Windpower’s Aerogenerator changes design, gets even bigger and more powerful
By MB-BigB | July 27, 2010
There are several claimed benefits from this design. To reduce stress, the generator and the electronics are mounted in the base – this makes maintenance easier too, which is handy for an offshore turbine. Since the stress on the blades is reduced, they can be made lighter and bigger, which makes the turbine more efficient and able to generate even more electricity. And since the turbine goes out instead of up (like with most VAWT’s), overall visibility against the horizon is reduced.
The group building the new Aerogenerator X (Windpower, engineering firm Arup, Rolls Royce, BP, Shell and architects at Grimshaw and academics from Cranfield University) want to have the first full sized Aerogenerator X up and running by 2013.
You can read about the Aegenerator X, along with some other ideas for large offshore wind turbines at the Guardian.
Topics: Wind power | No Comments »
Ten Million Solar Roofs bill moves forward in Senate
By MB-BigB | July 24, 2010
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ Ten Million Solar Roofs bill was approved this week by the Senate Energy Committee and now can move forward to a full Senate vote. With the Committee’s approval, Sen. Sanders has asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to include the bill in the comprehensive energy legislation that Sen Reid is trying to get passed this summer.
The Sanders bill would give rebates for smaller solar projects – under two megawatts in capacity. It’s designed to push individual and smaller localized solar power, create jobs, reduce the cost of solar power technology, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The bill proposes rebates for these smaller solar projects, in the amount of $1.75 per watt in 2010 and 2011, with lower rebates going forward. The rebates would cover about half of the project costs that would remain after current federal and local incentives are taken into account.
via: Brighterenergy.org
Topics: Solar Power | 1 Comment »
2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid – a quick first look from Autoweek
By MB-BigB | July 21, 2010
Expected to come out late this fall, pricing for the Sonata Hybrid hasn’t been announced, but is expected to be in the mid $20’s, depending on trim. It mates a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder gas engine with a 30 kilowatt electric motor, along with a 6 speed transmission. It can operate on either the gasoline power engine, the electric motor, or both. The battery is lithium-polymer, which is smaller and lighter than the NiMH batteries used in most hybrids on the road today (include the Pirus). MPG is expected to be 37 mpg in the city, 39 on the highway
The version of the car the Autoweek drove is not the final version – suspension tuning is still being tweaked. But in the short test drive, Autoweek says that the car felt perfectly fine compared to other midsized sedans, maybe even a “touch livelier” than the competition.
Topics: hybrid and electric cars | No Comments »
One Block Off the Grid (1BOG) expands to Denver and Philadelphia
By MB-BigB | July 19, 2010
One Block Off the Grid (1BOG), the nation’s largest solar group purchase provider, is expanding. Just this week they’ve announced new launches in Denver and Philadelphia, so if you’re interested in getting a solar installation and you live in those areas (or any of the other cities that 1BOG currently covers), listen up!
1BOG is a “community-based program that organizes group discounts on residential solar panels.” They negotiate group discounts with local solar providers, select the best solar installer in the area and overall make the process of going solar easy. For example, in the Philadelphia area, the discount they negotiated with the local supplier (Mercury Solar Systems L.L.C) is 15%. So when you combine the 15% discount with the 30% federal tax credit, plus state and local rebates (the Philadelphia region gets an addition $.175 for every DC watt capacity installed (up to 35% of your out-of-pocket costs or $17,500, whichever is less), it really cuts the cost of going solar. 1BOG also helps you navigate the paperwork. They provide a site that allows you to get an online estimate, which includes pretty high resolution shots of your street and roof (better than the satellite shots in Google Earth). The program also provides zero down, 18 month interest free financing for the Philadelphia campaign.
One thing, though, these programs only last for a little while (through the middle of October 2010). But in other cities, as soon as one campaign finishes, 1BOG starts the process to begin another program, so if you miss it this time, there very well could be a second change.
1BOG Philadelphia announcement
Topics: Solar Power | No Comments »
GreenCarReports on why mpg is dumb
By MB-BigB | July 18, 2010
GreenCarReports.com wrote a story on this over a year ago, and just this week the National Research Council has come out with a report that basically agrees – mpg is a poor way to measure a car’s gasoline use. Basically, it comes down to this – would you save more gasoline by going from 10 to 20 mpg or from 33 to 50 mpg? Most people would say 33 to 50 mpg, but that’s the wrong answer. It just points out the use of miles per gallon is a bad metric if you really want to reduce fuel consumption. A far better measurement would be the volume of fuel used per 100 miles (or 1000 miles). In the first example (10 to 20 mpg), you would double your fuel efficiency (10 gallons for 100 miles @ 10 mpg, vs 5 gallons for 100 miles @ 20 mpg) for a savings of 5 gallons of gasoline. But with an improvement from 33 to 50 mpg, you would only save a little over 1 gallon for that distance.
While of course the vehicle that gets 50 mpg will use less gasoline than a vehicle getting 20 mpg, that’s not the point. Many people need large vehicles (for work, large families, etc), and mpg figures only tell part of the story. Measurements should enable consumers to make educated decisions. As the National Research Council noted in its report, the use of mpg as the only measurement “cause(s) consumers to undervalue small increases (1-4 mpg) in fuel economy for vehicles in the 15-30 mpg range.” Another interesting note is that mpg as the sole measurement is the practice only in North America. The rest of the world has moved to fuel consumed in addition to mpg.
And, not to forget, things will get even trickier with plug-in hybrids.
via: Green Car Report – Math is Hard: MPG Still Stupid, National Research Council Agrees
Topics: hybrid and electric cars | No Comments »
Lifehacker – Convert your cordless electric lawn mower to solar power
By MB-BigB | July 18, 2010
Looking for a weekend project and want to dabble in solar power? If you have cordless battery powered lawn mower like those from Black and Decker, Toro, and other companies, Lifehacker.com shows you an easy way to convert that lawn mower to solar power so you never have to charge it again. All you need are some small 12 volt solar panels, a couple of rectifier diodes, double sided tape, and a few nuts and bolts to hold the whole thing together.
Topics: Solar Power | No Comments »
New Oahu 30 megawatt wind farm breaks ground
By MB-BigB | July 13, 2010
Ground was broken today for a new 30 megawatt wind farm to be built on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. This wind project, which is being built by Kahuka Wind Power LLC, a division of First Wind, Inc, will consist of a dozen 2.5 megawatt turbines and should be completed early next year. It will produce enough electricity to power about 7,700 homes.
The new farm will also contain a battery system that will help stabilize the output of the wind farm. One interesting note is that since Hawaii relies on imported oil to generate about 90% of its electricity, this new wind farm will have a direct impact on the amount of oil that Hawaii uses. The amount of electricity predicted to be produced by these new turbines will allow Hawaii to reduce the amount of its imported oil by about 139,500 barrels per year. While the company acknowledges that the 30 megawatts is only a small part of the overall amount of electricity generated on the island, it represents one of the first moves towards decreasing Hawaii’s dependence on imported oil.
Topics: Wind power | 1 Comment »
Solar energy market scores big gains in 2010
By MB-BigB | July 12, 2010
Solar cell and panel makers are showing large gains in sales for the second quarter of 2010 compared to 2009. Year over year comparisons the shipment of solar panels globally are 92% higher this yar. A total of 3.7 gigawatts of solar panels were shipped in the second quarter (that equals $7.1 billion in revenue).
IMS Research, the company that produced the report, is forecasting that a total of 14.6 gigawatts of solar panel generating capacity will be shipped this year, almost doubling the amount that was shipped in 2009.
Topics: Solar Power | No Comments »
Hybrid sales hit the skids in June
By MB-BigB | July 10, 2010
June wasn’t a good month for hybrid sales. With gas prices remaining low, buyers weren’t willing to spend the extra cash needed for a high mpg hybrid, no matter how much rhetoric was put out there about the need to reduce oil imports after the Gulf oil spill.
Here’s the numbers: While overall car sales increased by more than 14% from June 2009 to this June, sales of hybrid cars actually fell by 17.5 percent, compared to last June. For the month, hybrids represented just 2.2% of overall new car sales, which is much lower than the usual 2.7 or 2.8% that hybrid sales had been running at.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind. Automakers had a lot of incentives out there on their conventional models, but not on hybrids. That may be changing as I’m now seeing commercials advertising 0% financing on the Ford Fusion Hybrid. The year to year comparison is also skewed a bit by the fact that gasoline prices did not experience their typical beginning of the summer increase – gas prices did increase last year, and hybrid sales did jump along with the increase in gasoline prices. Also, the car companies do seem to understand that they need to come out with new and cheaper hybrid models if they want to increase sales and meet the new federal mpg requirements, which start to phase in beginning in 2012. Coming out (hopefully) in the near future should be some lower priced cars such as the Honda Fit Hybrid, the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, the Honda CR-Z hybrid, and additional Prius models from Toyota.
via: HybridCars.com June 2010 Dashboard
Topics: hybrid and electric cars | No Comments »
New mobile biofuel process goes to where the biomass is
By MB-BigB | July 10, 2010
Just like famous bank robber Willie Sutton, who supposedly once said he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is“, a new mobile biofuel process being developed by Purdue University would go to where the biomass is. Current biofuel processes rely on transporting bulky biomass to the biofuel plant – which is a very expensive step. The Purdue method envisions mobile biofuel processing plants that would roam the Midwest to produce biofuel wherever there is agricultural waste and other biomass. Transporting the new created biofuel to where its needed (or even using the biofuel on site) is much cheaper than transporting the biomass to a central location.
Purdue’s new method, called fast-hydropyrolysis-hydrodeoxygenation, or H2Bioil for short, works by adding hydrogen to the biofuel reactor. For the mobile reactor, the hydrogen would be generated from either natural gas or the biomass itself, but Purdue Professor Rakesh Agrawal wants to eventually use solar power to generate the hydrogen from water, which would make the new technology totally renewable.
Topics: biofuel | No Comments »
