Inhabitat’s Week in Green: sun-powered homes, retro robots and a solar laptop chipset

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 Inhabitat shined a light on the future of high-tech architecture as we brought you 20 stunning sun-powered homes that are getting ready to battle it out in this year’s Solar Decathlon – including Team New York’s prefab Roof Pod , Canada’s TRTL solar shell house , and China’s Y Container home . We also brought you exclusive photos of the recently unveiled 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero , while the Empire State Building soared to new heights as it achieved LEED Gold certification . In other NYC news, we covered an underground park in the Big Apple which is to be illuminated entirely by fiber optics. Vicent Callebaut also unveiled plans for an incredible self-sufficient skyscraper for Taiwan , and we learned that scientists are planning to build a fake volcano for climate change research. It was also a hot week for energy-generating tech as Intel unveiled a solar laptop chipset that can be powered by a desk lamp and MIT developed a tiny kinetic generator that can produce 100 times more power than previous devices of its kind. Meanwhile, Google invested in the power of pig poop and researchers rolled out a new inexpensive, powerful, and lightweight jelly battery that could one day power laptops and electric vehicles. Energy infrastructure also got a boost as a UK competition showcased six designs for next-generation power pylons , and New Mexico announced plans to build an entire city for the sole purpose of testing green technologies . In other news, this week we spotted several pulse-pounding electric vehicles: a streamlined carbon fiber jet ski and an incredible mirrored motorcycle . We also went back to the future with a look at Nike’s new pair of LED studded kicks , and we spotted a slick set of retro robots made from salvaged materials. Finally, we shared a bevy of tips for living a more sustainable lifestyle — check out these seven gadgets that can improve your health and five ways to green your home entertainment system . Inhabitat’s Week in Green: sun-powered homes, retro robots and a solar laptop chipset originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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