Eco Factor: Hybrid car made from natural materials.

Green cars are not a new thing for Toyota, which earlier showcased a variety of cars which could by all means be termed green. The company is again making news with another concept that could be a common sight on the road after a couple of decades. Toyota has showcased a hybrid concept car made from seaweed that will be shown at the Melbourne International Motor Show in Australia. The 1/X is being termed as Toyota’s dream machine, which if developed could make millions of dreams come true.

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Eco Factor: Car powered by solar energy developed by MIT.

The oldest solar electric student team in America, MIT’s Solar Electric Vehicle Team, has unveiled their next-gen solar car known as the “Eleanor.” Costing a whopping $243,000, the solar car will compete in the tenth World Solar Challenge, an endurance race covering nearly 2000 miles of Australian outback.

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Eco Factor: Forests in the sky to absorb harmful CO2 from the upper atmosphere.

Reading the simple laws of physics will make you understand that hot air is lighter than cold air, and all the harmful CO2 released from factory chimneys doesn’t have an immediate effect on the people living on the ground. The exhaust gases are hot, hence they lift and stay in the upper part of the atmosphere, showing their effect on the extremely important ozone layer.

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Eco Factor: Solar panels by First Solar break $1/watt barrier.

In bad economic times, a reduction in the cost of products is always a welcome sign. That reduction gets even better if it’s about something we’ve always wished to come cheap. First Solar is again the first in breaking the $1/watt barrier, which has been the goal of the solar industry for a long time. The company has claimed that their newest solar modules cost just 98 cents per watt. Though 2 cents doesn’t make that much of a difference, it definitely does break the records.

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Eco Factor: System to harness energy from everyday life.

Electricity sockets are often used to connect our chargers and appliances. How about a socket that instead of sucking electricity from the power grid, feeds electricity to the grid? The system is being conceptualized by Carla Diana and Jeff Hoefs. Dubbed the Inlet-Outlet, the system generates electricity from things that are used in an urban household on an everyday basis.

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Eco Factor: Sustainable energy-efficient architecture for StatoilHydro.

The competition to design a sustainable office for Norwegian Oil Company StatoilHydro has been won by Oslo-based A-Lab architects for a star-shaped complex, which is high on sustainability and style. The architecture was chosen from among 40 entries, each of which could be built before 2012. The building has been christened “Five Elements” due to the five wings the building is composed of.

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Eco Factor: Electricity generating nano-generators harness the energy of motion.

It seems like researchers have lost all hopes that humans will ever be able to generate electricity for themselves, as they are now looking forward to innocent rodents to do the job for the energy-dependent world of today. Researchers at Georgia University’s Nano Research Group have developed jackets for hamsters that will generate electricity whenever the rodents take on the wheel for fun.

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Eco Factor: Sustainable house to be powered by solar and geothermal energy.

Sustainable architecture and sustainable housing are new names in urban residential complexes. Spanish design firm Desiño Earle has designed a new solar house that could take sustainability to a new level. Known as the “Eco House,” the house is a modern eco-villa with all the amenities for futuristic green living.

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Eco Factor: New CCS technology could make coal-fired power plants green.

Be it the latest advances in solar technology or fuel cells, until we get an efficient and easily available source of green energy the human race will get powered-up by the ever diminishing sources of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels, though efficient, pollute the environment in more than one way, primarily with carbon emissions. Technologies to capture all that carbon from fossil-fuel-fired plants have already been developed. But saving the planet from a boiling disaster comes at a price – $50 for every ton of CO2.

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Eco Factor: Energy-efficient monitor saves up to 60% power.

The newest weapon in Dell’s fight against global warming is the newly launched G2410, 24-inch LCD. The white LED Full HD monitor has especially been developed for eco-friends all over the world. Ensuring up to 60% energy savings, the $349 monitor has a multitude of features that can reduce the monitor’s load on the environment.

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