Various Sources
From Joel Horowitz, PSFK: Fujitsu is on their way to releasing color electronic newsprint to select test restaurant locations. Fujitsu announced the plan four years ago, and the technology finally seems to be ready for the public. The advertising-based medium uses wireless LAN services for content delivery and is robust enough to be handled by countless lunch-goers, running through an entire business day without needing a charge (e-paper only uses power when the information displayed changes).
Where will these cool electronic devices get their power? Perhaps from one of Japan’s 1,400 electricity-generating wind turbines - much to the dismay of its neighbors. Asahi Shimbun reports that over 70 residents living close to these massive propellers could be getting ill from the low-frequency sounds generated by these behemoths. Clean Technica recently published an article about the ails of large wind-turbines; and while some of the claims are disputed, researchers and local residents generally agree that the turbines produce annoying, low-level and potentially harmful noises similar to the vibration of large air conditioners. Whether these propellers are the cause of the residents’ health problems has yet to be determined.
To see how e-paper is getting on in the US, check out our overview of Amazon’s Kindle 2. [via Engadget and Clean Technica]
The Wave Treader: A Wave/Wind Power Hybrid
From Ariel Schwartz, Cleantechnica: Apparently, wave power plus offshore wind power equals something akin to Green Ocean Energy’s Wave Treader. The device is based on the Ocean Treader, a stand-alone wave power machine. According to Green Ocean Energy, its wind/wave power mash-up can generate 500 kW— enough for 125 average homes.
The treader uses sponsons (projections from the side of a watercraft) that react through an “interface structure” onto the foundation of an offshore turbine. Hydraulic cylinders are mounted between the device’s arms and the interface structure.
Green Ocean Energy’s website explains, “As the wave passes the machine first the forward sponson will lift and fall and then the aft sponson will lift and fall each stroking their hydraulic cylinder in turn. This pressurizes hydraulic fluid which is then smoothed by hydraulic accumulators before driving a hydraulic motor which in turn drives an electricity generator. The electricity is then exported through the cable shared with the wind turbine.”
The company has already secured £60,000 in funding from nPower’s Juice Fund, and a working prototype is expected to emerge in 2010.
Photo Credit: CC-Licensed by Flickr user jipol
Related Reading:
Wave of the Future: Harnessing the Ocean's Energy
The NIMBY Smackdown: Cape Wind Power Project Gets First Go Ahead
