Wind farms have begun to pop up all across the United States in the past decade thanks to a number of factors, obviously the environmental friendly movement has helped spur this on as well. This week the federal government made an announcement that will surely help bring even more wind power to the United States thanks to a number of newly available wind farm locations.

Wind farms have traditionally been set up in the Midwest due to location and seclusion, but now the federal government is going to allow wind farm leases on the coast of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Virginia, which will be the first in the area. The locations are considered to be very prime areas that are likely to be very profitable but up until now they simply were not available for wind power. Various power companies have expressed interest in the land so the government is hopeful that it’ll be a very successful venture over the next decade. Wind power is quickly becoming the most likely candidate for green energy and this is absolutely a step in the right direction. The government hopes that this along with other efforts will help make wind power plants and wind farms more economical and easier to build which will lead to more development in the future.

Harvard Students Create Electric Soccer Ball

This week a group of researchers at Harvard University officially unveiled their recent invention which may bring electricity to areas of the world thanks to a very unique solution. The project started as a simple idea that there must be an easy way to generate electricity and through significant testing and experimentation the research team managed to create what they call the “soccket” ball.

At first it may sound confusing but the “soccket” ball is simply a portable generator which is powered by humans. The research team essentially found a way to combine electrical generators with a basic soccer ball meaning that with each kick and bounce a little bit of electricity is generated by the ball.

The ball is reportedly able to power a small LED flashlight for about 3 hours after just 15 minutes of play. In many third world countries soccer is already a very popular sport so by bringing in dozens of these new electricity generating balls it would be possible to bring a substantial amount of electricity to remote areas of the world.

Amazingly the research team has already developed numerous “soccket” balls and deployed them to various parts of the world. The team is currently working on a commercial version of the ball which would likely be sold in parts of the world as a toy while also being donated to third world countries as a sort of humanitarian project. No word on when the commercial version may be available but the invention alone is quite impressive.