Biofuels, diapers and sails – oh my!

KUEHLUNGSBORN, GERMANY — Cargo ships with kite sails. An underground “diaper” that stores irrigation water. Low-cost solar cells made with “dirty” silicon. A biofuel you can drink made from sawdust, railway ties or dead cows.

Ideas like these are coming alive as the planet warms and energy prices rise, propelling the market for green fuels, renewable energy, low-emission technology and the like. This is especially true in Germany, the host of the G8 Summit, where save-the-planet awareness is traditionally high and governments and investors are willing to throw money at ideas ranging from the weird to the workable.


Some of the concepts made it to the G8 Summit’s media site near Heiligendamm, where presidents, prime ministers and chancellors were hammering out a new climate change agreement.

In seaside pavilions sponsored by “Germany, Land of Ideas,” a promotional agency formed by the German government and the German Industry Association, inventors and entrepreneurs told their stories in the hopes of grabbing the attention of the international media and stray investment officials or diplomats from other countries.

Globe and Mail