Babita Sajnani:

EADS VoltAirElectric aircraft concept

The other ZEHST (zero-emission hypersonic airliner) model that was unveiled at the Paris Air Show 2011 was EADS’ VoltAir. VoltAir is an electricity-driven aircraft that could actually rule the skies in the next 25 years. This futuristic and innovative, all-electric airliner will function on two modified lithium air batteries that will have the capacity to power two extremely efficient electric superconducting motors. These motors will then run the two counter-rotating co-axial shrouded propellers located at the rear end of the airliner.

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Balakrishnan Ramachandran:

Solar Heaters1 million solar water heaters by 2015

The South African Utility, Eskom has announced a plan to install 1 million solar water heaters by 2015 in a move that promises to be a major green initiative for the rainbow nation. Water heating accounts for 30 percent to 50 percent of the electricity demand from the household market and the use of solar heaters makes sense in this sunshine abundant nation.

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Ann Maria Cleetus:

BatteryRMIT to develop self-powered battery

What will you do when your clock is dead? You will simply remove the battery, throw it in the dust bin or in your backyard and let it to rust, knowing that it wont decompose. Do you realize the amount of lead and other chemicals, the battery will give out into the earth? There are rechargeable batteries available to solve this problem up to an extent. But, what if these batteries could get recharged on their own (without connecting to an external energy source) and be used repeatedly.

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Sudhir Raikar:

K-Town Experimental Media CenterProposal by Cehei Design

The Koreatown Performance Media Center is truly an architectural wonder housed within a unique mid-sized residential complex. In line with the display and signage systems in vogue, the site uses solar powered LED panels that can be used for two purposes. The first is to create a new transportation resource and the second is to promote the inclusion of the performance-based media center at the sprawling site.

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Ritu Mathur:

Grid Neutral Portable ClassroomDesigned by Green Apple Classrooms

A California-based company, Green Apple Classrooms, has come up with an innovative model of classrooms which are energy neutral and portable. These classrooms are able to generate electricity for themselves and hence are self sufficient. In fact, on an average, the classroom will be able to produce more electricity than required for self consumption. The classrooms are relocatable hence the same classroom can be used for various purposes at different points of time. This will also bring down infrastructure related costs of school.

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Rajkumar Bhattacharya:

Passenger Terminal BuildingDesigned by edit! Architects

The Prague-based EDIT! Architecture has proposed a design for a passenger terminal that would allow both pedestrians and vehicles to cross over from Hong Kong to China with ease. It looks very gracious and Edit Architecture calls it a living link between two great lands – Shenzhen city in China and Hong Kong. It is full of green landscapes along with a green top that add good green looks to it.

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Anupama Tickoo:

GastropolisDesigned by All That Is Solid

The people of this planet are facing the the threat of severe food crisis in the future. With the increase in urban development, the farmlands world over have depleted considerably. Also the rampant rise in population has increased the number of mouths to be fed. This imbalance between the rising world population and amount of food production has given rise to food insecurity.

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DATTATREYA MANDAL:

Echo Spin ConceptConcept cellphone by Jung-woo Choi

Mobile consumers are aware of the fact that dual SIM phones are all the rage in the contemporary market. Korean designer Jung-woo Choi has gone in a different path altogether by conceptualizing the Echo Spin mobile phone concept. Instead of adverting to rampant commercialism, the conception clearly alludes to the sustainable side of affairs by incorporating dual battery modes as an intrinsic part of the whole setup.

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Lakshmi A:

Solar EnergyFull spectrum solar cells

Researchers at the University of Toronto have designed a new solar cell that may prove to be instrumental in creating cost effective thin coatings capable of efficiently converting solar power into electricity. The team of engineers, headed by Ted Sargent, a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, has come up with the first of its kind solar cell that is based on the principle of colloidal quantum dots (CQD). In search for an efficient infrastructure that would harness the potential of the sun’s visible as well as infrared spectrum, the researchers have been successful in designing a device. According to the lead author of the experiment, Dr. Xihua Wang, the cell is a pack of two light-absorbing layers, one for capturing the power of visible rays from the sun and the other layer intended to harvest at least half the power from the sun’s infrared rays.

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Ritu Mathur:

Master Plan Competition for GuangzhouWinning proposal by Goettsch Partners

Pazhou district of the Guangzhou province of China is soon going to be one of the most ultra modern cities of the world. The district is situated on the delta of Pearl River and is the biggest city in the province. A prominent site in the district will soon be reconstructed, giving the city a facelift. For this work, a Chicago based architecture firm Goettsch Partners has been selected. The site is in the form of a triangle and at each corner of the triangle, a set of buildings will be made. A total of seven buildings are planned on this site and it is expected to emerge as an iconic commercial hub in coming times. The site will be developed by Poly Real Estate (Group) Co. Ltd, one of the leading real estate companies of China.

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Ritu Mathur:

Re-Cultivating The Forest CityProposal by Andrew Moddrell, Christopher Marcinkoski, Richie Gelles and Bradford Goetz

In recent past, the city of Cleveland, Ohio was a place abuzz with a population of one million and looked like a progressive city which was going to double the population by the end of century. But due to some unexpected twists and turns, the industrial economy came to an end and the city’s population declined by more than half. The immediate repercussion was a vast stretch of land left empty in the middle of the city. This area is known as the “Lower Cuyahoga River Valley”.

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Babita Sajnani:

EmpowerhouseSolar-powered house concept

Empowerhouse is the result of the community efforts and Habitat for Humanity towards building homes that are sustainable and affordable. The Empowerhouse is a humanitarian step towards adopting a ‘green’ approach to everyday living and this project will have the initial construction of two such homes to highlight the cause. The first Empowerhouse will be a part of the Solar Decathlon and will be on display at the National Mall, whereas the second home will be built in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity in Deanwood (a DC neighborhood). The first Empowerhouse will be physically joined to the second in Deanwood after the Solar Decathlon is concluded. Although each of the homes can sustain independently, however optimum energy efficiency will be achieved when they both join together. This project will create awareness in trying to evolve new technologies to net-zero housing that are environmentally friendly in design.
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Ritu Mathur:

SunbeamsSunbeams harnessed for energy

The beams of sun might have appeared only hot so far but now it will be regarded as forceful too. Basically, light emitted from sun is also a kind of radiation and it is a common knowledge that radiation of every kind exerts pressure. Now this theory has come into practice, although in a nascent stage right now.

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Rajkumar Bhattacharya:

Alloy for generating electricityConverting Heat to Electricity

Green electricity is not easy to generate. It needs a mix of engineering, materials, science and more. But when one takes the pain, it works wonders. Just ask the researchers of University of Minnesota who worked as a team to go through those pain taking hours of study and research to discover a new multiferroic alloy for generating electricity sans CO2 emission. When this research comes to the ground, even moving cars would be generating enough green energy to keep them moving.

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Fareeha Usmani:

myCopterPersonal Flying Vehicle

A thought might have struck many of us when we are caught up in heavy traffic that when the space above us is completely free why are we not utilizing it and making it useful for personal transportation. This thought gave rise to a project which aims at ending road congestion and making flying as easy as one drives a car. Many factors are needed to be considered if this project has to take its actual shape; one of the factors is energy consumption.

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Balakrishnan Ramachandran:

Solar EnergyProject Amp’s largest rooftop solar project

ProLogis, one of the world’s largest real estate management companies, has discovered that it can make money, not just from the covered storage space inside these warehouses, but also from their rooftops . Since 2009, ProLogis has been installing solar photovoltaic cells on the roofs of their properties. In recent months they have announced individual projects in California, Portland and in Spain with power generating capacities in the 2 MW to 11 MW range.

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Namitha Madhu:

ShippingAnti-biofouling Technology

The ship cleaning industry is striving to become greener in the future with the use of more environmentally friendly cleaning agents. It has been found that the green muck that is often found at the base of ships can interrupt a smooth sail . In technical terms, they reduce the ships’ ‘propulsive power’. This ‘muck’ is usually composed of algae and barnacles. Barnacles are small invertebrates with a shell that cling themselves to ships. Experts have found that removing these organisms can reduce fuel consumption by as much as 40 percent.

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Shubham Nag:

DA36 E-StarHybrid Aircraft

Man’s sheer desire to fly can’t be dominated by any force of nature. Like the obsessed Leonardo di Caprio in Aviator, the human race has witnessed many such personalities who have added new dimensions to the aviation industry. In distressing times of global warming, scientists are trying to consume as little of the remaining fuel on earth as possible. This week at the Paris Air Show, a small motor-glider, squeezed in between the jumbo jets and military demonstrations, grabbed the eye balls. Its uniqueness is in the fact that it is the first airplane to be powered by hybrid electric drive. The motor-glider has been termed as an airborne Chevy Volt as it runs with the help of an electric motor turning the prop and a gasoline engine providing fluid when the battery dies down. The DA36 E Star glider, like the Volt, was designed keeping in mind the idea of fuel efficiency.

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Namitha Madhu:

Chevrolet BEVBeat Electric Vehicle

With the green brigade attempting to save our environment, sky high fuel prices have led to a growing interest in electric cars over the decades. Many top class models are already available on the world market; however, India lags behind the race. Mahindra Reva was the first electric car brand available to the Indian market. Now, another player has entered the arena. The brand new Chevrolet Beat Electrical Vehicle, also called the BEV, introduced by none other than General Motors.

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Shubham Nag:

Shams ArenaProposal by Atelier D’Architecture Andreas Durr

“If there was a prerequisite for the future successful digital creative, it would be the passion for discovery”- these were the words of John Maeda, the great Japanese-American graphic designer. And from one great man to many others, it has often been believed that man never really invents, he just discovers the true potential in himself to believe in the unthinkable and do the unimaginable. Invention is just a by-product of discovering ways to fulfill one’s needs.

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Balakrishnan Ramachandran:

Solar Power Plant700MW solar power plant under construction

Sempra Energy has started construction on a 700MW solar power plant in Mesquite desert in Arizona. This plant will use little or no water. Construction on the first phase of this plant, which is slated to cost about $500 million, to produce 150MW will begin in mid-2011 and will complete in 2013. The US Department of Energy has provided conditional guarantees for $359 million for the project.

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B Phanindra Kumar:

Wind Turbines made from scrapCape May Technical High School students transform scrap into wind turbines

If you apply your creativity, even waste material can turn fruitful. This statement has been rightly proved by some adventurous high school engineering students from Cape May Technical High School in New Jersey of the United States of America. Making use of the waste metal and salvaged scrap, the students have created wind turbines that can produce electricity. The scrap used in the turbines is basically from the fence and sign posts. The main shaft of the turbine was made from transformed post while the PVC pipe was made from the scrap available in the school. The turbines were installed in coastal Cape May Courthouse in New Jersey where wind moves at 23 miles per hour.

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Wrik Sen:

Zero-Emission ATV ConceptsATVs promising green adventures

Despite advancements in Information Technology which has the bought the whole world within a computer screen, a lot of human activities are still based on traveling by road, primarily using vehicles. In industrial nations, it comes as a major setback on the ecological environment, which gets polluted as result of the vehicular usage. Hence, with the high demand for low emission vehicle has been on the rise. This list gives a list of 10 cool all-terrain vehicles with zero emission.

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Maitabi Banerjee:

SonestaProposal by Oppenheim Architects

From the makers of the “Desert Lodge” in Wadi Rum, Jordan here comes another architectural marvel “Sonesta” in Key Biscayne, Florida, USA. Oppenheim Architecture and Designs is a name to reckon with when it come to uniqueness and creativity. Conceived with the intention of facilitating the lightest possible footprint and adhering to the concept of porousity of masses this Florida-based designing firm promises this landmark with an uninterrupted and unburdened view of the ocean.

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DATTATREYA MANDAL:

Offshore Wind FarmDong Energy and ScottishPower to build 389MW offshore wind farm

Wind power capacity alone accounts for 194.4 GW capacity in the whole world, which is the highest among all renewable energy sources. And following along that green progression, Denmark’s Dong Energy and Scotland’s ScottishPower Renewables have stepped up their collaborative effort to install a mega capacity wind farm off the shore of Irish Sea. Named as the West of Duddon Sands wind farm, the project will encompass a whopping 108 3.6 wind turbines supplied by Siemens. Read the full story