Inhabitat’s Week in Green: electric airplanes, CO2-storing bricks and solar-powered bags

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. This week green architecture boldly went where no buildings have gone before as Inhabitat reported on Jordan’s plans for a $1.5 billion Star Trek theme park that will be powered by alternative energy. We also showcased plans for a spiraling self-sufficient skyscraper that generates its own water, food, and power, and we took a first look at a shimmering office complex in India crowned with a digital eye. Meanwhile, GE launched a shining solar-powered carousel in Manhattan and a team of researchers developed a new breed of CO2-storing bricks that are 2.5 times stronger than concrete. In other news, high-flying green vehicles charted the horizon as Pipistrel introduced the world’s most powerful electric airplane and an incredible human-powered helicopter broke a world record. We also saw Ohio State unveil plans for the 400 MPH Buckeye Bullet 3 and we showcased designs for a stunning concept car with a segmented transforming skin . Autonomous vehicles were a hot topic as well — London’s Heathrow airport rolled out a set of electric personal transportation pods , and China’s Hongqui unveiled a driverless car to compete with Google’s vehicle (which crashed this week ). It was also a big week for wearable technology as researchers developed new breed of stick-on tattoos that can track body functions and we took a look at a sonic fabric bag made from recycled audio tapes. Finally, we got set for the start of the academic year by bringing you six of the best solar-powered bags , an innovative new breed of e-paper that doesn’t require electricity, and we launched a blowout back to school contest where you could win $1155 in green school supplies — including a photovoltaic backpack and a HP Pavilion laptop . Inhabitat’s Week in Green: electric airplanes, CO2-storing bricks and solar-powered bags originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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