Solar-Powered Gas Clouds Coming to 2022 World Cup Stadium

Awhile back I wrote about the competing architectural designs for the 2022 World Cup, to be held in the tiny Persian Gulf oil-state of Qatar.

That these oil barons have money to burn is very evident in the designs themselves: each stadium seems to be begging to take the prize for outlandish and most extravagant arenas in sports. One featured a "media membrane" with live footage covering the outer stadium walls, another goes to the lengths of sheathing its roof in a continuous film of flowing water in the cooling process.

Here's probably the most bizarre idea coming from architects who clearly have their 'budget' taken care of. Engineers at Qatar University have developed a solar-powered, gas-filled cloud that supposedly will shade spectators and athletes from the 125-degree heat. The clouds can be maneuvered via remote control and run a cool $500,000 each.

I wonder how long it will take for this type of "remote-control solar-powered gas-cooling cloud" trend to trickle down to the consumer masses. It isn't too hard to imagine decades from now, people walking down the street in Phoenix, AZ using their 12G iPhones to power their own personal gas-cooling clouds, utterly oblivious to the baking heat around them. That sounds so Jetson's, doesn't it? Perhaps that is a bit like other "technologies of the future" that always will be - like hydrogen fuel cells, cold fusion, retinal scanners, and robotic prostitutes.

What do you think of this type of technology? Is it an achievement that we can now, with the click of a remote-control, create steady shade wherever we want? Or might it have more sinister consequences, like heavy greenhouse gas emissions that Arabs with deep pockets are simply too insulated to ignore?


Via: Inhabitat

Solar-Powered Airplane Hangars Can Recharge Planes Emissions-Free!

Bio-fuel powered airplanes are a promising new wave of technology that can cut the emissions of airplanes and helicopters by up to 70% compared with conventional aircraft. However, German engineers PC-Aero have developed a solar-powered airplane hangar capable of charging aircraft for up to three-hour flights - all with ZERO carbon emissions!

According to Inhabitat, there's no word yet on how long it would take to charge the aircraft. The prototype developed was a single-seater. Hopefully, with successful development of solar-powered hangar technology and similar investment to what we've seen for electric car charging stations, this technology can be developed for two-and four-seater private jets, and perhaps even one day for commercial airliners.

Via: Inhabitat

Solar-Powered Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Taking Off

Electric vehicles have long been an environmentalist's holy grail - they are clean, produce no emissions, futuristic, and are generally silent. Numerous environmental activists, from Elizabeth Kolbert to Al Gore to Jeremy Rifkin, have advocated a total manufacturing shift to producing electric and fuel-cell vehicles as a means of cutting our total emissions and protecting against global warming.


However, the source of these vehicle's electricity is rarely considered, despite its enormous weight on the overall carbon footprint of implementing any viable electric vehicles charging grid. Conventional fossil fuel sources, logically, have a much greater carboon footprint than renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar, or geothermal. Unfortunately, more than 70% of the electricity generated in the United States comes from fossil fuel sources, including coal (48%), natural gas (21%), and petroleum (1%). Nuclear energy (19%) and hydropower (6%) are less harmful to the environment but still carry significant local impacts. Truly "renewable" sources of energy account for just 3% of our generated electricity, according to the US Department of Energy. 

Several startup firms have taken that message seriously and have made major steps to create networks of electric vehicle charging stations that are truly carbon-neutral.


The E-Move Charging Station prototype, designed in Bozen, Denmark, by Valentin Runggaldier, charges vehicles through solar energy absorbed by eight solar panels on its roof. According to Inhabitat, 

"no word on how long the filling stations require to charge different devices, but unless people have the capacity to wait all day while a plug-in car is charged, the stations might be best suited for smaller devices."

The City of Chicago's Fleet Department used the ChargePoint technology created by Coulomb Technologies and adapted it to use solar power. By independently creating its own power source, the solar powered charging station does not draw upon the rest of the city's electric grid and does not cost the Fleet Department's electric bill. The only obstacle for wider adaptation of this type of solar-power charging station is the cost, which must be below what it would cost to use conventional electric sources to be practical. 

New York City just opened its first ever solar-power charging station within the last six months, through a partnership with the sustainable energy company Beautiful Earth Group.

In order to promote more of this type of synergy between the solar energy and electric vehicle sectors, certification regimes like Evergreen Fleets play a crucial role in promoting renewable-based electric grids over conventional ones.