Hydrogen Powered Boat??

Some graduate students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have renewed a 40 year old sailboat and made it run on hydrogen fuel. The boat is 22 feet long and manned by three people. The three students sailed it down the Hudson River in late September.


Read the full story here:
http://green.rpi.edu/

-Leslie

Mass-Marketing Wind Turbines

This Autumn you should be able to buy your own personal wind turbine from Ace Hardware. The turbine is made by Honeywell (look familiar? Look at your thermostat), who claims that this turbine can be efficient enough to power about 18% of the average home. While not quite as cheap as some of us would like (MSRP at a steep $4500 for one turbine), Honeywell and Ace Hardware are taking a big step in helping America become a little more green.

Note: You can also make your own small turbine from recycled parts on our website. The link is at the top of the page. Great project for kids this summer!


Read the whole story:
http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2009/20090047.html

-Leslie

Solar Powered Bus Stops

San Francisco has started to build solar powered bus stops. These bus stops will use solar panels located on the roof to power LED lights, the intercom, and Wi-Fi for the people waiting. San Francisco plans to have 1100 of these bus stops built by 2013.

Read more here:
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/solar-powered-wi-fi-bus-stops/#comments

-Leslie

New kind of solar energy plant.

Sunlight + molten salt = energy for 100,000 homes. There is only one plant, which won't be completed until 2013, near Las Vegas. These plants are meant to be used in the desert.

Read more:
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/molten-salt-solar-plant/#comment-6631

-Leslie

Eastern Hemisphere Powers Up Stadiums

Taiwan is now home to the first completely solar powered sports stadium. There are 8,844 solar panels that can produce about 1.14 gigawatt hours of electricity every year. As an added bonus, the World Games 2009 will be hosted here in July. Maybe the word about solar energy will be spread and this will inspire more stadiums or similar buildings.

Read the whole article here:
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/new-solar-stadium-in-taiwan/#comments


-Leslie

Fun and Games

I'm going to bring you back from the Memorial Day weekend nice and easy... Thedailygreen.com made a nice little flash quiz called "How Green Do you Want to Be?" Its a fairly short and easy quiz. I liked it, its kinda fun.

Here's the link:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/how-green-are-you

Comment and tell us what you got!

-Leslie

Kites: No longer kids' toys

Well, they've figured out a way to harvest wind power using kites. The power harvested from one kite can apparently power about 10 houses (by the way, these kites are the size of parachutes). Scientists are now working on a kite that will hopefully be able to power about 50 houses.

Read the story and watch the video:
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/harnessing-high-winds-with-giant-kites/#comments


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I have a comment to make that has no relevance to today's story. Is it just me or does it seem like there is a lack of wind farms in the southeast United States? It seems to me like that would be a hotspot for wind farms because of the Atlantic Ocean and Tropical Storm/Hurricane season in the summer. I know that all the way up by the Great Lakes we feel the effects of hurricanes, and I can't imagine what kind of power a wind farm could create in the aftermath of one of these storms.

If you've read this, you're welcome to leave a comment or discuss. I will try to get back to you.
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-Leslie