electricity

Panasonic Corp.'s plans to take over rival Sanyo Electric Co. would create the world's second-largest electronics maker. But Panasonic already has plenty of gadgets. Instead, the crown jewels Panasonic wants from Sanyo are green.

The Toronto Zoo wants to use the manure produced by its animals to generate its electricity, which seems like a perfect scenario for a zoo. The problem is the biogas electricity plant would cost CDN $13 million (US $10.5 million), a sum of money the zoo doesn't have.

A new billboard is going up in the middle of Times Square that will be powered with 16 wind turbines and 64 solar panels instead of the usual electricity. When it's windy and sunny, the billboard will be able to generate enough electricity to light up.

Canada's Melancthon EcoPower Centre opened on October 30 after three years of construction. The country's largest wind farm is located near Shelburne, Ontario and has a capacity of 199.5 MW.

Researchers at the University of South Florida have developed solar cells that are one-fourth the size of a grain of rice. When 20 of them are grouped together in an array, they can generate about 7.8 volts of electricity.

Al Gore has issued a lot of challenges to us in the last few years. In recent months, he's made speeches calling for us to go carbon neutral in 10 years. In September, he encouraged civil disobedience and just last Friday at the Web 2.0 Summit, he asked us to use the web to organize a social movement to save the planet (we're already on it, Al!).

Australian company Solar Sailor has signed a deal with the largest Chinese shipping line COSCO to fit their tankers with large solar-powered sails.