waynechecker.net

It’s a waste of money to buy an electric car in Australia, says Honda technology expert Thomas Brachmann.

As the senior engineer in the Honda’s European research and development facility, Brachmann is a fan of fuel cell vehicles like the Honda Clarity, but he doesn’t have much time for battery-electric cars like the Mitsubishi iMiEV and Nissan Leaf.

via Electric cars a waste of money | carsguide.com.au.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nissan Leaf Electric Car Sounds (offonatangent.blogspot.com)
• High Depreciation May Slow Electric Car Acceptance (tech.slashdot.org)
• How the fuels of the future will find their rightful places (independent.co.uk)
• AutoblogGreen for 06.21.10 (autoblog.com)
• CHAdeMO: Japan wants to set global standard for electric cars (crunchgear.com)
• Nissan worried for the Electric car incentives cut in Europe (inautonews.com)
• Wash. to get $1.3 million for electric highway (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV Electric Car to be Priced at £33,699 in UK (treehugger.com)

Meet Solvay, the airplane that might make history as the first plane to fly overnight by solar power. The aircraft is expected to last 36 hours in flight. Perhaps this is hopeful thinking for the Swiss, considering their last test flight only launched the plane a meter in the air and a mere 350 meters forward.

Full article

Related articles by Zemanta

• Solar Impulse HB-SIA airplane runs on solar power (ubergizmo.com)
• Blog – Solar Airplane a Step Closer (technologyreview.com)
• Flying Around the World Powered by the Sun (treehugger.com)
• Are Solar-Powered Airplanes In Our Future? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Solar-Powered Plane Makes Runway Debut (science.slashdot.org)

More evidence of the climate crisis is unfolding before our eyes. The situation in the Arctic is worse than data from satellite pictures have told us:

“For scientists studying the health of Arctic sea ice, satellite observations are absolutely essential for providing the big picture. It was satellites that revealed in September 2007 a record minimum ice coverage in the region — the result of a massive summer melt. And it was satellites that showed in 2008 and 2009 the modest recovery of late-summer Arctic ice that suggested to some that the specter of a totally ice-free polar ocean might be somewhat less imminent than feared.”

“But those high-altitude observations need occasional reality checks from scientists down on the surface. It was during one such on-the-ground research expedition last fall that David Barber, an Arctic climatologist at the University of Manitoba, got an unwelcome surprise.”

“Barber was aboard the Canadian research icebreaker Amundsen, checking on ice in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Western Canada. The ship was well inside a region the satellites said should be choked with thick, multiyear-old ice. “That’s pretty much a no-go zone for an icebreaker of the Amundsen’s size,” says Barber. But the ship kept going, at a brisk 13 knots — its top speed in open water is 13.7 knots — and even when it finally reached thick ice, he says, “we could still penetrate it easily.”"

“In short, as Barber and his colleagues explain in a recent paper in Geophysical Review Letters, the analysis of what the satellites were seeing was wrong. Some of what satellites identified as thick, melt-resistant multiyear ice turned out to be, in Barber’s words, “full of holes, like Swiss cheese. We haven’t seen this sort of thing before.”"

Related articles by Zemanta

• Melting Arctic Ice: What Satellite Images Don’t See (time.com)
• Arctic ice melting faster than feared: study (cbc.ca)
• Oops! Arctic Ice Isn’t Expanding, As Wingnuts Claimed. It’s Thinning. (crooksandliars.com)
• NASA Satellite Data Reveals Arctic Melting Season Now Nearly a Month Longer (treehugger.com)
• Arctic sea ice ‘rotten,’ expedition reveals (cbc.ca)
• Arctic ice conditions much worse than satellite images suggested (americablog.com)
• Year-round Arctic ice nearly gone, expert says (thestar.com)
• Arctic ice meltdown remains severe: report (nationalpost.com)
• Arctic sea ice vanishing faster than ‘our most pessimistic models’: researcher (calgaryherald.com)
• Arctic sea ice vanishing fast: researcher (canada.com)

What types of smart lights will power our homes and offices in the next five to ten years? At the California Lighting Institute at UC Davis, Professor Michael Siminovitch shows us a giant integrated sphere that acts as an advanced light meter. He also discusses an array of LED and fluorescent lighting technologies including, down lighting systems for residential use, and exterior LED lighting for garages and parking lots.

via Intelligent lighting of the future from UC Davis – SmartPlanet.com.

Image via Wikipedia

They have been called “negawatts” — the vast amounts of electricity and heat wasted around the world every day from homes, businesses and appliances as well as ageing power plants.

Energy efficiency may sound unglamorous set against plans for shimmering new solar power plants or giant offshore wind farms.

But it is hard to dispute Professor Chu’s assertion that it represents the easiest route to large reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions.

via Professor Steven Chu is clearly switched on with energy-saving ideas – Times Online.

Light-emitting diodes LEDs really shine as an energy-efficient, long-lasting source of illumination in sensors, flashlights and video screens. For larger and more powerful LEDs to succeed in replacing incandescent and fluorescent bulbs in home and industrial lighting, however, they must be designed to better keep their cool.

via New Cooling Technology Uses Air “Bullets” to Shoot Down Overheated LEDs: Scientific American.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Panasonic’s New LED Bulbs Shine For 19 Years (news.slashdot.org)
• World’s First Liquid-Cooled LED Lightbulb Perfectly Pairs With Silly Gaming PCs [Lightbulbs] (gizmodo.com)

It’s been a little while since we did the car-free once-a-week challenge, and the good news is that there’s some new options if you’re living in Melbourne or Adelaide.

read more

Last week I read article in New Scientist that began with an interesting anecdote I wanted to share with you:

“Picture the scene: in downtown New York City, all-electric cars glide through streets in a zero-emission transport revolution. Polluting, inefficient gasoline and diesel vehicles are nowhere to be seen – or heard. The only things getting in the way of these smooth, noiseless vehicles are the horse-drawn trams.”

“That’s right, we’re talking about the past. The electric car had its heyday over a century ago. Its brief reign came to an end in 1912, when gasoline-powered Cadillacs began to come fitted with starter motors.”

The article goes on to describe the history and challenges surrounding the development of new battery technologies. It provides an extremely interesting window into what is possible in the future.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

Related articles by Zemanta

• MIT students developing electric car that can be recharged in about ten minutes (crunchgear.com)
• Nissan’s plug-free electric car (guardian.co.uk)
• Nissan to trial fast charge electric car network (businessgreen.com)
• Nissan to trial fast charge electric car network (isiria.wordpress.com)
• Nissan aims to sell electric vehicle in U.S. next year (innovationtoronto.com)
• The great electric car race (money.cnn.com)
• Review on Mitsubishi Stylish new hybrid Electric Car Innovative Electric Vehicle (i-MiEV)! (ceoworld.biz)
• Greenlings: Battery basics for beginners (autobloggreen.com)

As a young male I was a victim of this, left everything running but that was ok. Some important role models tried to drum certain things into me about turning these appliances off but still it wasn’t a big deal.

Now, grown up and moved out of home and working for an environmentally friendly company I have come to realize that it’s not just about turning these certain appliances off its more than that. That more happens to be the environment for now and for the future.

via Staff Blogs.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

Related articles by Zemanta

• How To Go Green In Hard Times (huffingtonpost.com)
• Trends for 2009: Stay Green (ecotourismleavingfootprints.blogspot.com)