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The bright future of solar powered factories Most of the talk about renewable energy is aimed at electricity production. However, most of the energy we need is heat, which solar panels and wind turbines cannot produce efficiently. To power industrial processes like the making of chemicals, the smelting of metals or the production of microchips, we need a renewable source of thermal energy. Direct use of solar energy can be the solution, and it creates the possibility to produce renewable energy plants using only renewable energy plants, paving the way for a truly sustainable industrial civilization.
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Wind powered factories In the 1930s and 1940s, decades after steam engines had made wind power obsolete, Dutch researchers obstinately kept improving the – already very sophisticated - traditional windmill. The results were spectacular, and there is no doubt that today an army of ecogeeks could improve them even further. Would it make sense to revive the industrial windmill and again convert kinetic energy directly into mechanical energy?
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Pedal powered farms and factories: the forgotten future of the stationary bicycle If we boost the research on pedal powered technology - trying to make up for seven decades of lost opportunities - and steer it in the right direction, pedals and cranks could make an important contribution to running a post-carbon society that maintains many of the comforts of a modern life. The possibilities of pedal power largely exceed the use of the bicycle.
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Hand powered drilling tools and machines Hand-powered devices have been used for millennia, but during the last quarter of the 19th century a radically improved generation of tools appeared, taking advantage of modern mass production machinery and processes (like interchangeable parts) and an increased availability in superior material (metal instead of wood). One of the outcomes included an array of new drilling machines, but their heydays were over fast. These human-powered tools were not only a vast improvement over those that came before them, they also had many advantages in comparison to the power drills that we use today.
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Human powered cranes and lifting devices From the earliest civilisations right up to the start of the Industrial Revolution, humans used sheer muscle power, organisation skills and ingenious mechanics to lift weights that would be impossible to handle by most power cranes in operation today.
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The velomobile: high-tech bike or low-tech car? Pedalling a "velomobile" requires three to four times less energy than pedalling a normal bicycle.
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Recycling animal and human dung is the key to sustainable farming Flushing the water closet is handy, but it wreaks ecological havoc, deprives agricultural soils of essential nutrients and makes food production dependent on fossil fuels.
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How to make your own low-tech vertical farm The ingenious low-cost vertical farms of Willem Van Cotthem are within reach of everybody.
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The age of speed : how to reduce global fuel consumption by 75 percent Engineers treat velocity as a non-variable, while in fact it is the most powerful factor to save a really huge amount of energy - with just one stroke, at minimal cost, and without the need for new technology.
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Aerial Ropeways: automatic cargo transport for a bargain These days, we use them almost exclusively to transport skiers and snowboarders up snow slopes, but before the 1940s, aerial ropeways were a common means of cargo transport, not only in mountainous regions but also on flat terrain, with large-scale systems already built during the Middle Ages. Cargo tramways can be fully or partly powered by gravity, and some deliver excess power that can be utilized to generate electricity or to drive cranes or machinery in nearby factories. Some innovative systems have been constructed in recent years.
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Wood gas vehicles : firewood in the fuel tank Wood gas cars (also known as producer gas cars) are a not-so-elegant but surprisingly efficient and ecological alternative to their petrol (gasoline) cousins, whilst their range is comparable to that of electric cars.
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UNESCO sets up online traditional knowledge base The freshly launched "International Traditional Knowledge Institute" (ITKI) is an ambitious effort to preserve, restore and promote the re-use of traditional skills and inventions from all over the world. It includes an online encyclopaedia of low-tech know-how, though it will take many years before it is completed.
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Sunbathing in the living room : oven stoves are greener, more efficient, healthier, safer and cosier than all modern heating systems. Why are they gone and how do we get them back?
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Get wired (again): trolleybuses and trolleytrucks Greening public transportation and cargo traffic, on the other hand, could be done fast with existing technology for a reasonable price - if we opt for the trolleybus and the trolleytruck.
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Heat your house with car tyres and earth Building houses out of car tyres and cans might sound unconventional, but the ecological benefit of an earthship is so large that the concept deserves to be given some serious consideration.
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Sailing at the touch of a button : we have computer-controlled windmills, why not computer-controlled sailing cargo vessels?
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Life without airplanes: from London to New York in 3 days and 12 hours Before mass air travel took off in the 1960s, people crossed the globe in majestic passenger ships. Reintroducing ocean liners would be more than a nostalgic move: it could be a much more energy efficient (yet slower) way to travel.
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Lego for Big Boys : habitable shipping containers Cars, washing machines, televisions: almost everything we can buy today is assembled on the conveyor belt of some factory. But our houses are still built on the spot by a team of workers. Accompanied by lots of noise for the neighbours, and hampered by the weather. That could change: a growing number of architects see the very thing in habitable shipping containers.
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Bring back the horses Reintroducing horses in city traffic would be a bad idea - cars might be noisy, dangerous and polluting, but mounts are even worse. In agriculture, however, animal power would bring surprisingly large environmental profits. Replacing tractors with real horse power could be the revolution that agriculture needs.
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How to downsize a transport network: the Chinese wheelbarrow For being such a seemingly ordinary vehicle, the wheelbarrow has a surprisingly exciting history. This is especially true in the East, where it became a universal means of transportation for both passengers and goods, even over long distances. The Chinese wheelbarrow - which was driven by human labour, beasts of burden and wind power - was of a different design than its European counterpart. By placing a large wheel in the middle of the vehicle instead of a smaller wheel in front, one could easily carry three to six times as much weight than if using a European wheelbarrow.
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The pinhole camera : low-tech photography It might be useful to remember that a camera is nothing more than a darkened box with a small opening and a shutter, as demonstrated by the pinhole camera. In many senses, this device is the very opposite of the latest digital cameras.
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Tiles as a substitute for steel : the crafstmanship associated with timbrel vaulting has long vanished, but the achievements are still with us today.
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Cars : out of the way We don't need any new infrastructure, what we need is to clear the existing infrastructure of inefficient vehicles and replace them with efficient ones. In other words: give all streets, highways, cloverleaves and motorways exclusively to bicycles and all other human powered wheeled vehicles. Get rid of cars. Why make things so complicated if the solution is so simple?
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The dustcarts of the sea Considering that the oceans hold more garbage than fish by now, this might be the right time to retrain our fishermen and let them hunt for litter.
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Green, slow air cargo Air freight is the most ecologically damaging mode of transport. It becomes the most eco-friendly option if speed is reduced.
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Floating Windmills: energy from the clouds At great heights the wind blows much more powerfully and steadily than it does at lower altitudes. Some companies are convinced that there lies an opportunity to generate cheap, durable energy.
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The revival of the sailing ship Considering the wind as an extra source of power, the fuel use of cargo ships can be reduced substantially.
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Gaming unplugged The newest generation of board games is more fascinating than most computer games
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A world without trucks : underground freight networks If water, sewage, gas and oil can be transported through underground pipelines, why not consumer goods as well?
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Solar powered cars If racing cars can drive on solar energy, then why do normal cars still need fossil fuels?
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The Aeromodeller 2 : the zeppelin that never lands
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The Museum of Old Techniques For almost every electronic device or oil driven machine there used to be a low-tech alternative that was powered by human muscles, water or wind.
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Water powered cable trains Cable trains (or funiculars) are one of the most energy-efficient modes of transport out there. Many historical systems used this efficiency and took it one step further with systems exclusively powered by water and gravity.
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Build your own windturbine : building plans for the low-tech "Windbelt".
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Wind up your laptop Eco-tech boffins dream of self-sufficient gadgets: mobile phones fed by solar energy, heartbeat-powered music players. However, the potential of these energy sources is much too small. Handles, cranks and biking machines on the other hand, do have a promise to be a powerful energy source.
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How to build a floating trash island Artificial floating islands can be used as a low-tech way to clean urban bodies of water.
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Trolley canal boats For many centuries, canal boats were propelled by men, horses or mules on the towpath beside the water. Before diesel power took over, engineers developed several interesting methods powered by electricity: trolleyboats, floating funiculars and electric mules. Many of these ecological solutions could be applied today instead of diesel engines.
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