Energy efficiency

It's easy to take our electric lights for granted. Many people in developing counties don't have the luxury of electric grids and have to rely on kerosene lamps to brighten the night. Kerosene costs money and breathing the fumes is dangerous. A new light powered by gravity could be a superior solution to lighting needs.

GravityLight doesn't need to be recharged through solar cells. It doesn't use batteries at all. It's powered by the same force that keeps our feet on the ground. A weight attached to the light takes 3 seconds to lift up, but provides 30 minutes of light as it descends. … Read more

Apple saw its environmental friendliness slip a little over the last year, according to a new study from Greenpeace.

The organization today released the 18th annual "Guide to Greener Electronics." Apple took the sixth spot this time around, with a score of 4.5 out of a possible 10, down from 4.6 (and fourth place) last year. The company was hit hard on Sustainable Operations for "lacking a robust take-back program in India." Worldwide, however, its recycling program is quite good. The biggest issue Greenpeace has with Apple is that lacks "transparency" and … Read more

In an extension of its data-center glasnost, Google is offering an in-depth profile of its evolving strategy in center management.

During the 7×24 Exchange conference today in Phoenix, Joe Kava, the VP of data centers for Google, delivered a presentation giving an intimate look at how the company's data-center strategy has evolved, according to a GigOm report. Kava began his presentation with a seven-year timeline of Google's data-center history that showed the progression of the search giant's strategy.

While profiling an industry shift in data-center strategy, Kava's presentation showed a progression of the search … Read more

In a stroke of ingenuity that could have proven handy during Hurricane Sandy, four teenage African girls have come up with a urine-powered generator.

Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, and Faleke Oluwatoyin, all 14, and Bello Eniola, 15, collaborated on the invention, which they claim generates one hour of electricity from one liter (about a quart) of urine.

The pee-powered product made its debut at Maker Faire Africa in Lagos, Nigeria, this week. A post on the Maker Faire Africa blog describes the generator's workings in the following words: … Read more

I can relate to the energy woes of folks in the Pacific island nation of Tokelau (technically a territory of New Zealand), and I'm a bit jealous of their solution.

Tokelau and the roughly 1,500 residents of the coral atolls about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand have become the world's first completely energy-independent territory/nation/whatever, thanks to a solar energy project that's just been completed with funding from the New Zealand government.

"Until now, Tokelau has been 100 percent dependent upon diesel for electricity generation, with heavy economic and environmental costs," New … Read more

Here's the problem with solar panels. Most of the time they're static and unable to rotate with the sun, which in the end means less electrical output. Menlo Park, Calif., based startup Qbotix has built a commercial prototype that offers an answer. It's called SolBot, and it's a set of mobile robots that quickly move around a railroadlike track and mechanically pivot the panel.

The engineers at Qbotix say their setup is different than conventional tracking systems, which require each photovoltaic panel to have a controller and motor. One mobile robot can manage up to 200 … Read more

Call it a "Gentleman's C."

In a new report, Greenpeace says that while Apple is doing a better job ensuring the energy efficiency of its data centers, the company still lags behind some competitors in key areas.

Greenpeace says that additional information Apple provided about its facilities in recent months has resulted in improved scores. That includes infrastructure siting, where Apple now has a "D" grade, up from an "F." Apple also improved from "D" to "C" ratings in energy efficiency and greenhouse gas mitigation, as well as renewable … Read more

Your Gmail box lives somewhere in the jumble of servers, cables, and hard drives known as the "cloud" but it often migrates in search of the ideal location.

Google today released an animation that answers the question: what happens when I press send on Gmail? The company created the interactive feature called The Story of Send to highlight the security and relatively low energy footprint of its data centers. The graphics repeat Google's estimate that its data centers use 50 percent less energy than a typical data center and 30 percent of their data center energy is … Read more

Love walking and texting? Still haven't done a faceplant on a streetlight? Well, this sneaker from Kenya can power your phone so you'll never have to look up from that screen again.

Inventor Anthony Mutua, 24, has been showing off his recharging sneaker at the first-ever Kenyan Science Technology and Innovation Week, held in Nairobi. It's another way of using your body's own energy to fuel electronics.

The shoe apparently has a very thin "crystal chip," perhaps a piezoelectric device, that generates power when the sole bends. It can charge phones via a long cable to a pocket while the user walks, or store power for later charging. … Read more