Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a new solar cell that uses tin instead of lead perovskite as a collector of solar energy. This cheap and environmentally-friendly solar cell can therefore be made without any high-tech equipment or hazardous materials.Read more »

Two Russian scientists, Leonid and Sergey Plekhanov, both of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) are trying to crowdfund the building of a prototype of Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe tower, which could allow for wireless transmission of power. Should they succeed, it is conceivable that the entire planet could be powered by renewable energy sources with very little energy loss during transmission.Read more »

Dr. Jon Major, a researcher at Liverpool University has recently made the discovery that the chemical used to make tofu, and bath salts, could also be used to replace one of the most toxic substances, namely cadmium chloride, that are used to manufacture solar cells. Using salts to replace cadmium chloride in solar cell production would also make them much cheaper. His study was published in the journal Nature.Read more »

A home made of shipping containers can be as big or as small as you want it to be. And if you have the desire to downsize to a tiny house, a shipping container lends itself very well to the purpose. With the right type of insulation, flooring, and perhaps choosing one of the high cube containers, which has a higher ceiling, such a tiny home can be quite cozy indeed. Below you will find the top 5 shipping container homes made from a single unit, which can easily be called tiny homes.

When it comes to renewable energy, wind turbines are certainly one of the greener and more sustainable options. Their biggest drawbacks is that they have to be large to produce enough energy, and that they make a lot of noise, which is why they haven’t yet been widely adopted by homeowners. However, The Archimedes, a Holland-based renewable energy start-up is currently working on a solution to this problem. They are designing a wind turbine small enough to be mounted on the roof of a typical home, but which is still highly efficient at converting wind to energy and does so nearly soundlessly.

A team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) has developed a new graphene-based supercapacitor, which is based on a nanoscale architecture. This breakthrough supercapacitor offers double the energy and power performance over today’s available competitors. Supercapacitors like this could one day be used for charging high-performance electric cars and personal electronics by effectively replacing batteries.Read more »