The most talked about green technologies today are ethanol (if you consider that green), solar panels, and wind turbines, but what about the other lesser known green technologies that have the capability of transforming the way we live? Here is a list of the top 10 least talked about green technologies.
10. Inflatable Solar Collectors
The inflatable solar collectors contain inflated mirror concentrators which gather sunlight and focus it onto photovoltaic cells. They can withstand 100mph wind and rain, insects, dirt and more.
9. Solar Ovens
Not only do these help sanitize water, but can also cook just about anything. These bad boys can get up to 300°F making fuel consumption unnecessary.
8. Molten Salt Storage
Not necessarily a green technology by itself, but when combined with solar collectors these bad boys will collect heat and release it in a controlled manner for steam turbine power generation.
7. Algae Biodiesel
Carbon neutral? Check. Replace oil? Check. One dollar a gallon? Holy crap get this stuff rolling!
6. Windbelt Micro-wind
This technology could possibly make wind energy 10-30 times more efficient. Currently the Windbelt Micro-wind only works on a small scale, but hopefully in a few years this technology can be harnessed for something much, much bigger.
5. Airborne Wind Turbine
Although these things look like they are going to pop any second, they will soon be capable of producing electricity for as cheap as $0.02 per KWh.
4. Bluenergy Solar-Wind Turbine
The best of both worlds. Why take up more space than you have to? Bluenergy Solar-Wind Turbines don’t use solar panels or wind turbines; instead, they use solar cells and wind vanes to capture both energy causing elements.
3. Solar Panel Windows
Why bother putting solar panels on your roof when you can turn your existing windows into solar windows? Just paint your windows with a transparent organic dye and wrap it with a window frame that has photovoltaic (PV) cells and bam! Electricity.
2. Highway wind turbines
Highways in San Francisco generate 10mph wind that could soon be harnessed by highway wind turbines. Each turbine would produce 9,600 KwH of energy annually, enough to power 700 homes.
1. Solar Textiles
Turn the sun’s energy into electricity by using textiles. KVA Matx has designed The Soft House which can create up to 16,000 watt-hours of electricity by transforming household curtains into felxible, semi-transparent, solar collectors. Currently the design is years away from being cost efficient, but as the designer says, “Never underestimate the power of the architectural imagination.”
Runner ups:
Inflatable Solar Panels
Light rail from NJ highways
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Written: Jul 24, 2008Tags: environment, green, solar, Technology, wind
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You are right about about all those great solar options being ignored. Solar thermal heaters could cut the average winter heating bill by 40% but they are much less exciting than other technologies so they get ignored.
[edit: the url in your name is good enough]
For whatever reason, the “highway wind turbines” intrigues me. It makes a lot of sense as anyone who has been blown all over the road by the wind coming off an 18-wheeler knows.
That’s one of those forehead-smacking, “why didn’t I think of that?” ideas. Neat stuff…
Yeah, it is pretty cool. I really hope it means 10MPH more… not 10mph total, otherwise that is stupid. San Francisco supposedly averages around 8mph in the winter and around 10-11mph during other months, so I’m hoping it is in addition, otherwise the wind turbines would be better served in windier places.
There alot of alternative energies out there no one talks about. The interstate turbine is really a great idea. I also like the soft house. Thanks for the post!
i dont understand why human selfishness and ego should continue to drive us to self destruction through pollution!this is quite unfair!alternative energy must be embraced at the moment i pursue energy conservation in its many forms at a personal level!
Those highway turbines look pretty cool, these are some great technologies you have listed here. Great post.
This really misses the boat on a lot of the truly better technologies. There is the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelamis_wave_energy_converter and the Finavera wave buoy. Wave energy promises to provide a possible 10% of energy worldwide. There is the plasma converter by Startech http://www.startech.net/faqs.html that is a superefficient waste to energy conversion device. There is the hybrid turbine bus engine which gets far greater range than regular diesel hybrids. There is biodiesel produced from waste, turkey droppings and municipal waste. There is landfill gasification. There is microhydro or small scale hydro which doesn’t dam rivers but allows run of the river. There are groundsource heat pumps for heating and cooling homes. So many options are available. There is also biomass trigeneration powerplants designed to heat, cool, and provide electricity from a single source at near 100% efficiency. Three is solar magnification which is using magnification for superconcentrated solar power. http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news2.27d.html
Hey, Im pretty sure ive dropped on your blog a fair bit, but im glad i stopped to pay attention to it for once.
Im an electrical engineering student and im really interested in alternative energy, so i love this kind of post.
I have plans to build my own wind turbine, if i can ever find the time. I have most of the materials just need some freaking time.