energy sources – Page 2 – DesignApplause

Greenzero chargers by bracketron.

Jan 22, 2012

click > enlarge

I always cringe when I visit a company’s website and read the words “eco-friendly” in their ad copy. The dubious catch phrase means everything and nothing all at the same time. I’ve even seen plastic bags advertised as “eco-friendly,” for chrissakes. But Bracketron, a company that makes phone accessories, may have actually produced a true energy saver in their line of GreenZero Chargers.

All three chargers (for home, travel and car) shut off automatically when your phone is fully charged, putting an end to phantom energy as well as ‘top-off stress’ on your phone’s battery (yes, even your phone gets stressed out). While it’s not the “most eco-friendly and efficient way to charge mobile devices,” as their site claims – my mom has them beat with her solar powered charger hub – it’s definitely better than the current energy sucking system, and at $22-$29, it’s affordable, too.

about perrin drumm

Solar forests.

Apr 27, 2010

Many of the most unpleasant aspects of urban life are caused by cars.

Large sweltering expanses of tarmac in cities contribute heavily to urban temperatures. Cars also become unbearably hot in summer sitting in these urban deserts.

Optimizing the heliostatic photovoltaic panels ultimately evolved into their leaflike shape. Though the concept did not intentionally look to mimic the form of a tree, the panels rotate to follow the path of the sun throughout the day – much like sunflowers – absorbing light whilst also providing optimal shading for cars. Although all parked cars can benefit from shading, electric vehicles can directly charge their batteries by plugging into the solar trees.

Solar Tree is unique among anti-auto pollution designs in that it empathizes with the automobile, but particularly with the electric car, providing a place for overworked, spent cars to regain their lost torque, to relax beneath the trees, to gain back their juice in an optimal stress-free environment.

Produce: solar tree
Designer: neville mars
[via] burb

Philippe starck designs micro wind turbines.

Mar 27, 2010

philippe starck, creator of high-tech lamps, modern-style furniture, and chic hotels, has revealed two highly-anticipated wind turbine designs for home use. “Revolutionair,” the sleek turbines were officially debuted after a lengthy 2 years of research and work.

images from presentation

The “Revolutionair” turbine is “revolutionary” because they’re designed for homeowners. That means wind turbines in yards, gardens, or on roofs to generate power for their households. The clear quadrangular 400W WT model has a power output of 400W and the helicoidal 1KW WT one will be able to generate 1 KW of power.

The designer turbines will be produced by Italy’s Pramac and will sell for around $3,800 USD (quadrangular) and $6,000 USD (helicoidal).

“We have to help people to produce energy, to be part of the fight,” Starck said at the unveiling in Milan. “Energy should not be a punishment, we should create a desire (among people to produce it).”

Designer: philippe starck
Producer: pramac

High voltage design.

Apr 2, 2009

Architect Dietmar Koering of Arphenotype has designed these electricity pylons for a competition to envisage a new power transmission network in Iceland.

Each pylon to be between 17 and 32 meters tall, with the shape of each varying according to its
longitude and latitude.

Project Overview:
Adaptability is an distinction of evolution, but today’s instant variations in [virtual] extended phenotypes call for something stronger: adaptability of nature! In nature material is used with optimum efficiency. Cells continually adapt to precisely fulfill their function.

Through researching organic forms and their production methods the intelligence of the material itself should support the design language, the lightness and stiffness. Fibrous systems and computation is the answer for this new task. Fibrous system in biology: inspiration! Like in the evolution through phenotypes, the production is based on a clear code; where the evolution part and the random variation is bounded to the specific landscape and site.

Architectural form and its relationship to nature, environment and society has rich antecedents to the human body. The idea is that the power net is building one main spine of nowadays society which enables living on a high standard in an age of communication; therefore the spines of the power net reflects an organic language.

The organic structure is covered with a high reflective “lotus-effect” color. It will be cleaned through natural weather conditions and will reflect the nature itself, which strengthens the idea of a graphical integration to the landscape. The final tower will blend into its environment physical and virtual. It creates a feedback loop in the observed system.

Each transmission tower is shaped in height between 17m and 32m by computer-driven equipment according to its site / longitude and latitude. This approach permits the structures to be modeled and easily fabricated translating into a reasonable cost.

Construction::
For maximum strength and stability the construction method is based on the idea of a Tripod. Once the parameters are set, it is just the location of tower by latitude and longitude, which will result in unique towers.

Material:
The main material used for the towers is an aramid-fibre-matrix bounded with eco resin through thermosetting, which gives the material stability to degration, UV, weathering and wind. The main structure will be built through filament winding and resin transfer molding. This material allows also in computer aided manufacturing an organic design language without much more costs. The thickness of the material will change through the whole system, calculated by software to adapt the stiffness to site + location and natural forces like wind.

The towers will be prefabricated and mounted on site on concrete foundation, which will support the idea of natural material on site.

Today’s pursuit to build lightweight for economic, material engineering and environmental reasons is the logical response to today’s changing society where flexibility is the prime survival quality.

Future:
Once the system is set up it will be a leading manufacturing site for fibrous systems. The high tech environment makes it hard to copy the design language and production method, which leads to a unique company.

The competition’s organizers Landsnet the Association of Icelandic Architects.

Ten wind turbines.

Jan 29, 2009

If wind turbines are a turn-on for you… (more…)

Wind turbines.

Oct 2, 2008

This running feature began in 2008 to develop a story on the state of wind
turbine design. The most current news was inserted February 2010 below.

(top two photos) The world’s largest wind turbine ( in 2008 ) is was the Enercon E-126. This turbine has a rotor diameter of 126 meters (413 feet).

October 2008
The E-126 is a more sophisticated version of the E-112, formerly the world’s largest wind turbine and rated at 6 megawatts. This new turbine is officially rated at 6 megawatts too, but will most likely produce 7+ megawatts (or 20 million kilowatt hours per year). That’s enough to power about 5,000 households of four in Europe. A quick US calculation would be 938 kwh per home per month, 12 months, that’s 11,256 kwh per year per house. That’s 1776 American homes on one wind turbine.

These turbines are equipped with a number of new features: an optimized blade design with a spoiler extending down to the hub, and a pre-cast concrete base. Due to the elevated hub height and the new blade profile, the performance of the E-126 is expected to by far surpass that of the E-112.

One of the more unexpected charms of driving through the Spanish countryside is the proliferation of windmills, especially in the windier, higher plateau areas in the north of the country. We’re not talking about charming medieval ones that Quixote took for giants either — Spain ( below two photos ) is rapidly becoming one of Europe’s leaders in green energy, and broad acceptance of wind power is a big part of it.

In 2007 Spain’s wind power production record was 27% at the time. That seemed like a lot, but a week ago, Spain’s wind turbines produced 40.8% of total demand, or 9,862 megawatts of power.

There’s a catch, though. The previous record was 10,032 megawatts, but that was 28% of total consumption because it happened during a week day and demand was higher. So this new record is a relative record, while the previous one stands as the absolute best in electricity produced. Still, it’s impressive and we hope that others will pay attention and realize that it can be done.

February 2010 ( left ) norway plans to build the world’s most powerful offshore wind turbine like this in 2011.

With a rotor diameter of 475 feet and a height of 533 feet, the 10-megawatt prototype will be roughly three times more powerful than ordinary wind turbines currently in place, hoping the new technology will increase the profitability of costly offshore wind farms.

What if there’s too much wind?
The turbines are built to catch the wind. But what happens if there is too much wind?

There are new generators that are being developed that will better withstand turbulent wind at the same time capable of generating more megawatts. The photo and video below shows one such design.

Global warming has moved our attention to alternative energy generation. We are going to explore what is out there. We want to look at both engineering and aesthetics. Help us grow the story through your comments.

Resources:
treehugger
grist
trends updates