The Falkirk Wheel – the world’s first rotating boatlift. The 35m high, 1500 tonne machine transports canal barges and other boats between the Forth & Clyde and the Union Canal, a vertical drop of 18 metres.

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The Greenbird is a high tech combination of racing yacht, aeroplane and Formula 1 racing car design and technology. Lightweight, low friction and minimized aerodynamic drag are the secret ingredients behind the world record. The entire structure is made from carbon-fiber which has the high stiffness and strength required to transfer the wind loads on the Greenbird vertical sail, into traction forces on the ground. The suspension allows some compliance between the vehicle and the rough dry-lake surface; otherwise it would be difficult to control.

Greenbird weighs around 600kgs  but the ground pressure is around 1ton  at high speed. The forward thrust comes from the wind flow over the aerofoil section, just like an aircraft wing that creates lift, so the pressure differential over the wing creates forces that get translated into forward velocity. The Greenbird has such low drag and low rolling friction, that it uses the wind energy very efficiently, and can actually travel at speeds 3 to 5 times faster than the speed at which the wind is blowing.

Richard Jenkins and his team set a new world land speed record for wind powered land vehicles of  (202.9km/h) at Ivanpah Lake, Nevada.

Looking like a cross between a modern Mercedes-Benz and an old fashion roadster, the Daimler AG trainees at the Sindelfingen Mercedes-Benz plant have built a good-looking vehicle using a hydrogen powered fuel cell with zero emissions.

The F-CELL Roadster  is controlled with drive-by-wire technology. A joystick takes the place of a conventional steering wheel. The vehicle is powered by the emission-free fuel cell system located at the rear. With a power rating of 1.2 kW the F-CELL Roadster reaches a top speed of 25km/h  and has an operating range of up to 350km.

I-Shovel is an autonomous robotic snow shovel that automatically detects the snow accumulation and clears the driveway. The device uses a built-in computer to control the shoveling process and various sensors to ascertain the perimeter.

The I-Shovel is designed to “wake up” and shovel snow whenever it senses a reasonable accumulation of snow so you can wake up to a cleared driveway.

The shoveling mechanism has a relatively low power consumption (operates on batteries) and no dangerous moving parts, enabling it to operate unattended or when kids are playing in the snow.

The ability to wake up to a snow free driveway often drives people to install heated driveways which are much more expensive to own and require a lot of needless energy consumption. The most ‘green’ option for clearing your driveway remains the humble snow shovel but this is how to avoid shoveling it yourself. Now if you could charge the batteries from a renewable energy source…

To deal with the lack of fresh water in Dubai and other Arabian nations, Italian architectural firm Studiomobile created the Seawater Vertical Farm to cool and humidify greenhouses. This innovative concept produces adequate humidity to convert seawater into fresh water, necessary for irrigation.

Here’s how it works:

The air going into the greenhouse is first cooled and humidified by seawater, which is trickled over the first evaporator. This provides a fresh and humid climate for the crops.

As the air leaves the growing area it passes through the second evaporator which has seawater flowing over it. During this phase, humid air runs into the warm dry air of the ceiling. This makes the air much hotter and more humid.

The warm and humid air condense when in contact with plastic tubes that are pumped with cool sea water in the central chimney. Drops of fresh water appear on the surface of the condenser, ready to be collected in a tank and used to water the crops.

Forget fossil fuels and even biodiesel, instead the new fuel making waves at the 2009 Geneva International Auto Show is air.

The car is driven via a joystick and MDI estimates it only costs one euro (US$1.25) for 200km of driving. The little vehicle will reportedly reach a top speed of 44mph (70.4kph) and can be recharged/reloaded in just a few minutes.

This is a bridge connecting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Bahrain.
Bahrain – an island state, and this is the only overland route to it. The bridge -25 km. Middle of the bridge is an island on which the border between two states, it is also a customs and passport control.

prototype – giant K7

prototype was done in 1932 and he fell.

Zhangjiajie, China

The Bailong Elevator is the world’s largest exterior elevator. At over 1,000 feet tall, this elevator looms high midway up a cliff overlooking a valley far below. Moreover, the elevator is mostly glass, affording passengers a dizzying view to the depths below. There is some concern, however, about the elevator’s long-term impact on the surrounding natural environment.