Latest Energy News
Green Car Congress - March 9 2010 02:01:20 PM
CO2 emissions from the US transport sector, 1990-2008. Data: EPA. Click to enlarge. The draft report of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s annual Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2008 shows that in 2008, overall greenhouse gas... Mike Millik... read more...
ATT Becomes Lead Customer for Ford Transit Connect Electric Vans
Green Car Congress - March 9 2010 11:14:32 AM
Azure Dynamics Corporation announced that AT&T has agreed to purchase two of the first Ford Transit Connect Electric vans. (Azure, which provides and integrates the electric powertrain into the Transit glider provided by Ford, is responsible for the sales of... Mike Millikin... read more...
Ford Transit Connect Electric Test Drive
Cleantech - March 9 2010 10:31:00 AM
By John Addison (3/8/10)Before I got behind the wheel of the Transit Connect Electric, I asked myself, “Who is going to buy a battery-electric van of t... read more...
Glycos Biotechnologies Demonstrates Production of Biochemicals in Pilot Plant-Size Environment
Green Car Congress - March 9 2010 10:15:30 AM
Glycos Biotechnologies, Inc., an emerging biochemical company pioneering metabolic engineering and microbiology innovations to produce sustainable biochemicals (earlier post), has successfully produced lactic acid and advanced ethanol in a commercial-size facility capable of producing up to 150,000 ... read more...
Daimler Sells All its Equity Interest in Tata Motors
Green Car Congress - March 9 2010 09:46:07 AM
Daimler has sold all of its 5.34% of the ordinary shares of Indian automotive company Tata Motors to various groups of investors through the capital market. Tata Motors’ share price has risen significantly, especially last year, so Daimler will receive... Mike Millikin... read more...
Microchannel GTL Demonstration Plant Will Produce 5-10 bpd; Targeted for Offshore Platforms
Green Car Congress - March 9 2010 09:39:06 AM
A joint demonstration testing agreement (JDTA) between the microchannel reactor specialists, Velocys, Inc., the US subsidiary of Oxford Catalysts; offshore facility developers, MODEC; the global engineering firm Toyo Engineering; and the Brazilian State oil company Petrobras (earlier post) will resu... read more...
Ford Rolls Out New Powertrain Lineup for Europe
Green Car Congress - March 9 2010 06:00:00 AM
The 1.6L EcoBoost gasoline engine. Click to enlarge. Ford is infusing its European product range with new generations of more efficient gasoline and diesel engines, led by the introduction of two 4-cylinder Ford EcoBoost gasoline units. Developed by Ford engineers... Mike Millik... read more...
Boeing Begins Building Phantom Eye Hydrogen-Powered HALE Demonstrator
Green Car Congress - March 9 2010 06:00:00 AM
The Boeing Company has begun to build Phantom Eye—its first unmanned, liquid-hydrogen powered, high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) demonstrator aircraft. The essence of Phantom Eye is its propulsion system. After five years of technology development, we are now deploying rapid prototyping to... ... read more...
RPI Doctoral Student Develops New Graphene Material with 14% Wt. Hydrogen Storage Capacity
Green Car Congress - March 9 2010 05:00:00 AM
Javad Rafiee, a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has developed a new graphene material for storing hydrogen at room temperature. The novel form of engineered graphene has exhibited a hydrogen... ... read more...
Shanxi 2010 Coal Output To Rise Up To 30%
Green Car Congress - March 9 2010 04:35:00 AM
People’s Daily. Coal output from China’s Shanxi Province, the country’s largest coal producer, is expected to rise up by up to 30% in 2010 from 2009 levels, according to Zhang Baoshun, the Party secretary of the province. The province has... Mike Millikin... read more...
Google Plans New Solar Mirror Technology
Alt Energy Tech - March 9 2010 12:23:30 AM
Google’s Bill Weihl expresses his opinion,... read more...
Action needed to save climate, create jobs
MIT Energy News - March 8 2010 11:00:00 PM
Clean-energy technologies offer the promise of revitalizing a dwindling base of manufacturing jobs in the United States while also addressing the problems of climate change and energy security, said Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico in a keynote speech at the annual MIT Energy Conference. ... read more...
BMW Group: ActiveE Field Trial Fleet in the US Will Be At Least As Large as MINI E Fleet
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 08:32:51 PM
The BMW Group today issued a statement in response to published reports that have incorrectly stated that the size of the fleet of BMW ActiveEs (earlier post) that will be deployed during the BMW Group’s second-phase field trial in the... Mike Millikin... read more...
NASA Hosting Water Sustainability Forum 16-18 March
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 05:03:39 PM
NASA announced its founding partnership of “Launch”, an initiative to identify, showcase and support innovative approaches to sustainability challenges through a series of forums. The first forum, Launch: Water, will take place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida from... ... read more...
Ballard to Receive $6.2M in DOE Funding to Advance Non-Automotive Fuel Cell Commercialization
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 03:32:56 PM
Ballard Power Systems has $6.2 million in project funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) under contract over a four year period to advance fuel cell commercialization. Ballard Material Products, a US subsidiary of Ballard Power Systems, was awarded... Mike Millikin... read more...
US DOE Selects Two Teams for $40M Award to Develop the Next Generation Nuclear Plant
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 01:42:25 PM
The US Department of Energy has selected two teams—one led by Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Co. and one led by San Diego-based General Atomics—for the award of approximately $40 million in total for conceptual design and planning work for the Next... Mike Millikin... read more...
Belfer Center Study Concludes Reducing Car and Truck GHG Emissions Will Require Substantially Higher Fuel Prices; Income Tax Credits for Advanced Alt Fuel Vehicles Are Essentially Ineffective at Reducing Sector Emissions
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 01:09:09 PM
CO2 emissions from transportation sector by scenario in the study. The dashed blue line is 2005 emissions; the scale on the right shows the percent of 2005 level. Source: Morrow et al. Click to enlarge. A new study from the... Mike Millikin... read more...
Beijing Hoping for 15,000 Electric Vehicles in Operation This Year
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 10:34:48 AM
China Daily. Encouraged by promised favorable central government policies for hybrid or electric-powered vehicles, Beijing’s municipal commission of reform and development, the city’s economic planner, hopes that about 15,000 electric-powered vehicles will be operating in the capital city this y... read more...
Accenture Study Finds Consumers Will Require More Than Fuel Savings From Hybrid and Electric Vehicles; Cost, Vehicle Dynamics, In-Vehicle Services
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 10:19:01 AM
According to a new Accenture study of 1,800 consumers in Germany, France, Italy, Canada and the US, while interest in hybrid and electric vehicles may be growing, consumers do not see fuel savings as the only purchasing factor and are... Mike Millikin... read more...
EDAG Showcases Latest Version of Light Car Concept EV at Geneva; Emphasis on Space Frame
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 06:55:00 AM
EDAG’s Light Car - Open Source at the Geneva Motor Show. Click to enlarge. Global engineering services provider EDAG showcased its latest technical advances in the development of its concept car, the “Light Car - Open Source”, at this year’s... Mike Millikin... read more...
EPA Using OpenECU from Pi Shurlok in Engine and Hybrid Development Programs
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 06:04:00 AM
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been using Pi Shurlok’s OpenECU M460 and G850 control modules for the past year to support technology development programs in the areas of Advanced Engine Control and Hybrid Vehicle Powertrain Control. As... Mike Mill... read more...
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and PSA Peugeot Citroën Sign Final Agreement On i-MiEV
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 05:46:00 AM
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) has signed a Final Cooperative Agreement regarding development and supply of the new-generation electric vehicle (EV) i-MiEV with PSA Peugeot Citroën (PSA). MMC and PSA originally signed a Framework Agreement in September 2009. Following the Framework... ... read more...
MIT Researchers Discover New Method to Generate Electricity: Thermopower Waves
Green Car Congress - March 8 2010 05:30:00 AM
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes coated with a 7nm annular shell of cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine (TNA) were used to demonstrate the thermopower waves. The TNA shows up as a bright coating compared to the nanotubes. Source: Choi et al. Click to enlarge. A team... Mike Millikin... read more...
Behave Yourself!
Cleantech - March 8 2010 04:44:00 AM
by Richard T. StuebiIt's axiomatic among the cleantech community that energy efficiency represents the cheapest/easiest way to address our energy and environmental challenges. Indeed, as illustrated by some ... read more...
Big power from tiny wires
MIT Energy News - March 7 2010 11:00:00 PM
A team of scientists at MIT have discovered a previously unknown phenomenon that can cause powerful waves of energy to shoot through minuscule wires known as carbon nanotubes. The discovery could lead to a new way of producing electricity, the researchers say.The phenomenon, described as... read more...
Energy-Recycling Artificial Foot
Alt Energy Tech - March 7 2010 04:30:08 PM
... read more...
Report: Nippon Oil and Partners Plan To Mass-Produce Renewable Jet Fuel from Algae
Green Car Congress - March 7 2010 02:43:06 PM
The Nikkei reports that Nippon Oil Corp. and its partners plan to develop technology for mass-producing renewable jet fuel derived from Euglena, a single-celled freshwater alga, within five years. Nippon Oil and Hitachi Plant Technologies Ltd. taken an investment in... Mike Mill... read more...
Idemitsu Kosan Developing Phosphorous Sulfide Solid Electrolyte for Lithium-ion Batteries; Commercialization of Solid-State Battery Targeted for 2012
Green Car Congress - March 7 2010 11:18:41 AM
Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd., is developing a phosphorous sulfide solid electrolyte (Li2S-P2S5) for solid-state lithium-ion batteries. The company expects to commercialize solid-state lithium-ion cells using the new electrolyte around 2012. Idemitsu is a petroleum and petrochemical company, and identifie... read more...
Maersk Line Reports Historic $1.3B Loss, Seeks to Cut CO2 Emissions 20% per Container
Green Car Congress - March 7 2010 09:33:41 AM
Danish conglomerate A.P. Moller Maersk AS, parent of Maersk Line, the world’s largest container ship operator, has reported its first annual loss—estimated at US$1.31 billion—since its founding in 1904. Although A.P. Moller Maersk ancillary business units such as oil and... ... read more...
Torotrak JV Develops New Epicyclic Drive Technology That Replaces Gears with Spheres to Enhance Refinement, Durability, Cost, Weight and Packaging
Green Car Congress - March 7 2010 08:33:00 AM
Infinitrak’s epicyclic traction drive eliminates gears and integrates the thrust bearing function to save cost, reduce noise, improve durability and increase the range of ratios available within a given package space. Click to enlarge. Infinitrak, the US-based joint venture company... ... read more...
General Automotive Announces Joint Venture to Develop and Market Ceramic Composites for Fuel Cells
Green Car Congress - March 7 2010 08:12:00 AM
General Automotive Company, a North American provider of aftermarket parts and advanced technology for the automotive industry, announced a revised joint venture with SenCer Inc. to develop, commercialize and market SenCer’s UltraTemp ceramic composite materials for accelerating the development of... read more...
DOE Awards $1M to UT Dallas to Develop New Filtration Membranes for H2 and CO2 Separations
Green Car Congress - March 7 2010 07:17:00 AM
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy has awarded researchers at UT Dallas $1 million over three years to develop a new class of filtration membranes to separate hydrogen and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from coal... Mike Millikin... read more...
Toyota Joins Clean Energy Partnership to Support Introduction of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles in Europe; Five FCHV-adv Vehicles to Be Introduced in Germany by 2011
Green Car Congress - March 6 2010 11:00:00 AM
The FCHV-adv hydrogen fuel cell hybrid. Click to enlarge. Toyota has become a new international auto partner for the Germany-based Clean Energy Partnership (CEP). Founded in 2002, Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) is an international cooperation that includes BMW Group; Berliner... ... read more...
AQMD Seeking Operator for Burbanks Hydrogen Station
Green Car Congress - March 6 2010 10:56:27 AM
The California South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) has issued a request for proposals for an operator for the hydrogen filling station in Burbank, California. The US Department of Energy (DOE) originally contracted BP to install a hydrogen station... Mike Millikin... read more...
Kia Introduces Electric Concept Version of Venga; New 98 gCO2/km Version of EcoDynamics ceed
Green Car Congress - March 6 2010 10:45:00 AM
The Venga EV concept. Click to enlarge. Kia introduced its first all-electric plug-in concept car, based on the just-arrived B-segment Venga MPV (earlier post), at the Geneva Motor Show. Venga EV is a front-wheel drive vehicle with the electric powertrain... Mike Millikin... read more...
Perspective: The Role of Offsets in Climate Change Legislation
Green Car Congress - March 6 2010 08:30:00 AM
Perspective by Brian J. Donovan, CEO of Renergie, Inc. PDF version INTRODUCTION An offset is a measurable reduction, avoidance, or sequestration of GHG emissions from a source not covered by an emission reduction program. If a cap-and-trade program includes offsets,... Mike Mill... read more...
Automakers in Brazil Hit 10M Flex-Fuel Vehicle Mark; Brazilian Sugarcane Association Urges Global Dissemination
Green Car Congress - March 6 2010 08:01:00 AM
Brazil’s 10-millionth flex-fuel vehicle was built on 4 March, according to the country’s National Association of Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea). The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) commented that this milestone should encourage automakers to invest more in the global disseminat... read more...
Bright Automotive Receives Contract for Electric Postal Delivery Vehicle
Green Car Congress - March 6 2010 06:00:00 AM
Bright Automotive, the developer of the purpose-built, plug-in hybrid IDEA (earlier post), has been awarded one of five contracts by the United States Postal Service (USPS) to develop and test an electric postal delivery vehicle. Under the contract, Bright Automotive’s... Mike... read more...
Range Fuels Closes on $80M Loan Guaranteed by USDA for Cellulosic Biofuels Plant
Green Car Congress - March 5 2010 02:00:09 PM
Range Fuels, Inc. has received a loan note guarantee from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and closed its related $80 million bond issuance. (Earlier post.) The proceeds from the $80 million bond will be used to partially finance the... Mike Millikin... read more...
Secretary Chu Offers $117 Million Conditional Commitment for Hawaii Wind Power Project
Office of Energy Efficiency - March 5 2010 02:00:00 PM
U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced that the Department of Energy has offered a conditional commitment on a $117 million loan guarantee to finance the construction and start-up of an innovative 30 megawatt (MW) wind energy project in Kahuku, Hawaii.... read more...
DOE Offers $72 Million Conditional Loan Guarantee to SAGE Electrochromics
Office of Energy Efficiency - March 5 2010 02:00:00 PM
Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the Department of Energy has offered a conditional commitment for a $72 million loan guarantee to SAGE Electrochromics, based in Faribault, Minnesota.... read more...
Ferrari Shows HY-KERS Hybrid Concept at Geneva; StopStart for the Production California
Green Car Congress - March 5 2010 01:33:06 PM
The layout of the drivetrain for the HY-KERS concept. Click to enlarge. Ferrari presented a hybrid experimental vehicle, the HY-KERS, based on the 599 GTB Fiorano at the Geneva Motor Show. The HY-KERS features a lightweight hybrid drivetrain, with all... Mike Millikin... read more...
BIO Calls for a Range of Policies to Support US Biorefinery Commercialization; Need For Federal Support in Financing
Green Car Congress - March 5 2010 10:33:48 AM
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has called for sustained, consistent and diverse federal support to encourage commercial development of a full range of innovative bio-based technologies. Public policy should extend support to all biorefinery projects, BIO says, because production of...... read more...
Tata Motors Displays Tata Nano EV at Geneva Motor Show
Green Car Congress - March 5 2010 09:45:36 AM
Tata Motors presented the Tata Nano Electric Vehicle (EV), based on the Tata Nano platform, at the Geneva Motor Show. When launched, the Nano EV will join the Tata Indica Vista EV in Tata’s EV portfolio. The Tata Nano EV.... Mike Millikin... read more...
S4 Energy Solutions to Develop Plasma Gasification Project at Waste Management Landfill for Waste to Fuels and Power
Green Car Congress - March 5 2010 07:00:00 AM
S4 Energy Solutions LLC, a joint venture by Waste Management, Inc. and InEnTec LLC, plans to develop a plasma gasification facility at Waste Management’s Columbia Ridge Landfill in Arlington, Oregon. The planned facility will convert municipal solid waste into synthetic... Mik... read more...
Technology Architecture of Audi A8 Hybrid Shown in Geneva Previews the Production Q5 Hybrid, Due This Year
Green Car Congress - March 5 2010 06:00:00 AM
Drivetrain of the Audi A8 parallel hybrid. Click to enlarge. Audi presented the A8 parallel hybrid as a technology concept at the Geneva Motor Show. (Earlier post.) The technology architecture of the A8 hybrid previews that of the production Q5... Mike Millikin... read more...
Study Finds East Siberian Arctic Shelf Showing Instability and Widespread Venting of the GHG Methane; Releases May Be Much Larger and Faster Than Anticipated
Green Car Congress - March 5 2010 04:59:00 AM
Top left. Bubble plumes (probably dominated by CH4) rising from the seafloor registered by geophysical instrumentation. Top right. seismic image showing gas charged sediments and gas release from the bottom. Bottom left. Positions of oceanographic stations with bathymetry lines. Bottom... ... read more...
Sen. Rockefeller Introduces Legislation to Suspend EPA Regulation of Stationary Source GHG for 2 Years
Green Car Congress - March 5 2010 04:20:00 AM
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) introduced legislation to suspend potential Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation of greenhouse gases from stationary sources for two years. Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV) is introducing the House of Representatives companion legislation, with Reps. A... read more...
3 Questions: Hunt Allcott on behavioral economics and the energy crisis
MIT Energy News - March 5 2010 12:00:00 AM
Behavioral economics is used to examine how consumers make decisions about everything from their life savings to which brands of jam they select in a supermarket. Hunt Allcott, a behavioral economist with a two-year appointment as the Energy and Society Fellow in MIT’s Department of Economics ... read more...
EPRI Report Shows That DC Superconductor Cable is Feasible for Development Using Todays Technology
Green Car Congress - March 4 2010 05:25:00 PM
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has published a report that describes the design of a superconducting direct current (DC) cable system capable of moving thousands of megawatts of electricity between regions, and which is practical and ready for commercial... Mike Mi... read more...
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