ShellEco-marathon
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Purdue's Celeritas car scores 2,200MPG from the sun, wins Shell Eco-marathon
With gas prices topping $4.50 per gallon in some parts of the country, a car that costs a fraction of a penny per mile to drive (and looks like it belongs on the road) is sure to get our attention. The 275-pound, 2,200MPG Celeritas appears to be the closest we've come to having a solar-powered car that could one day take to the streets, however, which explains why the vehicle scored first prize in the Urban Concept category in this year's Shell Eco-marathon. While it can only transport a single person (the driver), the car includes headlights, taillights, a trunk and even backup cameras. Notably absent from this version are air conditioning and a license plate -- the latter of which would (naturally) be required before the car becomes street legal. The Purdue University design team chose "Celeritas" (Latin for "swiftness") as the name for this soon-to-be-street-legal roadster, though in a category that's notorious for slower vehicles, we wouldn't expect the prototype to fly past us in the fast lane. Perhaps we can get Celeritas and IVy together for some alone time before we're dropping Hamiltons for a gallon of regular?
Inhabitat's Week in Green: solar panel roads, floating golf, and the 2,564.8 MPG race car
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. Building technology got a tremendous boost this week as Inhabitat reported on a new type of graphene super paper that is 10 times stronger than steel and six times as light. We also took a look at several remarkable new infrastructure projects popping up around the world - from a self-sufficient floating golf course in the Maldives to London's gleaming new cable car system, to the Netherlands' plan to supercharge its roadways with solar panels. Speaking of hot asphalt, this week the ultra-efficient Alerion race car blazed a trail at the Shell Eco-Marathon, clocking in an incredible 2,564.8 miles per gallon. Meanwhile, Fisker announced that its sexy electric Karma sedan will hit the road this summer, and we were surprised to hear that Marcelo da Luz was forced to pull his solar-powered X of 1 car across Ontario due to road regulations. The New York Auto Show also kicked off with a blast this week as Lexus unveiled its next-gen LF-Gh concept hybrid and Porsche rolled out a 911 GTR 3 in a Facebook colorway that got a lot of "likes". Finally, we looked at several futuristic example of wearable technology this week including a pair of RoboCop-like glasses that are capable of scanning 400 faces per second at public events. We also brought you a brilliant LED backpack that lets cyclists send signals to drivers, a pollution-detecting t-shirt, and a clock that tells time by knitting a new scarf every year.
