Chevy Volt To Get Low Emissions Perks In California. Many in motoring are looking forward to an all-electric future, but as long as we’re burning fuel we’ll need to keep incentivizing low emissions. In California, a limited number of low-emissions vehicles are given stickers that let them travel in the HOV lanes, which residents know is a hell of a perk.
Now Volt owners can get in on that action. Chevrolet is making a low-emissions package standard in Californa for the 2012 model (which we’ll be testing soon), making owners eligible to apply for one of the stickers. The new Volt has a modified catalytic converter that helps reduce the tailpipe emissions, and of course it goes for around 35 miles without producing any emissions at all. So it’s a fairly clean little car. This also makes the Volt eligible for a $1500 California clean vehicles tax credit. North East to Implement Their Own System for Electric Vehicles. CleanTech Published on November 9th, 2011 | by Chris Keenan The Northeast Electric Vehicle Network is a new coalition of states who have banded together to support clean energy and to reduce dependence on foreign oil while reducing the environmental impact of vehicles.
They will be working with a $994,500 Electric Vehicle Readiness Grant awarded to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and they’ll use the money to create a more effective infrastructure for electric vehicles. That means more charging stations, which will allow an increased number of people to drive electric cars. New York has already incorporated a number of Chevy Volts into the fleet of vehicles that city workers drive, including the police department.
In addition to creating the infrastructure that will allow and encourage more people to drive electric vehicles, the group will be fundamental in creating the standards for such an infrastructure. Image credit: Birmingham news room on Flickr. Met charges first electric police motorbike - 14 Oct 2011. GM Debuts Electric Car: Chevy Spark. This is an archived story. The information and any links may no longer be accurate.
General Motors debuted it's Spark Electric minicar, its first electric vehicle (EV) since the popular EV1, 13 years ago. It will be an electric version of the gasoline-powered subcompact Spark, which is only sold in China, India and Korea - and goes on sale in the US next year. The electric Spark will first be sold in select US and other markets in 2013, when GM hopes it will give the Nissan Leaf some competition. GM hasn't announced the range or price of the Spark EV, but demonstration fleets in China, India and Korea get about 80 miles. A123 (Nasdaq: AONE) is supplying the lithium battery. Nissan's Leaf has about a 73 mile range.
In its first year, about 27,500 Leafs have been sold through September, not exactly flying off the dealer lots. Let's hope this new car has a better fate than the EV1, documented in the movie, Who Killed the Electric Car? Michel Smit : dance for sustainable energy « Stephan Wrage : kite propulsion for cargo vessels « The video embed code SKySails co-founder Stephen Wrage has developed specialized kites to harness wind power at sea, reducing fuel consumption by up to 35%.
With the deepening of global economic uncertainty, green technology like SkySails can help companies grow while reducing costs and environmental impact. Tags: : Alternative Energy , cargo , eco-mobility , ecomobility , Green , kite , merchandise , sea , transport , wind Viewed: 43 times. Superfast Driving AND Superfast EV Charging on the Autobahn. Cars Published on October 7th, 2011 | by Charis Michelsen The German Autobahn is popularly known for allowing drivers to go as fast as they want – and, starting this fall, EV drivers will be able to charge their cars almost as fast as they drive them. The power company E.ON installed the first DC quick-charge stations in Germany on a highway in Bavaria on August 24th, with more to come. EVs with a charge capacity of up to 50kW will be able to fully charge their batteries at the E.ON stations in 20 – 30 minutes. Compared to the current charging stations – AC chargers able to handle 3.5kW charging capacity in about 6 hours – they’re a vast improvement.
The new stations also support the CHAdeMO protocol, a single standard for EVs and chargers. EVs available in Germany which also support the CHAdeMO protocol include the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the Peugeot iOn, the Citroën C-Zero and the Nissan Leaf. Ruth Werhahn, responsible for e-mobility at E.ON, has a few other ideas. Source: Oekonews.at. NASA Contest Heralds Dawn of the Electric Plane.
In addition to NASA's missions in space that amaze the world, our work in aeronautics continues to spur innovation and jobs. NASA is providing the $1.65 million prize purse for the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation Green Flight Challenge competition, sponsored by Google, taking place this week outside of Santa Rosa, Calif. The purse is the largest aviation prize in history and attracted 13 teams, all led by American innovators.
Three teams successfully completed aircraft and flight qualification requirements and are competing for the purse. Teams are flying electric and biofueled powered aircraft to prove they have the most fuel efficient, small aircraft in the world. To win the competition, an aircraft must fly 200 miles in less than two hours and use less than one gallon of fuel per occupant, or the equivalent in electricity. Why is NASA sponsoring the competition? For photos of the Green Flight Challenge, visit: Electric Vehicles: Harmony and Consensus? Look Elsewhere. There are some highly respected thinkers who completely and vocally reject the idea of electric vehicles. I spoke recently with John Petersen of SeekingAlpha.com fame, whose recent article: “It’s Time To Kill The Electric Car, Drive A Stake Through Its Heart And Burn The Corpse” has stirred a great deal of conversation on the subject.
He points out that electric cars are uneconomic at several levels. They are energy intensive to manufacture, require scarce metals, and you have to drive them many, many miles to get any economic value out of them, which means they have to be charged more, reducing the life of the battery and requiring even earlier replacement. It goes without saying that Bill Moore, editor of EVWorld.com, sees the world differently. I would point out three things that I see missing or requiring amplification here: 2) Peak oil is a reality that will cause incredible social chaos and suffering, and the longer we wait the more severe will be the consequences. Adura Drives Energy Waste Out of Parking Garage Lighting | Business. Building managers, who are already hip to the savings high-tech HVAC control systems can offer, are starting to turn their focus to lighting, which can account for about 30 percent of a building's power consumption.
One of the big places they’re seeing opportunities for advanced lighting controls is in parking garages, where always-on lighting adds unnecessary operating cost and carbon emissions to the building footprint. Adura Technologies recently completed installations in two high-profile parking garages in San Francisco. During a 20-week measurement period, the company's automated lighting-control systems reduced energy use for lighting by 40.5 percent at the Hills Plaza complex garage and by 41 percent at Anchorage Square Garage.
The 186,000-square-foot Hills Plaza garage is part of a historic 3.2-acre, multi-use complex serving two popular restaurants, condominiums and commercial office space. Lighting accounts for about 30 percent of a building's energy use. Silverstone revs up electric car charging network - 31 Aug 2011. DC’s Capital Bikeshare is a Red Hot Success Story in One Year! | Ecopreneurist. Eco-cities Published on August 29th, 2011 | by Priti Ambani Eco-cities, is a new series on Ecopreneurist, where we will feature the most environmentally friendly cities and their innovative city planning models designed to face their toughest environmental concerns. If you would like us to feature your eco-city, email us! The hugely popular Capital Bikeshare or CaBi as locals call it, has completed more than one of operation and is riding high on its success in DC and adjoining suburbs.
CaBi was born as SmartBike DC in August 2008, when the District of Columbia became the first jurisdiction in North America to launch a bike sharing system. What Is Capital Bikeshare? Benefits of DC’s Bikeshare System Community Engagement- CaBi truly engages the community by requesting feedback on services, stations and experience. Alternative Transportation- The Washington Post reported that after last week’s earthquake, ridership tripled between 2pm and 4pm, compared to the previous day! About the Author. Increasing fuel efficiency with a smartphone. In July, at the Association for Computing Machinery’s MobiSys conference, researchers from MIT and Princeton University took the best-paper award for a system that uses a network of smartphones mounted on car dashboards to collect information about traffic signals and tell drivers when slowing down could help them avoid waiting at lights.
By reducing the need to idle and accelerate from a standstill, the system saves gas: In tests conducted in Cambridge, Mass., it helped drivers cut fuel consumption by 20 percent. Cars are responsible for 28 percent of the energy consumption and 32 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, says Emmanouil Koukoumidis, a visiting researcher at MIT who led the project. “If you can save even a small percentage of that, then you can have a large effect on the energy that the U.S. consumes,” Koukoumidis says. Fixed or flexible? Theory into practice. Grand Paris : le schéma d'ensemble du réseau de transport est approuvé. Le décret par lequel le Gouvernement approuve le schéma d'ensemble du réseau de transport public du Grand Paris est paru au Journal officiel du 26 août.
Ce schéma avait été adopté à l'unanimité par le conseil de surveillance de la Société du Grand Paris le 26 mai dernier. La mise en œuvre du projet de réseau doit faire l'objet d'une première enquête publique en 2012, avec comme objectif une mise en service des premiers tronçons dès 2018. "La publication du décret relatif au schéma d'ensemble du réseau de transport du Grand Paris est non seulement une grande étape pour le lancement des travaux du Grand Paris Express, mais l'est également pour l'élaboration des contrats de développement territorial (CDT)", s'est félicité Maurice Leroy, ministre de la Ville. Les CDT devront être mis à l'enquête publique dans les 18 mois qui viennent. China’s new energy vehicle sector faces growing pains | Eco-Business.
Zhao Liang, a resident of Changchun in northeastern China, takes the No.66 bus to work every day, never noticing a difference between the bus he used to take and the one he takes now - the one with the words “hybrid power” emblazoned on its backside. Changchun introduced 100 hybrid vehicles to its public transportation network in 2010. It will add another 100 this year. At the eighth China Automobile Fair currently being held in Changchun, the China FAW Group, one of the country’s largest automakers, debuted two new hybrid bus models. Hybrid vehicles have been making a splash outside public transportation as well. “This year is a demonstrative year for the development of new energy vehicles in Changchun. Liu Minghui, the director of the electric vehicle department of the China FAW Group’s research and development center, said the company also plans to initiate a trial run for its B50-model electric car this year.
“The buses will break down if the air conditioning is left on. Lancement d'un appel à manifestations d'intérêt ''navires du futur'' Dans le cadre des investissements d'avenir, les ministères en charge de l'écologie et des transports, de l'économie et de l'industrie, de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche ont annoncé le 15 juillet le lancement d'un appel à manifestations d'intérêt (AMI) dédié aux navires du futur. ''Placée au sixième rang mondial et dans un contexte de forte concurrence, l'industrie navale française se doit impérativement de rester compétitive.
Pour cela, les filières maritimes, fluviales et de plaisance ont à relever plusieurs défis majeurs notamment liés à la raréfaction du pétrole, à la croissance des échanges mondiaux ainsi qu'aux impacts environnementaux qu'elles auront à anticiper'', explique le communiqué de presse. Ainsi, le navire du futur devra être économe en énergie et respectueux de l'environnement tout au long de son cycle de vie. Mazda Test-Drive at Britcar 2011 « The video embed code Catch up with what went on at the Britcar British MSA Endurance Championship where Mark Ticehurst and his team drove the Mazda MX-5 GT round the circuit of Spa Francorchamps. The new Mazda is lighter, cleaner, and greener! Gain exclusive insight on board and experience it for yourself.
Tags: : 2011 , britcar , british , champion , championship , circuit , clean , drive , driving , endurance , Green , mazda , mazds mx-5 gt , msa , race , racing , rally , sustainability , test-drive , weight Viewed: 18 times. The Equivalent of Fast Charging EV Batteries. Batteries Published on July 19th, 2011 | by Nicholas Brown Project Better Place is about developing an electric vehicle battery swapping system that can enable people to literally replace their battery packs in exchange for another one which was charged while it was at the Better Place swapping station. In other words: While battery packs that other people dropped off are stored inside the swapping station and are being charged, you would drop off your old battery by driving onto a machine which then takes it out from underneath the car and installs a new one in the car in less than 5 minutes.
It then charges the old one that you dropped off so that it is ready to be installed when the next vehicle stops by for a replacement. Even more simplified: A machine removes your old battery pack at the swapping station, installs a new one, and then charges the old one so that it can be installed in the next car. h/t Technology Review Related Stories on CleanTechnica: Photo via canonsnapper. EDF hires MiniEs for electric Olympic Games - 19 Jul 2011. First Takes: Priuses Power up Japan's Recovery, EPA Sued on Smog & More | Business.
First Takes: IKEA to Host EV Charging Stations, Panasonic's Emergency Energy Box, and More | Business. Leaders Awards 2011: Nicko Williamson electrifies the green taxi market - 13 Jul 2011 - Feature from BusinessGreen. EPA Proposes Air Pollution Standard for Commercial Aircraft. Ikea Installs First Electric Vehicle Chargers. Electric Irish Water Taxi is the Future of Venice – CleanTechnica: Cleantech innovation news and views. New Electric Car in Israel Includes Battery Swap Subscriptions. GE, Ryder, Staples To Cut Fuel Consumption With Energy Department. General Motors Deal Hints At Future of Natural-Gas Powered Cars.