Is it the Shopcycle?

…or the Bicart?

Who knows, but whatever it is, I want one for my next trip to the grocery store!

This is a combination bicycle/shopping cart. It’s like your old bicycle basket on steroids. It’s designed to make shopping easier without a car. I like biking the corner store for example, but a bunch of shopping bags is a bit out of my storage capacity on a bike.

It’s a brilliant idea, but do you think they’d let you ride it in the store?

via AutoblogGreen

Popularity: 11% [?]

The kettle is not something I would have thought to be a big energy user, on the contrary, all that heating can take up a lot of power!

Ordinary kettles generally boil twice the amount of water that we need; with a 3KW kettle that can mean wasting the energy of around 50 lightbulbs!

Enter the ECO kettle, while there’s not a lot we can do to reduce the energy consumption (heat is heat, and it’s energy expensive!) the ECO kettle can at least help to reduce waste. If you’re only making one cup of coffee, for example, it wastes a lot of energy to heat up and entire kettle-full.

The eco kettle helps reduce waste by allowing you to boil the exact amount of water you need. It has two water compartments, one for storage, and the other for boiling. It allows you to release an exact amount of water from storage to boil.

This means you’re only using as much energy as you need to heat nly the amount of water you’re using. Pretty cool!

via Alternative Consumer

Popularity: 10% [?]

Well, although I hardly call vaporizing every living creature in the area eco-friendly, it seems the newest generation of super-explosives is at least trying to minimize it’s long-term impact.

It’s called a vacuum bomb. Same gigantic explosion, same loss of life, but no lasting radiation.

It’s non-nuclear.

Russia was the first to test this sort of bomb, although I doubt it will be long before the US military catches up. It’s the start of a non-nuclear arms race. Fears over nuclear winters and destroying our plant seems to have effectively snuffed out nuclear explosives. Not ready to give up blowing the shit out of eachother however, it seems they’ve just found a slightly less harmful way to do it.

Maybe this is what they call the dark of green technology…

via Keetsa Blog

Popularity: 23% [?]

So if you’re reading this blog you no doubt have all your old lightbulbs replaced with those new cool compact-florescent lights, right?

Good for you! Now you can decorate your house with those old bulbs. Check these sculptures out!

Each are made with old lightbulbs, and have a strang, almost futuristic look to them.

Great use of the old technology!

Now if you havn’t traded in your old bulbs for CFLs, get to it!

via Keetsa! Blog

Popularity: 8% [?]

I don’t know what to say about this product other than “that’s freakin cool!”

This is Nick Foley’s “Pear Light”. It’s an LED lamp, but it’s no ordinary, super-efficient, run-of-the-mill LED lamp. It’s kind of a… tree lamp.

The lamp is modern looking, but organic and tree-like with it’s various branches. Those glowing orbs in the picture are the LEDs.

…but they’re no normal LEDs.

These are removable, rechargable LEDS. The lamp serves as a charging station for these lights which get brighter on the tree as they charge. These pear-like lights connect magnetically, when they’re charged you can remove them and move them around the house.

It’s like picking light off a tree.

via TreeHugger

Popularity: 10% [?]

The UK defense firm Qinetiq has developed an unmanned, solar powered plane which has just broke the world record for the longest unmanned flight.

The plane, named Zephyr stayed in the air for 54 hours, smashing the previous record of 30.
It uses only solar power to stay aloft and the self-recharging system which was the trick to the long flight.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now how bad airplanes are on emissions, but the super-sonic engines used by the military seem like they’d be much worse.

Could the entire military one day be solar powered? This is the first step..

According to a BBC report today, a UK defense firm called Qinetiq has developed and tested a lightweight, solar-powered plane which has just broken the world record for longest unmanned flight. The plane, known as the Zephyr, spent 54 hours in flight using only self-recharging solar power, thus breaking the 30-plus-hour flight of the previous record holder, the US Air Force’s Global Hawk surveillance craft. Although the record has been smashed, the plane won’t be eligible for entrance into the “official” record books due to a late announcement of the feat, though another 33-hour flight might make the cut. The plane — which has a wingspan of 59-feet — is controlled from the ground after a hand liftoff, and is capable of cruising at 58,000 feet. According to the designers, the Zephyr is, “Going to go a lot higher and a lot further,” and added that, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Indeed, ICEMAN, indeed. – Engadget

via Engadget

Popularity: 7% [?]

Two new communities are being built in the SF Bay Area, each unit coming standard with solar panels.

The communities are being built by Lennar Bay Area Homebuilding.

These communities feature Lennar’s SOLARplus program, which means they not only come with a solar system, but also energy-efficient appliances.

The first development is at Sonata at Dublin Ranch, a 67-home community, equipped with a roof integrated solar electric system from PowerLight, a subsidiary of SunPower Corporation as a standard feature. The solar energy systems in the Sonata and Centre Pointe homes can generate considerable savings on annual utility bills in addition to the current, one-time $2,000 federal tax credit. According to PG&E, homeowners will actually produce renewable power to help supply their own needs while protecting the environment. Any surplus power appears as a credit on the homeowner’s utility bill and reverts back to the PG&E power grid. PG&E then subtracts the energy supplied back to the utility from the consumer’s monthly bill. Unlike solar panels of the past, which were elevated above the roof, the SunPower suntile solar electric system integrates seamlessly into each home’s roofline. Rather than offering upgrades at an additional cost, Lennar researches what customers want in a new home and includes those items as standard features

While it might be a while before the suburbs are all solar-powered, it’s great to see these concept communities springing up, proving it’s both possible, and economically feasible, to have a green-powered home.

via Green Tech

Popularity: 8% [?]

Pictured above is the new plug-in, fully electric Toyota Prius.

The prius hybrids have been all the rage recently, serving both as a status symbol and an important stepping stone to fully green cars.

This latest model, pictured with it’s charging station, will be fully non-reliant on traditional gasoline, and gets all it’s fuel from the power grid. No emissions.

Nice.

While talking about fully electric cars though it’s important to note that they do not actually eliminate emissions, they simply transfer them to the power plant. While this does little to cut actual emissions, it allows us to focus on improving power plant technology rather than improving the vast amounts of different engines (traditional, diesel, ethanol, etc).

It’s still exciting to see the fully electric vehicles coming however, it seems big business is finally taking them seriously!

via AutoblogGreen

Popularity: 9% [?]

We all strive to make green technology cheaper and more publicly accessible. However, with the discount comes the luxury; Surefire has a $499 LED flashlight.

Now, LED flashlights are great, and if you don’t already have one, I highly suggest picking one up. They last longer, they’re a lot brighter, and they’re a lot greener than the traditional bulb.

This LED flashlight however (called the “Titan) takes flashlights to the extreme. Not only are you getting the brightness and longevity of an LED flashlight, but the Titan can control it’s lumen output. All the way from 0 to 65. Useless? Well.. it is a bit control-freakish.

Other than that you get a all-titanium body, a “near-indestructible” LED, scratch resistant window, and a fancy end to easily connect to keychains or lanyards.

Now, if I had millions of dollars to waste I’d definitely pick this one up, but for almost $500, it’s a bit ridiculous

Ultra compact (pinky-sized), mini flashlight that establishes a whole new class of illumination tools: luxury flashlights. The Titan is the world’s only fully variable-output flashlight, with an operating range from zero to 65 lumens and all points in between. No preset levels; just total, seamless control—over 1,000 possible output levels. The Titan features an all-titanium body with an elegant satin finish, a no-look control bezel for precision operation, a virtually indestructible LED, a scratch-resistant sapphire window, an Acme-threaded tailcap, and a quick-connect/disconnect interface that easily attaches to its included lanyard or key ring. -Surefire

via TreeHugger

Popularity: 9% [?]

This is an amazing innovative idea for growing plants indoors.

The table contains several removable tiles, which when flipped provide a little indent which can be used for growing plants. The plants grow right out of the table!

These tiles can be moved around and re-arranged, and because the tiles are just indents, you can use them as bowls, little ponds,or even an m&m jar.

Brilliant design than can bring some greenery to your dining room

via TreeHugger

Popularity: 7% [?]