Hybrid Living

At first sight, my heart skipped a beat. One quick glance and I was sure, this was the one for me. No, we’re not talking about a dalliance with a Kiwi from New Zealand, but an "I WANT THAT" moment looking to the PLX Kiwi dashboard feedback system to help drivers learn how to drive better.

The basic principle is clear if you’ve ever been around hybrid car drivers bragging about their latest achievements in inching out another .5 mpg on their latest drive. Instant feedback systems on the dashboard, especially in an era of $3.50 and higher gasoline, foster more efficient driving habits. The Kiwi takes this a step, actually many steps forward, providing not just miles per gallon, but feedback on critical elements of more efficient driving (smoothness, drag, aceleration, deceleration), test programs to teach the teachable, and other feedback paths to move drivers toward safer and more climate-friendly driving habits. Give these sorts of feedback systems and, across a wide range of drivers, a ten percent improvement in overall fuel efficiency is on the low side of the expected improvements.

I’m a stats type of guy (falling asleep yet) … into competition with self via measurements … into playing with feedback systems … who is concerned about cost of driving, cost in terms of dollars and, more importantly, cost in terms of CO2 emissions. Okay, on first glance, I knew that that Kiwi was for me …

Every romance has its bumpy patches

You can imagine, perhaps, the anticipation waiting for the Kiwi in the mail. And, the anxiousness with which I opened the package. Marrying up my fascination with statistics, (near) addiction to gaming, and concerns over the environment, the Kiwi looked to be a perfect partner for this Eco-Geek.

But, soon after the opening moments, the first problems emerged.

Oilman T Boone Pickens is not only committed to planting the world’s largest wind farm in the fertile soil of Texas and electrical lines to move that wind power to market. T Boone has a plan to save America (while making a bundle) and has committed some $58 million to convincing Americans that his plan is the path to a better future. Pickens is focused on oil. According to T Boone,

America is addicted to foreign oil. It’s an addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security. It touches every part of our daily lives and ties our hands as a nation and a people. The addiction has worsened for decades and now it’s reached a point of crisis.

Here is one of the nation’s leading oil men laying out quite clearly that America’s oil habit is centerpiece of risk for the nation in the years ahead. Is the addiction’s solution to be found in Newt’s Drill Here! Drill Now! Pay Less! petition? Not according to T Boone:

Can’t we just produce more oil? World oil production peaked in 2005. Despite growing demand and an unprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn’t enough of it to keep up with demand. The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone.

If oil is dead, as T Boone tells us (the US), what should we do?

In the face of $140+ barrel oil (and heading higher), peak oil, and global warming comes an ever-growing rally cry of "Freedom from Oil!"

For those fighting to achieve that freedom, another tool was just added to the arsenal: The Freedom Prize.

The Freedom Prizes will address the challenge of oil dependence using American ingenuity and the spirit of competition.

 

We will be awarding over $4 Million in Freedom Prizes to inspire Industry, Schools, Government, Military, and Communities to significantly reduce their use of oil, thereby promoting America’s national security, economic prosperity and health.

At the moment, The Freedom Prize is creating the rule set – actual prizes won’t come until fall 2008. And, $4 million spread across five categories (Industry, Schools, Government, Military and Community) won’t necessarily take us that far. But, the X-Prize has not necessarily been about guaranteeing financing, but rather in providing visibility and motivation for a challenge, whether private enterprise, putting someone into space, or commercializing 100+ mile per gallon cars. And, the visibility provides education and knowledge for the rest of society.

While the prizes won’t end America’s addiction to oil, it looks like it could be $4 million very well spent towards awareness and inspiration. For the moment, The Freedom Prize is something to keep an eye on; who knows whether they’ll prompt attention to some Silver BBs to help change the game for energy challenges.

Photo via Joguldi

Toyota (Prius) and GM (the Volt and the Vue) seem to be in a race as to who will provide the first mass-produced plug-in-hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). The backfit market is building, with options coming to market for plug-in conversions for existing hybrids. But what about the 10s of millions of normal, internal combustion engines out there? Is there any hope for them?

If Poulsen Hydrid is to be believed, the answer is a resounding YES.The Poulsen Hybrid Power Assist System "creats a PHEV by retrofitting electric motors, DC motor controllers, storage batteries and an on-board charger to a conventional new or used automobile." The electric system would be used for maintaining speed, after acceleration.

The development is based on the observation that only 10-15 horsepower is required to propel a compact or mid-size automobile along a level road at a steady 60-70 mph. leading to the conclusion that this relatively small amount of electric power would be able to cope with 70-85% of normal driving, only aided by the combustion engine during start up and when extra energy is required for acceleration and hill climbing.

The systems puts hybrid electric motors on the outside of the rear wheels with an onboard charger. The system is expected to debut on the market next month. $3300 for purchase and $600 for "professional installation".

Mark me intrigued but questioning. For example,

• This system doesn’t have regenerative braking, thus one is simply trading the cost of gasoline for electricity. At $4000, a break even point comes well after saving 1000 gallons of gasoline. Thus, how much gasoline is really saved as this system basically moves the ICE to idling while the electricity handles acceleration.
• The addition of this system outside the car will increase wind drag. A meaningful amount? Don’t know.
• Also, some basic safety questions must arise. What are the implications for adding these systems outside the car?

But we’re still pretty intrigued with this ingenious approach to tackling the challenges of the huge existing fleet of internal combustion engine vehicles and moving miles from gasoline to electricity.

Widespread adoption of PHEVs can reduce GHG emissions from vehicles by more than 450 million metric tons annually in 2050 – equivalent to removing 82.5 million passenger cars from the road.

There is an abundant supply of electricity for transportation; a 60% U.S. market share for PHEVs would use 7 percent to 8 percent of grid-supplied electricity in 2050. PHEVs can improve nationwide air quality and reduce petroleum consumption by 3 million to 4 million barrels per day in 2050.

But do we have 43 years to do this? Why not start with today’s automobiles

Hat tip to AutoBlogGreen.

Okay, I am a big (BIG) fan of PHESBs: Plug-in Hybrid Electric School Buses. With all the (welcome) focus on PHECs (Plug-In Hybrid Electric Cars) like the Volt, Prius, and others, the real potential for some gamechanging through fleets of large fleets seem to be falling by the wayside. In fact, school buses offer some quite serious opportunities for breakthrough benefits and merit serious attention. Happily, we are seeing some serious news advancing the possibility of actually seizing these benefits.

Recent test results show that the IC Bus PHEBs, using hybrid-drive systems from Enova Systems, "can improve fuel efficiency by more than 70 percent compared to standard diesel-powered school buses." In addition to the fuel economy savings, other benefits include:

• Over 40% reduction in CO₂
• Over 30% reduction in Particulate Matter
• Over 20% reduction in NOx

Analysis suggests that aggressive deployment of PHESBs could save the equivalent of 1/2 day of projected US fuel use per year. While this isn’t a silver bullet to solve the challenges of peak oil and global warming, it would be a nice piece to insert in the puzzle.

But the benefits are far more extensive. These buses would provide the potential for emergency power amid a disaster (man-made or otherwise) and mobile power for public events, and would reduce the impact of diesel fumes on children’s health. (Combine PHESBing with "green diesel," and this health threat basically disappears.)

One of the key challenges to achieving these benefits is the price differential between PHESBs and the standard bus. Amid tight (tighter than normal) local budget environments, spending additional money upfront for future fuel savings and for "intangible" items like children’s health is difficult. IC Bus took a step in the right direction with a $40k reduction in the price of the PHESBs. Now, there are 19 PHESBs out there in America. I have heard nothing other than rave reviews of them. Last I heard: an order of 100 PHESBs and IC Bus can drop the price to the point where the fuel saving will be compelling for school administrators’ purchase decisions, even without considering the quite real (but less direct to the budget) benefits like reduced pollution and emergency power reserves.

Clipper Wind is taking the plunge into a leadership position for offshore wind development. The Britannia project, announced last fall as a path toward testing super-sized offshore wind turbine system, will be announcing the first sale of a 7.5 megawatt wind turbine for deployment and testing in UK waters. These turbines are a touch bigger than Enercon’s E-126 turbines. Enercon’s turbines max out at about 7 megawatts. Clipper’s turbines will take advantage of the high and steady winds of the UK’s oceans to pull another 500 kilowatts.

Showing the power of targets for creating opportunities, the UK’s aggressive 2020 targets for renewable power and the vision of wind power’s central role in meeting these targets has drawn Clipper and other companies into the United Kingdom to help meet the demand signal. To provide scale, the projected power from just one 7.5 Clipper Wind turbine will equal, over one year, one million barrels of oil.

Full Press Release

When it comes to photovoltaic (PV) systems, the PV components are generally the most expensive pieces of the puzzle. So upping the power output through the use of less expensive materials can greatly reduce the cost per generated kilowatt hour of electricity. SolFocus is laying out a strategy for their CSP PV systems to attain cost parity (or even beat) traditional fossil-fuel energy systems, even without a price on carbon.

SolFocus’ concentrated solar power (CSP) panels use two different mirrors to focus the sun’s energy 500 times before directing the light onto a very small, highly efficient solar cell. Because the cell is so small, they can use much more expensive (and efficient) PV cells. The vast majority of the system "over 95%" is either aluminum or glass, traditionally fairly inexpensive and easy to find materials and easy materials to acquire from recycled sources. The system is fully enclosed, to keep everything clean (just imagine cleaning 500 tiny mirrors once a month.) Materials costs are low, maintenance costs are low, and efficiency is high. Looks like an equation for cheap solar to me.

Their preliminary (not yet finished) efforts suggest that they might have the lowest cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of any energy option available at this time. If true, this makes SolFocus cost-effective option for solar electricity just that much more appealing.

When it comes to photovoltaic (PV) systems, the PV components are generally the most expensive pieces of the puzzle. So upping the power output through the use of less expensive materials can greatly reduce the cost per generated kilowatt hour of electricity. SolFocus is laying out a strategy for their CSP PV systems to attain cost parity (or even beat) traditional fossil-fuel energy systems, even without a price on carbon.

SolFocus’ concentrated solar power (CSP) panels use two different mirrors to focus the sun’s energy 500 times before directing the light onto a very small, highly efficient solar cell. Because the cell is so small, they can use much more expensive (and efficient) PV cells. The vast majority of the system — "over 95%" — is either aluminum or glass and uses traditionally fairly inexpensive and easy-to-find materials and easy materials to acquire from recycled sources. The system is fully enclosed, to keep everything clean (just imagine cleaning 500 tiny mirrors once a month.) Materials costs are low, maintenance costs are low, and efficiency is high. Looks like an equation for cheap solar to me.

Their preliminary (not yet finished) efforts suggest that they might have the lowest cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of any energy option available at this time. If true, this makes SolFocus cost-effective option for solar electricity just that much more appealing.

Solar is a highly efficient for heating water. Combining it with underground storage, and a year-round system can be created where the system can cover heating requirements in the winter and cooling in the summer. The Dutch company Ooms Avenhorn Holding BV has taken this concept and moved it a step forward with the Road Energy System^® (RES).

Rather than putting tubes on a rooftop, RES lays the collection system within concrete, think the black asphalt of a road or runway. The piping connects to undeground storage areas. Remember the last timeyou walked on black asphalt on a sunny August day and you understand the heat being transfered into the water in the pipes. This water is then transfered into the storage area. On demand, in cold weather, the hot water is used to heat buildings and to keep the road above freezing. After cooling, the water is moved into cold storage to provide air conditioning for summer months. A year round solar/geothermal heating/cooling system for both the road and buildings. The renewable combo greatly reduces electricity requirements (and thus pollution) and the cooling/heating of the road reduces maintenance requirements (and lowers/eliminates deicing and plowing requirements in winter).

And it is deployed. "Solar Energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit four-story apartment building in the northern village of Avenhorn. An industrial park of some 160,000 square feet in the nearby city of Hoorn is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 square feet of pavement. The runways of a Dutch air force base in the south supply heat for its hangar."

Solar is a highly efficient for heating water. Combine it with underground storage, and a year-round system can be created where the system can cover heating requirements in the winter and cooling in the summer. The Dutch company Ooms Avenhorn Holding BV has taken this concept and moved it a step forward with the Road Energy System^® (RES).

Rather than putting tubes on a rooftop, RES lays the collection system within concrete — think the black asphalt of a road or runway. The piping connects to undeground storage areas. Remember the last time you walked on black asphalt on a sunny August day and you understand the heat being transferred into the water in the pipes. This water is then transferred into the storage area. On demand, in cold weather, the hot water is used to heat buildings and to keep the road above freezing. After cooling, the water is moved into cold storage to provide air conditioning for summer months. A year round solar/geothermal heating/cooling system for both the road and buildings. The renewable combo greatly reduces electricity requirements (and thus pollution) and the cooling/heating of the road reduces maintenance requirements (and lowers/eliminates deicing and plowing requirements in winter).

And it is deployed. "Solar Energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit four-story apartment building in the northern village of Avenhorn. An industrial park of some 160,000 square feet in the nearby city of Hoorn is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 square feet of pavement. The runways of a Dutch air force base in the south supply heat for its hangar."