wind power

Greenbird Tries To Be The Fastest Thing On Ice

Somewhere between a race car, a light plane and a yacht there is the Greenbird, a light craft powered only by the wind. Engineer Richard Jenkins is on a mission break both the land and ice world speed records. He's giving it a go on the ice-covered Canyon Ferry Reservoir in Montana attempting to be the fastest sail-powered man ever to race across the face of the earth. Currently the record for a purely sail-powered vehicle on land stands at 116mph and the highest reliable recorded sailing speed on ice is 84mph. Jenkins is hoping to hit a speed of 120mph or even 125mph. In UK land-based trials, Greenbird unofficially touched 120mph when fitted with wheels and he's hoping for a faster speed on ice.

[via The Telegraph]

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Tags: greenbird, montana, wind power, WindPower

Philippe Starck's Wind Turbine For Home Use

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Green

Philippe Starck has been pretty busy designing stuff lately, considering just a few months ago he was proclaiming that "design is dead" and announcing his retirement. I guess the most creative minds have the most persuasive demons, and it seems Starck is trying to learn from his: after proclaiming that "everything he had ever designed was useless" he's now on to designing something truly useful and trendy: a mini-turbine designed for people to use at home to generate their own wind power.

The mini-turbine is made of clear polycarbonate (the lack of color is apparently a statement about there being so much materiality in the world) and is capable of providing 20-60% of the power needs for the average home. It will be available this coming September with a price tag around $600.

Gallery: The Philippe Starck Home Wind Turbine

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Tags: green, philippe starck, PhilippeStarck, planet, starck, wind, wind power, wind turbine, WindPower, WindTurbine

Humphreys Yacht Design Concept

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Water

Superyacht Times has a piece on this wild design, a new 246-foot concept developed by Humphreys Yacht Design for Devonport Yachts. The yacht has a fully glazed atrium that spans the entire width of the yacht and creates a passive heating/cooling system. The atrium is surrounded by automatically operated louvers. The atrium space allows the sun's rays to enter the yacht in cool climates and traps the heat behind thermally efficient glass. In warmer climates a solar chimney effect works to draw in cool air at sea level. The warm air escapes from the top of the superstructure. The owner's stateroom features viewing wings at the bow creating a unique sea view. The yacht is also being developed to use the SkySails wind power system, a method of using kite propulsion to tow the boat.

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Tags: megayacht, skysails, superyacht, wind power, yacht

Skystream Wind Generator

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor

It's always nice to come across a product that can save you money and do something good for the environment as well. The Skystream is a small wind turbine system that lets you provide your own wind power. When the wind isn't blowing your home can still be powered by your local power company but in some cases you can sell excess electricity back to the power company. The wind generator costs between $8,000 to $10,000 and will pay for itself over time. I wonder if over time the Skystream will achieve a certain level of eco chic much as the Toyota Prius has done.

[via Treehugger]

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Tags: green, skystream, wind power, wind turbine, WindTurbine

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