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Sun-powered Device Converts CO2 into Fuel

2009-02-23T05:13:00.001+01:00

Powered only by natural sunlight, an array of nanotubes is able to convert a mixture of carbon dioxide and water vapour into natural gas at unprecedented rates.

Such devices offer a new way to take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into fuel or other chemicals to cut the effect of fossil fuel emissions on global climate, says Craig Grimes, from Pennsylvania State University, whose team came up with the device.

Although other research groups have developed methods for converting carbon dioxide into organic compounds like methane, often using titanium-dioxide nanoparticles as catalysts, they have needed ultraviolet light to power the reactions.

The researchers' breakthrough has been to develop a method that works with the wider range of visible frequencies within sunlight.
Enhanced activity

The team found it could enhance the catalytic abilities of titanium dioxide by forming it into nanotubes each around 135 nanometres wide and 40 microns long to increase surface area. Coating the nanotubes with catalytic copper and platinum particles also boosted their activity.

The researchers housed a 2-centimetre-square section of material bristling with the tubes inside a metal chamber with a quartz window. They then pumped in a mixture of carbon dioxide and water vapour and placed it in sunlight for three hours.

The energy provided by the sunlight transformed the carbon dioxide and water vapour into methane and related organic compounds, such as ethane and propane, at rates as high as 160 microlitres an hour per gram of nanotubes. This is 20 times higher than published results achieved using any previous method, but still too low to be immediately practical.

If the reaction is halted early the device produces a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen known as syngas, which can be converted into diesel.
Copper boost

"If you tried to build a commercial system using what we have accomplished to date, you'd go broke," admits Grimes. But he is confident that commercially viable results are possible.

"We are now working on uniformly sensitising the entire nanotube array surface with copper nanoparticles, which should dramatically increase conversion rates," says Grimes, by at least two orders of magnitude for a given area of tubes.

This work suggests a "potentially very exciting" application for titanium-dioxide nanotubes, says Milo Shaffer, a nanotube researcher at Imperial College, London. "The high surface area, small critical dimensions, and open structure [of these nanotubes] apparently provide a relatively high activity," he says.

by Jon Evans

Cheaper Materials Could Be Key To Low-cost Solar Cells

2009-02-23T04:43:00.000+01:00

Unconventional solar cell materials that are as abundant but much less costly than silicon and other semiconductors in use today could substantially reduce the cost of solar photovoltaics, according to a new study from the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

These materials, some of which are highly abundant, could expand the potential for solar cells to become a globally significant source of low-carbon energy, the study authors said.

The analysis, which appeared online Feb. 13 in Environmental Science & Technology, examines the two most pressing challenges to large-scale deployment of solar photovoltaics as the world moves toward a carbon neutral future: cost per kilowatt hour and total resource abundance. The UC Berkeley study evaluated 23 promising semiconducting materials and discovered that 12 are abundant enough to meet or exceed annual worldwide energy demand. Of those 12, nine have a significant raw material cost reduction over traditional crystalline silicon, the most widely used photovoltaic material in mass production today.

The work provides a roadmap for research into novel solar cell types precisely when the U. S. Department of Energy and other funders plan to expand their efforts to link new basic research to deployment efforts as part of a national effort to greatly expand the use of clean energy, according to Daniel Kammen, UC Berkeley professor of energy and resources and director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory.

Kammen and colleagues Cyrus Wadia of LBNL and A. Paul Alivisatos of UC Berkeley's Department of Chemistry embarked on an intensive research project to explore the question of whether high-impact materials have been overlooked or underdeveloped during the last several decades of solar cell research.

"The reason we started looking at new materials is because people often assume solar will be the dominant energy source of the future," said Wadia, a post-doctoral researcher who spearheaded the research. "Because the sun is the Earth's most reliable and plentiful resource, solar definitely has that potential, but current solar technology may not get us there in a timeframe that is meaningful, if at all. It's important to be optimistic, but when considering the practicalities of a solar-dominated energy system, we must turn our attention back to basic science research if we are to solve the problem."

The most popular solar materials in use today are silicon and thin films made of CdTe (cadmium telluride) and CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide). While these materials have helped elevate solar to a major player in renewable energy markets, they are still limited by manufacturing challenges. Silicon is expensive to process and mass produce. Furthermore, it has become increasingly difficult to mine enough silicon to meet ever-growing consumer demand.

Thin films, while significantly less costly than silicon and easier to mass produce, would rapidly deplete our natural resources if these technologies were to scale to terawatt hours of annual manufacturing production. A terawatt hour is a billion kilowatt hours.

"We believe in a portfolio of technologies and therefore continue to support the commercial development of all photovoltaic technologies," Kammen said. "Yet, what we've found is that some leading thin films may be difficult to scale as high as global electricity consumption."

"It's not to say that these materials won't play a significant role," Wadia added, "but rather, if our objective is to supply the majority of electricity in this way, we must quickly consider alternative materials that are Earth-abundant, non-toxic and cheap. These are the materials that can get us to our goals more rapidly."

The team identified a large material extraction cost (cents/watt) gap between leading thin film materials and a number of unconventional solar cell candidates, including iron pyrite, copper sulfide and copper oxide. They showed that iron pyrite is several orders of magnitude better than any alternative on important metrics of both cost and abundance. In the report, the team referenced some recent advances in nanoscale science to argue that the modest efficiency losses of unconventional solar cell materials would be offset by the potential for scaling up while saving significantly on materials costs.

Finding an affordable electricity supply is essential for meeting basic human needs, Kammen said, yet 30 percent of the world's population remains without reliable or sufficient electrical energy. Scientific forecasts predict that to meet the world's energy demands by 2050, global carbon emissions would have to grow to levels of irreversible consequences.

"As the U.S. envisions a clean energy future consistent with the vision outlined by President Obama, it is exciting that the range of promising solar cell materials is expanding, ideally just as a national renewable energy strategy takes shape," said Kammen, who is co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment and UC Berkeley's Class of 1935 Distinguished Chair of Energy.

The study by is by Wadia, Kammen and Alivisatos and will appear in the March print issue of Environmental Science & Technology.

The work was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Foundation, the Karsten Family Foundation Endowment of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory and the Class of 1935.

Dutch Keep on Buying Expensive e-Bikes!

2009-01-23T21:55:00.002+01:00

BREDA, The Netherlands – The economic crisis is not hampering the sale of e-Bikes in The Netherlands. Despite an average retail price of € 1,900 per electric bike the Dutch keep on buying the pedal assisted bicycles in record-breaking numbers. During the first three quarters of 2008 sales were up by 52% in value and 35% in volume.

The Dutch Dealer association BOVAG announced these statistics at its yearly Congress that was held yesterday. With the 35% rise in quantity during the first nine months of 2008, the BOVAG confirmed its earlier expectations that for the whole of 2008 the sale of e-Bikes in the Netherlands will end at 120,000 units and a share of the total bicycle market of about 10%. For the whole of 2007 e-Bike sales stood at 89,000 units (45,000 was the total 2006 number).
The money maker in every bike shop

In terms of turnover e-Bikes scored an even bigger increase. With this 52% plus in value electric bicycles in Holland are growing into the dominant money maker in every bike shop. The Dutch Dealer association said yesterday that e-Bikes currently account for 29% of the turnover made in the whole Dutch two-wheeler sector that next to the sale of new bikes and P&A also includes the sale of mopeds and scooters.

The BOVAG statistics did not mention which brands were the best sellers last year. However, Sparta (part of the Accell Group) is widely recognized as the leading e-Bike brand in Holland which thanks to its big share of the Dutch market, is also leading on the European e-Bike market. The ION (photo) with the batteries mounted in the down tube is Sparta’s most popular model.

Because of the boom in e-Bikes the sale of regular bikes in the 700 to 900 euro (retail) price bracket suffered in 2008. However, cheaper prices bikes in the 500 to 700 euro segment managed to increase in market share.

The BOVAG also stated that dealers increased their share in bike sales to 81% (was 75%). In terms of value the Dutch specialist trade controlled an even bigger share of the market – 91% which was 88% during the first nine months of 2007.

Harvard Wants Your PC for Solar Research

2008-12-09T13:44:00.000+01:00

IBM and Harvard scientists want to make use of your computer. They are developing plastic solar cells that will be more flexible and allow more absorption of sunlight than traditional silicon cells. Their goal is to make the material more cost efficient and flexible.

To do this they would like to be able to use at least 1 million idle computers from around the world. The pc's would help in their calculations and reduce the time they acquire and process needed data from a possible 20 years down to approximate 2 years.

You can download the software and let it run on your computer while it's idle and also includes security software.

Story about the Project Here at Reuters.

Solar-Powered Mobile Phones Coming Soon

2008-10-29T15:25:00.003+01:00

Analysts ABI Research suggests that in the coming years we will be talking about sunshine.

The research says that solar-powered mobile phone base stations will turn mobile communications into the greenest high industry.

According to an estimate, more than 335,000 base stations all around the world will be using sun power by the end of 2013 and around 40,000 among them would be completely autonomous and off-grid.

Most of these base stations will either use mains electricity or diesel to boost their solar panels and particularly in those Northern countries where it is needed because of population density and cloud cover.

In this connection, the developing countries of the world may become the biggest winners as remote communities will receive phone coverage and internet connections for the first time. Some UN figures suggest that half of the world is still not able to make a phone call.

Some other technologies that networks may consider improving coverage are wind power, compressed air and fuel cells.
Related Post

Toshiba’s Fuel Cell Concept

2008-10-27T00:39:00.000+01:00

Forget charging batteries, or even whipping out a solar panel. Toshiba says its first fuel cell powered gadgets will be launched in just a few short months!

The company says its direct methanol fuel cell will hit shelves before March 31 2009. There’s no word on which gadget it’ll turn up in first, but the firm showed off a mobile phone powered by the technology in Japan last week, and we’ve seen MP3 players packing it too.

It should mean much more power, for a longer period of time, with the fuel cell giving off a small amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide as it cranks away, generating power on the go.

Re-charging fuel cell gadgets is also much faster than using gadgets, since the cell can simply be swapped for a new one.

As well as shoving fuel cells inside brand new gadgets, Toshiba’s working on re-chargers for existing kit, using a fuel cell to generate power for whatever’s plugged in.

Keep reading auto-opstroom for news of the first products as soon as they’re available.

Husqvarna uses sun to power your lawnmower

2008-10-25T18:10:00.004+02:00

Husqvarna plans to show off a solar-powered version of its robotic lawnmower this weekend at the Green Industry and Equipment Expo 2008.

The Stockholm, Sweden-based company originally announced the robot last spring in Europe. This will be its U.S. debut. And what better place to tout a new robotic lawnmower than at a green expo in Kentucky, a state famous for its grass?

Like its original robotic lawnmower, Husqvarna's Automower Solar Hybrid is capable of autonomously maintaining a property of up to a half acre and runs on a rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery.
(Credit: Husqvarna)

The 22-pound robot works from a perimeter set with a wire that is slightly buried or staked in place below the grass-cutting level.

If the robot is set to mow during daylight--and honestly, how many people mow at night?--the Solar Hybrid version can draw on solar power while it does its job, extending the time between recharges.

Like the original Husqvarna Automower, the Solar Hybrid version has built-in safety features. The robot automatically shuts off its blades if the mower is lifted, can be locked, has an alarm to deter theft, and uses sensors to work around large objects such as lawn furniture.

Are people going to shell out the cash for a robotic lawnmower given the state of the economy?

Considering how expensive lawn services or gasoline for a regular mower can be, the robot might actually be the more frugal option over the long run. We'll have to wait and see once Husqvarna reveals the price. The original Automower sells for about $2,000.

Panasonic Halves Size of Prototype Laptop Fuel Cell

2008-10-24T04:32:00.002+02:00

Engineers at Panasonic have succeeded in reducing the size of a prototype methanol fuel cell so that it's no larger than a laptop battery pack but provides all-day power.

The fuel cell, which the Japanese company has been developing for the last eight years, was first shown at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2006. At that time it was about double the size of a laptop battery, but the latest version, due to be unveiled later this week at an event in Japan, is half the size, Panasonic said Monday.

The new version has a volume of 270 cubic centimeters and can deliver an average power of 10 watts with a peak output of 20 watts, Panasonic said. It weighs 320 grams.

On a 200cc charge of methanol it should be able to deliver power for 20 hours -- considerably longer than the Lithium Ion batteries used in laptop PCs today -- and when the methanol gets low all that's required is a quick refill and it's back to full capacity. This fast recharge is seen as one of the key advantages of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). They are also viewed as more environmentally friendly than Lithium Ion batteries because the only by-product is a little water and carbon dioxide.

Additionally Panasonic has also developed a stand-alone DMFC charger that has a couple of USB power outlets and can be used to recharge dead gadgets such as iPods and cell phones when away from a power socket. The recharger is slightly larger at 360cc and weighs 350 grams.

Both will get their first public showing at the Hydrogen Energy Advanced Technology Exhibition 2008 that is due to open Wednesday in the western Japanese city of Fukuoka.

Neither is likely to go on sale soon. Panasonic doesn't have any firm plans for commercialization but said it hopes to have them on the market by the end of 2012.

A handful of big-name consumer electronics companies have been developing DMFCs for the last several years, but are yet to bring the products to market. For the last few years most companies have vaguely stated "next year" as a commercialization date but it's an answer that's given no matter when asked.

That might be about to change. Toshiba recently made the clearest promise yet to DMFC commercialization: sometime during its current financial year, which ends in March 2009. At the recent Ceatec show in Japan the company demonstrated a working cell phone that included a DMFC, but Toshiba isn't letting on yet if this will be its first product.

IDG News Service

IMEC Reports Method to Extend Lifetime of Organic Solar Cells

2008-10-21T00:49:00.001+02:00

IMEC’s associated laboratory IMOMEC, located on the campus of the Hasselt University, developed a method to stabilize the nanomorphology of organic solar cells resulting in a lifetime improvement of at least a factor 10. With these stabilized solar cells, efficiencies were achieved comparable to state-of-the-art organic solar cells. This breakthrough paves the way to commercial organic solar cells with an operational lifetime of over 5 years and efficiencies of over 10%.

The efficiency and operation of organic solar cells strongly depends on the nanomorphology of the active layer, i.e. on a stable mix of organic compounds that can trap the light’s energy and transport it to an electric contact. IMEC already reported such cells based on P3HT:PCBM with efficiencies near 5%. But to date, the lifetime of these cells is far too short for commercial applications, for which 5 years is seen as a minimum. Under long term operation, all solar cells based on an intimate mixing of organic semiconductors deteriorate. This is due to segregation of the mixture whereby the compounds tend to separate into different phases and consequently reduce the efficient conversion of light into electricity. IMEC has shown before that this phase segregation is related to the mobility of the organic polymer and that fixation of the nanomorphology of the polymers could result in a prolonged operational lifetime.

IMEC/IMOMEC has now introduced a new method and new conjugated polymers to stabilize the nanomorphology of the active layer making it far more robust to phase segregation under prolonged operation. Experiments on bulk heterojunction organic solar cells based on this new material showed no degradation of the efficiency after more than 100 hours whereas reference cells degraded already after a few hours. This means that a lifetime improvement of at least a factor 10 can be obtained. And the cells achieved efficiencies near 4% which is comparable to state-of-the-art.

Future research targets further refinement of the method by optimizing the chemical structures of the conjugated polymers.

IMEC is a world-leading independent research center in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology. IMEC vzw is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, has a sister company in the Netherlands, IMEC-NL, offices in the US, China and Taiwan, and representatives in Japan. Its staff of more than 1600 people includes more than 500 industrial residents and guest researchers. In 2007, its revenue (P&L) was EUR 244.5 million.

IMEC’s More Moore research aims at semiconductor scaling towards sub-32nm nodes. With its More than Moore research, IMEC looks into technologies for nomadic embedded systems, wireless autonomous transducer solutions, biomedical electronics, photovoltaics, organic electronics and GaN power electronics.

IMEC’s research bridges the gap between fundamental research at universities and technology development in industry. Its unique balance of processing and system know-how, intellectual property portfolio, state-of-the-art infrastructure and its strong network worldwide position IMEC as a key partner for shaping technologies for future systems.

Further information on IMEC can be found at http://www.imec.be.

New Hybrid Material Pumps Up Solar Power

2008-10-17T21:10:00.001+02:00

A new hybrid material could give solar energy the boost it needs to compete in the alternative energy lineup. According to researchers at Ohio State University, who published their work in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the new material behaves in a surprising, yet favorable way—it can absorb the entire spectrum of light emitted from the Sun, and it gives off electrons in a way that makes them easier to capture, and thus easier to convert into electricity.

The researchers developed this super-solar material, which combines conductive plastic with metals including molybdenum and titanium, with the help of a computer model. Once they identified a material with the best properties, they worked with National Taiwan University to synthesize these molecules.

The surprising, yet favorable behavior

The researchers say they were surprised by how the hybrid material responded to light. Instead of only fluorescing (like typical solar cells), these molecules fluoresced and phosphoresced. The cool thing about phosphorescence is that the ejected electrons hang around longer before falling back into the molecule than those generated through fluorescence. This gives the collector a little extra time to snag the electrons and convert them into electricity. While other materials are known to behave in this way, as far as the researchers know, this is the first time a material has been created that both absorbs the entire visible light spectrum and undergoes fluorescence/phosphorescence.

This is exciting news, but it's still in the lab. The researchers say that it will be years before the material is commercially available.

18 Tools to Track Car and Fuel Maintenance

2008-10-16T03:33:00.002+02:00

With the economy in such an uncertain place, it’s very likely that people will be holding on to their cars far longer than they have in the past. With this in mind, it’s important to take care of your vehicle, which can be made simple using a variety of online services. Here are 18 tools to help you keep track of your car’s maintenance, as well as gas consumption, mileage, and more.

What sites do you use to maintain your car?

Auto Repair

DriverSide.com - DriverSide can help you find a car and maintain it once it’s yours. The site provides news about recalls, when to get your car serviced, helps you find out how much parts cost, and they will even help you sell it. Covers pretty much the entire life cycle of an automobile.

GarageSeek.com - Finding a reliable and honest auto repair garage can be tough, but GarageSeek attempts to provide you with reviews of garages throughout all of North America.

Ownersite.com - Ownersite is a subscription plan service that helps you keep track of your car’s maintenance, costs and reminders of when you next need service.

RepairPal.com - RepairPal assists you with getting estimates for repairs, finding well reviewed shops and keeping track of your car’s maintenance.

ServiceBeacon.com - Keep track of your car’s maintenance schedule, receive email reminders and schedule appointments with your dealer online.

TheAutoLog.com - Set up a profile for your car, track its maintenance history and display it for others to see.

TheCarTracker.com - Track your car’s maintenance, as well as modifications and costs that you have incurred.

YourGarageOnline.com - Keep track of your car’s information, repair history and easily see when you need to go in for your next check up.
Gas Mileage

Fuelly.com - Fuelly allows you to enter data on your vehicle before you start tracking it, then you can compare how you are doing with other owners of the same model. You can also enter data from their iPhone site, participate in forums, see how much you have spent over time and more.

MPGTune.com - Track your MPG, your annual fuel cost, see the top mileage of other users with the same car and more.

MyMilemarker.com - Enter anytime you gas up via their website, phone or Twitter, and My Mile marker will give you reports on your gas mileage.

AccuFuel - Tracks your fuel usage over a number of years and allows you to switch to other units of measurement besides gallons if the need arises.

FuelGauge - Customizable fuel consumption iPhone app that allows you to set volume measurement, currency, enter historical data and more.

Car Care - An iPhone application that allows you to track fuel economy and reminds you of regular maintenance requirements.

GasHog - An iPhone and iPod Touch application for keeping track of your gas mileage that supports multiple vehicles and exporting data amongst other features.

Gasmate - An app just for tracking your gas mileage over time.

iPhoneMiles.com - An iPhone site that allows you to keep track of your miles easily instead of on slips of paper.

Miles.Dynadel.com - iPhone optimized site to keep track of the fuel efficiency of your car.

Artificial Eel Cells Could Be Used for Bio-Batteries to Power Small Devices

2008-10-13T00:32:00.002+02:00

New Haven, Conn. — Researchers at Yale University have created a blueprint for artificial cells that are more powerful and efficient than the natural cells they mimic and could one day be used to power tiny medical implants.

The scientists began with the question of whether an artificial version of the electrocyte – the energy-generating cells in electric eels – could be designed as a potential power source. “The electric eel is very efficient at generating electricity,” said Jian Xu, a postdoctoral associate in Yale’s Department of Chemical Engineering. “It can generate more electricity than a lot of electrical devices.”

Xu came up with the first blueprint that shows how the electrocyte’s different ion channels work together to produce the fish’s electricity while he was a graduate student under former Yale assistant professor of mechanical engineering David LaVan, now at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

But the scientists didn’t stop there. “We’re still trying to understand how the mechanisms in these cells work,” said LaVan. “But we asked ourselves: ‘Do we know enough to sit down and start thinking about how to build these things?’ Nobody had really done that before.”

Using the new blueprint as a guide, LaVan and Xu set about designing an artificial cell that could replicate the electrocyte’s energy production. “We wanted to see if nature had already optimized the power output and energy conversion efficiency of this cell,” said Xu. “And we found that an artificial cell could actually outperform a natural cell, which was a very surprising result.”

The artificial cell LaVan and Xu modeled is capable of producing 28 percent more electricity than the eel’s own electrocyte, with 31 percent more efficiency in converting the cell’s chemical energy – derived from the eel’s food – into electricity.

While eels use thousands of electrocytes to produce charges of up to 600 volts, LaVan and Xu show it would be possible to create a smaller “bio-battery” using several dozen artificial cells. The tiny bio-batteries would only need to be about ¼-inch thick to produce the small voltages needed to power tiny electrical devices such as retinal implants or other prostheses.

Although the engineers came up with a design, it will still be some time before the artificial cells are actually built. For one thing, they still need a power source before they could start producing electricity. LaVan speculates the cells could be powered in a way similar to their natural counterparts. It’s possible, he said, that bacteria could be employed to recycle ATP – responsible for transferring energy within the cell – using glucose, a common source of chemical energy derived from food.

With an energy source in place, the artificial cells could one day power medical implants and would provide a big advantage over battery-operated devices. “If it breaks, there are no toxins released into your system,” said Xu. “It would be just like any other cell in your body.”

Citation: Nature Nanotechnology.

‘Black Silicon’ Could Revolutionize Solar Cell Technology

2008-10-13T00:18:00.000+02:00

A newly discovered material called ‘black silicon’ is between 100 and 500 times more sensitive to light than conventional silicon, and could be used to revolutionize solar energy generation.

The material was discovered when a team of Harvard University scientists shone an ultra-powerful laser (briefly producing the same amount of energy as the sun falling on the entire surface of the Earth) on a silicon wafer, before adding sulphur hexafluoride. The result was a silicon wafer that looked black to the naked eye, but when examined under an electron microscope turned out to be covered with a massive amount of ultra-tiny spikes.

The substance has since been found to be incredibly sensitive to light, leading to a range of exciting plans for commercialization, including night-vision and infra-red imaging systems. According to James Carey, co-founder of Harvard spin-off company SiOnyx, “We have seen a 100 to 500 times increase in sensitivity to light compared to conventional silicon detectors.”

However, insiders in the solar power industry are likely to be more excited by the prospect of using black silicon technology to build far more efficient photovoltaic cells, using essentially the same silicon-based processes that are currently employed.

Harvard is expected to announce this Monday (13th October), that it has licensed patents for black silicon to SiOnyx, so it seems likely that we could see the radical new technology put to practical good use in the near future.

Image Credit - SiOnyx

AlertMe's Smart Plug Monitors Energy Use, Cuts Off Electricity Remotely

2008-10-11T01:47:00.002+02:00

UK-based company AlertMe is prepping for the release of the first product in its new Energy line called the "Smart Plug."
Basically, you just plug in the Smart Plug into any outlet you want to monitor. The AlertMe Hub from the brand's Security package is paired with the Smart Plug to serve as a wireless broadband and GPRS connection. This means you can view that outlet's usage statistics on a web site both on the computer and your handsets. What's more, you can remotely cut the power off of that particular outlet by accessing the web interface. In fact, you can even program the system to do that on a particular time of the day if you want.

The Smart Plug itself will be available this November for around $50 per, but it won't work without the AlertMe Security package (containing the Hub needed) that sells for $300 so the whole system's quite pricey for now.
Next year though, AlertMe is going to offer a Smart Plug package that comes with the Hub and a few accessories which I expect would be cheaper than buying the Security package. AlertMe claims that by using the Smart Plug, you can save as much as 20 percent of your power consumption which SmartPlanet notes is a "bold claim." We'll find out in due time whether that's true or not; for now, what we know is that AlertMe is also coming up with an electricity meter and a heater.

Thermoelectric Device Could Be Used to Charge Gadgets with Their Own Heat Someday

2008-10-10T01:01:00.002+02:00

Murata Manufacturing, the same company behind unicycling kindergartner robot, Seiko-chan, has come up with a device capable of converting heat into energy ready for use. The thermoelectric device is comprised of two ceramic semiconductors of which one is subjected to 90 degrees Celsius heat while the other is cooled at 20 degrees Celsius. These two semiconductors of opposing temperatures sandwich a metal plate.

The whole setup produces an electric current, with the current version of the thermoelectric device having a power output of ten milliwatts that's just enough to run a small, plastic fan. It's obvious that the technology is still in its infancy but once developed, the device could be a fixture on gadgets such as cell phones and laptops, enabling them to convert their own heat into energy to charge their batteries.

Cylindrical Solar Cell Sunroof

2008-10-09T01:06:00.002+02:00

There are approximately 30 billion
square feet (2.8 billion square meters) of expansive, flat roofs in the U.S., an area large enough to collect the sunlight needed to power 16 million American homes, or replace 38 conventional coal-fired power plants. By covering these roofs with large, flat arrays of cylindrical thin-film solar cells (think massive installations of fluorescent tubes, only absorbing light rather than emitting it), Fremont, Calif.–based Solyndra, Inc., hopes to harness that energy.

"With a cylinder, we are collecting light from all angles, even collecting diffuse light," says CEO Chris Gronet, who founded the solar cylinder company in 2005 based on an idea he had late one night while pondering less expensive ways to install photovoltaic panels. Because the arrays do not have to be angled or anchored into the roof, he adds, "we have half the installation cost and can install in one third the time."

Solyndra is now churning out copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cells, wrapped into a cylindrical shape and encased in glass. This design not only seals out moisture but allows the glass to act as a sunlight concentrator, funneling photons onto the thin film, according to Gronet. He says the Fremont plant, which opened in the spring, will ultimately be capable of producing 110 megawatts worth of solar cylinders annually, but he declined to specify how many cylinders that is.

The company says that the solar cylinders—paired with a roof painted white to better reflect sunlight—can collect 20 percent more sunshine than their conventional flat counterparts. The estimate is based on 50 kilowatts worth of the tubular cells that the company installed on its own roof.

As it stands, Solyndra's CIGS solar cells convert as much as 14 percent of the sunlight that hits them to electricity and, all told, Gronet expects that a Solyndra system will deliver twice as many kilowatt-hours of electricity from a given rooftop.

The cylindrical design also allows Solyndra to lay its arrays flat and to space them so that the wind can flow through them, rather than lift them up like it can with angled arrays. This means that the solar cylinders can be installed without affixing them onto the roof—and still withstand up to 130 mile-per-hour (209 kilometer-per-hour) winds.

"Our test installation in Florida survived the recent hurricane," Tropical Storm Fay, Gronet says. "Because of the lower installation cost, we have a clear path to grid parity." In other words, the newly shaped cells have the potential of harnessing solar power at around the same price as electricity from coal-fired power plants, currently the cheapest generation option at around six cents per kilowatt hour. Typical solar photovoltaic installations, on the other hand, cost roughly 25 to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity, roughly one half of which is related to the expense of physically installing them.

Gronet declined to reveal the cost of manufacturing solar cylinders or the price tag of electricity it delivers—primarily because if they are able to deliver lower cost electricity they want to preserve that extra profit for their customers, he admits. The solar cylinders thrive in countries that set a minimum guaranteed price for solar electricity, such as Spain and Germany where the so-called feed-in tariff is as much as 44 Euro cents per kilowatt-hour.

As a result, Phoenix Solar, AG, a German company that installs solar power systems, is Solyndra's biggest customer to date—and the latter claims to have $1.2 billion in multiyear contracts, largely because the cylinders can be installed in days rather than weeks and do not require special supports. The company already has 10 prototype installations, located in Germany as well as in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington, D.C.

The questions that remain include price and reliability in manufacturing, according to environmental engineer Vasilis Fthenakis, senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory's National Photovoltaic Environment Research Center in Upton, N.Y., and Columbia University. "Companies have had difficulties producing CIGS without many defects," he says. "They may get more from deflected or reflected light but how much more? That needs to counterbalance the increased costs of production," due to the cylinder design and specialized thin-film materials.

That said, commercial rooftops are already among the most promising areas for installing solar power. "We envision large-scale photovoltaics in the desert but it's much easier for people to accept systems on the roof," Fthenakis notes. "It's cheaper to put them on roofs than on real estate."

Mobile Energy Storage For The Military.

2008-10-07T00:23:00.002+02:00

The Department of Defense is looking for something light but powerful for U.S. soldiers to wear. The Department doled out $1.75 million in prize money to the makers of three light-weight power devices for its inaugural “Wearable Power Competition” over the weekend, following a grueling field test of competing fuel cells, batteries and energy storage units. Coming out on top was German fuel cell maker Smart Fuel Cells (SFC), which took both first and third place, while Applied Materials scored second for its own fuel cell.

The competition, which attracted military heavyweights like Lockheed Martin as well as battery veterans like Ray-O-Vac, sought the safest and most power dense device that could be worn by a soldier and produce 20 watts average power for 96 hours but weigh less than 4 kilograms — about half the weight of an equivalent battery system. The contest received nearly 170 entrants before whittling the list down to 48 finalists. Of those, 20 teams were selected to put their power devices through an eight-day bench test at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif.

SFC took home first place, and $1 million, for its M-25 Portable Fuel Cell, which it co-developed with DuPont. The cell uses DuPont’s direct methanol technology and SFC’s fuel cell design and was deployed for limited use in the field for the U.S. Army earlier this year. SFC eked out a first place win over Applied Materials’ propane-powered solid-oxide fuel cells in part because it was 28 grams lighter.

SFC also won third place (and another $500,000) for its JENNY fuel cell, developed with partner Capitol Connections LLC of Middleburg, Va. The JENNY system is currently being field tested by NATO. Both systems include a fuel cell, a fuel cartridge, a rechargeable Li-ion battery and a voltage converter, and both devices were still ticking when the bench test ended, the company says.

Mobile energy storage for the military could be big business for little startups. Lockheed has partnered with EEStor to deploy its ultracapacitor-derived device on the battlefield, while Altairnano has signed a $2.5 million deal with U.S. Navy to test its ceramic Li-ion batteries. Meanwhile, Boise, Idaho-based M2E is developing a device that can convert kinetic energy into electricity and says it will be testing units with the U.S. military sometime this year.

Images courtesy of SFC.

Ultra-Thin Solar Cells Could Generate Power Through Windows

2008-10-07T00:14:00.002+02:00

Solar cells that are transparent enough to be used to tint windows on buildings or cars, have been developed by U.S researchers.

Conventional solar cells are bulky and rigid but lightweight cells are usually far less efficient. However, a new method of making the silicon-based devices could create thin, flexible cells without any trade-offs.

Brittle wafers of silicon are sliced into ultra-thin pieces and carefully 'printed' onto a malleable surface. The cells are so flexible they can be rolled around a pencil.

'You can make (the solar cells) in the form of a gray film that could be added to architectural glass,' said lead researcher John Rogers of the University of Illinois.

'It opens up spaces on the fronts of buildings as opportunities for solar energy.'

The new technology could be used on car windows, generating enough electricity to power the GPS or air conditioning.

Solar cells, which convert solar energy into electricity, are in high demand because of higher oil prices and concerns over climate change.

Many international companies are making thin-film solar cells, but they are typically less efficient at converting solar energy into electricity than conventional cells.

Rogers said his technology uses conventional single crystal silicon. 'It's robust. It's highly efficient. But in its current form, it's rigid and fragile,' he said in the journal Nature Materials.

Rogers' team uses a special etching method that slices chips off the surface of a bulk silicon wafer. The sliced chips are 10 to 100 times thinner than the wafer, and the size can be adapted to the application.

Once sliced, a device picks up the bits of silicon chips 'like a rubber stamp' and transfers them to a new surface material, Rogers said.

'These silicon solar cells become like a solid ink pad for that rubber stamp. The surface of the wafers after we've done this slicing become almost like an inking pad,' he said.

'We just print them down onto a target surface.'

The final step is to electrically connect these cells to get power out of them, he said.

Adding flexibility to the material would make the cells far easier to transport. Rogers envisions the material being 'rolled up like a carpet and thrown on the truck.'

The technology has been licensed to a startup company called Semprius Inc in the U.S.

Antares Accomplishes First Fuel-Cell Flight

2008-10-03T11:24:00.003+02:00

The last day of September, at the Stuttgart airport, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) presented the first manned airplane that can take-off and fly exclusively with a fuel cell. The innovative fuel cell, based on a high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), generates power for the electric engine of the motor glider Antares DLR-H2. The aim of the project is to evaluate the potential of the technology for future applications in commercial aircraft.

In airplanes on ground, turbines or ancillary aggregates generate the energy for air conditioning. During flight, a part of the energy generated in the main turbines is used for a variety of electrical applications as well as for air conditioning. In the future, fuel cells could be an environmentally sound and energy efficient alternative for an aircraft’s electrical requirements. As an auxiliary power supply, a fuel cell would generate electrical power, heat and even potable water for on-board usage. Thus, fuel cells would help reduce weight and electrical power failure risk as several distributed fuel cells replace the turbine generators. For the foreseeable future fuel cells are not expected to be used for large commercial aircraft propulsion.

Before being adapted for aircraft, however, the technology needs further development and testing. The DLR is a leading partner for the aircraft industry for this effort. First results from the DLR testing demonstrate excellent performance of the high temperature PEM fuel cells even under difficult low pressure conditions. This technology is based on Celtec®-membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) by BASF, a technology easily integrated into aircraft auxiliary power fuel cells.

Three partners are cooperating in the evaluation of the high temperature PEM fuel cell: BASF, as manufacturer of the only commercial membrane electrode assembly for this fuel cell type; the Danish company Serenergy A/S, supplier of the compact, air-cooled stack; and, DLR, responsible for the integration of the stack in the fuel cell system and subsequently in the airplane. DLR will also conduct the testing according to the special requirements of aviation.

High temperature PEM fuel cells operate at 120 to 180°C, need no humidification, require only a simple cooling system, offer a broad operating window and tolerate impurities in the hydrogen fuel gas. The latter characteristic is especially important if, in the future, impure hydrogen is sourced from jet fuel reformation on board the aircraft.

Source: DLR
[Oct 2008]

Scientists Create Energy-Producing Solar Paint

2008-10-02T05:06:00.001+02:00

A recent partnership between the steel industry and UK university researchers has led to the development of a unique photovoltaic paint that can be applied to steel.

The paint is made up of dye and electrolytes that can be applied as a paste to steel sheets. Four layers of paint are applied to each sheet. When light hits the solar cells, excited molecules release an electron into an electron collector and circuit (nanocrystalline titanium dioxide). Finally, the electrons move back into the dye.

Photovoltaic paint has a number of advantages over traditional solar cells. It doesn’t have the material limitations of silicon solar cells, so it theoretically provides many terawatts of electricity at a low cost. Additionally, the paint can absorb light across the visible spectrum— so even cloudy days will reap lots of energy.

According to steel company Corus Colours, the solar cells can achieve a power conversion efficiency of 11 percent.

Production of solar paint will begin soon— a lab built to develop the new technology is starting work on October 30 in North Wales. Ultimately, researchers at the PV Accelerator Laboratory in North Wales hope to develop a way to apply solar paint to steel at 30 to 40 square meters per second.

I only wonder if solar paint will be available for purchase to consumers in the future— if so, it could easily lead to a do-it-yourself solar revolution.

Written by Ariel Schwartz

Photo credit: Corus Colours

Seat Brisa—A Solar Powered Car For Leisure Driving

2008-10-01T03:18:00.002+02:00

Allow the breeze to take you on a smooth ride on a lazy Sunday morning. I am not penning any poetic lines and I seriously mean what I just wrote. “Brisa” is the Spanish word for “breeze,” and fitted with a seat and wheels it becomes Seat Brisa, a solar-powered sports car. Taking a cue from a small sailing boat that is dependent on natural elements for its mobility, Seat Brista is also supposed to sail over land but by the power of the sun. Nano-photovoltaic cells within its translucent elastomere shell translate power to a rear-wheel-mounted motor.

A car designed for sunday mornings, drawing inspiration from small sail boats. As a sail boat is propelled by nature, the Seat Brisa is propelled by the sun.
And when the sun hides behind the clouds, this breezy car can get juiced alternatively from home, too.

Sporting an uber light and translucent body, this two-seater seems to be an open-roof concept with an abrupt rear. Designer Miguel Ángel Iranzo Sánchez has also cut it down to three wheels. So another addition to the three-wheeled generation of eco-cars.

The Longest Lasting AA Alkaline Battery Cell from Panasonic

2008-09-29T15:20:00.001+02:00

AA batteries have been around for such a long time already that we more or less take them for granted, but there is still more to the evolution of AA batteries than meets the eye. Case in point, Panasonic’s Evolta battery that has already been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s “longest lasting AA alkaline battery cell”. This is a newly created category just for batteries alone, and you can be sure that the Evolta is but a starting point in this category - I can’t wait for the day technology evolves to make alkaline battery cells last virtually forever.

The name Evolta itself is an amalgamation of “evolution” and “voltage”, symbolizing growth and power, respectively. Both of them were specifically designed to work with a wide range of electronics devices, although I think it would be rather foolish to use these in a remote control unless you don’t want to change the batteries in your remote for 10 years or something. It would be more suitable to use the Evolta in energy draining devices like digital cameras and remote control toys, although its use is not limited to just those mentioned products.

What makes the Evolta battery so special? Well, the way it is structured internally offers more space within compared to previous generation batteries, which in turn lets Panasonic cram in even more active materials. Couple that with an improved sealing technology and you end up with a more durable battery by all means. Not only that, newly-developed active materials for the battery’s cathode (manganese dioxide and oxy-hydroxide titanium) and anode (zinc) facilitate a chemical reaction that delivers superior performance. Panasonic has also worked hard to improve the manufacturing process to jam active materials more evenly and densely.

The Evolta will come in AA/AAA flavors in four-pack and eight-pack versions, retailing for $4.99 and $8.99, respectively.

Promethean Power Solar-Powered Refrigerator.

2008-09-27T14:15:00.001+02:00

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Promethean Power Systems, a start-up developing solar-powered refrigerators for India, has raised a round of angel funding from the Quercus Trust.

The funding, finalized Thursday, will allow the company to build another prototype which it hopes to test in India next year, according to company CEO Sorin Gramma.

Promethean Power prototype of a solar-powered refrigerator.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)

Promethean Power showed off its first prototype this week at the Technology Review EmTech 2008 conference.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff is combining solar power with thermoelectrics--materials that create cooling or heat from electrical current--to make a standalone refrigeration unit for rural India.

At the heart of its system is what it calls its hybrid compressor, a cooling unit that can run both off of a diesel generator and three to five 180-watt solar panels.

Solar panels make this sort of refrigerator far more expensive. But Gramma estimates that a milk or food distribution company could save two-thirds what it spends picking up food from farmers.

The refrigeration allows for one, rather than two, milk pick-ups a day. Also, by squeezing as much power as possible from the sun, these cooling stations don't need to run their generators as often.

The electricity from the panels flows through the thermoelectric modules. A heat-exchange system of water tubes creates ice for cold storage, while the heat is whisked away.

Gramma said the company is probably two years away from having a commercial product.

The Quercus Trust, run by David Gelbaum, keeps a low profile but has made a number of seed investments in the clean-tech area.

"The Quercus Trust is a leading investor in solar and other clean-tech technologies and is proud to provide Promethean with capital to further its goal of providing better living conditions for the communities that can most benefit from this technology," it said in a statement.

Pininfarina Sintesi Electric-Hydrogen Hybrid

2008-09-25T01:45:00.001+02:00

At the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, Pininfarina, the famed styling house, showed off its Sintesi concept car. The Sintesi features four suicide scissor doors, a 0.27 coefficient of drag, and rear lights that not only feature the newest LED Osram technology but also have cameras and sensors. The lights visually connect the rear styling to the side by underlining the car's central axis. But one of this concept's most amazing features lies inside.

The Sintesi's instrument panel is unlike any other I've seen. The entire panel is one translucent piece that uses various light displays to show information. If you look closely, it really is the entire dashboard from one end to the other, not just the oval-shaped display in the center. The company claims that the car could help do away with traffic signals and road signs altogether, since it displays them all inside the vehicle as you approach them. The car can also "communicate" with other cars in order to determine the best, most traffic-free routes.

Source: Pininfarina

The car is an electric-hydrogen hybrid, with small fuel cells located throughout the vehicle rather than in one central location. The system is expected to deliver in the neighborhood of 700 hp. All of this sounds incredibly cool and yet maddeningly vague. The company has been slowly revealing the car and its features over the course of several months. One thing is for certain: this four-door is a heck of an alternative to a Honda Accord.

Suniva Develops Low-Cost, High Efficiency Solar Cells

2008-09-25T01:34:00.001+02:00

Suniva, an Atlanta-based startup, has recently developed solar cells that can achieve 20 percent efficiency. Unlike other high-efficiency cells, Suniva is using low-cost processes that will make their solar cells cost-competitive with conventional sources of electricity.

Suniva uses a combination of superior cell design and screen-printing technology to achieve its solar cell efficiency.

According to Ajeet Rohatgi, Suniva’s CTO, the company’s techniques can produce solar energy for 8 to 10 cents per KWh— a comparable price to conventional energy sources in the United States.

Despite its achievement, Suniva still has a long way to go before the cheap solar cells are on the market. During testing, the company used 200-micrometer thick and 100-micrometer thick silicon wafers. But Suniva faces a challenge in acquiring the large amount of silicon necessary to produce its product en masse since such thin wafers aren’t currently on the market.

The world record for solar cell efficiency is currently held by SunPower, which produced a solar cell earlier this year with 23.4 percent efficiency.

NiZn Batteries in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

2008-09-24T00:53:00.001+02:00

PowerGenix's nickel-zinc technologies offer many compelling benefits for use in hybrid electric vehicles and other mobility applications. Nickel-zinc offers the high-power, high-cycle life and required energy density to meet the high torque and discharge demands of many of these vehicles at cost effective performance levels. Nickel-zinc also performs very well at both high and low temperatures, a key performance requirement for HEV's. Just as importantly, nickel-zinc is extremely safe, environmentally clean, and recyclable without any special handling needs.

Performance and cost aspects of nickel-zinc technology that compare very favorably to battery technologies used in HEV's today, or being considered for future use in HEV's include:

Nickel-zinc technology offers more energy density than the nickel metal hydride batteries being used in HEV's today, providing for up to a 40% smaller and lighter battery—very attractive dynamics for HEV applications.
Nickel-zinc battery solutions for an HEV are less expensive than nickel metal hydride because you need 35+% less cells, and the materials used in a nickel-zinc battery are less expensive than those used in a nickel metal hydride battery.
Expensive safety power control systems and manufacturing processes required by lithium-ion batteries are not necessary for a nickel-zinc battery, making a nickel-zinc about 1/2 the cost per watt hour of a lithium-ion battery.
The materials used in a nickel-zinc battery are not combustible, so they can not explode, making them inherently much safer than a lithium-ion battery.

PowerGenix intends to exploit the nickel-zinc price/performance, form and safety advantages for HEV and other light weight mobility applications. PowerGenix is currently developing a nickel-zinc D cell for use initially in smaller mobility applications such as scooters and power-assisted bikes. PowerGenix will then further develop this NiZn D cell technology with select strategic partners for use in the HEV's as an alternative to nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion.

Solar Parking Lots: Charge While You Park!

2008-09-23T03:00:00.002+02:00

We have written before about the idea of combining parking lots with photovoltaic arrays. The benefits are obvious - parking lots already provide plenty of sunlight-rich acres, so why not harness it? Furthermore, with the solar panels propped up above the cars, the entire array forms a “canopy” which provides welcome shade for the vehicles. Applied Materials - a Silicon Valley manufacturer of semiconductors, LCD displays, and other high tech equipment – has just built one such array over its company parking lots; the 2.1 megawatt system is reportedly the largest in its class.

Although I imagine that Applied Materials will be using its electric power to contribute to its existing energy uses, it would be interesting to think about combining parking lot solar arrays with EV charging stations. For example, a 2 megawatt array could provide each of 1000 cars with 2 kilowatts of power, roughly the same amount you draw from a circuit in your house. And if that circuit in your house will theoretically be able to charge your plug-in hybrid, so should your solar parking spot!

A parking lot that charged electric cars could play an important role in a future infrastructure where we will need charging stations in public places. If electric car drivers are to have the same freedom we have today with gasoline, such stations will need to be everywhere. Shai Agassi wants to solve this problem by integrating thousands of new charging stations into the electric grid, which is what China seems to be doing too (see post below) . The Chevy Volt addresses the problem by providing drivers with a backup reserve of fuel. A solar parking lot would provide an off-the grid, centralized hub that could be placed anywhere sunny enough.

Venturi to Open Plant for New Electric Car

2008-09-22T00:45:00.000+02:00

Venturi Automobiles, the Monaco-based maker of luxury electric cars, says it is looking to build an assembly plant for electric vehicles in the Ouest Park zone near Sablé-sur-Sarthe in France’s Loire Region, where Venturi was founded in 1984. The plant is scheduled to open at the end of 2009.

Venturi’s newest electric endeavor will be assembled at the new plant. The as yet-unnamed vehicle was developed jointly with Michelin and will be unveiled at the upcoming Paris Auto Show, or for French green gearheads, “Mondial de l’Automobile.” Venturi did not say if one of its other cars, the €297,000 ($422,000) Fetish, will be assembled there, nor did it offer no updates on the much-delayed electric sports car’s production schedule.

We’ve seen a flurry of new electric car assembly plant announcements recently. The big news this week was Tesla’s decision to build a $250 million manufacturing plant and corporate headquarters in San Jose, Calif.,where it will build its new Model S electric sedan. Meanwhile, electric car vet ZAP has started construction on a new manufacturing facility in Kentucky, where it might assembly the mysterious, three-wheeled Alias.

Image courtesy of Venturi.

Army Sponsoring Bat-Like, 6-inch, Solar Spy Plane

2008-09-22T00:42:00.000+02:00

Imagine a six-inch spy plane that sends back visual and chemical data in real time, runs on vibrations as well as sun and wind power - and looks like a bat! Thanks to a five-year $10-million grant from the Army the University of Michigan College of Engineering will be making this Batman wet dream a reality. The renewable robot will be developed at U-M’s newly created Center for Objective Microelectronics and Biomimetic Advanced Technology a mouthful also appropriately known as COM-BAT. The University of Michigan will work with the University of California at Berkley as well as the University of New Mexico to create different aspects of the technology.

Miniaturizing the various systems of “the bat” and making them more energy efficient are big challenges for the groups working on COM-BAT. The tiny plane must be able to collect large amounts of surveillance data and travel great distances while running on 1 W of power. But COM-BAT is ambitious and they fully anticipate being able to shrink all the systems. For example “They expect their autonomous navigation system, which would allow the robot to direct its own movements, to be 1,000 times smaller and more energy efficient than systems being used now.”

The potential applications of this condensed technology are virtually limitless, "Throughout this research, we expect to make technological breakthroughs and have a much wider range of applications for other types of engineering problems, from medical to industrial," Kamal Sarabandi, the COM-BAT director and a professor in the U-M Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

GM thinks beyond the Volt

2008-09-20T00:54:00.001+02:00

DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- The applause hasn't died down for the new Chevrolet Volt, but General Motors is already planning where the technology for this new electric car can go next.

The Volt, which made its official debut Tuesday, is based on what GM calls the "E-Flex platform." This new type of vehicle uses high-capacity lithium-ion batteries and will be able to go up to 40 miles on a full charge. If a driver wants to go farther, the car's small gasoline engine will generate more electricity, allowing trips of over 300 miles.

But that technology doesn't have to stop with the Volt, according to said Tony Posawatz, vehicle line director for the E-Flex program. Different body styles - wagons or small cars, for instance - and versions styled for different brands are under consideration for a future, improved E-Flex use.

"These are some of the alternatives that are being reviewed, even as we speak, relative to the future beyond Volt," Posawatz said in an interview with CNNMoney.com after the Volt's official unveiling in Detroit Tuesday.

He made it clear, though, that any discussions of E-Flex's future are preliminary. No decisions have been made, but lots of options are on the table.

It's not too soon for GM to be thinking about this, either, said Bill Pochiluk of the auto industry consulting firm AutomotiveCompass. Transferring the technology won't be that hard, he said.

"Some of the systems and modules will be directly transferable to other vehicles," according to Pochiluk. Add to that a much more competitive hybrid electric car market by the time the Volt comes out, he said.

By the summer of 2009, Pochiluk sees Honda and Toyota still dominating the market. But GM will move fast, he predicted, becoming the third biggest hybrid vehicle manufacturer with no one else even close.

Flexing E-Flex

As with any other vehicle platform, different body styles could easily be built on top of the Volt's engineering. In the same way that the Chevy Cobalt car and HHR wagon are basically the same vehicle underneath while looking completely different, GM could easily put different "top hats," as they're called in the industry, on the E-Flex platform.

That would be an easy first step to extending the E-Flex's market in different directions, Posawatz said. There are already indications that there could be an appetite.

"It's grown beyond our wildest imaginations, the degree to which people connected to the idea of the car, the spirit of the car," Posawatz said. "That's given us a degree of confidence that this could be a family of vehicles in the future."

Creating the Volt meant engineers had to clear the big hurdles the first time out.

But when you build an electric car that doesn't have to compromise on utility or performance, Posawatz noted, "it's easier taking it in different directions."

The E-Flex powertrain, which is the car's engine and electric motor, works well in a mid-size sedan carrying four passengers and cargo, so it has the flexibility to accommodate more or less demand for different vehicles, Posawatz said.

"This has a little bit of bandwidth," Posawatz said. "This can go on a little bit bigger vehicle if necessary." And it can be scaled down to create more economical versions, he said. With a smaller battery pack, a vehicle might not go as far without needing gasoline. But it would also cost a lot less, an appealing proposition to some.

"There are a number of customers out there that maybe a 20-mile [electric-only range] vehicle would work, and they would still use little to no petroleum," said Posawatz.

All in on electric

Forgoing the gasoline engine altogether for a shorter-range car is another possibility, Posawatz said, but it's one that creates problems.

First of all, it just goes against the whole idea of E-Flex. GM believes there's less of a market for a limited-use vehicle. Why wouldn't customers want the option (even if they rarely use it) of driving a car farther than batteries alone will take them?

Pochiluk agreed that all-electric cars just aren't as attractive from a marketing standpoint. People will always be scared of getting stranded. "I think it's impossible to go without a range extender when you've only got 40 miles," he said.

Another problem is that electric only operation is harder on a vehicle's battery, according to Posawatz. Repeatedly draining a battery down to near zero, will mean much shorter battery lives, he said.

"We're only cycling it to a 50% state of charge," with the E-Flex platform, said Posawatz, "so we're not beating the crap out of the battery."

For an automaker with the scope of General Motors, different branding creates many opportunities for the range-extended E-Flex. There will probably be E-Flex vehicles that aren't Chevrolets. No doubt, Cadillac, Pontiac, Saturn and other GM dealers would love to get their own plug-in vehicles to sell.

But for now, Posawatz is concentrating on just getting the ball in play. "You always have to do the first car right and well."

What is an Ultracapacitor ?

2008-09-19T03:01:00.003+02:00

There has been many talks and articles about ultracapacitors and its potential use for renewable energy. Let me first start by answering the question What is an Ultracapacitor?

An Ultracapacitor, sometimes called electric double-layer capacitors or supercapacitors are just just like any other capacitor but have a very high energy density. It can store huge amounts of energy for its size. If you are familiar with the usual electrolytic capacitor, think about a device than can store a thousand times more energy. Most electrolytic capacitors have a value in micro farads, but a typical ultracapacitor has a value in 10, 100, or sometimes thousands of farads.

One may also think of ultracapacitors as a super battery. Normal rechargeable batteries such as Nicd and NiMH have very slow charging times. What’s great about an ultracapacitor is that it charges very quickly just as an ordinary electrolytic capacitor does. It can also discharge high amounts of power very quickly unlike normal batteries.

Such properties of Ultracapacitors made it a very suitable for applications such as for motor startup, and regenerative braking. Someday, I won’t be surprised to see Ultracapacitors replace batteries in all-electric cars (EV) and plugin hybrids.

The Solar Stik Portable Power Generator

2008-09-18T00:56:00.001+02:00

The Solar Stik™ is a small-scale energy generator that is capable of providing clean, green energy wherever it is needed most. The versatile system takes advantage of both solar and wind turbine technology and is quick to set up, making it perfect for applications ranging from boating and recreation to providing emergency relief and humanitarian aid.

Energy is hard to come by in many areas of the world, and clean reliable energy is even rarer. This holds doubly true for the sites of natural disasters, where it is extremely important to have a reliable source of power for rebuilding efforts.

Weighing in at just under 80 pounds, the Solar Stik offers a versatile alternative energy solution that is easily deployable. It can be set up quickly by just one person, and its dual 50-watt solar panels are capable of producing about 80 Amp-hours per day. Starting at $5,000, the Solar Stik is on the pricey side, but its initial cost it is something that can definitely be recouped as an investment over time.

+ Solar Stik

Can Nanoscopic Meadows Drive Electric Cars Forward ?

2008-09-18T00:31:00.004+02:00

Nanoscale meadows of grass and flowers could hold the key to increasing the amount of energy that can be stored in ultracapacitors, devices tipped to replace batteries in high-demand applications like electric cars.

Carbon nanotube "blades of grass" pump an electric current into manganese oxide "nanoflowers", which can then attract ions out of solution. (Image: American Chemical Society)

Batteries are slow to recharge because they store energy chemically. By contrast, capacitors, which are common in electronics, are short-term stores of electrical energy that charge almost instantaneously but hold little energy.

In recent years capacitors able to store thousands of times as much energy as standard ones, called ultracapacitors, have been developed, leading experts to suggest they could power future devices and even electric cars.

First however, their energy storage capacity needs to improve further. Chinese researchers have just reported a new approach to doing that which could see them become practical.

Ion sponge

Ultracapacitors are simple devices. They are charged by applying a voltage to two electrodes suspended in a solution so that positive ions head to one electrode and negative ions to the other.

Energy is stored because the electrodes are coated with a porous material that soaks up ions like a sponge, usually activated carbon. Improvements in ultracapacitor capacity so far have come from making those carbon sponges with more pores.

Now Hao Zhang at the Research Institute of Chemical Defence in Beijing, China, and colleagues at Peking University have taken a different approach. They store ions in manganese oxide (MnO), a material with a much greater capacity for ions than activated carbon.

However, although MnO holds ions well, it has a high electrical resistance, making it difficult to charge it with voltage to attract ions in the first place.

Double charge

The researchers addressed that by creating a "nanomeadow" of microscopic structures â€“ fuzzy flowers of MnO each about 100 nanometres across on a field of messy carbon nanotube grass grown on a tantalum metal foil (see image, right).

Each flower attaches to at least two of the blades of grass, which act like electron superhighways, says Zhang, forming strong electrical connections to the flowers. The usually resistant MnO can then be charged up to attract the ions it can store so well.

As a result, the nanomeadow performs 10 times better than MnO alone and can store twice as much charge as the carbon-based electrodes in existing ultracapacitors.

Zhang says that the nanomeadow's complex structure is resistant to the mechanical degradation that reduces the performance of ultracapacitors over time. The energy capacity of the new device drops by just 3% after 20,000 charge and discharge cycles, better than other high-capacity designs.

To the streets

Mike Barnes at the University of Manchester, UK, says this is an interesting approach to improving ultracapacitor performance.

But he points out that that a design ready for market needs to be even more resistant to physical degradation. In vehicles, ultracapacitors are charged during braking, which might happen about 60 times per hour in urban situations.

A delivery van working a five-day, 8-hour week would clock up 120,000 cycles in a year. Going by Zhang's figures, that would cut its ultracapacitor's storage ability by at least 15%, something that needs to improve before the nanomeadow design is ready for the road.

New Options for Home Wind Power

2008-09-17T03:37:00.002+02:00

Utility-scale windpower is an important and growing part of the US energy portfolio. Farms ranging in size from dozens to hundreds of turbines can produce in excess of 60 megawatts of power. Plans for gigawatts of wind power are being proposed all over the globe, and new wind farms are regularly being proposed that outstrip one another to be the largest in their respective locations, or in the world. At the far end of the scale, the largest size wind turbines have a rotor diameter of 126 meters (413 feet), and are estimated to be capable of producing 20,000,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually (enough to power as many as 5000 European homes). Since the power generated by a turbine increases exponentially as it gets larger, new turbines will continue to grow in size.

But small-scale turbines are perhaps a more exciting realm of development. The standard, propeller-style turbine is well established, and there are many suppliers for this kind of generator in a range of sizes. In 2007, Home Power Magazine had a roundup of more than a dozen small wind turbines ranging from 8 feet to 56 feet in diameter (the latter of which is far larger than even a large, inefficient household would need for their power requirements). Green Building Elements had a review of this article last year.

Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines

In theory, vertical-axis wind turbines are thought to be better suited for urban locations, where winds are more swirling and less consistently directional. With a rotor that spins around an upright axis, wind coming from any direction can turn the blades and provide power. On the downside, the power produced by a VAWT is less efficient because, during part of its rotation, the rotor is moving against the wind.

Vertical-axis turbines are also generally quieter than horizontal, propeller style turbines. Their cylindrical form also lets them go into places with less space available, which also makes them well suited for urban uses. Another benefit of vertical turbines is that they generally appear more solid, which makes them less of a hazard to birds and bats.

The Windspire is one newer VAWT that is being aimed at the home-power market. It is a very narrow cylinder only 2 feet (61 cm) wide, but 30 feet (9.1 meters) tall. Another VAWT, the HelixWind presents an even more solid-looking presence, with scoop-like solid rotors in a helical configuration. The Windspire rotor is wider and shorter - 4 feet x 8.7 feet (1.2 x 2.7 meters) than the Windspire. Helix Wind also has a taller version with twice the rated capacity.

Loopwing and Energy Ball

More than a year ago, we first learned about the Loopwing, an unusual turbine from Japan that offered extremely quiet operation and redundant safety systems to prevent overspeed in high winds. The noise reduction is due to the configuration of the blades, which return to the shaft, rather than having exposed tips. This eliminates the vortices that are produced by the tip of the blade moving through the air which is the source of much of the noise created by a turbine.

Another turbine has recently been introduced with some similar characteristics. The Energy Ball looks like a variant on the Loopwing concept, though with more blades. However, the Energy Ball is a small turbine only slightly more than one meter in diameter, with a rated power of only 100 watts (0.2 kW). Even in a very windy location, this small turbine is unlikely to do much on its own to reduce your energy bills because of its small level of output.

Other Small Turbines

Swift makes a turbine that is much like an ordinary horizontal-axis turbine, but unlike other propeller style turbines, though, its five blades are connected together with a ring. This makes it a hybrid between a propeller turbine, and a turbine like the Loopwing or the Energy Ball. The ring helps to cut down on noise, most of which comes from blade tips traveling through the air, not unlike the Loopwing or the Energy Ball.

AeroVironment has another turbine designed for direct mounting on a building parapet. The AVX1000 is designed for commercial use only. Aerovironment’s turbines can be installed with a decorative canopy that may also lessen the likelihood of bird impacts.

Both the Swift and the AeroVironment turbines are displayed in building parapet installations where they are only a short distance above a building roof. They may be taking some advantage of the increase in wind speed that occurs at a building roof. But when the wind is blowing parallel to the face of the building, these turbines are likely to be fairly ineffective.

Summary

AeroVironment AVX1000 - 5.5 ft (1.7 m) dia - rated power 1.0 kW (@ 13.4 m/s 30mph)
Energy Ball - 3.6 ft (1.1m) dia - rated power 0.1 kW (max 0.5 kW @17 m/s)
HelixWind S322 - 1.21m x 2.65m (4 ft x 8.66 ft) - rated power 1.88 kW
Loopwing - 9.4 ft (2.85 m) dia - rated power 2 kW (@12.8 m/s)
Swift - 7 ft (2.1 m) dia - rated power 1.5 kW (@ 14m/s 31mph)
Windspire - 0.6 x 6.1m (2 ft x 20 ft) - rated power 1.2 kW (@ 11.2 m/s 25mph)

Comparing Turbines

Evaluating and comparing wind turbines is still a difficult task. Different manufacturers list information about their turbines differently, so straightforward comparisons between units can be difficult. Some manufacturers list the output based on the maximum output, which is typically far in excess of the average wind speed a site is likely to experience.

Furthermore, how a turbine performs at different wind speeds also affects its output. Some manufacturers list an annual power output (in kilowatt hours, just like electric service is typically billed) but that is based on an estimated average annual wind speed, which may not be the same as the average wind speed a potential user’s site may experience.

Another factor is the “cut in speed”� of a particular turbine, which is the wind speed at which the turbine starts turning. Some minimal amount of power may be produced at this low speed, but it is only a tiny fraction of the turbine’s rated speed. A turbine with an especially low cut in speed will start turning in a lighter breeze, but that doesn’t mean it is going to be producing much power at those wind speeds.

Wind power has not been quite as readily accepted for home power generation for several reasons. First of all, wind power has greater requirements for open space and access to wind for efficient operation. By comparison, solar is much easier to accommodate, especially on a small site. Solar is also far less obtrusive than wind power. Solar panels located on a low slope roof or in a back yard are often almost invisible to passers-by, while wind turbines need to stick up into the air where they are able to catch the wind. Some people find this objectionable, which can sometimes make it more difficult to obtain the necessary permits for the installation of a wind turbine. Any system with moving parts is more prone to breakdown and trouble than one that is solid state, which also contributes to wind power being less desirable for homeowners who do not also want to be turbine mechanics. Wind turbines also can produce noise and vibration. This, too can be objectionable to neighbors, as well as making it less desirable to mount the unit directly on a building. However, there are cities where zoning laws are being changed to allow for wind turbines to be installed with fewer regulatory hurdles.

Home wind power is still a small niche compared with solar. Far fewer homes are suitable for personal wind turbines than homes that can accommodate solar panels. But wind is part of the renewable energy mix, and there certainly are many homes where is is a viable option. For those, the range of options is growing.

Peugeot Bringing a Hybrid to Le Mans !

2008-09-17T03:29:00.002+02:00

Having joined Audi in providing that diesels can dominate at Le Mans, Peugeot now wants to show that hybrids -- yes, hybrids -- can compete at the top tier of motor sports. The French automaker has unveiled a ~~gas~~ diesel-electric racer it plans to run in next year's Le Mans series.

The 908 HDi FAP "Hy" made a few laps at Britain's famed Silverstone racetrack last weekend before the final round of the Le Mans series, running a kinetic energy recovery system similar to what we'll see in Formula 1 cars next year. The 908 "Hy" works a lot like a Prius on steroids, with a lithium-ion battery and an 80-horsepower electric motor that can propel the car on electricity alone or provide added power at high speed or during passing moves.

Peugeot says the car is ready to race, but the question remains whether it will be allowed to.

The Automobile Club de l'Ouest -- which sets the rules governing the Le Mans series -- has announced a slew of rule changes meant to eliminate the advantages diesels have enjoyed over gasoline racers, but it's done nothing to allow hybrids onto the grid for 2009. But Peugeot will not be deterred and, according to Britain's Car magazine, says it'll run the 908 Hy as a "Double-Oh" non-competitor so it can continue developing the technology.

"As a car manufacturer, we can use motor sport as a research and development tool for the Peugeot brand as a whole," says Michel Barge, director of Peugeot Sport. "Running a hybrid car in endurance racing would give Peugeot the chance to gain extremely valuable experience that would benefit the development of production cars.

The hybrid system has three main components -- a 60 kilowatt (80 horsepower) gear-driven electric motor in place of a conventional starter motor, 600 lithium-ion battery cells divided into 10 packs and a power converter just behind the front left wing to control the flow of energy between the batteries and the electric motor.

Peugeot says the 908 Hy can run in three modes: full electric at low speeds (as in pit lane), ~~gasoline~~ diesel engine only or a combination of the two. Regenerative braking captures energy that would otherwise be lost as heat during braking and stores it in the battery packs. Peugeot says the system will recover enough energy to provide an extra 80 horsepower for 20 to 30 seconds per lap. The stored energy can be automatically deployed under acceleration, or used at the driver's discretion when, say, passing another car. If not used for additional acceleration, the recovered energy can simply augment the gasoline engine, cutting fuel consumption 3 to 5 percent -- no small advantage in a 12- or 24-hour endurance race.

Peugeot isn't the first to put a hybrid drivetrain in an endurance racer. Earlier this year, the Gumpert put a hybrid drivetrain in one of its Apollo supercars and entered it in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, where its fastest lap was 9 minutes 24.885 seconds.

UPDATE : Corsa Motorsports and Zytek are working on a hybrid racer for the American Le Mans Series, and as reader Moose notes in the comments below, American boutique automaker Panoz built the Q9 hybrid to run in the series in the late 1990s.

Photos by Peugeot.

The hybrid system is comprised of a ~~gasoline~~ diesel engine (blue) and transmission (gold) coupled to a 60 kilowatt gear-driven electric motor (green). Energy recovered during braking is stored in 10 lithium-ion battery packs (gray). A power converter (black) controls the flow of energy between the batteries and the motor.

New Electrode Structure From QuantumSphere Extends Li-Ion Battery Capacity Up To Five Times

2008-09-16T01:15:00.001+02:00

(Nanowerk News) QuantumSphere, Inc., a leading developer of advanced catalyst materials, electrode devices, and related technologies and systems for portable power and clean-energy applications, today announced that it has filed a key patent for technology it has developed that extends the capacity of rechargeable lithium ion batteries up to five times. Next-generation batteries featuring this technology could dramatically improve the operating life of portable consumer electronics, hybrid-electric vehicle range, and a wide variety of energy storage applications.
This news follows a previous QuantumSphere battery announcement highlighting the development of a high-rate, paper-thin, nano-enabled electrode for disposable batteries. This earlier breakthrough patent pending air-electrode design increased power output by 320% in zinc-air cells, providing roughly 4x more power than equivalent sized alkaline batteries, and is expected to be commercialized in 2009.
“The electrodes our company is developing will expand battery capacity in a profound way, without a sacrifice in safety. Instead of four hours of operating time on a laptop computer, a single charge could last up to 12 hours and provide users with enough computing time for a complete round-trip flight between Los Angeles and New York,” said Kevin Maloney, president and CEO of QuantumSphere. “This important research is another example of QuantumSphere’s focused plan to bring next-generation, high-capacity lithium ion battery systems to market. We believe this is a commercially viable technology that will have a major impact in a variety of consumer, industrial, and transportation applications.”
Today’s patent filing covers a novel electrode structure enriched with nano lithium particles that increases the fuel source in a rechargeable lithium ion battery, thus increasing battery life. QuantumSphere intends to commercialize the technology to improve next-generation batteries for energy storage, consumer, and transportation applications.
“QuantumSphere has created electrodes with much higher lithium capacities than current state-of-the-art lithium ion batteries, as described in this patent application,” said Subra Iyer, principal technologist and co-inventor at QuantumSphere. “In the next phase of the QuantumSphere research efforts, we will further improve these anode and cathode electrodes and formulate electrolytes with wide electrochemical windows. All of this is part of a structured research approach to create new high-voltage battery chemistries, enabling both higher energy density and higher power density in next-generation rechargeable lithium ion batteries, taking advantage of the newly improved anode, cathode, and electrolyte molecular architectures.”
About QuantumSphere, Inc.
QuantumSphere, Inc. (QSI) is a leading manufacturer of advanced catalyst materials, high- performance electrode systems, and related technologies for portable power, clean energy, and electronics applications. Backed by a strong intellectual property portfolio, the Company’s system designs and products can lower costs and enable breakthrough performance in such multi-billion dollar growth markets as batteries, fuel cells, desalination, hydrogen generation, and emissions reduction.
Founded in 2002, QSI is driven by a mission to reduce dependence on non-renewable energy sources through continuous innovation and refinement of its highly engineered catalytic materials, electrode systems, and advanced technology platforms. QSI serves leading industry customers with its patented, automated, highly scalable, and environmentally friendly manufacturing processes. For more information, please visit www.qsinano.com.

Source: QuantumSphere (press release)

Mercedes Into The Hybrid Game.

2008-09-15T23:59:00.004+02:00

German automakers pride themselves on being at the leading edge of new technology, so it has been a bit of an embarrassment that—a decade after Toyota (TM) launched the Prius—none of them has a hybrid electric model on the market. But, with fuel economy and environmental impact suddenly a key concern for well-heeled buyers, Daimler's (DAI) Mercedes unit is finally poised to get into the hybrid game.

In June 2009 the company will begin European sales of a hybrid version of its luxury S-Class that, its engineers say, will use 7.9 liters of gasoline per 100 km (or get 29.8 miles per gallon). Launches in the U.S. and China will follow in September, Mercedes said on Sept. 11.

The carmaker hasn't yet established a price for the hybrid land yacht, but Mercedes Sales and Marketing Director Klaus Maier said the premium will be less than €10,000, or $14,000. The S-Class starts at about $88,000 in the U.S., though the top-of-the-line V12 costs a staggering $145,000.

Why Such a Big Car

Cynics might say that people concerned about global warming and the massive transfer of wealth to oil-producing nations should simply buy a smaller car. But Mercedes executives don't think their customer base has quite reached that stage of enlightenment. "Not everyone can drive a Smart on vacation," Maier says. "We need solutions for big cars."

Why did it take so long for Mercedes to get into the hybrid market? One reason is that Mercedes, as well as BMW (BMWG.DE) and Volkswagen (VOWG.DE), have concentrated on optimizing diesel engines. BMW's diesel Mini and 1 Series rival the Prius for gas mileage and carbon dioxide emissions. Daimler says its BlueTec line of diesel SUVs, launched in the U.S. over the summer, account for 20% of Mercedes SUV sales in the country, a substantial percentage considering that diesel passenger cars make up only 4% of the total market.

From an engineering point of view, diesel is the better technology because it offers comparable gas mileage to a hybrid—or even superior mileage in highway driving—with less weight and expense. But the success of Toyota's luxury Lexus hybrid models showed that gasoline-oriented U.S. buyers want hybrids. "Mercedes said: 'If you want to save the planet, buy a diesel,'" says Christoph Stürmer, Frankfurt-based auto analyst at Global Insight. "They were right in their own way but proven wrong by the market."

The S-Class is not a so-called full hybrid—it can't run solely on battery power. Rather, the electric motor supplements the six-cylinder, 279-horsepower gasoline engine, improving fuel economy by providing a boost while accelerating. The car also recovers energy when braking, feeding it back into the battery. However, Mercedes has included some innovations that it hopes will set the S-Class hybrid apart from Japanese competitors.

Better Battery

The main innovation is the lithium-ion battery. Developed along with German components supplier Continental (CONG.DE), the battery weighs less and takes up less space than batteries used by competing hybrids. Slightly larger than a conventional auto battery, it fits under the hood and does not reduce the amount of space in the rest of the car. All told, the hybrid components including an electric motor add a modest 75 kg (165 lb.) to the total weight of the car.

The battery employs the same chemical principle as those used in laptops and mobile phones, but Mercedes execs insist there is no danger of the overheating that has plagued consumer electronics makers. In the unlikely event that the battery gets too hot, says Oliver Vollrath, strategic director of the S-Class hybrid project, the system will shut down automatically. In any event, Vollrath says the car's power-management system precludes any such problems. "You can be sure that what happens in laptops won't be a problem in automobiles," he says.

Besides being more efficient than competitors, the battery also helps Mercedes meet its long-term goal of offering better mileage without any sacrifices in performance and comfort. Following the S-Class launch, the company aims to add at least one hybrid model a year. "We have to ensure that people in six years will be able to drive a big car without sacrifices or a bad conscience," says marketing chief Maier.

Ewing is BusinessWeek's European regional editor .

17 Electric Cars You Must Know About

2008-09-15T00:12:00.000+02:00

Electric Roadster by Tesla Motors

The electric car that made a lot of people do a double-take (in a good way). Yes, it's expensive, and yes, it's only a two-seater, but it can make people want it like few other green cars, and someone has to pay the early-adopter 'tax'. Our first post about it was in two years ago. Since then, we've written about the opening of the first Tesla Motors store in California, about what happens to a Tesla battery pack at the end of its life, and recently about Tesla's hiring of a new VP of Engineering and Manufacturing. Update: The Tesla electric Roadster has just started shipping to customers and Martin Eberhard Blogs About Getting his Tesla Roadster.

Model S by Tesla Motors

We don't really know much about Tesla's second car yet, so no picture. It used to be known as the 'Whitestar' but is now the 'Model S'. A 5-seat, 4-door sporty sedan in the vein of the BMW 5. Should sell for about $60,000 and manage 225 miles on a charge.

E6 Electric Car by BYD

BYD is China's biggest battery maker, and that gives them an edge over most automakers when when it comes to electric cars (the battery's always the big challenge). The E6 electric car was introduced at the 2008 Beijing International Auto Show. We don't know yet when the company will start selling it, but its F6DM plug-in hybrid is scheduled for 2010 (probably to be followed by the F3DM plug-in hybrid). Range for the E6 should be 300 km (186 miles).

XS500 Electric Car by Miles

When we first wrote about the XS500 by Miles, it generated quite a bit of excitement because of its relatively low price tag for a highway-capable electric car: $30,000. We then got more information about the XS500 and confirmation that the target price was now "$30,000 to $35,000" for the 2009 XS500 in the US. The XS500 should have an all-electric range of about 120 miles.

i MiEV Electric Car by Mitsubishi

We've written a lot about the cute little i MiEV electric car by Mitsubishi. It seems relatively close to commercialization. Mitsubishi even announced that it was 1 year ahead of schedule, and it has plans to sell it globally. For more, you can see photos of the i MiEV at the New York Auto Show and three Japanese commercials.

R1e Electric Car by Subaru

The R1e by Subaru is kind of a cross between the i MiEV above and Toyota's iQ urban car (spy shots of the Toyota iQ here). For more, you can see photos of the Subaru R1e driving around New York City, and more info about the two R1e electric cars that will be tested by the New York power authority. Our guess is that the R1e won't be commercialized - it's probably a learning platform for Subaru - and the Subaru G4e electric car has more chances of making it to market.

Electric Supercar by Hybrid Technologies

This one is still a concept, and who knows if it will ever be sold, but we're told that a prototype should be on the road next Autumn. It was designed by Hybrid Technologies and doesn't seem to have a name yet. They have planned two version: All-electric, and plug-in hybrid. The latter will try to compete in the Automotive X Prize.

Electric Minis by PML and BMW

This is actually two different electric cars. The first one is a normal Mini that was modified by PML (pictured above). They added electric motors in the wheels and it could apparently do 0 to 60 in about 4 seconds! The second version of the electric Mini has been announced by BMW, but unfortunately they're only going to sell them in California, and they're only going to make 500.

EV1 Electric Car by General Motors (RIP)

Next we have the now defunct EV1 electric car that was manufactured by General Motors between 1996 and 1999, and leased in California and Arizona. A good way to get more background info on it is to watch the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?. Some people have questioned how good it actually was, but even if it had big flaws, that's a little beside the point. It was a first, and should have opened the floodgates for more. Instead, the cars were crushed and even removed from museums.

Electric Car by Mercedes (2010)

We don't yet know what this one will look like (pictured above is the F700 concept), but Mercedes has announced ambitious plans to eliminate fossil fuels from its car lineup by 2015, and that includes an electric car in 2010. We'll have to wait and see.

Electric Car by Nissan (2010-2012)

Similarly to Mercedes, Nissan has announced an electric car to be introduced in 2010 and mass-produced in 2012. We don't know yet what it will look like or what it will be called. Pictured above is Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in front of a test-car (not electric).

REVA Electric Car

When we dig a bit deeper in the archives, we find the REVA electric car. It's not exactly going to set the mainstream car market afire, but it has the benefit over many other electric cars to be available now. In fact, you can probably see some driving around London.

ZENN Low Speed Electric Car by Feel Good Cars

According to the makers of the ZENN electric car, the name is actually an acronym for "Zero Emissions, No Noise". It is a "low speed neighborhood vehicle" with a top speed of 25 mph and a range of 40 miles.

Tango Electric Car

Mostly known as "That small electric car that George Clooney drives!", the electric Tango is faster than you might think: With a 0 to 60 time of 4 seconds, it can smoke quite a few sports cars. Bonus: You can park 3-4 of them side by side in a regular parking spot.

Eliica Electric Car by KEIO University

A few years ago, this 8-wheel electric monster got segments on evening news all around the world. Even Japan's then prime minister went to have a look. The Eliica electric car is a true speed demon. In the right conditions, it can do 400kph (250mph), and 0 to 100km/h (0 to 60 mph) in 4 seconds. It is powered by li-ion batteries, and the only thing is can't do is go back to the future.

Wrightspeed X1 Electric Car

The fastest electric cars mentioned above can do 0 to 60 mph in about 4 seconds. That's fast, really fast! But that's not enough, apparently: The X1 can do 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds, leaving the competition in the dust. There's even a popular video of the electric car beating a Ferrari and a Porsche.

Saturn SP1 Electric Car Conversion by Students of Napoleon High School

It's no the prettiest of most high-tech electric car featured here, but we've got to give some kudos to teachers and students of Napoleon High School in Jackson, Michigan. This 1995 Saturn SP1 was converted to run on electricity as part of a school project for the automotive-technology students. Now that's the kind of homework we wish we had in high-school!

Explosive Growth Reshuffles Top 10 Solar Ranking

2008-09-14T00:12:00.000+02:00

by Dr. Paula Doe, Contributing Editor, Solid-State Technology

The explosion of photovoltaics production across the globe completely reshuffled the top companies in Nomura Securities' annual ranking of the leading companies, knocking long established Japanese players out of the top spots and putting four Asian suppliers in the Top 10. Japan's leading solar companies outline their strategies for this changing market in this report from SST partner Nikkei Microdevices.

"With a plentiful supply of silicon available again, and revolutionary new technologies ready for market, 2010-2011 will be a crucial turning point. Companies who miss this window of opportunity will lose out to the competition."

-- says Yuichi Kuroda, Director of Planning, Showa Shell Solar

Fast growing Q-Cells AG became the world's largest solar cell maker in 2007, producing nearly 400 megawatts (MW) worth of product. Longtime solar industry leader Sharp found itself in second place as production slipped to roughly 370 MW, which the company blamed on a constrained supply of silicon. China's Suntech was close behind the leaders with more than 300 MW output, pushing Kyocera and its 200 MW to a distant third.

Four new companies jumped into the top ranks. CdTe-cell maker First Solar debuted at fifth place, the only US-based and only thin-film supplier on the list. Asian players Motech Industries (Taiwan), Yingli Green Energy (China), and JA Solar Holdings (China/Australia) rounded out the rankings, pushing aside some long-established players like Mitsubishi Electric, Schott AG, and BP Solar (see Figure 1, below).

Nomura notes that Japan's overall share of the solar cell market, at 50% a few years ago, is now down to about 20% and could well slip to 15% in the next few years as the rest of the world ramps up solar-cell production.

Figure 1: Big growth in solar market shakes up top 10 ranking. (Source: Nomura Securities, Nikkei Microdevices)

The major Japanese suppliers are aiming for major growth of their own in the next two years, with big expansions in capacity — on the gigawatt scale at Sharp and Showa Shell Solar KK — and on new technologies they say will significantly improve efficiency. "The next two years will determine the winners," AIST Research Center for Photovoltaics director Michio Kondo told Nikkei Microdevices. "Later entrants won't be able to catch up to those who put an all out effort now into technology and scale and speed. A year from now will be too late."

Sharp's comeback strategy is a major ramp of production capacity in both crystalline and thin-film cells, and an expansion across the entire solar value chain, to assure capturing the highest value-added parts of the business and the high value of integrating the whole system, reports Tetsuro Muramatsu, GM of the company's solar systems group. He says Sharp plans 1 gigawatt (GW) of capacity for crystalline cells and another 1 GW of capacity of thin-film cells by 2010, counting on the economies-of-scale from the high-volume production to reduce costs enough to bring solar electricity down to close to the target $0.21/kWh.

Sharp figures the solar cells or modules themselves account for only 25% (for x-Si) to 40% (thin-film) of the added value of the finished total system, with materials as much as 20% (x-Si), and systems and engineering another 35%-40%. Accordingly, the firm has in recent months started its expansion across the value chain by forming a company to develop solar production equipment with Tokyo Electron, by signing on to solar power production deals with utilities in Japan and Italy, and by investing in developing large-capacity, low-cost storage batteries for solar systems through Japanese Li-ion venture ELIIY Power. The company eyes bringing solar systems to regions of the world with no electrical grid with government supported lease financing.

Crystalline silicon has led the way for solar PV, but future solar growth will mostly come from thin-film. (Source: Mizuho Securities, Nikkei Microdevices)

Also planning to ramp to 1 GW capacity by 2011 is Showa Shell Solar, which currently makes only 20 MW a year of its CIS thin-film cells. A second planned plant will bring total capacity to 60 MW by next year, and another much bigger plant will reach 1 GW by 2011, targeting as well a jump to 10%-12% CIS efficiency. The economies-of-scale of high-volume production will mean lower materials and facilities costs, argues director of planning Yuichi Kuroda. "Overseas rivals are moving towards gigawatt scale plants," he notes. "If we don't outpace them, we'll lose out." Showa Shell has so far relied on equipment it designed in-house, but to speed up development of better deposition technology for higher-efficiency film it is developing a next-generation high-volume tool set jointly with Ulvac.

Contributing to the rapid industry ramp-up of capacity are new players buying turnkey thin-film deposition lines from Applied Materials, Oerlikon Balzers, or Ulvac. Applied says it had contracted for sales totaling 1.7 GW of capacity across 10 customers as of June. Ulvac's Yoshio Sunaga, senior managing director and chief director of the FPD business, says it has orders for 217.5 MW worth, from NexPower Technology, Sunner Solar, China Solar Power, and another Chinese and another Korean customer, who altogether plan future expansions of 650 MW more. Ulvac is just starting to expand its marketing to Europe, India, and the Middle East. Sunaga reports Ulvac has installed capacity to produce 600 MW/year worth of tools at its Tohoku facility.

The initial turnkey lines have gotten up and running in a quick 16-19 months. Taiwan's NexPower ordered 37.5 MW capacity from Ulvac in March 2007 and started shipping 6.5% efficient cells in June 2008. Moser Baer Photovoltaic ordered 40 MW capacity from Applied in March 2007, started initial production in July 2008, and plans to start shipping product in September.

Big Japanese solar suppliers add thin film, high-efficiency x-Si capacity. (Source: Nikkei Microdevices)

Some question, however, how a company can distinguish itself in the long term if it makes the same product with the same turnkey production line as its competitors. NexPower president Semi Wang told Nikkei Microdevices his company planned to find its own ways to improve its future production lines itself to reduce costs, with its own developments and with equipment from other companies. Kaneka's Mikio Hatta, managing executive officer of the solar energy division, questions how producers making 6%-7% efficient cells on turnkey lines can compete with the 10%-11% efficient cells his company makes with equipment it developed itself.

Other major players Sanyo Electric, Kyocera, Mitsubishi Electric, Kaneka, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plan more modest capacity expansions over the next few years, concentrating instead primarily on developing their proprietary new technologies to make higher-efficiency cells at lower cost, often relying initially on specialty equipment developed in-house.

Kyocera and Mitsubishi Electric each plan to expand to 500 MW annual capacity for crystalline solar cells by 2010-2012, noting their growth plans are limited primarily by the amount of silicon they expect to be able to obtain. Both companies say they have no plans to start thin-film production in the foreseeable future, though both are continuing research efforts. Instead, they count on significantly improved efficiencies from new x-Si technologies. Kyocera solar energy marketing manager Ichiro Ikeda says his company plans to start production in April 2009 of its back-contact cells, which are now getting 18.5% efficiency in the lab. Solar systems manager Satoshi Ikeda reports Mitsubishi Electric plans volume production in 2010 of its honeycomb cells, currently with R&D efficiency of 18.6%.

"With a plentiful supply of silicon available again, and revolutionary new technologies ready for market, 2010-2011 will be a crucial turning point," says Showa Shell Solar's Kuroda. "Companies who miss this window of opportunity will lose out to the competition."

Dr. Paula Doe is a contributing editor for Solid-State Technology.

Volkswagen's Latest Golf Spawns a Hybrid Concept

2008-09-13T13:09:00.001+02:00

The Volkswagen Golf—or VW Rabbit, as it's known in North America—may be the most flexible and widely used car in the world. Not the car itself—it’s a very good five-door hatchback, the kind Europeans love and Americans ignore—but because its underlying architecture has spawned a phenomenal volume of other cars. The Golf's underpinnings are used in more than 3 million cars a year, sold under the Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, and Skoda brands.

Now, as VW gets ready to unveil the sixth generation Golf at next month’s Paris Auto Show, the company will reveal a plug-in hybrid concept. If it goes into production, the hybrid would make the Golf Mk VI the only car in the world offering gasoline, diesel, and hybrid powertrains in the same vehicle.

The TwinDrive plug-in hybrid concept, first revealed in June, is being tested in up to 20 present-generation Golfs. A lithium-ion battery pack powers the car for up to 30 miles of electric range, with a combustion engine kicking in after that. This arrangement is similar to that of the Chevrolet Volt, which GM calls an “extended-range electric vehicle,” rather than a “power-split hybrid” system—like those used by Toyota.

The Golf TwinDrive has been adapted to plug in to wall current to recharge its battery pack. Earlier this year, VW also showed a TDI diesel hybrid concept—but without a plug.

Alongside the TwinDrive concept, the Golf Mk VI will be launched with a remarkable range of powertrain alternatives. VW offers engines with gasoline direct injection, turbo diesels, and its unique 1.4-liter “TwinForce” TSI engine, which is both supercharged (at low revs) and turbocharged (at high revs.) The lowest-consumption BlueMotion diesel version gives roughly 62 miles per US gallon, with CO2 emissions of just 99 g/km—similar to ultra-economy cars a whole size smaller, like Ford’s Fiesta ECOmotion.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen now offers the current Rabbit (Golf Mk V), Jetta sedan, and Jetta Sportwagen models in the US with a 2.0-liter turbocharged TDI diesel that complies with emissions and safety standards in all 50 states.

First launched in May 1974, the Golf was the car that saved Volkswagen. That company’s Beetles had done spectacularly well in the Fifties and Sixties, but by the early Seventies, it was clear that rear-engine, air-cooled volume cars could never meet upcoming emissions and safety standards. The first Golf, crisply styled by Guigiaro, was as modern as any Euro-hatch, with a water-cooled, transverse engine driving the front wheels, enormous space inside, and tight German handling. Renamed the Rabbit for the US market, it confirmed the basic design for a small car—transverse engine up front, driving the front wheels—a feature pioneered by long-extinct British makes during the 1960s.

Three and a half decades later, VW has sold 26 million Golfs in five generations. The latest one has been simplified under the skin to reduce its build cost, but offers greatly reduced wind noise and better interior fittings nonetheless. North America isn’t likely to see the Golf (or Rabbit) Mk VI until 2010 though, as VW customarily lags a year behind the European launch in other markets.

Medis Power Pack: A Fuel Cell Gadget Charger

2008-09-12T21:53:00.002+02:00

As I write, a small black box on my desk--a liquid fuel cell--is charging my iPod Touch.

It's a Medis 24-7 Power Pack, a portable charger for small electronics like a cell phone or an iPod.

Medis Technologies says that one Power Pack, which recently went on sale online and at Best Buy, can give you 30 hours of talk time on an average mobile phone or 60 to 80 hours of play time on an average iPod. That translates to about five or six full charges for an iPhone. A starter kit with adapters costs about $40 and a replacement pack is about $20.

Power on the go, using a fuel-cell charger.

With the explosion in gadgets, many of them becoming more power-hungry, there are growing set of options for on-the-go recharging, including direct liquid fuel cells. Large consumer electronics manufacturers, including Sharp, are developing products that can be charged by these pint-size power sources.

The Medis 24-7 Power Pack is one of, if not the, first liquid fuel-cell chargers for small devices. You can also expect versions for laptops within two to five years, say adherents.

I'll offer my first impressions with one important disclosure: I am not a product reviewer. I'm a green-tech reporter who likes to play around with alternative energy in the home.

First, why bother?

From a technophile perspective, this is a neat device. No longer are fuel cells reserved for spacecraft and car-of-the-future demonstrations. At $40, it's a real consumer-ready fuel cell.

Medis and other portable charger makers say that this isn't a replacement for your standard AC charger. Instead, think of it as a supplemental power source when you can't get to a wall socket.

If you're on the move all day for work or school, you can pull a portable charger out to add some talk time to your cell phone or get a couple more hours of music during your commute. It can be transported on a plane and it's light, at less than half of a pound.

The Medis Power Pack before being activated. You have to squeeze the top until it snaps with the bottom to get the electricity flowing.

It puts out one watt. It took about an hour to bring my slightly-more-than-half-charged iPod to full. That seems to match the company's claim that it charges at about the same speed as an AC charger.

Unlike a stand-alone battery, this can't be recharged--you recycle it or, down the road, refill a fuel cartridge.

Green-tech cred
Medis Technologies says that it's a green product because everything in it can be recycled. It doesn't use any toxic materials like the heavy metals used in batteries, complies with RoHS hazardous waste regulations, and doesn't have harmful emissions during use, according to the company.

The company encourages recycling by including packaging to send the device back to be recycled before buying a refilled pack.

There are a number of companies that are making liquid fuel cells using methanol, but the Medis charger uses a solution of sodium borohydride, a mineral that comes from mines. It's also looking at synthetic replacements.

The fuel itself can be recycled in other products, Medis Technologies vice president Michelle Rush said. The spent borates can be purified and put into detergents, cosmetics, fire retardants, and other products, she said.

The next generation of its fuel cell, expected to be ready in 18 months, will have a detachable cartridge that can be refilled, which should be more convenient than mailing a product back. Medis Technologies hopes that it can get involved in retail tech recycling programs like those for camera batteries or printer cartridges.

"Consumers really want to support green companies and we are clearly on that path," Rush said.

How to use
You could store it for at least 18 months, most likely years, before activating, according to the company. Once it has started being used, it has three months of life.

The end user, in fact, has to start the chemical reaction to get the juice flowing. To activate it, you remove a plastic strip strapped around the device and then squeeze the top so that it snaps with the bottom.

You then shake it to mix the solution around and the electricity is ready to flow. It comes with adapters for many devices.

Overall, this seems like a good application of fuel cells. And I applaud the company for making--and taking back through a partner--a product that they say can be entirely recycled.

My own needs for portable power are fairly limited but I'll keep the pack in my car for when I need an extra boost.

The Power Pack is also competing with "free" energy from my solar chargers. Another portable charger I'm waiting to go commercial is the planned motion-powered electronics charger from M2E Power.

In a couple of years, Medis plans to make fuel-cell chargers for laptops able to deliver 20 watts of electricity, which would give eight more hours of operation. The idea is to have a solid fuel that gets mixed with water as needed.

Depending on its weight, a fuel cell for laptops could attract a lot more people who would rather have a clean power source than lug around extra batteries.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET News)

Space Solar Power- Limitless Clean Energy From Space

2008-09-12T13:01:00.004+02:00

About Space Solar Power (SSP, also known as Space-Based Solar Power, or SBSP):

The United States and the world need to find new sources of clean energy. Space Solar Power gathers energy from sunlight in space and transmits it wirelessly to Earth. Space solar power can solve our energy and greenhouse gas emissions problems. Not just help, not just take a step in the right direction, but solve. Space solar power can provide large quantities of energy to each and every person on Earth with very little environmental impact.

The solar energy available in space is literally billions of times greater than we use today. The lifetime of the sun is an estimated 4-5 billion years, making space solar power a truly long-term energy solution. As Earth receives only one part in 2.3 billion of the Sun's output, space solar power is by far the largest potential energy source available, dwarfing all others combined. Solar energy is routinely used on nearly all spacecraft today. This technology on a larger scale, combined with already demonstrated wireless power transmission (see 2-minute video of demo), can supply nearly all the electrical needs of our planet.

Another need is to move away from fossil fuels for our transportation system. While electricity powers few vehicles today, hybrids will soon evolve into plug-in hybrids which can use electric energy from the grid. As batteries, super-capacitors, and fuel cells improve, the gasoline engine will gradually play a smaller and smaller role in transportation — but only if we can generate the enormous quantities of electrical energy we need. It doesn't help to remove fossil fuels from vehicles if you just turn around and use fossil fuels again to generate the electricity to power those vehicles. Space solar power can provide the needed clean power for any future electric transportation system.

While all viable energy options should be pursued with vigor, space solar power has a number of substantial advantages over other energy sources.

Advantages of Space Solar Power

Unlike oil, gas, ethanol, and coal plants, space solar power does not emit greenhouse gases.
Unlike coal and nuclear plants, space solar power does not compete for or depend upon increasingly scarce fresh water resources.
Unlike bio-ethanol or bio-diesel, space solar power does not compete for increasingly valuable farm land or depend on natural-gas-derived fertilizer. Food can continue to be a major export instead of a fuel provider.
Unlike nuclear power plants, space solar power will not produce hazardous waste, which needs to be stored and guarded for hundreds of years.
Unlike terrestrial solar and wind power plants, space solar power is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in huge quantities. It works regardless of cloud cover, daylight, or wind speed.
Unlike nuclear power plants, space solar power does not provide easy targets for terrorists.
Unlike coal and nuclear fuels, space solar power does not require environmentally problematic mining operations.
Space solar power will provide true energy independence for the nations that develop it, eliminating a major source of national competition for limited Earth-based energy resources.
Space solar power will not require dependence on unstable or hostile foreign oil providers to meet energy needs, enabling us to expend resources in other ways.
Space solar power can be exported to virtually any place in the world, and its energy can be converted for local needs — such as manufacture of methanol for use in places like rural India where there are no electric power grids. Space solar power can also be used for desalination of sea water.
Space solar power can take advantage of our current and historic investment in aerospace expertise to expand employment opportunities in solving the difficult problems of energy security and climate change.
Space solar power can provide a market large enough to develop the low-cost space transportation system that is required for its deployment. This, in turn, will also bring the resources of the solar system within economic reach.

Disadvantages of Space Solar Power

High development cost. Yes, space solar power development costs will be very large, although much smaller than American military presence in the Persian Gulf or the costs of global warming, climate change, or carbon sequestration. The cost of space solar power development always needs to be compared to the cost of not developing space solar power.

Requirements for Space Solar Power

The technologies and infrastructure required to make space solar power feasible include:

Low-cost, environmentally-friendly launch vehicles. Current launch vehicles are too expensive, and at high launch rates may pose atmospheric pollution problems of their own. Cheaper, cleaner launch vehicles are needed.
Large scale in-orbit construction and operations. To gather massive quantities of energy, solar power satellites must be large, far larger than the International Space Station (ISS), the largest spacecraft built to date. Fortunately, solar power satellites will be simpler than the ISS as they will consist of many identical parts.
Power transmission. A relatively small effort is also necessary to assess how to best transmit power from satellites to the Earth’s surface with minimal environmental impact.

All of these technologies are reasonably near-term and have multiple attractive approaches. However, a great deal of work is needed to bring them to practical fruition.

In the longer term, with sufficient investments in space infrastructure, space solar power can be built from materials from space. The full environmental benefits of space solar power derive from doing most of the work outside of Earth's biosphere. With materials extraction from the Moon or near-Earth asteroids, and space-based manufacture of components, space solar power would have essentially zero terrestrial environmental impact. Only the energy receivers need be built on Earth.

Space solar power can completely solve our energy problems long term. The sooner we start and the harder we work, the shorter "long term" will be.

Source: National Space Society www.nss.org/ssp. Image © Mafic Studio, Inc.

Sharp To Produce Solar Powered Street Lights

2008-09-12T12:22:00.002+02:00

Sharp Corporation will introduce into the Japanese market two models of solar-powered LED street lights that combine Sharp’s proprietary solar (photovoltaic) modules and high-intensity, long-life white LEDs (light emitting diodes). The LN-LW3A1 Solar-Powered LED Street Light delivers brightness at the industry’s highest level (instrument-measured luminous flux: 1,800 lumens) rivaling the light output from a regular 32-W fluorescent security light (which uses six compact fluorescent tubes) that is becoming the dominant product for this application. The LN-LS2A1 (instrument-measured luminous flux: 1,200 lumens) provides light output comparable to the 20-W class of security lights and is ideal for spot lighting in areas such as public parks.

The light from the LN-LW3A1 is bright enough to enable a person to make out the general facial features of a pedestrian on a darkened street or walkway at night from up to four meters away, regarded as the minimum distance required to take evasive action after judging the other person to be suspicious (“Class A” recommended illumination level for security lighting when units are installed at 13-meter intervals*2). These units also feature a Seismic Motion Sensor that detects the occurrence of a major earthquake measuring 5 or greater on the Japanese seismic scale and turns on the unit at full brightness during nighttime hours for two days*3. This allows these units to serve as emergency lights in case of a power interruption in the surrounding area.

Expectations are increasing for solar-powered LED lighting to become the environmentally friendly outdoor lighting for the 21st century. These units generate no CO2 emissions and work by storing electricity generated by sunlight during the day in storage batteries to provide illumination at night.

The operation of the LN-LW3A1 eliminates approximately 48 kg of CO2 emissions per year compared to using lighting units powered by conventional utility sources*4. The integrated LEDs use no mercury, an environmentally hazardous substance, and also emit no ultraviolet light. Further, because they have a long service life requiring replacement only once every 10 years, almost no time and effort is involved in maintenance.

By meeting demand for new installations of street lights which is said to be 100,000 per year in Japan, Sharp is offering these units as powerful floodlights for crime deterrence and emergency safety lighting featuring both environmental performance and nighttime visibility.

The new 'greener' Prius that you can plug in to any power socket

2008-09-11T04:27:00.001+02:00

A new generation 'plug-in' Toyota Prius that you can charge up at home and drive solely on electric power has been unveiled as an antidote to soaring petrol prices.

Drivers will be able to drive up to six miles on electric power only and emissions-free - sufficient for most commuting journeys.

The plug-in Prius can be charged from any domestic socket, giving it a far greater range under electric power than the current model that relies solely on its petrol engine to charge its batteries.

Greener and quieter: A new Toyota Prius charges up at a power socket in the City of Westminster as part of trials being undertaken in London

When running on electricity, the car is near silent, produces no emissions, and uses no fuel.

It takes between one and a half to two hours to fully charge - and then tops itself up while being driven.

But like the existing Prius it still has a fuel tank - and is still capable of switching, automatically, between its 1.5 litre petrol engine and electric motors.

It has a top speed of 105mph and can accelerate from rest to 62mph in 10.9 seconds.

Energy company EDF - which has installed charging points around the UK and which part-funded new sockets in Westminster - says it is the next step to breaking the tyranny of rising fuel prices.

The first plug-in Prius, which also has additional battery capacity, will undergo rigorous testing in London as part of the power company's fleet before Toyota decides when to make the car available to the public.

The prototype has proved even 'greener' than the standard model in early tests.

Unlike the current £7,282 Prius, bought by around 25,000 motorists in the UK, the Plug-in Hybrid can be driven as a purely electric vehicle for short journeys.

According to EDF, the extra charge that the batteries receive when the car is plugged in enables the car to use 60 per cent less petrol on journeys of up to 15 miles.

To further extend the number of miles the car can travel on its batteries, EDF plans to make charging points more accessible on public roads and at car parks.

It has already installed 40 charging posts in the UK and says it will install a further 100 across London.

A Toyota spokesman said: 'Early test results indicate that fuel efficiency is significantly higher than the current Prius.'

'It is the best of both worlds,' said an EDF spokesman.

'It enhances the benefits of hybrid technology while avoiding the constraints traditionally linked with electric vehicles.'

Business Secretary John Hutton, who was helping unveil the new prototype in London today, said: 'I welcome the launch of this trial here in the UK.

'I am pleased to see industry pulling together to work on diversifying energy use and cutting global car emissions.

'We hope that this trial will provide an invaluable insight into the future development of UK electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

'It leads us one step closer to making a reality our ambition of becoming the number one location for low carbon vehicles.'

The trial will last for a year and help offset negative publicity following the claim that nickel for the car's battery is produced at a Canadian factory whose sulphur dioxide fumes have destroyed vegetation in surrounding countryside.

Solar-Powered Car Confounds Police, UFO Hunters

2008-09-11T04:11:00.002+02:00

Marcelo da Luz says he's doing what he can for energy independence: The Canadian has been driving across North America in a solar-powered car. The only trouble is that police have pulled over the saucer-shaped vehicle seven times, including in Alaska, where somebody called in a UFO sighting to 911.

A bit of hilarious news: Alaska doesn’t get much action, really, so it’s no surprise that police thought they were pulling over a UFO when they saw the above solar car tooling down the road. I’d probably have thought the same thing, except that UFOs are unidentified FLYING objects…

But it was just Marcelo da Luz in his Xof1 taking a jaunt across the state to try and set a world record. A citizen dialed 911 upon seeing the vehicle, and police chased it down but didn’t do more than ask him what was up with the crazy car.

He might have responded:

The Power of One Solar Car Project, or Xof1 for short, was initially developed with the intention to compete in the prestigious World Solar Challenge. Instead their car set off to break the world distance record for a solar car. The space age looking car weighs roughly 660 lbs (300kg) with driver and the entire top body of the car is covered by solar cells and tops out at 75mph (120 km/hr).

It's just one of 7 times he's been pulled over during the race, so he might possibly have come up with something a little more creative or colorful by this point...

Sahara Forest Project Converts Desert into Oasis

2008-09-10T03:19:00.001+02:00

Recently a trio of entrepreneurs announced an incredible solution for the world’s resource problems: turn the Sahara desert into a source for food, water, and energy. The Sahara Forest Project (.PDF) is a solution that combines seemingly disparate technologies - Concentrated solar power and Seawater Greenhouses - and turns them into a mean, green super-massive biomachine. The elegant system could potentially produce enough energy for all of Africa and Europe while turning one of the world’s most inhospitable regions into a flourishing oasis.

The Sahara Forest Project is the brainchild of Charlie Paton, Michael Pawlyn and Bill Watts. The project aims to provide a source of renewable energy, food and water to desert regions around the world by taking a number of proven technologies and merging them into a system that works holistically to do its work. It’s an exciting synergy, as both Seawater greenhouses and concentrated solar power technologies are perfectly suited to work in hot, dry climates.

A Seawater Greenhouse converts sea water into fresh water using nothing more than the sun’s rays. It does this by running air through a structure whose walls are infused with cold sea water. As air enters it is immediately cooled, humidified, and then condensed into fresh water by sunlight.

Concentrated solar power is a technology that utilizes thousands of mirrors to focus sunlight upon a water boiler, heating it to over 1,000 degrees fahrenheit. This generates steam, which in turn drives a turbine to produce energy.

The Sahara Forest Project also has the ability to provide for agricultural growth and development in inhospitable arid regions. Fresh water produced by the Seawater Greenhouses can be used to grow a crops such jathropha, which can easily be turned into biofuel.

The development team expects that the Sahara Forest Project would span 20 hectares and cost about 80 million euros. It will be presented as part of the Future of Science’s Fourth World Conference, to be held between the 24th and 27th of September, which will be focusing on the theme of food and water for life.

The Huge, the Odd, and the Ingenious.

2008-09-10T02:37:00.001+02:00

We're starting to get used to wind turbines...not just the idea of getting a significant portion of our energy from the breeze, but also to their form on the horizon. But while the traditional tri-blade has its advantages, there are those who would see it replaced.

Though we've entered the realm of rapid growth, the innovation phase is far from over, so here are a few of the more radical designs for wind-capturing devices out there.

The MagTurbine is the largest concept for a wind turbine that has ever come across our editorial desk. By using permanent magnets to eliminate all friction, the MagTurbine can theoretically be as huge as it needs to be. In fact, the optimal size, apparently, has a base of roughly 100 acres. Yes, it's a wind turbine the size of a small town...but it could conceivably produce enough power (1 GW) to light a medium-sized city.

Significantly less huge, but still huge (and a lot more feasible) is the Grimshaw Aerogenerator. Aside from needing someone with a degree in fluid dynamics to figure out how exactly this gigantic TV antenna is supposed to capture wind power, it's pretty exciting. The idea is to keep the number of installations down by creating larger turbines. This design by Grimshaw Architecture might be rated as high as 9 megawatts, about two times the power output of today's largest turbines.

Getting smaller, but staying just as weird, we have the Flo-Design, shrouded turbine. Resembling a jet engine, Flo-Design says that their turbine creates far less turbulence than traditional turbines, can capture significantly more of the wind, be spaced closer together in wind farms, and can be deconstructed to fit on one truck. The biggest disadvantage is that no one has ever seen a working prototype outside of this awesome 3D animation.

We've seen our fair share of building-integrated wind turbines, but this one takes the cake. By filling in a space between each level with a scoop that will capture the wind, the designers of this rotating tower (currently under construction in Dubai) say that the tower will actually be able to power itself. EcoGeek remains skeptical about the claims, but it's certainly one of the weirdest turbines I've yet seen.

Last on the list for today is the Magenn Blimp Turbine. We've seen our fair share of tether based kite turbines, and while Magenn's blimp might not be the weirdest, it's certainly the closest to actual implementation, with a test blimp currently in operation and plans to start gathering power from a blimp farm next year. Each blimp is lighter than air and conducts the generated electricity to the ground via an electrical cable that also tether's the blimp to the ground. They flight at between 90 m and 200 m, allowing them to get at higher winds without the need for all that excess steel and carbon fiber.

ElectraWall can make electricity day or night

2008-09-10T02:12:00.002+02:00

ElectraWall is a new technology with the ability to collect and store energy from various outdoor locations. Completely self-contained, ElectraWall has built in battery storage and capacitance capabilities which prevent "brown out" -a partial loss of electrical current over long distances. It can be easily installed, and is more effective in energy production than current energy systems.

ElectraWall is the perfect solution to the energy collection and storage issues the world currently faces. It uses heat and light from the sun to generate electricity efficiently. The versatile design allows this product to be applied to a wide variety of surfaces. It is designed to clip on top of highway jersey/barrier walls, light poles, parking garages, and much more. ElectraWall can make electricity day or night, rain or shine. It is also made with many recycled materials.

Sharp’s New Solar-Powered Streetlight Can Do It All.

2008-09-09T01:01:00.000+02:00

Not only does the light operate for ten years without needing maintenance, but it also automatically turns on when it detects an earthquake.

The light use a high-intensity LED spotlight that has a service life of about 40,000 hours. It charges using built-in solar panels during the day, and shines automatically at night. Best of all, Sharp’s streetlight doesn’t create any light pollution—it’s illuminated with a directed light that doesn’t shine into the sky.

Perhaps the most intriguing feature of the streetlight is the built-in Seismic Motion Sensor. The sensor is built into the support pole of the main unit, and automatically switches the light to nighttime illumination mode upon detection of a 5.0 earthquake or larger on the Richter Scale. And light is both crucial and hard to find in an earthquake’s aftermath—after the disastrous 1995 Kobe quake, it took two days before power was restored.

Sharp’s streetlight will fittingly debut in Japan, but hopefully it will be deployed in other earthquake zones soon.

Hydrogen cars get no respect.

2008-09-09T00:51:00.001+02:00

A lot of people consider them the stuff of science fiction, a technology as vaporous as the stuff that drives them. But despite some hurdles even Liu Xiang couldn't clear -- creating a fueling infrastructure comes to mind -- Uncle Sam and the big automakers love hydrogen cars and are driving across the country in a fleet of them to prove they work.

Even if they're occasionally hauled on trucks.

Hydrogen evangelists set out from Portland, Maine, today to take the gospel to 31 cities in 18 states during the two-week "Hydrogen Road Tour." Although H2 is the most common element in the universe, it can be really tough to find when the fuel gauge is approaching "E." With only 62 hydrogen stations nationwide -- one opened in Massachusetts just this morning -- portable fueling stations will keep the cars going when they aren't being ferried on trucks.

While some may consider that cheating, road trip organizers say it's part of the point. "Part of what we're doing with the tour is raising awareness of the need for the fueling infrastructure," Patrick Serfass of the National Hydrogen Association tells us.

The association joined the Department of Energy and the California Fuel Cell Partnership in organizing the tour, which hopes to convince people hydrogen is a viable fuel on the cusp of commercialization. "The technology needed to put these cars on the road, and keep them moving, exists today," says Paul Brubaker, head of the federal transportation department's Research and Innovative Technology Administration. "The question is not if hydrogen powered vehicles will be available commercially, but when."

For all its promise of emissions-free motoring, hydrogen has more than its share of naysayers, but that isn't keeping the auto industry from pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into developing cars that run on it. Honda's leasing the FCX Clarity (pictured) fuel cell vehicle and made a big deal about actress Jamie Lee Curtis picking one up last week. Other celebrities - including Jay Leno, Edward Norton and Will Ferrell - are driving the BMW Hydrogen 7, which also runs on gasoline. General Motors plans to put 100 Equinox fuel cell vehicles in driveways and Toyota's developed a fuel cell vehicle with the unprecedented range of 516 miles. Even Mazda's getting in on the act with a hydrogen-fueled RX-8 that could be in showrooms by 2012.

BMW, Daimler, Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen have cars making the road trip, and they'll be joined along the way by fuel cell buses run by some of the nation's six transit agencies that use them. "These hydrogen vehicles are the non-polluting cars of tomorrow and they are being demonstrated today on our nation's roads," says Thomas Barrett, deputy secretary of energy.

There are many challenges to overcome before hydrogen vehicles are viable, not the least of which are making the cars affordable and producing and distributing hydrogen on a large scale. Still, the California Fuel Cell Partnership says thousands of hydrogen vehicles and hundreds of buses could be on the road by the end of 2016 and they'll fill up at hundreds of stations. In "Vision For the Rollout of Fuel Cell Vehicles and Hydrogen Fuel Stations," the partnership predicts fuel cell vehicles in California will need 5,250 kilograms of hydrogen each day by the end of 2014.

California has 26 hydrogen stations and 10 more planned. The partnership offers "a rough estimate" that capital costs for early stations will run $2 to $4 million -- excluding land and operating costs - and "the State of California should plan to spend $80-$90 million over four years (2010 through 2014) for hydrogen fuel stations to support the pre-commercial vehicle phase."

Until then, you may want to stay close to one of the nation's 62 hydrogen stations. Or have a flat-bed truck follow you.

The Citroën Hypnos

2008-09-09T00:45:00.001+02:00

The Citroën Hypnos concept may possibly be the least American car to ever appear at a car show. It's French. It's diesel. If that weren't enough, it's also a gas-sipping hybrid. We'd just love to fly over to the Paris Motor Show to catch a glimpse, but as Americans we don't have a cushy monthlong paid vacation to go globetrotting. Well, that and the fact our currency is so worthless we couldn't afford to go.

The exterior channels the Mazda CX-9 and Nissan Murano, and aside from the suicide doors is actually pretty tame by the standards of French concept cars. Judging by previous efforts, Citroën's current lineup should be made out of exhumed human skeletons, the AIDS virus and lightning. It isn't until a prospective driver opens the doors (or in this case, The Doors) that he's treated to a Coleridgian fantasy of colors, rainbows and hallucinatory textures. It's as if one of their pompous designers mistook psilocybin for a chanterelle while preparing fusty French food for his three-hour paid lunch break.

Citroën says the interior is meant to make "technology more human and approachable" and take passengers "into the realm of pure magic." But one can only think "WTF?"

According to AutoWeek, if the Hypnos were ever to be produced its hybrid diesel engine would make 200 horsepower and deliver a steady 53 mpg, all while making Bill O'Reilly nauseated. The Europeans seem to be betting on diesel hybrids, partly because of their increased efficiency, and partly because diesel is the European fuel of choice. If Citroën brings back ads with Grace Jones scaring the bejesus out of us, Volkswagen's familiar 70-mpg Golf TDI Hybrid and Mercedes' staid E300 46-mpg BlueTec Diesel Hybrid will probably catch on a little faster than Citroen's psychedelic people-mover.

PSA/Peugeot-Citroën research and engineering chief Pascal Henault told Automotive News Europe (sub. req.) that hybrid diesels will start appearing on high-end products from Peugeot and sister company Citroën. "Depending on how the market develops, we hope to also use the hybrid technology on more conventional products," he said, though we wonder how he defines "conventional."

Luckily, our American eyes will never have to see such a beast, as PSA/Peugeot-Citroën's return to the U.S. market is about as likely as George W. Bush receiving the Légion d'honneur. At the very least, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will require registered Hypnos importers to install a '70s-era hydropneumatic suspension and re-badge it as the Freedom Van.

Next-Gen Golf

2008-09-09T00:41:00.000+02:00

Volkswagen's rolled out a concept of its next-gen Golf outfitted with an ultra-efficient
BlueMotion diesel that gets better fuel economy and emits less carbon dioxide than a Toyota Prius.

The 1.6-liter common-rail turbocharged engine doesn't offer much performance -- 105 horsepower propels the car to 60 mph in 11.3 seconds and a top speed of 117 mph -- but it provides the same fuel economy as the tiny BlueMotion Polo. VW says the BlueMotion Golf delivers 74.3 miles per Imperial gallon, which on this side of the pond translates to 61.8 mpg, and emits 99 g/km of CO2. That comfortably edges out the 46 mpg and 104 g/km of the Prius.

Of course, we probably won't see it in America anytime soon. We'll have to make due with the standard Golf TDI.

Gets 62 MPGBlueMotion is the name given to the most fuel-efficient of VW's diesels, and the latest iteration of the Golf BlueMotion beats its predecessors emissions by 20 g/km. Although based on the sixth-generation Golf we'll see in the states next year, it gets some tweaks to improve efficiency and reduce emissions. The five-speed transmission gets revised ration, the body gets some subtle aero revisions and wheels sport low-resistance tires.

VW says the BlueMotion Golf will be available in Britain by the middle of next year, but as Motor Trend notes, the value of the dollar against the Euro and the expense of the technology means we won't see it here for quite awhile. We'll get the standard Golf TDI with the 110-horsepower engine that VW says returns 52 mpg and emits 119 g/km of CO2.

There is simply nothing like it on the road.”

2008-09-08T01:18:00.000+02:00

Green and Mean with the Moto Lean

What do you get when you combine the exhilaration of riding a fast motorcycle, the safety and comfort of a commuter car, and the fuel efficiency of advanced automotive technologies? The VentureOne—a two-passenger, three-wheeled, 100-mpg plug-in series hybrid from Venture Vehicles in Los Angeles.

Venture compares the driving sensation of the V1 to “flying a jet fighter 2 feet off the ground.” Capable of reaching top speeds of approximately 100 mph, it takes corners like a racing motorcycle that leans almost completely to one side. The two wheels and propulsion system in the back stay firmly on the ground, while the single front wheel and cabin—more like a glass-enclosed cockpit—tilts at angles up to 45 degrees. The automated tilting system, developed by Carver Engineering in the Netherlands and licensed by Venture Vehicles, uses a combination of hydraulic and mechanical technologies to determine the ideal angle and balance based on the traveling speed, rate of acceleration, and road conditions.

Sounds Thrilling—But Is It Safe?

According to the company, the VentureOne was designed to exceed the federal safety standards used for traditional automobiles, making it 30 times safer than the average motorcycle. Unlike the leaning, leather-clad moto-racers whose knees skim the pavement, the driver of the VentureOne is encased in a “safety cell,” complete with driver’s airbag, impact protection, restraint systems, and bumpers. The safety cell seats two passengers, one in front of the other.

Priced between $18,000 and $23,000 (depending on model), the VentureOne could be considered a devil-may-care toy for the wealthy—if it weren’t for the 100-mph worth of indulgence being tempered by 100 miles-per-gallon of environmental penitence. The vehicle is available in three shades of green. The fully electric version, featuring two in-wheel 20 kW electric motors and a 17 kWh lithium ion battery pack, delivers approximately 120 miles on a single charge. If you want to boost your range to 350 miles, you can opt for a 50 kW series plug-in hybrid version using a small internal combustion engine, a four gallon fuel tank ,and a 3 kWh li-ion battery pack. The third version, a 100 kW plug-in hybrid model, can bring your maximum speed to 120 mph, but cuts your range down to 300 miles. The batteries are charged via a standard 110-volt outlet, as well as a regenerative braking system.

Richard Hammond reviews the original Vandenbrink Carver in an episode of the BBC episode's "Top Gear."

The first set of VentureOne vehicles, expected in 2009, are being developed by a partnership that includes Swift Engineering, Cal Motors and Automotive Marketing Consultants. A123Systems of Watertown, Mass, supplies the lithium batteries.

Nothing Like It

The VentureOne could very well be the first plug-in hybrid to hit the market, and the first vehicle that delivers 100 miles-to-the-gallon. But how big is the market for a $20,000 three-wheeled, two-seater tilt-a-whirl motorcycle-car gizmo? Big enough for NGEN Partners, a cleantech venture firm with offices in California and New York, to invest $6 million in Venture Vehicles. Steve Parry, managing member at NGEN, believes the vehicle will meet the real-world needs of consumers. Parry said, “But without question, it is the absolutely extraordinary nature of the driving experience that ultimately will sell the product. There is simply nothing like it on the road.”

Chrysler's Electric Cars Get Closer to Production

2008-09-07T02:01:00.000+02:00

Chrysler debuted its ecoVoyager electric vehicle at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show earlier this year.

Chrysler’s new line of electric cars are “closer to production than you think,” said Chrysler president Jim Press earlier today. He explained that Chrysler is currently demonstrating electric cars and plug-in hybrids to dealers to get their feedback.

When challenged as to whether a Chrysler plug-in hybrid could beat GM’s much-publicized Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid to market, Press deferred with a joke, saying, “GM’s been selling the Volt for about five years.” He added that Chrysler “didn’t have the money for PR stunts,” but was focused on getting its new products to market.

Chrysler is under pressure to deliver exciting and innovative new cars. On Wednesday, Chrysler said its sales in the United States fell by a third in August—nearly twice the industry average. Honda bypassed Chrysler to become the nation’s No. 4 seller of cars.

Chrysler's hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electic vehicles are coming out of the year-old ENVI program, which was organized to jump-start Chrysler’s move to develop its own ground-up hybrids. The company’s first hybrid products, the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen two-mode hybrids, use technology developed jointly by their former parent company Daimler with General Motors and BMW. Chrysler is the last of the six largest car companies to put a hybrid on the market.

According to Press, who spoke to the Western Automotive Journalists group in South San Francisco, Chrysler is moving to electric vehicles for two reasons: 

Market forces. The company recognizes rising concerns over the environment, carbon reduction, and dependence on petroleum.
Company expertise. “Our engineers know how to do it,” said Press.

Chrysler is putting $3 billion a year into new products, according to Press, and as a private company has the ability to invest in new technologies like electric vehicles.

Chrysler Hybrid Timeline

Some of the fruits of those investments are starting to show up:

Chrysler recently introduced hybrid versions the Dodge Durango And Chrysler Aspen, offering about 30 percent better fuel economy than its non-hybrid version without sacrificing towing capability or interior space.
Next year, the new Dodge Ram pickup will offer a diesel engine in its light-duty models for the first time, followed in 2010 by a hybrid model.
A hybrid minivan that is due to come out of the ENVI program will follow “after that,” Press said.

iMiEV (Mitsubishi in-wheel Electric Vehicle) Sport Concept

2008-09-07T01:50:00.001+02:00

Mitsubishi plans to mass-market a small electric vehicle by 2010. As major car companies continue to introduce eco-friendly offerings in the marketplace, second-tier car manufacturers like Mitsubishi are busy playing catch up. “One of the biggest issues facing an automaker today is the problem of the environment,” said Osamu Masuko, president of Mitsubishi. "Being able to come up with solutions to an array of environmental issues or not will decide if an auto maker can survive long into the future."

The production vehicle will most likely be a derivative of the iMiEV (Mitsubishi in-wheel Electric Vehicle) Sport Concept, which was introduced at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, and became the latest in a line of MiEV vehicles that Mitsubishi has been developing for a number of years. The first such vehicle to be unveiled was the Colt EV in the Spring of 2005. The idea is to make affordable, viable electric vehicles, especially for those living in congested cities. This kind of technology allows higher mileage, independence from petroleum, and a positive impact to the environment. It’s the proverbial triple threat in green motoring.

The iMiEV Sport drive system uses three permanent magnetic synchronous motors. One in-wheel motor is placed at each front wheel; a single motor drives the rear wheels. Plus, there’s Super All Wheel Control—the company’s vehicle dynamics control system—to achieve high maneuverability. Top speed for the vehicle is 112 miles per hour, with a travel range of 124 miles. Taking advantage of its relatively long wheelbase, a lithium-ion battery is installed at the lowest area under the floor, which will grant the vehicle maximum stability, agile handling, and a more spacious interior. The iMiEV Sport concept—like most concept vehicles—has its share of eye-candy for the green geeks. The list includes a photovoltaic generator on the roof, a power-generating fan inside the front grill, power-saving LED lighting, and an air conditioning system made more efficient by the use of heat-absorbing windows. In addition, Green Plastic—Mitsubishi’s plant-based resin technology—is used for many interior components as a further effort to be as eco-friendly as possible.

It's All About the Battery

More than anything else, Mitsubishi’s plans are based on the latest advancements in battery technology. Having developed its own large-capacity high-performance lithium-ion battery—in a joint venture with GS Yuasa Corporation—Mitsubishi is confident that the technology is ready for primetime. The battery cells from the joint venture are based on the LIM series of large-format lithium ion batteries manufactured by GS Yuasa. The partners have enhanced the cell structure and electrode materials to deliver improved energy and power densities. The result is an electric car with the power and range suitable for daily driving.

Since the battery is not yet advanced enough to power a large vehicle by itself, Mitsubishi is looking into the possibility of a plug-in hybrid for a heftier fuel-efficient large vehicle. Though there is no timetable, the plug-in hybrid would come to fruition some time after the electric car hits the streets. According to Masuko, Mitsubishi has no current plans to develop a conventional gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle.

Daimler to Electrify Autobahn With “e-mobility Berlin”

2008-09-07T01:36:00.000+02:00

Berlin’s autobahn will be getting a charge from the “e-mobility Berlin” program Daimler AG officially unveiled today. The automaker is working with German utility RWE to put more than 100 electric cars on the city’s roads by 2010. Under terms of the joint venture, Daimler will provide electric vehicles from its Smart and Mercedes-Benz lines while RWE will install some 500 charging points around the city.

The announcement gives no legs to the rumors circulating about Daimler’s possible partnerships with a slew of cleantech startups. Last week, the Financial Times reported that electric car poster child Tesla Motors would be supplying the batteries for the Smart cars, but the release doesn’t say whose batteries will be in them.

It does, however, say that as early as next year Daimler could put that same lithium-ion technology into serial production for its Mercedes S 400 BlueHYBRID. Reuters had reported that battery giant Continental would be providing the lithium-ion batteries for the luxury hybrid, so perhaps this isn’t the deal Tesla Elon Musk said he was working on with Daimler? Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung earlier this year he was “in talks” with Agassi’s Better Place, but the Silicon Valley startup tells us that they are not involved with the e-mobility program.

The 500 “electricity filling stations” will be capable of identifying individual cars and owners allowing for charging of the vehicle and the credit card on account as well as “smart charging” or “vehicle-to-grid charging,” all features Agassi promises his charging stations will provide.

So far, the only partners announced in this project are Daimler and RWE, but we’re hopeful some cleantech startups will be helping with Daimler’s electro-auto-revolution.

Africa Becoming a Biofuel Battleground

2008-09-06T01:07:00.002+02:00

Western companies are pushing to acquire vast stretches of African land to meet the world's biofuel needs. Local farmers and governments are being showered with promises. But is this just another form of economic colonialism?

Everything will turn out alright. Correction: everything is going to get better. There will be new roads, a new school, a pharmacy, even a proper water supply. Most of all, there will be jobs -- 5,000, at the very least. "If there are jobs for us, then it's a good thing," says Juma Njagu, 26, who hopes to be able to leave his meager existence as a planter and charburner behind soon.

Njagu lives in Mtamba, a village of about 1,100 souls in Tanzania's Kisarawe district, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south-west of Dar es Salaam, the capital and largest city. Mtamba, accessible by dirt road, is a place where people scrape by on a bit of farming, a bit of fishing and the production of charcoal. There isn't much else in Mtamba.

That could change if the British firm Sun Biofuels goes ahead with plans to produce biodiesel fuel from "Jatropha curcas," an energy plant with a high oil content, which it hopes to plant on Kisarawe's farmland.

The Tanzanian government has granted the British firm the use of 9,000 hectares (22,230 acres) of sparsely populated farmland, or enough land to cover about 12,000 soccer fields, for a period of 99 years -- free of charge. In return, the company will invest about $20 million (€13 million) to build roads and schools, bringing a modicum of prosperity to the region.

Sun Biofuels is not alone. In fact, half a dozen other companies from the Netherlands, the United States, Sweden, Japan, Canada and Germany have already sent their scouts to Tanzania. Prokon, a German company known primarily for its wind turbines, has already begun growing jatropha curcas on a large scale. It expects to have 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) -- an area about the size of Luxembourg -- under cultivation throughout Tanzania soon.

Kavango BioEnergy, a British company, plans to invest millions of euros in northern Namibia. Western companies are turning up in Malawi and Zambia, where they plan to produce diesel fuel and ethanol from jatropha curcas, palm oil or sugar cane. Foreign investors have their eye on 11 million hectares (27 million acres) in Mozambique -- more than one-seventh of the country's total area -- for growing energy plants. The government in Ethiopia has even made 24 million hectares (59 million acres) available.

The consequences of this boom are dramatic. Experts agree that the worldwide push to grow energy plants is on overwhelming factor in the global explosion of food prices. According to one study by the World Bank, as much as 75 percent of the increase could be attributable to this change in the types of crops being farmed. Many farmers in industrialized countries are more than happy to accept government subsidies for corn or rapeseed, but this comes at the cost of the cultivation of wheat, potatoes and legumes.

Oil plants are not competing with intensively farmed land in Africa -- yet. Investors argue that the land they are using is uncultivated or underused. But rising food prices and population growth will also increase pressure in the southern hemisphere to convert unused land to agricultural use.

Biofuels are profitable when oil is expensive.

For investors, growing energy plants in Africa is highly profitable. Crude oil will become scarce in the foreseeable future, so that easy-to-produce biofuel comes at just the right time. At an estimated annual yield of 2,500 liters per hectare, Sun Biofuels is in it for the long haul in Tanzania. Production becomes profitable as soon as the price of a barrel of crude oil exceeds $100 (€69) on the world market. A barrel currently goes for just over $100.

Africa offers oil farmers virtually ideal conditions for their purposes: underused land in many places, low land prices, ownership that is often unclear and, most of all, regimes capable of being influenced.

The land is unusable, says the Ethiopian energy and mining minister in Addis Ababa, the country's capital. "It's just marginal land," say officials at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Dar es Salaam. "The whole thing is nothing but positive," says the district administrator of Kisarawe, who is responsible for the Sun Biofuels project. "We have convinced the people." In his rudimentary office, which lacks both a computer and a copy machine, he leafs through the planning documents.

In none of these places are the needs of local residents taken into account. In Ghana, BioFuel Africa wrested away land clearing and usage rights from a village chief who could neither read nor write. The man gave his consent with his thumbprint. The weekly newspaper Public Agenda felt reminded of the "darkest days of colonialism." The Ghanaian environmental protection agency eventually put a stop to the clear-cutting, but only after 2,600 hectares (6,422 acres) of forest had been cut down.

In Tanzania, while there are hopes, there is also plenty of reason to be skeptical about promises that everything will improve. In April 2006, Sun Biofuels claimed that it had received formal approval for cultivation from 10 of the 11 affected villages. At that point, however, several communities were not even aware of the plans, while others had attached conditions to their consent. A village head complained, in writing, to the district administration that Sun Biofuels had cleared and marked off land without even contacting the village elders.

In Dar es Salaam, Peter Auge, general manager of Sun Biofuels Tanzania, sits in his office. He is a casual, straightforward South African. "It is true," he says, "that we were a little reserved with our information policy." There are still many unknowns, says Auge, adding that he doesn't want to read in the paper that "the project is two years behind schedule."

Auge promises social investments, although they are not part of the agreements at this point. Even when it comes to compensation for the people living on the land, which the government insists must be paid, the investors are getting an exceedingly good deal. They offered the equivalent of about €450,000, a ridiculous price for the 9,000 hectares (22,230 acres) that they can now use for almost a century.

Seventy kilometers (43 miles) farther south, on the Rufiji River, thousands of residents are being forced to move to make way for the Swedish company Sekab's plans to grow sugarcane, a highly water-intensive crop, on at least 9,000 hectares (22,230 acres) and then distill it into ethanol. Five thousand hectares (12,350 acres) have already been approved.

The river and the wetlands along its banks are the only source of drinking water for thousands of people, especially during the dry season. Sekab also plans to tap this reservoir to irrigate its plantations. Transparency? Nonexistent. Compensation? None whatsoever. Information? A scarce commodity. When residents attending an informational event asked about compensation payments, they were told curtly: "You will get what you are entitled to."

The PR machine is all the more active, even in poor countries like Tanzania. Naturally South African national Josephine Brennan, who is in charge of public relations for Sekab in Dar es Salaam, sees only good things for Tanzania's future. Farming for biofuel will enable the country to build new schools and new roads, which translate into better opportunities for Tanzanians, says Brennan. According to Brennan, small farmers will also be able to earn more money in the future by growing biofuel-ready plants, and up to three million people in Tanzania alone will be lifted out of poverty. With its two million hectares of potential cropland, Tanzania, says Brennan, has as much growth potential "as the Celtic Tiger, Ireland." Finally, she is convinced that "the world needs Tanzania."

But Brennan's rosy predictions do not reflect opinions in East Africa. A study on energy plants in Tanzania, conducted by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation, lists a host of negative side effects. What is more, this is not the first time that white investors have promised prosperity for Tanzania.

With similarly enticing promises, small farmers were talked out of their land several decades ago to make way for coffee plantations. In the 1990s, foreign mining companies arrived in Tanzania to dig for gold. "They promised us jobs, new roads, new wells and schools," says journalist Joseph Shayo. "And what happened? No schools, no wells and few jobs, which were low-paying jobs, to boot." To make matters worse, large mining zones were fenced off and became inaccessible to the original residents.

In a recently published study on the "Biofuel Industry in Tanzania," journalist Khoti Kamanga of the University of Dar es Salaam warns against the side effects of energy plantations. The population, Kamanga writes, is usually uninformed, while the cultivation of energy plants usually goes hand-in-hand with forced resettlement. According to Kamanga, it is very likely that ethanol production will also affect food prices in Tanzania, with the country's dependency on food imports growing even further.

In Dar es Salaam, the government has now recognized that the boom also comes with problems. "Energy plants cannot be an alternative to food production," said President Jakaya Kikwete, responding to widespread resentment in his country over high food prices.

But the energy farmers remain unimpressed. Sun Biofuels and Sekab each want to expand their production to 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres) -- as soon as possible.

How to Give Your Hybrid an Extra Charge

2008-09-05T02:25:00.003+02:00

Toyota Prius owners can double their mileage by ordering a kit that converts their vehicle into a plug-in hybrid.

Chris Cox of Derry, N.H., got tired of waiting for the electric car of the future. In August, he took matters into his own hands and had his 2008 Toyota Prius converted into a plug-in hybrid, which doubled its gas mileage — Cox now gets up to 100 miles per gallon for 30 to 40 miles at a stretch. Although the Prius is already a hybrid gas-electric model, the additional battery that Cox had installed enables him to travel more than 20 miles on all-electric power (compared to just two miles without it) before the gas engine kicks in.

Until now, such after-market auto modifications were the exclusive purview of fearless do-it-yourselfers (check out their work at EV Album or CalCars). But now many car dealers and repair shops will do the job for you — and consumers are lining up. Typically customers order the kits directly from one of a handful of makers, who in turn ship the components to an installer near you. At least for now, an after-market conversion is the only option if you really want to rev up your fuel economy — short of ditching your car altogether and plunking down $109,000 for the all-electric Tesla Roadster or settling for Zap's barely street-legal three-wheeler. "I wanted something real today," says Cox, 50, who works as a database administrator.

Don't expect a bargain, though: Conversion kits range anywhere from $5,000 for lead-acid batteries to more than $30,000 for lithium-ion technology. The more expensive kits buy you a longer all-electric range, don't need replacing as often, and take up less space. The catch is that the additional battery has to be recharged by plugging your car into an electric outlet for several hours every time the battery gets drained, which can be inconvenient. Cox paid $9,999 for a 207-lb. Hymotion lithium-ion battery module, which fits into the spare tire well behind the back seat of his Prius and takes about six hours to charge. Aside from the black rubber-capped electrical outlet installed on the rear left bumper, Cox's Silver Prius looks exactly as it did before the conversion. "I don't think I'll make the money back," admits Cox, who estimates that it will take 10 years to recoup the cost in saved gas. "I bought it so I could put the word out there and say, 'Hey, this is possible,'" he says.

Until now, the steep price of conversions and most car owners' lack of technical know-how have kept consumers at bay. And while the cost is still prohibitive for most folks, some of the safety concerns and technical hurdles have been alleviated. Hymotion's conversion kit comes with a three-year warranty and has been crash tested. Those worried about voiding their original warranty should know that it is illegal for a carmaker to do so solely because an after-market product has been installed. If that product causes any malfunction or damage to the factory-installed parts, however, the warranty won't cover the damage.

Hymotion, owned by A123 Systems and based in Watertown, Mass., has at least one advantage over its competitors: The company is one of two finalists being considered by General Motors to produce the lithium-ion battery for the Chevy Volt, which is widely expected to be the first commercially available plug-in hybrid in the U.S. when it goes on sale in 2010. (GM says the Volt will be able to travel up to 40 miles in all-electric mode before switching over to its gas or ethanol-powered engine.) But there are at least half a dozen other companies that sell conversion kits for the Prius, Ford Escape and other hybrid models.

Like Cox, many Americans are desperate to get better gas mileage, feel frustrated with fuel prices and are impatient with the pace of auto-makers' change. "Toyota could produce this [plug-in hybrid] in a heartbeat, but they are just not there yet," says Charles Tonelli, owner of Westboro Toyota in Westboro, Mass., which performed Cox's Prius conversion and has a waiting list of 96 other customers who want the same service. (Click here to see what's involved in a conversion). In the meantime, non-profits like CalCars and Plug In America are lobbying for tax credits and other incentives that may help speed adoption of the new technology. But if you can't wait until 2010 for a brand-new plug in, you can still get all charged up today.

EU parliament eases road for Hydrogen Cars

2008-09-05T01:14:00.002+02:00

The EU parliament on Wednesday took a significant step towards the introduction of hydrogen-powered cars on Europe's roads, calling for common criteria for the environmentally friendly technology.

The fruit of a compromise hammered out by the EU member states, the idea of harmonised rules, passed almost unanimously, is expected to receive the final green light from the 27 nations soon.

The agreement "is a big step forward in the introduction of hydrogen vehicles," said European Commission vice-president Guenter Verheugen, responsible for enterprise and industry.

"They have the potential to make Europe's air cleaner and reduce its dependency on fossil fuels. Setting common standards will ensure high safety for citizens and will boost the competitiveness of European manufacturers."

The purpose of the proposal is "to lay down harmonised technical provisions for the type-approval of hydrogen-powered vehicles for the first time," the parliament said.

Currently there are no uniform requirements for hydrogen vehicles in Europe, posing problems for hydrogen vehicle manufacturers when trying to place these vehicles on the market.

The result, according to the commission, is "a fragmented internal market of hydrogen powered vehicles, as well as complicated and costly approval procedures, which discourages the introduction of this environmentally friendly technology."

"With the adoption of EU-wide criteria, the European Union can establish itself now ahead of global research and ensure investment security for market access of this future technology," said British conservative MEP Malcolm Harbour.

His Labour compatriot Arlene McCarthy stressed the green and economic advantages of the new technology.

"At a time when petrol prices in Europe have doubled and with ever-growing concern about the effects of climate change it is clear we need new hopes for future fuels," she said.

The Euro MPs also stressed the need to encourage the setting up of hydrogen filling stations, essential to the success of the technology and currently very rare in Europe.

When used as fuel, either in combustion motors or in fuel-cell systems, hydrogen does not produce any carbon emissions, though care will have to be taken that the production of hydrogen itself does not lead to an increase in CO2 emissions.

While hydrogen has more energy power than oil, methanol and natural gas, its lightness makes it very difficult to stock and transport.

At present the fuel used is normally a hydrogen mixture with natural gas or biomethane. The MEPs said in the future pure hydrogen should be used, and that the current fuel was just a transitional technology.

World's largest biomass plant running on chicken manure online in the Netherlands

2008-09-04T02:44:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, Gerda Verburg, Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Food Quality, opened the world's largest biomass power plant running exclusively on chicken manure.

The €150 million project is owned and operated by multi-utility company Delta, cooperative DET, ZLTO and Austrian Energy & Environment A.G. (a consortium including Siemens Nederland N.V.) The facility will deliver renewable electricity to 90,000 households. The biomass power plant solves a key environmental problem in the Netherlands: managing the vast excess stream of chicken manure, which, until today, had to be processed at a high cost.

The biomass power plant will utilize approximately 440,000 tons of chicken manure, roughly one third of the total amount produced each year in the Netherlands. Many European countries, including the Netherlands, suffer under an excess of different types of animal manure that pollute the environment. Costly methods are used to avoid it being spread out over land, to process it or to avoid creating the excess in the first place. Using the manure as a carbon-neutral energy source has become the most efficient, environmentally-friendly, and cost-effective of all management options.

Interestingly, the biomass power plant is more than merely "carbon neutral". If the chicken manure were to be spread out over farm land, it would release not only CO2, but also methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. By using the manure for power generation, the release of methane is avoided.

The biomass power plant - unique because it exclusively burns chicken manure - has a capacity of 36.5MW, and will generate more than 270 million kWh of electricity per year. The facility is located on the Moerdijk in Zeeland, and will serve approximately 90,000 households.

Generating renewable and sustainable energy requires innovation. Innovating is costly and time-consuming, but important to make the transition from fossil to renewable fuels. The biomass power plant is one of the strategic components of our energy mix, which includes a wide range of renewable sources, as well as nuclear power. This diverse energy mix is needed to meet the ever increasing demand for electricity, but for us, building a smart and clean fuel sourcing strategy is more than meeting the consumer's demand, it is a matter of meeting our social obligations. - Peter Boerma, CEO Delta

The cooperative "Duurzame Energieproductie Pluimveehouderij (DEP)" (Sustainable Energy Production in the Poultry Sector) brings the chicken manure to the power plant. DEP has a member base of 629 poultry farmers, 70% of them operating in the south of the country. The power plant offers the poultry farmers an environmentally friendly, structurally sound and commercially interesting option enabling them to manage their production of chicken manure.

The Netherlands produces approximately 1.2 million tons of chicken manure per year. Until now, 800,000 tons of this amount was processed abroad, at high costs. One third of this amount will now be used in the biomass power plant. The ashes from the combustion of the manure are rich in phosphorus and kalium, and will be sold as a fertilizer with a high added value:

The most obvious question many people in Moerdijk raised is whether the large amounts of chicken manure, when transported to and processed in the power plant, would leave a stench. The engineers who built the facility took care to address this issue: all the manure is transported in airtight trucks and is only released for processing once the trucks have entered an air lock in the fuel processing area.

The power plant's construction began on august 28, 2006 and cost €150 million. The facility provides jobs to 25 people. The project is the result of a cooperation between Delta, the cooperative DEP, Zuidelijke Land- en Tuinbouworganisatie (ZLTO) and Austrian Energy & Environment A.G.

These partners, alongside regional and national government in the Netherlands, are now looking into building similar biomass power plants to deal with other excess streams of manure.

8 Reasons Why BioPlastic is Worse than Regular Plastic

2008-09-04T01:22:00.001+02:00

So we're all getting pretty darned familiar with the arguments for and against biofuels. But what about bioplastics? Since we can, theoretically, do anything with corn that we can do with petroleum, wouldn't it be better to do it with corn?

Well, not necessarily. BioPlastics are a mixed bag, and considerably more complicated than biofuels. Mostly, this is because there are about two dozen different ways to create bioplastic, and every one has different properties and capabilities.

1. Why make stuff out of it when you can eat it? There are lots of hungry people in the world, and it seems a little odd to be making disposable cups out of the stuff when it could be being eaten. Though bioplastic definitely isn't causing an increase in the price of food, it's not impossible to imagine it.

2. You can't always recycle it. Because bioplastics come in dozens of varieties, there's no way to make sure you're getting the right chemicals in the recycling vat. And, in general, the solution is compost instead of re-entering the supply stream.

3. It could make plastic recycling impossible. Even worse than not being recyclable itself, if it creeps into the recycling stream (which is likely, since it doesn't look any different) it can introduce new chemicals that make the final recycled product weaker or even unusable.

4. Compostable doesn't mean compostable. If you toss a bioplastic fork into your compost and assume it'll be dirt in a few months, you'll be sorely disappointed. While bioplastic is (sometimes) compostable, it requires high intensity, high heat commercial composting.

5. It's never made from organic corn, and generally made from genetically modified corn. And while EcoGeek doesn't have a problem with genetic modification, many other environmentally aware people do.

6. It makes low quality plastic. Instead of solving the problem of the disposable society, bio-plastics generally can only be made into disposable items. They're having problems even making transparent bioplastic that's strong enough to hold water for a few months.

7. It's good marketing, but bad honesty. It's very easy to have bioplastic cups or bags or forks. But it's very difficult to figure out what that means. Because there are so many different types of bioplastic, you never really know what you're getting into. Maybe it's compostable, maybe it's not. Maybe it's recyclable, maybe it's not.

8. What's wrong with storing carbon in landfills? Plastic has gotten a bad rap, for poisoning babies and strangling sea lions. But if it is used properly and ends up in the landfill, I don't see what the problem is. Creating durable products with petroleum is certainly much preferred to burning it. And while plastics factories are big polluters, bio plastics factories though better, don't get us clean either.

None of that is to say that bioplastics might not reign supreme some day, they certainly have advantages as well. They're infinitely producible and safer to burn. But until a durable, recyclable and cheap option starts to win this crazy format war, I'm staying away.

List of 7 Next-Gen Biofuels According to Popular Mechanics

2008-09-03T03:23:00.005+02:00

celluosic ethanol biological method

Process*: Raw biomass is typically ground up and pretreated in an acid steam bath before soaking in a massive hot tub for several days. Enzymes break down rigid cellulose into simple sugars like xylose, similar to the sweetener in toothpaste, which can be fermented by yeast or bacteria; it is then distilled into fuel-grade ethanol.
Bottom Line: Fermenting cellulose currently involves a lot of water and several time-consuming steps, adding to expense. The first commercial facility is expected to open in Iowa by late 2011.
Innovators: Iogen (backed by Shell), POET, SunEthanol, Verenium
Freshwater Usage:** 3 gallons
Energy Yield***: 66%

celluosic ethanol biological method

Process*: Cornstalks, garbage and even old tires are blasted with several-thousand-degree heat in an anaerobic chamber. With no oxygen, biomass can’t combust. Instead, feedstocks break down into carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. This synthesis gas, or syngas, is cleaned, cooled and either ingested by bacteria or mixed with catalysts to produce ethanol and other alcohols.
Bottom Line: This method uses substantially less water and provides greater yields, but it has yet to be scaled to levels that compete with the ethanol fermentation industry. Plants are set to open in Pennsylvania and Georgia in late 2009.
Innovators: Coskata (backed by GM), Range Fuels
Freshwater Usage:** 1 gallon
Energy Yield***: 66%

algal biodiesel

Process*: Specially selected or genetically modified strains of algae are grown in enclosed bioreactors—tubes or plastic bags filled with water—and fed waste CO2 from heavy emitters like coal-fired power plants, cement kilns or breweries. The algae are then separated from water by centrifuge, and the oil is extracted with a solvent. It is then processed in
Bottom Line: Algae produce thousands of gallons more oil per acre than crops such as soy or palm, but growing and processing them at scale still present challenges. A number of U.S. facilities are slated to come on line by 2012.
Innovators: GreenFuel, HR Biopetroleum (backed by Shell), Solazyme, Solix
Freshwater Usage:** None
Energy Yield***: 103%

green gasoline

Process*: Simple sugars—either derived from breaking down tough, cellulosic feedstocks or from sources such as sugarcane—are reacted over solid catalysts to remove the oxygen locked inside their molecules and form high-energy hydrocarbons. Like crude run through traditional refineries, raw sugar feedstocks are separated to create the range of molecules in the fuels we know as gasoline, diesel and jet.
Bottom Line: Green incarnations of today’s fuels are the holy grail, but until cellulose can be cheaply converted to simple sugars, domestic potential will be limited. Virent hopes to have its gas in car tanks by 2012.
Innovators: Virent (backed by Shell and Honda)
Freshwater Usage:** None
Energy Yield***: 100%

biobutanol

Process*: Like ethanol, biobutanol is fermented by microorganisms from sugars, which are broken down from raw feedstocks and mixed with water. But for this process, the microbes have been genetically modified to produce an alcohol with a longer chain of hydrocarbons. Since butanol doesn’t mix with water at high concentrations, the finished fuel can be stored easily and transported within existing gasoline pipelines.
Bottom Line: Butanol is the rocket fuel of alcohols, but it has traditionally been derived from petroleum. Plants to produce it cheaply from renewable sources by 2012 are in the works in the U.S. and U.K.
Innovators: Cobalt Biofuels, Dupont (backed by BP), Gevo, Tetravitae Bioscience
Freshwater Usage:** N/A
Energy Yield***: 90%

designer hydrocarbons

Process*: By swapping out natural genes for synthetic ones, scientists trick microorganisms such as E. coli and yeast into converting simple sugars to diesel, gasoline and jet fuel instead of into fats or alcohols. As in traditional ethanol production, microbes ferment the sugars (in this case, from sugar cane) in a slurry, but since finished fuels don’t mix with water, the hydrocarbons are easily separated by centrifuge without expensive distillation.
Bottom Line: Designer fuels are ready to drop into engines, but unless they’re made in a closed-loop system, they’re water-intensive. The first commercial plant will be located in Brazil and is expected to start producing diesel in 2010.
Innovators: LS9, Amyris
Freshwater Usage:** 3 gallons
Energy Yield***: 106%

fourth gen fuels

Process*: Scientists have genetically engineered algae not just to turn CO2 into oil, but to continuously excrete that oil directly into the surrounding water. Since oil floats, harvesting it becomes simple work compared with the energy-intensive drying and extraction traditionally used for typical algae, which store oil within their cell walls. As with second-generation methods, the oil can then be processed into biodiesel.
Bottom Line: If they can perform at scale, these mutant algae may well be game changers. Synthetic Genomics hopes to have commercial amounts of biodiesel on the market within five years, though no plants have been built yet.
Innovators: Synthetic Genomics
Freshwater Usage:** None
Energy Yield***: 103%

* May vary slightly from company to company.
** Gallons per gallon of fuel, based on early projections; amount may vary depending on final production process.
*** Compared to a gallon of gasoline.

Concentrating Solar Thermal Power

2008-09-03T02:29:00.003+02:00

The time seems to be right for concentrating solar thermal technology, with thousands of megawatts of new capacity in the pipeline. There's no doubt this technology can deliver, and utilities like its scale. While trough technology is the established workhorse, investors are eagerly backing a range of alternatives. This sector is in for an exciting few years as plans become reality, writes Jackie Jones.

Concentrating solar thermal power is emerging behind wind as a significant potential source of renewable wholesale generation capacity. In mid-2008, the amount of concentrated solar thermal power technology installed is 431 MW, with several plants under construction – largely in Spain – and an estimated 7000 MW potentially coming on-line by 2012. The majority of current installations use solar trough technology, though one 11 MW tower technology plant went into operation in Spain in 2006.

Some 97% of installations are currently in the US (almost entirely the ‘old faithful’ solar energy generating systems (SEGS) plants operating in California’s Mojave Desert since the 1980s, though the 64 MW Nevada Solar One went into operation in 2007). The remaining 3% of plants are now in Europe, with Spain seen as the key location for the next round of developments.

In areas where direct insolation is high (cloud cover minimal), and there is a need for power – Southwest US, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, north and parts of southern Africa, the UAE, Israel, parts of China, Australia – this technology seems likely to have a future if the price is right, and the site is right. A flat site is needed (certainly for parabolic troughs), near power transmission (and ideally close to a load centre to avoid long-distance transmission), with water available for steam generation/cooling. The right market conditions are what transform technical potential into operating plant.

According to a recent report from Emerging Energy Research, 7010 MW of new projects have been announced to the end of 2012 – 84% of this project pipeline is in the two key markets, Spain (41%) and the US (44%). A further 10% is in the pipeline for the Middle East, 3% for Africa, and 2% for the Asia Pacific region.

The US market is being driven primarily by state Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements, and the soon-to-expire Federal solar tax credit, which the industry is vigorously lobbying to have extended.

Following the election of Governor Schwarzenegger five years ago, California has increased its RPS to 20% in 2012 and 30% in 2020. Governor Schwarzenegger mandated a Solar Task Force to look at implementing 3000 MW of new solar power by 2015. In June 2007 New Mexico mandated a CSP-specific task force to outline the way towards the first commercial plants.

In 2004, Spain became the first country in the world to establish a dedicated long-term feed-in tariff (of 27 eurocents/kWh) for power from concentrating solar power plants of up to 50 MW, which puts the implementation of this technology on a very firm financial footing. This rate is payable for 25 years, increasing yearly with inflation minus 1%. The commercial boost provided by the feed-in tariff has been supported by further legislation allowing operators to use natural gas as back-up to keep CSP plants primed (in practice storage may be preferable – see below). Spain has a national target to install 500 MW of concentrating solar power by 2010. However, some 800 MW are already on-line, currently under construction or planned for development.

In Spain, the first tower plant is already working (by Abengoa 2007) and the first parabolic trough plant (Andasol 150 MW) is currently being built by ACS Cobra. According to José Nebrera of ESTELA and ACS Cobra, around 400–450 MW capacity is already under construction in Spain, while something in the region of 8000 MW is in the permitting process, currently (June 2008) waiting for the go-ahead from authorities.

A look at new facilities planned from 2008 until 2012 shows that parabolic troughs will continue to dominate, but other technologies are likely to come into play on a commercial scale later.

Utilities like it

Among the plants in the pipeline is Abengoa Solar’s 280 MW Solana project (Arizona, US). Fred Morse, US adviser to Abengoa Solar and chair of the SEIA (US Solar Energy Industries Association) concentrating solar power division, explains that utilities like concentrating solar thermal power because it’s based on steam and it’s large-scale, with commercial installations on a familiar scale of hundreds of megawatts (about half the size of a typical coal-fired plant). It offers stable, known and decreasing costs, and zero carbon – which also appeals to utilities. Furthermore, this technology provides a hedge against natural-gas price volatility and carbon caps (that may be introduced subsequently). Its ability to provide firm dispatchable power is of great value to utilities.

What utilities also find reassuring, says Morse, is the involvement of large multinational corporations, big construction and engineering companies – all with a lot of experience and big balance sheets. Large utilities view this as reducing the risk of project failure. Though the front end (solar) may be new territory for them, turbines are likely to be supplied by companies such as GE, Siemens or ABB – all very familiar names in the conventional power sector.

Current ownership of concentrating solar thermal power systems (and this largely means the established SEGS plants) is largely in the hands of the Carlyle Riverstone Group and FPL Energy in the United States. Acciona Solar is next, though will be overtaken by Abengoa Solar once its 2008 additions are in place. Iberdrola, ACS Cobra, Sunray Energy and Solar Millennium are all likely to be plant owners by the end of 2008 (Sunray already owns about 35 MW.) (Source: Emerging Energy Research)

In Nevada, the 64 MW Solar One parabolic trough system is the first multi-megawatt power station of its kind to be built in over 15 years (built/operated by Solargenix/Acciona Solar), while in Spain, the recently completed PS10 (Abengoa Solar) is the first commercial-scale solar tower in the world.

The trump card – storage

Generation from solar plant with storage can be shifted to match the utility system load profile. This has captured the imagination of the US utilities in particular, as it allows solar to provide power when it is most needed. Such ‘peaking’ power has a very high commercial value. In brief, heat collected by day can be fed into storage tanks – using a medium such as molten salt to hold the heat – and, when needed, that heat can be released to generate steam to run the turbines. Adding storage, and the extra collector field to serve it, pays off when a peaking power price can be assured or where there is a good feed-in rate available.

Potential and costs

Within Europe, it is Spain that has the largest potential for rolling out this technology, as the location that has the best solar resource.

Costs are tricky to compare. While construction costs appear to be broadly similar wherever a plant is located (with components/equipment likely to be coming from the same sources in this new field), the location can make a big difference to output. As with almost any wind or solar plant, the performance – the energy yield and therefore price per kilowatt hour – will depend on the resource at the selected site. Jose Alfonso Nebrera estimates the current cost per kilowatt hour in Spain (assuming insolation of 2100 kWh/m2) at 27 eurocents/kWh – identical to Spain’s current feed-in tariff. In North Africa (assuming 2600 kWh/m2) he says this would be nearer 17.5 eurocents/kWh. Rainer Aringhoff of Solar Millennium points out that the solar resource in the American South-west is higher even than in North Africa. A nominal 100 MW plant in Spain would be 200 MW in California or Arizona. The price per kilowatt hour for systems operating in the United States is estimated to be in the range of 14.5–17.5 US cents/kWh. Today, Southern California’s peaking power costs anywhere between 10–18 US cents /kWh. This figures suggest that CSP is already cost-effective in these markets.

In the case of both Spain and North Africa, Nebrera expects to see a cost reduction of 3% per year. And – at some stage in the next 10–15 years (depending on the price of gas and other factors) – Nebrera expects this decreasing price curve to intersect with an increasing price curve for conventional power as fossil-fuel generated electricity is impacted by scarce resources and an increasingly carbon constrained operating environment. Others are less optimistic, as this industry, like others, is reliant on world commodity prices – for instance for steel, or aluminium. Companies such as SkyFuel and Ausra, which are just reaching the commercial phase, promise advantages that include lower investment costs (such as by use of Fresnel lenses to concentrate the solar radiation instead of mirror troughs) and higher yield, and their first large installations will surely attract a good deal of interest. The same goes for the dish-Stirling technology from Stirling Energy Systems (SES) – the company has signed power purchase agreements with US utilities Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric for over 1800 MW from two fields, SES Solar 1 and 2.

Rainer Aringhoff is convinced that the ‘home’ of CSP – California – has the potential for a massive build-out of this technology – the potential to build 10 GW of CSP peaking power by 2020 at a rate of 800 MW/year from 2008 onwards. Two-thirds of this would be in the Mojave Desert, the other third in Imperial Valley. This assumes that California will not be importing coal and has a target of producing 33% of its electricity from renewable sources. The advantage with California is that the installations would be relatively close to the load centres of the large Californian cities

CSP defined

This technology is usually known as CSP – concentrating solar power – though CSP also includes concentrating solar PV. To try to avoid confusion we are using the term concentrating solar thermal power. Other names in frequent use are solar thermal electricity, STEG (solar thermal electric generation) and thermosolar power.
Technology and history

Unlike photovoltaics, which generates electricity directly from sunlight, concentrating solar thermal technologies use heat to generate electricity in much the same way as a conventional thermal power station. A series of mirrors or parabolic troughs focus the sun’s rays on a central receiver containing a mineral oil or other thermal carrier. As this liquid heats up (reaching temperatures as high as 400ºC–600ºC), it passes through a heat exchanger and generates steam, which is then used to drive a turbine.

Solar towers employ fields of mirrors to reflect light onto a central receiver atop a tower, while parabolic troughs, as the name implies, use long fields of mirrors curved to reflect light onto a central receiver which runs along between them. The famous 344 MW parabolic trough array in California, developed by LUZ Engineering between 1984 and 1992, was almost the first of its kind in the world and is still the largest ever built (a 55 kW trough power plant was built in Egypt in 1912).

Altogether, LUZ built nine plants at this site until the company went out of business in the early 1990s. The troughs continue to function well, however, and produce electricity reliably, with seven operated by FPL Energy and another two by Carlyle/Riverstone.

Similarly, the solar tower is also a mature technology, with the first prototypes developed over 20 years ago in California. Solar One and Solar Two, as they were called, ran until 1989 and generated 38 GWh of electricity.

Recent activity highlights

* In February 2008, Abengoa Solar signed a contract with Arizona Public Service Co. (APS), one of Arizona’s leading energy utilities, to build, own and operate the 280 MW Solana plant. The plant, scheduled to go into operation by 2011, will be located south west of Phoenix Arizona. It will sell the electricity produced to APS over the next 30 years for a total revenue of around $4 billion. The installation at the plant will include six hours of molten salt thermal storage to improve its load following characteristics.

* In April 2008, Northern Californian utility group Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) entered into a series of contracts with BrightSource Energy, Inc. for renewable solar power. The first three contracts are for a total of 500 MW of power to be supplied from three concentrating solar thermal power plants. PG&E also signed two contracts for options on an additional 400 MW of solar power, which would bring the total amount of power purchased under these five agreements to some 900 MW. Founder and chairman of BrightSource Energy, Arnold Goldman, was also the founder of Luz International (no longer in operation). Goldman and the Luz International team built the nine SEGS plants in California’s Mojave Desert between 1984 and 1990. BrightSource is currently developing a number of solar power plants in Southern California, with construction of the first plant planned to start in 2009. In June, BrightSource Energy and subsidiary Luz II dedicated their Solar Energy Development Center (SEDC) in the Negev’s Rotem Industrial Park, Israel.

* Ibereólica Solar is developing 1000 MW of thermosolar plants in Spain, in the autonomous regions of Extremadura, Andalucia, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León. Ibereólica currently expects construction of its first eight thermosolar power plants (totalling 400 MW) by mid-2011.

* In May, Ibereólica Solar placed an order with Solel of Israel for more than 190,000 UVAC 2008 receiver systems to power eight 50 MW solar power plants Ibereólica is developing in southern Spain. Delivery of the receivers will commence in 2009.

* In March, Spanish engineering group Sener Grupo De Ingeniería S.A. and Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s alternative energy company, announced a 60:40 joint venture – Torresol Energy – to design, build and operate concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in the world’s sunbelt regions. This joint venture will commence work on three solar power plants in Spain with an approximate combined value of €800 million, one of which will be a CSP central tower receiver system. This technology will feature the first-ever commercial deployment of the industry-changing technology, and will set the standards for anticipated CSP projects across the sunbelt countries by 2012. Independently of Torresol Energy, Masdar is developing CSP plants in Abu Dhabi, and their Shams 1 plant is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2010.
* Sener has been working for almost a decade in the development of solar thermal power technology. The company is presently designing and building, in a joint venture, three 50 MW parabolic trough plants with molten salt storage in Spain.
* Ausra has just signed a power purchase agreement with PG&E to build the world’s first compact linear Fresnel reflector (CLFR) plant at 177 MW in California’s Central Valley.
* Solel is to construct a 553 MW complex of parabolic trough power plants in the Mojave Desert to fulfill a 25-year power purchase agreement with PG&E.
* Solar Tres, a central receiver design based on the US demonstration plant of the late 1990s, is reported to be close to obtaining financing, making it the first baseload solar power plant with round-the-clock power generation during the summer.
* Iberdrola is building a 50 MW parabolic trough plant at Puertollano in southern Castile, with plans for others.
* Southern California Edison (SCE) has signed a power purchase agreement with eSolar for a total of 245 MW from a series of prefabricated power tower solar thermal plants in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. This will be the first commercial effort using the technology. By 2012 a 105 MW of operating capacity is scheduled for completion, ramping up to 245 MW by 2013. The development follows a $130 million funding round for eSolar in April led by Idealab, Google.org and Oak Investment Partners.
* Meanwhile, Schott is building new manufacturing plant for solar receiver tubes, both in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in Spain and Australia’s Ausra has opened a manufacturing facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Finance highlights

* Stirling Energy systems received $100 million financing
* SkyFuel announced $17 million in finance
* BrightSource announced that it had secured $115 million in additional corporate funding from its Series C round of financing, bringing the total the company has raised to date to over $160 million.

Use of water

Usage is about the same as for any plant using steam, but as this technology is likely to be located in arid areas this is a potential concern. Water consumption can be reduced by 90% using dry cooling, but performance will suffer which is likely to increase the price by about 10%.

In dusty environments parabolic mirrors need to be washed to maximize performance, but the quantity of water required is less than that used for steam.

Dutch venture plans cheap, powerful electric cars

2008-09-03T02:01:00.002+02:00

SHAH ALAM, Malaysia - A Dutch-based company announced plans Tuesday to produce affordable electric cars by the end of 2009, promising they will be much more powerful than existing models and have zero emissions.

Detroit Electric is in negotiations with Malaysia's national auto maker, Proton, to produce the car in this Southeast Asian nation and is also talking to a German and a U.S. carmaker, said the company's chief executive, Albert Lam. He declined to name the companies.

"We believe in affordable electric vehicles for the public. That is our dream ... to find innovative ways to counter global warming," Lam told a news conference before journalists test drove a sports car, a sedan and a subcompact car fitted with Detroit Electric's technology.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi drove the sedan Sunday when he arrived at a National Day parade — which officials called a testament of the government's commitment to finding green alternatives to tackle rising fuel prices.

Lam said the car will use lithium ion batteries and a motor developed in-house.

"When people tell you it (an electric car) is not practical, that it runs at a slow speed and you can't charge it, that is not true," Lam said at Proton's test track in central Shah Alam city.

An Associated Press journalist who drove the sports car felt it zoom from zero to 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) in less than five seconds, comparable to gasoline-powered sports cars.

Most electric cars developed so far are quite a bit heavier than regular cars, weighed down by their battery and motor, which limits their acceleration.

Existing models were used for the demonstration — the sports car was a modified Lotus — but will create their own designs and market the vehicles under the Detroit Electric brand — named after a now-defunct U.S. company that produced electric cars in 1907. Lam bought the rights to the name to restore its historical legacy.

Detroit Electric's chief scientist, Frits van Breemen-Schneider, who invented the motor, said it is four to 12 times lighter than existing motors and has a much higher power-to-weight ratio. It can produce 5 kilowatts of power per kilogram, whereas the best electric car in existence can only produce 0.25 kilowatts per kilogram, he said.

The 80,000 ringgit ($24,000) price tag of the car will be more expensive than conventional vehicles in Malaysia, though the additional expense would be offset by fuel savings. The car battery will have a life span of 200,000 kilometers (125,000 miles).

The company is majority owned by Lam, a British citizen, and has entered into a partnership with several Dutch, American and Malaysian investors with an investment of about $300 million over the next five years.

They are targeting about 30,000 vehicles worldwide within the first year, ramping up to 270,000 vehicles in the third year.

The cars will have a range of about 200 miles on a full charge after keeping them plugged to an ordinary electric power outlet for seven to eight hours.

Lam acknowledged a major challenge would be to set up battery charging stations throughout the country for long distance travel, but expressed confidence it can be done at least in Malaysia because of the government's backing.

"It is about conviction. If you're an early adapter, there will be some inconveniences, but I'm sure that in two to three years, there will a comprehensive infrastructure for fast charging," Lam said.

The Dutch government has given incentives to electric cars, including free parking.

"It is great news that Detroit Electric is practically ready to produce a car that has zero emission," said Jan Soer, the Netherlands' deputy ambassador in Malaysia. "All the technology came from the Netherlands. We are very proud of our tulips, our windmills and our wooden shoes, but we are more than that."

Italy next solar hot spot, Spain cools

2008-09-03T00:18:00.001+02:00

Italy could be Europe's next big solar power market after Spain, which will slash generous subsidies later this month, a leading solar industy figure told Reuters on Tuesday.

Ernesto Macias, managing director of Spain's biggest solar panel maker Isofoton, was hopeful that the solar market in Italy could expand to reach 1,200 MW next year, the cap on solar power output entitled to subsidies under existing regulations.

"I personally think Italy will reach its cap in 2009. Much will be derived from Italy, so we will saturate Italy," said Macias, also head of the European Photovoltaic Industry Assocation (EPIA).

"But what we need is a plan to coordinate between the various countries, and we are working with the (European) Commission on that," Macias added, on the sidelines of a solar power conference in Valencia, eastern Spain.

Spain's solar power market this year has grown to 1,000 megawatts -- one of the world's biggest -- on the back of "feed-in" tariffs designed to gradually make solar electricity competitive with convential power sources.

But the scheme has left the government with a multi-billion euro bill on top of the ballooning costs of subsidising household electricity bills, and the tariffs are due to end later this month.

Solar power stocks globally have fallen on Spanish plans to cut back to 300 MW the capacity of new solar power plants entitled to feed-in tariffs next year, which will also be cut.

Macias was less hopeful about growth prospects in Germany, where leading solar panel makers Suntech say they have been unable to meet demand due to growth in Spain.

"There is a lot of uncertainty in Germany due to the reduction in feed-in tariffs. That could force prices down and untimately benefit Asian industries," he said.

COMPROMISE STILL POSSIBLE IN SPAIN

Regarding Spain's subsidy cuts, Macias said the industry had been "out of control" and a new scheme was needed, but the current proposals put a fledgling industry.

However, he still saw room for negotiation on the proposals.

"I don't want caps, but if I want to compromise, to open talks, OK, we will accept a cap of 400 MW for plants bigger than 100 kilowatts. But please don't apply any caps on the retail market," said Macias.

Macias saw growth opportunities for solar panel makers in rural electrification projects in lesser developed countries, a market he estimated at 300 MW worldwide last year.

He said the advantage of solar power was that avoided the need to build costly power grids and had low maintenance costs.

"It is also an energy that doesn't need fuel -- no need to transport coal, oil or gas, and there you have competitivity," he sad.

EPIA and a number of European renewable energy companies and industry groups have formed the "Alliance for Rural Electrification" to promote what they say are affordable and sustainable small-scale generation projects in poorer countries.

Bosch Sees Electric Cars and Hybrids as the Future

2008-09-02T23:38:00.001+02:00

Bosch expects hybrid and electric vehicles to have a more than three percent share of the world market by 2015, which is why it is expanding its porfolio into lithium ion batteries via its joint venture with Samsung

STUTTGART -- With its work to develop and subsequently manufacture automotive lithium-ion batteries, Bosch is rounding off its portfolio of products for hybrid and electrical drives. SB LiMotive Co. Ltd., its joint venture with its Korean partner Samsung SDI has started its operations in this area on September 1, 2008. "Thus, we are the first and only automotive supplier with a joint venture to develop lithium-ion batteries for the complex requirements of the automobile," says Wolf-Henning Scheider, president of the Gasoline Systems division. In 2011, Bosch and Samsung intend to start production of battery systems.

"Apart from Bosch core competencies in automotive technology and Samsung SDI know-how in lithium-ion technology, the two companies will invest between 300 and 400 million dollars in this area in the next five years," Scheider adds. Lithium-ion batteries are the key technology for the use of electric motors in vehicles. For more than 30 years now, Bosch has been working on electrical drive technologies for the automobile. This means that the company can draw on comprehensive expertise in battery, electrical drive, and brake management, as well as in engine management and transmission control. In addition, the company has already built up a broad portfolio of components, including powerful electric motors, the necessary power electronics, and DC/DC converters. Bosch's main focus is the concept of the parallel hybrid, whose modular components can be customized to suit the requirements of individual OEMs and their models. Bosch already has its first orders for both gasoline and diesel hybrids. Besides mild and strong hybrid concepts, Bosch also offers simpler methods for innovative start-stop technologies and the recovery of braking energy via the alternator, as these concepts also allow significant CO2 reductions to be made. Within the Bosch Group, the expertise of roughly 370 associates from a wide range of divisions is pooled in a "Hybrid" project unit, whose purpose is to develop and market hybrid and electrical drives. A further 40 associates are involved in the further development and marketing of lithium-ion batteries.

Bosch engineers regard the combination of internal combustion engine and electric motor in the hybrid or plug-in hybrid as an interim solution. Even so, the technical complexity of this solution is considerable, as is the additional weight it creates. One concept with a longer-term perspective is the "range extender," since it has a combustion engine that serves solely to charge the battery, not to drive the vehicle itself, meaning that there is less "duplicated" technology on board. In addition, this concept allows purely electrically powered driving over medium distances. And thanks to the power delivered by its combustion engine, its range is greater.

The long-term objective is purely electrically powered driving, since this makes zero-emission driving possible. The market maturity of these electric vehicles will increase as engineers succeed in improving the energy and power density of battery technology, and as drivers become more willing to accept ranges of between 100 and 200 kilometers between recharging stops.

In combination with electric motors, gasoline hybrids emit 25 percent less CO2 than conventional gasoline engines and diesel hybrids 20 percent less than their conventional counterparts. "Of the 91 million new passenger cars and light trucks worldwide in 2015, we expect that more than three percent will be hybrid and electric vehicles," Scheider says. However, this figure may vary considerably, depending on future legislative requirements and progress in battery technology.

These figures clearly illustrate that the combustion engine will be the dominant drive form for the next 20 years. "In the future, however, people's individual mobility requirements will determine which drive they choose," says Scheider. In conurbations and mega-cities, for example, the potential of electric vehicles can be exploited to the full. When it comes to medium distances, concepts with a range extender make sense. On the other hand, constant improvements to diesel and gasoline engines, with their high performance coupled with favorable consumption, mean that they will remain the technology of choice for a long time when it comes to longer distances.

Making a Solar Cell Component without Using Fossil Fuels

2008-09-02T03:51:00.002+02:00

Cleaner than clean energy: BioSolar creates new plastic backing for photovoltaic cells out of cotton and castor beans rather than petroleum products.

Solar energy is touted by some as the solution to the world's energy woes. But the process of making the various components requires fossil fuels, both for power and for the components themselves, some of which are based on petroleum.

A new company, BioSolar, aims to kick petroleum to the curb, at least in the realm of building solar photovoltaics, cells of crystalline silicon that turn sunlight into electricity. Such photovoltaic cells rely on conventional plastic polymers to provide a protective backing, also known as backsheets. Those plastics are made from—you guessed it—petroleum.

"It's renewable and you don't use any petroleum," says electrical engineer David Lee, president and CEO of the California-based company about the new product. "The real merit is that we can actually reduce the cost of the backsheet compared to conventional petroleum-based backsheet." Lee claims their backsheets will cost 25 percent less than conventional backsheets, which cost between $0.70 and $1 per square foot.

Already, such backsheets are rising in price, thanks to the recent run-up in world oil costs, at a time when the solar industry is trying to bring down costs to make their technology more competitive with other forms of power generation, such as cheap, plentiful and extremely polluting coal.

BioSolar starts with used cotton rags and turns them into a film of cellulose, a natural fiber. They then blend this film with a type of nylon made from castor beans by Philadephia-based Arkema, Inc. to make the so-called BioBacksheet. Initial testing by the company at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows that this flexible plastic backsheet lasts as long or longer than conventional ones, and keeps out just as much moisture.

In addition to keeping away from petroleum plastics, BioSolar also claims not to be using any genetically modified crops in its product—a further boost to its green credibility. But nearly 90 percent of the U.S. cotton crop is so altered, either to resist insects, herbicides or both, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And cotton cultivation still requires tons of pesticides and fertilizers, both of which are derived, in part, from petroleum.

Regardless, if the cotton and castor-based backsheet proves cheaper than the petroleum version it may help remove a bit more fossil sunshine from the new solar energy. "Our goal is to replace all the petroleum plastic out of the solar cells with this bio-based one," Lee says.

Massive floating generators, or 'eco-rigs', to provide power and food to Japan

2008-09-01T02:31:00.001+02:00

Battered by soaring energy costs and aghast at dwindling fish stocks, Japanese scientists think they have found the answer: filling the seas with giant “eco-rigs” as powerful as nuclear power stations.

The project, which could result in village-sized platforms peppering the Japanese coastline within a decade, reflects a growing panic in the country over how it will meet its future resource needs.

The floating eco-rig generators which measure 1.2 miles by 0.5 miles (2km by 800m) are intended to harness the energy of the Sun and wind. They are each expected to produce about 300 megawatt hours of power.

Some energy would be lost moving the electricity back onshore, but when three units are strapped together, scientists at Kyushu University say, the effect will be the same as a standard nuclear power station.
Related Links

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The eco-rigs' gift to the environment does not stop there: some of the power that the solar cells and wind turbines produce will be hived off to fuel colossal underwater banks of light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

The lamps are intended to convert the platforms into nurseries for specially selected seaweed that absorbs carbon dioxide and feeds fish and plankton. Deep-sea water that is rich in minerals will enhance the seaweed growth. The wind turbines will power pumps that will then draw the water to the surface.The rigs will be unmanned and comprise several hexagonal platforms.

Strapped between them will be large nets designed to support the weight of wind turbines and about 200,000 hexagonal photovoltaic generators — super-efficient solar panels that are about the size of a double bed. The LEDs will shine down from the panels.

As a country with virtually no fossil fuels, price rises in oil and gas have chilled the corporate sector and the Japanese Government.

Japan's faith in nuclear power has also taken a beating. An earthquake caused its largest nuclear plant to shut down in 2007 and engineers and seismic experts cautioned that the country's high susceptibility to quakes placed the industry at risk.

The Kyushu team says the plans are about three years away from becoming reality. It began tests on a scale version of the eco-rig last month, and full-scale official evaluation is expected to begin soon.

Ghost ship fleet could be a silver lining in clouds of climate change

2008-09-01T02:29:00.001+02:00

It looks like something out of a Dan Dare comic book, and it might just help to save the world. A scientist at the University of Edinburgh has devised a new weapon in the fight against global warming: a fleet of 1,500 unmanned sailing ships creating wakes that whiten clouds to reflect the heat of the Sun better.

The concept involves vessels powered by a radical rotary-sail technology that could patrol selected areas of ocean, spraying tiny droplets of seawater into existing clouds. The droplets increase the surface area and so whiten the cloud, bouncing more radiation back into space and offsetting the warming caused by burning fossil fuels.

“The beauty of the system is that it runs on wind and seawater,” said Stephen Salter, author of a paper published today in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions. “You can apply the effect locally, to cool down the Arctic or the seas around coral reefs. It would give us complete control. We could even take ourselves back to a little ice age. The effects can be turned up or down, or shut off completely if something unexpected happens.”

The cloud ships will be propelled by the wind, using a rotational aerodynamic force not used in ships for 80 years. The “Magnus Effect” was first observed by Sir Isaac Newton while watching tennis players use spin to change the trajectory of their shots. In 1926 a rotor-ship designed by Anton Flettner crossed the Atlantic, but the technology petered out in the Great Depression. Modern materials and the high cost of oil have sparked a revival: earlier this month Enercon, a German energy company, launched the first rotor-powered cargo vessel.
Related Links

* Anti-global warming technology may backfire

* 'Eco-rigs' to provide Japan's power and food

“The main reason for us to use these rotors is that they are computer-friendly,” said Dr Salter. “Traditional sailing ships have evolved to be sailed by humans. It's much easier to sail a Flettner system. All you need to do is steer and adjust the rotor speed. Reverse the spin and you go backwards.”

The spinning sails deliver surprising power. The cloud ships will cruise at gentle speeds of eight knots while spraying, but when moving location or running from bad weather, the vessels are theoretically capable of up to 24 knots - fast even for a racing yacht. A back-up diesel engine can also help to bring the ships, costing £1million to £2million each, safely back to port.

Propeller-like turbines in the water beneath the ship power both the spinning rotors and the droplet-generator. Seawater is filtered before being forced through a 6in diameter disc perforated with more than a billion holes to produce a mist of droplets less than one micron wide. These seeds - or cloud condensation nuclei - are then blown into the skies via a fan mounted inside the rotor cylinders.

The 300-tonne cloud ships will be guided from a central traffic control-room. “Suitable sites for spraying have lots of sunlight to give something to reflect, have reliable but not extreme winds and a low density of shipping and icebergs,” Dr Salter said. Dirt, dust or pollution in the air act as nuclei, and for the ships to make a difference they need to operate away from such conditions. The seas off California, Namibia and Peru show year-round promise, while the Southern Ocean will be a key area in the Antarctic summer.

A companion paper published in the same Royal Society issue shows that the change in the brightness of marine clouds could cool the planet enough to compensate for the doubling in man-made carbon dioxide since the industrial revolution. A reduction of only 3.7 watts per square metre - less than 1.1 per cent of the 340 watts of heat per square metre that the Sun on average provides - would keep global temperatures stable until at least 2050.

Dr Salter estimates that £20 million is needed to move the technology and the science to a point where production of the vessels can begin. Once the ships are in the water, they will do double duty as science labs, collecting meteorological data on the actions of aerosols and information on ocean salinity, plankton counts and acidity.

“The boats will also be equipped with blankets and drinking water,” says Dr Salter. By linking into the maritime emergency services, the cloud ships could then come to the rescue of stricken sailors, not just the planet.

Lithium Ion Battery Costs Could Drop 50%

2008-09-01T02:00:00.002+02:00

Battery manufacturer Ener1 just announced that they're foreseeing an 50% drop in the price of lithium ion batteries as production increases. Where exactly this price drop will be coming from, we're not sure.

A couple of statements indicate that a lot of it will come simply from scaling up manufacturing, and that it won't happen until their dealing in hundreds of thousands of units. But they're also indicating that demand isn't likely to do anything but increase exponentially. Of course, that's what they hope, and it's my personal opinion as well. But it's certainly not guaranteed.

Ener1 has also stated that they are expecting two new development deals this year. They already provide the lithium ion batteries for Think's City Car in Europe. But the CEO is promising that these deals will be with much larger car companies. And though GM and Toyota already have their Li-ion suppliers lined up (Toyota will probably be building it's own,) there are an awful lot of car companies that still aren't sure how they're going to break into the lithium ion powered future.

Lastly, according to their calculations, this 50% reduction in li-ion battery cost will translate to a significant reduction in the cost of hybrid vehicles. They're expecting, in fact, that the time it takes for hybrids to pay for themselves will drop from 7 to around 2 years.

It's pretty likely that every new car on the road will have a lithium ion battery pack in it in a mere ten years. So I expect that their vision for increased demand isn't unwarranted. Whether there are some unseen bumps in the road, however, is an entirely different matter. But if these prices do drop the way Ener1 says they will, then the world is going to be a cleaner and more electrified place pretty soon.

Toyota Plugs All-Electric Vehicle As 2009 Sales Outlook Dips

2008-09-01T00:12:00.001+02:00

Toyota (TM) says it has rolled back its sales predictions for the upcoming year, but the company remains committed to hybrid car production and its plans to produce an electric vehicle to compete with rival auto manufacturers.

Despite a 700,000-vehicle predicted drop in sales, Toyota says it is still on the path toward its goal of selling 1 million hybrids a year by the early 2010s. The company also announced that Toyota would start producing an electric car by early next decade, which offers a direct challenge to the plans of Nissan and Mitsubishi that plan to mass produce their own electric vehicles within the next two years. Toyota stock rose slightly, indicating that The Street agrees with the company’s pursuit of efficient technologies.

Are slower sales sign of tough economic times? Yes, of course, but they also point out that Toyota can’t get away with producing larger, fuel inefficient vehicles any more than Ford or GM or Chrysler. Toyota’s big sales drops have, like Detroit’s big three, largely come in the full-sized truck and large car segments. Hybrid and small car sales remain robust.

The heart of Toyota’s future growth remains hybrid vehicles, and Toyota is not slacking off on its hybrid push one iota. Toyota still plans to unveil the next-gen Prius as promised, on schedule, next year as well as to introduce a new Lexus hybrid. It’s also forging ahead with other, more fuel efficient models. President Katsuaki Watanabe says Toyota plans to use the foreseen slowdown to streamline its already lean manufacturing operations, making its production system in the U.S. more agile, and to develop more hybrid cars and other fuel-efficient vehicles.

The undercurrent here seems to be, ‘OK, we were a little off in our production estimates, but we’re still pressing ahead with the next Prius, and we’re serious about producing an electric car too!’ To which we can all say, “Good!”

5 Facts: Building an Electric Car

2008-08-31T01:33:00.002+02:00

1. How Can You Get an Electric Car?
Today, no major automaker is making full-function battery electric cars that are sold in the U.S. There are electric powered neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) available here, but these are legally limited to 25 mph top speeds and cannot be used on public highways with posted speed limits above 35 mph. Thus, if you want an electric car that can go highways speeds, you’ll probably have to build it yourself.

2. Converting Gas Cars to Electric
Since building an entire electric car from scratch is a daunting and expensive task, most electric cars are converted from used gasoline powered vehicles. In fact, a number of companies used to do this for fleets and well-moneyed individuals in years past. The engine, transmission and related components are removed and replaced by batteries, electric motors, controllers, and other electric drive-specific parts. Major automakers took this approach for a short number of years in the 1990s by incorporating electric drive into existing models like the Ford Ranger, Chevy S-10, Toyota RAV4, and so on. Private electric vehicle (EV) conversions are all over the board and have ranged from Volkswagen Beetles and Pontiac Fieros to fiberglass kit cars and BMW 325i sedans. Because of the amount of power needed to propel a large vehicle – and the correspondingly greater number of heavy batteries required – most electric cars are typically converted from smaller vehicles. Geo Metros, Yugos, and VW Rabbits are quite popular, probably because non-running ones can be purchased for cheap.

3. Do Your Research
Thousands of people have built electric vehicles for over 100 years. In fact, electric cars were already quite reliable while gasoline powered cars were still being ‘invented.’ If you’re considering a conversion, take advantage of the knowledge base out there to avoid the errors others have made over time. A Google search on ‘Building an Electric Vehicle’ comes up with 3,290 web pages, many with relevant information on EV conversions. Several good books have also been written on EV conversions, some that can be found on Amazon.com. Others out of print sometimes show up on EBay. There are also many electric car clubs around the country and organizations like the Electric Auto Association (www.eaaev.org) that offer information and links to regional electric vehicle organizations. Resources like these provide a great way to pick the brains of other electric car owners and builders. As part of your research, it’s important to make sure you can drive an EV on roads in your state and community. One thing is sure: you won’t need a smog test.

4. Plan Ahead
Plan your conversion in great detail before you start to build it. This will ensure that all the components will fit inside and still leave room for people and cargo. It’s important to be sure that the weight of your batteries will not be so great that the motor will only move the car slowly or not at all. You also must avoid overloading your suspension or chassis because the consequences of this can vary from a vehicle that’s unwieldy to one that’s just plain dangerous. Carefully plan where you’ll be locating batteries to help distribute weight and avoid compromising the vehicle’s crashworthiness. When it’s time to buy parts, there are many online sources to tap for quality parts and systems that have been in this business for a long time, like KTA Services (www.kta-ev.com).

5. EV Builders are Great Scavengers
If you don’t have a large budget for the project, you may have to scrounge around for used or out-of-date components because state-of-the-art components can be costly. While purpose-built DC or AC electric motors are available, many builders use motors salvaged from other applications such as forklifts, elevators, or even golf carts, though these may be too heavy or not powerful enough for an EV conversion. Double-check to make sure that the components you’re planning to use are compatible. For instance, will the circa-2005 controller work with a 1970s-era electric motor? Probably not. To provide power, lead-acid batteries are usually used because of their affordability, but these do result in limited range and they’re also quite heavy. Other battery types – such as lithium-ion and nickel-metal-hydride – are still beyond the means of most builders.

Solar Powered, Carbon Neutral Pyramid to House 1 Million People in Dubai

2008-08-30T00:29:00.004+02:00

Ancient Egyptian pyramids and Middle Eastern ziggurats are coming alive in the 21st century technology.
A new futurist concept that encompasses green building technology and—according to the developer—can house up to a million people, will make a debut at the world stage in October.

The 2.3 square kilometer Ziggurat Project, undertaken by Timelinks, a Dubai based environmental design company, will be 100 per cent carbon neutral and will run by harnessing the power of nature setting a futuristic pace for eco-friendliness for other similar projects in the pipeline.

Borrowing from ancient ingenuity, the inhabitants won’t even have any use for a car: transport throughout the complex would be connected by an integrated 360 degree network (horizontally and vertically) so cars would be redundant. Biometrics would provide security with facial recognition technology.

Ziggurat’s Carbon Neutral Accolades:
Ridas Matonis, director of Timelinks, said, “Ziggurat communities can be almost totally self-sufficient energy-wise. Apart from using steam power in the building we will also employ wind turbine technology to harness natural energy resources.”

Ziggurat’s Nature Accolades:
“Whole cities can be accommodated in complexes which take up less than 10% of the original land surface. Public and private landscaping will be used for leisure pursuits or irrigated as agricultural land. “If these projects were realized today the world would see communities that are sustainable, environmentally friendly and in tune with their natural surroundings.”

Solar Powered, Carbon Neutral Pyramid to House 1 Million People in Dubai In the ancient world, ziggurats, important to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamia, were temple towers mainly around the Mesopotamian valley and Iran, and had the form of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories or levels.

The ziggurat style of architecture has been copied today in many places of the world including the SIS Building, also commonly known as the MI6 Building, the headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service and the headquarters of the California Department of General Services in West Sacramento, California.

But nothing has been so futuristic and real until now, Timelinks is even making steps to patent the design and technology incorporated into the project. The carbon neutral enclave will be unveiled at Cityscape Dubai, Middle East’s largest business-to-business real estate and investment exhibition that will run on October 6 to 9, 2008.

Image courtesy: World Architecture News

How Hydrogen Fuel Cells Work

2008-08-29T23:48:00.001+02:00

What do batteries and fuel cells have in common? They are both electrochemical energy conversion devices that produce electricity. Also, they both have anodes, cathodes, and an electrolyte. There are also big differences. Batteries produce electricity until completely discharged, then they have to be replaced or recharged. A fuel cell continues to produce electricity as long as it is supplied with fuel and oxygen. In the typical fuel cell used in transportation, that’s hydrogen and air. A battery produces essentially no emissions and little heat, while a hydrogen fuel cell emits water and more heat.

While there are several different types of fuel cells, they all work on the same basic principle. The proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell will be discussed here. With rare exception, this is the technology being developed for use in cars, trucks, and buses. PEM fuel cells appear to be the most promising for vehicles because the reactions are about the simplest of any fuel cell design. They also have a high kilowatts-per-cubic-inch power density. Their relatively low operating temperature of 140 to 176 degrees F means they start to produce electricity quickly and don’t require expensive cooling systems.

In a PEM fuel cell, pressurized hydrogen gas enters on the anode side and is forced through the catalyst. Here, H2 molecules come in contact with catalyst, splitting it into two H+ ions (protons).and two electrons. The proton exchange membrane and electrolyte let positively charged proton through and block negatively charged electrons.

Electrons are conducted through the anode and travel through the external circuit as DC (direct current) electric power, which can useful for purposes such as powering an electric motor, and then they reach the cathode. Here they combine on the cathode’s catalyst with the proton coming through the membrane and with oxygen gas, or air, forced through the catalyst, where they form two oxygen atoms with a strong negative charge. This negative charge attracts the two H+ ions, which combine with an oxygen atom and two of the electrons to form a water molecule.

The proton exchange membrane is a specially treated material that looks somewhat like ordinary kitchen plastic wrap. The membrane must be hydrated to transfer protons and remain stable. Thus, fuel cell systems must be designed to operate in sub-zero temperatures, low humidity environments, and high operating temperatures. At about 70 degrees F, hydration is lost without a high-pressure hydration system.

Catalysts play the crucial role of separating hydrogen into ions and protons at the anode and combining them, plus water, at the cathode. Typically these use a platinum group metal or alloy with platinum nanoparticles very thinly coated onto carbon paper or cloth. The catalyst is rough and porous to expose maximum surface area to the hydrogen or oxygen. The platinum-coated side of the catalyst faces the membrane.

Precious metal catalysts plus proton exchange membranes, gas diffusion layers, and bipolar plates make up about 70 percent of a current fuel cell’s cost. Because of this, plus the rarity of precious metals and competition from other uses such as catalytic converters, some critics say platinum is the PEM fuel cell’s Achilles heel. Research is under way to solve this potential impediment. For example, researchers are looking at ways to use less of the precious metals and to find alternatives. Recycling platinum, especially from catalytic converters, is already common practice. More abundant gold, reduced to nanometer size, could be used as a catalyst as well. Enhancing a catalyst with carbon silk can also reduce the amount of precious metals required.

Another problem with PEM fuel cells is that impurities can poison the catalysts, resulting in reduced efficiency and activity so more dense catalysts are required and more platinum is used. Again, research is underway to solve the problem with various promising techniques being explored, like using a gold-palladium coating that may be less susceptible to poisoning.

Since a single fuel cell produces only about 0.7 volts, many separate fuel cells are combined to form a fuel cell stack. They can be connected in a parallel circuit for higher current and in series for higher voltage.

Fuel cells are very efficient. If supplied with pure hydrogen they can convert 80 percent of the hydrogen’s energy content to electric power. If the electricity is used by an electric motor and inverter in a fuel cell vehicle – which are about 80 percent efficient – the overall efficiency is 64 percent. This compares to the approximate 20 percent energy conversion efficiency of the typical gasoline-fueled vehicle, providing yet another reason why fuel cell vehicles hold such promise for the future.

Scientists say hydrogen could be “easily” produced from water and sunlight

2008-08-29T02:22:00.000+02:00

Chicago (IL) – Hydrogen shapes up to become one of the most important fuels for the future, but scientists need to overcome substantial hurdles to enable an efficient production of hydrogen. We increasingly hear about ideas that suggest that future engines in fact may be able to run on water, breaking down water into oxygen and hydrogen right where it is needed. This process requires significant input energy, which, according to scientist could be provided by sunlight.

The production of hydrogen and implications of the amount of energy that is required to create it has been met with lots of skepticism, especially if the burning of fossil fuels is involved. Scientists from Monash University in Australia, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia and Princeton University in the U.S., however, believe they can completely circumvent fossil fuels by applying photolysis, a method to split water using the energy contained in light.

According to an article published in the German journal Angewandte Chemie, the research group claims that has developed a catalyst that “effectively catalyzes” one of the necessary half reactions required by this process, the photooxidation of water representing an anodic half-cell. The catalyst is a manganese-containing complex modeled after those found in photosynthetic organisms, the scientists said.

The basic idea behind creating hydrogen is electrolysis, which is described as the reverse of the process that can be seen in a battery – electrical energy is converted in chemical energy and the goal, of course, is to do this in the most efficient way possible. Electrolysis consists of two half reactions: At the cathode, protons (positively charged hydrogen ions) are reduced to hydrogen, whereas the oxidation of water produces oxygen at the anode. Sunlight and photocatalysts are believed to hold one key to jumpstart this process.

The scientists said they used a manganese oxo complex with a cubic core made of four manganese and four oxygen atoms capped by ancillary phosphinate molecules as a catalyst. The catalytically active species is formed when energy from light causes the release of one the capping molecules from the cube. However, the manganese complex is not soluble in water. The researchers claim to have overcome this problem by coating one electrode with a thin Nafion membrane. Housed within the aqueous channels of this membrane, the catalytic species is stabilized and apparently has good access to the water molecules, completing the anodic half cell.

The scientists said that their development “could be easily paired with a catalytic hydrogen-producing cathode cell” in order to create an entire photoelectrochemical cell that “produces pure hydrogen and oxygen from water and sunlight”.

There was no information whether such a cell has been built or is currently in development.

Vision 21 - the Ultimate Power Plant Concept

2008-08-28T05:05:00.000+02:00

Program Performance Goal:
By 2015, develop the core modules for a fleet of fuel-flexible, multi-product energy plants that boost power efficiencies to 60+ percent, emit virtually no pollutants, and with carbon sequestration release minimal or no carbon emissions.

Vision 21 is a futuristic energy concept unlike any power plant that exists today.

TECHNOLOGY GOALS

Efficiencies

Emissions

Costs

Under development by the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy, the concept envisions a virtually pollution-free energy plant. Unlike today's single purpose power plants that produce only electricity, a Vision 21 plant would produce multiple products - perhaps electricity in combination with liquid fuels and chemicals or hydrogen or industrial process heat. It also would not be restricted to a single fuel type; instead, it could process a wide variety of fuels such as coal, natural gas, biomass, petroleum coke (from oil refineries), and municipal waste. It would generate electricity at unprecedented efficiencies, and coupled with carbon sequestration technologies, it would emit little if any greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Vision 21, if successful, could revolutionize the power and fuels industry within the next 15 years.

The approach is to develop a suite of technology modules that can be interconnected in different configurations to produce selected products. These modular facilities will be capable of using a multiplicity of fuels to competitively produce a number of commodities at efficiencies greater than 60 percent for coal-based systems and 75 percent for natural gas-based systems with near-zero emissions.

Vision 21 builds on a portfolio of technologies already being developed, including low-polluting combustion, gasification, high efficiency furnaces and heat exchangers, advanced gas turbines, fuel cells, and fuels synthesis, and adds other critical technologies and system integration techniques. When coupled with carbon dioxide capture and recycling or sequestration, Vision 21 systems would release no net carbon dioxide emissions and have no adverse environmental impacts.

Many of the Vision 21 activities complement and extend focused activities to achieve intregated gasification combined cycle and other advanced high efficiency technologies. For example, hot gas particulate filtration, hot gas sulfur/alkali control, and air separation are critical elements to coal gasification. Vision 21 addresses gas separation and cleanup, but extends the development effort to:

increasingly efficient and cost-effective measures for particulate and sulfur/alkali control and air separation; and
measures dealing with a broader range of gases, such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

Advanced gas separation and cleanup are critical to achieving hybrid systems, fuel and product flexibility, and carbon sequestration. Hybrids and fuel and product flexibility offer the potential for major improvements in cost and performance. And effective carbon dioxide capture is a prerequisite to carbon sequestration.

A hybrid system showing great promise is integration of gasification with a fuel cell. Fuel cells offer very high efficiencies, with emerging fuel cells having 60 percent efficiency. These emerging fuel cells also produce very high-temperature exhaust gases that can either be used directly in combined-cycle or used to drive a gas turbine. Integrated gasification fuel cell hybrids have the potential to achieve up to 60 percent efficiency and near-zero emissions. Moreover, the concentration of carbon dioxide lends itself to removal by separation or other capture means. Such systems require that the syngas derived from gasification be free of contaminates for use in the fuel cell, or that the hydrogen be separated from the syngas (hydrogen is the fuel element for the fuel cell).

Fuel flexibility enables the use of low-cost indigenous fuels, renewables, and waste materials. Use of renewables and wastes contributes to solving environmental problems as well as reducing operating costs. The challenge is to develop effective feed mechanisms for these alternative fuels, establish effective operating parameters, and provide the means to achieve the operating parameters and to control any new pollutants that might be formed. For advanced, high-performance gas turbines, and hybrids incorporating advanced turbines/fuel cells, fuel flexibility requires research to address combustion of low-Btu gases and maintain low-NOx emissions at increasingly higher temperatures.

Product flexibility allows power suppliers to supplement revenues by designing plants to site- or region-specific markets for high-value by-products. Many chemical and fuel processes, however, require nearly contaminant-free syngas and warrant improvements to enhance product quality.

Carbon sequestration is the ultimate solution to stabilizing global carbon emissions. A prerequisite to carbon sequestration is carbon capture, which for power systems is carbon dioxide capture. Power system developments are moving toward higher efficiency to lower carbon dioxide emissions on a per-Btu basis and toward more concentrated carbon dioxide emission streams through oxygen-rather than air-based gasification and combustion. Air separation efforts support the move to oxygen-based systems. Ultimately, carbon dioxide must be captured either through chemical or physical separation methods.

Vision 21 is addressing the challenges outlined above through a cooperative effort involving industry, universities, and National Laboratories. It includes fundamental research in materials science, novel concept evaluation at bench-scale, and process verification at pilot-scale. Facilities such as the Power System Development Facility at Wilsonville, Alabama, along with industry/National Laboratory/university facilities, are being enlisted to address these challenges.

American Ingenuity Leads to Biodiesel Breakthrough

2008-08-28T02:40:00.001+02:00

A small group of unassuming mid-westerners has discovered what could be a complete game-changer for the global biodiesel industry. Their new system makes biodiesel in mere seconds, creates a product that costs half the price, produces no waste, and can use any animal fat or vegetable oil as a feedstock.

I’ll tell you what — even though I’m sometimes down on my country because of the pathetic state of our government — the thing that always makes my patriotism swell is the truly amazing and unexpected ingenuity that seems to spring forth from the American people.

And in this tale, American ingenuity doesn’t get much more classic. A student and his professor at a small college smack dab in the middle of the heartland that virtually nobody’s ever heard of, have figured out a way to make biodiesel quickly, cheaply, and efficiently from a very small package.

We’re not just talking an incremental improvement, we’re talking half the price and a tiny fraction of the time — a revolutionary change for the biodiesel industry. Think on the order of saving $2 for every gallon and going from raw materials to biodiesel in a few seconds versus many hours.

Not only that, the process can convert any animal fat or vegetable oil, mixed in any ratio, into biodiesel using the same compact reactor in a continuous stream. Compare this to the current method which converts the oil or fat to biodiesel over many hours in huge vat batches and creates a lot of potentially hazardous waste products.

The Mcgyan® process (so named for the inventors McNeff, Gyberg and Yan) started as a required undergraduate chemistry project for student Brian Krohn at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, MN. Krohn and his major professor, Arlin Gyberg, were looking at ways to catalyze the raw materials into biodiesel using a process called esterification.

The basic idea was to run the raw fats and oils over a sulfated zirconia catalyst to change them into biodiesel. This idea isn’t new, but the duo thought they could improve on it. In the end, the pair enlisted the help of another scientist Ben Yan and an Augsburg alum Clayton McNeff.

McNeff already owned a company that made zirconia separating columns which are typically used for something completely different. With a little modification, these columns were turned into sulfated zirconia biodiesel reactors.

Basically, the process works like this:

Raw fats and oils of any type are combined with an alcohol
This mixture is fed through a sulfated zirconia column heated to 300 degrees Celsius
Their Easy Fatty Acid Removal (EFAR) system recycles any unreacted raw material back through the reactor
Excess alcohol is recycled back through the reactor
Pure biodiesel comes out the end

The advantages of the system are:

No waste produced; No washing or neutralizing of the biodiesel is necessary
100% conversion of raw materials to biodiesel
Any raw fat or oil can be used to make biodiesel
Very efficient due to heat recapture from the column
Sulfated zirconia catalyst never needs replacing
Very small footprint of the reactor system, uses an extremely small amount of area for the amount of biodiesel produced
Essentially no emissions and no waste stream from the process; Easy permitting from the government

The group has formed a company called Ever Cat Fuels and is in the process of building a 3 million gallon per year (MMgy) commercial biodiesel facility with the intention of scaling it up to 30 MMgy in the next 3-5 years. As soon as the Ever Cat plant is producing biodiesel successfully, the group plans on licensing the technology to other interested parties.

Fisker aims to make four versions of the Karma

2008-08-28T01:05:00.000+02:00

Henrik Fisker and the Karma.

Expect to see more Karma from Fisker Automotive, if its flagship sedan makes it to the market by late 2009.

The upstart California electric-car maker is planning to make three other variants of the plug-in Karma sedan: a convertible, coupe and possibly a four-door sport-utility vehicle. They would launch following the sedan and be available by 2012, said Vic Doolan, a Fisker board member and director of retail development.

The three variants would be based on the Karma sedan and use the same battery pack.

Speaking on Wednesday to a group of analysts and media at a conference in suburban Detroit, Doolan said Fisker's goal is to snag 3.3 percent of the luxury market in the United States, though the company isn't including large SUVs, such as the Lincoln Navigator, in that figure. Doolan is the former CEO of Volvo Cars North America.

Meanwhile, Fisker continues work on the Karma, and the concept was shown at the conference. It will sticker for about $87,000, and the company plans to make 7,500 units in 2010, with a volume of 15,000 units in 2011.

A vehicle priced in the $60,000 range also is under consideration.

Initially, the Karma would be assembled in Finland, though Doolan said Fisker wants to ultimately make cars in the United States.

Sales are expected to pump up the privately held company's revenue to $1.3 billion in 2011. The carmaker is led by former Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker.

Lotus Builds A Propeller-Driven Biofuel Vehicle On Skis

2008-08-28T00:37:00.002+02:00

Lotus is renowned for building lightweight sports cars with razor-sharp handling, but it's traded tarmac for snow pack with a prop-driven, biofuel-burning ice-rider designed for a 3,000-mile trek across Antarctica.

The crew from Hethel built the Concept Ice Vehicle for researchers who will cross the South Pole during the Moon Regan TransArctic Expedition. The point of the journey is to raise awareness of the impact global climate change is having on the continent, but we can't help thinking the explorers are making the trip as an excuse to play with their cool new toy.

It wouldn't do for researchers making a point about global warming to tool around a polar ice cap spewing C02, so Lotus made the CIV as green as it is white.

The CIV was built by Kieron Bradley, a former Formula 1 chassis designer, and polar guide Jason de Carteret. It burns biofuel and uses what looks to us like a BMW motorcycle engine to spin a huge propeller. The vehicle is 15 feet long and 15 feet wide and rides on three skis, each with independent suspension -- Lotus builds sports cars, after all -- to make traversing the sastruga fields a little easier on the guy in the cockpit. Braking comes from a spiked foot that works a bit like an ice axe.

In keeping with Lotus' design philosophy, the CIV is light - so light the crew can drag it across terrain too rough to ski over. Still, pulling it out of a crevasse would be a hassle, so there's a GPS and ice-penetrating radar system to warn of dangers on, and below, the ice.

The CIV scout the way for a pair of six-wheel drive "Science Support Vehicles" that will haul the team and its equipment. They're almost as cool as the ice vehicle. They've got low-emission, turbocharged 7.3-liter diesel engines, 20-speed transmissions and independent air suspensions with 26 inches of travel and 44-inch tires. Still, we're betting everyone will want to drive the CIV.

Photos by Lotus and Moon Regan TransArctic Expedition.

Hydrogen-Producing Bacteria Provide Clean Energy

2008-08-27T04:44:00.000+02:00

A new "green" technology developed cooperatively by scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and North Carolina State University (NC State) could lead to production of hydrogen from nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Renewable sources of energy—such as hydrogen—that don't produce pollutants or greenhouse gases are needed to solve global energy shortages. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas are nonrenewable energy sources implicated in global warming.

The invention holds promise as a source of hydrogen for use in fuel cell technology. Fuel cell devices combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water, and are considered efficient, quiet and pollution-free. Fuel cells are now being tested in a range of products, including automobiles that release no emissions other than water vapor.

ARS inventors Paul Bishop and Telisa Loveless and NC State inventors Jonathan Olson and José Bruno-BÃ¡rcena developed the patent-pending technology.

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria play a key role in agriculture. They live in soil and on certain plant roots, and convert nitrogen from the air into a chemical form that plants can use to grow. The researchers developed a way to identify strains of these bacteria that produce hydrogen gas.

Bishop first demonstrated novel aspects of bacterial nitrogen-fixing more than two decades ago. Building on that work, the team developed a method that uses a selecting agent to identify these special hydrogen-producing strains. The selecting agent allows researchers to identify these bacterial strains without the need for genomic sequencing or genetic modification.

Using the selecting agent, the inventors identified a gene that inactivates the bacteria's hydrogen uptake system so that all of the hydrogen produced is released. Because the bacterial cells cannot recycle the hydrogen, the hydrogen they produce can be captured and used as a fuel whose byproduct is water and heat.

Licensing information can be obtained by contacting the ARS Office of Technology Transfer or the Office of Technology Transfer at NC State.

ARS is a scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.