Mike Davis is an astronomer. To practice his hobby away from the light-pollution of cities, he bought some land in a remote part of Arizona. But there was a problem: No electricity.... But he's a resourceful fellow. He built some homemade solar panels using inexpensive blemished and damaged solar cells from eBay! That might be even cooler, though less romantic, than the couple who got their solar panels via their wedding registry.

The Toyota iQ will be exposed at the RCA between September 19 and 23 to "provide the inspiration for the finest new design talent [...] to produce ideas and concepts that respond to the many and varied challenges of modern urban living." Read on for more photos and technical specs of the iQ.

The Zero X is basically an electric motorcycle powered by non-toxic lithium-ion batteries. The amazing thing about the battery is that it can store 2 kWh vs. 1.31 kWh for the Toyota Prius hybrid's battery (which is NiMH, not li-ion), giving the Zero X a 40 miles range (20 if you really push it).

Detecting pollutants is extremely important. You can't do much about what you don't know, and with limited resources, you have to target your actions to where it will do most good. A new clever way to detect pollution using living bacteria that have been modified to glow when they detect certain chemicals is very promising and could make testing for pollutants faster and cheaper (though it won't be more precise than standard chemical tests).

Treehugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo (except this week, when we put it on Wednesday).

"Imagine a cell-phone battery that recharges in a few seconds and that you would never have to replace. That's the promise of energy-storage devices known as ultracapacitors, but at present, they can store only about 5 percent as much energy as lithium-ion batteries." This sentence encapsulates well both the enormous promises and the big problem of ultracapacitors.

In urban areas, cyclists need to watch out for cars. But in more rural places, there are other dangers. 57-year-old Jim Litz, a science teacher in Missoula, Montana, learned this when he t-boned a black bear while riding his bike to work. Details here.

The Fisker Karma is anticipated to sell for US$ 80,000. Top speed should be 125 mph (201 km/h) and 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) should be reached in 5.8 seconds. It has an all-electric range of 50 miles, so you only start burning gas if you drive more than that.
The company has just raised $65 million.

"Halogens are highly reactive, and as such can be harmful or lethal to biological organisms in sufficient quantities." Now, we're not saying that your CPU is dangerous to you (don't try too eat it, though), but over the manufacturing of millions of them, it adds up to a lot of halogens. Removing them will no doubt make electronics recycling safer.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

We've been writing for many years about how solar-powered air conditioning is a big "duh!", and should be used more widely. After all, it's when you have lots of sun that you need A/C the most, and anything that helps smooth out peak demand on the electrical grid can help delay the construction of new polluting power plants.

In the long run, the internal combustion engine (ICE) is on the way out and electric motors are on the way in, but ICEs have been around for so loooong that we should be careful about announcing their demise. They're going to stick around a while longer, and so it's very important to make them as efficient and clean as possible. Here are 5 fuel-saving technologies.

Day4 Energy, a startup from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, has announced that it has created a process to cut costs for multicrystalline silicon solar panels by about 25%, from about $4 per watt to $3 per watt. The good news is that unlike other exotic solar technologies, these panels should be on the market soon.

23.9 million — That's the number of CRT televisions that will be thrown out in 2008, adding up to an estimated 711,029 tons of televisions. "Numbers for end-of-life TVs have been over 20 million per year since 2005, and are expected to go up to almost 25 million by 2010. Compare this to 10 years ago, when the numbers were closer to 12 million sets disposed of per year. "

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Technically, the technology that Lotus is using was first developed to make its cars quieter. But in the 'Safe and Sound' Prius prototype and future vehicles, a water-proof speaker is installed in the engine compartment, close to the radiator, and when the car is in electric-mode, sounds is synthesized. "The technology was designed around the behavior of a conventional engine, using an existing engine sound which makes it instantly recognisable with the pitch and frequency helping to identify vehicle distance and speed."

With the ECO Pedal, Nissan has come up with a new way to get fuel economy feedback while driving. The way it works is simple. When the system is on, "each time the driver steps on the accelerator, a counter push-back control mechanism is activated if the system detects excess pressure, helping to inform the driver that they could be using more fuel than required." After a while of this pavlovian regime, you can't help but learn which behaviors the car "approves" of and which you should avoid.

The municipality of Anchorage (where wild bears roam kids' playgrounds), along with Cree, Inc, a maker of LED lights, are planning to change 16,000 municipal roadway lights with high-efficiency LED fixtures (about 1/4 of total streetlights).

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Arumugam Manthiram, a professor of materials engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, has shown that a new technique that uses microwaves can reduce both the amount of time it takes, and the temperatures required to make li-iron phosphate batteries. Instead of many hours and 700 degrees Celsius, his technique only takes a few minutes and 300 degrees.

Researchers at the U. of Michigan and Princeton are saying they made OLEDs that can produce 70 lumens per watt (compared to 15 lumens per watt for incandescent), and that they might be able to do even better than that. To achieve that impressive efficiency, they are using a grid combined with micro-lenses, all of it on the nano-scale (the lenses are 5 micrometers wide).

Google's philanthropic arm, via its RechargeIT program, has just bet $2.75 million on two companies trying to make plug-in hybrids and electric cars a reality: Aptera Motors, maker of the three-wheeled two-seater Typ-1, and ActaCell, a spinoff from the University of Texas at Austin that is working on lithium-ion battery technology.

"Plasma TVs, industry officials say, consume about four times the electricity as recharging a plug-in hybrid. Yet utilities have managed to cope with the increased loads as thousands of new televisions came on line." This is a very good sign for the next few years when plug-in hybrids and electric cars are expected to come to market.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

The incandescent lightbulb wastes 90% of the electricity as heat is dying, we all know that. But a new breakthrough in solid state lighting might also kill compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) faster than some expected. Scientists at Purdue University have figured out how to manufacture LED solid-state lights on regular metal-coated silicon wafers (more details below). What this means is: much lower costs.

Microsoft Research has published a paper in Nature Photonics about a new kind of monitor that could someday replace LCDs. Their 'telescopic' pixels (pictured under magnification on the left) use two micromirrors allowing them to switch completely on or off in 1.5 millisecond. Because they are so fast, you don't need 3 sub-pixels, reducing cost and complexity. But the best part is that about 36% of the light emitted by the backlight is getting through, making them potentially about 3.6 and 7 times more power-efficient than LCDs. But that's not all: Computer simulation show this could reach 56% with further design improvements. That would be up to 11.2 times better than LCDs!

Matsushita, who owns the Panasonic brand and has a partnership with Toyota for the development of automotive technologies, has decided to invest 100 billion Yen ($951 million) into a new litium-ion manufacturing plant in Osaka. It will be one of the biggest in the world, allowing the company to triple its output an increase of 50 million battery units per month.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

It's hard to summarize the list here, but here are some names that you might or might not recognize from the 17 electric cars that you must see: Tesla Roadster, Tesla Model S, BYD E6, Miles XS500, Mitsubishi i MiEV, Subaru R1e, Subaru G4e, Electric Mini by BMW, EV1 by General Motors, upcoming electric cars by Mercedes and Nissan, REVA, ZENN, Tango, Eliica, and more.

Yeah, the circular bike is kind of pointless, but sometimes you just gotta have fun. As one commenter on reddit said:

• [ ] useful
• [X] want one

Scientists may be getting closer to unraveling the secrets of photosynthesis, reports New Scientist Tech's Colin Barras. In a new study published in the journal ChemPhysChem, a team of Chinese scientists from the Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology has found that carbon nanotubes, which have been used in many nanotechnology applications including solar energy and adhesive material, can mimic a key step of the process.

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The VW 1-Liter car has been around in prototype form since 2002 and greens everywhere have been drooling at its 282 miles per gallon fuel economy (or 1 liter of gasoline per 100 kilometers, hence the name). VW has finally decided to make more and sell them, and a limited edition (estimated in the thousands) should start selling in 2010.

The most obvious way that electronic equipment can make us greener is by reducing transportation emissions: Videoconferencing, email, audio calls, etc. That should all add up to between 140m and 220m tonnes of CO2 a year in 2020. But the real big improvements are elsewhere: Improving logistics (f.ex. planning better routes for delivery vehicles, managing supply chains better, etc) could save 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2, using data networking to create a "smart" grid could save 2 billion tonnes of CO2, and computer-controlled buildings that can manage lighting and ventilation depending on how many people are inside could save a further 1.7 billion tonnes of CO2.

Francis Farley, an experimental physicist, and Rod Rainey of Atkins Oil and Gas, have invented a new device that could help bring the cost of wave power down. They call it the 'Anaconda' after the species of aquatic boas (and a cheesy movie). It's basically "a large distensible rubber tube.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Some are skeptical about labor costs in the Bay Area, but that's where the Tesla Motors plant will be. The state gave tax breaks and incentives to keep it there, so that certainly helps. The 'Model S' electric car should cost around $60,000 and have a range of 225 miles.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist Adam Warwick just couldn't let the bear drown, so he took off his shirt and dive after it. The 375 lbs black bear had been spotted in a residential area, obviously looking for food, and was shot with a tranquilizer dart. Unfortunately, before it went under, it jumped in the water of the Gulf of Mexico. Photos and a video here.

With 30% of Americans saying they would consider riding a scooter—even some people we wouldn't expect to—and sales of scooters up by 200%, now seems like a perfect time to revisit some of our past scooter coverage and bring it all together. Here are some of our favorite electric scooters, including production models and concepts.

About 2 years ago, Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn wasn't too impressed with hybrid cars, saying that they are "a nice story, but they’re not a a good business". Then a few months later, he announced that Nissan would license technology from Toyota for its Altima hybrid, and then develop its own hybrid technology. Now this year, Ghosn was heard saying that we needed "zero emission vehicles" to "prevent the world from exploding" (!), and that his preference was for electric cars, with the first model coming out in 2010.

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One thing that helps fuel the conspiracy rumors surrounding water cars is that the media run these segments where they show "water cars" actually driving around, and it all seems to work, and then we never hear about them again. People figure that Big Oil (or the Illuminati, whatever) is suppressing the technology. The reality is more mundane: It is actually possible to make a car look like it runs on water without breaking the first law of thermodynamics. The way it's usually done is with metal hydrides. These react with water to produce hydrogen, which is then used to power the car. But since these hydrides will deplete with time, they need to be replaced and so they are actually the fuel, not the water. And you can be sure that more energy will go into producing them than will be taken out, making them an energy carrier, just like a battery.

Did you know most computers in the average data centers run at 15% capacity or less, idling the rest of the time but still consuming electricity. Did you know that by 2011, data center energy use could almost double and require the equivalent of 25 power plants. In the US, they are already (since 2006) using more energy than color televisions.

D.light has begun manufacturing solar-powered portable lanterns which are designed to replace kerosene lanterns in the developing world. The largest of their lanterns, the Nova, is the most robust, providing 12 hours of “high” level illumination suitable for reading or up to 40 hours of light suitable for walking around or “socializing”. Though the lantern comes with an AC adapter (which D.light says will fully charge the unit in 5 hours), the lantern also can be charged with a small included solar panel. This option will allow for 6-8 hours of medium intensity light from a day-long charge, according to product literature.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Honda is not selling the hydrogen FCX Clarity yet, only leasing it to a select few in California (and Japan next Autumn). The three year contract will be $600/month, including maintenance and insurance, and only those living close enough to the few hydrogen refueling stations in Torrance, Santa Monica, and Irvine can qualify. As expected, Hollywood stars are among the first customers: Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband Christopher Guest, actress Laura Harris, film producer Ron Yerxa, as well as businessmen Jon Spallino and Jim Salomon.

The 53-foot long blimp has been flown over 35 miles at an altitude of about 90 feet. This isn't something you do on impusle; the pilot has been preparing the trip for 4 years.

The Crown Estate of England knows which way the wind blows and has decided to acquire the prototype of the world's biggest wind turbine, Clipper’s 7.5 megawatt MBE turbine, also known as the Britannia (pictured above is Clipper's Liberty model, which produces 2.5 megawatt).

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

According to Professor Max Lu of the University of Queensland, Australia, his team has grown "the world's first titanium oxide single crystals with large amounts of reactive surfaces, something that was predicted as almost impossible."

Hitachi Maxell has announced the development of a new lithium-ion battery chemistry. Their claims are bold, and might be too good to be true, but they pretend that they can do 20 times more power storage.

Texas utility Oncor is working with Swiss smart-meter company Landis+Gyr to roll out 3 million advanced meters by 2012. These meters allow real-time pricing and overall make the power grid much more flexible and robust by ironing out peak in demand.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Scientists from the Argonne National Laboratory in the US, in collaboration with scientists from the University of North Carolina and Bristol University in the UK, have created a new air pollution computer model based on new algorithms that can generate more reliable forecasts based on observational data.

The new supercar should be available in two versions: One all electric, and one hybrid. 220+ miles per gallon is expected, and 150- to 180-mile range per charge from the all-electric model.

Even relatively small cities has thousands of them, and traditional street lights definitely are old tech. They're fairly efficient, but new LED technology is promising to replace them. Their light can even be tuned to be either more white and natural, or red/yellow like old-style street lights.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

We're now firmly in an interconnected and digital world, and that means lots and lots of servers. The EPA wrote a report for the US Congress about it in 2006, and they estimated that servers and data centers represented about 1.5% of total electricity usage in the country for that year. That's 61 billion (with a 'b') kilowatt-hours, and that's for 2006, back when most people were just starting to discover Youtube. It's probably way more now. But Microsoft Research wants to help reverse that trend.

Green Star just announced the creation of a new micronutrient that can help boost algae daily growth rate by 34% and "increase the total biomass quantity in a harvest algae growth cycle by well over 100%."

The price of offshore turbines rose 48 percent to 2.23 million euros ($3.45 million) per megawatt in the past three years, according to BTM Consult APS, a Danish wind power consultant. By comparison, land-based rotors cost 1.38 million euros per megawatt after rising 74 percent in the same period.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Recycling of solar panels should stay pretty low for a while as solar cells have a useful life of many decades if nothing out of the ordinary happens to them, so up to now most recycled panels have been flawed or damaged modules. But these numbers are bound to trend up. About 16,000 tonnes are expected to be sent back in Europe by 2015, compared to 2,000 tonnes last year.

Concentrating the equivalent of 2000 suns on such a small solar panel generates enough heat to melt stainless steel, something the researchers experienced first hand in their experiments. But by borrowing innovations from its own R&D in cooling computer chips, the team was able to cool the solar cell from greater than 1600 degrees Celsius to just 85 degrees Celsius.

Marbled icebergs have layers that are formed by algae (green) and sediments (yellow, brown), or by a rapid melting and freezing (dark blue). This one was photographed in the Antarctic sea. More photos here.

Sometimes when you see everybody doing things the same way, you forget that there are other paths to explore. The multi-rotor wind turbine is such an experiment. Why not put more than one turbine up there? It'll be interesting to see if it becomes cost-effective. Future wind power might look like that...

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Sunrgi's Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics (XCPV) are claimed to be able to produce electricity at 5 cents per kWh by concentrating the Sun's light close to 2,000 times (!) into extremely efficient solar photovoltaic cells. Part of Sunrgi's patent-pending technology has to do with the cooling of the solar cells, dual-axis sun tracking, and the way the whole system is optimized for mass-production.

It's a crass commercial DIY project - the guy wanted to attract lots of attention to put ads on the sides of his carriage - but it turned out kind of interesting. Instead of having the horse pull the carriage, the horse is in the back, walking on a conveyor belt.

Visitors to the Olympics in Beijing this summer can look forward to more than just history's largest sporting event and biggest national coming-out party. They'll also be able to glimpse the world's largest color LED display combined with China's first photovoltaic system to be integrated into a glass curtain wall.

And of course, Help Protect Great Tits, Fight Global Warming, Scientists Say.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Their test vehicle is a modified Skoda Fabia which they call the H4V (Hybrid 4 wheel drive Vehicle) because the gasoline engine powers the front wheels while two 35kW electric motors power the rear wheels. The regular gasoline version of the car gets 32 mpg (7.24 L/100km) while their 'plugless' plug-in hybrid prototype returned 53 mpg (4.4 L/100km).

The EvoLux 13W LED bulb has a lifetime of 50,000 hours (!), is as energy efficient (at least) as CFLs but not as fragile and without mercury inside. There's actually an active cooling system inside because LEDs are sensitive to heat.

Swedish startup Manodo wants you to have real time feedback on your house's energy status. People get obsessed with stats in all kinds of things (sports, distributed computing, the stock market). How about being up to date on your house?

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Designer Ben Wilson explains why he made the Monowheel: “Since the 1860’s many patents have been filed in the monowheel’’s name and today there are even rumors of a production monowheel in China, but as it stands there is nothing currently available. As we couldn’t buy a monowheel we made one.”

Some specs for the BYD E6 Electric Vehicle: It will be a 5 seater, with an acceleration of 0 to 60 mph of around 10 seconds. Top speed: 100 mph. Range per charge: 186 miles. But most impressive of all: "BYD projected the battery had a life of 2,000 cycles, for a lifetime range of about 600,000 km (373,000 miles)"!

Russ Gries is a DIYer, and his electric motorcycle is centered around parts from an old battery-powered forklift that he got for free. After acquiring the carcass of a 1976 Honda CB550 for $50, he got to work. After about 120 hours and a net cost of $15.61 (that's right, he got money for recycling the rest of the forklift), the result is Voltzilla.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Many companies are working hard on batteries and ultracapacitors for plug-in hybrids and electric cars, but some are doing better than others. The concept of a hybrid garbage truck is somewhat ironic - it's still garbage - but we might soon start seeing them on trash day.

According to Acre's news agency, these will be the first condoms to be produced with natural materials from seringai trees. This initiative will help preserve the Amazon by ensuring the sustainable exploitation of the materials, and will reduce the amount of imported condoms to the country, which are distributed freely to fight AIDS as part of a national campaign. Brazil is the largest importer of condoms in the world, the Health Ministry informed according to BBC Mundo.

The 12 battery and ultracapacitor companies that got report cards are: A123 Systems, Altair Nanotechnologies, Compact Power, EEStor, Ener1, Hitachi, Johnson Controls, Lithium Technology, Maxwell Technologies, Automotive Energy Supply, Panasonic EV, Valence Technology.

The Volvo hybrid garbage trucks will be powered by a 7-liter (320 hp / 238 kW) diesel engine coupled with a 120 kW electric motor and a lithium-ion battery pack. They can drive in all-electric mode up to 12 mph, and over that the diesel engine kicks in. When the truck stops, the diesel engine shuts down instead of idling. This can help improve air quality and reduce fuel use.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Researchers in the UK have developed a new kind of engine. It could be called a hybrid, but what it combines is not two power sources but rather two modes of operation: 2-stroke and 4-stroke. The goal is to be able to significantly downsize the engine and get the fuel economy benefits of smaller displacement, but to be able to switch seamlessly to 2-stroke mode when more power is required at high loads and low speeds.

"I bought an 8hp Briggs & Stratton ETEK motor used through Craigslist," said Benjamin Nelson. "Then I mounted the motor to the frame using the existing engine mounting holes and a piece of scrap aluminum plate. I found a sprocket and chain in the tractor repair isle of the farm store. If gas is three bucks a gallon, I can go 300 miles on that same amount of electricity. 300mpg isn't too bad for a motorcycle, is it?"

Plain surreal: "Lastly, the rear legs of the CV08 will serve as a means of power-collection: they pull chubby Australian suburbanite stragglers up into a liposuction chamber, which draws out all of their excess fat [which then powers the CV08]. The now trim Aussies are then shot out of the backside [read: ass] of the robot, parachuting down to safety—along with a brand new bicycle constructed from recycled suburbs.

At 140 lumens/watt, these pill-sized plasma light bulbs by Luxim are a pretty awesome contender for "light of the future." They are almost 10 times more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs, twice as efficient as current high-end LEDs, and they also beat CFLs, most of which are around 50-80 lumens/watt. Only the prototype 300 lumens/watt nanocrystal-coated LEDs can hold a candle to them.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

This week at TreeHugger: Osram shouts 'victory' with a warm white OLED breakthrough (efficiency of 46 lm/Watt!). Spain broke wind power records last week with 40.8% of total electricity demand. Thin-film solar is coming of age with a new efficiency record of 19.9%, and California wants to turn big-box stores into solar power plants.

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are very promising. They are more efficient than incandescents without the downsides of CFLs (fragility, mercury), and they have the potential to become less expensive than regular LEDs. Osram announced a breakthrough with the production of a warm white OLEDs with an efficiency of 46 lm/W and a life of more than 5000 hours at a brightness of 1000 cd/m2. That's close to the efficiency of fluorescent lamps, and more than twice that of incandescent lamps.

Last year Spain's wind power production record was 27%. That seemed like a lot, but a week ago, Spain's wind turbines produced 40.8% of total demand, or 9,862 megawatts of power. Spain's wind power industry currently enjoys a 30% annual growth rate. No recession there...

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created thin film solar panels that are very close to competing with their more traditional silicon-based cousins. "The copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cell recently reached 19.9 percent efficiency in testing at the lab, setting a new world record."

Southern California Edison (SCE) wants to build a 250-megawatt solar farm with a twist: It will be distributed among many commercial rooftops, starting with southern California's Inland Empire, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. They are planning to install 1 megawatt per week starting in August. Once the project is finished, it will take up 65,000,000 square feet of roofs that would otherwise be unused and produce enough clean energy to supply about 162,000 homes.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

We here at Giz think it's a God-given right to have access to gadgets at all times. For the WWF to try and take that liberty from us is unacceptable and downright Un-American. That's why we're asking from 9-10 pm on Saturday night, you pull out every gadget you own, plug it into a socket, and turn it on. Gadget Deprivation is no laughing matter, kids. Please join the fight. [Earth Hour]

The Beluga Skysails is a cargo ship that was used to test a new system that uses kites to harness the power of the wind as auxiliary propulsion. It set sail (literally) to Venezuela from Germany on January 22nd and reached the Norway on March 13th after traveling a total of 11,952 nautical miles. "In even moderate winds, the first flights of an initial 160-square-meter towing kite was able to substitute for 20% of the engineís power." After the pilot phase, the towing kite will be replaced by one that is twice the size, providing twice as much energy and saving twice the fuel (which could mean $2000/day).

"Researchers have long dreamed of making OLEDs using a newspaper-printing like roll-to-roll process," said Anil Duggal, manager of GEís Advanced Technology Program in Organic Electronics. "Now weíve shown that it is possible. Commercial applications in lighting require low manufacturing costs, and this demonstration is a major milestone on our way to developing low cost OLED lighting devices."

Greenpeace activists marched in front of the offices of Vatenfall in Hamburg, installing a dinosaur on top of a pile of coal to emphasize the point declared on their banners: "Stop dinosaur technology". The dinosaur of rusted steel towered 5 meters (16 feet) over a 3 ton pile of coal which was dumped, under cover of darkness, in front of the entry to Vatenfall employee parking.

The type of silicon used in photovoltaic panels is expensive, and as long as supply is constrained, the price of electricity produced by solar panels won't be as cheap as it could be. Solaria's solar panels produce about 90% of a conventional solar panel's power, while using half as much silicon by slicing the silicon into thin strips and using clear molded plastic to collects light from the entire panel and funnels it to the strips of silicon. Clever.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

The Giant Twist Freedom DX pretty much works and looks like a regular bike — it even has those classy fenders that the chicks love — with one small exception that's difficult to see (and we think that's a good thing): a torque sensor that monitors your pedaling and controls a 250-watt DC motor located in the front wheel. Power comes from two 26-volt lithium-ion batteries, and provides range of up to 75 miles. Ready to crank? The sensor tells the motor to back off. Feeling lazy? The motor kicks in to overdrive and all of the sudden it's a bicycle you don't have to pedal. And it's got a ticket for the real world; they're set to come out in May with a price tag of about $2,000.

If you're ready to get down with your bad self but don't want your tunes and mp3 player tied to the grid, here are two media players that'll shake you all night long without need for a traditional power supply (that's right — you: 1; your electric utility: 0). Get jiggy with the Media Street eMotion, (above, on the left) runs for nine hours after 12 to 15 hours of charging; in direct sunlight it can play all day; the Eco-Player (on the right) cranks out 40 minutes of playing after one minute of cranking.

Lastly, after first appearing about a year ago, the Poweriser stilts are taking Europe by storm and popping up everywhere around the world. Fans of the crazy bouncing stilts — which might be the coolest, craziest form of human-powered transportation we've seen to date — are all meeting up in Germany in a few weeks, and users of the Powerisers, who are called "powerbockers" (after their inventor, Alexander Böck) even have their own social networking site. But the real fun is to be had on YouTube, where some of the more adventurous 'bockers have uploaded videos of themselves performing feats of strength and other wacky craziness in acrobatics and extreme sports. All we can say is this: Bock on!

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

The only thing better than the solar-powered lawn mower we featured a few weeks back? A solar-powered robot lawn mower. Lastly, from the "Everything's bigger in Texas" files: the "Fully Loaded Chair," made from 400 loaded shotgun shells. Now that's recycling.

According to the UK's Daily Express, six million Britons were injured last year because they ran into things while text-messaging. The charity Living Streets and directory service 118118 are testing the padding of lampposts and signs to stop the carnage. Also in the works: bicycle-style lanes for walking while texting on the streets.

Wondering why that Sony commercial is trying to sell you a bulky cassette-tape deck from the '70s? The electronics giant is taking the three Rs—reduce, reuse, and recycle—to heart. Sony is ramping up its recycling effort with dozens of events at which consumers can drop off old Sony electronics for free. And, as part of its marketing campaign, the company is rerunning vintage commercials featuring clunky, archaic equipment that was, once upon a time, oh-so cutting edge.

The best green tech minds in Sweden have come together, to brainstorm and prototype the next great green gadget revolution in the land of lutefisk and lefse. After putting their ample brains together, they've come up with this: a solar robot lawn mower. The only thing missing? You guessed it: a bumper sticker that says, "My other vehicle is a solar robot mower."

Lastly, this is Texas-style recycling: the "Fully Loaded Chair," made from 400 loaded shotgun shells. With shiny brass tips on the seat and back to act as a massage, and bright red plastic in the back, it is meant to create "a powerful allure and odd dichotomy of comfort and demise between furniture and weaponry." Careful, it might really knock your socks off.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

For telecommuters and self-employed home-office dwellers (not to mention bloggers) who don't have the luxury of a dedicated home office, having a suitable space to work that isn't a desk next to your bed (or your bed) can be tricky, but we've found it: it's called Trunk Station. Lastly, how many plastic bags did it take to make this suit?

You have a cell phone, and, if you're anything like the average cell user, it'll get broken, donated, traded in, thrown away, recycled or otherwise replaced within the next 18 months or so. No matter how you slice it, that's a lot of plastic and other miscellanea that will eventually end up downcycled or in the landfill. An organization called The Greener Grass thinks they have a solution for this; they've dreamed up LINC, a smart phone with all the advanced capabilities — cell phone, a media player, a web browser, GPS, downloadable content, Bluetooth, wifi, etc. — of today's smartphones, with one twist. Instead of buying the phone, you lease it until you break it or it becomes obsolete, and then you get a new one. Nice, but will it ever be anything but vaporware?

Another day, another sleek new hydrogen-fueled concept car unveiled: this one, the Lifecar, promises to be the ultimate "green" sports car. The £1.9m joint project between the British government and Morgan Motor Company will be officially rolled out at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, scheduled for March 6 - 16. Inspired by the design of the Morgan Aero-8 roadster, the Lifecar boasts a top speed of nearly 100 mph and a maximum range of 250 miles (400 km); according to Morgan boss Matthew Parkin, the futuristic car should be able to do 0-60 mph in 7 seconds.

For telecommuters and self-employed home-office dwellers (not to mention bloggers) who don't have the luxury of a dedicated home office, having a suitable space to work that isn't a desk next to your bed can be tricky. It's important to have space dedicated to work, or at least somewhere to easily stash your stuff if your dining table or sofa doubles as your home office. Straight from Japan, the Trunk Station fills both needs, creating a little half-cube and enough space to work on a computer, store some files and other useful stuff you'll need to get from 9 to 5; when your workday is through, fold it up and roll it away, out of sight and out of mind.

Here's a question you probably don't ask yourself every day: How many plastic bottles did it take to make this suit? Give up? Thirty. Really. Fit for the pages of GQ, international clothier Bagir is bringing sexy back for anyone who thought wearing a suit of plastic bags would look stupid. The company — which clothes one in six British men — has just taken post-consumer waste to a new level through its EcoGir Recycled Suit. Gives new meaning to taking out the trash, boys.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Technology from around the globe comes together in a cosmic synergy to create — hold on to your hats — a solar-powered lawnmower. Lastly, the clunker of a car pictured above is in the Guinness World Record book — and not for ugliest design, even — as the souped-down ride achieved an astonishing 376.59 miles per gallon of gasoline.

Clap your hands and say "Yeah!" for Apple, who recently announced an upgrade in its recycling program. You can now send your old iPods and cell phones (of any brand or model, not just iPhones) for free recycling. Even better, according to their site: "All the e-waste we collect in North America is processed there and nothing is shipped overseas for disposal...Apple does not allow the disposal of hazardous electronic waste in solid waste landfills or incinerators, including waste-to-energy incinerators." (All together now: "Awww..."). You can also recycle your old computer and monitor, but it is only free when you purchase an Apple computer. A little sneaky, but who doesn't need a new MacBook?

Trading more traditional alternatives to grid power, like solar or wind, "Gravia" is an LED-lit floor lamp that combines human power and gravity to create a lighting source that will work for 200 years or so, and never need to be plugged in. The lamp has a weight that's raised every four hours or so; as it slowly descends, the downward motion is converted to torque via a high-efficiency ball screw. The torque is overdriven (at 1:160 for those of you scoring at home) by a harmonic drive gear hand, and the output from that spins a set of 12 high-strength neodymium magnets (which act as the rotor), spinning to power 10 high-output LEDs. Simple, no?

Our Down-Under TreeHugger recently had the pleasure to get hands on with an amazing piece of Australian technology that combines solar power, electric motors, spinning blades of death and striking red plastic to create a killer green gadget. What could it be? You guessed it: a solar-powered lawnmower. The verdict? Your lawn's ass is grass.

The clunky car pictured above may not look like much, but its claim to fame is getting an amazing 376.59 miles per gallon of gasoline, and that in a 1973 contest sponsored by Shell Oil (har, har). The car was chopped, shaved, cropped and otherwise souped down to get it as light and aerodynamic — remember, this was the '70's — as possible. Add some super-hard low-friction tires, an insulated fuel line and a few other odds 'n ends, and there you have it: almost 400 miles per gallon. Almost makes you wish the '70's had never ended.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

The Big Apple announced plans to become the first US city to require electronics recycling; no small feat considering the city's residents buy 12 million gadgets a year. Lastly, Nokia's "Remade" cellphone concept sure talks a mean green game, but all that glitters is not green. Or is it?

The Hymini, the portable power bank universal adapter cum wind and solar generator, has generated as many questions as it has power, to this point: how much wind does it take? How do you pronounce it? And what sort of sexual funny business does the name refer to? We got some answers at the recent Greener Gadgets Conference, in this exclusive video (it's even in hi-definition!).

Okay, so Gmail has become the de facto form of communication for many of us, but there's gotta be some sort of cost associated with never deleting another email, no? Moving from paper to digital storage is leading to major increases in energy consumption, and Google itself acknowledges it is "as much of an energy glutton as heavy industry." But just how much energy are we using up by not keeping our Gmail inboxes in order?

New Yorkers currently dispose of more than 25,000 tons of discarded TVs, computers and other electronic equipment, which is hardly surprising because it seems they also buy 12 million electronic gadgets and do-dads every year, amounting to about 92,000 tons in total. Deciding that those numbers are just one cellphone too many, the Big Apple's City Council voted to make manufacturers responsible for the take-back of their electronic gadgets. Don't go running to the basement for your pile o' gear, though; the ruling wonít become effective until July 2009.

Lastly, the Wall Street Journal tells us that "Nokia Corp., the world's largest mobile-phone maker by sales, unveiled a new handset made of no new parts. Called 'Remade,' the handset uses 100% recycled pieces, the latest in the company's push to go green, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of Nokia, said yesterday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona." That would be nice, but from what we can tell, they really released a non-functioning model and a video "showing a new concept from our design team exploring how recycled materials could be used to make mobiles in the future." In other words, vaporware. And that ain't so green, just yet. Release the hounds!

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

A German non-profit called Bauhaus Luftfahrt is working on a wacky-looking "box wing" aircraft, and has other tricks up their collective sleeves to help cut air travel's emissions by 35 percent by 2035. Nissan announced that users of its popular CARWINGS navigation system (only in Japan for now) will now have access to a new service called "Eco-Drive and You" — basically, it's your car telling you how to slow down, speed-racer, and drive green. Lastly, straight from grainy black and white films to the year 2008: a team of University of Michigan engineers are starting to design flapping-wing planes.

We never got to do cool stuff like this in high school; oh, to be young again: students of Napoleon High School in Jackson, Michigan, will convert a 1995 Saturn SP1 into an electric car this spring(nerds). If you don't have pimples and aren't afraid to ask girls out, maybe the Miles XS500 is more your speed. No electric conversion required — it comes running on 100% electric power — and for about 30 grand, you get a very sensible-looking car that performs very sensibly: 80+ mph top speed and a range of about 120 miles, give or take, and we hear you can own one in 2009.

A German non-profit called Bauhaus Luftfahrt is working on the wacky-looking "box wing" aircraft and other goodies to help cut air travel's carbon dioxide emissions 35 percent by 2035. Bauhaus, which includes Germany's MTU Aero Engines, is proposing to get to that goal in three steps: employing geared turbofan technology in conventional jet engines for a 15 percent CO2 reduction; adding counter-rotating fans into these same engines (5 percent); and lastly, equipping the system with a waste-heat recuperating technology for another 15 percent. Ah, the Germans and their efficient engineering....

Nissan just announced that users of its popular CARWINGS navigation system (sorry, gearheads: only in Japan for now) will now have access to a new service called "Eco-Drive and You". They offer a trifecta of features: 1) Eco-drive check, which shows your average fuel consumption, trends in fuel economy, a history and comparison with the last 2 records; 2) Eco-drive ranking, which shows your average fuel economy history and compares it with other CARWINGS members with the same car model, and displays annual fuel expenses and savings; 3) Driving Advice via audio guidance, various tips on more efficient driving. Just don't forget to keep at least one eye on the road.

Lastly, a team of University of Michigan engineers to design flapping-wing planes by seeking inspiration from birds, bats and insects. Their ultimate goal is to build a flapping-wing plane, or micro air vehicle, with a wingspan between 1 and 3 inches that could perform missions in uncertain conditions; unlike its fixed-wing counterparts, it would fly at much slower speeds, enabling it to hover and even "perch" for monitoring purposes. His research is currently being funded by the Air Force; insert your batshit bomb joke here.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Humancar, the fun, funky human-powered, electric-motor-assisted, street-legal ride that's gone from prototype to available for sale (when else) this Earth Day. Until then, take a ride in the wayback machine with this electric bike, unveiled back in 1947.

Got WiMax on the brain? We all might, and not even know it. In the UK, Health Protection Agency is studying the issue of the health of Wi-Fi and has not even started considering the issue of WiMax, but already more than 150 million Americans are now in range of it, with inconsistent and contradictory research about the effects of being surrounded by it. The good news: the final decision on which powerful new Wi-Fi technologies are allowed into our homes, schools, offices and towns will rest with a powerful coalition of IT developers, internet service providers and lame duck regulators. We're reaching for our tinfoil helmets....

Aside from being the sexiest wind turbine we've ever seen, the Aerogenerator can not only generate as much as 9MW of power (so we've been told), it is also capable of harnessing wind from all directions without the need for the usual gearing mechanisms needed in regular horizontal axis turbines. We'll have to wait for its awesomeness, though; we're not likely to see one until 2013.

After being tested in "downtown Seattle traffic, raced downhill (faster than the turbo charged camera chase car was willing to go at our secret testing facility)," the Humancar is ready for prime time. The human-powered, electric-motor-assisted, street-legal ride will be available for sale on Earth Day for a cool 15 grand.

Lastly, take a ride on the wayback machine, all the way back to 1947 when this slick electric bike hit the streets. Yep, 60 years ago, this baby boasted a "dynamo which stores energy while traveling downhill and releases it downhill and releases it for climbing up grades." Who knew?

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Intel announced yesterday that it will purchase more than 1.3 billion kilowatt hours a year of "renewable energy certificates," which adds up to 46% of their total electricity usage. That will make it the largest buyer of green power in the United States and give a boost to clean energy production, leading to increased generation capacity and eventually lower costs for everyone. It will also indirectly make your computer greener if you buy Intel (that's right, future MacBook Air owners), and it will pressure competitors to follow suit. We hope.

A group of companies, including IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowles and Sony, in partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, have put together a portfolio of patents called the Eco-Patent Commons with environmental benefits. The patents can be used in manufacturing and business processes, and will supposedly offer other companies ways to save energy and water, reduce the production of hazardous waste, increase recycling or cut back on materials or resources. Sony, for one, offered up a patent for recycling old cellphones into digital cameras and other electrical equipment, providing the electronics industry with a new reuse option.

Lastly, hold on to your hats (and umbrellas) as we uncover the latest source of renewable energy: rain drops. Seriously. Scientists at the atomic energy commission in France realized that every time a drop impacts on a surface it is an opportunity missed. Each raindrop has an impact energy that is highly dependent on the size of the drop; from a small drizzle drop that has 2 microjoules on impact, to a downpour-sized drop that carries 1 millijoule of impact energy. The team was able to capture between 1 nanojoule and 25 microjoules of energy per drop (again depending on the size of the drop). The total power will vary incredibly depending on the conditions, but the device produces about one microwatt of power in a light drizzle. We can see it now: instead of raining cats and dogs, it might soon be raining iPod and cell phone chargers; stay tuned.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Greenpeace may have a thing about Macs, and TreeHugger recognizes that they are not perfect (but getting a lot better) but they sure know how to design a beautiful machine and system. Still, how green is their slick new MacBook Air? After review, we agree with Bruce Nussbaum of Business Week, who says, "What struck me most about Steve Jobsí presentation was the effort he made in showing how green the 3 lb. Air is. It doesnít have mercury or arsenic in its LCD and glass. The aluminum frame can be recycled. The circuitry is PVC free. And there is less packing material than other laptops." And that's a pretty good start.

With the average lifespan of a cell phone in this country at about 18 months (which adds up to 130 million entering the waste stream every year), there is certainly no shortage of supply for the old talkies, but what to do with the drawer-full of handsets you're squirreling away? We did some digging and found 50 ways to recycle them all. From earning cash back to helping others; perfect working condition to scrap parts only; drop it off or mail it in; manufacturer take-back to NGOs, there is a match in the list of 50 for whatever cell phone situation you find yourself in.

The Greener Gadgets Conference is coming, so mark your calendars for Friday, February 1; the one day conference is all about the greening of the consumer electronics industry. As we all saw at CES this year, gadgets and electronics are going to continue to get bigger, faster, and more energy intensive (with a notable exception or two); the conference will bring together industry leaders, entrepreneurs, journalists, and designers to talk about it, and figure out ways to make it all greener. And TreeHugger has discounted tickets for you.

Lastly, we've been waiting for this for a long time: a solar-powered air conditioner that actually exists. A Spanish company, Rotartica, has put it together, combining evacuated tube thermal collectors with a water-heated absorption chiller, and sized it at just over one ton, for residential use, all packaged in a neat little box, and it couldn't be simpler: you put hot water in; you get cold water out. Slick.

TreeHugger's EcoModo appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Lastly, the number of teenagers dying in Australia as a result of
listening to their iPods while crossing the road is beginning to reach "epidemic proportions," apparently. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Following the initial fun and games begotten by the first round of the hand-cranking gadgets, Sony has upgraded to the ODO Twirl N' Take prototype. Twirl N' Take is a digital camera which sits in a clever flowerpot-looking USB cradle, making the most of the sleek stem-and-circle design. The camera is built into the handle, and in the round end, Twirl N' Take has a built-in power meter, so you can keep track of how the charging progress is going. Ironically, there is no display screen on the device itself, presumably to save power (and cranks). That flowerpot will come in handy if you want to see how your snapshots look.

Okay, so CES was good for some huge TV announcements, Bill Gates' retirement hullaballo and a few fun 'n games, but how green was it? After all, 15 - 20% of a typical home's energy use these days comes from electronic gadgets, and a 50-inch plasma TV uses as much as your refrigerator, but they used electronic press packets (instead of paper), biodegradable utensils and so forth. Isn't that worth anything?

The big boys at Sharp, Panasonic and Toshiba took advantage of being in the same room at CES to announce that they've joined forces to create a new electronics recycling company, called the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company (MRM). The company was formed to help other manufacturers and state and local governments manage electronics recycling programs across the US. Formed in response to some stringent regulations passed last year in Minnesota, the company is working to help bring companies up to the new code, having collected 750 tons of junk in the first five months, and it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Lastly, as the number of teenagers dying in Australia as a result of
listening to their iPods while crossing the road reaches "epidemic proportions" (seriously!), Australian ad agency DDB Sydney dreamed up a little ad campaign for the New South Wales Police to help shock (?) the young hooligans into turning down the tunes.

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

The Greener Gadgets Conference and Design Competition are coming, and with them, a chance to both design and learn about all the ways to make our gadgets greener. Lastly, from the "we can't make this stuff up" file: check out the Energy Tower, an invention that will be able to rid the world of greenhouses gases, and produce clean energy and fresh water, all at the same time.

Ross Lovegrove's Solar Trees, installed in Vienna late last year, made waves for their sexy design and slick concept before they ever actually did anything; now, after a couple of months, the reviews are coming back; the verdict: solar really works! Even when the sun doesn't shine down on Vienna, the lights are sucking up enough solar to keep the streets basking in solar's warm glowing warming glow. Ahhh.

Plasma TV's suck (energy). It is the old efficiency paradox: as prices drop for big screen TVs, people don't save money on the smaller, more efficient units but go for the biggest one they can afford. According to the Wall Street Journal, a 42-inch plasma set can consume more electricity than a full-size refrigerator — even when that TV is used only a few hours a day (though when was the last time anybody gathered around the fridge for an evening of entertainment). Still, powering a fancy TV and full-on entertai