Tag: ELECTRICITY

What would you do for a free meal? According to BBC News, the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen is giving guests a $36 meal voucher if they ride an exercise bicycle for 15-minutes -- or until they produce 10-watts of electricity. This program, which launches April 19th, will not only reduce the hotel's carbon footprint, but it will keep guests healthy. An iPhone that shows how much power your legs ...

Plenty of people talk about 'green' technology these days, but we rarely consider where it all started. No, it wasn't with Al Gore. According to the Daily Mail, the world's first solar panel was recently discovered and put on display last week at a British antiques show. Most surprising of all, the device still works almost 60 years after it was created. A British science teacher built the ...

You know the saying: everything's bigger in Texas. Apparently, that even holds true for batteries. According to DVICE, the border town of Presidio has constructed what it claims is the country's largest battery. Best of all, it's earned the local nickname 'BOB,' which is an acronym for 'big ol' battery.' The room-sized sodium sulfur (NaS) battery can supply the entire town with 4-megawatts of ...

People are starting to look to the oceans to produce clean energy, and a couple of Korean researchers have come up with a unique way to harvest power from the high seas. According to Wired, Park Chul and Kim Jongchul recently wrote a proposal that envisions using a giant kite to tow a large ship with a hydroelectric turbine attached to its hull. Essentially, the system would create a floating ...

A toy that reads your brain waves to manipulate a foam ball sounds fun -- until said toy begins manipulating other things, too. Like your body's pain receptors. Doesn't sound too thrilling to us, but a few geeks apparently thought it'd be a great idea. According to GeekoSystem, some folks at Harcos Laboratories took Mattel's Mindflex and hacked it to deliver a painful electric shock to the ...

Couch potatoes aren't known for having an adventurous streak. But that might change with the debut of a new ocean vessel. According to Marine Business World, a zero-emissions "sofa boat" that's powered by an electric engine was a hit at the recent Abu Dhabi Yacht Show. Designed and built by Abra Marine, the 11-foot "green" boat has a comfy couch that'll seat three passengers and is covered by a ...

Share Everybody wants efficient, inexpensive, clean energy. But, problem is, nobody seems to know just how to produce it. Now, one man is certain that his new technology will turn this dream into reality. According to Engadget, K.R. Sridhar, founder of Bloom Energy, unveiled his "Bloom Box" on Sunday's episode of '60 Minutes' (video from the show after the break). With two small blocks, each ...

Share Back in December, Google took steps to form Google Energy, a subsidiary created for the express purpose of buying and selling electricity in bulk. In January, the company filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to enter the market, and yesterday received permission to purchase and resell wholesale energy (PDF). Google says it made the move primarily to better ...

Remember when researchers at Stanford University turned paper into batteries? Well, they haven't stopped there. According to TG Daily, engineer Yi Cui and his team have created clothes that can recharge your electronic devices. By injecting the fabric with a carbon nanotube ink, the researchers were able to coax the cloth into holding an electric charge. It's like wearing a battery. Best of all, ...

Want greener energy without having to install large, gaudy solar panels on your house? Join the club. But what was once wishful thinking might soon be reality. According to ABC Science, scientists have created a way to harness sunlight and convert it into electricity by connecting a photovoltaic cell to fiber-optic wiring that's barely wider than a human hair. (Note that it doesn't actually use ...

Despite its wares being billed as "non-lethal," we'd rather not find ourselves on the business end of a product from Taser International, which designs weapons that use a strong dose of electricity to incapacitate people. After learning about the company's latest venture, we don't think we'll change our minds any time soon, either. According to New Scientist, Taser is set to deliver prototypes of ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/10/22/how-much-electricity-does-it-take-to-run-the-web/'; Ever wonder exactly how much electricity it takes to run the Internet? All those Tweets, e-mails, and YouTube videos aren't powered by magic fairy dust, it takes electricity, and lots of it, to store and spread this content. US Infrastructure (magazine) decided to examine the stats, and then put ...

Many people would love to build an entirely "green" house. But "going green" isn't always cheap or practical. That's why we're so excited about Dow Chemical's new solar-powered shingles, which are meant to be used on asphalt-tiled roofs. According to The New York Times, the Powerhouse thin-film shingle can be installed by most roofers, and they're durable, too. You can even drop one from a roof, ...

Given that Florida has accurately been coined The Sunshine State, it's not at all shocking to hear that America's first "solar city" will be built in the state's southwest corner. Or, at least that's the plan. According to a new report, West Palm Beach-based Kitson & Partners is currently developing a new city near Charlotte County, which will get juiced by a massive 75-megawatt solar ...

The effects of a bad economy are often described in abstract terms by national and local media. With that in mind, we've come across a story in USA Today that paints a more concrete picture of what a severely weakened economy looks like, and the lengths to which some people are going to go to cope with it. According to the story, an increasing number of desperate Americans have resorted to ...