Hydropower Does More Than Produce Electricity
The concept of using hydropower has been around for years and was generally considered only viable in areas where the need for power was close to the potential source. One of the most popular uses of hydropower is in generating electricity with the most famous in the United States being at Niagara Falls and Lake Meade in Nevada. The Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant has been providing electricity for parts of New York and Canada for many years using the flow from the falls to turn giant turbines. Lake Meade, created by the construction of the Hoover Dam, uses the water from the lake as it runs through sluices in the dam to control the amount of flow. The water impacts upon the fan blades of the hydroelectric pumps, turning turbines to generate electricity. Although many people see a growing future in the use of hydropower as a clean renewable resource for electricity, it has been is use long before electricity became popular. Consider the water wheels that were used in grain mills to turn the giant stones that ground grain into flour. The water wheels used hydropower from adjacent streams and creeks to provide the power and the water could be diverted away from the wheel when the grinding stones needed

Prototype Solar Power-Assist for Buses
Sunpods Inc. is California-based manufacturing company. They produce modular, fully integrated and tested solar power generation systems. Recently they have come out with an idea of the first solar power-assist system for buses. They should be applauded for developing it in a mere six weeks. Their partner is Bauer Intelligent Transportation. The system developed [...]
Posted in: Public Transit, Solar Power, Transportation]]>
Google Plans New Solar Mirror Technology
Google’s Bill Weihl expresses his opinion, “We see a chance to make a difference in the field of renewable energy and energy information that can help bring the world to a lower carbon and more efficient economy.” Google is known for its Internet search engine. Now they want to make inroads into green technology [...]
Posted in: Ethanol]]>
Energy-Recycling Artificial Foot
It should come as no great surprise that walking with a prosthetic limb is difficult. According to a newly published paper on prosthesis, walking with a prosthetic foot requires 23 percent more energy than walking naturally. This is because a natural gait returns and recycles energy in an efficient way, but a prosthetic limb [...]
Posted in: Human Power, Inventions]]>
World?s Largest Solar Boat Prepares for World Tour
PlanetSolar enjoys the distinction of being the largest solar-powered boat in the world, and it’s ready to take on the world. This beauty?s vital stats are: weight: 60-ton, a 470-square-meter are covered by 38,000 solar cells to generate 103.4 kW of energy. 18 million euro ($24.4 million) was spent to adorn this beauty in [...]
Posted in: Solar Power, Transportation]]>
Nanotechnology Lights Up Batteries and Clothing
Yi Cui, an engineer at Stanford University, leads a team that may take nanotechnology to the next level by creating paper batteries and fabrics that can conduct energy. At a recent demonstration, Cui took pieces of fabric and regular paper and soaked them in an ink that contains nanoparticles. The infusion of these particles [...]
Posted in: Batteries, Future Energy, Inventions]]>
Norwegian Company Develops World?s Largest Wind Turbine
As fossil fuels continue to diminish and climate change poses an ever-increasing threat, scientists around the world are searching for new and more efficient methods of generating energy. Wind energy is one of the more promising alternative energy sources and Norwegian scientists are currently in the development stages of what promises to be [...]
Posted in: Industry, Wind Power, Wind Turbines]]>
New Solar-Powered Sensor Could Literally Change the World
Science continues to amaze and one of the latest discoveries may literally change the world as we know it. This tiny solar-powered sensor can fit on the face of a penny and barely cover up the date. How this little wonder, developed at the University of Michigan, is able to create the power of [...]
Posted in: Inventions, PhotoVoltaics, Solar Power]]>
Kia Crashes the Green Car Party with the Kia Hybrid Car
Remember when Kia first hit the market and other car manufacturers were laughing at them? Well, they haven?t been laughing in quite some time as Kia continues to put out attractive looking vehicles for far less money than anyone else. They have now unleashed their latest entry into the hybrid market at the new [...]
Posted in: Hybrid Cars, Industry, Transportation]]>
Honda Solar Hydrogen Station Introduced to Green Car Market
Honda finally unveiled their new solar hydrogen solar station and all signs point to a dramatic success. The station is smaller than previous models and enables an electric car owner to refill their fuel cell overnight. The unit should easily fit into a homeowners? garage taking up significantly less space than previous models. The [...]
Posted in: Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Fuel, Solar Power]]>
Waste to Energy Continues to Gain Steam
While new energy solutions are being discovered, refined and brought further and further into the public light, something that does not get a lot of headlines is waste to energy. How something like this continues to not be used in the United States is incredible as countries like Japan have been using it for [...]
Posted in: Biofuels, Industry, Waste Energy]]>
Germanium Laser is the Latest Light Technology to be Unveiled
The materials in lasers can be expensive and difficult to work with. A discovery at MIT may be changing all of that much sooner than we think as germanium laser technology is here and it is very real. The beauty of this latest technology is that there isn?t even a large call to change [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Inventions]]>
The Future is Now with Light-Powered Circuitry
The brain of any electronic device is the circuitry that operated the machine. Without the circuitry, the device is not even worth the cost of the plastic that it is made of. Any electronics device requires some kind of battery or it is nothing more than a paperweight. Recently, some new technology was created [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Inventions, Solar Power]]>
New Battery Technology Could Lead to Self-Powered Devices
The advancements that are being made in battery technology are pretty mind boggling. We are seeing devices that are drawing power from just about every source that is imaginable, and now there is battery technology from researchers at Imperial College London that may actually have devices that create their own power. From cell phones [...]
Posted in: Batteries, Future Energy, Inventions]]>
Forget Solar Power, Human Power is the Future
That may be a little aggressive, but Princeton University engineers have developed a device that may change the way that we power many of our smaller gadgets and devices. By using out natural body movement, they have created a small chip that will actually capture and harness that natural energy to create enough energy [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Human Power, Inventions]]>
Hybrid Just Got Sexy: BMW Hybrid Sports Car
We all know that sooner or later all automobiles are going to be either hybrid, electric or hydrogen powered. The one drawback that many of us look at is the overall appeal of the cars. Very few models that are being put out are really all that attractive. For those of us that like [...]
Posted in: Hybrid Cars, Industry, Transportation]]>
Battery Free is Possible with the Ene Pocket
Parents everywhere probably just sat up in their chairs reading that. Regardless of whether they are buying rechargeable batteries or getting Duracell batteries when they go on sale at Staples, batteries of any kind put a hurting on the wallet and to landfills. This is especially true around Christmas when toys demand that they [...]
Posted in: Batteries, Biofuels, Inventions]]>
A Rose Wind Turbine by Any Other Name?
The one knock on wind energy is that it is not portable. Until recently, there were few if any portable devices that were available to literally take wind power on the go. That is changing quick as there are several ?back-pack? style devices that are on the market. The Rose Wind Turbine is the [...]
Posted in: Inventions, Wind Power, Wind Turbines]]>
The East Coast is About to Become the Hydrogen Highway
Everyone is excited about hydrogen cars, but there is always the challenge of how they are going to fill up. Most cars are restricted by the distance that they can travel on a full tank and nothing more. Few places, especially on the East Coast, offer a refueling station to allow the cars to [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Hydrogen Fuel, Industry]]>
Aquamarine Power Makes Riding the Waves More Interesting
Every time we turn around we are seeing something new and exciting in renewable energy forms and Aquamarine Power is the latest in a long line of energy sources to be pumped up about. Aquamarine Power is a company that is developing wave energy. This is a source of energy that has barely been [...]
Posted in: Future Energy, Industry, Wave Power]]>
Solar Cells from Tobacco Plants May Be a Reality Soon
As the world continues its quest to use less fossil fuels, the latest possible solution comes from the most unlikely of sources: the tobacco plant. This latest news comes from the University of California, Berkeley. It will be nice to see tobacco used for something other than lung cancer. This new discovery is based [...]
Posted in: Biofuels, PhotoVoltaics, Solar Power]]>

to be stopped. Creating More Power With Less Water A few variables control the generation process for using hydropower as an effective tool for generating electricity. The amount of water flow, how far it drops before hitting wheels that turn the generator affect the amount of power being produced. The climate also has a lot to do with their efficiency as streams may freeze in the winter or dry up during how summer months, making their generating potential useless. Small hydropower generators can be built at home to supplement solar power in remote areas where access to moving water is available. The turbine does not have to be in the direct flow of the water to generate power. Water can be diverted into a pipe, which runs to the generator's wheel and returned to the stream from which it originated. Another type of hydropower generator has internal flanges to turn the generator's turbines. Similar to a water pump that requires power to turn the pump, internal flanges turn the generator using the water to create power. How much power is generated is determined by the flow and speed of the water, the size of the generator and the rate of flow.how much water is available to operate the generator.