by craengineering

Tesla built 858 new public charging stations in the U.S. over the past 12 months : TreeHugger

Tesla’s Supercharger network is getting most of the attention because it is quite innovative (more powerful than anything else, powered by clean energy, free-to-use for Tesla owners), but the majority of the growth in Tesla’s charging infrastructure is actually coming from what the company calls “destination charging”. These chargers are quite a bit slower than Superchargers – in fact, they’re like the home chargers that you can install in your garage – but they’re a lot less expensive and you don’t always need the extra speed, so they’re perfect for certain “destinations” like hotels, restaurants, and stores. Anywhere you are likely to be parked for a while, or overnight, is a good candidate.

Source: Tesla built 858 new public charging stations in the U.S. over the past 12 months : TreeHugger

by craengineering

Colas Paves Future Roads With Solar – Forbes

It would be an understatement to say that the company’s executives were surprised when all of France’s major media showed up at the Colas trade show booth in mid-October.“It was incredible,” said Christophe Lienard, Colas’ Innovation Group Director. “Our work in road construction and maintenance doesn’t normally get that sort of attention.”The media were there because Colas debuted the world’s first road surface that generates solar electricity, called Wattway. The panels, which are only a few millimeters thick, can be installed on top of any road surface without any additional civil engineering work, withstand all types of vehicle traffic, and every 20 square meters should generate enough energy to power a home.Five years ago, the project was nothing more than an after-hours experiment in an engineer’s garage.“He had a piece of road surface, photovoltaic modules, and some weights,” Lienard explained. “We knew it had to be possible, but we didn’t know how.”

Source: Colas Paves Future Roads With Solar – Forbes

by craengineering

Google Maps lets you explore what’s at stake in Paris climate talks : TreeHugger

In honor of this week’s COP21 climate conference in Paris, Google has unveiled Street View images of the places and living things that are depending on action from world leaders. A variety of conservation organizations took Google’s Street View Trekker camera technology and captured images that tell the story of what’s at stake.You can virtually visit polar bears thanks to Polar Bears International who mapped the bears and their fragile sea ice habitat near Churchill, Manitoba for all to view and created lesson plans and activities for educators to bring this information into classrooms.

Source: Google Maps lets you explore what’s at stake in Paris climate talks : TreeHugger

by craengineering

Green-roofed, off-grid Austrian microhome filters greywater for reuse : TreeHugger

We don’t see many tiny houses with green roofs, but Austria’s Wohnwagon (translated as “living wagon”) demonstrates that it can be done. Outfitted with distinctive, rounded ends and round porthole windows, the solar-powered tiny home also boasts its own water filtration system that cleans greywater for reuse — using marsh plants on its roof.

Source: Green-roofed, off-grid Austrian microhome filters greywater for reuse : TreeHugger