Energy

Closer Than We Think! Polar Oil Wells (1960)

Sometimes ideas of the paleo-future not only elicit a chuckle for their scientific improbability but, in the case of “Polar Oil Wells,” political improbability. Baby penguins watching their habitat melting wouldn’t be a very popular image today. This Closer Than We Think! strip ran in the January 17, 1960 edition of the Chicago Tribune. Valuable…

How much do you think it costs to power all of the computers left on overnight? According to a recent study, $1,720,000,000.00. [EcoGeek]

Wind-Powered Cellphone Charger, Plus an Energy Joke

Since we’re all such gadget freaks here, we’re guessing that you use just a bit more electricity than the average Joe. So take a look at what wireless provider Orange is coming out with, a wind-powered cellphone charger. Best of all, it’s really light (150g) and tiny so it should be very easy to take…

Energy Bill Got You Down? You Need Penguin Power!

In the universe of gadgets meant to monitor or conserve energy usage, this is the first we’ve seen that takes an anime approach. The Lifinity ECO is either a thermostat or a energy monitor (or both), using helpful cartoon penguins that keep tabs on your heating and AC settings, as well as the stuff plugged…

Future of Steam (1889)

The June 13, 1889 Bucks County Gazette (Bristol, Pennsylvania) contained a short article about the future of steam power. Professor Thurston, of Cornell university, does not believe the steam engine will be superseded in a hurry by any other motor, not even electricity. He says, on the contrary, that improvements will continue to be made…

Wattson Wireless Power Meter In Action

Here’s a clip of a Reuters reporter interviewing Richard Woods, one of the designers of the Wattson energy meter. It’s still not clear when Woods’ firm DIY Kyoto will be mass producing them for the US market (we introduced you to a $600 handmade original over a year ago), but in these Gore-y times, it’s…

Spanish Tower Draws Solar Energy from 600 Mirrors

It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Six hundred mirrors reflecting sunlight onto a massive 40-story tall tower out in the Andalusian countryside. Yet as eerie as it looks, this is Europe’s first commercial solar power plant being operated by a company called Solucar. The structure generates 11 Megawatts of electricity—enough power for…

OMNI 500 (1982)

The 1982 book The Omni Future Almanac contains a list of the top companies for the year 2000. Telecommunications services, energy, and genetic/biological engineering will probably be the significant growth areas over the coming years, and the “Fortune 500” of today will look quite different from the “OMNI 500” of tomorrow. Here is a look…

Solar Energy for Tomorrow’s World (1980)

The foreword to the 1980 book Solar Energy for Tomorrow’s World proclaims, “A New York Times poll taken in 1979 revealed that 42 percent of the American people optimistically believed that our energy problems could be solved by solar energy in just five years. Most scientists think that’s too optimistic. But whether it takes five…

We Want This: Free Energy Monitors and Smart Meters

Starting in 2008, every home in the UK will be able to request a free real-time energy monitor from their power company in order to keep track of how much power each appliance is using. However, real-time energy monitors aren’t even the best way to keep track of energy consumption—smart meters are. These smart meters…

The Future World of Energy (1984)

While paging through the EPCOT Center Book: The Future World of Energy, published in 1984, I noticed that even images demonstrating positive advances in the field of energy production took on a distinctly dystopian illustration style. The image below shows something the book’s authors clearly believe to be an advancement in technology. But I can’t…

Purdue University Develops Mr.Fusion, Finally

A team of scientists and researchers at Purdue have developed a fully functional Mr. Fusion. (For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, go rent Back to the Future II asap.) This tactical biorefinery can munch up food, paper and plastic garbage and turn it into energy. This machine was commissioned for the…

Stormblade Turbine is More Efficient, Quietly Neighbor-Friendly

Nobody wants a wind turbine in their backyard, because the things are noisy and kill birds. But now inventors at Stormblade Turbine might have made the windmill a neighborhood-friendly device, solving that noise problem while doubling the efficiency of current turbines. This weird-looking jet engine-on-a-stick is somehow able to accelerate wind into its blades that…

Fused Plugs Make Your Consumption Conspicuous

The problem with our gadget fetish is that we tend to forget how much juice all these toys of ours actually suck up. It never really hits until the energy bill shows up, and then you feel like an idiot for leaving your 50-inch TV on 24/7 while keeping the living room warm using only…

HOBO U10 Tells You When Someone is Tweaking with the Thermostat

Peter Griffin said it best. Every guy has an inner thing that senses when someone touches the thermostat. Come on, someone has to know the Family Guy episode I’m talking about. If your thing happens to be on the fritz—this is where the HOBO U10 comes in. It is a wireless temperature monitor. Place it…

DIY Kyoto Wattson: Attaching a Number to Your Energy Thirst

If you’re feeling paranoid about how much power you’re using, hook up the Wattson, which consists of a meter that you attach to your main power supply and the wireless unit pictured above, which gives you a portable readout of how many kilowatts you’re consuming. The wireless aspect of Wattson is intriguing, where you could…

SolarCentury Complete Solar Roof

If you’re going to reap the benefits of solar energy on your roof, why not have solar panels that are installed just like conventional roofing materials? These flush-mounted tiles offer both power and heat, so you can use them for electricity and hot water at the same time. SolarCentury is attempting to make solar energy…

UltraCell Demos XX25 Micro Fuel Cell

The day where you can say goodbye to lame laptop batteries draws near, as a preproduction unit of the UltraCell XX25 micro fuel cell system was demonstrated at the Intel Developer Forum. The power source s methanol fuel can keep a laptop going for two days. These fuel cells are hot-swappable, too, so they could…

Hybrid Home Completely Off the Grid

Hybrid Technologies has almost finished building what it calls the Hybrid Living Home, a concept house that shows off hundreds of energy-saving and smart-home features. Using wind turbines, solar energy, earth tubes and high-tech electrical storage, the house is designed to be completely self-sufficient, achieving that holy grail that’s known as being off the grid.…

Grad Student Creates Micro Windmill

N. Satyanarayana, a graduate student in India, has figured out a way to miniaturize a windmill so it can be used to charge a cellphone battery. It is a simple fan blade that is attached to a generator, also it’s waterproof so it can even be used in the rain. Imagine clipping one of these…