TASTY TECH EYE CANDY OF THE WEEK C

Glider Yacht, Electric Fabric and a Solar Car: Photos
By Tracy Staedter, Seeker, 18 September 2016.

This week's Tasty Tech slideshow shows just how fast renewable energy can glide.

1. Glider Yacht

Seven lucky clients are on deck to buy this high-powered luxury vessel from London’s Glider Yacht. The 18-m (60-foot) SS18 has a unique design that is neither a catamaran nor what’s known in yacht circles as a SWATH - a small waterplane area twin hull. But the Glider Yacht is stable and glides over the water at a steady 55 knots (102 km/h). The company is seeking additional funding to support a more powerful Sports Limousine model. Basic package starts around US$1.3 million.

2. Electric Fabric

This swatch of fabric is actually capable of generating electricity from two different sources: motion and sunlight. To create it, scientists woven strands of solar cells made from lightweight polymer fibers with fiber-based triboelectric nanogenerators that produce a charge when rotated, vibrated or slid back and forth. A 4-by-5-centimeter piece of the hybrid textile charged a commercial capacitor to 2 volts in one minute.

3. Solar-Powered Car

German start-up company Sonos Motors just raised more than US$200,000 via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to develop a self-charging, solar-powered car they call the Sion. The company hopes to sell two versions of the Sion - an Urban one that sells for US$13,000 and goes 75 miles on a single charge and an Extender version that goes 155 miles on a single charge.

4. Growroom

Credit: Space10

Danish architects Mads-Ulrik Husum & Sine Lindholm want to give gardens back to the people. To that end, they develop Growroom, a globe-shaped pavilion filled with vegetables and herbs that surround a sitting space in the middle. The urban farm dome is meant to show how gardens could exist in city places, reducing demand for factory farms.

5. Waste Shark

Credit: RanMarine

This small electric catamaran called Waste Shark was designed by South African entrepreneur Richard Hardiman to skim the water’s surface and collect floating trash. It also amasses data such as water quality, depth and weather conditions, sending the details to port authorities via a wireless connection.

6. Hydropower Plant Is a Tourist Destination

Credit: Bjorn Leirvik

The Øvre Forsland power station in Norway is so beautiful that it’s become a tourist destination. Located in the forested mountains of Helgeland, south of the Arctic Circle, the 30-gigawatt-hour plant draws visitors from around the world.

7. Subsonic Commercial Jet

NASA awarded a six-month, US$2.9 million contract to Manassas, Virginia-based Aurora Flight Sciences to develop a version of the military X-plane for commercial use. The Aurora D8 would be a subsonic airliner capable of flying a Mach 0.764 (582 mph, 936 km/h) with 180 passengers onboard.

8. Electric Bus

The Proterra Catalyst E2 electric bus is in it for the long haul. In recent tests at the Michelin proving grounds in South Carolina, it covered 600 miles on a single charge.

9. Energy-Harvesting UFO Tops Building

A plan to renovate the Botanic Center apartment block in Brussels calls for lots of greenery and a rooftop structure that looks like a docked UFO. Dubbed the Chrysalis by designers at Vincent Callebaut Architectures, the structure is really a large solar array combined with 42 wind turbines. Combined, the renewable energy tech would produce enough electricity for the building for the entire year.

10. Uber Self-Driving Car

This week, Uber rolled out a fleet of self-driving cars on the streets of Philadelphia. A year ago, the company partnered with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg - known for their advances in self-driving tech - and created the Advanced Technologies Center, which will head up efforts to develop mapping, vehicle safety and autonomous driving technology.

Top image: The Chrysalis. Credit: Vincent Callebaut Architectures.

[Source: Seeker. Edited. Top image and some links added.]