The team at Sanya wants customers to charge their electric vehicles (EVs) when their out on the town, spending time at a friends house or handling a myriad of other tasks and to make that charging a reality the company has created the Sanya Skypump.

The Skypump (pictured above), uses wind and solar power to give charges to vehicles when their plugged into the units which are powered using 150-watt solar panels and built-in windmills.

The stations are meant to offer a full charge in four to eight hours, which probably means a quick stop at Walgreens won’t help you grab enough power to drive home, but they could work for a quick charge while eating dinner or watching a movie, the units even power lights attached to their tops which provides an added safety measure in parking lots at night.

For those in the know, the Skypump is based off the Sanya Streetlamp design.

Here’s a demo of the Sanya Skypump in action:

Hopefully these stations will see the light of day, for now they’re still in the testing phase.

Sanya Skypump Brings EV Charging To Parking Lots, Uses Renewable Energy is a post from: The Inquisitr

Want to get in on the whole wind power thing and maybe reduce your energy bills by even a little bit?

Well sometime this fall you’ll be able to head over to your local Ace Hardware store and pick yourself up a Honeywell Wind Turbine from EarthTronics to slap up on your roof. The turbine is a gearless “free wheeling” turbine that can generate power even in times of low wind speeds. The wind turbine can create 2,000kWh/yr with wind speeds as low as 2mph and an upper limit of 45mph.

It’s still on the tad expensive side for the initial layout at $4,500, plus up to $1,500 for installation. However given the new incentives in the stimulus bill you should be able to claim a 30 percent tax credit. As well your individual states may be offering their own incentives as well.

Here’s a video about the turbine from EarthTronics.

[hat tip to EcoGeek.org]

Home wind turbines coming to Ace Hardware is a post from: The Inquisitr

Richard Jenkins, a British engineer, drove his way into the land speed record books driving his Greenbird car on the dry plains of Ivanpath Lake in Nevada. It has taken him 10 years of hard work to reach that 126.1 mph (202.9km/h) speed in order to break the old record of 116 mph set by Bob Schumacher in 1999.

The incredible thing about this record setter though was that it was completely powered by the wind. The Greenbird car used by Jenkins is almost completely a carbon fiber composite vehicle with the wing bearings and wheel unit being the only metal used.

Mr Jenkins, from Lymington, spent 10 years designing the vehicle, with Greenbird the fifth vehicle he has built to try to break the record.

Due to the shape of the craft, especially at such high speeds, the wings also provide lift; a useful trait for an aircraft, but very hazardous for a car. To compensate for this, the designers have added small wings to "stick" the car to the ground, in the same way Formula 1 cars do.

"Greenbird weighs 600kg when it’s standing still," said Mr Jenkins. "But at speed, the effect of the wings make her weigh just over a tonne."

Source: BBC News

Imagine how fast one of those things would go in Washington with all the hot air blowing around the city.

Sailing into the land speed record is a post from: The Inquisitr