Each week our friends at Inhabitat (http://inhabitat.com/) recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/04/algae-powered-biq-house-by-arup-2.jpg) (http://algae-power-ionic-thrusters-3d-solar)
This week, Inhabitat (http://inhabitat.com/) reported that the world's first algae-powered building (http://inhabitat.com/the-worlds-first-algae-powered-building-opens-in-hamburg/) officially opened its doors in Hamburg. It's called the BIQ House (http://inhabitat.com/the-worlds-first-algae-powered-building-opens-in-hamburg/) and it features an impressive bio-adaptive algae facade that controls day lighting while generating a steady stream of renewable energy (http://inhabitat.com/energy/). It makes sense that the self-sufficient building is located in Germany; the European country is leading the way in clean tech. Despite ditching its nuclear power plants, Germany has quadrupled its energy production in the past two years (http://inhabitat.com/germany-quadruples-energy-surplus-over-the-last-two-years/), largely due to its rapidly growing alternative energy (http://inhabitat.com/energy/) portfolio. Not to be outdone, England just flipped the switch on the world's largest wind farm (http://inhabitat.com/the-uks-london-array-is-now-the-worlds-largest-wind-farm/), and in Paris, Schneider Electric set up kinetic energy-harvesting tiles (http://inhabitat.com/kinetic-energy-harvesting-tiles-generate-power-from-paris-marathon-runners/) that generate power from runners in the Paris Marathon. Meanwhile at the International Space Station, astronauts are installing a new type of 3D-textured solar cell (http://inhabitat.com/3d-textured-solar-cells-to-be-tested-on-the-international-space-station/) that will soak up 16 sunrises every day.
Filed under: Science (http://www.engadget.com/category/science/)
Comments (http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/14/algae-power-ionic-thrusters-3d-solar/#comments)
Via: Engadget