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Basically, a cross between the convenience of grabbing a cab and a public bus; the podcars will be a component of Masdar City's public transportation system. As part of Masdar City's car-free design; these podcars will be part of a network of electric taxis without drivers (!). The first of these podcars (also known as personal rapid transit - PRT) are set to debut this year

What do you do if you build a wind farm smack dab in the middle of a major bird migration route, and want to avert the anger of conservationists? Put up a radar system that's designed to shut down the entire thing when it detects a mass of birds on the way. That's what's been done at the 202 MW Peñascal Wind Farm in Texas: System Detects Birds Approaching Four Miles Away The system uses radar originally developed for NASA and the US Air Force to detect birds as far as four miles away, The Guardian reports. When it picks up the approaching birds, it analyzes the existing weather conditions and determines in real time whether those birds are in danger of flying into the blades. The system then automatically restarts the turbines when the birds have passed.

Largest Grassroots Solar Event in America: Register Now! Imagine 140,000 people participating in a national tour of solar-powered homes and institutions - all in one day. That's what happened last year at the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) National Solar Tour - and this year looks set to be even bigger. Whether it's DIY solar homes and solar cars, new homes with solar as standard, or utility-scale multi-megawatt solar installations, TreeHugger is not short of stories about how solar power is leading us away from fossil fuel dependence and helping to stem climate change. But while change is beginning to happen, it's not happening anywhere near fast enough. That's why the ASES tour is so important - getting people in front of real, live solar installations, showing them how they work, and encouraging folks to go solar themselves. Read on to find out how you can participate.

"A new study by the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has revealed that U.S. wind resources are far greater than previously believed. The study, a collaborative project between NREL and AWS Truewind, LLC, of Albany, New York, created resource maps and wind potential tables for 48 states. The recent study is the first comprehensive update of the wind energy potential by state since 1993. The resource maps for the contiguous United States, and separately for each state, show the predicted mean annual wind speeds at 80-meter height. They are derived from 200-meter resolution maps developed by AWS Truewind for the windNavigator system. Areas with annual average wind speeds around 6.5 m/s and greater at 80-meter height are generally considered to have suitable wind resources for wind development"

The explore Team travels to India, China, Costa Rica, and the Arctic to see the impact of humanity on the planet's most important resource: water.

Researchers from the University of Surrey have teamed up with US artificial intelligence company Dabus to file patents in an AI system's name, but the idea of recognising AI as an inventor has received mixed response from the industry.