In 1975 Ernest Callenbach published Ecotopia (revisited by NY Times here), a novel which quickly gained cult status (see also video). Three years later, fascinated by the book, architect Craig Hodgetts (of Hodgetts+Fung Design) crafted a set of amazing drawings depicting some of the scenes and concept envisioned in the book, eager to produce Ecotopia for the big screen. Imagine retro-yet-ever-so-futuristic balloon generators over San Francisco Bay, solar-powered high-speed mag-lev trains, helium-filled mylar balloons to lift and orient a wind-powered generator, … Join discussion...

‘I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.’ Thomas Edison made that strong proclamation to Henry Ford in 1931. Edison’s confidence most likely stemmed from the fact that our sun is responsible for the propagation of life in addition to the vast majority of available energy on earth. (The most notable sub-surface exceptions being the energy potential of nuclear and geothermal which each come with their slew of challenges) Wind is a “by-product” of the sun, created by the diurnal (day & night) effect of warming and cooling. Fossil fuels are simply what their name suggests – the fossilized remains of living organisms. Coal was the flora that photosynthesized the sun’s power; oil, natural gas, tar sands (collectively petrochemicals) the fauna. In short, the sun is responsible for the life and lifestyles here on earth both directly and indirectly. Join discussion...

BlackLight Power Inc., is the pioneer of technology based on the patented process of releasing chemical energy from hydrogen called the "BlackLight Process." More specifically, energy is released as the electrons of hydrogen atoms are induced by a catalyst to transition to lower-energy levels (i.e. drop to lower base orbits around each atom's nucleus) corresponding to fractional quantum numbers. The BlackLight Process has unique competitive advantages in all energy markets: electricity, heat, cogeneration (electricity production with waste heat recovery and utilization), and motive power. Rather than pollutants the byproducts have significant advanced technology applications based on their stability characteristics. The catalyst causes the hydrogen atoms to transition to lower-energy states by allowing their electrons to fall to smaller radii around the nucleus with a release of energy that is intermediate between chemical and nuclear energies. Join discussion...

Jack Ganssle, chief engineer of The Ganssle Group, sees energy scavenging as a replacement for batteries in mobile devices in the future. In an interview with ZDNet Jack states that in India there is a great need for mobile devices but power is scarce. India is creating its own embedded systems industry due to the availability of highly skilled engineering talent. Jack thinks India and China are going to be the engines of growth for this industry due to the strength of their domestic market. The microprocessors are able to sniff energy from the environment. It could be anything ranging from energy radiated by power lines, heat in the coffee cup or the human body. Join discussion...

-Rowan University Prof Jansson gets supplied the Raney nickel from Blacklight Power, which it in turn obtains from an industrial supplier. -Mills said it doped with a very small amount of another common material, sodium hydroxide, in a process that others could replicate. -Jansson has been aware of Blacklight for years, and even acted as an advisor for an energy company that ultimately made a strategic investment, but it appears to have no unethical ties, just an ongoing interest. -Mills, for his part, says that he’d like for scientists to independently verify every step of the process, from obtaining the Raney nickel and doping it to the calorimeter tests to prove that the energy bursts really exist. The information needed to run those tests is free to the public, he says; the only thing required is a researcher willing to take the time to puzzle through the process. -Jansson’s team is observing produce only a quick burst of intense heat. In a commercialized process, there needs to be a steady output. Mills says he has purposefully kept knowledge of how to loop the reaction within the company, so that his own researchers can remain a step ahead in their work on the 50KW reactor the company earlier announced. -According to Mills, it’s likely that a totally independent researcher will verify the whole process within a year. Meanwhile, the company will start licensing out its energy process. Join discussion...

Scenarios are stories about the future. They are not predictions or forecasts, but help us explore change and fundamentally different future landscapes. The Forum for the Future has partnered with HP Research Labs on a new publication ‘Climate Futures responses to climate change in 2030’ to explore the broad social, political, environmental and economic drivers affecting global markets and IT related industry sectors. [Download 76 page PDF 6 MB] Join discussion...

Organic dyes have been used to harvest the sunlight streaming through the windows in your home. Up to 20% of the light can be captured and redirected to photovoltaic cells around the edge of the window, creating electricity. The idea is to coat ordinary glass with an organic dye, allowing a large area of light to be captured then focused onto a small cell, a much more efficient method than using traditional photovoltaic cells. Join discussion...

Some Social Technologies colleagues and I recently had the good fortune to attend Al Gore's speech in Washington, where he unveiled a new challenge to the US: be free of carbon-based energy in 10 years. His challenge calls for the US not only to be oil independent but also coal-free, relying only on renewable energy. Gore emphasized solar, wind, and geothermal energy as replacements to carbon-based fuels. Join discussion...

The search for new ways to gain environmently friendly energy is still going strong. But we have to because the fossil fuels have had their days. Today there are already a lot of ways to find ‘new enegry’ like solarpower and windturbines. But there is a ‘new’ sustainable form of energy and it is called wave energy. There are several ways and innovation to ‘generate’ the energy from the sea. One of them is the so called Wave Rotor. This is like a windmill under the water. A demoversion of this will soon be build in the Dutch ‘Westerschelde’. But Denmark already uses such a system. Another way to generate wave energy is the seasnake or Pelamis. This is something the British government believes in so they given it a lot of money to realise it. But there are already countries which already have a wave plant existing of seasnakes. Portugal is such a country. Another innovation on wave power is the so called AquabuOY (clip). This way to get energy from the waves will be introduced in Australia. When we look at all these initiatives we may, and I believe can, conclude that wave power is something for the near future. This brings us to the point that our oceans will become in the future our most reliable sources for energy! What do you think? Join discussion...