Inspirational and good news.
Solar Panels have met resistance because they are somewhat hard to install, some people have challenged that notion. A new form of photovoltaic cells being tested now (and expected to be in mass production in two years) are based on a fancy solar ink.
This new form of solar power generation will allow for cheaper, and more widely used, solar panels. The experimental cells can even be easily incorporated into clothing.
Thanks, Colin!
Although hydroelectric stations have provisions for stopping fish passage or attractive fish around turbines a small portion go through the hydroelectric turbine. Typically the turbines wins. A new turbine type called an Eco-Bulb turbine handles this problem nicely while improving effeciency. By combining the turbine and generator into one housing (the bulb) many traditional problems with hydroelectric power is mitigated. The new turbines are more effecient, can be used at sites that couldnt be developed before such as old dams that have small flows of water and are fish friendly. Currently the only site in North America with this technology is at Trenton, Ontario at an old dam site that had been adandoned.
The Register is reporting that “[r]esearchers in Singapore have developed a paper battery that is powered by urine. Despite sounding gloriously silly, the breakthrough promises a cheap and disposable power source for home health tests for things like diabetes.”
Go on and read more about the power your urine has.
The sprawling collection of Toronto suburbs in York Region are one day away from a new option in public transit. The new VivaYork system will provide frequent, comfortable and extremely well organized bus service on the Highway 7 and Yonge St corridors, two of York’s most important and congested arteries.
The initial phase will provide Viva buses with signal priority, allowing them to jump queues of traffic at red lights. Later phases are projected to include dedicated busways, LRT’s, and even a subway stretching into York Region. (Anything is possible if gas prices stay high!) With connections to the TTC’s Young Subway line, and a connection to the Sheppard line to come, this fast and reliable service could entice drivers in the heart of York Region to leave their cars at home. Here’s hoping.
CAT is one of the first words a child learns to speak and spell and hopefully the meaning will shift from our feline friends to the new class of compressed air powered cars. Developed by Guy Negre in 2002 Guy’s fundamental shift in design moves away from distributing fossil fuels across vast distance to fuels that are arguably the most abundant, air. C.A.T. (which stands for compressed air technology) cars would be able to fill up virtiouly anywhere in the world for pennies per mile, only the cost to compress air which could be supplied by renewable energy. Within urban areas the car uses compressed air up to speeds of 50 km/h with ZERO pollution. Highway transit uses a mixture of fossil fuels and compressed air. Imagine a world where the resources are so abundant and renewable and accessible that everyone could afford a car and there is little to no pollution and most importantly wars are not fought over resources.