Protinus

Usually when you read about concentrated solar power, it’s referring to some large project destined for the Mojave Desert, but Syracuse’s Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE) has set out to prove that this technology can be used in smaller, colder settings. SyracuseCoE in Syracuse, NY is itself a LEED-platinum-certified, 55,000 square-foot building that serves as a testing ground for renewable energy and efficiency technologies.  The south wall of the building is home to a concentrated solar facade that, at first glance, resembles the frosted cube walls found in doctors’ office waiting rooms. This 8-foot by 8-foot facade houses several clear pyramid lenses that track the sun and concentrate the rays onto high-efficiency PV cells.  Extra energy not converted to electricity is used for heating water and radiant heat in the building.  And because it’s made up of clear panels, it also adds natural lighting indoors.  You can watch a video of the system at work here

Examples of climate change’s strange consequences abound. Warmer temperatures may bring about more instances of kidney stones and cause longer allergy seasons

Last year, we watched as Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) developed a new kind of electric vehicle that relies entirely on power from cables buried beneath the road–no outside recharging required. Now the system has been unveiled in its first real-world test location: the Seoul Grand Park amusement park in southern Seoul.

photo: Kevin Walsh via flickr. You’ve probably heard the stat that extinction rates are currently somewhere between 100-1000 times historic levels, which is bad enough, but now the Guardian reports the head of the Species Survival Commission for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature says that we’ve “almost certainly” crossed the thresho…

A new study from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has identified on-road transportation as the most significant overall source contributing to global warming. Power generation, while having the greatest total impact, also includes a large number of compounds that increase cloud reflectivity and provide other effects to offset some of the warming they are responsible for.

A study released in Friday’s Journal of Science says that 8 million tons of previously unrecorded methane is leaking into the atmosphere every year. The methane is seeping from deep within the Earth’s core through breaks in the layers of permafrost under the arctic sea — previously thought by scientists to be unbreakable

The tiny island nation of the Maldives is under serious threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change. No part of the 1200 islands which make up the Maldives is more than six feet above sea level, so as sea-levels rise (as they will if rampant climate change is not stopped), the entire nation will be under water.

Energy savings of 99% over previous methods probably sound like snake oil. But some math geeks have been able to find a way so that computers can use only 1% of the energy (and the time) necessary for some tasks. IBM has announced a new data-processing algorithm that enables large sets of data to be processed in a fraction of the time, and with only a fraction of the electricity, as was previously needed.

EcoGeeks love robots .  And recycling .  So, what could be better than a robot that helps us recycle? Osaka University and Mitsubishi Electric Engineering Co. have designed a robot with laser-sensing technology that can distinguish six different types of plastic from all other garbage.  The 5-foot 6-inch by 6-foot 9-inch machine identifies the plastic materials by analyzing the reflectivity of five different wavelengths of lasers on the garbage.  Once it identifies the material, it sorts the garbage into different piles.

It’s hard to imagine something as filthy as a toilet being used to grow food.