Ideatrotter

Making Energy Matter | Ben Foster

Ben Foster manages the creation, design, and delivery of Opower’s products, ensuring the company continues to build the industry’s leading suite of energy information services. He is responsible for the company’s products from a variety of perspectives, including features, functionality, user experience, and roadmap. Prior to Opower, Ben was VP of Product Management for Adchemy, a leader in digital advertising technology. While there, he was responsible for the company’s entire product suite supporting lead generation and Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings.

Before joining Adchemy, Ben led dozens of consumer-oriented product management efforts spanning the disciplines of marketing, merchandising, search, structured data, and technology integration at companies such as eBay, Webvan, ThoughtWorks, and Barra. He maintains a blog about best practices in product management and design, PMRant. Ben holds a BA in Statistics from the University of California at Berkeley.

This Concept Plane Gets Better Gas Mileage Than Your Car

Synergy is an aircraft that aims to change the way ordinary families travel. The creators have already started working on the small plane, but they’ve put the project up on Kickstarter to gain more funding for this round of production.

The Renewable Energy Island Of Denmark | Samso

Welcome to Samso, an island off the coast of Denmark. Here is an example of something so remarkable: a community pulling together, investing together, and succeeding at becoming completely energy independent.

In 1998 they had a bold plan to switch to renewable energy. The civic leaders hit the road and convinced 450 island residents to invest in wind power. The farmers liked the idea of making money on the power they could sell back to the grid, as there is plenty of wind on the island.

They formed a cooperative and put up 2 windmills. Private investors put up another 5. These windmills produce more electricity than the island consumed, and they recouped their investment completely within a few years.

Meet an electrician who installed his own wind turbine. He powers his whole house, an electric car and again, because of selling energy back to the grid; his $30,000 wind turbine will have paid for itself in just 5 years. He can look forward to a lifetime of no energy bills, and needs no gas for the car.

When the islanders decided to install 10 offshore windmills, they produced so much power that Samso was now completely carbon neutral.

“We would rather buy our energy from our neighbor or another investor on the island than we would pay (suppliers in) The Middle East or an oil company. We just like the money to stay on the island.” says a resident. This is fascinating example of clear thinking and cooperation.

Zipwhip Powers World’s First Text-Enabled Espresso Machine

Zipwhip introduces the first text based espresso machine, which is powered by receiving texts via the web. This robotic barista is one of its kind and is has not been built for the commercial market yet. Seated at their Seattle headquarters, this Zipwhip machine comes with a plate to keep the coffee hot and an edible jet printer to have a nice little design added to the top layer of your coffee. The zipwhip app is now available for download for its other cloud based services on android. 

The Future of Cybernetics & Prosthetics

To celebrate the launch of critically acclaimed video game DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION, Square Enix commissioned filmmaker Rob Spence aka Eyeborg (a self proclaimed cyborg who lost an eye replaced it with a wireless video camera) to investigate prosthetics, cybernetics and human augmentation. How far are we from the future presented to us in DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION?

EdX: The Future of Online Education

EdX is a not-for-profit joint venture between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to offer online versions of their classes and those of other universities. At the same time, edX will support Harvard and MIT faculty in conducting research on teaching and learning on campus through tools that enrich classroom and laboratory experiences. The goal of this initiative is to create a global community of online learners while improving education for everyone. 

Increase in Global Demand of Grid-scale Energy Storage by 2017

Lux Research released a report titled “Grid Storage under the Microscope: Using Local Knowledge to Forecast Global Demand” of the cost effectiveness of eight energy storage technologies (lithium-ion for power, lithium-ion for energy, sodium nickel chloride, sodium sulfur, vanadium redox flow, zinc bromine flow, F ywheel and lead carbon) in six grid-scale applications throughout 44 countries, including all 50 U.S. states. Their report predicts that there will be an annual increase in the global demand for grid-scale energy storage.

By 2017, the demand will reach an astounding 185.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh) and will represent a $113.5 billion incremental revenue opportunity for an industry that currently generates sales of $50 to $60 billion a year. Solar Panel Leasing is Booming Analysts with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that the solar lease business is surging in southern California. Homeowners in less affluent neighborhoods can now afford solar energy by leasing rather than buying the solar panels on their roofs. This could mean that rooftop solar power could attract an additional 13 million Americans which could push solar energy into the mainstream. 

Also presented is Mercedes Benz winning the 2012 Green Car of the Year Award for using clean diesel technology, a renewable energy alternative for the future.

The Future of Chinese Car Design | WSJ

While other carmakers’ expect that indigenous Chinese auto design will be held captive to European standards and aesthetics, the design director of the largest car conglomerate in China, firmly rejects the notion with a tidy “bollocks!” WSJ’s Dan Neil talks to Peter Horbury, the global design director of Geely Holding Group, about Chinese culture, arts and future of auto design.