Future Vision

Entries from April 2008

Bahrain’s Green Building

April 14, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Three wind turbine blades have been successfully installed on the Bahrain World Trade Center, a twin skyscraper complex. This is the first time that a commercial development has integrated large-scale wind turbines within its design to harness the power of the wind. The three massive turbines, measuring 29 meters in diameter, are supported by bridges spanning between the complex’s two towers. Through its positioning and the unique aerodynamic design of the towers, the prevailing on-shore Gulf breeze is funneled into the path of the turbines, helping to create power generation efficiency.

Now operational, these wind turbines deliver approximately 10 to 15% of the energy needs of the building, or 1100 to 1300 megawatt-hours per year — enough to provide light in 300 homes for over a year.

Categories: Engineering · Environment

Open Water !

April 13, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Nobody doubts anymore that climate change is at least in part man-made. And even if the effects of global warming remain at the most benign end of the predicted range, it will be a disaster of unprecedented proportions. For years, that disaster has been unfolding so slowly that it’s been invisible. But now you can see it: Mountain glaciers around the world are melting, along with North polar sea ice and the ice cap atop Greenland; droughts are baking the U.S. southwest, Australia and sub-Saharan Africa; floods are devastating Bangladesh; and Central America is reeling from powerful hurricanes. Not all of these events can be tied absolutely to global warming, but all of them will surely become more frequent and intense as the world warms – ultimately threatening the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.
Latest scientist predictions claim that the North Pole will be open water by 2013 !

Categories: Environment