The new Municipal Pool Cover Soto del Real in Madrid is not just a pool.It’s actually a fully green structure built on about 8,000 sqm in Soto del Real, that uses more than 6,000 million tons of organic waste the area produces each year as energy source. In fact this is why they built the pool, to neutralize all these residues.But let’s get back to why the pool is very innovative. It collects rainwater and uses it to water the gardens nearby, the roof was designed to permit sun rays to come inside and heat up the space during winters, while on summers it gets “blocked” by solar panels to produce electricity and to heat the water. At the same time a basement boiler uses biomass as fuel.

As you can probably see this is more like an eco-system, a man-made green eco-system.

Designed by Lorenzo Alonso Architects it was built by Ortiz in 11 month and the cost went up to 4.7 million Euros. The financing was secured by the Community of Madrid. I congratulate them for putting this up.

Source via EcoFuss

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Hybrid buses are nothing new but this one in particular is special. Toyota’s Hino division is responsible of building this hybrid electric bus with a diesel engine and a set of batteries (here comes the nice part) that apparently won’t use a plug to charge but will use a wireless charging system built on the road.

The system is supposed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent but the first thing I could think of, is that the wireless transfer of energy may not be efficient. Probably less than half the energy is going to be actually transmitted and stored.

The system uses a series of inductive coils. One is installed on the bottom of the bus while the others are built in the concrete and resonate energy at a certain frequency and the buses will probably have to follow a certain path in order to recharge.

The system has potential and Hino will probably build a fully electric vehicle that will have zero emissions, when they solve the efficiency problems (if there are any). Meanwhile the buses are being tested for two weeks on a 4.2 km route at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

Asahi via Carectomy

A new technology patented by a new Turkish company, Solitem Group and Germans from MAN Ferrostaal should offer high efficiency solar thermal cooling systems. Yes you’re reading it right, these two companies claim they can cool your house by harnessing the heat of the sun. They tested their systems in several Southern Europe and used roof-top and ground systems, and it works.

The technology is based on 1.8-meter wide parabolic trough collectors made entirely out of aluminum, that are able to “boil” water up to 180 - 250 degrees Celsius and then through a two-stage absorption chiller, it turns heat into six degrees Celsius cold water. That water is then used to cooling the air or as steam for industrial processes. Also, the fact that they are made of aluminum this is a cheap light-weight solution that offers high stability.

“The secret lies in complex software that regulates the energy flows in the system and delivers a constant stream of water cooled to about six degrees, the perfect temperature for conventional air conditioning units,” said Solitem’s managing director Dr Ahmet Lokurlu.

The new solar thermal cooling system is a highly efficient alternative to air conditioning systems, that won’t take the usual course of cooling a house : fossil fuels into electricity and electricity into cooling.

MAN Ferrostal owns 20.1 percent stake in Solitem and will help them with sales and installation resources. They plan to bring this project across the Middle East, Africa, the US, Australia and the Mediterranean.

Source

I am a big fan of solar cells and using them for a greener home, but we all know that investments to get solar energy are usually spicy and not everyone can afford. There is a solution though. Konarka Technologies, a company that builds low cost sources of renewable power affordable and universally available thinks we can print our own solar cells using an inkjet printer.

Konarka has built a printable solar panel film and with the help of a common inkjet printer they can produce build thin photovoltaic solar cells. The technology is innovative as it uses solar cell material as ink and Konarka’s light-activated Power Plastic® that is flexible, lightweight, lower in cost and much more versatile in application than traditional silicon-based solar cells, as paper.

“This essential breakthrough in the field of printed solar cells positions Konarka as an emerging leader in printed photovoltaics.”

Using such technology is only feasible to large productions of solar cells but as it evolves we can expect to see all kinds of solar cells from as small as a window or laptop to as big as car’s roof.

Press release via Inhabitat

There is a plastic bags invasion that I am sure you’re aware of. It happens where you live, where I live so it’s a widely spread disease that we doesn’t seem to be able to fight with. Other than the radical solutions I’ve heard so far that forbids supermarkets from offering their customers plastic bags, nothing was as funny as creating a chair out of them.

Designed by Kitsch-U-Like the recycled carrier bag chair needs about 2,000 plastic bags stuffed inside that you will have to manually fill. It sells for £75.00 (about $151) and if you will build your own the self reward of putting so many plastic bags off the streets would be priceless.

You will see that this rubbish piece of furniture is actually a very comfortable chair that all your friends will want to stay on. Let us know if you happen to own one.

via Gizmodo

If until now I thought Milan to be the capital of fashion and great soccer, things have changed and surprisingly they have another badge to add. Milan is the “Pollution Capital of Europe” and the main reasons to believe so, are toxic fumes from traffic clogged streets.

photo by Dunc-It

However, the fact that they rank first place on pollution in Europ isn’t the biggest shock or concern. Macedonio Melloni hospital warned that such levels of pollution are considered guilty for high infant mortality rates and for making children sick. Breathing problems, heart diseases and cancer are the effects of very high levels of pm10s which are extremely small particles coming from car exhausts, that affect both adult people and in particular children.

Research conducted by Dr Fiocchi from the Macedonio Melloni hospital revealed that in a 10-day period when pm10s levels where averaging 67 ug/m3, 176 admissions have been recored, while on another 10-day period that averaged 110 ug/m3 which is way over the limit, the admissions topped at 401 more than double. February 15 is the record with pm10s levels reaching 185 micrograms per cubic meter of air, which is almost 4 times over the official limit.

“The figures confirmed the urgent need to limit the damage that is affecting one child in four in the region” he said.

Ironically, the fact that the air in Milan is so bad comes a few months the Ecopass system - a daily pass that you pay money for to enter the city - has been put in place.

Lung specialist, Prof Luigi Allegra of Milan University has pointed out a few ways of fighting with air pollution in Milan, out of which creating new metro lines and better public transportation are just a few. He also mentioned that diesel cars use should be discouraged because diesel engines provide 100 times more pm10s.

There are solutions, they just need to accept that there’s a problem.

via Telegraph

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much of good whiskey is barely enough” said Mark Twain and many of us took his advice.

Aberdeen University scientists discovered that a by-product from whisky waste (residue) is capable of cleaning contaminated soil and polluted water from chlorines, heavy metals or pesticides.

Fort William Whisky Distilery - barrels lined up outside - by Justin Dawkins

Dr Graeme Paton, Professor Ken Killham and Dr Leigh Cassidy named it DRAM (Device for the Remediation and Attenuation of Multiple polluatnts) and had “commercial reasons” not to disclose the recipe. They did say something very interesting though. Apparently not only whisky by-products are going to be used because the technology they’ve patented is able to work with other by-products from the food and beverage industry.

Nowadays cleaning processes are not only very expensive but also very slow and here is where the DRAM changes things. It’s cheaper and way faster. Tests so far revealed that the new technology has been very successful fighting pollution so I guess the Irish saying I’ve heard, is true. “What butter and whiskey won’t cure, there is no cure for”. Right?

via EnvironmentalGraffiti

In a trial that is probably going to take proportions because of the problems it raises, the village of Kivalina in Alaska is suing 24 energy companies for large amounts of greenhouse gases that contributed to global warming and led to coastal erosion, which puts the lives of the 400 residents at risk. (ADN reported)

Kivalina is a community of Inupiat Eskimos, located in the Chukchi Sea on a shrinking barrier island is now facing heavy storms and because of the shrinking sea ice that formerly acted as a barrier the waves are coming closer and closer.

The complaint (pdf link) was filed by the San Francisco-based Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment and the Anchorage office of the Native American Rights Fund in the US District Court in San Francisco against one coal company, 14 power companies and nine oil companies of which Exxon Mobil, BP, Conoco Phillips, Chevron and Duke Energy and have asked them to pay the relocation cost (around $400 million) , of moving the village to safer grounds.

As expected none of the companies expressed their point of view.

I can only hope the court will make justice and will consider reports from the US Corps of Engineers and the US General Accountability Office on coastal erosion. Here are two images of Kivalina (photos by livesimply)

Kivalina, Alaska Aerial View

$3 million sea wall to protect Kivalina from global warming effects

The days when you had to go out and cut the lawn yourself are history, because these days we have automowers to do it for us. Husqvarna decided to please us and announced that they will be launching the world’s first electricity solar powered hybrid automower, which is extremely quiet and outputs zero emissions.

Using all sorts of sensors it’s smart to avoid garden furniture and will cut in a certain area if you setup the perimeter with a metal wire. The specs say that it can cut up to 2,300 square meters and can be programmed when to start (even the day of the week). With full batteries it will munch grass for about 40 minutes but with the help of the solar panels, on a sunny day this could increase by up to 50%, to a full hour.

Though it’s great for the eco-freaks we are the price is in the rich range, £2,000 (about $3,970). - via - Pocket-Lint

Press release

If at first people were joking about the fact that Brad Pitt wants to be the “green mayor” of New Orleans, it has now turned into a big rumor.
Brad Pitt’s “Make It Right” Campaign in New Orleans - picture by ABCNews

It all started when the movie star, which sometimes lives in the city with his wife and kids, started to work on his Make It Right (MIR) campaign. He’s trying to demonstrate that they will build 150 affordable environmentally friendly homes in the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Word is that Brad would be interested in becoming a mayor of the city to prove that New Orleans could be very green city.

If he’s serious about it and it’s not just a rumor he wouldn’t be the first actor to become a politician. I don’t know why, but I would really trust this politician to at least try and make the country greener.

Oh and last thing, I would sure love Angelina Jolie to be his secretary, that would make it all awesome.