phinergy, range anxiety, recycle battery

You may have heard of the Cape Wind project, the long-stalled renewable energy project that sparked a legal battle that went all the way to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. The project is in the news again, but this time it’s for a good reason: The offshore wind farm is back on track with funding secured and a green light from the Obama administration. Construction should begin later this year, and once completed, it will be the first offshore wind farm in the United States.

Read the rest of Construction to Finally Begin on the First Offshore Wind Farm in the United States

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Post tags: cape wind, Cape Wind Nantucket, Cape Wind project, First US wind farm, green energy, Nantucket wind farm Massachusetts wind farm, New England offshore wind farm, offshore wind, Offshore Wind Farm, us green energy, us renewable energy, us wind farm, William Koch

Read the rest of Soundscraper Transforms Vibrations from City Noise Pollution into Green Energy

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Post tags: "sustainable energy", Cedric Dounval, Design, eco design, evolo skyscraper competition, green energy, Julien Bourgeois, kinetic energy, Olivier Colliez, Romain Grouselle, Savinien de Pizzol, Soundscraper, sustainable design

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.

Read the rest of Quetsol CEO Lives in the Dark to Raise Funding for Pay-As-You-Go Solar Power in Guatemala

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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

Honda and SolarCity has announced a new $65 million partnership to make solar power more affordable and available to Honda and Acura customers in the U.S. The partnership seeks to provide a cleaner source of electricity at a lower cost than utility-supplied power. Additionally, they hope to address global climate change by reducing CO2 emissions from home, business, and transportation energy use.

Read the rest of Honda and SolarCity Team Up to Provide Affordable Solar Power

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Post tags: "solar energy", charging electric cars, dealerships, electric cars, green energy, Honda, renewable energy, Solar Power, solarcity

With the closing of the Richard H. Gorsuch Station coal-fired power plant, a group of 83 municipalities in Ohio were faced with the dilemma of how to establish a new energy plan by 2013. While a core group, known as American Municipal Power, collectively made a choice to establish a contract with another dirty coal power plant, the city of Oberlin has instead opted to source their energy from garbage! So far, the city is receiving 55% of its power from two nearby landfills.

Read the rest of Oberlin, Ohio Uses Landfill Garbage to Provide Clean Energy For its Residents

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Post tags: American Municipal Power, Black and Veatch, garbage, green energy, landfill gas, Mahoning County Landfill, Oberlin, OHIO, renewable energy, Waste, Waste Management Renewable Energy LLC

Electromagnetic fields are almost impossible to get away from in our modern environment—they come from phones, televisions, radios, power sockets and even from thunderstorms. And while we go about our day, blithely unaware of the currents around us, a student at the University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany, decided that he would attempt to harvest their energy. As a result, Dennis Siegel created a small device that can be placed near the source of a field to charge batteries, creating energy from the wasted energy all around us.

Read the rest of Electromagnetic Harvester Charges Batteries by Using the Currents that Surround Us Every Day

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Post tags: Ambient current energy, ambient energy harvester, battery recharging, Dennis Siegel charger, Dennis Siegel electromagnetic harvester, electromagnetic battery charger, Electromagnetic Harvester, green battery charger, green energy, kinetic energy, University of the Arts Bremen, wasted energy harvester

Strawberry Energy recently unveiled a new solar powered park in Belgrade that invites visitors to charge their mobile devices using the power of the sun. Designed by Tamara Švonja and Vojin Stojadinović, Strawberry Tree Flow was created with the help of the City of Belgrade and Mikser organization. The design team says: “Elements are connected by the energy which is visually presented with the pipes holding all modular elements, and through which solar energy flows. It [invites] visitors to explore, track and find a place where solar energy comes to him/her.”

+ Strawberry Energy

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Post tags: Belgrade, green design, green energy, green park, misker organization, renewable energy, Solar Power, Strawberry Energy, Strawberry Tree Flow, Strawberry Tree Flow Solar Park, sustainable design, Tamara Svonja, Urban design, Vojin Stojadinovic

As the largest military force on the planet, the US Department of Defense (DoD) is also the largest consumer of energy in the world. Every year, the combined forces use 3.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 120 million barrels of oil, totaling around $20 billion. In order to save some cash and to avoid having to purchase fossil fuels from countries hostile to American interests, the DOD plans on drastically increasing its renewable energy capabilities. In a report published this week by Pike Research, the U.S. military intends to ramp up its existing 80-megawatt renewables capacity four-fold to 3,200 megawatts by 2025.

Read the rest of US Military Slated to Quadruple Renewable Energy Installations by 2025

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Post tags: "wind power", air force, army, biomass, department of defense, dod, fuel cell, geothermal, green energy, hydrokinetic, navy, Pike Research, renewable energy, report, solar, us military

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have engineered blue-green algae that could help replace fossil fuels as raw materials for the chemical industry. The researchers engineered algae, or cyanobacteria, can be used to convert carbon dioxide into a chemical used to make paint, solvents, plastics and fuels.


Read the rest of UC Davis Researchers Engineer Blue-Green Algae to Make Fuel From Sunlight

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Post tags: Asahi Kasei Corp, Atsumi lab UC Davis, biofuels, chemical feedstocks, chemical industry, cyanobacteria, green energy, green technology, lab grown biofuels, scientific research, sun-powered bacteria, university of california davis