Tag: ALTERNATIVEENERGY

Now that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cracked down on the sale of Four Loko, what's there to do with all the excess product? According to an Associated Press report, MXI Environmental Services, a waste-management company in Virginia, has been buying truckloads of the caffeinated malt beverage, and will recycle it to get pure ethanol. That's right, the alcoholic energy drink that used ...

The Directly Downwind Faster Than the Wind (DDWFTTW) debate provides one of the most entertaining geek arguments of all time, and that's a hardy feat, given the glut of endless discussions about preeminent sci-fi franchises, video game violence and Internet addiction. A (brilliant) kill-joy, Rick Cavallaro, may have just rendered the debate obsolete, though, as his wind-powered car recently ...

Scientists at the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Research Center have successfully developed the first solar cells printed on paper, using a process similar to inkjet printing. Organic semiconductors in the form of carbon-based dyes were applied to paper, resulting in a solar cell with a 1.5- to 2-percent sunlight conversion efficiency rate. (Current thin-film solar cells have achieved record efficiency ...

Last May, scientists completed the construction of the National Ignition Facility, a massive undertaking that includes the largest laser in the world. Even though the last year harbored significant doubts about the future of the project, researchers remain optimistic that they'll eventually use it to successfully solve the energy crisis. CNN recently enjoyed a tour of the laser facility at ...

Scientists have searched from sea to sun in the exploration for alternative energy sources. Researchers at the University of Michigan have turned to sound; an unexpected, yet abundant source of energy. Scientists at U of M's Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems have created miniature generators that produce energy from random vibrations, such as the sound of a ...

Share We've told you about power plants that pull electricity from garbage. We've reported on a Formula 3 car that draws its power from chocolate. We even knew a guy that knew a guy, back in high school, who rigged his father's riding lawnmower to run on his grandfather's white lightning. Well, thanks to a few brainy Brits, we can now add coffee to the ever-growing list of funny fuels. ...

Wind farms have become big business on the island of Sicily, and, according to FOX News, mafia goodfellas have begun tapping into the earth's resources for monetary gain. Both the Italian government and the European Union subsidize the farms and offer health benefits to mill farm operators, unintentionally providing mafiosi with incentive to get in on the Wind Boom. After discovering that ...

We've seen some interesting attempts at alternative fuels, not the least of which was Britain's Prince Charles powering his classic Aston Martin with wine. This latest one may take the cake, though -- a dark cake, as it were. A group of scientists and racing engineers at London's University of Warwick have developed a Formula 3 race car that runs on waste produced by the chocolate industry. ...

Environmentalists would have you believe that leaving the faucet running while you brush your teeth puts an unnecessary drain on the environment. We always disagreed, and if Jin Woo Han's concept Mini Hydro Turbine ever goes into production we might finally have something to back up our argument. The device would capture the "free" energy of your tap to spin a little generator, in theory ...

The transmutation of garbage into energy is a particularly modern form of alchemy. We've seen it done on a smaller scale in the past, but now a company called Geoplasma is assembling the country's first plasma refuse plant in St. Lucie County, Florida. Scheduled to go online by 2011, the plant will process 1,500 tons of garbage a day, adding 60 megawatts to the power grid -- enough energy to ...

A new design by The Green Revolution, Inc. is turning stationary bikes into mini-power plants, reports CNN. Green Revolution founder and CEO Jay Whelan has designed -- in conjunction with an engineer -- a machine that converts energy expended on exercise equipment into electricity. At present, the company has outfitted only exercise bikes with the technology, although Whelan says that other ...

The ocean is finally being used for something other than porpoise sex and yachting (with all due respect to porpoise sex.) Or, in other words, for the first time ever, the power of tidal energy has finally been harnessed commercially. The Seagen, an underwater turbine located in Northern Ireland's Strangford Lough (a large bay bordering the Irish Sea) recently generated enough green energy to ...

Oh sure, Rock Port, Missouri managed to snag the title of being "100% wind powered," but Texas' new plan will make the Show Me state's gusty initiatives look awfully weak. Officials at the Public Utility Commission recently okayed a plan to "build billions of dollars worth of new transmission lines to bring pollution-free energy from West Texas to urban areas." The ginormous Lone Star state is ...

Unlike Rock Port, Missouri, the entire state of Delaware won't be 100-percent wind-powered after Bluewater Wind constructs a $1.6 billion wind park just off its shore, but the state will be able to "light about 50,000 homes a year" for the duration of the 25-year contract. Said agreement was just nailed down between the aforesaid firm and Delmarva Power, and it hopes to start powering homes via ...