Some of the leading innovators in technology have been recently lead to get some pointers from nature’s most successful creatures to maximize human energy efficiency in National Geographic’s Biomimicry Pictures.
via cosmictoquantum
Renewable Energy
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mildly terrifying but fabulous aquaponics:
‘local river’ by duende studio / mathieu lehanneur.
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Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear
A surprising aerodynamic innovation in wind turbine design called the ‘wind lens’ could triple the output of a typical wind turbine, making it less costly than nuclear power.
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You’ve heard of paint by numbers? Get ready for feed-the-world by numbers. Dutch agricultural company PlantLab wants to change almost everything you know about growing plants. Instead of outdoors, they want farms to be in skyscrapers, warehouses, or underground using hydroponics or other forms of controlled environments. Instead of sunlight they use red and blue LEDs. Water? They need just 10% of the traditional requirements. At every stage of their high tech process, PlantLab monitors thousands of details (163,830 reports per second!) with advanced sensors to create the perfect environment for each individual type of crop. In short, they create a high tech ‘plant paradise’. See it in action in the videos below, followed by plenty of pics of their tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. PlantLab’s revolutionary approach to agriculture may be able to leverage math and science to create a better food supply for the world’s escalating population. Fresher, local, more efficient…and they supposedly taste better too!
via smarterplanet
MIT Unveils Solar Power System That Doesn't Need Sunlight | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World /
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Welcome to the sustainable future. These ‘grove’ parking lots not only shade cars during the day, but they also recharge the electric cars sitting below them with solar power.
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WATER BUILDING RESORT- TRANSFORMING AIR INTO WATER
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Cedar Creek Grist Mill by Jesse Estes on Flickr.
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k—c:
Laxey Wheel, Isle of Man, England
Taken between 1890 and 1900, via (http://www.oldukphotos.com)
I want to visit this one day and take a picture while standing on the top.
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Earthships sound like they might just beam us beyond our current laws of reality, and they delightfully look like it too. Architect Mike Reynolds has been developing his Earthships for decades, traveling from their base in Taos, New Mexico to Haiti, China, and even the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
An Earthship derives its electricity from the sun and wind, its water from rain and snow, and its temperature regulation from the earth. An internal sewage treatment system means each drop of water is used four times, feeding lush wetlands of flowers and vegetables. The walls are literally made of trash: tires filled with dirt, glorious stained glass windows of old beer bottles. It doesn’t get much more radically self-sustainable than this, folks.
via unconsumption More: Hitching a Ride on an Earthship :: Etsy Blog
Jeffrey prefers the layout of these compared to just a little cob house, which is fine by me, they make so much more sense, and we can have a good yield of food indoors as well. I prefer the idea of having one long house instead of a few smaller buildings which is something we’ve also been looking at. No rush, we have to work on getting that land first :)
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see more images, drawings, info…
http://www.archdaily.com/87063/cor-oppenheim-architecture-design/
“The ambitious project to design the first sustainable mixed-use condominium in Miami has been getting a lot of buzz and rightfully so. At 400′ tall it represents a dynamic synergy between architecture, structural engineering, and ecology. Extracting power from its environment utilizing the latest advancements in wind turbines, photovoltaics, and solar hot water generation COR upon completion will be seeking a LEED Platinum certification. The polka dotted hyper-efficient exoskeleton shell simultaneously provides building structure, thermal mass for insulation, shading for natural cooling, enclosure for terraces, armatures for turbines, and loggias for congregating on the ground. Comprising commercial, office, fitness, live/work, and pure residential spaces (113 residences from studios to penthouses)—COR provides a uniquely flexible platform for lifestyle enhancement.
Last week on ArchDaily we featured our interview with Chad Oppenheim founding partner ofOppenheim Architecture + Design. Below is a portion of the interview regarding the design of COR, and the full interview can be found here.
Architects: Oppenheim Architecture + Design
Location: Miami, Florida, United States
Project Team: Chad Oppenheim, Carlos Ramos, Juan López, Carolina Jaimes, Juan Calvo, Hugo Mijares, Jessica Santaniello Barrera, Rodrigo Londoño and Camilo Orozco
Client: Nexus Development Group
Project Area: 480,000 sqf
Project Year: Estimated 2011
Renderings: Dbox
Environmental design techniques incorporated into the design:
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Takis Zenetos - A proposal for suspended turbines situated in a gorge to generate electricity, years before wind-power came into prominence, early 1960s.
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An Inaugural Skyscraper for the Indian City of Kolkata
Kalyan Chakraborty, an architecture graduate student at Kansas State University, has designed a “flexible” skyscraper complex for the dense urban center of Kolkata, which is a city in the West Bengal state of India. With the population multiplying rapidly, and pushing a sum of 15 million, the traditionally low-rise city needs to find solutions that can house the new influx of people. This needs to be done, Chakraborty says, in a manner starkly different than the current trend of suburban sprawl, as the town’s overspill is quickly encroaching on an ecologically vital wetland region outside of the city.
To help bring this change, Chakraborty has designed a massive tower complex that can house an impressive number of people – 4,000 in over 1,000 individual units – and serve as a commercial workplace for over 1,600 people as well. Chakraborty has taken pains to make the building sustainable, however, since it would be senseless to build a skyscraper to avoid harming wetlands if that building uses the typically wasteful amount of materials to build, and guzzles energy. Thus, the building’s design is sustainable in that it produces its own energy, food, water, and even consumes its own waste.
The tower is a “tube in a tube” structural system with a Y-shaped floor plan. The purpose of this is to allow flexibility, so the floors can rotate to allow for better rainwater collection and access to open sky. To keep natural ventilation despite the increased wind velocities that come with the high altitudes of the skyscraper’s top levels, Chakraborty proposes implementing a “double skin” on the building to allow for natural airflow. This will not only decrease energy use dramatically in the building, but it will also act as a “solar chimney” that generates energy from the insulation of the air that will operate twin turbines within the skin.
Bringing a high-rise building to this large but low town will be a shock, but with Chakraborty’s earth-friendly proposal, precious natural resources are able to be saved.
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http://www.diginfo.tv/2010/11/24/10-0135-r-en.php
“The Sahara Solar Breeder Project is currently being developed by scientists from leading universities in Japan, and will use the world’s biggest desert as its main energy source. The idea behind the initiative is to build silicon manufacturing and solar power plants in the desert, in turn using the power generated from these plants to build even more silicon and power plants in a “breeding” process. Scientists are hoping that such plants will be able to supply energy worldwide through DC power lines using high-temperature superconductors. While the project is still in its research stages, they have already set a target goal of providing 50% of the world’s energy by 2050….”
Read more: Sahara Solar Breeder Project Will Turn Desert Into Energy Source | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World "
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Plants as cyborgs
Lots of cool stuff in this article.
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Tiny Supercharger is like 10 wind turbines in one
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“The proposed design calls for 1,203 “stalks,” each 180-feet high with concrete bases that are between about 33- and 66-feet wide. The carbon-fiber stalks, reinforced with resin, are about a foot wide at the base tapering to about 2 inches at the top. Each stalk will contain alternating layers of electrodes and ceramic discs made from piezoelectric material, which generates a current when put under pressure. In the case of the stalks, the discs will compress as they sway in the wind, creating a charge.”
(via Wind Power Without the Blades: Big Pics : Discovery News)
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Solar Roadways welcome to the future. http://solarroadways.com/intro.shtml
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-“Magenn Power’s high altitude wind turbine called MARS is a Wind Power Anywhere™ solution with distinct advantages over existing Conventional Wind Turbines and Diesel Generating Systems including: global deployment, lower costs, better operational performance, and greater environmental advantages.
MARS is a lighter-than-air tethered wind turbine that rotates about a horizontal axis in response to wind, generating electrical energy. This electrical energy is transferred down the 1000-foot tether for immediate use, or to a set of batteries for later use, or to the power grid. Helium sustains MARS and allows it to ascend to a higher altitude than traditional wind turbines. MARS captures the energy available in the 600 to 1000-foot low level and nocturnal jet streams that exist almost everywhere. MARS rotation also generates the "Magnus effect” which provides additional lift, keeps the MARS stabilized, and positions it within a very controlled and restricted location to adhere to FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) & Transport Canada guidelines. The Advantages of MARS over Conventional Wind Turbines: Wind Power Anywhere™ removes all placement limitations. Coast-line or off-shore locations are not necessary to capture higher speed winds. Reaching winds at 1,000-feet above ground level allow MARS to be installed closer to the grid. MARS is mobile and can be rapidly deployed, deflated, and redeployed without the need for towers or heavy cranes. MARS is bird and bat friendly with lower noise emissions and is capable of operating in a wider range of wind speeds - from 4 mph to greater than 60 mph. The Advantages of a MARS combined Wind and Diesel Solution over a Diesel Generator-only solution: MARS can complement a diesel generator by offering a combined diesel-wind power solution. MARS can provide power for a cost that is well below the range of cost for diesel power of $0.50 cents to over $1.00 per kWh in many locations, reflecting the fuel and transportation costs. The MARS combined solution allows lower pollution and green house gas emissions. It also results in lower handling, transporting, and storage costs. MARS Target Markets: Mini-Grid applications in developing nations where infrastructure is limited or non-existent; off-grid combined wind and diesel solutions for island nations, farms, remote areas, cell towers, exploration equipment, backup power & water pumps for natural gas mines; rapid deployment diesel & wind solutions (to include airdrop) to disaster areas for power to emergency and medical equipment, water pumps; on-grid applications for farms, factories, remote communities; and wind farm deployments.“