In a new attempt to get more power from solar energy, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute recently published a new method that enhances the capture of sunlight on a solar panel. With the method the entire solar spectrum can be absorb from nearly any angle. The solar power extracted  the sunlight boost the energy efficiency and cost effectiveness, by this new antireflective coating.

For more information the research finding please visit the link provided as reference.

Reference:

http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2507

Once again the idea of creating a massive electric power network grid of some extent were dream upon for the European regions. The latest approach for the ultimate super grid connects the Mediterranean solar energy up to the offshore wind power across Europe.

A project of this magnitude has always found strong political hardships and believe me, this time it will not be different. Even in this period on time were energy demand increases rampantly. I do not see why this time the energy sector, developers and governments would orchestrate a complicated supergrid, but in reality I understand that the idea of building a supergrid should be on great consideration and a project that truly feasible. The technology and knowledge to make it happen are ready on the table, all that matters this time or the following afterwards, is the common political planning between the utilities controlling the transmission lines. 

Reference:

http://blogs.spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/2008/12/02/probing_for_fluff_in_europes_s.html

A great way to transform a place. The town of “Santa Coloma de Gramenet”, in Spain have transform  the resting place of a town outside of Barcelona. They have converted the roof of mausoleums to a renewable energy producing power plant that can produce enough electricity equivalent to the yearly consumption of 60 homes.

The necessity to find flat and open spaces that are viable for solar photovoltaic systems, gave birth to this concept. They installed 462 panels on top of the mausoleums of the cemetery giving the town people desire to generate clean energy but not having the enough open spaces to deployed it.

Many people believe this town people are crazy, but on my sincere opinion what they have build up on tops of these mausoleums is very good example to the global community that there should be no excuses for deployment of clean sustainable energy systems. The town hall and cemetery officials waged a public-awareness campaign to explain the worthiness of the project and eventually it worked.

The cemetery holds the remains of about 57,00 people and the solar panels cover less than 5 percent of the total surface area available. With an initial cost of $900,00 US dollars, each year the small power facility will keep about 62 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

They are already planning to erect more panels and triple the electricity capacity output.

Reference:

http://www.topix.net/content/ap/2008/11/solar-panels-on-graves-give-power-to-spanish-town-2

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/11/23/solar_panels_on_graves_give_power_to_spanish_town/

With all the approaches coming along for hybrid cars and lower emissions transportation, the concept from the laboratories of Deka is the latest to make it to the news again. The inventor Dean Kamen know for his invention of the Segway, have created this sterling engine that would be heart of the power/energy conversion for running the concept hybrid car. The hybrid car is capable of running on any fuel and with very low emissions. Summarizing the car concept, is a Think car fitted with a sterling engine, increasing the efficiency and allowing the vehicle run on a large diversity of fuels (biodiesel, natural gas, propane, etc).

Deka Revolt 2008

The work done by Dean Kamen and his team of researches, for the sterling engine could have greater reach than clean, cheap transportation. If they perfect the manufacturing process of the engine, it can be mass produced and used to generate electricity in any part of the world with a large diversity of fuels.

Reference:

http://www.dekaresearch.com/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine

Finally what we have been waiting for is becoming a reality.

General Motors is currently in serious arrangements with around 30 electric power utilities in 37 states and with the Electric Power Research Institute to develop a charging infrastructure for electric cars and plug-in hybrids.

By creating this alliance and decide how the infrastructure is going to be, these will ensure a technology that is implemented homogeneously across the market, becoming more secure, and more reliable to customers because charging ports and charging regimes for the technology would be implemented the same way.

General Motors is aiming for these car-charging stations to be implemented by the year 2010, when their new brain child the Chevy Volt is due to be produced and be on sale for hundreds of early adopters of the car offering.

The goals of developing these sorts of standards are to make it an affordable, reliable electricity source that is weather proof and child-proof and simple enough to be implemented in public garages, curb sides meters and workplace parking lots.

Another very important intentions of the alliance it to make the charging stations controllable in a certain way by utilities to prevent overloading the electric grid capacity during peak hours and challenge the reliability of electricity service.

It would much ideal for power utilities for these new electric loads on the grids for them to demand power during the off-peak hours when the demand is low and in some areas during the off-peak hours also the electricity is cheaper to the consumers.

The problem is that creating this sort of infrastructure takes time and new investment for a technology that is not even wide seen as a real alternative to transportation. Currently there are few options on the area of electric cars and plug-in hybrid, but as the prices on oil and cost of using hour gas car and trucks becomes an expenditure that eats much of our incomes, people would change their perceptions of new technologies that can make them save how they transport.

As for me, I am one of the hundreds of people that are very eager for a mass adaptation in the transportation industry for electric cars, because these give and edge for the transportation technologies and also allow for a big window of opportunity to free the dependence on pollution expensive oil. Electricity most come from clean renewable sources for this vision to work, but that complementations are very feasible and most be put into the hands and reach of all RIGHT NOW.

Resources:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9996348-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Toyota Motor Corp plans to install solar panels on its next-generation Prius hybrid cars, becoming the first major automaker to use solar power for a vehicle, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.

The paper said Toyota would equip solar panels on the roof of the high-end version of the Prius when it redesigns the gasoline-electric hybrid car early next year, and the power generated by the system would be used for the air conditioning.

Toyota plans to use solar panels made by Kyocera Corp , the Nikkei said.

A Toyota spokeswoman could not immediately confirm the report.

The Prius, the world’s first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car, first went on sale in Japan in late 1997 and in other markets in 2000, and its cumulative sales have topped 1 million units worldwide.

Toyota remodeled the Prius with an improved hybrid system in 2003 and is expected to launch a third-generation version by next year.

Resources:

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20080706&id=8861869

Conceptual rendered picture from: http://www.treehugger.com

Recently Sun Microsystems started a campaign to present evidence that telecommuting is not just a simple convenience for workers, but with the current world situation is a very real solution to the environmental crisis. The morning routine goes beyond struggling to find something to wear, fight traffic or gauntlet of public transportation. The Sun Microsystems campaign reveal results of its Open Work Energy Measurement Project, the project goals find out just how beneficial the flexible scheduling policies are by calculating the difference in the environmental impact of commuting to an office versus working from home.

The results are indeed impressive; it found that 98 percent of each employee’s carbon footprint for work came from his or her commute. By staying home for half the five-day workweek, the average employee would reduce his or her job-related energy use by 5400 kilowatt-hours per year. Commuting half as much also saved each worker $1700 per year in fuel and other auto-related cost and allowed them to regain more than two full weeks that would otherwise be lost to traffic and waits for public transportation.

Sun’s Microsystems, Corporate Eco Responsibility web page is worth taking a visit to.

Resources:

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/environment/index.jsp

IEEE Newsletter

Today electronics giant Texas Instruments (TI) announced that it has acquired the energy-saving power supply company Commergy Technologies. When everyday more electronics devices are introduced in the daily lives of thousands of people, what does devices consume in energy becomes non-trivial as an impact on the environment.

Commergy Technologies is an Ireland-based company that its main objective has been power supplies that are energy efficient and compact in architecture. Texas Instruments, large diversification of electronic components used in thousands of devices everyday looking to broaden its energy efficiency will add now the features behind the specialization on Commergy Technologies designs. The acquisition enhances Texas Instruments portfolio of analog products allowing for quick adaptation on new designs for a fast to market capability.

Industry-Leading Power Management Portfolio

TI is focused on meeting the power design needs of its customers through innovative products, easy-to-use design tools and local technical support. TI uses its application knowledge and high-performance analog manufacturing capabilities to provide discrete and integrated power management solutions for any portable or line-powered power design challenge – from cell phones and portable medical equipment to telecom, industrial and computing applications. For more information about TI’s complete power management portfolio, visit http://power.ti.com.

Resources:

http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/press/company/2008/c08028.shtml?DCMP=commergy&HQS=Other+IL+commergy

BP as agreed to invest in biofuels in venture in Brazil. The venture is to produce ethanol from sugar cane in Brazil, they say this proposal would not affect food supplies. From the $560m, BP will take a 50% stake in a venture with $60m, and will further invest the remaining $500m in two other ethanol refineries. These are big investments, let’s just believe that this vast ethanol production from sugar cake, are made without impacting food supplies and raising the cost of sugar.

What is Ethanol?

A biofuel is a fuel made from biomass – organic material, such as sugar cane – which contains stored energy from the sun in the form of chemical energy. This stored chemical energy is then converted into a liquid fuel called a biofuel. Biofuels are blended with conventional fossil fuels, and can produce significant environmental benefits by reducing CO2 emissions.

Ethanol is produced using fermentation of starches and sugars from crops such as sugar cane and wheat. Currently Brazil is the world’s largest producer of ethanol, with passenger car ethanol usage at 45%. Brazil has two fuels available – petrol containing 25% ethanol and 100% ethanol. Nearly 60% of new cars sold are 100% ethanol fuelled.

In other countries, local fuel quality standards specify the maximum amounts of biofuels blended in road transport fuels in order to ensure compatibility with standard vehicles’ fuel performance, engine components and fuel systems.

Resources:

http://priceofoil.org/2008/04/25/bp-plans-to-invest-560m-in-biofuels/

http://www.tropicalbioenergia.com.br/

This is excellent new, even though is a hybrid solution for transportation that is not in the financial reach on many. Fisher Automotive are hard working to get their announce Karma plug-in hybrid onto the hands of consumers. Not more than six months ago they announced the concept hybrid concept car in the Detroit auto show and they are already doing test on perhaps some real prototypes. I found this picture of the new hybrid design by Henrik Fisher on a post on the Autopia blog.

The Karma plug-in hybrid differentiates from other alternative transportation vehicles, in the car is a high performance sedan, with four doors and it looks amazing getting away from the mind conception that environment friendly transportation is dull and not sport like.

For those that this is the first time you read from this new hybrid vehicle, the approach is basically a electric car with a combustion engine that moves a electric generator to provide electric power to the car. The car can work in a mode were it only used stored electric power wish is a Stealth Drive mode, which is a quiet economy mode for optimal relaxed and efficient driving. By changing into a secondary mode by flipping a paddle behind the steering wheel, the car will switch to Sport Drive mode, which will access the full power of the vehicle. Talking about full power, the technology inside the Karma plug-in hybrid would get you from 0-60 in less than 6 second (0-100 km/h 6 seconds). It has a top speed beyond 125 mph (200 km/h), been an electric drive car it has is maximum torque available from 0 mph providing dramatic acceleration, something that is trade of electric motors. Other features a regenerative braking to recapture energy while the car decelerates (braking). The only thing not so appealing about the Karma is the introductory price tag of $80,000, but somewhere the development of alternative transportation solutions that are many times more efficient and have lower environment impact should begins. Remember that every time something new and niche comes along get introduce at very high cost, but let’s anticipate that development like these open up for creative transportation of electric and electric/hybrid vehicles that in a future could be more accessible in price to everyone.

For more information regarding the Karma plug-in hybrid you can check the resources link at the end of this post. Following are the recent found pictures on the Autopia blog from test drives of the vehicle enjoy.

Karma Plug-in Gallery May 2008

2008.05.10 – Karma Plug-in Gallery May 2008

Resources and more information:

http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/index.php/vehicles/features/

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/fisker-karma-pl.html

http://www.motortrend.com/features/consumer/112_0507_henrik_fisker/