Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU in Dresden have figured out a way to quiet down the whiney whirring of wind turbines by neutralizing vibrations coming from the central tower of the turbine. They’ve come up with a device that can be mounted to an existing turbine, which senses the vibrations and produces an “anti-sound” vibration, effectively pressing against the sound vibration to cancel it out.

The device could help out with getting more wind turbines into neighborhoods where the chief complaint of noise keeps turbines away. It would be inexpensive compared to other sound dampeners, which are more expensive the better they work, and none of which would work as well as this promising device. While the damper could adjust itself to varying vibration levels, testing is underway to see how the device holds up to higher speed winds.

via physorg; photo via chimothy

On September 22, two guys in a biodiesel-drinking Jetta are going to drive from Midtown Manhattan to Los Angeles without ever stopping for fuel. And they’re going to do it in two days.

The Jetta is equipped with a primary tank and a second high-capacity tank…as in, a giant extra tank…and the Bio Willie brand biodiesel put in the tank in Manhattan is expected to get them all the way to LA.

The whole point of WillieRun ’08 is to draw attention to the fact that there are other options out there for fuel efficiency than hybrids.

Biodiesel is great in that a little bit goes a long way because of the energy density, and it is carbon neutral. However, there is still the notion of using food for fuel, since biodiesel often comes from corn or soy. But, we know there are several potential ways to get around this, using non-food-based feedstock for biodiesel.

Considering biodiesel is a whole lot better than gas, it’d awesome to be able to get from one end of the states to the other without having to stop for refills.

We think it’s a pretty cool publicity stunt and if it hits the mainstream, will accomplish the goal of the creators. If you also think it’s a cool idea, you might be able to get in on the action for next year’s race.

If you weren’t feeling especially special today, start celebrating yourself right now because you as an EcoGeek stand out from the tech crowd.

According to a survey conducted by TDG, a broadband media advisory firm, the most geeky of tech geeks are too busy typing away on their laptops to spend any time hugging trees. They simply don’t care to ponder the environmental impact of their gadgets. Only about 50% of the Buzz-Out-Loud-listening, Wired-reading, gadget-news-RSS-feeding tech-heads care about the eco-friendliness of their equipment, while 63% of mainstreamers care. And only 10% of consumers in general show a critical concern over the impact of their equipment. Mainstream consumers get it, but tech enthusiasts don’t.

So today, stand up, throw your shoulders back, and be proud that you are in a very slim margin of geeks who hug trees, and therefore, are making a difference.

Via TDG via goodcleantech; photo via 88rabbit

Fuel Miami, LLC, a media company, has come up with a brilliant give-take plan to boost its company, its advertisers, and the city of Miami.

The company is installing 600 solar-powered bus shelters in Miami, upon which they’ll be able to place their customer’s ads, and with no need to plug into the grid.

The shelters will save about 2 tons of CO2 emissions each, illuminating the ad panels and the shelter itself using the resource for which the state of Florida is famous.

This is one of those places where utilizing solar power seems most obvious. The energy used to light bus shelters is easily overlooked when we’re trying to change the world, but relatively small steps like this make a big difference. It’s an exciting project, and I’m hoping will encourage other media companies vying to provide cities with their outdoor furniture to make similar moves, and for cities to push bidding companies to make innovative proposals like Fuel Miami, LLC.

The only issue I can think of that would put a damper on this cool project is…well, have you seen the condition of most cities’ bus shelters? I imagine keeping vandals away from the solar panels could be a bit difficult.

Via ecolocalizer

We’ve been hearing for awhile that solar silicon production is going from scrambling to catch up, to having way too much stock. Now we have an idea how much the prices are expected to fall.

According to information provided to UK’s New Energy Finance by polysilicon and solar-wafer buyers and sellers, solar silicon could drop in price by as much as 43% next year. Additionally, silicon wafer prices could drop 41% - and contract silicon prices dropping by 67% - in 5 years. In New Energy Finance’s report, wafers should retain their value in 2009, but as supply increases, prices could hit less than $6 per wafer, or $1.62 per watt starting in 2011. So just as quickly as prices skyrocketed, they’ll drop again (sound like the housing market to anyone?), which means price parity for solar could be just around the corner, despite various setbacks.

"The first results [from the Silicon and Wafer Price Index] have confirmed that we will be seeing significant falls in prices right along the value chain as the polysilicon bottleneck eases, bringing solar closer to competitiveness with other power sources," New Energy Finance CEO Michael Liebreich said in a written statement, and carefully pointed out that the research is specific to contract prices, not spot prices for silicon.

We know that companies are interested in manufacturing the in-demand product, but will production slow at all in preparation of this over-supply? No matter what, it’s a sure bet that solar power prices will drop, so we can hope that the (so far) lack of tax credits will not be such a big factor stopping people from hooking up to the sun.

Via GreenTech Media; photo via Treehugger

Typically, as California goes, so goes the nation. But the same often holds true with New York. Here is one news item rapidly making the rounds on the clean tech sites that I hope will demonstrate New York’s influence.

On Tuesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a clean energy summit in Las Vegas that he wants New York to make a major shift into renewable energy, and urged businesses to submit proposals by September 19th. No holds barred on the sources of energy – he wants to float everything from urban turbines, skyscraper solar panels, tidal energy, geothermal energy and….ahem, nuclear. I wish we could pretend he didn’t say that last one, but yes, he wants “clean nuclear” power.

New Yorkers are already among the greenest people in the nation, based mainly on the tight set-up of the city. But millions and millions of people require a whole lot of power. While Bloomberg wants the current usage levels to stay the same even as the city grows, he pointed out that the infrastructure, and power sources, are out of date and strained. So, he wants to see energy being drawn from the Hudson and East rivers, from the Atlantic ocean, from the skyscrapers in terms of wind and solar, and any other place possible.

New York is already taking some great steps to green up, from the new WTC towers, to its participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project, to their pilot East River power generation project.

It seems like there are hundreds of ideas discussed on EcoGeek alone that could be streaming in to his office as we speak. I’m looking forward to finding out if some of the renewable energy ideas he called for will actually be considered and adopted in the near future.

Via Physorg; photo via aturkus

Researchers in Massachusetts are working on a technique to turn heat gathered by asphalt into useable energy via water pipes. Their paper, released this week at the International Symposium on Asphalt Pavements and Environment in Zurich, posits that asphalt roads could be better than solar panels in gathering energy.

They say that all the parking lots and roads that sit there baking in the sun all day are basically already solar energy collectors, and that the sheer amount of useable asphalt offsets the lower efficiency factor. We just need a way to transfer that heat into energy on a large scale. The researchers point out how asphalt stays hot even after the sun goes down, which anyone in the Southwest can attest to, and so could continue to generate energy when solar panels can’t. A system of heat exchangers could become part of road construction projects and improvements, and the system could help out the issue of heat islands.

While my mind instantly goes to a slew of issues that could exist for places with cold winters, the Netherlands, an unarguably arguably cold place in winter, has already done something like this on a very small scale and it has been a success. The idea sounds viable, but I have a hard time thinking that it would surpass solar panels as energy collectors; however, I’d love to see it tried out in a place like Phoenix, where the heat gathered could be used to run homes’ AC units. How’s that for a loop?

Via cnet; photo credit Worcester Polytechnic Institute