This is the Stade De Swiss, in Berlin, Switzerland. It’s the largest solar-powered stadium in the world.

It contains a total of 10738 solar cells, thanks to a recent addition of 2808 cells. All these cells generate an impressive 1.3 megawatts, and get this, it’s expected to generate a whopping 1.134 gigawatt-hours of electricity.

All this electricity is designed to power the stadium, but could power as many as 350 homes. It will help to reduce 630 tons of CO2 annually.

This kind of dedication to green energy is impressive, and I congratulate the owners of the stadium for embracing the technology. Considering the amount of power taken up by stadiums, this is a big step forward.

…and who knows, with that kind of power they could even generate another source of revenue for the stadium and supply green power to the neighborhood.

Their website is not exactly in English, but check it out here

via MetaEfficient

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I sometimes wonder how even vending machines stuck just outside the middle of nowhere, still have reliable electricity and someone to come stock them regularly.

It’s bewildered me to this day, but lukily, I’ve found a possible green solution to one of my questions.

This is an example of a solar powered vending machine.

No plug required, thesolar panel on the top of the machine keeps the refrigeration going 24/7, using on-board batteries for nighttime of cloudy periods.

It’s amazing to think just how vending machines there are out there, all actively keeping drinks cold, all the time. Luckily they don’t lose cold when you get a drink, unlike your kitchen fridge, but there’s still an awful lot of energy being used by these machines.

If they could all be solar powered, not only would we reduce energy load, even companies and retailers would see the  financial benefit of taking a big power-hog off their grid.

A lot of public electronics are leaning toward green energy lately, as we’ve seen with solar powered streetlights and bus shelters.

The article on Treehugger brings up a great point as well. With not plug as a tether, already obscurely-yet-conveniently-placed vending machines could go whole new places, such as the side of ski hill!

This is the future people, an ice-cold coke halfway down your favorite double-black-diamond.

While the company website gives me absolutely no faith in the quality of their products specifically, the idea is fantastic, and I truly hope we see this catch on with the big distributers.

via Treehugger

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

 Is green the first thing your think of when someone says “Wal-Mart”? Probably not, but the company is hoping to change that.

Wal-Mart is testing out what it calls it’s “high efficiency” superstore. It’s aim is to use 20 less energy in these stores and thus help to reduce some of the emissions generated by Wal-Mart’s city-block sized ultra-stores.

Wal-Mart is focusing on two aspects of it’s stores, it’s air-conditioning/heating and it’s refrigeration. These two systems work in a brilliantly designed symbiotic system. 100% of the heat rejected from the refrigeration system is piped into the heating system, where it is converted into usable energy. This design also reduces the amount of copper piping used.

The impressive thing about Wal-Mart’s green initiative is the scope of it. Wal-Mart has so much money available to them, they can afford to take chances on new green products. They are testing out brand new products we’ve covered here, such as waterless urinals and LED lighting.

There is a huge variety of other technologies used throughout the store to increase efficiency. They are using special quick-response doors for sealed sections such as the garden center, and skylights to help light the store.

One of the coolest improvements is motion-driven lighting on refrigerator cases. They use LED lights that only turn on when a customer approaches, then quicky turn off then they leave. Pretty cool!

These initiatives are expected to reduce the energy consumption of each store 20%, which is a heck of a lot when you think of how much energy these stores much use.

To celebrate the opening of the first of these high-efficiency stores, Wal-Mart is giving away 21,000 energy-saving CFL bulbs to seniors and low-income families.

Many eco-bloggers have dismissed Wal-Marts attempt at going green, but I for one welcome the change. Wal-Mart might not be the ideal picture of a green company, and there’s no doubt they contribute to a lot of the problem, but they are also the biggest retailer to date to embrace and test green technology.

It’s quite possible that more companies will start to look at green technologies if Wal-Mart’s experiment is successful, and whether Wal-Mart is doing all this for the right reasons or not, being more energy efficient can’t be bad!

via Green Technology

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Kohl’s stores in California are taking the plunge and installing huge solar arrays to power their stores.

63 of the 80 Kohl’s locations in California are to be included in what’s being called “the largest planned US photovoltaic solar rollout to date”.

The finished system should produce about 25 megawatts.

It’s great to see a company recognize not only the environmental, but financial benefits from alternative energy. No doubt those big box stores take up a lot of energy, expensive energy. This one-time investment will serve future cost savings.

Kohl’s hopes to generate more than 35-million kilowatt hours of electricity annually.

via Engadget

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!