Hybrid Living

The Solar Impulse HB-SIA, a solar-powered aircraft under development for an emissions-free around-the-world flight, had its maiden flight on April 7. Bertrand Piccard, the adventurer who first flew a balloon non-stop around the globe, is the chairman of the Solar Impulse project. The plane was flown to an altitude of 4,000 feet during its 87 minute test flight in Switzerland.

The single-seat plane has the wingspan of a 747 covered with nearly 12,000 solar cells which provide the power for the four electric motors. Further tests, including longer duration flights to test batteries and verify the ability of the plane to fly through the night will be the next step for this project. Solar Impulse plans a flight to cross the Atlantic in 2012 in preparation for an eventual non-stop, around the globe flight.

video link: Solar Impulse

via: EERE News

Previous Solar Impulse articles on EcoGeek

Solar panels are one of the greenest and least controversial types of renewable power generation technology. Some neighborhoods don’t like how they look on roofs of houses, but there are no concerns about harming wildlife, as with wind turbines or tidal power systems. And the technology to make them is continuing to improve.

But not all solar panels are created equally. Solar panels are energy intensive to produce, and potentially harmful materials such as cadmium and lead are sometimes used in their production. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition has begun to assemble a ‘Solar Scorecard’ that evaluates solar panel manufacturers.

Because the Scorecard is based on company self-reporting, presently there are only ten PV module manufacturers and one solar cell manufacturer with scores listed. Four compaies also have a gold star, indicating that the company “has a takeback program and has policies against exporting waste and using prison labor to dismantle end-of-life panels.”

Scoring is based on a 100-point scale, with four major categories: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Takeback, which deals with end-of-life and recycling for the panels; Supply Chain Monitoring and Green Jobs, which looks at employee exposure to toxic materials among other issues; Chemical Use and Lifecycle Analysis, which looks at hazardous material use; and Disclosure, which considers a company’s transparency about these issues. The survey was originally sent to 227 [*] solar PV companies in October 2009 and the survey dealine was extended to late January 2010. Hopefully more companies will respond and the listing can be kept current in coming years, providing consumers with more information about the panels they are considering.

link: Solar Scorecard

An extended version of this article is available on GreenovationTV.

* Ed. note: earlier typo said 27 solar PV companies

A recent report from the Carbon Trust notes that there are “more carbon emissions from crisps (potato chips) than cement.” Although it may be a surprising bit of news at first, it conceals the greater issue of scale. Undoubtedly though, someone is certain to rail against potato chips and argue that we don’t need to worry about cement production when snack foods are the bigger problem. While the Carbon Trust’s statement is factually correct from one perspective, as the famous saying goes, there are “Lies, damned lies, and statistics“, so let’s talk about numbers a bit.

First, let’s take a look at the amount of CO2 produced for each item. Producing cement releases about an equivalent amount of CO2 (producing one ton of cement releases one ton of CO2), while producing potato chips releases about 2.3 times as much CO2 (producing one ton of potato chips releases 2.3 tons of CO2). What is key here is that the factor of CO2 produced is in relationship to the weight of the finished product. Cement is much denser and heavier than potato chips, so a sack of cement has a much, much higher carbon footprint than an equivalent volume of potato chips.

Secondly, let’s consider the annual production of each item. A figure for yearly global production of potato chips wasn’t readily available, but just looking at relatively recent US consumption, roughly 3 million tons of potato chips are produced annually, yielding about 7 million tons of CO2. However, US cement production is around 100 million tons per year, yeilding about 100 million tons of CO2.

Even though cement produces less CO2 per pound, cement production is still nearly 15 times more significant to US production of CO2. Although there is more CO2 per unit of potato chips, a lot more cement is produced, which helps make that the larger problem.

However, there’s more to it than just that. Global cement production in 2000 was 1.56 billion tons. The US production is only about 6% of that total. On the other hand, the US is probably responsible for a higher percentage of total potato chip consumption, so the global figure for cement production is even more significant.

Big numbers and surprising ratios can catch our attention, but it’s important to look at the overall picture. Although more CO2 per pound was released when the potato chips were made, a one pound bag of potato chips still represents less impact than an 80 pound sack of cement; the bags are far from equivalent to one another.  And even though producing a pound of chips releases more CO2 than producing a pound of cement does, that doesn’t make potato chips a greater environmental hazard than cement.

Thanks @MelStarrs

Image credit: CC-By-SA-2.5 by Paul Hurst

Engine idling is a significant factor in gasoline engine inefficiency, making up as much as 17% of the fuel consumed in urban driving. To address this, some manufacturers are looking at incorporating hybrid-style technology such as start-stop systems as a way of gathering some of the “low-hanging fruit” of hybrid efficiency for the non-hybrid vehicles in their fleet.

Start-stop (turning off the engine instead of idling at red lights and other times when the car isn’t moving) is already a staple of hybrid vehicles. But start-stop technology only costs $300-400 per vehicle, as opposed to the thousands of dollars a full-hybrid version of a vehicle represents.

European and Asian markets have taken to this more readily, while in the US, Mazda has encountered EPA testing regulations that offer no fuel-efficiency credit for their i-stop system. BMW, Smart, Mercedes-Benz, and Mini are also working on adopting this technology to vehicles in their fleets.

via: bnet

image: Mazda 3 i-stop

Energizer’s DUO Charger is a battery charger for NiMH (nickel metal hydride) rechargable batteries. (This isn’t the same as USB batteries that have a built-in USB port on the batteries themselves.) Energizer provided a nice little desktop app for computers so that the user could see the charge status of their batteries along with the charger. We’re not sure what the point of this is, really. I mean, is the indicator light on the charger not enough for you?

Unfortunately, that app included a Trojan that would compromise security and open a back door for unauthorized access on Windows machines. The trojan allows files to be sent and executed on your machine without your permission. There are alerts about this from both the computer security company Symantec as well as from US-CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness Team). Energizer has an advisory notice on their site where the software was downloaded from.

Only users with Windows computers who downloaded the software are at risk; there is noting in the battery charger hardware itself that threatens computers. If you have installed this software, which you would have had to seek out and download separately, you need to uninstall it to prevent it from putting your computer system at risk.

[Edit to add: It's pretty clear that Energizer was not a willing party to this.  They have stopped providing the software for download and put out the announcement about the problem.  They also note they are "currently working with both CERT and U.S. government officials to
understand how the code was inserted in the software."]

My advice, never install software for a piece of hardware that obviously doesn’t need it. Battery chargers should charge batteries, there’s no reason to make that relationship more complicated.

Link: Energizer advisory (PDF)

Legislators in California have introduced a bill that would require electric utilities to provide grid-scale energy storage in their operations. The bill would call for a capacity of 2.25% of daytime peak demand by 2014 and 5% of peak demand by 2020.

A variety of technologies could be included in the mix to provide grid energy storage, including pumped storage hydro, compressed air storage, utility-scale batteries, and flywheel storage systems.

This may have the indirect effect of encouraging the utilities to promote efficiency measures and to encourage load shifting, in order to lower the amount of storage that would be required.

via: Building Energy Performance Info

image credit:

INGOCAR is a developmental concept for a 5 passenger car with a hydraulic drive system in place of a conventional powertrian. With the weight reduction this offers and other efficiencies in the systems, the designers say their vehicle could get 170 mpg.

The INGOCAR is a hydraulic hybrid vehicle. Like some electric hybrids such as the Chevy Volt, it uses the motor indirectly instead of using the mechanical motion of the motor to move the car. But rather than using a motor as a generator to produce electricity, the INGOCAR has a highly-efficient 2-stroke diesel engine which is used to pressurize a hydraulic tank called the accumulator. Pressure from this tank is then used to turn individual wheelmotors in each wheel.

Hydraulic power makes the regenerative braking of the INGOCAR much more efficient than that in electric motor vehicles, as well. Regenerative braking with hydraulics is able to recover 75 to 85% of the energy which is used to repressurize the system. The wheelmotors that serve as both propulsion and braking for the vehicle are smaller than the disc brakes they replace.

The INGOCAR’s efficiencies work to benefit it in several ways. For instance, eliminating the conventional powertrain provides a 30% weight reduction for the car. Also, the engine only needs to run for a short period of time to recharge the pressure tank. It can also be smaller since it is only being used to develop pressure, rather than needing to be strong enough to run the car directly.

The vehicle is able to be significantly lighter than an electric hybrid because the motors are much lighter. “A comparable electric powertrain, able to recapture the entire braking energy, is significantly heavier. The weight of the currently best electric motors is 20 times higher than that of the new hydraulic motor. The weights of the energy storage devices (battery, accumulator) are about the same. As result, the weight of the car would increase by about 50% – from 2200 lb to 3300 lb – consequently increasing the fuel consumption.”

The 5 passenger INGOCAR would weigh 2200 lbs (998 kg). The Chevy Volt’s curb weight is expected to be around 3500 lbs, and the current Toyota Prius curb weight is also around 3000 lbs.

link: Valentin Technologies

Conventional gasoline engines are terribly inefficient things. Only 13% of the energy of the fuel actually moves the car. 62% is lost in the engine as waste heat, and driveline losses, accessories, and idling also reduce the efficiency.

Transonic Combustion is planning to build automobile engines with improved efficiency obtained through heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber. “This puts it into a supercritical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion, which in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to propel a vehicle,” according to MIT Technology Review. A transonic test vehicle achieved 64 MPG in highway driving, compared to a 48 MPG hybrid Prius, and running at a steady cruising speed of 50 mph, the test vehicle achieved 98 MPG.

Like diesel and HCCI, the Transonic Combustion technology operates without needing a spark plug. Timing software also further enhances the operating efficiency of the system. Transonic injection is being developed for use with gasoline engines at present, but will also be compatible with advanced low carbon footprint bio-fuels in the future. Transonic expects its system will be comparable in cost to other current high-end fuel injection systems.

Because of the higher operating pressure, the longevity and durability of the engine will be important considerations the company will need to address. The company plans to build its production facility in 2013 and expects to be building engines for production vehicles in 2014.

via: Inhabitat

Beginning today, Google has begun providing bicycle directions for its Google Maps service with directions for cyclists in 150 cities in the United States. Google already incorporates public-transit and walking directions in addition to automobile driving directions, and the bicycling community has been calling for Google to add bike routes for some time.

The routing suggested for cyclists is designed to avoid freeways and high-traffic areas, and to select gentler terrain by routing around hills. To make it even more useful for riders on the go, Google expects to have a mobile version available in the near future, as well.

A new study from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has identified on-road transportation as the most significant overall source contributing to global warming. Power generation, while having the greatest total impact, also includes a large number of compounds that increase cloud reflectivity and provide other effects to offset some of the warming they are responsible for.

In the study, rather than looking at specific chemicals and compounds, the range of airborne pollutants is broken down by economic sector. The study looks at the range of gases and aerosols that are released by each of 13 sectors of the economy, and finds that on-road transportation has the greatest overall effect on global warming.

“Cars, buses, and trucks release pollutants and greenhouse gases that promote warming, while emitting few aerosols that counteract it. The researchers found that the burning of household biofuels — primarily wood and animal dung for home heating and cooking — contribute the second most warming. And raising livestock, particularly methane-producing cattle, contribute the third most. On the other end of the spectrum, the industrial sector releases such a high proportion of sulfates and other cooling aerosols that it actually contributes a significant amount of cooling to the system. And biomass burning — which occurs mainly as a result of tropical forest fires, deforestation, savannah and shrub fires — emits large amounts of organic carbon particles that block solar radiation.”

The intent of this study is to make the information about climate change more accessible and understandable. “We wanted to provide the information in a way that would be more helpful for policy makers,” according to Nadine Unger, leader of the research team. “This approach will make it easier to identify sectors for which emission reductions will be most beneficial for climate and those which may produce unintended consequences.”

No one should mistake the point of this study to indicate that coal burning and other power-generation and industrial processes are benign and therefore do not need to be scaled back. Although industrial processes mitigate their adverse effects with regard to global warming, the sulfates and aerosols that are beneficial in this one manner are responsible for a range of other, negative environmental impacts.

The paper was published online on Feb. 3 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

via: Worldchanging