This is quite scary…..

Here is a clip recommended by Tim. He thinks it’s sad, but I think it’s lovely.

Here is a helium blimp that has an inbuilt wind turnbine power generator.

MARS is a lighter-than-air tethered wind turbine that rotates about a horizontal axis in response to wind, generating electrical energy. This electrical energy is transferred down the 1000-foot tether for immediate use, or to a set of batteries for later use, or to the power grid. Helium sustains MARS and allows it to ascend to a higher altitude than traditional wind turbines. MARS captures the energy available in the 600 to 1000-foot low level and nocturnal jet streams that exist almost everywhere.

Interesting stuff. As stated on the page, its target market is as follows:

Developing nations where infrastructure is limited or non existent; off-grid combined wind and diesel solutions for island nations, farms, remote areas, cell towers, exploration equipment, backup power & water pumps for natural gas mines; rapid deployment diesel & wind solutions (to include airdrop) to disaster areas for power to emergency and medical equipment, water pumps; on-grid applications for farms, factories, remote communities; and wind farm deployments.

I went to an exhibition today, and found out the price of a wind/solar hybrid system. It’s about $5000 USD for a 300W/220V system.

It’s a small unit, with a solar panel, and a wind-turbine unit. It also has an inbult battery.

This is an interesting article on how scientists perceive we could build vertical farms in cities. The facility would use waste water to grow food crops in cities.

I wan to build a house with such facilities integrated.

I have recently developed a new business idea. This one is an amalgamation of charity, environemental protection, and socially responsible business.

A little background:

Thought no 1. On my journeys to Cambodia and Egypt, I witnessed rampant poverty. People had no source of electricity, or clean water. Children ran barefeet on dusty unpaved roads. In Cambodia, due to the lack of utility, people buy lead-acid batteries to power their houses, and charge them up at charging stations. The lack of clean water contributes to the death of many in the world today.

Thought no 2. Many developed countries today are deeply addicted to fossil fuel. A lot of infrastructure has been built to support this addiction. This makes the change to alternative fuel difficult, because it’s easier to stick with the status quo, until it’s too late.

Thought no 3. Many countries in development seek an easy and well trodden path, taken by many more developed countries, to prosperity. I hear that in Myanmar, the government is banning the use of re-usable utensils in the street vendors, to thwart the spread of hepatitis B. The alternatives are polystyrene, PET and other disposable material. Taiwan went through a similar path long during its adolescent stages of development, but this choice generated huge environmental headaches that will have to be dealt with many year later. Since these developing nations have a new chance to make fresh choices in development, they should be given a chance to learn from these other countries, and make the right choice. More developed countries have a moral and practical duty to assist and ensure the people in the developing countries don’t make the same mistakes as they did.

So, the business idea is as follows:

Making modularized power systems consist of a power source and a power-utilization source.

The power source could be: solar/wind/hydrolic system.
The power utilization source could be a water purification unit, a charging station, hydrogen generator, etc.

This system should be small, and could be purchased via micro-loans and/or village fund. This would allow villages to solve these basic problems by themselves.

The funding of these units could also be backed by charities.

Here is a nice video clip from Sarah McLachlan, called World on Fire.