Archive for the 'Transportation' Category
Another Wind Harvest Approach
Back in December, 2006 we first wrote about SkySails, the company that wants shippers to return to the age of sail. Well, since that time they’ve grown up a bit and now have commercial product. The idea is simple, harness a large ship to a kite/sail with a large area (~600 m2) about 300 m above the surface where the winds are stronger and more consistent. The result? Up to 15% savings on fossil fuel consumption by letting the wind help out.
PHEV Prius in 2010
Photo Credit: Business 2.0
Via Cleantech.com:
Tokyo-based Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) said it plans to start selling plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2010.
That would put the new cars in direct competition with the Chevy Volt from Detroit’s General Motors (NYSE: GM), another plug-in hybrid expected to be released that year.
Toyota said the first sales of its lithium-ion battery-equipped plug-in hybrid vehicles would be to fleet customers in the U.S. and elsewhere.
This is the first of many of these sorts of announcements we should expect, the PHEV is a sensible next step in the evolution toward all electric transportation. As can be seen from the troubles with Tesla, it’s very difficult to simply jump from combustion technology to all electric (though we’re still wondering why an electric vehicle needs a transmission per se…)
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The Oil Endgame
This TED Talk by Amory Lovins filmed in 2005 is well worth the investment of 20 minutes. He has posted his book, The Oil Endgame, on a website with a free download. Check it out.
Great Video of Tesla Car in Action
$98,000 for a car is steep, but this video does show a great experience. As the Tesla employee says, technology tends to enter the market on the high-end and then commoditize over time. The electric car may finally be here. Comments are off for this post
PHEV: Groundswell?
An interesting trend seems to be taking hold around vehicles like Toyota’s Prius, home-grown conversions from standard hybrid to plugin hybrid by adding battery power, a charger, and socket to plug the vehicle in for charging. The magazine GreenCar.com has an interesting article about this phenomena. It would seem that the public is going to drag the automakers along on this one (along with a little pressure from the likes of Google.)
What’s the attraction? 120+ MPG. Imagine getting over 1,100 miles on a single tank of gas. Watch the video below:
