Eco Factor: Multiple-use development designed to harness solar energy for heat, power and illumination.
The Vertical Village by Graft Lab is a multiple-use development for Dubai, which is designed to provide space for residential, hotel and entertainment facilities, while harnessing solar energy to the maximum. The complex is expected to be certified by a LEED Gold rating.
Eco Factor: Natural-gas-fired power plant to be erected in Slovakia.
Siemens Energy has announced that the company will be erecting a combined cycle power plant in Slovakia that will be powered by natural gas. The power plant is to be developed for E.ON as a turnkey project. The plant will have a gross installed capacity of 430MW, enough to power about 600,000 households with ecofriendly electricity.
Eco Factor: Speaker made from natural materials.
Samsung has announced its newest speakers, the Bio Kelp. The company has tried to change the material of the diaphragm, which is the main part of the speaker that converts electrical signals into sound waves and is the key to sound quality, with something more natural and ecofriendly.
Eco Factor: Zero-emission car designed to be powered by electricity.
Toyota has announced that the company will be launching an all-electric compact car for four at the Tokyo Motor Show. The car, which is smaller than the IQ, is designed for urban driving and is equipped with drive-by-wire technology that is controlled by a joystick.
Eco Factor: Electric train powered by batteries.
While auto manufacturers are looking forward to the best battery technology that can make their upcoming cars fast, silent and zero-emission, Norfolk Southern is taking a technology to locomotives with a prototype battery-powered train, the NS 999.
Eco Factor: Sound installation powered entirely by solar energy.
We’ve seen the use of solar energy in various concept speaker systems and hi-tech headphones. Designer Craig Colorusso is trying to prove the worth of solar energy in the real world by developing a sound installation powered entirely by the energy of the sun.
Eco Factor: Artificial plants capable of generating solar and wind energy.
Taking inspiration from natural forms, industrial designer Jaewon Sim has proposed a self-sufficient forest of artificial and natural plants that can generate renewable energy for electric cars and facilitate the grid with clean energy when the plants aren’t being used. Dubbed Energy Forest, the system requires the installation of natural and artificial Power Plants that generate electricity and harvest rainwater.
Eco Factor: Sea Snake to generate renewable electricity from sea waves.
Of all the potential sources of renewable energy sea waves seem the most promising. However, the high cost of the systems required to harness sea waves and convert them into electricity gives other renewable sources of energy an advantage. After succumbing to crisis in the first attempt, the next-gen Sea Snake developed to harness wave energy in a cost-efficient fashion in ready for northern Scotland.
Eco Factor: Piezoelectric devices embedded on highways to generate electricity from moving cars.
Ten months after a concept was developed at Innowattech, which could solve the global energy crisis, the first practical test of energy generating roadways is being conducted in Israel. The tests were conducted by installing piezoelectric generators underneath a ten-meter strip of asphalt, which could generate about 2000Wh of electricity.
Eco Factor: Sustainable development in Boston will harvest rainwater.
Scheduled to be completed by 2011, the Russia Wharf Tower is taking sustainable construction to a new high. The developers are estimating that the green building will harvest approximately every drop of water that lands on its massive roof, which won’t be released into storm drains, but will be used for air conditioning and landscaping.
