Qatar Airways to switch to natural gas fuel by 2012

Qatar Airways will move to natural gas to power its planes from 2012 following its successful first flight from Doha to London using the fuel.
Read the full story here at Arabian Business.

Top 10 Solar Technologies to Watch Out For

Solar power technology is moving forward by leaps and bounds, with some new advancements being built out into usable installations virtually every day. Design concepts once thought to be ‘pie in the sky' ideas are being implemented, and making a simple solar panel array look like old-school technology.

From house roof-tops, to commercial space-solar technologies, this list has some very innovative ideas.

Read the full story at Cleantechnica

Rainwater Harvesting System Capable of Capturing over 20,000 Gallons of Water

Jerry Block, a retired anesthesiologist, located in Monte Sereno, California, has developed in his backyard a rainwater harvesting system, capable of holding and collecting up to 20,000 gallons of rainwater each year.

Check out the details here at GreenOptmistic.com

13 Great Solar Concepts Inspired By Plants (Slideshow)

Solar cells are a form of biomimicry of plants in that they convert sunlight into energy. The plant world offers up a vast array of shapes, sizes, colors, and styles from which designers can create their cool, crazy and creatively mimicked solar powered concepts. Check out some of the amazing solar power creations inspired by their flora counterparts here at TreeHugger

Teenager Invents Cheap Solar Panel From Human Hair

"Renoise writes "Milan Karki, 18, who comes from a village in rural Nepal, believes he has found the solution to the developing world's energy needs. A solar panel made from human hair. The hair replaces silicon, a pricey component typically used in solar panels, and means the panels can be produced at a low cost for those with no access to power. The solar panel, which produces 9 volts (18 watts) of energy, costs around $38 US (£23) to make from raw materials. Gentlemen, start your beards. The future of hair farming is here!"

Read more at Slashdot

Biologically Inspired Ocean Power Systems

Here's an excerpt from the website of BioPower Systems:

"BioPower Systems is commercialising ocean power conversion technologies. Through application of biomimicry, we have adopted nature’s mechanisms for survival and energy conversion in the marine environment and have applied these in the development of our proprietary wave and tidal power systems.
Our technologies inherit benefits developed during 3.8 Billion years of evolutionary optimization in nature’s ocean [...]"

Thanks to TechnologyGraduate blog for sharing this.

Make sure you read the details about bioSTREAM and bioWAVE technologies here and here. They are pretty cool.

A Step Closer to Solar Power in Space

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and IHI Corporation are undertaking an ambitious project of $ 21bn. They are aspiring to design and develop a Space-based solar farm that would generate 1GW of power. This will require an area of four square kilometer consisting of rows of solar panels. This space solar farm will be housed 36,000km

Source: A Step Closer to Solar Power in Space

Energy and Microfinance in Rural Bangladesh

"We must admit that we knew very little about Grameen Shakti when we filled in the application for the International Development Club project at the beginning of the summer of 2008. The information package outlined a rural energy company related to the Grameen Bank, the Bangladeshi microfinance organization created by 2006 Peace Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. However, the intersection of microfinance and rural energy piqued our interest.

On the one hand, energy needs in developing countries’ rural areas are overwhelming: more than two billion people do not have access to modern forms of energy like electricity or oil while a third of the energy consumed in these countries comes from burning wood, crop residues and animal dung (PDF). On the other hand, microfinance, pioneered by Professor Yunus in the 1970s and probably the most successful business innovation to serve low-income consumers, has opened new possibilities to fight poverty beyond traditional government programs and international aid.

How can innovations in microfinance be applied to rural energy?

Yunus and Dipal Barua, one of his students when he started Grameen Bank, founded Grameen Shakti (the name literally translates to “Rural Energy”) in the mid-1990s with the mission of empowering rural people by giving them access to green energy and income. Grameen Shakti’s clients purchase green energy equipment such as solar panels with an in-house microloan that they can pay back over three years. After that, they own a source of electricity that usually lasts up to 20 years.

In addition to solar energy, Grameen Shakti provides energy products like Improved Cooking Stoves and Biogas Plants.

The organization also makes smart use of available technology; for example, Barua receives daily text messages with solar panel sales per office. And they are a truly grassroots organization: all employees are Bangladeshis and most of the funding comes from their own operations.

Like the bank, Grameen Shakti achieved almost immediate success and has grown very quickly.

Barua now heads the organization, which employs more than 2,000 people and has offices all over rural Bangladesh. It has installed close to 200,000 solar panels in households across the country and plans to reach one million in the next three years.

During the three months we worked in New York and the two weeks we spent in Dhaka, we helped them refine a plan to train young women to install and repair the solar home systems. We had the opportunity to see first hand how poor rural women provided with appropriate training and tools are able to earn a living by producing and repairing electronic accessories for the solar panels.

Nilufa, pictured at the top of this post, left a profound impact on us: she is 21 years old and has one son. Abandoned by her husband, she is now supporting her son and her family by producing at home hundreds of electronic accessories every month.

We returned to New York with the feeling that we had learned much more from them than they had learned from us and convinced that local social businesses have a great potential to change the lives of the poor"

Source: http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/publicoffering/post/50318/Energy+and+Microfinance+in+Rural+Bangladesh

Ford's Electric Cars Will Talk to the Power Grid, Pick Least Expensive Electricity Rates

Image: Ford

Smart recharging will be extremely important for electric cars and plug-in hybrids. It would be pretty disastrous if millions of plug-ins started recharging their batteries during peak demand, which is why auto makers are working on systems that would allow the cars to be programmed to not only charge when electricity is cheapest, but also to communicate directly with the power grid via smart meters.... Read the full story on TreeHugger"

Kill Your Air Conditioner: Cool Your House with a Big Fan

Kill Your Air Conditioner: Cool Your House with a Big Fan: "

The summer of 2009 has been cooler than usual in the Midwest, but Mother Nature can still pack a punch.

August has seen some 90-degree days in places like Michigan.

When it get this hot, some people like to stay inside in front of the air conditioner (based on recent Twitter and Facebook updates). But it doesn't have to be this way.

The air conditioner, I mean.

A “whole house fan” that uses the attic for venting can keep your home cool with less electricity (and for less money) than modern-day air conditioning.

Read more of this story »

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