Mazda intros an Innovative

Mazda is working on an innovative stop and go motor that might just save enough gas when your car is idling in front of a traffic signal.  This might be smarter than making bio-fuel as this system could save additional 10MPG on every car, especially those cars in frequent-stop-and-go traffic areas.

Mazda has announced a clever new start-stop system that promises fuel economy gains of 10% or more without the need for an electric motor. The Smart Idle Stop System (SISS) uses only direct injection and combustion to restart your vehicle, while most start-stop systems use an electric motor and traditional engine start-up process. SISS stops the pistons in the optimal position for an engine restart, and then injects fuel into the cylinders before the engine begins to rotate and lets the power of combustion turn the engine over to start. This enables an SISS-equipped Mazda petrol engine to restart in 0.35 seconds, or half the time of start-stop systems using an electric motor. The catch: SISS only works with automatic transmissions.

via autoblog

VolksWagon 74 mpg Golf BlueMotion Concept!

For those of you Volkswagon-lovers or Golf-lovers (the car I mean), you are in luck as VW is working on a 105 horsepower, 184 lbs.-ft. of torque at a low 2,000 rpm diesel engine that could change the way you pump gas forever.

At 74MPG, you would get about 700-800 miles of non-stop driving equal to a drive between San Francisco and Las Vegas almost.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed so that this Golf gets to production.

Debuting in concept form today is the most fuel efficient and cleanest version of Volkswagen’s sixth-generation Golf. Wearing the BlueMotion badge, as is common for VeeDubs with fuel-saving tweaks, the new Golf is able to complete the European driving cycle mileage tests with a rather epic 74 miles per gallon (around 62 mpg in the U.S. if conversions can be trusted). For those who like to keep track of such things, that’s just 99g/km of carbon emissions and an excellent score by any measure. In order to achieve such low fuel consumption and emissions, the Golf BlueMotion is bestowed with a miserly 1.6-liter TDI common rail diesel engine that kicks out 105 horses and 184 lbs.-ft. of torque at a low 2,000 rpm.

via autoblog

Check out this EarthRace Boat which runs on 100% biodiesel and is 100% carbon neutral, meaning this cool boat doesn’t excrete any CO2 or poisonous fumes to the atmosphere.

It’s been an exciting month as we’ve seen green transportation records set on the ground and in the sky, so naturally we are taking the next step and bringing you to the sea with the Earthrace, a 78 ft tri-hull “wavepiercer”. The biodiesel boat recently completed a carbon-neutral tour of the globe in an incredible 60 days and 23 hours, besting the previous world record by 14 days!

via inhabitat

Green Microgym collects Energy from Workouts!

Here’s a cool new gym in Portland, Oregon that collects energy from the work generated by people working out.  I think this is a great concept and should be applied to every gym.  In fact, they should make every gym machine so it can re-charge itself and other gadgets such as your cellphone.

The Green Microgym recently opened in Portland, Oregon - in addition to using solar panels and green building materials, they’re working with several companies that harvest power from gym equipment, including ReRev and Human Dynamo.

via make, Target Page

Tree Solar-Charger for your iPhone/iPod Touch!

Though just a concept now, this solar tree is a customizable Tree Solar Charger you can build using artificial branches.  Once you build it, plug in your charger and you are ready to go.

This is a quite amazing concept.

Recharge your cellphone and camera with this universal & usb solar-cell tree charger.

Thanks to 54 tiny photovoltaic panels this device will store energy in a battery during the day, allowing you to reload your stuff whenever you need.

All wires are plugged and hidden under the electronic bonsai tray.

This object is made of several modules fitted together by a 3.5 jack connector.

You can rotate each part individually and produce an endless number of different shapes.

It’s ecological and decorative.

via gizmodo, Design Page

Yey, someone set a world record for the longest solar-powered UAV!

Zephyr’s reputation as the world’s leading solar powered high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has been reinforced with a world-beating three and a half day flight at the US Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

The solar powered plane flew for 82 hours 37 minutes, exceeding the current official world record for unmanned flight which stands at 30 hours 24 minutes set by Global Hawk in 2001 and Zephyr’s previous longest flight of 54 hours achieved last year.

via wired, qinetiq

When it comes to building your own gadgets, nothing is better than a solar powered RC Car!

Of course, it only “charges” using solar cells, but this solar movement is helped greatly by DIYs like this.

Great job!

A rc car with two solar panels strapped up top for charging power. (Sorry no images) video coming soon. This is my first Instructable so be as honest as you can be

vi instructables

A PhD student in Australia has found a cheap way to make solar cells with household parts.  If this process works as well as thought-of, we might have solar cells popping up everywhere with DIYers who make their own solar cells.

An Australian PhD student has found a cheap way to make solar cells with nail polish, a pizza oven and an ink jet printer. 23-year-old Nicole Kuepper’s invention, named iJET, doesn’t require the pricey clean rooms and high-temperature ovens of traditional solar panel manufacturing plants, thus dramatically lowering the cost of solar and paving the road for introducing the technology to third-world countries.

via gizmodo

You’ve seen those new type of flashlights that will re-charge simply by “wacking” it.  Now, here’s a company that will take that concept further so you can re-charge your batteries simply through motion.

If you take a bus or simply walk a lot on your way to work, this type of re-charging device will be great at re-charging your batteries for free.  (at least you have to walk anyways)

With the M2E Power, this device is able to juice up your favorite devices on the go simply by relying on Faraday’s principal - “wherein energy is produced from the motion of a magnet passing through a coil”. Guess cell phones (and other portable electronics) that use this technology will be able to convert kinetic energy into talktime, or at least more battery power for you to enjoy your favorite MP3s and videos on it a little bit longer.

via ubergizmo, M2epower