Category: Energy systems
How to Make Your Bathrooms More Eco Friendly With Types of Toilets With New Technology For Water Conservation
When people talk about new types of toilets for water conservation, they often mean a functional type of toilet. Not every type of toilet will help you save money on water. Some of them will actually reduce the amount of water you use by too much. A lot of people have started to turn to…
Nissan announces renewable energy expansion at Sunderland Plant
Nissan has today announced plans for a major expansion to renewable energy generation at its plant in Sunderland, UK. Complementing the plant’s existing wind turbines and solar farm, the proposed 20MW solar farm extension represents a further step in Nissan’s path to carbon neutrality, claims the manufacturer. If approved, the 37,000-panel extension would result in…
Scientists develop robot inspectors for offshore wind farms
Scientists have developed fully autonomous robots which are able to inspect wind farms for damage. Unlike many drones, these do not require a human operator and can assess the integrity of offshore wind turbines. Those behind the devices believe they could help prevent technicians having to undergo the “dangerous and expensive” process of abseiling down…
Pete to take ‘world’s first plant selfie’ using energy from soil
Pete the maidenhair fern is set to take the world’s first plant “selfie” in a trial that conservationists hope will help them monitor remote rainforests. Work has begun on the scientific study at London Zoo to develop a way of using plants to power camera traps and sensors in the wild so that wildlife experts…
Single wave energy device could power 100 homes, experts claim
A new cut-price wave energy device that could help power homes and businesses is being developed by experts at a Scottish university. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh have been working with institutions in Italy to come up with the renewable energy system. They say their design is cheaper than more conventional alternatives, is made…
Energy firms well off 2020 smart meter target, Which? warns
Large energy suppliers need to triple the current rate of smart meter installation to hit a target of replacing all existing meters by 2020, according to new analysis from Which? The consumer organisation found large suppliers would need to work around the clock, installing 30 smart meters per minute, every day, for the next two…
Urban wind turbine inventors scoop James Dyson Award
Young inventors from Lancaster University have won the international James Dyson Award for their innovative urban turbine which generates energy from multidirectional winds. Wind is unpredictable when passing through tall buildings in cities, making it tricky to generate renewable energy in the same way wind farms can in the country. Nicolas Orellana and Yaseen Noorani…
Living in the smart city – solar powered pavements and roads that can charge electric cars
From big data gathering information about pollution, water use and traffic through to smart roads capable of managing autonomous vehicles and charging electric vehicles, Fast Future's Rohit Talwar, Steve Wells and Alexandra Whittington look at what the future has in store for the smart city In the coming decades, the planet’s most heavily concentrated…
Maybe we're not all doomed: Solar energy cheaper than coal in Australia?
Some potentially good news for a Monday morning: It appears that solar energy could be about to overtake coal as Australia's most viable source of energy. Hopefully, anyway. Writing in The Guardian, Giles Parkinson explains: Last week, for the first…
British Gas to add remote appliance control to smartphone apps
British Gas have begun trialing a new app service that will allow customers to remotely switch off appliances from a smartphone. The service, designed to keep bills low by tighter control over appliances (as well as being an additional safety…
