Hydrogen-powered cars and planes are on the rise, and this week Germany announced plans to launch the world’s first completely hydrogen-powered passenger train in 2017. In other transportation news, Volvo unveiled a new SuperTruck that’s 70 percent more fuel-efficient than big rigs on the road today. The world’s first solar-powered helicopter lifted off on its maiden flight in Maryland. And Amsterdam is getting set to launch a fleet of autonomous boats in its famed canals.
Tesla’s battery technology can power your car and your house, but how about an entire neighborhood? The company just announced plans to install the world’s largest backup battery in Los Angeles, and it’ll be able to run 2,500 households for an entire day. The cost of solar power continues to fall, and Abu Dhabi just set a new world record by hitting a price point of just 2.42 cents per kilowatt hour. General Motors announced plans to power all of its operations with 100 percent renewable energy by the year 2050, and we took a firsthand look at the largest airport solar farm on the planet.
Belgium is known for its beer — and one brewery in Bruges just built a two-mile-long underground beer pipeline to cut down on transportation costs and traffic congestion. In other design and technology news, an Australian father and his son used crowdfunding to raise over $13 million for a honey harvesting hive that supports threatened bee populations. A Turkish company has found a way to turn cars into fully operational real-life Transformers. And in wearable tech news, Wair unveiled a pollution filtering scarf that monitors air quality and Felder Felder created a dress that is basically 97 percemt car.