Hybrid Living

Yosemite National Park is known for El Capitan and the breathtaking views captured by Ansel Adams, but visitors may soon remember another sight from their trip.  Yosemite has installed the largest solar power array of all the national parks with a 672 kW system that will provide 12 percent of the park’s power needs.

Installed by Suntrek, the system consists of a 500 kW solar canopy over a parking lot, a 100 kW rooftop array on a warehouse and a 72 kW wall mounted array, all located within the park’s maintenance and administrative complex.  The whole system is made up of 2,800 solar PV panels.

The $4.5 million installation will save the park $50,000 a year on energy costs and the park also expects to receive $700,000 in energy rebates from PG&E over the next five years.

This is something I’d love to see more of.  While no one wants to see our national parks overrun with solar arrays, it is very fitting to install them at administrative or visitor centers where electricity is used.  National parks exist to conserve and protect the most amazing parts of our land, so renewable energy seems to be ideal for providing their electricity.

Head over to SolarWorld’s website, the maker of the panels, to see some cool photos of the project.

via Treehugger

Testing for a new vehicle-to-vehicle communication system is beginning this week on a specially arranged road course at the Michigan International Speedway (MIS). The US Department of Transportation is examining systems that use “communication-based safety warnings” to reduce the number of traffic accidents by alerting the driver when there is a risk of a crash or other safety driving hazard.

Eight carmakers, including Ford Motor Company, General Motors LLC., Honda R&D Americas, Inc., Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center, Inc., Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc., Nissan Technical Center North America, Inc., Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. and Volkswagen Group of America, are taking part in this project as members of the Vehicle Safety Communications 3 (VSC3) Consortium.

About 100 local drivers have been recruited to drive specially modified cars and test the systems for this project. “Each clinic will include about 16 cars equipped with technology applications which drivers will evaluate as they use the vehicles in a controlled environment designed to simulate real roadways and intersections.” Simulated intersections, traffic signals, and other configurations have been laid out on the MIS grounds to test situations and equipment as a first step toward deployment of these systems.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) is expected to make a decision in 2013 about whether or not this technology is sufficiently developed that it can begin to be deployed in new cars.

via: Michigan Radio

In Japan this week, Nissan unveiled a system for using their LEAF EV to power a house during a power outage or shortage.

The two-way charging device isn’t a new concept, it’s been part of the idea for EVs all along, but finally companies are producing the technology and nations are getting behind the idea of using EVs for extra power.  Denmark recently became the first country to create a program that pays EV owners for the power they feed back to the grid.

The two-way system is beneficial in two ways:  it lightens the load on the grid during peak hours and helps cover power shortages and it also allows EV owners to buy their power during cheaper night hours and then use it during more expensive peak hours.

The Nissan LEAF batteries can store up to 24kWh of electricity, which could power an average Japanese home for about two days.  If the system is just used during peak hours during the day though, the car would still have plenty of juice left for everyday trips.

In Japan where nuclear reactors have been taken offline since the tsunami, power shortages and blackouts have become more common.  Lithium ion storage batteries are available for homeowners to use as back-up power, but if you can use your car for the same purpose, it becomes more simplified.

via IT World

LED lighting is finally reaching mainstream.  As the years have gone by, the prices have dropped and more appropriate bulbs for home use have started popping up.  Now that GE is releasing 60W, 75W and 100W replacement LED bulbs within the next 18 months, there’s no more saying that LED bulbs aren’t ready to replace incandescents yet.

The new bulbs follow GE’s release of a 40W replacement bulb last year.  All models are dimmable and will have a lifespan of over 20 years based on three hours a day of use.  The 13W bulb (60W replacement) will be available this November, while the 18W (75W replacement) and 27W (100W replacement) bulbs will follow by the end of 2012.  The 60W bulb is the most popular incandescent bulb, so having an LED replacement ready for that brightness level is key to consumers making the switch.

All of the GE LED bulbs will come in a range of colors and shapes including bulbs suited for spot and flood lights, ceiling fans, candle and night lights and small and medium globes for lamps and other fixtures.

via GE

Erik de Laurens, a student from the Royal College of Art has come up with an alternative to petroleum for making plastic: fish scales. Through a process that involves nothing but heat, high pressure and natural dyes, Laurens developed a sturdy plastic that can be used in cups, eyewear and even decorative tiles.

Much like using the keratin from waste chicken feathers to make plastics, Laurens’ process makes use of waste fish scales from the fishing industry, giving new life to something that would otherwise end up in the garbage. And while the thought of waste fish scales is kind of gross, the resulting products are actually really good looking.

Titled Fish Feast, his project will be on exhibit during the London Design Festival. It has been shortlisted for the 2011 Sustain RCA Award, which honors graduate student work in sustainable design.

via Crisp Green

The White House, EPA, and NHTSA have announced new CAFE standards for cars and light trucks. CAFE is the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard which governs the efficiency of new vehicles. The new standards begin to take effect in the 2017 model year, when the fleet average should be 35.5 MPG (from the previous standard, which covers the 2012-2016 model years). The new rule extends to 2025, when average fuel economy for cars and light-duty trucks is to be 54.5 miles per gallon.

The new guidelines will almost double automotive fuel efficiency standards from where they were when the administration began to press for higher efficiency. “EPA currently intends to propose standards that would be projected to achieve, on an average industry fleet wide basis, 163 grams/mile of CO2 in model year 2025 (this would be equivalent, on a mpg-equivalent basis, to 54.5 mpg if all of the CO2 emissions reductions were achieved with fuel economy technology.)”

Under these new guidelines, consumers should save $1.7 trillion in fuel costs, and average fuel savings are expected to be worth $8,000 pre vehicle by 2025. Furthermore, emissions should be cut by 6 billion metric tons over the life of the program, which is “more than the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the United States last year.”

image: U.S. National Archives

Sony made the announcement today that it has reduced its global CO2 emissions by 31 percent since 2000.  The company also achieved a 54 percent reduction in waste generation and a 41 percent reduction in water use, both of which far exceeded its goals.

The company improved the efficiency of its offices and manufacturing sites and upped the efficiency of many of its products too. Its Bravia LCD TV now requires 30 percent less power than it did in 2008 and its Blu-ray disc recorder models require 50 percent less power.

The waste reduction was mainly achieved through an increase in recycling practices.  The one target that Sony failed to meet was for volatile organic compound emissions — it was shy by 5 percent.

These improvements were all made under the tech giant’s Green Management 2010 plan.  Now going forward, Sony has a more ambitious plan.  The company announced its Road to Zero plan last year that includes a pledge to be zero carbon by 2050.  The next phase in the plan sees the company making the following reductions by 2015 compared to 2008 levels.

• a 30 percent reduction in annual energy consumption
• a 10 percent reduction in product mass
• a 16 percent reduction in packaging waste
• a 14 percent reduction in transport CO2 emissions

Let’s hope Sony can exceed these targets as well.

via Treehugger

MIT scientists have made new discoveries that could significantly increase the energy density of batteries several times beyond the current level of lithium-ion batteries. The advances are in lithium-air storage, which uses a porous carbon electrode in place of a heavy solid electrode in the battery. Oxygen from the air reacts with the lithium metal in the battery to store and discharge energy. The very open structure makes it possible to obtain such high levels of performance.

One of the biggest issues in battery development is the weight of the batteries. Whether for portable electronic devices or for hybrid and electric vehicles, the weight of the batteries is a factor that must be considered. Replacing the solid electrode with the lightweight carbon matrix has led to some of the highest levels of energy stored per pound of battery.

New methods of producing the carbon matrix for the battery creates a “carpet-like” material that is more than 90 percent open, which makes for a very lightweight battery. “These carpet-like arrays provide a highly conductive, low-density scaffold for energy storage,” according to one of the researchers.

As an additional benefit, the researchers have found that the very open and regular nature of the battery allows scrutiny of its internal workings with a scanning electron microscope. Not only does this allow more research on the particulars of this battery, but it may also help with general research and understanding of why batteries have limited numbers of charge-discharge cycles before they cease being useful.

via: MIT press release

Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratory have developed a new method for cooling microprocessors that is more effective and requires less energy than present air cooling methods. The Air Bearing Heat Exchanger technology, which has been dubbed the “Sandia Cooler,” offers a solution to the “thermal brick wall” which has been limiting microprocessor speed.

Cooling is usually limited by the heat exchange taking place through the stationary air film that is found on all materials. The Sandia Cooler improves works by rotating the cooling fins to achieve a ten-fold reduction in the boundary layer of motionless air on the surface of the heat sink which increases heat transfer. Instead of having stationary heat sink fans with air being blown across them with a fan, the heat sink itself spins, which leads to increased heat transfer efficiency.

While the Sandia Cooler is initially being investigated for computer cooling, if it is possible to effectively scale the technology, it could also have applications for building cooling and air conditioning. “If Air Bearing Heat Exchanger technology proves amenable to size scaling, it has the potential to decrease overall electrical power consumption in the U.S. by more than seven percent,” according to the inventor, Jeff Koplow.

link: A Fundamentally New Approach to Air-cooled Heat Exchangers (pdf)

via: EERE News and Solar Thermal Magazine

At EcoGeek, we are big fans of airships. A recent article at Txchnologist asks whether airships are poised to make a comeback in the commercial sector, but other recent articles question whether they truly make sense. Are airships a realistic possibility?

Writing a commentary about his own article, author John Rennie asks if airships really offer the benefits we like to think they do. Another recent Scientific American blog post is even more critical of the idea of airships for transport.

One of the eternal tradeoffs in transportation is the time versus energy cost consideration. On one hand, there is the cost of energy to move goods from point A to point B. Faster takes more energy, and is therefore more expensive. On the other hand, the time for a pilot or driver or other person to convey the goods has to be paid for, and a longer trip means more expense. The trick is to find the balance point between the two. This is, at least to some extent, what has driven the avaition industry away from propeller aircraft to the use of jets.

Trains are very efficient for moving heavy cargo, but train tracks don’t go everywhere. A hybrid train and airship network might be useful to extend the reach of the current rail network without the expensive and difficult process of laying lots of new track. Trucks serve as the spokes for these networks right now. They are more expensive at moving freight than trains, but also more flexible. Is there room for that in the current transportation network? That seems to be one of the crucial questions. And, for now, the premium for trucks is not so high that other options are being sought.

The Scientific American article particularly focuses on speed versus cost as a tradeoff, but those are not the only factors that are relevant in considering airship, so the many current military developments are overlooked. Most present military uses under development are for long duration missions, where the simple lift of the airship makes it far more economical to operate than having conventional fixed-wing aircraft.

It may be many years before old, used military airships begin to be adapted for civilian uses, but we remain optimistic that airships will become a useful contributor to part of the transportation infrastructure of the future.