In 2007, the city of Sydney shut off its lights to promote reduced power consumption. In 2012, people across 135 countries can join in during the World Wildlife Foundation’s annual Earth Hour event and go dark from 8:30 P.M. to 9:30 P.M. in your local time zone. For the ecologically minded, the event is an opportunity to raise awareness about power consumption, and the global community in which we live. For the astronomically minded, it could be a golden opportunity to see the sky with less light pollution. Whatever the reason, will you be dimming the lights tonight?

A couple of rules that most people can agree on: Humans need water to survive, and that while living in groups humans will produce waste water of some kind. How to keep that water clean and divest ourselves of that waste has been an ongoing problem, especially in large scale urban living environments. However, new technology from Pennsylvania State University might not only clean water, but produce enough electrical power to be self-sustaining.

While electric cars are just now starting to break into the mainstream auto market, it should be noted that they have a far longer history than most are aware. For instance, this is the Roberts electric car, from 1896. A mere 115 years ago, before Ford’s model T or heavier-than-air flight, the one-of-a-kind Roberts could go for an impressive 40 miles on a single charge. Coincidentally, this is the same range advertised for the Chevy Volt, the combination electric-gas plugin hybrid car that much of the restructured General Motor’s hopes are riding on.

Of course, the Roberts lacks much of what we’d expect with a car today. Things like inflatable tires, safety belts, or a steering wheel — instead, drivers use a control rod called a “tiller.” Amazingly, this century-old vehicle is still on the road having recently competed in a 60-mile vintage automobile race from London to Brighton. Seeing what the Roberts is capable of, it’s a testament to both 19th century engineering and how distressingly slow the development of electric vehicles has been.

Read on after the break for a video of another electric classic, the 1914 Detroit Electric — some of which were capable of running nearly 100 miles on a single charge.

After the damage caused by the Fukushima disaster, it only makes sense that Japan turn its resources to trying to find another efficient form of clean energy besides nuclear. Research into wind turbine development may have lead to a solution with stunning potential. Wind lenses, brims that go around the outside of a turbine’s blades, can double or even triple the turbine’s power output, bringing wind farms in line with the efficiency and output of nuclear power, without the danger of a meltdown.

The wind lens was developed at Kyushu University, where prototypes are already in use. The wind lense works by creating a pocket of low pressure in front of the turbine. As a result, air rushes to the low pressure point, conveniently enough, right through the turbine, increasing the speed of the turbine and ultimately, the amount of power that is put out.

Led by associate professor of cell and molecular biology David Mullin, researchers at Tulane University have discovered a strain of bacteria that can turn newspaper, or anything made from cellulose, into the biofuel butanol. The bacteria was reportedly found in animal manure in the New Orleans Zoo, and have been feeding happily on pages of the Times Picayune in laboratory experiments.

This isn’t the first bacteria discovered that can produce butanol, nor the first biological process to be tapped for making fuel. However, this strain, called TU-103, has the unique property of being able to produce butanol in the presence of oxygen. The fact that it produces butanol also intrigues researchers, since butanol has greater energy density than other biofuels like ethanol. This makes the fuel is more akin to conventional gasoline and can be burned in cars without any modification.

In London, there was a place you probably never heard of called “Fridge Mountain” where refrigerators went to die. As you can imagine from the name, there were a lot of refrigerators there, and with that wealth of building material and a relatively wacky idea, Films on Fridges was born. When the dumping ground was being cleaned up for the 2012 London Olympics, the volunteers decided that perhaps they could build a theater because, you know, it would be cool. It’s only a temporary installation, but movies are being shown there right now. If you’re lucky enough to be in London, it might be worth checking out. If you aren’t, see if the nearest grocery store will let you set up a TV in their dairy cooler or something.

Check out a bunch of pictures of a bunch of fridges below.

Panasonic, along with eight partner companies, have announced plans to construct a green community from the ground up in Japan’s Fujisawa City. The community will be called the Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (Fujisawa SST), and by 2018 it could provide a carefully planned, eco-friendly space for 1000 residents. The project has already put forth a bold goal of lowering the town’s carbon output 70% from 1990 levels.

Green building is certainly nothing new, but the thrust of Panasonic’s plan is to start from scratch rather than retrofit existing structures and communities with eco-friendly technologies. The idea is that existing technologies and town planning strategies can be brought together harmoniously from the start, for maximum effect and efficiency. And Fujisawa SST will have it all: a smart power grid; solar cells and batteries in every home; roads designed for bikes, walkers, and electric vehicles; networked public lighting, and more.