Silicon Valley might have a corner on electronics, but a dark horse has been creeping up the ranks of clean tech innovation...Britain! In fact, the land of the London Fog was recently placed 10th in a new global ranking of the 38 countries providing the best conditions for clean-technology start-ups.

Here are three UK companies making quite a commotion with their creative and practical clean technologies. Keep an eye out for them!

1. Seawater Greenhouse

The Seawater Greenhouse provides enables year-round crop production in some of the world’s hottest and driest regions. This is accomplished using seawater and sunlight, which can be harnessed for a fraction of normal irrigation costs. The technology imitates natural processes, helping to restore the environment while significantly reducing the operating costs of greenhouse horticulture.

2. Naked Energy (pictured at top)

This company imagines a world in which no homeowner will ever have to choose between solar PV and solar thermal ever again. Naked Energy's Virtu vacuum tube technology is a hybrid solar module that generates both electricity and heat from the convenience of your rooftop. Performance testing of the panels is happening now Imperial College London and will be published early 2012. Early indications are that 'Virtu' produces unprecedented power output and is a step change in solar technology.

3. Zeta LED

The definition of a bright idea, the folks at Zeta Controls have created an LED bulb that looks different than any other. Offering just 13% of running cost of normal 60 watt incandescent bulb, the LifeBulb contains no mercury or harmful components and is completely recyclable. And it looks like it was plucked off the set of Star Wars.

Want to learn more about the up and coming British clean tech industry? Check out Clean and Cool Mission 2012 or stop by Cleantech Forum San Francisco over the next few days.

“I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.”

These might sound like quotes from individuals with opposing points of view, but they’re not. In fact, they were both uttered by the same person: Thomas Edison, father of the modern electric light bulb.

Edison embodied two things that tend to be lost in today’s discussion of energy dependence and new energy technologies: he was open to proactive change (even if it superceded his own inventions) and obsessed with practicality.

It can seem like the world is awash with ideas about our energy future, some are exciting, but decades away from being practical. To choose the right option—for consumers and for our economy—can seem daunting, but we don’t have to start from scratch. Building on Edison's research, we can begin to see that the answers have been there all along.

Eventually, Edison founded General Electric, a company that has been exploring the world of efficient energy technologies for over a century. Always with an eye to the future, GE has focused on improving existing power generation products as well as inventing new ones. From the first water wheel to harness the energy of Niagara Falls to the flexible, futuristic organic, LEDs, GE has strived to produce high quality products that make life better. In fact, GE's recently released data visualization tool aggregates all of their annual reports from the past 120 years and actually lets you track all the different energy-related products it’s developed over the decades.

Click on the word solar, and you’ll see the first mention pop up way back in 1946 when GE was first developing new ways to measure solar ray intensities. The first mention of wind power shows up in 1974 when the company worked with NASA to develop a wind generator. Fast forward a few decades, and you'll find advanced technologies for gathering both of these sources of renewable energy, like GE's thin film solar panels and high capacity wind turbines. While the potential is huge, and other countries are already taking advantage of these products, in America, the true energy generating capacity of wind and solar remains to be seen.

It's frustrating to realize the disconnect between availability and utilization of solar and wind power technologies, especially since most of the decisions are made by those with a vested interested in maintaining the status quo (Edison would be livid). The good news, however, is that the renewable energy industry continues to grow. And as GE’s new data visualization tool demonstrates, these technologies are a part of our national conversation now, more than ever. The key is to never become comfortable with what we’ve got, or afraid to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

This post was written in collaboration with GE as part of their new DataViz App available here.

Top Image Credit: Flickr - webhamster

Two German interaction design students have re-envisioned the grocery store shopping experience.

In response to increasing consumer demand for detailed product information, German design students,  Benedikt Burgmaier and Fabian Kreuzer, have reinvented the process for purchasing meat, cheese and fish. As part of this concept, the glass case surrounding the fresh meats and cheeses, also functions as an interactive screen. Through simple interactions with the glass case, customers can simply point to an item to see more information including price and product description. Small books in front of the case can be lifted for more detailed information about origins and recipes to appear on the screen.

Although just a prototype, this project is an imaginative and inspirational look at the future of consumer experiences. What do you want to see in the grocery store of the future?

Source: food + tech connect

When the BP oil spill contaminated the Gulf of Mexico, authorities were hard pressed to find a safe way to get the crude out of the water quickly. Ultimately boats deployed miles of boom in an attempt to contain the spreading slick, then spend weeks skimming it out of the water. Chemical dispersants were released by airplane, but these were highly controversial as they merely break down oil into smaller bits, but don't degrade it completely.

Now it seems that scientists from Bristol University may have discovered a more efficient way to clean-up oil spills that won't leave any (or not nearly as much) of these invisible toxins behind: a soap that can be controlled by magnets.

Researchers created the soap by dissolving iron in liquid surfactant. The soap’s magnetic properties were proved with neutrons at the Institut Laue-Langevin to result from tiny iron-rich clumps that sit within the watery solution.

To test its properties, the team introduced a magnet to a test tube containing their new soap lying beneath a less dense organic solution. When the magnet was introduced the iron-rich soap overcame both gravity and surface tension between the water and oil, to levitate through the organic solvent and reach the source of the magnetic energy, proving its magnetic properties.

What scientists hope is that this magnetic soap could be deployed in oil spill areas as a means to literally lift the crude particles out of the water quickly and completely, without leaving behind a nasty "dispersant" residue. The solution could also be used in scientific experiments that require precise control of liquid droplets.

"From a commercial point of view, though these exact liquids aren’t yet ready to appear in any household product, by proving that magnetic soaps can be developed, future work can reproduce the same phenomenon in more commercially viable liquids for a range of applications from water treatment to industrial cleaning products,” said Professor Julian Eastoe.

It's high time that oil recovery technology caught up with the technology used to get it out of the ground in the first place. Although it would be nice if we could just stop building leaky oil rigs and pipelines, the potential of this discovery could go a long way toward protecting our waterways, though there's no mention of whether it would be viable in the freezing waters of the Arctic, oil's next frontier.

Image Credit: Flickr - lsgcp

Humans have tried to harness the power of the wind for thousands of years. We've tried every design in the book, from cloth sails to wind mills, and discovered that three blades are the most efficient design for a wind turbine. But that may be about to change.

With support from Nottingham Trent University's Future Factory project, Heath Evdemon is attempting to bring his dream of a very different type of wind turbine into reality. Instead of blades that rotate around a central axis, the Wind Harvester is based on a reciprocating motion that uses horizontal aerofoils similar to those used on aeroplanes. It is virtually noise-free and can generate electricity at a low speed, which may silence critics of wind turbines residential areas. It will also be operational at higher wind speeds than current wind turbines.

"We're looking for potential sites within the Peak District National Park at the moment and then we'll turn our attention to industry," said Evdemon, "but it's a product which could one day be rolled out to farms working towards becoming carbon neutral and homeowners looking for a cheap and sustainable source of power."

The Wind Harvester can be made in any size up to approximately 15 metres across and only needs to be approximately half a metre off the ground in prominent positions such as hills and hillsides, rock outcrops, and on domestic, farm and industrial buildings and structures. At any size, this unique turbine can be broken down into handleable pieces so installation will not require the use of heavy machinery, which is particularly relevant to environmentally sensitive areas.

Along with funding from Future Factory, Evdemon's company, Wind Power Innovations, has also received £28,000 from the Peak District National Park's Sustainable Development Fund and £3,000 from the Live & Work Rural programme. A large scale demonstrator is expected to be installed in the national park once it has been completed by the team.

Image credits: Wind Power Innovations

There might not be too much we can do to keep them from out growing their pants and shirts, but Spanish bike manufacturer Orbea may have found an answer to the  outgrown bike problem. Their line of Grow Bikes - as the name suggests - grow along with your child and allowing them to be used for twice as long as regular bikes.

Now almost all bikes come with an adjustable seat and handlebars, but Grow Bikes add another variable into the mix--the frame itself. With a few minutes of adjusting, the Grow Bike frame can be extended, making the bike safer and more comfortable for your growing child, and buying you another year or two before you have to replace it with a larger model.

Prices range from €179 (about $237) to €259 (about $343) depending on which model and features you want. Pricier than a Huffy, but remember you're really paying for multiple bikes. Pedal over to Orbea.com to learn more.

via Gizmag

Not every country interested in pursuing renewable energy has vast swaths of land on which to erect solar and wind farms. That's why one Israeli start-up decided to explore a completely new terrain.

When someone mentions a solar power plant, most of us immediately envision rooftops or a vast field with no trees in site. But for smaller nations, like Israel, land is at a premium. It's hard for many to justify using huge swaths of land for solar energy production when, y'know, people could live there.

So instead of a land-based solar system, Solaris Energy decided to develop a water-based technology: a floating solar power plant.

The system concentrates a large amount of sunlight onto a small area to generate electricity by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity. It features a modular design that supports power output ranging from several kilowatts to dozens of megawatts. According to Solaris, the solution dramatically lowers the cost of energy production to a level far below national feed-in tariffs (FITs), making solar competitive and there for attractive to the government and investors.

While collecting the sun's energy, the Solaris Synergy floating concentrating photovoltaic (F-CPV) system also doubles as a water reservoir cover. Lowering exposure to the sun while enabling covered water to breathe, means that the system can significantly reduce water evaporation and eliminate organic and algae growth, while preserving water freshness and quality...all important features for a water-strapped country like Israel.

Learn more in the video clip below:

Image Credit: Flickr - via www.metaphoricalplatypus.com