Investors and cleantech entrepreneurs alike should take note of this pie chart from OnGreen, a just-launched online marketplace for cleantech startups seeking funds. The information is gleaned from OnGreen's beta site, which already has 350 companies seeking $1.9 billion in capital ($142 million is sought by companies that already have funding).
As the chart indicates, renewable energy is the fashionable place to be right now. But while energy is perhaps the most pressing problem, there is room for development and investment in every cleantech field. OnGreen already has plenty of buzzworthy companies in other sectors, including Rubbersidewalks (a company that, unsurprisingly, wants cash to build rubber sidewalks) and Home Town Farms (a startup that plans to build vertical farms throughout California). But by and large the flashiest and most well-established fund-seekers are involved in renewable energy--check out Kinetic Traction Systems and Clean Plasma Energy Technology to see what we mean.
A word of advice, then, for aspiring cleantech entrepreneurs: if you really want to stand out from the crowd, skip renewable energy and focus on an underappreciated sector like waste management.
Follow Fast Company on Twitter. Ariel Schwartz can be reached by email.
The home of the future will be bedecked with smart sensors that send their data to the cloud so you can manage the house from afar--yes, this is a story we've heard before. But now Microsoft has joined a plan to build a smart city jammed with exactly these smart homes in Portugal.
Living PlanIT, which calls itself "one of the world's leading smart city and urban development technology providers" has been working on a plan for a smart city in northern Portugal for quite a while--currently a 2013 unveiling looks likely. And its plans have been given a huge boost this week with news that Microsoft has signed up, bringing all sorts of MS tech to the table. This technology includes the Connected Government Framework and the Azure platform (more on this soon). Microsoft's former General Manager of Market Development and co-chair of its Business Development Forum is now CEO of PlanIt--which may have helped MS's decision to leap on board alongside other tech partners like Cisco.
But what exactly will the resulting urban environment be like? The houses and infrastructure of the city will be dotted with sensors and computer technology that hooks up pretty much everyone to everything, and which will be integrated into the design right from the planning stage. For example, MS's CGF will let citizens dial up to centrally administered facilities "via the cloud so they can manage their everyday life events and data." PlanIt suggests the system, which seems like a new layer of monitoring and comms infrastructure (like a city-wide OS), will "provide a rich framework for the incorporation of partner technologies" and "help improve the quality of life for citizens and industry while preserving the environment and natural resources."
Sounds pretty good. Basically the smart homes will have environmental sensors that feed data to the central management systems so that events like heating and power management can be handled more efficiently and in a more environmentally friendly way. This could go down to the detailed level of monitoring building occupancy, and apparently the city itself will be built along the same engineering principles as cars and aircraft. The resulting urban zone will probably be a 21st century approximation of the integrated, digital, smart cities that tend to pop up in certain kinds of future-looking science fiction, although we may expect more conventional building designs and less "big brother" behavior. That's because Portugal, where the first of these €10 billion cities will be built, is still a very traditional country that's in the process of rebuilding after a revolution in 1974--although the nation does have impressively high Internet penetration, even by high European standards.
To imagine what the dwellings may be like inside, we can revisit some of Microsoft's own research in this area--it's been examining the design and utility of smarthomes for quite some time. The company's "Vision for 2019" is interesting, born of futurist thinking. And though it concentrates on portable technology, it does highlight how people may work and live in a highly digitally connected city.
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Current water-intensive practices for dyeing silk involve harsh toxic chemicals that can poison workers and the environment, but a group of scientists have created a method that could eliminate the dyeing process all together. Researchers from the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) in Singapore found that by feeding silkworms a diet of mulberry leaves mixed with dye, the little buggers produce naturally colored silk. Not only is the method eco-friendly, but it drastically reduces the amount of water needed.
A new technology for producing geothermal energy could also be a method for sequestering carbon dioxide beneath the earth's surface, which could make this one of the most carbon-negative methods of producing energy. Geothermal power often has other environmental impacts, which usually puts it in the same category with large-scale hydropower: a source of clean power from a CO2 emissions standpoint, but with other negative environmental impacts. But using CO2 rather than water could make this a very attractive way of generating geothermal power in an even cleaner way.
The test project being carried out in Arizona by Green Fire Energy is working to develop a method of producing geothermal energy based on research by geoscientist Donald Brown at Los Alamos National Lab and further developed by Karsten Preuss and others at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
Geothermal power usually requires large volumes of water to be pumped underground to generate steam for power generation. By instead using CO2 as the working fluid, this new method avoids the need for large volumes of water and also serves to sequester some of the CO2 underground as it gets trapped in the process. "[Carbon dioxide] will be tapped, pressurized to a 'supercritical' state and injected underground. When this CO2 returns to the surface, it will cycle through a power conversion system, creating power. After each cycle, the CO2 will be recompressed and reinjected underground. During this process, a portion of the CO2 will be permanently trapped in porous underground rocks. Thus, the process emits no carbon – and may actually store some of it deep underground."
Interestingly, this is not the only technology using CO2 that we've seen recently, and there might be an interesting synergy between the two. This is an especially positive development for the desert Southwest, which has geothermal potential, but little available water with which to exploit it. Sequestering CO2 from nearby coal-fired plants could serve as a source for the CO2 to run this process, as well, which would help further improve the air quality in the region.
by: TreeHugger Design, 2011-03-25 16:52:17 UTC
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
A Bulb from the Future! It Looks Like it Belongs on a Spaceship
The Philips AmbientLED 12.5-watt A19 LED lightbulb (quite a name!) is probably the favorite LED bulb that I've tried so far. It beats the competition when it comes to light output (800 lumens vs. 450-590 lumens for the other LEDs that I've tried), the design of the bulb is very innovative, and light quality is excellent. Read on for my full review and more technical specs on the Philips AmbientLED.... Read the full story on TreeHugger
Israel is on a mission. And, unlike what you normally hear from this part of the globe, it is not a mission that will lead the nation on a path of conflict. In fact, Israel is attempting to be a global trendsetter by being the world’s very first nation to get nationwide battery-charging grid. Considering the way in which green technology is taking on the roads across the globe and how automobile companies are favoring all-electric and electric hybrid engines to power even the most marquee cars, it seems about time we get a nationwide grid to charge them up.
Better Place is the company that is pioneering this effort of making automated charging stations for electric cars. Not only is the concept cool for the planet, but it also sounds pretty futuristic and something that would make replacement of drained batteries a bit of fun. Just go to the station and slide in and a pit opens from beneath. A robotic hand will come out and replace the used batteries with new ones (Yup, a robotic hand rising from the ground… So Sci-Fi!)
The process though will take less than five minutes and Better Place guarantees that this is faster than the refilling at gasoline stations. Building a charging grid across the country is the perfect way to encourage people to buy electric cars as now they have accessible recharge options at their disposal. This will go a long way in cutting down emissions on the road.
Better Place is starting off with 40 such stations in Israel and then they will move on to building similar nationwide charging grid in Denmark. We are firmly hoping the rest of the globe follows soon as well.
One of the biggest advantages of solar energy is that it is available everywhere on a pretty consistent basis. Unless you are stuck in the Arctic or on a pretty bad English summer day, you more or less can use solar energy to charge up your gadgets with ease. Its abundance and sort of ‘omnipresence’ makes it an invaluable source of power. Sol Design Lab is trying to spread this message and that too in a brilliant fashion.
Solar Pump is a concept developed by Sol Design Lab, which ensures that your favorite electronic toys never run out of charge next time you are on the move. Imagine you hit a solar charging station and plugged in your iPhone or iPad for a quick juice-up before getting back on the road again! That is exactly what the new Solar Pump charging stations accomplish.
A photovoltaic panel set up on the top doubles up as shade while generating enough energy to power up your gadgets. You can sit down on recycled furniture (adding the extra tinge of green) and relax in the shade while your mobile gets a dose of much needed charge. You can then plug it out and get back to what you are doing before.
It is a simple concept that has been executed efficiently and with an ability to charge electric bicycles, mobiles, laptops and providing LED lighting, this is all about maximizing the use of eco friendly sources.
Miniot's wooden iPad 2 cover mixes old style and new tech
Some said that Apple’s Smart Cover would kill the third-party case market. When I first saw the neat magnetic cover, I thought the opposite — that case-makers would go crazy with cool ways to use the magnets inside the iPad 2. And here’s the first really clever take I have seen: a wooden cover from Dutch company Miniot.
The picture above is awful, so I recommend watching the video. The cover is a thin sheet of cherrywood scored with grooves so that it can roll. On the inside face is a plush, soft layer to cushion the screen, and there are magnets to hold the cover to the iPad’s spine, and also to activate the screen-lock.
The clever part is its hingeless design, making it even more minimal than Apple’s own cover. Magnets are in the edge of the cover itself. To use it as a stand, you first roll (not fold) the cover back, and then swing it around to the iPad’s rear. Thus positioned, it can hold the iPad up for movie-watching, or down almost flat for typing.
Best of all, the case is cheap. At just €50, it is €20 less than Apple’s leather cover. If you’re importing into the U.S, it’s not quite so good, translating to 71 of your U.S dollars. Available, apparently, from today.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer. How well can a tablet OS run on a laptop?
Looks like Asus couldn’t decide whether it wanted to make a tablet or a netbook, so it made both. The Eee Pad Transformer is a tablet which docks itself to a hinged keyboard and offers a long, long battery life of 16 hours.
It will be very interesting to see if this actually works. The tablet component uses the 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, has 1GB RAM, a Gorilla Glass multitouch screen (10.1 inches), 1.2 and 5MP cameras, gyroscope, compass, GPS and so on. The keyboard is little more than a dock with a trackpad and battery (without the dock, the battery life drops to 9.5 hours).
It seems like a great idea, but I wonder just how well the Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS plays with keyboard and trackpad. Anyone who has teamed the iPad up with an external keyboard knows that it works great if you have some text to type, but anything else is a pain. The OS just isn’t designed to be controlled with a keyboard.
Still, if you’re going to carry a keyboard with you, the extra battery life is nice.
Prices are still unannounced, as are U.S launch dates, but you can see a full spec sheet in the linked press release, and if you live in Taiwan, you can pick one up today.
Styrofoam has had a terrible rep with environmentalists for quite some time now, but here’s a breakthrough that could change that – well, at least in some applications. According to the folks at Engadget, researchers at the University of Illinois have discovered that by using styrofoam beads, they can create an electrode porosity of 94 percent, allowing for batteries that charge and discharge in mere seconds.
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-29 08:38:10 UTC
The World Community Grid, powered by IBM, is designed to harness the unused computing power of the world's PCs and laptops for research on critical ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-25 02:29:30 UTC
Shortlisted for the James Dyson Award
Safe and accessible drinking water is one of the rarest resources on the planet. 1-in-8 people in our world ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-25 01:36:32 UTC
Chief Financial Officers typical expect energy saving projects to have an average internal rate of return of investment of about 20%. A recent research ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-21 01:01:36 UTC
Energy AWARE Clock is wirelessly connected to an energy meter.Energy AWARE Clock is an electricity meter that resembles an ordinary kitchen clock. ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-17 01:08:57 UTC
The Zeno Lamp brings natural sunlight indoors through a system of light collectors and fiber-optic cables. The beauty of the Zeno lamp lies in its ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-14 00:58:14 UTC
*How has the brand developed since 1975 when it was first created?*
Camper has moved one step at a time, which is the only way to do things properly. ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-12 01:03:16 UTC
While crossing the African continent, twin brothers Arjan and Alfred Koop, became aware of the true meaning of sanitation or the lack thereof in especially ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-10 11:08:43 UTC
The Environ biocomposite® product line is made from recycled newsprint, a soy-based resin and color additives. Environ biocomposite® is sold in 3'x6 ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-09 11:34:47 UTC
The c,mm,nity is a growing community, with over 800 people involved at present and about 80 of those making active contributions.
latest developments ...
by: Design 4 Sustainability, 2011-03-09 06:04:42 UTC
Named after a Danish candy – colourful, sugarcoated licorice balls – Pinocchio is a carpet that makes you smile. Pinocchio is handmade in Nepal where ...
Photo: Michael Graham Richard
A Bulb from the Future! It Looks Like it Belongs on a Spaceship
The Philips AmbientLED 12.5-watt A19 LED lightbulb (quite a name!) is probably the favorite LED bulb that I've tried so far. It beats the competition when it comes to light output (800 lumens vs. 450-590 lumens for the other LEDs that I've tried), the design of the bulb is very innovative, and light quality is excellent. Read on for my full review and more technical specs on the Philips AmbientLED.... 
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