Dutch students reveal car with positive energy balance

A team of more than 20 students from Eindhoven University of Technology has recently revealed their proud creation, a family car fueled by solar panels on its roof. The car, named Stella, can produce more electric energy than it consumes, if you leave it out in the sun and drive it for an average amount of time. Even in a colder climate country such as the Netherlands it will be energy-positive during 10 months of the year, which makes it much cheaper to drive than a hybrid or even a full-electric car.

 

Another advantage is the light construction with an aluminum chassis and carbon fiber body and interior panels. The total car weighs only 380 kg, making it lighter even than a Twizy. Aerodynamically, the students managed to optimize the design while maintaining a large roof area, covering all wheels, and creating enough space for the occupants inside. Other requirements, such as imposed by international law and by the race that Stella is going to compete in, were also met. Think of the location of the lights, the viewing angle, and the maximum length and width of the car.

I am personally proud to also have co-operated on the design of this vehicle, and am looking forward to the World Solar Challenge in October, where the proverbial pudding will be eaten and the proof will come to light whether Stella is a rising or a shooting star.

 

Solar leafs to charge electric vehicles

In an assignment for Nissan, architecture firm su11 has envisioned a modular, future-oriented system for charging electric vehicles. The system consists of several 'E-VINE stations' that have a central unit to charge and reprogram the electric vehicle, with leafs above it to capture solar energy. These leafs are envisioned to be separate modules that can link up, so that the amount of leafs at a station can be adjusted according to the local energy needs. This is important, according to su11, because the transition from gasoline-based fuel to the fully electric vehicle is likely to proceed gradually. The system, like a vine then, can grow over time towards a fully electric and 'green' future.

vertical lawns

Grass goes vertical thanks to Green Living Technologies. They developed a system that allows grass, but also other plants like vegetables, to grow on a wall. A first commercial application of this very green idea is to control the placement of grass of different colors and thus create advertising space on a vertical lawn. Another side effect is that we create an entirely new habitat, and I wonder which animals will start to settle there. I'd love to see vertical snails, bunnies, and lawnmowers.

windmill skin

Where once our technologies used to be mechanical and centralized, after the invention of electricity the form of products started to be less and less a factor in their functioning. In fact you could even say that we live in a dualistic world, where form and information have become separated. The information surrounding us that we call physical is mostly distinct from the information we say belongs to the mental realm.

With the advent of bio-engineering and nano-manufacturing, this is changing. The material physicality will more and more be able to match the patterns of the electronic; complex, parallel, minuscule and fast. A concept depicting beautifully how new technologies will mean a paradigmatic shift in our manufacturing processes and interaction with technologies is Nano Vent-Skin, by designer Agustin Otegui. He designed a building with an outer layer that can generate energy from the sun and the wind. This skin would consist of nano-scale elements that transform sunlight into electrical energy, and moreover contains tiny turbines that rotate when the wind blows against them, subsequently conferring this energy to micro-organisms that generate electrical energy. The structure also contains nano-wires that can send information about potential failures to a central system, that in turn sends new micro-organisms, so the system can regenerate through self-assembly.

This way, we can integrate functionalities holistically into a structure that hence becomes more like a biological organism than a 'piece of technology'. It all sounds too good to be true.

Here is a link to the website of the project: NanoVentSkin