renewables

There's long been speculation and research about algae's potential as a power source. The fast-growing plants waste three-quarters of the sunlight they absorb, so what if that energy could be captured and converted?

That's the premise behind BIQ House, designed by architectural firm Splitterwerk. It's a new algae-powered building that's opening on April 25 as part of the International Building Exhibition (IBA) in Hamburg, Germany. The building's east and south facades are covered in a system of louvres. Filled with microalgae, these louvres form 200 square meters of panels to power the building. … Read more

The Solar Impulse has defied all expectations in its short four-year life.

First, the solar-powered airplane got off the ground in 2010 and stayed aloft for a total of 87 minutes without using a drop of fuel; then, it completed its first international flight traveling from its home of Switzerland to Brussels in about 13 hours. By its first birthday, the plane met the goal of staying aloft for 24 hours -- flying at night with solar energy captured during the day. It has since completed a 1,550-mile journey from Madrid, Spain, to Rabat, Morocco.

Now, before it embarks … Read more

Google has made a $200 million equity investment in a wind farm in West Texas that it says produces enough juice to power more than 60,000 homes in the U.S.

In a blog post today, the company said that the 161-megawatt Spinning Spur Wind Project in Oldham County boasts 70 Siemens wind turbines of 2.3 megawatts each, which started operating on a full-time basis just before the end of the year.

Built by developer EDF Renewable Energy, the facility has contracted its output to SPS, a utility serving Texas and New Mexico.

Google said in the post: &… Read more

Ten megawatts of electricity is enough energy to power more than 6,000 homes. It is also the same amount of electricity that Apple is looking to produce with its biogas fuel cell project at its North Carolina data center.

The tech giant has filed a request with the N.C. Utilities Commission to double the size of its local fuel cell farm, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Currently, the data center has enough fuel cells to pump out 4.8 megawatts of electricity. Apple is asking to bump those numbers up to 50 fuel cells, which should be able … Read more

Google is going green at a data center in Oklahoma.

The search giant announced today that it has signed a deal with the Grand River Dam Authority to transition the energy supply for its Oklahoma data center to wind energy. According to Google, the supply will be powered by 48 megawatts of wind energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project in Oklahoma. The Project is slated to come online later this year.

Although Google has signed deals in the past to use green, renewable energy, it's the first time the company will take it from a utility provider. In … Read more

Facebook reported that its greenhouse gas emissions from data centers, office space, employee commuting and air travel, data center construction and sever transportation totaled about 285,000 metric tonnes in 2011. It takes the same amount of energy to serve each active Facebook user as it would to produce one medium latte, three large bananas or a couple glasses of wine, according to the post.

Facebook's energy sources were 23 percent clean and renewable, 27 percent coal, 17 percent … Read more

Last week's show with the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus answered a lot of questions about how to stop snoring and sleep better, and Dr. Breus generously donated a Renew Sleep Clock to give away. The contest starts today, so head over to our 404 SubReddit and tell us about your craziest dream for a chance to win!… Read more

The Sleep Doctor Michael Breus is back in the studio to solve all our snooze-related questions, and he also brings us a new toy! He's showing off the Renew SleepClock by Gear4, a sleep management tool that knows when you're sleeping and takes careful measurements to record your sleep patterns.

It also works as a tailored alarm clock that wakes you up at the lightest moment in your sleep cycle, so you'll arise super refreshed. Dr. Breus also gave us one to give away on a future show, so be sure to tune in to find out how to win.

As usual, the Doctor also answers questions from our listeners. Today he'll respond to inquiries about the correlation between memory and sleep, and whether or not we can learn things like languages and facts just by sleeping.… Read more

I happily plunked down $25 when iTunes Match was released last November. I loved the idea of accessing my iTunes music library from my iPhone and iPad. Since then, however, I ponied up for Spotify Premium, which I greatly prefer to iTunes Match. Between Spotify and Pandora, I rarely find myself firing up iTunes, and I can't remember the last time I used iTunes Match to tunnel into my iTunes library from my iPhone or iPad.

I suspected that my iTunes Match subscription would auto-renew after a year, and it turns out my suspicions were correct. If you do nothing, you'll drop another $25 for another year of iTunes Match. It's easy to turn off auto-renew for iTunes Match, if you know where to look.… Read more