After 53,451 kilometres, 18 long months and more than 50 countries, Swiss inventor Louis Palmer has finally finished his long drive home.

Palmer, 36, has now become the first person to drive around the world fuelled solely by solar power. His blue and white three-wheeler taxi, although not yet available for mass production, has confirmed scientist’s long-held beliefs that solar energy can replace our dependence on fossil fuels. In fact, the solar energy and design of the vehicle was so successful that the car reached speeds of just under 60mph (90km/h) and only two days of the journey were given to repairs.

Palmer has managed to create quite a media stir during his trip around the world having picked up a host of notable figures along the way. Jay Leno, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Monaco’s Prince Albert were part of a group of more than 1000 ‘hitchhikers’ that Palmer picked up during his trip across the planet.

Palmer’s next trip will be to travel around the world in 80 days using only solar energy although his next car might need to be able to reach speeds of more than 60mph in order to make this a reality.

A new company formed through researchers at the University of Leeds could be changing the way washing machines function.

Inventors at the university have found a way of cleaning clothes while using only two per cent of the water used by a conventional washing machine, roughly equivalent to one cup of water. The lack of water also means the clothes come out practically dry, reducing any need for a tumble dryer.

In the UK alone, the average household uses around 21 litres of water each day washing clothes. In total this accounts for around 455 million litres of water daily, or 145 Olympic swimming pools. Xeros’ new washing machine will hopefully change this, reducing the need for large water usage.

Company founder Professor Stephen Burkinshaw says: “The performance of the Xeros process in cleaning clothes has been quite astonishing. We’ve shown that it can remove all sorts of everyday stains including coffee and lipstick whilst using a tiny fraction of the water used by conventional washing machines.”

The new technology focuses on using chips to pound the dirt and stains out of the clothing. Whether or not this method affects the durability of the clothing hasn’t been covered, however, the invention has attracted a lot of attention from the industry and, according to Xeros, we could be seeing these readily available as early as 2009.

Everybody else may be complaining about the weather in Scotland, but for one IT company it’s the backbone of their business plan.

Inverness, normally famed for its Loch Ness monster and popular Highland Games festival, will soon be the home of a £20million eco-friendly data centre. The centre. which is backed by partners Microsoft, is part of a plan to regenerate Inverness Harbour and hopefully provide around 400 new jobs.

Alchemy Plus, which understands the normal costs involved in running a datacentre, plans to run the centre using hydroelectric and wind power schemes. Cooling, which normally is a major cost for datacentres, will not be a burden thanks to the cold Scottish weather. Alchemy Plus then plans to recycle the generated heat, piping it into nearby offices, shops and a hotel.

Although it is still only in the planning stages, Alchemy Plus and Microsoft hope to have the company up and running by the end of 2010.