Solar Lampion by Damian O’Sullivan

Unlike many solar lamps, this one by Damian O’Sullivan, has the solar panels incorporated into its design.

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beauty

Battery Recycling Laws for European Union

A week ago the European Union agreed to make battery recycling compulsory within two years. The new law allows for customers to return dead batteries to retail stores, who forward them back to the manufacturers, who must in turn arrange and pay for their recycling. The proposal will also ban batteries containing more than a trace of cadmium and mercury. Initially the plan sets out to recover 25% of all batteries sold by 2012, with this rate rising to 45% by 2016. This will challenge some EU members like Britain, who currently recycle less than 1% of their battery stock. Whereas countries such as Belgium, who’ve been managing 59% recovery rates recently, will be less pained. It appears that batteries in consumer products must be removable by the user, so they can be returned via retail channels. Will this see a change in the design of electronics, like Apple’s famed iPod, which has a fixed battery? According to the EU, about 800,000 tonnes of automotive batteries, 190,000 tonnes of industrial batteries and 160,000 tonnes of portable (consumer) batteries are placed on the European market annually. And as they rightly observe thousands of tonnes of metals, such as nickel, cobalt and silver, will be recovered when batteries are recycled. ::EU Commissioner for the Environment via The Times and BBC News.

Solar Powered Electric Bicycle. Now We’re Talking.

For all those nay sayers, who love to point out that electric powered vehicles probably get their juice from coal or nuclear power plants. Not with this curious beastie they don’t. Photovoltaic panels are built in to the wheels, sort of like those aero discs used in racing bikes to reduce wind drag. Anyhow, the press release for the Canadian developed E-V Sunny Bicycle suggests it is the “first all Solar electric bicycle driven completely from power derived from the Sun’s Rays.” For about $1300 CAD you can apparently coerce dear old Sol to drive the bike along at speeds up to 30kph (19 mph) via the 500 watt motor. A kit is available for $800 CAD, which we assume allows for retrofitting of existing bicycles. Sounds almost too good to be true. Can’t see the motor in this pic, nor is there any explanation of how the power is extracted from the spinning wheels. We do hope it turns out to be bona fide though, could be an intriguing development in urban transport. ::E-V Sunny Bicycle, via EV World.

but wouldn\’t you just blind everybody? maybe that\’s the gimmick…

Air Pollution Guerrilla Marketing in Chicago

“The shape and text was created by power-washing filthy sidewalks using a large stencil form. [..] Sidewalks are usually very filthy and just the thought you could make your point by creating a clean spot instead of a dirty one is one to cherish. This is a form of non-destructive guerrilla marketing in it’s purest form.” What a good idea! Any readers from Chicago saw them? Via ::Coolz0r, ::Ads of the World

smart!

Quietrevolution

The UK-based low-carbon engineering and consultancy firm, XCO2, has brought visual art to wind-energy generation with a new vertical-axis wind turbine called quietrevolution.

quietrevolution is silent, vibration-free, and well-suited to both dense urban areas and open spaces. With a single moving part and a compact helical S-blade, the turbine makes wind power simple and durable.

It also makes windpower beautiful — XCO2 has a model which they call “windlights” that contains LEDs embedded in the blades. The spinning, self-generating light creates a colored light show. What better way to get people excited about wind energy and LEDs?

Energy yield and payback projections can be found in this brochure.

via: Transmaterial

(Posted by Sarah Rich in A Newly Electric Green – Sustainable Energy, Resources and Design at 01:13 PM)

Worldmapper

Their tagline: “Worldmapper: The world as you’ve never seen it before”
If you really think about it, that’s quite easy to say about everything. Even the normal world map that we’ve all come to use as navigation reference isn’t quite exactly like how we see it with our own eyes. However, this project does have some interesting statistics, if you’re the kind of person who wonders about the world at large. It actually reminds me very much of the big spread in the Colors #4 issue that reconfigured the world map according to the population (thus India was way huge) and GNP (which made Japan and the US five times larger) — tho I have to admit that the Colors’ maps looked much better, more impressive, and made a bolder statement in print, but good design usually start with good information. so here’s to good information.
Worldmapper’s land area (regular map as we know it)

Worldmapper’s population

Browse all 56 different maps here

The World’s Highest Eco Station

Where’s the best place to measure all the pollution blowing in from smog-producing factories in China and India? How about Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. This month, Italy opened an eco station on Everest’s 16,600-foot level, as reported by the ANSA news agency. The Italians carted 18 tons of equipment up the mountain by hand—a feat necessary due to the sensitivity of the measuring devices.

Italians? really??