Inhabitat’s Week in Green: wind towers, viaduct power and how Four Loko will be recycled into gasoline

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green. It was a monumental week for eco architecture as renewably-powered projects sprung up around the world. Japan unveiled plans for a massive new type of wind power tower , and we were wowed by a proposal to transform abandoned Italian viaducts into high-tech energy centers . We also showcased a solar-powered Dutch pavilion that can generate as much power as it consumes, and we were awestruck by one designer’s plan for a crazy vertical skyscraper amusement park . In other news, eco transportation blazed a trail as a student-designed solar car smashed a world speed record. The recently released Chevy Volt outsold the Nissan Leaf by a huge margin last month, and we took a look at a breakthrough battery tech that could enable electric vehicles to charge 40 times faster. We also saw efficient aviation take to the skies as Honda launched a new jet that consumes 20% less fuel than comparable planes, and speaking of jet fuel, this week we learned that banned Four Loko beverages are being recycled into engine-ready ethanol . We also watched China light up the newswires with energy news as they announced the imminent construction of the world’s largest solar plant and found a way extend the life of nuclear fuel by 60 times. Finally, this week we celebrated all of the hot new media tech at CES with a look at Lady Gaga’s shutter-fly sunglasses , and we brought you a guide to how kids can use technology to create online media . Inhabitat’s Week in Green: wind towers, viaduct power and how Four Loko will be recycled into gasoline originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on January 10, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry