Green Building Blog - Jetson Green

EcoLogic Lofts Winds Up Green Chicago

This is the initial rendering for a project called EcoLogic Lofts in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago, a project that developers plan to break ground on in early 2009.  Shooting for LEED Silver certification, the 7-story, 94-unit condo building will source two percent of its power from rooftop wind turbines that look like those made by Aerotecture International (and which are also on Near North Apartments).  Located at Bucktown, Lakeview and Lincoln Park, EcoLogic Lofts will have one and two bedroom units with prices ranging from $239k - $499k. 

Air Breeze Off-Grid Wind Turbine Improves Upon Popular Air-X

If you've heard of the popular Skystream 3.7 by Southwest Windpower, then you're probably familiar with their smaller wind turbine called Air-X.  Air-X was introduced in ~2001 and flew off shelves, selling over 100,000 units.  Building on the success of Air-X, Southwest Windpower recently released Air Breeze, its next iteration of the successful small wind generator.  I first noticed an ad for Air Breeze in Natural Home Magazine last September and have since seen news of it popping up everywhere.  Air Breeze was engineered to be quieter, more efficient, and more effective at lower wind speeds ...

Chipotle Green Restaurant Uses On-site Wind Power

How good would a chicken (or veggie, if that's your style) burrito bowl taste, knowing that it's been cooked by the power of on-site green energy?  I haven't tried one yet, but I can only imagine ... Chipotle Mexican Grill will be opening a green restaurant in Gurnee, Illinois, which restaurant features a prominent six-kilowatt wind turbine.  Although mostly a symbol for the company's efforts to create more environmentally friendly store designs, the turbine will generate ~10% of the store's power.  The Gurnee Chipotle will have some of the following green features:

Broadstar On Track to Sell 70 Turbines

When Maria Surma Manka brought us news of Broadstar Wind Systems last June from Windpower 2008, our interest was stoked, especially considering the fact that Broadstar was claiming that their AeroCam turbine could achieve $1 per watt installed.  Well, the company is still beta testing the AeroCam turbine, but demand is crazy and they're "on track" to install more than 70 turbines.  J.C. Penny Co. plans to install AeroCam turbines on their distribution facility in Reno, Nevada by November this year.  Plus, 15 companies have contracted to test the turbines and 12 more are in talks. 

Swedish Energy Ball Changes Look and Feel of Small Wind Tech

This technology by Swedish company HomeEnergy has taken the web by storm over the past couple days.  The Energy Ball is an aberration in a small wind market that seems to be dominated by vertical axis, helical, miniature, and three-blade designs.  It takes the shape of a puffed up flounder -- with an orb of six blades and a fin to guide the orb towards the wind.  The Energy Ball is, of course, meant for small scale, decentralized energy generation.  As shown below, you could place it in the urban setting or plant several poles for multiple corporate installations. 

[Updated] Gore Challenges Nation to 100% Renewable Energy Within 10 Years

Not unlike John F. Kennedy's goal to land a man on the moon, Al Gore challenges the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun, and other earth-friendly sources within 10 years.  Here are some links ...

[+] The (Annotated) Gore Energy Speech [NY Times]
[+] Former V.P. Lays Down a Green Gauntlet [WSJ]
[+] Gore sets 'moon shot' goal on climate change [AP]

What About the Solar Corridor, Mr. Pickens?

It's clear our country is reaching what future generations will see as a watershed moment as it relates to our current energy situation and how we handle it.  In the U.S. alone, buildings account for roughly 70% of electricity use and 39% of energy use, so any discussion of our energy future naturally implicates the built environment.  The current state of discussions on our energy future has brought together some incredible minds and one of those is the great T. Boone Pickens, an expert in recognizing scarce resources and future energy trends.  Just today, he announced his efforts relating to the PickensPlan -- a plan he explains himself in the above video.

Now, I think Mr. Pickens is definitely probing one of the better ways to alleviate our dependence on foreign oil, but I also think he's skipping over an important aspect of this discussion on our country's energy mix. 

[Video] Green "Rotating Tower" Planned for NYC?

I've not blogged about this interesting and innovative Rotating Tower, which was designed by David Fisher of Dynamic Architecture, because critics have downplayed the concept saying it's not capable of being built.  But now comes news that the Rotating Tower is not only on the cusp of construction in Dubai, but it's in advanced design phase for Moscow and intended for New York.  Let me say that again: Fisher intends to design a Dynamic Tower for the Big Apple!  If you haven't heard about it yet, make sure to watch the above video.  Here's the general idea:

Wind Turbines Big and Small at WINDPOWER 2008

This is a guest post provided by Maria Surma Manka direct from WINDPOWER 2008.  Maria writes about renewable energy policy, innovation, and private sector leadership at Maria Energia.

Greetings from Houston, site of the American Wind Energy Association's WINDPOWER 2008 conference. I am a guest of AWEA and have spent the last few days meeting several of the 12,000 attendees and visiting many of the nearly 800 exhibitors.  Below are some of the interesting small wind turbine designs I found.

Nano Vent-Skin Demonstrated in Concept Tower

I was pretty impressed by Agustin Otegui's design for Nano Vent-Skin (NVS), rendered on the building above.  NVS is a building skin that uses organic photovoltaics to capture sun and micro-wind turbines to capture wind.  Otegui envisions nano-manufacturing with bioengineered organisms as the production method for NVS, and because it's organic, the wall provides the additional benefit of capturing CO2 from the air. 

Obviously, the concept building above would be a new design built to reap the benefits of NVS, but Otegui also thinks the skin would be perfect for making existing buildings greener.