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Inhabitat's Week in Green: fish domes and 3D-printed bridges
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. We've seen 3D-printed clothing, cars and houses -- and now Amsterdam is building an entire bridge from 3D-printed steel! Designed by MX3D and Joris Laarman, the revolutionary pedestrian bridge will be constructed by multi-axis industrial robots. In other architecture news, Dubai has given the green light for a fleet of floating luxury islands to be built in The World archipelago. One World Trade Center opened late last year -- and now it looks like New York City's tallest building is about to get a new neighbor. Last week, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) unveiled a set of architectural renderings for Two World Trade Center, a 1,340-foot tower that will consist of a series of stacked boxes.
GE's big-nosed wind turbine generates more power
Despite their giant blades, most wind turbines waste a lot of energy -- gusts around the rotor don't really generate electricity at all. GE thinks it can do better, however. Its experimental ecoROTR turbine touts a big, rotating aluminum nose that sends wind directly toward the blades, where it's more effective. The current design boosts the power output by a modest 3 percent, but that could matter a lot in a large wind farm. The big deal may be what comes next. EcoROTR allows for bigger rotors without having to use larger, harder-to-transport blades. If it ventures beyond the prototype stage, you could see more wind farms in remote locations that both produce more power and keep giant, noisy towers away from your neighborhood.
New York City's first commercial wind turbine proves its worth
Sunset Park in Brooklyn is home to New York City's first commercial-scale wind turbine, and it's already flexing its green muscle. In under a month, the 160-foot-tall power source produced enough juice to power two homes for more than 12 months. It's not being used to supplement regular energy use, though, as it feeds a recycling plant at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal -- a facility that already gets 16 percent of its power from solar panels. NYC seems like the last place a massive wind turbine would make a difference, but the height of this installation, coupled with the open landscape on the shore of Sunset Park, makes for an effective combo that's capable of generating up to 100 kilowatts. Attempts to harvest the wind in New York City are nothing new, but they're typically used to power much smaller buildings, so their size and output are a fraction of this one at Sims Metal Management. Construction costs tallied $750,000, and the project is expected to pay for itself in five years. [Photo credit: AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews]
Moving wind forecast puts beautiful weather in your browser
It's hard to get excited about weather forecasts unless they promise warm and sunny days, but you might just make an exception for Windyty. The browser-based meteorological tool shows you living, breathing view of the world's wind patterns along with overlays for everything from temperature to humidity. Arguably, it's both beautiful and useful -- those mesmerizing swirls will help you understand why it's going to be unusually blustery or chilly on a given day. The page works on both your phone and desktop, too. There are still some definite holes in Windyty's map (it doesn't show borders or cities right now), but it's worth a look if you're done with old-fashioned weather charts and radar views.
3D-printed wind turbine puts 300W of power in your backpack
For the most part, portable energy generators are intended for modest uses. They can charge your phone, but they won't drive high-powered laptops or small appliances. That might change if Omni3D gets its crowdfunded AirEnergy 3D off the ground. The 3D-printed wind turbine should fit into a backpack, yet produce up to 300W of power -- enough that you can keep a whole slew of devices running, including those that wouldn't run at all on solar or thermoelectric systems. It will be open source, too, since part of the goal is to let those in Africa and other developing regions create their own reliable, renewable power sources.
Plain old gravel could hold the key to greener power stations
Renewable energy is getting better all the time, but no-one's yet worked out a good way to store the juice for those cloudy, windless days. Batteries do work, but given the high cost of swapping out the cells for your EV, we doubt that Duracell will start making a five-megawatt version any time soon. That's why British company Isentropic is developing a system that could store energy in cells that are filled with gravel. Using Argon gas and a heat-exchange pump, the electrical energy from solar panels or wind turbines is used to warm the gravel. When the energy is required, the process is reversed, and the heat is used to drive an engine that creates power ready for the grid. It's nowhere near as efficient as other power storage systems, since you'll only get out about 75 percent of what you put in, but the low cost and ease of installation means that it's not so outrageous as you think. It's a shame that the gravel has to be stored in a tank full of Argon -- we quite liked the idea of filling the boot of an EV with rocks, or even just parking it on an energy-storing driveway, before driving away.
WeatherFlow Wind Meter turns your iPhone into an accurate anemometer
You know that the world of smartphone accessories is huge when there are multiple entries in a product category that probably isn't that big. That's the case with wind meters for the iPhone; just last August we looked at the Vavuud wind meter, and now there's another iPhone-centric anemometer on the market. The WeatherFlow Wind Meter (US$34.95) is a snazzy-looking and highly-accurate wind meter that links with an iPhone app, allowing you to capture and share wind speed and other data. Who would use a device like this? Well, just about anyone who spends a lot of time engaging in outdoor activities would find it useful to know exactly how fast the wind is blowing. Whether you're a sailing enthusiast, a kite flyer, a skydiver, a pilot, a hiker, a fireman, or just someone who wants to know how fast the wind's blowing, the WeatherFlow Wind Meter can do the job for you. Using the wind meter is quite simple. You just download and install the free companion WeatherFlow Wind Meter app, plug the wind meter into your iPhone's headphone port, and then get ready to take some readings. The app requires access to your iPhone's microphone and uses location services to determine your present location. Once you've made a few settings, including the primary activity you're involved with, speed units, direction display, magnetic declination, and the maximum sample period, you're ready to roll. You just point into the wind holding your iPhone in front of you, tap the start button, and you're greeted with the wind velocity, direction, and the number of seconds left in the reading. Should you decide to share the information, it can be sent to Twitter or Facebook as well as through email or SMS. Between the Vavuud and the WeatherFlow, I'm more impressed with the latter. The quality of construction seems better, the "propeller" that is used to measure wind velocity is encased and is less easily damaged, and even the application is more usable. The WeatherFlow Wind Meter can register wind from 2 miles per hour up to 125 miles per hour. The design was calibrated at the University of Florida's Aerospace Engineering Department, and is accurate to the larger of +/-0.5% of the reading or 0.2 mph at up to 15° off-axis. That means that you don't need to hold it directly into the wind to get an accurate reading. The WeatherFlow Wind Meter will soon be compatible with the iWindsurf, Fishweather, Sailflow, WindAlert, and iKiteSurf applications, so you won't have to give up using your favorite app in order to use the device.
Google keeps it green, purchases 240MW of wind power in Texas
Google's goal of meeting its electrical needs with renewable sources got another big boost today. The Happy Hereford wind farm in Texas will produce 240 megawatts of juice, and all of that output has been bought by Big G. That power won't flow directly from the turbines into Google's data centers, instead it'll be fed into the regional grid when Google sells the energy on the wholesale market. The 240 renewable energy certificates (REC) acquired in the deal will be retired in support of mother earth, and any additional REC's created by the wind farm will be used to "reduce our [Google's] carbon footprint elsewhere." According to Google, this is similar to other green energy deals it's done in Iowa and Oklahoma, so it's highly likely we'll be seeing more such deals in the not-so-distant future. Of course, no one will be receiving any of that Happy Hereford wind power just yet -- the farm won't be sending out any renewably-sourced electrons until late 2014.
Verizon ices Canadian expansion after acquiring Vodafone stake
After flying into Canada and making noise about acquiring spectrum or buying operators Wind Mobile and Mobilicity, Verizon is taking its ball and going home. You might expect that's because it just dropped $130 billion buying Vodafone's 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless -- the largest US corporate acquisition in over a decade. But Verizon said it had more to do with "what kind of value we could get for shareholders," and that "if we thought it had great value creation we would do it." That might be a boost to Rogers, Telus and BCE in Canada, but Verizon's withdrawal doesn't change one fact: all three are still bidding for a single block of 700MHz spectrum in next year's wireless auction.
Mobile Miscellany: week of August 26th, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought convincing signs that BlackBerry users are moving away from physical keyboards, along with a new budget Android smartphone for MetroPCS and a stumbling block that's holding up AT&T's acquisition of Alltel. These stories and more await. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of August 26th, 2013.
Mobile Miscellany: week of August 19th, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought a free TV streaming service for Bell subscribers, the arrival of NFL Mobile to BlackBerry 10 and little bit of Windows Phone love from General Motors. These stories and more await. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of August 19th, 2013.
Mobile Miscellany: week of August 5th, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought a smartphone inspired by TopGear's 2012 supercar of the year, leaks of a water-resistant handset for T-Mobile and an Android smartphone from LG that sells for under $100 outright. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of August 5th, 2013.
iPad and iPad mini coming to Rogers and Telus, iPhone 5 nano-SIMs reach Wind
While it's been easy for Canadians to get data plans for the iPad and iPad mini, they haven't had the luxury of picking one up at a carrier store like their American neighbors. They will soon, however: Rogers and Telus say they'll be selling the LTE versions of both iPads sometime in the "coming weeks." Details are scarce, although the two networks promise that they'll keep offering contract-free data plans. We've reached out to learn whether or not Bell is following suit. There isn't any talk of similar offerings with smaller providers, although Wind Mobile is offering an olive branch to iPhone owners. The carrier is now selling $25 nano-SIM cards for those who've bought an unlocked, AWS-friendly iPhone 5 through Apple. These customers won't have LTE, but they'll get HSPA+ data on less expensive (and less restricted) plans. Hit Wind's Facebook page to learn just which devices qualify.
Google X acquires Makani Power, an airborne wind turbine manufacturer
Larry Page just picked up another bird for his flying craft collection, and this plane doesn't even carry passengers. In fact, it's not used for transportation at all -- the aircraft is tethered to the ground. Google X, the tech giant's experimental arm, recently acquired the device's designer, Makani Power. That company is currently in the process of creating a flying wind turbine system. In essence, the Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) flies at an altitude of 800 to 1,950 feet in order to take advantage of stronger winds. On-board generators create up to 600 kilowatts of electricity collected through dedicated turbines, which is then sent on to a tethered ground station. It's an interesting idea indeed, and judging by Google's non-disclosed financial interest, Mountain View sees some serious potential as well. The acquisition, first reported by Bloomberg Businessweek, was but one component of the publication's in-depth look into Google X. You can read that article in full at the source link below.
Mobile Miscellany: week of April 8th, 2013
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week, we were treated to a peek at the Lumia 928 in white, Canada's upstart carriers made waves, BlackBerry users got a new free calling option and the Lumia 520 spread its wings to more carriers in the UK. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore all that's happening in the mobile world for this week of April 8th, 2013.
Fongo makes a very public bid for control of Wind Mobile
Canadian carrier Wind Mobile has faced no small amount of tumult in recent months, culminating in direct control by Orascom and talk of shopping the provider around to the highest bidder. We didn't entirely anticipate just who would take up the offer, however: Fongo, best known for its former Dell Voice initiative, has made an overt bid for Wind. The VoIP provider wants to extend Wind's network network across the country while moving subscribers over to Fongo within the space of a year, theoretically creating a perfect match between cheap cellular access and free internet calling. Before anyone pops champagne corks, we'd warn that there's heavy amounts of publicity and symbolism involved in the acquisition attempt. Fongo is offering $1 and a 49 percent stake in its own venture -- that draws attention to its service, but might not hold up in a fierce bidding war. There may be more involved, but we'll have to wait before we know just how serious the move could be. Wind's parent Globalive has declined comment, while Fongo tells us it's waiting on a formal response before putting more of its cards on the table.
Mobile Miscellany: week of November 12th, 2012
If you didn't get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This past week, we found new smartphones at Virgin Mobile, Fido and Wind, along with a hefty new round of LTE expansion from AT&T. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of November 12th, 2012.
Mobile Miscellany: week of October 15th, 2012
If you didn't get enough in mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This past week, we received further evidence of an imminent replacement for the Galaxy Nexus and the Optimus 4X HD found a new home in Canada. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of October 15th, 2012.
Refresh Roundup: week of September 10th, 2012
Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it's easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don't escape without notice, we've gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Mobile Miscellany: week of September 10th, 2012
Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This past week, C Spire Wireless activated its first LTE networks and we discovered strong indication that Isis will leverage the GSMA's SIM-based NFC standard for its mobile payments system. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of September 10th, 2012.
