Feb
9
Eco cities have a huge opportunity to impact the magnitude of climate exchange: after all, larger cities are consuming two thirds of the world’s energy and responsible for emitting over 70% of global CO2 emissions.
We analyzed the key objectives of the top 10 eco cities that were ranked highest in terms of environmental sustainability. Read More
Jun
28
Lego was built on plastic. Now the Danish toy company is investing millions into getting rid of it.
Lego’s mission is to gain a positive impact in the world. With a successful strategy, the Danish company already saved 7,000 tons of packaging materials.
This was said by Tim Brooks, vice president environmental responsibility. Read More
May
4
Aquion did come up with a breakthrough saltwater battery. It is environmentally friendly, cost effective and has a life cycle way beyond any other battery: up to 5,000 cycles.
The development of sustainable saltwater batteries enters the next level.
The American company Aquion Energy has received $ 33 million extra finance.
Previously, Bill Gates invested in Aquion Energy.
Aquion developed batteries that can store solar and wind energy to serve as backup for times when there is no wind nor sun. Saltwater batteries are not new, but the batteries from Aquion are special because they are using salt water as a conductor, instead of acids or bases.
Aquion has come up with a clever twist on a 200 year old salt water battery technology using:
They have come up with a breakthrough solution. It is environmentally friendly, cost effective and has a life cycle way beyond any other battery: up to 5,000 cycles
The startup — which was backed by Bill Gates and VCs like Kleiner Perkins and Foundation Capital — is making a low cost, modular grid battery made from basic materials like sodium and water.
The battery pairs a carbon anode with a sodium-based cathode, and a water-based electrolyte shuttles ions between the two electrodes during charging and discharging.
The technology was developed out of Carnegie Mellon University by founder and chief technology officer Jay Whitacre.
By using basic materials, Aquion is hoping its product is inexpensive enough to disrupt the current grid battery market.
Aquion’s CEO Scott Pearson:
“When the battery has been manufactured at a commercial scale for awhile, the price point of the battery could be $300 per kilowatt hour. That’s about a third of the cost of some of the more expensive lithium ion battery grid products.”
Want to read the specs? Click on this link
In June 2016, Aquion Energy has introduced the Aspen 24S, a 24-volt version of its award-winning Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) battery.
The new product is designed for energy-intensive applications that use solar panels, such as off-grid solar-powered LED lighting, as well as small pumps and motors. It is also an ideal drop-in replacement for existing systems using 24-volt lead-acid batteries.
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Apr
18
The shipping sector needs a robust and ambitious action plan in order to decrease the emissions in the sector.
Ships are responsible for more than 5.5% of the global emissions!
That’s why the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) wants the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) quickly to make firm commitments to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from shipping. Read More
Mar
23
From Iconomy to the WEconomy with this self-audit tool for businesses and industries
Audit your circular strategy here. WEconomics developed a self-audit tool to assess the circular strategy of your company.
After completing the survey, organizations will get instant results and recommendations enabling them to improve the way they handle sustainability. Read More
Feb
4
Microsoft stores the data in a water proof container
Saving data in the deep sea can save energy.
This is Microsofts conclusion after an experiment of three months with a data center in a container at sea. Read More
Jan
10
The rubbish bin, designed to float in marinas, inland waterways, residential lakes and harbors, catches floating debris and liquids by sucking water from the surface and letting if flow out through the bottom of the structure, trapping waste in a catch bag.
Do you love your boat? And do you want to clean up the water in the harbor? This is what we have for you. This genius bucket can suck garbage right out of the ocean.
It’s called the SeaBin and it works just like a fish tank filter. Let’s get rid of the plastic soup. Read More
Dec
14
Light emitting diodes, better known as LEDs, run cool and use very little electricity. That’s a cost benefit that furniture giant Ikea promotes.
IKEA has decided to invest an extra € 1 billion to tackle climate change, including investments in renewable energy.
Since 2009 the company has € 1.5 billion invested in wind and solar energy.
“We have got a very good year,” according to IKEA Group President and CEO Peter Agnefjäll at the presentation of the Annual Review and Sustainability Report of the past year. “As a result we have been able to continue significant investments in sustainability, improving our product portfolio and more increasing the number of our stores.”
Nov
17
An atlas of pollution: the world in carbon dioxide emissions
The final declaration of the G20 summit in Antalya (Turkey) seems to be not an great start for the next climate summit in Paris. Especially India and Saudi Arabia will not cooperate. To limit the rise in global temperature to below two degrees Celsius, all countries must reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
India and Saudi Arabia have rejected an ambitious climate agreement at the next summit in Paris.
Even after twenty hours of negotiations, both countries refused to agree a passage which included periodic monitoring of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Nov
12
The approach of circular economy is: make – use – maintain/ reuse/ remanufacture/ recycle. Waste should be seen as source of valuable resources. Products should be repaired, remanufactured and reused.
A genius idea in times when resources get scarce – be it oil, water or different metals and when the world has to face a growing population. It is estimated that 9.2 billion people will live on earth in 2050 (UN).
The world in 2050: That world is a fair, high-tech and sustainable one – with advances that mean food for all, a reformed capitalism, and a circular economy.
But the road getting there will not be easy.
The more I look at the two sides – the environment and the economy – the more convinced I become that the way forward is to fully integrate resource efficiency into the way we live and do business in the world.
We know why a circular economy is a good idea. At the moment the world is still locked into a linear production chain that is resource intensive. We obtain resources and then discard them as waste.
Oct
16
The integrated electronics are easily to connect the solar hot water systems with panels that only supply electricity. Alius offers both variants.
The Dutch solar panels supplier AliusEnergy presented a solar panel that generates electricity as well as renewable heat. Smart inverters optimize the yield.
AliusEnergy supplies solar panels that will produce within the same module, both solar and renewable power. The pipes, used in the solar panel, have a module of 14 liters. Read More
Oct
9
The silicon cells can be re-cycled as raw material for new solar cells
For silicon PV modules, the recycling process consists of multiple steps.
ReMedia (Milano) is an Italian consortium that handles Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) as well as end-of-life batteries and accumulators. Read More
Sep
8
Green affortable desalination technology Virgin Islands, using gravitation
Since last weekend, the Virgin Islands, an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea, runs a sustainable desalination plant on solar power, designed by ‘Elemental Water Makers’.
Seawater is converted into fresh water with renewable energy sources. Read More
Aug
18
Committing to the people in Haiti, who are still living in tents feels ah-mazing.
Seldom I have seen people so grateful with a small contribution. I’m honest. Slightly less than 10 dollars. For a lot of StartUps this is normal nowadays. This one not. Class!
The Mobile Factory transforms rubble into Lego building blocks. The blocks allow victims of war or natural disasters to construct their own new, earthquake proof houses, and rebuild the communities they lost. And they need your support. Today! Read More
Aug
18
He can heat his jacuzzi without receiving an utility bill with the extra energy he is generating. This is comfort!
Jan van Liempt, director of In2Ecobuildings:
“The electronics industry makes perfect stuff for consumers: TVs, iPhones, sound equipment. Everything is made because customers want it. Clients get value for their money.
Any complains? Most of the times, it’s resolved perfectly. Why not for houses? Nor installations? That’s my passion. I build energy neutral buildings and I have learned that comfort in an energy neutral building is possible!”
Jul
10
The Sustainable Energy Test Site on the roof of the University Utrecht is one of the five Sustainable Roof Plans of the province of Utrecht
Ron Brenk is senior project manager building management.
Brenk coordinates the technical maintenance of the 10 buildings of the University of Utrecht. Read More
Jun
17
The idea is simple: create a car-free street for two months and let the people decide what to do with the space
For a period of two months, 25 streets in Ghent (Belgium) are transformed to the perfect play ground for kids.
The streets are closed to traffic.
The asphalt is covered with a green carpet. Neighbors made scattered tables and benches with wooden pallets. Street Live is returning, and even the opponents are turning – slowly.
Nowadays the traffic is too dangerous and parents are too afraid to let the children play outside.
In this Living Street, kids can play outside again.
Apr
13
Biomass power plants—in some cases, biorefineries—work much like a fossil fuel power plant. A plant-based product, such as wood scraps, trees, switchgrass, corn stover, hemp, sugarcane, corn, yard clippings or even garbage, is combusted to heat water into steam. That steam spins an electric turbine and electricity is created.
Six EU-countries have developed a calculation tool for suppliers of renewable energy from biomass.
The tool allows them to create an insight of the emission-savings if electricity and heat are conversed from biomass. Read More
Apr
8
A Saltwater Greenhouse Grows Vegetables In Places Vegetables Won’t Grow
Water is essential in Qatar’s desert. That’s why Shell set an agreement to get the desert green.
Shell’s Pearl GTL plant produces more water than gas-to-liquids products.
The plant is the world largest for the recovering, treating and reusing of industrial water. Read More
