alternative

Kite-flying to help save the planet

The winds of change are apparently upon us, quite literally, where alternative means of transportation are concerned. Just yesterday we wrote of a flying boat to come out of Brazil, for example, and now we learn of a trimaran that runs on kite power off the shores of Hawaii.

We're not talking about ordinary sails here, but high-tech kites that "harness higher winds above the water, reduce wetted surface with a lifting force, and improve hull stability," according to Maui-based Kite For Sail. The system, which provides far more propulsion than conventional sails, is meant to supplement … Read more

Play a 'Secret Burning Man Game'

Jane McGonigal is a Burning Man widow.

That is, her husband has just left for the annual countercultural arts festival for 10 days, leaving her alone at home in the Bay Area.

But McGonigal, one of the most innovative designers of alternate-reality games, is hoping that even though she won't be in the desert herself, her influence might be felt at the 45,000-person bacchanalia.

To wit, she is hoping that she can seed the idea that if anyone sees her husband, Kiyosh, wandering around Burning Man, "usually wearing an orange jumpsuit, sometimes wearing goggles and/or a … Read more

Service lets drivers dial up alternative fuel

It's not easy saving the world. Take it from drivers who have opted to change from gasoline to ethanol, but find themselves struggling to find alternative-fuel locations. It seems like an arduous task when a Shell and a Chevron are located at practically every corner, but less than 1 percent of all U.S. gas stations offer e85, according to a survey by Pavillion Technogies.

A new service from wireless mobile information network Earthcomber helps drivers find alternative fuel by letting them search for ethanol, biodiesel, hydrogen and other alternative-fuel fill-up locations from their mobile phones, BlackBerrys, PDAs and … Read more

Study: Wind power soared in 2006

The wind power industry made big strides last year, according to a Worldwatch Institute report released late Thursday.

15,200 megawatts of new wind turbines were installed around the world last year, representing a 26 percent jump in global wind power capacity, according to the study.

By year's end, total wind power capacity exceeded 74,200 megawatts, enough to offset 43 million tons of carbon dioxide, the institute said.

Germany, Spain and the United States are currently the world's top wind power producers, putting out 60 percent of the global total, but the report says the alternative energy … Read more

Aluminum, hydrogen and a fuel for our future?

Hydrogen is lightweight and efficient as a fuel. When it burns, you get water as the exhaust, and the fuel cell technology that burns the gas is well developed. The major hang-up has been how to produce hydrogen without needing lots of fossil-derived energy.

Apparently, the way to cheap hydrogen is through aluminum. Purdue researchers earlier this year announced they'd found a way to use aluminum to get hydrogen from water. Today a Chinese ceramicist who did graduate work in Portugal says there's an even simpler way to derive hydrogen. This process uses powdered aluminum at room temperature, … Read more

Historic Pearl Brewery to become solar gem

Amid all the fermentation in the alternative-energy sector, the historic Pearl Brewery in San Antonio is poised to become a showcase for solar power.

And it'll be a big one, to boot. CPS Energy and renovator Silver Ventures want to turn the former brewery into the largest solar energy installation in Texas: a 200-kilowatt array of panels will crown a 67,000-square-foot warehouse that's being rehabbed for mixture of office, retail and residential use as the Full Goods Building. The project will provide approximately one-quarter of the building's total energy needs, according to CPS Energy, the municipal … Read more

Alternative fuels a tough sell, MIT forecasters say

Dethroning the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine is not likely to happen soon and will only occur with decades of policies to promote alternative fuels, according to an economic analysis done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT on Wednesday published a summary of the research that used economic models to study how alternative fuels could come to market.

The "systems dynamic" model, which simulates how markets behave, took into account several factors, including how often people buy new cars, how manufacturers affect the market and vehicle attributes.

The researchers' conclusion is that alternative fuels suffer from a catch-22 … Read more

The hydrogen-powered Mercedes

One often-cited alternative to gasoline-powered cars is hydrogen. Editors Michael Kanellos and Brian Cooley took a look at one example of a hydrogen-powered test car, a small Mercedes. To keep Kanellos from endangering himself and said vehicle, they set the top speed on this hydro-chariot at only 85 miles per hour. Take a look.

Now we're cookin' and it's a sound idea, too

Two billion people around the globe still depend on open wood fires for cooking. That method is 5 percent efficient in using energy. The smoke is unhealthy for all those who must breathe it. And in some areas it's depleting forests that can't grow fast enough.

Now the University of Nottingham is going to try to build a thermoacoustic kitchen. And that's my new word for the day. No, not "kitchen," but "thermoacoustic." Instead of using the usual wood fire, this device would generate "sound waves through the nonuniform heating of gas.&… Read more