Off The Grid : Discovery News

Bill Gates Wants Us To Get Our Crap Together

Posted by Nic Halverson Wed Nov 9, 2011 03:32 PM ET | 0

The Gates Foundation has awarded $100,000 to a Duke environmental engineer to develop a simple waste disposal system. Read more

Bill Gates Wants Us To Get Our Crap Together

Skylight Harvests Sunlight, Reduces Energy Costs

Posted by Nic Halverson Fri Aug 26, 2011 09:31 AM ET | 0

Diamond-Power skylights could offload as much as 50 percent of building's grid electricity. Read more

Skylight Harvests Sunlight, Reduces Energy Costs

Bill Gates Seeks To Reinvent The Toilet

Posted by Nic Halverson Tue Aug 16, 2011 09:11 AM ET | 0

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation award $3 million to researchers to design safe, reliable and cheap toilets for the developing world. Read more

Europe's First Wind- and Solar-Powered Billboard

Posted by Nic Halverson Fri Aug 5, 2011 10:46 AM ET | 0

Ricoh Europe's 'eco-board' powered by five turbines and 96 solar panels. Read more

Europe's First Wind- and Solar-Powered Billboard

Solar Lamps Empower the Poor

Posted Thu Jan 27, 2011 06:50 AM ET | 0

One student who grew up in a rural African village invents a solar lamp that could help thousands. Read more

Human-Powered Gyms Do Double Duty

Posted by David Teeghman Tue Dec 7, 2010 09:19 AM ET | 0

More gyms are using specially designed equipment to capture the energy you create while pedaling, and turn it into useful electricity. Read more

Is Solar Power Worth It?

Posted by Cristen Conger Tue Aug 3, 2010 05:26 PM ET | 0

It's not yet competitive with coal, but its value goes deeper than dollars and cents. Read more

Blue Jeans for Solar Panels

Posted by Teresa Shipley Tue Jul 6, 2010 05:06 PM ET | 0

Blue jean dye molecules have the potential to revolutionize the solar panel industry. Read more

Solar panels are probably the most common means for harnessing the sun's energy, but it's not the only method. Click through the slideshow to learn about other technologies on the market and in the lab. Read more

Eating Dinner From the Future

Posted by Alyssa Danigelis Thu Oct 1, 2009 09:50 AM ET | 0

I joked about becoming a stowaway when the Waterpod, an eco-art-science barge touring New York City this summer, came to Queens. Turns out the crew was serious about hospitality, and it included a taste of the future. This week, on ... Read more

The Waterpod People Take Manhattan

Posted by Alyssa Danigelis Thu Jul 30, 2009 06:08 PM ET | 0

Looking like a lost set piece from the Kevin Costner movie Waterworld, the sustainable art and tech showcase Waterpod Project has finally made its way from conceptual design to aquatic New York reality. In previous summers, a Science Barge docked ... Read more

Cars Designed to Feed Electric Grid: Discovery News

Posted Tue Jun 30, 2009 09:24 PM ET

Electric cars, touted as a way to save the environment, still draw power off the electric grid. Now scientists from the University of Delaware have come up with a way for electric cars to store, and then give back, electricity back to the power grid. Read more