Boston City Hall to get three electric car charging points

Public electric car charging points will be installed at Boston City Hall Plaza.

Cambridge Street will see three new charging points offering drivers of fully electric cars the opportunity to park and replenish their batteries for just $1.25 an hour and no added costs.

The project, led by Veneet K. Gupta (Director of Policy and Planning for the Boston Transportation department), is the forerunner to placing electric vehicle charging stations throughout Boston.

‘Green’ vehicles are becoming popular among New Englanders. Hybrid vehicles, which use a combined gas and electric engine, have seen increased sales and the introduction of the Nissan Leaf, a full electric vehicle, and the Chevy Volt are expected to add to this.

The Federal Government offers a $7,500 tax rebate to incentivize car drivers to buy full electric vehicles; something that is likely to prove very popular.

The Cambridge Street charging points are a similar size and shape to a parking meter with an 11 foot power cable. Drivers can choose between 110/120 and 240 volts to recharge their batteries. Drivers of gas-powered vehicles who park in one of these spaces can expect a $55 fine

Source:

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2011/05/23/boston_to_offer_electric_car_charge_stations_near_city_hall/

M4 Hydrogen Highway

In February 2011 the UK Government announced that it plans to extend existing hydrogen refueling stops along the M4 motorway – connecting London to South Wales.

The ambitious scheme aims to transform the busy thoroughfare into the UK’s first hydrogen highway, offering motorists a true alternative to fossil fuels as early as 2015.

Wales has been designated a ‘Low Carbon Economic Area’ making it a natural springboard for green, low carbon technologies and fuels.

The project will include the installation of electric charging points, compressed natural gas and biomethane pumps to encourage green motorists to brave longer journeys.

Critics of the hydrogen highway point out that, at the moment, hydrogen production requires a lot of energy, making it relatively inefficient. Although efficient and renewable sources of hydrogen production are being developed presently.

Certainly the Field of Dreams “Build it and they will come” approach to green-fuels is optimistic but also likely to be the best way to encourage both investors in green-fuel technology and drivers to buy non fossil fuel cars.

Source:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8511319.stm

Rolls Royce to go electric

Rolls Royce the luxury car manufacturer is developing a new electric car.

The 102EX is the worlds first fully electric luxury limousine. Rolls Royce have taken a normal production Phantom and replaced the standard power train (petrol engine, gear box and drive shaft) with a battery system and electric motors.

The experiment is designed to ignite debate in the luxury car world as to whether this method of powering ocean liners of the road is the right way to go.

Watch this space…

Source:

http://www.electricluxury.com

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 5,200 times in 2010. That’s about 13 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 46 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 65 posts. There were 58 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 22mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was July 8th with 65 views. The most popular post that day was Solar powered aeroplane test flight.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were energiaeoliana.wordpress.com, richardjlafferty.com, facebook.com, indianinthemachine.wordpress.com, and google.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for geodesic dome, solar cell, london taxi, buckminster fuller geodesic dome, and wampanoag.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Solar powered aeroplane test flight November 2009

2

Paper based batteries March 2010

3

Charles Fritts, inventor of the Solar PV Cell December 2009

4

Windy NIMBY part II March 2010
1 comment

5

Hydrogen London Cabs June 2010
1 comment

Google Wind Farm

Google is to invest in a 6,000 megawatt off-shore windfarm.

Google, the search engine giant is diversifying from its natural habitat of cyberspace to finance the Atlantic Wind Connection (“AWC”) project with Good Energies and the Marubeni Corporation of Japan.

Wind farms stretching 350 miles of the Atlantic seaboard from Virginia to New Jersey will supply 6,000 megwatts of electrcity to 1.9 million homes along hundreds of miles of underwater cabling.

The string of wind farms will be the equivalent of 60% of the existing wind generation in The States.

AWC comes hot on the heels of the Cape Wind Project, a highly contraversial but significant wind farm project in Nantucket Sound, Massachusetts.

What do you think about this project?

Source:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/wind-cries-transmission.html

http://www.goodenergies.com/

http://www.marubeni.com/

http://lacoastpost.com/blog/?p=2022

Centrica make renewable biogas from household sewage

Centrica, the international power company, has built a pilot renewable gas production facility in Didcot (Oxfordshire, England) which uses household sewage to make a biogas.

Sludge rich in human waste is removed from a sewage treatment plant and is put through anaerobic digestion. 20 days after the flush the biogas is ready for domestic use.

The pilot plant is the result of a GBP2.5 million joint venture between Thames Water, British Gas and Scotia Gas Networks. If the project proves successful it could be used across the country.

Up to 15% of UK household gas could come from facilities just like this.

Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8043237/Human-waste-used-to-power-homes.html

http://www.centrica.com/index.asp

Go Clear diesel exhaust cleaner

GoClear is a new product invented by New Zealand company, Ballance Agri-Nutrients, that can help diesel trucks cut greenhouse gas emissions between 70 to 90 per cent.

GoClear is a solution that uses ultra pure urea; When it is sprayed into the exhaust system converting nitrogen oxides gases into harmless nitrogen and water vapour.

Around one third of total nitrogen oxide emissions come from diesel engines. Reducing these would make a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions globally.

The GoClear exhaust cleaning system can be retro-fitted to trucks helping older vehicles meet strict Euro-5 emissions limits.

Source:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10679587

http://www.ballance.co.nz/

Hydrogen London Cabs

London will have a fleet of hydrogen-electric black cabs for the 2012 Olympics.

London Taxis International (LTI) has been working with a group of partners to develop a new type of hydrogen fuel cell to power the electric engined cabs. The vehicle is virtually silent and the only emission is water from the tailpipe.

Six specially adapted filling stations will be installed around the capital to provide hydrogen for the vehicles. The cabs need topping up once a day and it only takes 5 minutes to fill the tank.

Should the project prove successful then it is likely that more black cabs and busses with hydrogen fuel cells will appear on the streets of London.

Source:

http://www.lti.co.uk/news/?p=354

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23841823-new-hydrogen-black-cabs-leave-only-water-in-their-wake.do

http://www.richardjlafferty.com/

Big Belly Solar

To the average eye one trash can is much like another; a metal box with a hole in the top for waste and the occasional wasp.

A company based in Brookline, Boston Massachusetts, has taken the humble trashcan and turned it into an eco-warrior.

Big Belly Solar, originally called Sea Horse Energy, invented a solar powered trash compactor the same size as your typical trashcan. They called it “Big Belly”. It was so successful that they renamed the company after it.

The great thing about this device is the amount of trash it can consume. A normal trashcan on the street would need emptying once or even twice a day. A Big Belly is able to consume 5 times more waste. A solar panel on the top provides all the power it needs, allowing the device to placed almost anywhere.

The city of Philadelphia installed 500 of these trash compactors to help combat the growing demands of waste management. Cans along the busiest streets require emptying 19 times a week but the Big Belly on required emptying just 5 times. A wireless “I’m full” signal is sent to the collection headquarter telling them it is time to empty particular trashcans.

City officials calculated they saved up to $875,000 a year in costs and cut down collection trips by 75 per cent.

This relatively small device could revolutionize the way garbage is collected around the world.

Source:

http://www.bigbellysolar.com/products/

http://www.richardjlafferty.com/

Porsche on brink of hybrid

The German sports car manufacturer Porsche is on the brink of producing its first hybrid, the 918 Spyder.

At the moment 900 people have shown serious, credible interest in purchasing one. Wolfgang Duerheimer, Porsche CEO, has said if the interest peaks 1,000 then they will begin considering production.

The super-hybrid concept was first shown at the 2010 Geneva, Switzerland, car show. Although the 918 is the wunderkind it is not the only hybrid car to roll off the production line in Stuttgart. A hybrid GT3 and Cayenne will keep it company. Happily this is likely to lead to hybrid options for other Porsche models.

Where Porsche leads Volkswagen and Skoda are sure to follow.

Source:

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/27042010/36/porsche-hybrid-supercar-close-production-0.html

http://www.porsche.com/microsite/intelligent-performance/germany.aspx

http://www.richardjlafferty.com/