INFRASTRUCTURES' CONCEP'T * WORLDWIDE

* Italy - Building a bridge to renewable energy. The Solar Wind bridge concept combines solar cells and wind turbines to generate power for around 115,000 homes

Rome,Italy -New Italian Blood, by Francesco Colarossi, Giovanna Saracino, Luisa Saracino -2, March 2011: -- The solar park is conceived as a green “promenade”, along which there alternate panoramic viewing points and entirely self-sufficient solar greenhouses. As with city farms, visitors to the park will be able to stop and buy the local produce grow in these greenhouses... The asphalt will be substituted with a technological road surface of a kind already in use in the USA -“solar roadways”-. The road surface itself will, therefore, collect energy as a part of a power-generating system composed of a dense grid of solar cells coated with a transparent ad highly resistant form of plastic... The entire system is capable of producing around 40 million kWh per annum – enough energy to provide power for approximately 15.000 families... 

The hybrid system proposed (combining solar and wind power) allows for a continuous production of Energy. The project is based on the idea of utilizing the space between the pillars of the existing viaducts to house a system of wind-powered turbines which will be integrated into the structure. This ensures contained land use and therefore a reduced impact on both landscape and environment in addition to re-designing the visual profile of the viaduct... The solar park proposed in the competition will stretch the full length of the inner carriageway, with the outer carriageway remaining reserved for the transit of vehicles...

* Switzerland - Around the world in 0.083 days: Acabion's vision for future transport

Zürich,Switzerland -Gizmag, by Darren Quick -January 31, 2011: -- Pneumatic Futurama-style transport systems were proposed as far back as the late 1800’s following the invention of pneumatic tubes for carrying mail around buildings. Swiss company Acabion sees such vacuum tube-based mass transport systems becoming a reality by 2100 and has conceived a vehicle capable of traveling at speeds of almost 12,500 mph (20,000 km/h) on such a platform. The company envisages a global network that would let users circle the globe in less than two hours and make transcontinental journeys possible in less than the time it currently takes to get across town...  

The first step in Acabion’s grand vision for the future is the latest version of its GTBO road-ready streamliner – the GTBO VII “da vinci.” This fully electric vehicle would have a top speed of 373 mph (600 km/h) would be orders of magnitude more efficient than a current fully electric compact car...  Thanks to its reduced projected area, turbulence and aerodynamic drag, weight and rolling resistance, Acabion says at 12.4 mph (20 km/h) the vehicle is eight times (or 800 percent) more efficient and at 124 mph (200 km/h) it is 10 times more efficient than a current fully electric vehicle, however, the company claims efficiencies 25 times (2,500 percent) greater than such vehicles are ultimately possible...

The GTBO has been designed for speed and efficiency. Like the Zerotracer, it drives on two main wheels like a motorcycle, with two additional side wheels activated when driving at slow speeds or for parking. Acabion hopes to start selling its streamliners by 2015 for an estimated US$3 million but says prices will drop with mass production...  The company anticipates that, due to the streamliner’s speed potential, by 2050 new elevated roadways – like those mooted for cyclists in the Kolelinia concept – will be needed to separate it from its dilly-dallying forebears...

These fully automated high speed tracks would initially transport people at speeds of around 186.4 mph (300 km/h), before stepping up to 373 mph (600 km/h) in subsequent decades. The tracks would be used for both city and continental mid- and long-range trips with a 1,700+ mile (2,735 km) trip from Los Angeles to Memphis that would currently take more than a day cut to around four hours...  Additionally, the vehicles wouldn’t rely on their own battery packs for power but would draw their energy inductively from the roads themselves, which would be supplied with 100 percent solar power...