Zero-carbon Grand Prix; ‘Kinetic plates’ in parking lots; More efficient hybrids; Heat your house with a hair dryer; The future of smart rechargeables.

Zero-carbon Grand Prix. On the British Isle of Man, a zero-carbon Grand Prix showcased electric motorcycles, and next year’s race will allow pit-stops to change out batteries. The future of racing!

‘Kinetic plates’ in parking lots. Sainsbury’s Store is the first in Europe to use a green energy system where customers can create 30kWh an hour by driving over plates in the parking lot. The energy that gets made by the cars will be used to power their checkout stands. Anyone else think we should have these on every road in the world?

Hybrid Vehicles That Are Even More Efficient. While the hybrid cars we can drive today are incredibly efficient, a recent graduate from the ETSEIB has been working on making conventional cars even more efficient. According to the managers of the project, “In a standard driving cycle, the modifications lead to up to 67% less fuel consumption and up to 63% less energy consumption than a conventional vehicle of the same size with no hybrid components.”

Heat your house with a hair dryer. Our friend Hank Green over at EcoGeek wrote a great article about the Passivhaus, a standard for home energy efficiency that makes houses so efficient that they can take on a German winter with nothing more than the heat from a hair dryer. Someone I know here in town designed their house the same way, and the efficiency is amazing.

Robot can find outlets and charge itself. Willow Garage, a group of robot builders, are working on developing robots that can locate power outlets to plug itself into. I imagine this technology, if it were to catch on, to be implemented around the house and in businesses someday to keep our mobile gadgets charged up. I see my robot making sure my iPhone is charged and ready to go!