World In Future » future

Solar Roadways – Roads in the Future

WorldInFuture — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:24:56 +0000

Free energy is everywhere around us. There are many ways to generate and collect energy from various sources like sun, wind, water etc. but somehow people always tend to make things more difficult by not using these renewable sources of energy. In last few years there is a great amount of new ideas for generating energy. People suddenly realized that everyday stuff can be a source of energy, riding a bike, running or just walking, sun rays hitting our roofs etc. But, is there any other option, something so obvious that we practically can’t imagine that being used for collecting energy. We simply have to change our way of thinking if we want to change the world.

So how about solar roadways? Are they a roads of future? Why use roads just for driving and collecting tolls, why don’t we use them for collecting energy. Of course, nowadays roads can’t be used for collecting energy but Solar Roads could.

Solar Roadway

US Department of Transportation recently awarded $100,000 to Solar Roadways to build prototype of first ever Solar Road Panel. So how does these future world roads work?

“The Solar Road Panels will contain embedded LEDs which “paint” the road lines from beneath to provide safer nighttime driving, as well as to give up to the minute instructions (via the road) to drivers (i.e. “detour ahead”). The road will be able to sense wildlife on the road and can warn drivers to “slow down”. There will also be embedded heating elements in the surface to prevent snow and ice buildup, providing for safer winter driving. This feature packed system will become an intelligent highway that will double as a secure, intelligent, decentralized, self-healing power grid which will enable a gradual weaning from fossil fuels.

Replacing asphalt roads and parking lots with Solar Roadway panels will be a major step toward halting climate change. Fully electric vehicles will be able to recharge along the roadway and in parking lots, finally making electric cars practical for long trips.”

It is estimated that is will take roughly five billion 12′ by 12′ Solar Road Panels to cover the asphalt surfaces in the U.S. alone, That amount of Solar Road Panels can produce three times more power than U.S. ever used.

We just can’t wait to see more of these roads all over the world in the near future.

Source: Solar Roadways

Creative Way To Prevent World Hunger In the Future

WorldInFuture — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:58:39 +0000

In article named Would You Like To Drink The Air? we talked about the problem of lack of drinking water even with fact that 70% of Earth is covered by water. Food is even a bigger problem. By the year 2050, the human population will count 9 billion people approximately. That is 50% more people than today. More people equals more food, but there is over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops (world wide) in use today (sources: FAO and NASA). So, by today’s standards, if we use current techniques, there will be not enough food for whole world population (even today we have huge problems in Africa and in some other parts of the world ).

Vertical Farm Project offers a solution:

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies. The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world’s urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.

Designs

Piramid Farm by Eric Ellingsen and Dickson Despommier

"The Living Skyscraper: Farming the Urban Skyline" by Blake Kurasek

Zabeel Park Vertical Farm

"VF - Type O" by Oliver Foster

Source: Vertical Farm Project

Car Free London in the future 2030

WorldInFuture — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:31:19 +0000

London without cars – sounds very optimistic and like a distant future. It’s very hard to imagine a London without cars so lets imagine a part of London without a car. Il Choi, David Seesing, Miika Hekkinen and MÃ¥rten WÃ¥llgren imagined that kind of part of London and they called it London Garden. Why do we need London Garden? Creators say:

“Every day 190 000 cars are driving within the congestion zone of London. Due to this amount of traffic, drivers spend more than 50% of their time wainting in queues which has brought the average speed down to 10 mph which is nearly the same speed as when we used to travel with horse and carriage. As a result bike journeys have been increased by 12% within the last year”

London Garden - why?

By driving this kind of bicycle you are actually generating energy or you can use it as scooter if you generated enough energy.

Bicycle

Bus uses your previously generated energy.

Bus seat

Bus stop collects energy from sun, water and wind.

Bus stop

More about this project at martenwallgren.blogspot.com

Where Will We Park In The Future?

WorldInFuture — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:18:45 +0000

Where will we park in the future? The answer is – in forests. Don’t worry, not that kind of forest. We are talking about forest designed by Neville Mars.

Electric vehicles are more popular every day. But they are not perpetuum mobile, they demand electricity, but we do not want to produce electricity by polluting our environment. So this is a very interesting solution.

All you need to do is to drive to the nearest solar forest, park your vehicle under one of the many “trees” and recharge your vehicle by connecting it to the “tree” socket.

SolarForest

: Nice shade of solar panels

Nice shade of solar panels