Eco Green News, Technology, DIY Project and Hacks

I always wanted a stylin club house in my backyard. Austin Hay wanted one too, but his plans are a bit more complex then what I was thinking about at 16. The 130-square-foot home is taking the Small House Movement by storm. Hay’s expects to spend about $12,000 building his dream club house.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is on the cutting edge of alternative energy technology,

“MIT scientists have developed a self-assembling photovoltaic cell in a petri dish. Phospholipids (think cell membranes) form disks which act as the structural support for light responsive molecules. Carbon nanotubes help to align the disks and conduct electricity generated by the system with 40% efficiency. The assembly process is reversible using surfactants to break up the phospholipids. When filters are used to remove the surfactants the system reassembles with no loss of efficiency even over multiple assembly/disassembly cycles. The results were published September 5th in Nature Chemistry.” [MIT]

Now if only someone could manufacturer some solar cell that are affordable.

Chris Fenton is on the beading edge of Eco Tech, with his homebrew DIY laptop built in a wooden case. While his laptop can’t compete with the latest Dells laptops, it is on par with the with computing power of a late 1980′s.

SPECs: a whopping 256 kilobytes total memory, 16k of RAM, Picaxe 28X-1 Microcontroller, 24 x 8 serial character display, in a Beautiful, hand/laser crafted wooden case.

[ChrisFenton]

“The Repair Manifesto” Stop Recycling, Start Repairing.

“Repair Manifesto opposes throwaway culture and celebrates repair as the new recycling.
With our new project, Platform21 = Repairing, we seek to make repairing cool again – with your help. Let the manifesto inspire you, comment on it or add to it. Rediscover the joy of fixing things and share your most ingenious repair, your tips and your tricks.”

[Platform 21]

The leading electronics retailer Best Buy has announced that they will be expanding its e-recycling program to all stores. You can now take in your pile of e-wast siting in the corner of your office to your local Best Buy store for recycling. Here are some of the rules:

• No hard drives
• TVs or monitors bigger than 32 inches
• Anything containing Freon
• Anything classified as an Appliance
• TV, monitor, and laptop costs a $10 fee to recycle
• Only taking two items per household, per day

[Best Buy]

The premium sound manufacture Bose has introduced a sleek energy efficient sound system to be included in the majestic Chevy Volt.

Boosting a lighter design and improved efficiency the Bose system will unveil with the Chevy Volt sometime in 2010.

The Intel corp has unveiled a demonstration data center powered by a solar panel array. The company hopes the concept could eventually lead to a large reduction in its carbon based power demands. The photovoltaic array features 64 sharp solar panels producing 10 KW’s of clean green power.

Marty Sedler, Intel’s director for global utilities and infrastructure:

“We’re very excited about this project … The New Mexico solar installation will be a big step for Intel and potentially lead the way for a more aggressive solar program within Intel.”

“This is really exciting … Intel has been the forerunner of so many things and this is what Mother Nature wants. She wants us to use her, not abuse her. We need to ensure that there is balance and harmony for many centuries.”

“Intel is committed to conserving energy through designing energy efficient products, conserving energy in our operations, investing in renewable energy and advancing renewable energy policies … This PV array, while providing only a fraction of the energy used by our site, is the beginning of our solar program.”

[The RR Observer]

Something that you can do to help the earth is to build your own compost pile. This can be done easily with some chicken wire or reused materials. Just make a small 4x4x4 box in your backyard. Making a small opening at the bottom is a good idea so that older compost can be raked out from the bottom to use in the garden. Leave an opening in the top, or make a lid, so that new materials such as leaves, cut grass, vegetables, and coffee grinds can be added to the compost. Be sure that your compost bin has holes so that your compost can get fresh air. Of coarse, if you are not the do-it-yourself type, you can always purchase a compost bin and still get the same benefits.