Those looking for another good reason to set up camp in Sweden have just found it. Okay, so maybe Manodo's oh-so-informative display isn't that astonishing, but it certainly gives a select few apartment residents in the country access to an enviable amount of information. Reportedly, the screen is being installed in several Swedish cities as part of a larger pilot project, and aside from dishing out details about the next available train, who exactly is standing outside their building and how much energy folks are currently consuming, it also serves up data on how many pounds of CO2 you're responsible for releasing while kicking back in your pad. Unfortunately, we're not sure if said solution is available en masse (or if it ever will be).

[Thanks, hl]

Solar-powered dresses are so two years ago. These days, dames in the know are all about that piezoelectric material, evidenced by the incredibly flashy Piezing. Dreamed up and designed by Amanda Parkes, this piece of garb is all set to steal the show at the 2ndSkin expo in San Francisco, and according to CNET, it features electricity-generating fabrics around the joints of the elbows and hips. When the wearer walks, bends or gets downright nasty on the dance floor, the mechanical stress conjures up energy which is stored as voltage in a built-in battery where it can presumably be used later for charging your favorite handheld gizmo. Sure gets our electrons flowing.

[Via textually, image courtesy of James Patten]
Read - 2ndSkin expo
Read - CNET article on Piezing

Curious designs and solar-powered wares seem to go hand in hand, but honestly, the PowerCube 600 is going to be hard to top. In what appears to be a ginormous (and inexplicably uncomfortable) recliner, the creators have managed to shove enough solar panels in this foldable, "portable" generator to crank out 600-watts of power. You'll also find 3,500-watts of continuous inverter output, 2,400 amp hours of battery storage and a rugged / watertight case. Even when closed up, this beast measures 72- x 124- x 50-inches, and while it technically is a mobile solution, 2,000-pounds isn't exactly what you want to lug around each time you feel like hosting a LAN party in Zzyzx, California. Forget the fact that you'll need to phone up Reluminati in order to acquire a price -- just think of the shipping!

[Via MAKE]

While oil prices continue to soar to new heights, the gurus at InnovaTek are peering into the future. After years of work, said company is finally testing its hand-sized microreactor that can reportedly "convert virtually any liquid fuel into hydrogen, producing a portable hydrogen stream for use in adjoining fuel-cells." In a perfect world, the technology would come built-in to vehicles, where we'd bypass the dangerous act of transporting hydrogen and instead convert biodiesel (or similar) right within the confines of the car. As it stands, the outfit has already signed a half-million dollar joint development agreement with Chevron to "pursue fuel processing technology for hydrogen refueling stations," and while this stuff isn't apt to be an option on any showroom models next year, InnovaTek is still aiming to commercially license the microreactors by 2009.

Apparently, traditional powerstrips are in dire need of an overhaul, as the Eject Powerstrip is just one of many replacement concepts we've seen float by in the past several months. Nevertheless, this brilliantly engineered design essentially allows users to eject plugs leading to devices not currently in use in order to keep consumption of "vampire power" to a minimum. Additionally, any ejected socket is automatically turned off in order to keep your meddling youngsters safe from electrocution. Now, if only we weren't so ashamed about leaving our current strips out in the open, we'd really be infatuated with this idea.

[Via GizmoWatch]

We'll be honest, we're not getting ourselves all riled up about this just yet -- after all, it's not like QuantumSphere is the first (nor the last) company to teeter on announcing a legitimate "solution" to ditching gasoline. Nevertheless, said startup has reportedly figured out a way to "make hydrogen at home from distilled water and ultimately bring the cost of hydrogen fuel cells in line with that of fossil fuels." More specifically, the outfit claims to have "perfected the manufacture of highly reactive catalytic nanoparticle coatings that could up the efficiency of electrolysis, the technique that generates hydrogen from water." Unbelievable though that may sound, it's still looking to unveil a battery using its own technology later this year, so we'll just wait and see what becomes of that initiative before bidding gas stations adieu for good.

[Via Autoblog, thanks Sean]

This one's been swirling around for a tick, but Leviathan Energy's brilliant new turbine is just too good to pass up. Showcased at the Cleantech Forum in California, this contraption would reportedly generate power from the downward movement of water through pipes in a municipal system. In other words, there's potential to conjure up energy from simply flushing one's toilet. Of course, there's nothing revolutionary about yet another hydroelectric generator, but using such a device to grab power from such a dirty place takes things to a whole 'nother level.

[Via Inhabitat]

Sintex Industries' aptly-dubbed biogas digester is most certainly not the first of its kind, but it is somewhat commendable that its maker is making no bones about this thing's purpose. Destined to "solve India's energy and sanitation problems in one stroke," this concoction can convert "human [waste], cow dung, or kitchen garbage into fuel that can be used for cooking or generating electricity." Reportedly, a one-cubic-meter digester would sell for around $425, but could pay for itself in energy savings in under 24 months. Excrement to energy -- now there's a concept.

[Via Inhabitat]

Okay, we suppose cellphone companies trumpeting some sort of fuel cell technology isn't that weird, but nevertheless, Moto sure seems proud of its most recent advancements. Showcased at this year's Mobile World Congress are a number of "alternative power solutions including fuel cell and reflow batteries," which can be deployed in most every wireless / mobile environment out there. More specifically, the outfit is demonstrating a fuel cell-powered WiMAX base station, and it's also suggesting that said technology could "further guarantee [the] availability of uninterrupted power" in TETRA radio networks that are used in public safety environments. Fascinating, no?

Yeah, we've heard companies toot their own horns after creating some newfangled chip that sucks down less power than versions prior, but MIT and Texas Instruments are just now getting around to taking their turn. Set to wow onlookers at tomorrow's International Solid- State Circuits Conference, a new microchip will be unveiled that operates at just 0.3-volts -- quite a bit less than most others, which function at around 1-volt. Currently, the device is simply a proof of concept, but those responsible for this bugger are already hoping for it to be used in "longer-lasting, self-charging cellphones, medical devices, self-contained sensor networks, etc." in five or so years. We're watching the clock, you two.

[Via Physorg]

Solar's had a pretty rough time breaking the ~40% efficiency level over the years, but Idaho National Laboratory researchers have apparently developed a nano-antenna array capable of collecting power not from photonic energy as is done today, but from infrared energy that could be harvested in any weather (or even at night). The cell production process is even supposed to be ridiculously cheap compared to making standard silicon photovoltaic cells, but, as always, there's a rub. The grid collects its oscillating IR energy at ten thousand billion times per second, which is proving to be a challenge to the nerds behind the tech, who are working on a way to convert that to the 50-60Hz power that the world uses. So yeah, it might be a few more years before this one pans out (if it does pan out).

[Via EcoGeek]

There have certainly been gizmos to surface throughout the years that react in some form or fashion to rain, but Jean-Jacques Chaillout and colleagues at the Atomic Energy Commission in France are fantasizing about using those diminutive droplets of water to actually power useful creations. After using computer models to find out just how much energy could be created by rainfall landing on piezoelectric materials, they determined that between 1 nanojoule and 25 microjoules of energy could be generated per drop. Granted, that won't keep a WoW gamer crankin' through the eve, but it could be used in everyday sensors that just need a smidgen of power in order to beam back results or data to ground control (or Major Tom). So yeah, these may not work so well in Death Valley, but we hear Amazonia could really benefit.

[Via NewScientist, image courtesy of ABC]

We've heard of firms tinkering with the idea of converting excess heat directly to energy, and apparently, a team of scientists from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have done just that. Oddly enough, the researchers admit that they're still unclear on how their findings actually work, but they've nevertheless discovered how to increase the conversion efficiency of converting waste heat to energy "by a factor of 100." The authors of the report suggest that clothing constructed of material embedded with thermoelectric modules could one day "recharge mobile electronic devices off the heat of one's body," and while we're certainly stoked about the idea, we're already conjuring up awful images in our minds about what this garb will actually look like.

[Via textually, image courtesy of FourEyesJokeShop]