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Inhabitat's Week in Green: Solar cars, solar boats, solar... gold?
The Week in Green is a new item from our friends at Inhabitat, recapping the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us. This week Inhabitat peered into the future of green tech as we liveblogged the most exciting moments from this year's Greener Gadgets Conference. The highlight of the day was the on-stage live-judging and announcement of this year's Greener Gadgets design competition winner, the AUG/Living Goods Program. Renowned industrial designer Yves Béhar also wowed us by unveiling a brand new design for a "Hackable" solar-electric car that is composed of modular components. (Engadget liveblogged it here.) Speaking of sun-powered vehicles, Hungarian auto company Antro has just unveiled plans to create an out-there yet undeniably cool solar-powered car that splits into two vehicles. And for those looking to ride the seas in style, take a long, hard look at this giant solar boat. Then again, why ride a conventional vehicle when you could hop aboard this insane futurictic crawler town on wheels? Too bad it's made out of LEGOs. Finally, we brought to light several illuminating energy projects: researchers have found a way to generate electricity by shining light on tiny gold nanoparticles, opening the door for self-powered molecular machines, and Phillips unveiled a blooming solar street lamp that soaks up energy during the day and uses it to light up the night.
Antro Solo gas-electric hybrid promises 150 mpg
While there's no word on any plans to enter it into the Automotive X-Prize, it looks like the Antro Solo gas-electric hybrid here would at least be able to hold its own against the competition, with it promising to hit upwards of 150 miles per gallon on the highway. That takes a slight dip to a still impressive 117 mpg in city driving though, while the car's top speed clocks in at a decent 87 miles per hour. To hit those numbers, the company took a couple of extra steps beyond the usual gas-electric hybrids, including putting some solar cells on the car's roof to help charge the battery, and some pedals on the inside to keep it juiced up when the sun goes down. The fact that the entire car weighs less than 600 pounds doesn't hurt either. As you might have guessed, however, the car is still a ways away from rolling off the production line, but the company says it expects to get it out the door by 2012, when you'll supposedly be able to pick one up for $18,000.[Via Inhabitat]
