Hybrid Living

Grid parity…it’s what we’re all hoping for. That magical moment when solar power (or other renewables for that matter) become available at the cost of current power sources. And, if Sunrgi’s claims are to be believed, it could be only 15 months away.

Sunrgi’s technology is fairly simple. Basically they use a magnifying glass to concentrate the power of the sun 1600 times onto a tiny square of the most efficient photovoltaic material on the planet. While others are concentrating on bringing the price of the panels down (along with efficiency), Sunrgi actually uses panels from Spectrolab, which are three times more efficient than the cheap panels being produced by NanoSolar.

The photovoltaic cells remain efficient even when collecting these huge amounts of light per square centemeter. However, they don’t remain efficient at 3000 degrees F. In fact, if this much light were concentrated on the cells, and the cells were not cooled, they would melt. Sunrgi has developed a proprietary cooling system to keep the ultra-expensive cells at nominal temperatures even at the hottest part of the hottest day. You can see, in the render, that the bottom of the panels actually look like huge CPU heat sinks.

By using such a small amount of photovltaic material, and such a large amount of cheap magnifying glasses, Sunrgi says that their system should be extremely inexpensive. In fact, they’re saying that, in sunny climates, it will be sold for around $0.05 per kilowatt, about the cost of coal. They already have demonstration units running and hope to be selling their first units (to utilities and large businesses) in twelve to fifteen months.

Award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has been on sabbatical for the last half-year or so, and he has been sorely missed. After spending years talking about how The World is Flat, Friedman began writing about a new powerful force in the global economy…the environment and clean energy. This has lead some (us, actually) to surmise that his next book might be quite ecogeeky.

Now he’s back, and immediately taking on the idiocy of suspending the gas tax for the summer months:

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

And then he gets to the real meat of the issue. It’s not that we don’t have an energy policy in America, it’s that we have the exact opposite of the policy we should have. We continue to subsidize oil and gas, and are letting subsidies for wind and solar lapse.

The neglect of these renewable energy tax credits has been discussed over and over again here at EcoGeek. Friedman’s audience (being somewhat larger than our own) will hopefully finally hear this message loud and clear. I sure am glad he’s back.

Do you want a hybrid Honda Fit? Or how about a hybrid Passat, or Yaris, or Cobalt, or….Yeah. Too bad. While the number of hybrids available is certainly increasing, there are just a lot of cars we can’t get as hybrids, and we’re just going to have to deal with that.

Or are we? A UK company has revealed a retro-fit hybrid conversion kit that has the potential to cut exhaust emissions in existing cars by nearly 40%, and improve fuel economy by 60%. The system, developed by the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA), features a removable battery pack, arranged into three portable 30kW cassettes, which upgrade existing "conventional" vehicles into hybrids.

The technology, currently being demonstrated on a Skoda Fabia, allows the car to run as a plug-in hybrid. In practice, it means the battery can be recharged via the gasoline engine, or by removing the battery pack and charging it through the mains. The rear wheels are driven by two 30 kW (50bhp) motors, while the petrol engine drives the front ones, effectively turning your car into a 4WD. Regenerative braking appears to be not included.

According to MIRA, the test model achieves an average of 64mpg (up from 39mpg), while top speed and acceleration remain similar to a standard Fabia. While this certainly isn’t as impressive as the Hymotion plug-in conversion kit for the Prius, it is cheaper (probably only $4,000) and can be installed in any front-wheel-drive car.

Speaking about the new project, Derek Charters, advanced power train manager at MIRA said, “You can obtain electricity from your domestic provider far cheaper and greener than from a car engine, so plug-in hybrids make sense.

“With this project, we’ve removed the main limitation of the plug-in hybrid by allowing the battery pack to come to the mains, rather than having to park right next to a socket, which is difficult if you live in a terraced house or flat.”

Unfortunately, MIRA hasn’t yet set a date for putting the technology into production. However, providing the new system is affordable and easy to install, there’s a compelling case for launching it in the market as soon as possible. Watch this space for more.

The Proximity Hotel is proof that a hotel can be very green without sacrificing the comfort of its guests. The hotel is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, and it achieved a Gold LEED certification this year from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Proximity uses 36.5% less energy and 30% less water than a conventional [...]

I find my reliance on power strips embarrassing. But now I can feel even more guilty with one of these! Finally, I could see how much power I’m pulling from the wall here at EcoGeek HQ so I can feel really bad about it and, maybe, actually do something about it.

This guy remembers how much power has moved through the strip over the last day, week, month, or year and thanks to an onboard battery, it remembers forever.

It can also monitor the quality of power coming into your office, which can be useful for ubergeeks. But for us average geeks, this could be a fairly useful little tool. Two questions though:

1. How much power does the device, itself, consume?
2. How is this $99 device different from my $20 kill-a-watt mixed with a $10 power strip?

The first zero-watt display monitor from Fujitsu Siemens Computers will get you out the office door that millisecond faster after coming up with a design that uses no power at all in idle mode. The zero-watt, 22-inch monitor has a switch in the power supply unit that is controlled by the computer. When no video signal is transmitted, the switch shuts down the complete circuit of the monitor.

That’s savvy, saves customers money, and protects the environment.

There’s also a secondary way to save power with the monitor. A sensor continuously monitors the surrounding brightness of the environment and automatically adjusts the display. Less power is required in a dark environment than a bright one.

An earlier prototype last year used a solar panel to detect the video signal, but this version will use a relay switch instead to turn off power when it detects no signal. The new monitors will be available this summer and cost the same as regular monitors.

Via Physorg

PARIS (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s oil minister on Thursday slammed biofuels, saying they did not protect the environment or help supply security, but added solar power had to be considered one of the best clean energy sources.

“Let’s be realistic, ethanol and biofuels will not contribute to the protection of the global environment by reducing (carbon dioxide) emissions, they will not increase energy security, nor will they reduce dependency on fossil fuels to any appreciable degree,” Ali al-Naimi told an oil conference.

As global freshwater reserves dry up, desalination plants are receiving greater attention as an option for providing both drinking water supplies and agricultural irrigation. But a new study released on Thursday raises several concerns about the environmental impact and cost effectiveness of the widely touted technology to convert seawater to fresh water.

Desalination plants pose a risk to marine species when the water is collected from ocean areas, as well as when the salty discharge is deposited into coastal estuaries, according to the report, which was released by the U.S. National Research Council (NRC).