iPod Cool too??? The Naro …

We already know that the VentureOne is iPod Cool. For those who come to this discussion, interesting moves forward in energy related technologies and options can be truly iPod Cool.  So, the Naro looks to be iPod Cool as well …

Hybrids — mileage performers?

As reported in Green Car Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency reporting on the new fuel mileage standards enables analysis of where hybrids fall out. Much press reporting has discussed how the hybrids aren’t performing as ‘claimed’, using the new standards as a way to attach hybrids’ gas mileage as falling without examining the relative changes.  As per GCG, while there has been some dropping off in hybrids’ relative improvement compared to a non-hybrid variant, that fall in relative improvement is minor. (With the Honda Civic showing the greatest relative drop, remaining above 40%.)

Wave cool … Desalinization + Rnewable Power Generation. Does it get better than that?

Okay, we probablly all agree, the VentureOne is iPod cool. But, chances are if you’re hanging out on the Ecotality web site, defining cool for you (and me) doesn’t come from American Idol or the pages of People magazine, but more fundamentally about thinking and learning about things that have a real potential to change the world that we do and will live in.  Well, so, I for one think that Independent Natural Resources SEADOG(tm) Pump and linking it up with water desalinization so that there is zero-carbon energy and zero-carbon waste water desalinization is Wave Cool.  

Fly the road

A new approach to personal transportation? How often do we hear that promise?  Well, Venture Vehicles might be delivering on the promise. As they put it:  “The VentureOne:  Revolutionary. Radical. Innovative. iPod Cool.”  iPod Cool: Yeah, it really is.  They’re developing a 2-passenger, flex-fuel hybrid vehicle with over 100 mpg capability. And, well, it look simply “iPod Cool” to drive.

 

Blowin’ in the Wind — NY Times on wind power

The New York Times has an interesting series underway on The Energy Challenge with the quite sensible subtitle: “No Perfect solution”.

Articles in this series will periodically examine the ways in which the world is, and is not, moving toward a more energy efficient, environmentally benign future.

The installment on wind power from back in December: “It’s Free, Plentiful and Fickle”.

Wind power — promoted by many — is it marginal or a central part of a move toward a better energy future?

Wind/Solar combo … a business case being made?

A key challenge for wind and solar systems is intermittency. The wind isn’t always blowing and the sun isn’t always shining.  But, in many parts of the world, this presents an opportunity for complementary systems — as the wind is often blowing when the sun is not at peak and vice versa.  Combining these systems can enable higher probabilities of providing year-round power while (potentially) requiring lower storage.

Squealing brakes to power at 5:45 am

Once a week, my alarm clock is truly unnecessary … the rumblings of the trash truck, with the loud squealing of braking with the roar of acceleration between driveways, ensure that I won’t sleep late that morning.  For awhile, I’ve been wondering why hybrid technologies aren’t making into those garbage trucks. While regenerative braking would hopefully cut down on the noise, at least I would be woken up by the ‘glorious sound of energy efficiency in the morning’.  Bit by bit, that hoped-for day is approaching.

Feedback systems … a key to a better energy future?

Having a readout on miles per gallon gets most drivers to drive better — in ways that increase safety and reduce fuel usage. With minimal additional cost, these feedback systems can help to improve fleet fuel efficiency through fostering changed behavior by the users (the drivers).  This is an impact that better car design, hybrid technologies, and similar fuel efficiency systems do not inherently have.  Thus, this is an additive effect on top of any other efforts to improve that fuel efficiency.

Improved car (transportation) fuel efficiency is critical to Winning the Oil End Game but is only a portion of the challenge of reversing our greenhouse-gas emissions patterns and turning away from the most dire Catastrophic Climate Change implications.  

Real-time feedback works in cars and is increasingly part of new car dashboards.  Where else could we install real-time feedback systems into our daily lives to change energy usage patterns and reduce energy use?  Real opportunities exist in the home …  

Signs of a Changing World … ReMax TV ad …

So, while happily wandering the web, half-watching the TV, on comes a ReMax ad.  What are the buyers looking for? An energy efficiency home … one with renewable energy, solar, wind, and methane … “Well,” the wife says, standing right next to the tail end of a cow, “maybe not methane.” Of course, this being ReMax, the ad ends with this couple happily enscounced in their beautiful, energy efficent, renewable energy powered home.

Forgetting CFLs already? Raleigh going LED …

Raleigh, North Carolina, is setting out to see whether it can go all LED for its lighting. The initial effort will go into a parking lot, where they see a 2-3 year payback period.  After that, they will move to streetlights.  Now, CFLs/fluorescents are several multiples in price to incandescent bulbs.   LEDs are often an order of magnitude more expensive than the fluorescent.  But, in addition to the power savings (CFLs use about 26% of incandescent’s electrical requirements; LEDs up about 20% of CFLs, or about 5% of incandescent bulb’s requirements), there are also the savings from fewer lightbulb replacements and the near destructibility of LEDs. (Pretty hard for a kid with a BB gun to knock them out.)