Right or wrong, the Brits fear that future developments of wind turbines (and they plan to have 7,000 by 2010) may hurt the dwindling bat population, and they have good reasons. A wind turbine reduces the air pressure around the spinning blades and can burst the tiny blood vessels that surround the bat lungs when they expand.

Dr Erin Baerwald, of the University of Calgary, Canada, conducted the research on 188 bats that were killed in just one night, and revealed that they all died because of internal bleeding. However, the threat is not that high with birds as with bats, because they have tougher lungs and support pressure changes much better.

With 17 bat species on the rare and endangered lists, no wonder the Brits fear they’ll be affected by wind turbines.

What would you choose? More energy for us and forget the bats, or less energy for us and keep the bats. It’s very hard to answer, I know.

Image courtesy of mosdave

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For all those looking for a greener way for their commute, if a hybrid motorcycle is not enough then an electric bike should definitely do the job. How about the new Matra MS1 from the French guys at Matra Sports, that offer a 60miles range and a 6 hours recharge time?

Powered by a kW motor wheel and weighing only 40kg, it tops (limited) at 28mph (~ 45km/h) – beats the A2B bicycle. The specs list is not yet over because it includes regenerative disc brakes to increase battery life, full 100 mm suspension forks , an LCD screen and a magnetic security card to start the “engine”. But there’s more to it because Matra Ms1 has the ability of height and depth of the saddle and handlebars, which is a problem with most of the bikes these days, no matter if they’re electric or not.

But that’s where the good news stop. First of all, the company renowned for building Formula One cars and winning the Le Mans 24 hour race with one of their cars, is only selling this aluminum framed hybrid bike, in France. Second of all, it could be pretty expensive with reports saying 3,500 Euro ($4,951).

via TheGreenCommute

As much as we’d like to see solar powered planes, flying above our cities, that’s just not a viable solution at the moment. However, British scientists (others, too, of course) are researching ways of building the sustainable plane and came up with a solar powered spy plane that managed to set an unofficial record – longest duration unmanned flight – by staying in the air for three and a half days.

Dubbed Zephyr, the ultra-lightweight carbon-fibre aircraft is actually a hybrid that uses solar power during the day and rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries while flying at night.

Because they needed a lot of sun, the trial flight took place between July 28 and 31 in the Sonoran Desert where the temperature went up to 45 Celsius degrees. Launched by hand from the US Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the plane flew on autopilot and reached an altitude of more than 60,000 ft. It stayed in the air for exactly 82 hours and 37 minutes.

When will we see Boeing or Airbus flying on solar power? Not anytime soon I suppose.