Make an emergency light powered by fire and water

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:13:20 +0100

We are fans of creative DIY designs for gadget charging and lighting. So of course we were drawn to this entry in the Instructables Green Design contest for creating a simple thermoelectric emergency generator for an LED light (or possibly other gadgets) using just a handful of parts. It is not only a neat project for creating an emergency light but also an excellent project for kids learning about science.

From the project: "I´m using a thermoelectic module, also called peltier element, TEC or TEG. You have one hot side...

IBM Center for Applied Insights: The value of smarter social services

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:03:29 +0100

Faced with the demand to deliver better outcomes with increasingly restricted resources, many social organizations are finding that the answer to this challenge is to work smarter – by transforming the way they do business and modernizing their IT systems.

Our roadmap to Smarter Social Services helps social organizations focus on the capabilities that can improve service delivery and focus on outcomes through incremental investment. New research, including detailed econometric analysis, indicates a compelling business case can be made to support that roadmap, showing measurable returns on investment from projects that enhance service delivery capabilities.

Governments around the world are facing daunting economic and social pressures. At every level from local town councils to national administrations, the effort is under way to make better use of limited funds. Social organizations, those that provide services such as income support, pensions, disability programs, employment programs, child protection services or other similar services, are often under increased pressure from politicians and citizens alike. Collectively, these programs often comprise some of the largest portions of a country’s budget, on average 19 percent of GDP for developed countries. The proportion is rising: in 1980, it was only 16 percent, making these programs natural targets for those charged with reducing budget deficits. Added to this is the perceived issue of persistent fraud, waste and error. Even though these losses collectively may only be a small percentage of overall payments, they still represent a significant amount of money and foster a sense of mistrust and...

UK's first Bio-LNG filling station opens in Daventry

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:08:14 +0100

The UK's first bio-methane-fuelled filling station opened this morning and could prove to be the initial step towards a nationwide network dispensing the low emissions fuel.

The pump in Daventry dispenses Bio-LNG: a blend of liquid biomethane (LBM) derived from waste at a municipal landfill site in Albury, Surrey, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Developer Gasrec says the fuel can cut fuel costs by up to 30 per cent and produces at least 20 per cent lower emissions compared to diesel...

PVC is cheapest, but ...

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:42:33 +0100

The Green Deal: watch...

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:38:33 +0100

IBM Helps Zhenjiang Build a Smarter City

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:04:51 +0100

As part of its "Smarter Zhenjiang, Smarter Tourism" project, Zhenjiang is working to replace and upgrade hundreds of bus stations and thousands of public transportation vehicles. Serving as a central command center for the city, IBM's Intelligent Operations Center will help analyze traffic patterns, obtain and disseminate citywide real-time traffic updates and anticipate and minimize potential issues that could impact traffic flow or disruptions in service for citizens and tourists. The city of Zhenjiang is collaborating with IBM to upgrade its existing public transportation system with new technologies to increase efficiency and deliver better transportation services to citizens and tourists. Working with forward-thinking cities like Zhenjiang, and more than 2,000 other smarter cities projects around the world, IBM is able to help make cities smarter.

Big Squeeze: Compressed Air For Wind Energy Storage

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:01:10 +0100

Compressed air is getting new attention as a large-scale energy storage technology from researchers in the Pacific Northwest, who have pegged two locations on the dry side of Washington as possible sites for putting different approaches to work.

The general idea: use often abundant excess wind power to squeeze air into an underground holding space. When energy demand is high, the air can be surfaced and heated, thus expanding to drive turbines and produce electricity.

This first part of this equation – the excess wind power – isn’t just a...

Can Solar Energy Keep the Lights On in the UK?

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:05:14 +0100

According to some the UK is potentially facing the lights going out by 2015, for the simple reason that a lot of old coal plants are being shut down. (My view is that this is overplayed, but I’ll save that for a later post.)

The essence of the argument is that peak electricity demand will come dangerously close to total available electricity capacity; demand exceeding supply will result in blackouts. These blackouts aren’t likely to occur at random of course. Electricity demand varies greatly during the day...

Power-Generating Glass Windows Almost Ready For Market

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:02:42 +0100

The technology needed to turn windows, any type of glass window, into transparent power planets is almost ready for commercial production. New Energy Technologies, Inc. developer of spray-on solar cells recently announced that its researchers have successfully achieved faster fabrication time, improved transparency, and a two-fold increase in power conversion efficiency.

The new breakthrough means the technology has progressed into advanced development, and large-scale fabrication of mini-module SolarWindow devices may not be that...

A vision of smarter cities.

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:14:43 +0100

An urbanizing world means cities are gaining greater control over their development, economically and politically. Cities are also being empowered technologically, as the core systems on which they are based become instrumented and interconnected, enabling new levels of intelligence.

In parallel, cities face a range of challenges and threats to their sustainability across all their core systems that they need to address holistically. To seize opportunities and build sustainable prosperity, cities need to become “smarter.”

Operationally, cities are based on a number of core systems composed of different networks, infrastructures and environments related to their key functions: city services, citizens, business, transport, communication, water and energy. The city services system constitutes the...