A proposed wind farm expansion in the Welsh countryside has an otherwise green community irate, claiming that the expansion will destroy the natural beauty of the area.

The expansion includes hundreds of new wind turbines and a large increase in the number of cables associated with them. As well, a 20 acre sub-station will need to be built. While many residents are pro-renewable energy, the sheer scale of the expansion has caused much concern.

“I’m not against wind farms,” one local resident told the BBC. “I agree with the need to get clean energy and make sure we’ve got different energy sources. But it’s the scale of all this that’s taken everyone aback. There’s a consultation underway, but we don’t feel we’ve been consulted.”

Recently, more than 2,000 people made the trek from Wales to London to protest. The expansion is part of an ongoing plan to increase Wales’ wind energy output to seven terawatt’s per hour by 2020.

Read more at GoodCleanTech

Today, rubber components found on cars are synthetic, which means they’re made from petroleum. But Ford is currently working on a way to not only make these components from a sustainable source, but to also eliminate a pesky weed in the process.

Ford’s engineers have developed a potential petroleum-rubber replacement that’s made from the common dandelion. The milky white substance created from the plant could potentially be used in cup holders, floor mats, and interior trim pieces, to name a few applications. And since the dandelions would be sourced locally, this also cuts down on shipping costs.

However, one researcher notes that, while moves like this are good, they don’t really solve the biggest issue with automotive pollution.

“Only about 10 to 20 percent of the emissions are tied up in manufacturing,” clean vehicles researcher Jim Kliesch told the New York Times. “So that leaves 80 to 90 percent to operating the vehicle and creating the fuel. What Ford is doing is admirable, but at the same time it’d make a lot more sense to improve the overall efficiency of their fleet.”

Read more at GoodCleanTech

Retail giant Toys ‘R Us has announced plans to build North America’s largest rooftop solar installation.

The installation is currently in the staging process, and will be built on top of a distribution center in Flanders, New Jersey. It’s expected to be completed sometime this Summer. It will take up a whopping 869,294 square feet, which will generate 72 percent of the facility’s power.

“The unprecedented scope of this project furthers our already strong commitment to sustainability in our operations,” TRU CEO Jerry Storch said. “New Jersey’s leadership in providing renewable, clean energy opportunities for companies has helped pave the way for an installation of this size and underscores the state as a champion for solar energy growth across North America.”

New Jersey is currently the second largest producer of solar energy in the US.

Constellation Energy will be building and maintaining the solar installation, which is expected to produce 6,362,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually. According to TRU, if that energy were produced by non-renewable means it would generate 4,387 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Read more at GoodCleanTech

General Electric has unveiled a new line of light fixtures aimed to replace fluorescents. And since they’re powered by LED bulbs, the new Edge line of lights will be much more efficient.

The lights resemble a flat-screen television, and come in models that can either be installed in a ceiling so that they lay flush with the ceiling tiles, or suspended from the roof. The ceiling tile-style fixtures are expected to be available later this year, while the suspended ones will be sold at some point in 2012.

With a series of coin-sized lights, the Edge fixtures can be programmed to either spread out light evenly across the screen or focus on one particular area. The lights have an estimated life span of 35,000 hours, 15,000 more than traditional fluorescents.

No word yet on pricing details.

Via CNet

Read more at GoodCleanTech

Toyota has opened up a new hydrogen fueling station in Torrance, California. What makes this station unique is that it doesn’t rely on deliveries of fuel: it pumps it straight from the source.

Run by Shell, the new station gets its hydrogen directly from an active pipeline, making it the first such station in the United States. Toyota is one of the biggest backers of hydrogen-powered vehicles, and plans to have a mass-market vehicle on the road by 2015 at the latest, with a price tag of around $50,000.

Honda and Mercedes-Benz are also expected to have hydrogen vehicles ready for sale around the same time. The first customer at the station was an owner of a Honda FX Clarity, of which there are only 50 in the country, all located in Southern California.

Via Wired

Read more at GoodCleanTech

You can control a lot of things via your mobile phone, and soon you’ll be able to add LED lightbulbs to that list.

Google has teamed up with Lighting Science to lead a new project called Android @ Home, which will attempt to make as many gadgets and appliances around your house controllable with an Android handset. The two unveiled a new, Android-controlled bulb at Google’s I/O event.

“Lighting is very visible and prevalent so it made sense for it to be first foray for the platform,” Lighting Sciences’ Eric Holland said. “Every one of the lights has a radio integrated inside the lamp so there’s no additional equipment.”

The bulbs will use a new wireless protocol so as not to interfere with the other devices in your home that already use things like wifi. Surprisingly, the bulbs are said to be priced at the same level as a regular LED when they are made available later this year.

Via CNet

Read more at GoodCleanTech

Researchers in South Korea are developing a cell phone that can recharge simply through sound.

The device features two strands of zinc oxide surrounded by two electrodes, as well as a sound absorbing pad. When the pad vibrates, the wires compress and release, creating an electrical current. This can then be used to charge the phone’s battery.

In its current state the project can only transform sound of around 100 decibles into energy, and it’s not yet enough to fully charge a phone. But researchers are currently in the process of refining the device — which could include swapping around some of the materials — in order to make it more efficient.

“A number of approaches for scavenging energy from environments have been intensively explored,” Dr Sang-Woo Kim told the Daily Mail. “The sound that always exists in our everyday life and environments has been overlooked as a source. This motivated us to realize power generation by turning sound energy from speech, music or noise into electrical power.”

Read more at GoodCleanTech

According to the United Nations, renewable energy sources, like solar and wind power, could power 80 percent of the world as early as 2050.

But the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also noted that in order to achieve that goal governments across the world would have to invest significantly in renewable energy, which would include promoting the benefits of such investment.

The report also explained that because the cost of the technologies required for wind and solar energy are steadily decreasing, they could soon be a sustainable and practical way for poorer countries to develop their economies.

“Developing countries have an important stake in this future–this is where 1.4 billion people without access to electricity live, yet also where some of the best conditions exist for renewable energy deployment,” explained co-chair Ramon Pichs.

Via the CBC

Read more at GoodCleanTech

Judging by its huge population, people love New York City. And it turns out that whales do, too.

Researchers placed a series of underwater sound recorders from Long Island to New York Harbor and found that a surprisingly diverse number of whales liked to spend time around NYC. Everything from endangered species like fin and humpback whales, all the way up to the massive blue whale. Because different species of whales have distinct “songs,” the researchers were able to tell the species solely through sound. But from the surface the whales are undetectable.

“If you were standing at the top of the Statue of Liberty and looked south or southeast, if you [could see] under the water, there were whales singing under the surface,” researcher Christopher Clark told National Geographic.

While the sound recorders allowed the researchers to determine the different types of whales swimming around New York, they don’t make it possible to determine just how many of them there are, which is the team’s next project.

Read more at GoodCleanTech

While the fully electric VW Microbus remains little more than a concept vehicle, Volkswagen has pulled back the curtain on a new green vehicle that will actually make it to production: the plug-in diesel car, the XL1.

Unveiled at the Qatar Motor Show, the XL1 is latest entry in Volkswagen’s “one-liter car” program, and will be the first to be fully produced. It’s a two-seater car with an incredibly light carbon fiber body that weighs in at just 1,753 lbs. The only VW with more carbon fiber in its body is the Bugatti supercar. And when the lightweight is combined with the diesel-electric powertrain, you have a car that will be able to get around 261 miles per gallon.

The electric-only range, meanwhile, will be around 22 miles, and the XL1 can be charged from any household plug.

The XL1 will debut in 2013, first in Germany, then followed by the rest of Europe, with the United States and China to follow after that. No price point has been set.

Via Automotive News Europe

Read more at GoodCleanTech