GoodCleanTech

Incubator Grows Clean Tech in Virginia

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:45:29 -0500

Funded by energy-producer Dominion, a center designed to assist new businesses focused on clean and green technologies will open in Ashland, Virginia, early next year. The Dominion Resources GreenTech Incubator will help growing companies with research, financial support, and business planning.

Besides growing new technologies for a cleaner future, the backers hope that, as the start-up companies grow, they'll move to nearby locations and boost the local economy.

"It will take creative minds to find new, clean technologies that will help our state and nation become more energy efficient. Those minds now will have a place in central Virginia to test their ideas, get assistance, and be launched toward success," said Mary C. Doswell, senior vice president-Alternative Energy Solutions for Dominion.

Garden State Gets Sweet Solar Garden

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:59:43 -0500

The Mars chocolate company opened a solar garden at its North American headquarters in Hackettstown, New Jersey, yesterday. Composed of more than 28,000 ground-mounted solar panels across 18 acres, it's the largest solar facility at a New Jersey food manufacturing plant. It will provide 2 MW of power at peak hours--20 percent of the plant's peak energy consumption--and was built by PSEG Solar Source, a subsidiary of PSEG, the local utility.

The garden is a long-term partnership between Mars and PSEG Solar Source. While PSEG Solar Source owns the garden, it's built on property owned by Mars. The chocolate company has contracted for the entire output of the system.

The garden was built to meet the state of New Jersey's aggressive energy goals, which call for 20 percent of the state's energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. Currently, New Jersey is second only to California in terms of the amount of solar capacity installed.

Solar-Sail Spacecraft Gets Second Chance

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:47:16 -0500

Back in 2005, what was supposed to be the first solar-sail space vehicle to be sent into orbit called Cosmos 1 never reached its destination. Its carrier, a Russian rocket, malfunctioned shortly after liftoff from the submarine that contained it. The failed mission now gets its second chance as Cosmos 1 was redesigned to become a lighter, smaller vehicle called LightSail. The private venture is funded by Planetary Society based in Pasadena, CA. The reimagining of Cosmos 1 as LightSail transforms it into a vehicle the size of a bread loaf, 20 times more lightweight than its predecessor. It has four triangular aluminum Mylar sails that unfold and combine into a 16-foot wide large square with a thickness of 5 microns, equivalent to a fourth of the thickness of a garbage bag. When this sale unfolds in orbit, LightSail can travel more than 500 miles above earth, which is twice the height of the usual orbit of a NASA space shuttle. One possible short-term application of the solar sail is monitoring magnetic storms. However, it is also probably one of the most feasible unmanned vehicles that could be sent to travel towards distant stars due to the fact that it does not need fuel other than light. The first iteration of the new vehicle, LightSail-1, might sail to space as soon as 2010, with the purpose of testing the craft's propulsion system. The next versions, LightSail-2 and LightSail-3, will be tested for the possibility of longer flight durations, as well as the vehicle's capacity to provide better observation of the sun.

Get Ready for 'Road Trains' in Europe

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:00:04 -0500

Here's one novel way to save fuel economy--put a bunch of cars together and let them draft each other, NASCAR-style.

Soon, that will become a reality, at least in Europe. An EU-financed research project is checking out inexpensive ways of getting cars and trucks to travel in a 'platoon' on highways, linking together using wireless sensors, according to the BBC.

The idea is to cut fuel consumption by 20 percent, thanks to the reduction in air drag when one car tailgates another. The report said a professional driver would handle the lead vehicle and monitor the status of the train. The other drivers in the train could read a book, watch TV, or otherwise daydream behind the wheel.

Fisker Opens LA Dealership, Takes 120 Pre-Orders

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:23:08 -0500

Fisker Automotive has officially opened its first dealership in Santa Monica, with a grand opening ceremony of about 200 EV enthusiasts--some of who put down deposits immediately after seeing the car in person for the first time, according to AutoblogGreen.

The dealership claims to have already taken 120 pre-orders for the four-door electric vehicle, which at $87,900 will sit between the $109,000 Tesla Roadster and the upcoming $57,400 Tesla Model S sedan.

Fisker is planning 32 dealerships across the U.S. for now, with a goal of selling 7,500 Fisker Karmas in the first year of release. The company is targeting mid-2010 for its first customer deliveries.

Salt-Based Solar Power Tower To Be Built in California

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:27:47 -0500

Permission was sought from authorities in California for a solar power tower to be built near Rice, a town in San Bernadino County, California. The California-based company called SolarReserve claims the technology it will use for the solar tower will allow the plant to supply electricity to consumers around the clock through the help of molten salt. The plant will have a 12-foot pedestal to which a total of 17,500 24 x 28 feet heliostats will be placed surrounding the Solar Power Tower. Above the tower, at 100 feet in height, 4.4 million gallons of molten salt are contained. This hefty amount of salt will receive the heat from the sun, reflected by the mirrors, in order to reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit in temperature. This heat provides the needed energy at any time of day or night by using a steam generator through which the molten salt will pass through. An attached turbine is driven by the steam generator to produce the electricity. While there are other solar towers that use molten salt to produce energy, SolarReserve claims its system will produce a comparatively larger output. Kevin Smith, Chief Executive at SolarReserve, says they use synthetic oil during steam generation. This supposedly makes the system more efficient, allowing the setup to produce the steam at higher temperatures, and could lead to production of three times the amount of energy other similar salt-based systems can produce. The solar power tower planned for Rice might start operations as early as 2013 if SolarReserve's plans pull through.

EcoDog: This Good Dog Saves Energy

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:53:45 -0500

Now here's a new trick: EcoDog, a power management company, has created FIDO, a home energy monitoring system, and FIDO has fetched the top prize at San Diego's annual GadgetFest.

FIDO got both the judges' top score and the overall crowd vote to take the 2009 Greatest Gadget award. The product is billed as a home energy watchdog, and it allows users to view their electricity consumption and save 15-25 percent of their utility bill each month. This show marked FIDO's debut.

GadgetFest is put on by CommNexus San Diego, and is a forum for companies in the San Diego region to show their latest technologies. The show is gaining quite a pedigree: GrandCentral, which won two years ago, was acquired by Google shortly after the show, and Motorola's Q phone, Sling Media's Slingbox, and the RAZR, all debuted publicly at GadgetFest.

BP Preparing Algae Diesel and Butanol Production

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:17:45 -0500

BP is gearing up to begin commercial production of grass-based ethanol in 2010, in conjunction with Verenium, the latter of which already has a demonstration cellulosic ethanol facility up and running, according to Reuters.

In addition, BP is planning a 2012-2013 launch of commercial output of biobutanol at a future biofuel plant in the UK, Philip New, BP Biofuels CEO, said during a presentation at the World Ethanol 2009 conference. The wheat-based ethanol plant will be built with the help of British Sugar and chemicals group DuPont; it will begin output next year but then be retrofitted to switch to biobutanol output later on.

The plant would use wheat as feedstock, and would also offer similar emissions and cost levels as ethanol without the downsides inherent to corn-based production, according to the report. (Image credit: BP)

Can the Humvee Go Green?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:14:53 -0500

An energy-efficient Humvee? While it seems crazy, the hybrid XM1124 Humvee has been in development for a while now. Today, word came that automotive lithium-ion battery maker EnerDel has been chosen to create the vehicle's battery system. The company has received a $1.29 million contract to design and build a high-performance battery.

EnerDel will collaborate with the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center over the next 18 months, creating four custom power systems that will be tested in extreme performance simulations.

While the demonstration version of the Humvee XM1124 is already more efficient than the conventional M1113 Humvee, with a higher top speed, faster acceleration, longer range, and better fuel economy, the new battery should increase the peak power capability.

Photo by Bill Dowell, courtesy U.S. Army

iPhone App Measures Wind Speed for Turbine Offsets

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:44:03 -0500

Want to measure wind speeds? Apparently there may soon be an app for that. Mariah Power, along with digital design company Create with Context, have announced Windspire me!, an iPhone app that measures wind speed and tells you what CO2 a Windspire wind turbine would save from the environment.

For the uninitiated, Windspire wind turbines are like solar panels, in that you can conceivably install one to help power a home. Windspire 1.2 kW wind turbines cost between $9,000 and $12,000 fully installed, though that's not counting rebates and tax credits. The company claims an average payback is within about 10 years--roughly similar to some solar installations.

Optical Fiber-Based Solar Cells

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:59:17 -0500

Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed what they call a 3D solar cell using optical fibers - the same fibers used by the telecommunications industry. Zinc oxide nanostructures are grown on these fibers which are subsequently coated with materials used for dye-sensitized solar cells. Since the structure designed to absorb sunlight are merely threads, the researchers believe the technology could introduce new ways of integrating solar power devices into buildings. Science Daily writes:

"Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile," said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. "Optical fiber could conduct sunlight into a building's walls where the nanostructures would convert it to electricity. This is truly a three dimensional solar cell."

The nanostructure arrays of this particular design purport to provide the needed surface area to compensate for the low efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells. Each reflection of the light on the fiber has a big likelihood of interacting with the zinc oxide nanostructures and hence, with the dye-sensitized solar cell materials that convert light to energy. Current prototype of the technology has reached but a mere 3.3 percent in efficiency, but further improvements on the surface of the fibers are expected to up the efficiency to 7 or 8 percent. Wang believes these optical fiber-based solar cells have the capacity to eliminate issues regarding aesthetics in the solar array department, and could even introduce a way for PVs to be used in applications where their utilization wasn't possible.

Renewable Energy Experiment Kit: Ideal Toy for Green Kids

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:29:47 -0500

Well, this certainly beats the erector set I had. Hammacher Schlemer is selling the ultimate green toy, the Renewable Energy Experiment Kit, which lets kids learn about renewable energy in a colorful, fun way. While it resembles My First Blender, it includes a wind turbine, a solar cell, electrolytic cells, and a hand-operated dynamo.

All of those green energy collectors store electricity in a rechargeable battery. That power can then be used to run a motor, an LED, and a buzzer using wiring with alligator clips. A built-in voltmeter lets your kids see how good a job each method does of harvesting energy. It's meant for children 8 and up, and lists for $49.95. Curiously, it requires two AA batteries.

NG Connect Unveils Connected Prius Concept

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:46:02 -0500

NG Connect, a consortium of vaguely auto-and-tech-related companies, announced plans for a 4G-capable vehicle called the LTE Connected Car.

Basically, it's a 2010 Toyota Prius. But it contains four independently controlled touch screens for streaming video-on-demand, controlling various car functions, and browsing the Internet--all through a custom suite of cloud-based interactive apps. Other features include gaming, GPS navigation, road and vehicle monitoring, and home control, plus a full-blown Wi-Fi hotspot offering connectivity to the LTE cloud.

No word yet on production plans, or much of anything in the way of details. I'd probably start with figuring out to make sure the driver isn't the one doing all the Internet-surfing while behind the wheel, but that's just me. (The ng Connect Web site has a video.)

A Powerful Rechargeable Zinc-Air Battery To Be Released Soon

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:43:00 -0500

A Switzerland-based company called ReVolt will soon be releasing a button cell battery for hearing aids in the market next year. But unlike other products available in the market, ReVolt's battery uses the zinc-air battery technology developed by Norwegian research institute SINTEF. ReVolt has raised 24 million Euros in funding for the development of the technology, with the release of zinc-air based batteries for cell phones and electric bikes expected within a few years. ReVolt claims its technology overcomes the biggest hurdle in developing rechargeable zinc-air batteries - the inability to last as many charge-discharge cycles as lithium ion batteries. ReVolt's battery can reportedly store three times more energy than lithium-ion by volume, and could incur just half the costs. Current prototypes of the zinc-air battery last more than a hundred charge-discharge cycles, and the products to be released are expected to last a couple of hundred cycles. The company is currently improving the technology to last 300 to 500 cycles to be more apt for development as cell phone and electric bike batteries. Besides what was already mentioned, ReVolt has also already started working on a fuel cell-like, zinc-air battery for electric vehicles.

USPS to Get Prototype Electric Delivery Trucks: Report

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:08:50 -0500

Smith and AM General are developing a prototype electric version of the Long Life Vehicle the U.S. Postal Service employs for daily mail deliveries, according to AutoblogGreen. First designed in the 1980s, the LLV currently sports components dating back to the original Chevy S10 pickup, and is currently running a 2.2-liter four-cylinder from GM's parts bin (the EcoTec, in case you're wondering).

AM will build the chassis for the prototype, while Smith will provide the electric powertrain, according to the report. No word yet on a release date for a pilot program. It's pretty clear that this could have a major effect on reducing emissions, given the low speeds and constant idling typical of a daily route. Note that this is separate from USPS's earlier announcement about converting 6500 of its other delivery vans to alternative fuel power. (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)