Hybrid Living

Think Global has come back from teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in a big way.  The Norwegian automaker just raised $40 million in investments that will drive their expansion into North America.

It was just last year that the electric car manufacturer had to stop production of their TH!INK City EV while scrambling to make ends meet.  Now it’s planning to introduce the compact EV to North American shores by the fourth quarter of this year, which is good for the company and the U.S.

While the first cars to reach our cities will be built in Finland, in 2011, Think is moving their production to Indiana.

Europeans have embraced the cute, affordable EV that has a 100-mile range and max speed of 62 mph; here’s hoping Americans do too.

via Treehugger

Last year, Toyota re-committed to producing a hydrogen fuel cell car by 2015 and it looks like they’re keeping their promise, and making it cheaper.  The automaker says it has slashed the cost of producing a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle by 90 percent, allowing them to introduce a fuel cell sedan in 2015 with a price tag of $50,000.

Toyota says that they hope to cut the cost by an additional 50 percent in the next few years so that they can produce this so-called affordable mid-sized fuel cell car that would offer the same range as a conventional car.  They’ve cut costs by using one-third the platinum traditionally used in fuel cells (10 grams instead of 30 grams) and by reducing the cost of a polymer electrolyte in the cell.  The additional savings will come from scaling up production.

If you think $50,000 is still a lot of money, I agree with you, but it’s far less than the exorbitant prices that fuel cell cars have been projected to cost (think up to seven figures).  If the costs keep coming down and if fueling stations start popping up, hydrogen vehicles could finally have a chance at making it.

via Wired

Last week, the Cape Wind offshore wind farm was approved by the federal government, but there were still some unknowns left to deal with, a major one being who would buy the power the wind farm generated.  Today, that part has at least partially been decided, with Massachusetts utility National Grid agreeing to purchase half of the power starting in 2013.

Under the contract, National Grid will buy the electricity at 20.7 cents per kWh, which will lead to an increase of only about $1.59 per month on its customers energy bills.

The contract is a win-win for National Grid and Cape Wind.  The agreement is enough for the wind farm to start securing financing and investors and the electricity being purchased will equal three percent of the utility’s total load — a big step towards a state requirement to get 15 percent of their total electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

The project is set to be completed by the end of 2012, but there are still other hurdles to clear:  more purchase agreements are needed, many lawsuits have been filed to halt the project and lots of red tape lays ahead to build the wind farm.

via Earth2Tech

Japan’s population is getting older.  Their birth rate has declined, and with that, a drop in production of baby diapers.  But conversely, the production of adult diapers has risen seven percent in just two years, hitting 5 billion units last year.  Leave it to Japan to turn an increase in adult diaper waste into a great fuel making opportunity.

Enter Japanese company Super Faiths who has created their SFD Recycle System machine that automatically shreds, dries and sterilizes dirty diapers from hospitals and nursing homes, and turns them into fuel pellets.  These bacteria-free pellets can then be used in biomass boilers and stoves for home or water heating.

Unlike the diaper-recycling plants that exist in Europe, these machines can be installed directly at the source.  A hospital in Tokyo has two machines that process a total of 1,400 pounds of disposable diapers a day.  It takes a day for the diapers to become fuel material.

Super Faiths has three different sized models that can process from 330 to 1,102 pounds of diapers a day.

via CNET

NASA’s newest robot can dive and swim for indefinite periods of time because it’s powered by an unlimited resource:  the ocean’s temperatures.  The robotic buoy utilizes thermal energy each time it moves from cold deep waters to warm surface waters.

The SOLO-TREC diver has been taking 500-meter dives off the coast of Hawaii collecting information on ocean salinity and currents since last November.  The robot makes three trips a day, constantly recharging itself.

The robot is outfitted with tubes of oil.  Those tubes are surrounded by a compartment filled with wax that liquifies once the robot hits warm waters.  The liquified wax expands, which squeezes the oil from the tubes into the interior of the buoy it’s stored at high pressure.  The oil is then released, which drives the generator and charges the batteries.

This process produces about 1.6 Wh, which fuels the buoy’s functions like water intake and expulsion, a GPS receiver, and its sensors and transmitters.

NASA plans to create a whole fleet of these robot buoys that will monitor various ocean conditions.  The next step will be to develop similar devices that would never require a battery change.

via New Scientist

A new study claims that the U.S. could be free of emissions from coal-fired power plants in 20 years using only technologies that currently exist or could be ready in the next decade.  The one thing holding us back, according to the authors, is political will.

The study, published in the latest issue of Environmental Science and Technology, lays out a plan to erase coal emissions that includes cutting fossil fuel subsidies, applying a substantial fee on carbon emissions, developing a smart grid, increasing energy efficiency, some carbon capture and storage, and, of course, replacing coal with clean energy alternatives and new (hopefully safer) nuclear technologies.

What’s most important about this study, regardless of whether we could realistically drum up the support to make this massive overhaul so quickly, is that we already have the technology at our disposal to make coal almost obsolete in just 20 short years.  Think of the impact that would have on our ability to mitigate the effects of climate change.

via Mongabay

Imagine being able to pitch solar tents in situations where you need both some protective cover and access to clean energy — perhaps as a car port for a  plug-in EV or a disaster relief shelter.  A new tensile solar fabric from FTL Solar could be used in variety of ways and, as a bonus, it isn’t an eyesore either.

A great example of highly functional design, the PowerMods as they’re called bring together super-strong fabric and thin-film PV.  The possible uses for this solar fabric are almost endless:  battery charging stations, medical units, military bases, temporary housing, energy pods for remote villages, solar arrays in city parks, etc.

FTL has four different models of the PowerMod, including smaller-scale lean-tos and large car-park arrays.  You can check out the specs for each model here.  Each of the models’ outputs are calculated on five hours of sunlight ranging from 1,068 Wh a day for the smallest model to to 2,040 kWh a day for the largest.

via Michelle Kaufman

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has approved the Cape Wind offshore wind farm project!  In additon to giving the go-ahead, Salazar outlined a few tweaks to incorporate the concerns of those who have opposed the project.

1. The project will be reduced in scope from the original 170 turbines planned to 130.
2. Additonal marine surveys will be required before construction to make sure the archaeological heritage of the site can be preserved.
3. Other measures will need be incorporated to minimize the “visual impact” of the wind farm.

It’s hard to believe it’s been nine years since the first announcement of the project in the Nantucket Sound.  Some residents of the surrounding area, including Wampanoag indian tribes and the late Sen. Kennedy, have opposed the project because they believe it would obstruct their views (and disrupt spriritual rituals and ancient burial sites of the indians).

But environmentalists around the country and five East Coast governors all rallied for its approval, and in the end, the U.S. is finally getting its first offshore wind farm.  The wind farm will have a capacity of 420 MW — enough to meet 75 percent of Cape Cod and the Islands’ electricity needs.

The U.S. leads the world in wind energy capacity, but we’ve lagged behind other countries, especially in Europe, that have forged ahead with offshore wind.

Why is this a big deal?  Because offshore wind is stronger, more consistent and near coastal population centers, meaning more power generation, less gaps in electricity and no need for huge transmission networks (like those needed to distribute wind energy generated in the middle of the country).

via  Boston Globe

Japan’s solar sail-powered “space yacht” is all set to launch on May 18.  Ikaros (Interplanetary Kite-Craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun) will be the first spacecraft of its kind to attempt to reach deep space.

The craft’s 46-foot sails, outfitted with ultra-thin solar cells, will be steered by mission control from the ground, tweaking the angles to ensure enough of the sun’s rays are hitting the craft to keep it powering on into space.  Other solar-sailed crafts have gone into space, but none have made it beyond orbit.  One reason could be that it’s not a cheap mission.  The JAXA space program has already spent $16 million on this project.

Ikaros will be launched into space by a rocket along with Japan’s first Venus-bound satellite before they separate and Ikaros goes fuel-free for the rest of its journey.

The Planetary Society also has a solar-powered space flight planned for sometime this year.  It will be interesting to see how the two fair.

via Popular Science

Scientists from the University of South Florida have discovered the water purifying power of the prickly pear cactus.  An extract from the desert-dweller is very effective at removing sediment and bacteria from dirty H2O and, even better, it grows all around the world.

The scientists aren’t the first to realize this plant’s ability.  Nineteenth-century Mexican communities used the cactus as a water purifier. The thick gum in the cactus that stores water is responsible for the purification.  The scientists extracted the gum and then added it to water that had been dirtied up with sediment and bacteria.

The gum caused the sediment and bacteria to combine and settle to the bottom, filtering 98 percent of the bacteria from the water.  The next phase is to test it on natural water.

The scientists see communities in developing countries using the cactus on daily basis.  They could boil a slice of it to release the gum and then add it to water just like the scientists did.  But there are hurdles to overcome.  What resources would be necessary for widespread growth of the cactus for this purpose and how can people ensure the “treated” water is truly bacteria free?  If these problems can be solved, cheap, clean water could be accessible for millions who are currently without.

via New Scientists