Green Tech

The hydrogen highway is still unrealized, but when it comes, Mercedes-Benz is planning a lineup of fuel cell vehicles to ride it.

The auto manufacturer plans to release two new hydrogen vehicles in the next few years, according to an Automotive News article. Mercedes-Benz currently leases an F-Cell hydrogen-fueled vehicle based on the compact B-Class model in a handful of states. The F-Cell has a 240-mile driving range, emits only water vapor when driven, and can be leased for $849 per month.

To date, the company has leased approximately 35 F-Cells in Southern California where the lion's share of hydrogen fueling stations are being built, … Read more

If you're in the market for a luxury plug-in hybrid sedan, start saving up the $50,000 to $60,000 you'll need to buy the Fisker Atlantic sedan. And you'll have plenty of time -- don't expect to see the car in the showrooms for another couple of years.

Details of Fisker's second plug-in hybrid were leaked to InsideEvs.com. The Fisker Atlantic, formerly known as Project Nina, is the startup's follow-up to its $100,000 Karma plug-in hybrid sports car. The Atlantic is a smaller, more affordable luxury coupe that will be equipped … Read more

An air-powered car may not be a pipe dream after all. Tata Motors announced last week that it is beginning phase two of development to bring this technology to market.

Lightweight cars powered only by air have made the rounds on the auto show circuit for the past two years. But since 2007, the Indian automotive manufacturer has been working with Motor Development International, which is pioneering this technology, to make this highly conceptual propulsion system a reality.

Tata has successfully demonstrated the compressed air engine concept in two of its vehicles, and will enter phase two of the partnership … Read more

Your Gmail box lives somewhere in the jumble of servers, cables, and hard drives known as the "cloud" but it often migrates in search of the ideal location.

Google today released an animation that answers the question: what happens when I press send on Gmail? The company created the interactive feature called The Story of Send to highlight the security and relatively low energy footprint of its data centers. The graphics repeat Google's estimate that its data centers use 50 percent less energy than a typical data center and 30 percent of their data center energy is … Read more

Scientists are genetically engineering viruses in the pursuit of better battery life, perhaps leading to smartphones charged from the motion of walking.

The Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory yesterday described a microelectronic device that uses a benign virus to build up electric charge from movement.

Its first prototype was able to display the No. 1 on an LCD display when a person pressed a postage-stamp size button.

That amount of current isn't useful enough to charge common electronics, such as a music player or phone. But the researchers' novel approach to harvesting energy from motion shows … Read more

It's a green-energy geek's dream do-it-yourself project: attach a few solar panels to your deck and watch your electric bills go down. Now one company is selling such a product.

SpinRay Energy has developed a system that lets consumers install up to five solar panels on their decks and plug them into an outdoor power outlet. People can install one panel at a time, and get up to 1,000 watts of power with five installed.

The main electrical components of the system have the UL safety certification, including the solar panel and the microinverter, which converts direct … Read more

Love walking and texting? Still haven't done a faceplant on a streetlight? Well, this sneaker from Kenya can power your phone so you'll never have to look up from that screen again.

Inventor Anthony Mutua, 24, has been showing off his recharging sneaker at the first-ever Kenyan Science Technology and Innovation Week, held in Nairobi. It's another way of using your body's own energy to fuel electronics.

The shoe apparently has a very thin "crystal chip," perhaps a piezoelectric device, that generates power when the sole bends. It can charge phones via a long cable to a pocket while the user walks, or store power for later charging. … Read more

Windows that shade automatically have been part of high-tech home demos for years, but there are signs that smart glass is leaving research labs and heading into more actual buildings.

Building-materials maker Saint Gobain earlier this week acquired Sage Electrochromics, and another smart glass startup, Soladigm, signed a distribution deal with Guardian Industries, one of the largest glass manufacturers.

Materials scientists have toiled for years developing glass that can automatically tint based on the amount of light coming in, but technical challenges have meant that the technology is hardly used.

The investment by large companies in tintable window glass signals … Read more

Toshiba and Bridgelux think they're worked out the key ingredient to making LED lighting mainstream: silicon.

The two companies today announced a partnership to manufacture LED light sources using much of the equipment typically used in semiconductor fabs. They intend have a commercial-scale facility operating next year, according to Bridgelux CEO Bill Watkins. As part of the deal, Toshiba has invested an undisclosed amount in Livermore, Calif.-based Bridgelux.

LED light sources, which are used in everything from TVs and consumer light bulbs, are typically made with a semiconductor -- gallium nitride -- on a layer of sapphire. Bridgelux … Read more