Green Machines

Electric Car Can Power Homes

Photo Credit: Nissan

August 8, 2011

Makers of the all-electric Nissan LEAF are finding it’s useful on more than just the highway. Nissan is testing the car as a source of emergency power for homes during a power outage. Nissan unveiled what is called a ‘LEAF to Home’ system which enables the LEAF’s batteries to supply electricity to households in the event of an outage or back to the local electrical grid. It’s currently installed at a model home in front of the Nissan world headquarters in Yokohama, Japan.

The system uses the LEAF charging station to draw from the car batteries and feed into the home’s electricity distribution panel. The energy storage in a LEAF is enough to power an average Japanese home for about two days. Japanese homes use about half the amount of energy as the average home in the U.S.

The automaker plans to commercialize the two-way charging system in Japan within a year. It could be available in other countries after it’s been adapted to local electricity systems. Nissan says the system will allow households to be supplied with a stable amount of electricity throughout the day and reduce the burden on the current power supply by charging or storing electricity in the LEAF with energy generated at night.

 

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Million Dollar Challenge to Build Eco-Friendly Aircraft

August 2, 2011

NASA is teaming up with Google to inspire environmentally friendly inventions in aviation. The Green Flight Challenge is a flight competition for a quiet, practical and green aircraft that travels at least 200 miles in less than two hours using the equivalent of one gallon of gas per occupant. The challenge will take place at the Flight Test Center of the CAFE (Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency) Foundation in Sonoma County, CA.

13 teams are currently entered and include aircraft powered by batteries and electric motors, bio-fuel and hybrid engines. The electric aircraft that have been entered in the competition will demonstrate emission-free flying. The batteries will be recharged using clean geo-thermal based electricity from geo-thermal fields in the nearby mountains in Santa Rosa, California.

More than one million dollars will go to the winning design in addition to prizes for the best bio-fuel and quietest aircraft. Prototypes of all the designs will be shown to the public at the Google Green Flight Challenge Exposition at the Moffett Field-NASA Ames Research Center. The Expo will also exhibit technologies related to the future of green aviation including vertical takeoff personal aircraft, advanced motors and propellers.

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Shop and Charge: More Stores Install EV Chargers

Photo Credit: Walgreens

July 25, 2011

Sales of electric vehicles are growing and so are the number of electric car chargers. Now retailers are getting on board, hoping to attract electric vehicle drivers to shop while they charge their car. Walgreens is one of the latest and largest retailers to offer electric vehicle charging stations. The company will install chargers at 800 retail locations across the country by the end of the year which will make it the largest retail host for EV drivers. The charging stations will offer either a high-speed direct charger that can add 30 miles of range in as little as 10 minutes or a Level 2 charger that can add 25 miles of range in about an hour.

IKEA stores will also begin installing electric vehicle charging stations at stores across the U.S. The project will include IKEA stores in western states from Oregon to Texas. At least 2 charging stations will be installed at each participating store and the charging information will be sent to ECOtality for analysis. 

ECOtality is part of the nationwide EV Project, a partnership between private organizations and the Department of Energy. The EV Project includes the installation of 14,000 electric vehicle charging stations in 18 major cities. The project will collect and analyze data from the chargers to evaluate the effectiveness of charge infrastructure. Car owners who drive the electric Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf can participate in the EV Project and receive a residential charger at no cost in exchange for information from the electric charging station.

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Toyota to Launch All-Electric Car Next Year

July 15, 2011

There will be competition on the roads next year for the all-electric Nissan Leaf. Toyota confirmed it will be launching an electric Scion iQ in 2012. It will be Toyota’s first all-electric car to hit the U.S. market and is expected to have an estimated range per charge of 50 miles. That’s lower than the current best selling electric Leaf which can travel about 75 miles. Think Global is selling the 100 mile rated Think City electric car, although the company has filed for bankruptcy. Toyota will also be introducing a Prius plug-in hybrid next year. The automaker also said at a recent dealer meeting that it is committed to putting a fuel cell vehicle on the road by 2015 and is researching bio-fuels and next generation materials to help make future cars more fuel efficient.

A new report shows the Leaf and Scion are the first of what will soon be many electric cars on the market. IMS Research predicts electric car production will top 16 million by 2021, that’s a sixteen fold increase from 2010. Analysts say the forecasted growth is driven by consumers’ increasing demand for cheaper and greener vehicles and support from government policies around the world.

Car sales numbers from last month show the Nissan Leaf outselling the Chevrolet Volt. The Leaf is about $9,000 cheaper than the Volt. The electric hybrid Volt can last about 35 miles on a charge but has a back up gas engine that kicks in when the charge runs out. The Leaf outsold the Volt in June by a margin of 1,708 to 561.

 

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Hybrid Report Card Ranks Green Cars

July 13, 2011

A new report on hybrid cars shows they are not as environmentally friendly as they might appear. The 2011 Hybrid Scorecard shows automakers are not making the most of hybrid technology or delivering enough high value green cars. The scorecard by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is the most comprehensive rating system of how well automakers use hybrid technology. The organization rated 34 hybrids for their fuel efficiency, environmental improvement and consumer value. 13 of the 34 cars reviewed by the group cut only 25 percent more of the global warming pollution emitted by conventional vehicles. The worst offender is the Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid which emits only ten percent less pollution than conventional cars.

The good news on the scorecard is nine of the top ten selling hybrids averaged more than 30 miles per gallon and scored above average for environmental improvement and value. The Toyota Prius remained the top non-luxury model in the environmental improvement category. The Prius delivers a more than 40 percent reduction in global warming pollution compared to similar conventional models. Other models scoring high include the Ford Fusion Hybrid, the Honda Civic Hybrid and the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. In the luxury market the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid and Lexus CT200h earned top environmental improvement scores.

Overall, there were more top performers in this years scorecard than 2010 with automakers using hybrid technology to increase efficiency and reduce pollution without imposing significant premiums. USC says the cost of some hybrids are bloated by forced features like leather trim, premium sound systems and heated seats that add to the cost of hybrid cars without adding to fuel savings or reducing emissions. The added features increase the cost of hybrids by an average of $2,500 which UCS says masks the real value of hybrid technology and could push some potential hybrid buyers out of the market.

 

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Nissan Leaf: Electric and Solar Powered?

Photo Credit: Nissan Motor Company

July 12, 2011

The all-electric Nissan Leaf may soon be getting even greener. The Japanese automaker is testing a way to recharge the Leaf using solar power. Nissan Motor Company just unveiled the new charging system that gets electricity from solar power and stores it in the Leaf’s lithium-ion battery. 488 solar panels have been installed at on the roof of the Nissan world headquarters in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo. Four batteries from Leaf cars are placed in a box where they store electricity generated from the solar cells. The solar power will create enough electricity to power 1,800 Leaf vehicles a year.

The new system will enable electric vehicles, which do not emit any CO2, to be charged through a completely renewable energy source. By using the same lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles as storage batteries, electricity can be supplied to electric cars regardless of the time of day or weather conditions.

Japanese automakers have been working on clean-energy initiatives for years but the earthquake and tsunami last spring made electricity supply and sourcing a major concern. Nissan plans to resell the high-capacity car batteries when the cars are traded in or scrapped.  The automaker says the battery can store the equivalent of two days of household energy and can be used as backup-power for homes when there is a power outage. Nissan hopes to start selling solar power storage systems for homes by spring of next year.

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Green Your Summer Air Travel

June 30, 2011

If you are traveling by air this summer, think about the carbon footprint your plane is leaving as it takes you to your destination. A new ranking of green airlines has just been published to make it easier for travelers to choose an eco-friendly airline. Brighter Planet analyzed more than a decade of databases from commercial airlines to find the most environmentally friendly airlines for travelers. The carbon calculating company ranked the airlines with an advanced energy and carbon model. It found the cleanest airline uses almost one-third the fuel to transport an average passenger one mile compared to the least efficient airline.

Brighter Planet ranked Ryanair the most efficient airline, followed by Cathay Pacific, Easyjet, Continental, United and Jet Blue. American Airlines and Delta came in at number 8 and 9 respectively. U.S. Airways was ranked number 11 and Northwest came in at 13. Brighter Planet says travelers don’t necessarily need to spend more money or time to fly eco-friendly, they just have to be informed about the carbon efficiency of the airlines they fly.

Virgin America was not included in the ranking but just signed a deal to buy a new line of fuel-efficient jet engines. The LEAP engines are 15 percent more fuel efficient than current jet engines. That translates into a savings of $1.9 million per plane every year. The new engines will power 60 of the airlines Airbus A320s. The airline previously placed orders for the next generation Airbus jetliner which uses new wing technology designed to improve fuel efficiency by another 3 percent.

Several airlines, including Continental and United, offer passengers a carbon offset program. The program lets passengers calculate the carbon footprint of their trip, learn how to reduce emissions and give them the option of buying carbon offsets. The money travelers contribute would be invested in high-impact projects designed to reduce greenhouse gases, such as renewable energy or reforestation.

 

 

 

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Flying Turbines Tested for High Speed Wind Power

June 6, 2011

The world’s most powerful winds circulate in the jet streams four to ten miles above ground. Wind speeds can reach nearly 100 miles per hour which is why experts are testing ways to harness that power and turn it into energy. Scientists estimate wind turbines that fly have the ability to provide 100 times more the amount needed to power the world every year. High-altitude wind provides a huge amount of power because each time wind speed doubles, the amount of energy it holds multiplies by eight times.

Several companies are testing high altitude wind turbines but the industry may be ten years away from contributing to the world’s electricity demands. MSNBC reports no company has yet met the requirements of demonstrating its turbine can fly safely and unsupervised for long periods of time.

For now, high altitude wind companies are focusing on below a 2,000 foot ceiling, not yet reaching the jet stream where complex federal air space restrictions would be a factor. Winds at this level are about 20 times stronger than winds that can be reached with a typical 350 foot land turbine. The director of the Wind Technology Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says each flying turbine must be tested on its reliability, effectiveness and durability.

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Carmaker Targets Zero-Emissions Society

May 25, 2011

Nissan is celebrating its 30 year anniversary with a new commitment to renewable energy and zero emissions. The automaker announced it is installing 30 solar-assisted charging stations at an assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee and its North America headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee. Little-known Smyrna may soon be known as the electric vehicle manufacturing capital of the world. Construction is almost complete on the assembly plant there that will manufacture the new all-electric LEAF vehicle and the advanced, lithium-ion batteries used to power the car.

Nissan officials say the charging stations illustrate the ability to reduce the impact to the electrical grid through the use of solar power and energy storage. The charging stations use the same lithium-ion battery cells that power the Nissan LEAF. The stations will help the automaker study the battery’s storage capacity and demonstrate the second-life use for lithium-ion batteries beyond their use in the auto industry. Nissan Chairman Carlos Tavares says “These solar-assisted charging stations demonstrate our dedication to a zero-emissions society and our dedication to bringing innovation to our home in Tennessee.”

Nissan is working with the Department of Energy, which is funding the stations through a matching grant, as well as Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Nissan will be sharing usage and technical data from the solar chargers for further study.

The 30 charging stations will be operational for employees and visitors by July 1st. Nissan plans to begin producing the LEAF in Smyrna by the end of next year with capacity for 150,000 cars a year and 200,000 batteries annually.

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Recycled Cooking Oil Fuels Hybrid School Bus

May 20, 2011

Students in Atlanta will be riding to school in what could be the bus of the future. The first-of-its-kind bus will run on recycled cooking oil and use a new hydraulic system that captures energy from its own brakes. Ford Motor Company and Georgia Tech teamed up to transform a traditional school bus into an energy harvesting hybrid.

The bus project focuses on converting existing buses into hydraulic hybrids would could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower transportation costs for the school. Hydraulic hybrid vehicles use pressurized fluid as a power source which reduces the need for fuel. The school bus uses kinetic energy captured from braking to pump the fluid up to working pressure.

The project was designed as a learning tool for the Mary Lin Elementary School in Atlanta and funded by a grant from Ford Motor Company. Principal Brian Mitchell says “The Green Eco School Bus turns a theoretical concept into a fun and exciting reality that stimulates their learning. A school-based collection drive helped gather enough cooking oil to convert into biofuel for the bus. If the idea spread to a larger scale, school districts would have to access used oil with commercial recyclers. The demonstration bus is small and only seats 16 students but will serve as a platform for a cost-benefit analysis to show school districts how they can help the environment and save money at the same time.

The financing for the project came from the Ford College Community Challenge Grant which invites colleges and universities to come up with student-led projects that address a specific social problem. Five projects are given each year and awarded $50,000 dollars each.

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