Siemens - Fjellstrand Electric Ferry

Gizmag has this piece about a very innovative ferry designed in Norway by Siemens and Fjellstrand that is entirely electric and which can be quick-charged in 10 minutes. This is a most interesting design that I hope will get sold more around the world. As a boy, I traveled from India to Sri Lanka by a steamship, the SS Irwin, which caught fire and had to be scrapped several years after I last went on it. In the USA, I have taken several ferries at different points in Southern Illinois. It would be great if this design (with its cleanliness and efficiency) could be introduced in many of the areas that are connected by ferry in this country. I am sure that there are other parts of the world where such a service would be very useful as well.

Gizmag: New Style Wind Harvester Breaks from Conventional Turbine Design

Gizmag has this piece about a completely new design for a wind energy harvester that uses reciprocating motion. Developed in the UK by its inventor Heath Evdemon with support from Nottingham Trent University, this should be an interesting design to watch as it progresses. Sign up on Gizmag for more information in the future - they are an excellent website to follow.

Electric Watercraft - Via Gizmag

While I am old fashioned and would not go into a river / lake on powered motorcraft, preferring a scull or an outrigger instead, there are many who do not have my patience. And these people often use gasoline powered individual watercraft which not only pollute the air, they also send in pollutants into delicate marine environments. Gizmag reports a new personal electric craft being developed by the Ohio based Silveira Group Link here While this is not yet available from what I understand, I personally feel that it can't arrive soon enough! Here's keeping my fingers crossed in the hope that I will be able to see one of these soon at Cabelas or Basspro, or even at my local Costco which has begun to sell watercraft of all kinds.

An Interesting New Development in Clean Flight

As visitors here would know, transportation is something that this blog is very interested in and this post from Gizmag, a blog that I refer to as frequently as they send me their regular updates, has something VERY interesting to offer. A helicopter that runs on 70% Hydrogen Peroxide and which uses a unique tip-jet powered system has the potential to reduce the usage of fossil fuel in single and two seat helicopters very substantially. Add to this with the fact that this is easy to fly - I shall take Gizmag's opinion here as I am not a pilot myself and they are experts who know their stuff - and this should make for safety, fun and more.

My hat's off to the Swissscopter company for their fantastic achievement and I shall await information on their two seat design as it receives certification. Do check their website out and subscribe to Gizmag. It is a website well worth subscribing to if you are a technology buff of any kind.

The World's Largest Solar Powered Vessel to Navigate the Globe in 2011

Gizmag has a very intriguing piece about a large vessel built in Germany and designed in france which will travel around the world using the power of the sun alone in 2011 Link. With the use of lightweight composites and some of the most advanced technology available today, the vessel will travel at 8 knots and show what is possible in today's world with available technology. Considering that ships put out more pollution than all the cars in the world combined, this project by Planet Solar is expected to raise awareness of the possibilities available to anyone who would care to use them.

I'll admit that this is an impressive technological tour de force. A 31 meter boat that can traverse the world at 8 knots using solar power is simply magnificent. But what about using the power of the wind? The last tea clippers were as fast as some of the commercial vessels today with speeds averaging 16 knots - twice what the Planet Solar vessel can achieve. In any case, it is always a positive thing to see a new technological direction and you can rest assured that after Planet Solar's debut, the vessel's designers would try and improve significantly upon its performance using lessons learned from their trip around the world. Exciting times are in store indeed! This boy from a seaside town is very, very excited!

Improving Diesel Engine Efficiency - Calling Tata!

Gizmag has a very interesting piece about a new fuel injection system mod that has been developed at the University of Wisconsin, that promises to offer a thermal efficiency of 53%: http://www.gizmag.com/diesel-spark-plug-gasoline/12484/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=9224d606ed-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email This is an amazing gain as the article explains and the US Department of Transportation is offering to fund further research into this promising area in a big way.

I would hope that someone at tata is watching - as the biggest manufacturers of diesel trucks in India and a company who export their trucks and cars to many other countries, they would be a fantastic fit to this technology. The technology has been tested on caterpillar diesel engines - don't Tata have the Indian representation for Caterpillar and Poclain? Someone please correct me if I am wrong here!

In any case, this blog aims to watch this development and look at where it is implemented. If the Tatas don't care for it, maybe someone else could license it in India. I am not sure if Mahindra would - they have a long relationship with AVL. Please watch this space. I shall post any information that I get over here.

Hat's Off to India Again - Indo British Entry Wins First Electric Motorcycle GP Ever By a Big Margin

An Indian company manufacturing high quality electric motors and a British engineering group put their strengths together recently to win the world's first ever TTXGP. As Gizmag, one of the sites that this blog subscribes to points out, this was by a very good margin: http://www.gizmag.com/ttxgp-electric-agni-first-clean-emissions-grand-prix/11949/

Most significantly, wasthe fact that this was a class win for bikes that cost below UK Pounds 30,000, a significant factor because this means that the bike is capable of being produced and sold at realistic prices with economies of scale working out in production. That the bike also won the overall victory, attests to the excellence of the design as it is potentially capable of beating more expensive bikes designed in technologically advanced countries.

Again, I am as positive about this as I am about the Tata plans to build electric versions of their cars for India. However, I must admit to caution about the Indian state's ability to provide power through clean means and on an uninterrupted basis - eight hour powercuts in most cities throughout the day are not a good thing for this sector. Neither is the fact, as my friend Mohanakrishnan likes to point out, that Coal India is putting huge sums of government money into importing coal to satisfy India's requirement for power while the government pays lip service to the idea of renewable energy.

That said, if the private sector is given the relevant permissions to do something in India, they are more than capable of doing extremely well. Team Agni underlines this fact. Congratulations, Team Agni, and Congratulations India. There is another entry about this at the best online motorcycling blog, The Kneeslider at: http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2009/06/12/team-agni-with-rider-rob-barber-wins-inuagural-ttxgp/#comments Those who wish to congratulate Team Agni would do well to do this in The Kneeslider. I am sure they check there like most motorcycling enthusiasts do.

A New Dutch Diesel Motorcycle

I must admit to a weakness for motorcycles of whatever kind - including the fossil fuel variety - though, of course, I do believe that electric motorcycles should be the way of the future. This is why this new offering of a diesel engined two wheel drive motorcycle by a Dutch company sounds very interesting to me: http://www.gizmag.com/the-2wd-track-diesel-motorcycle-with-cvt/10636/ For the kind of power and performance that it offers, it should be as fuel efficient as an Enfield Bullet if not better at regular speeds, and, of course, vastly better behaved and capable on the roads. What underlines the bike's "renewable energy" credentials is the fact that it can be ridden on bio-diesel or pure vegetable oil. I'm not sure how really clean either of those options are and I won't even try to go into that. What I will do is check up on this and post back in the future.

Gizmag also has a feature on an LPG driven bike at: http://www.gizmag.com/meet-the-greenfly-the-worlds-first-lpg-motorcycle/10414/ While there have been some dangerous experiments in India with mounting LPG cylinders on scooters and motorcycles, this tech couldbe a really good idea if some Indian motorcycle manufacturer wants to take it up.

Good opportunities, then, for someone who wants to use them. Will someone do this? Here's keeping my fingers crossed.

Some Energy Champs who Work With What They Have

While the whole business of new products that save energy is good and it is a direction to take in the future, there are people who make it their hobby to maximize the output of whatever they are using so that they use the minimum energy. If you ask me, these people are real heroes. Give them a 300 mpg car like the Aptera and they would probably squeeze out another 25 to 50 mpg out of it. There is a very interesting article about "hypermilers" who maximize the fuel consumption of their cars in today's USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-06-23-hypermilers-saving-gas_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

To these guys getting 100 miles per gallon is just day to day stuff. I really admire them and hope that they get more to join their fold. My current car, I am ashamed to say, does not fall into the category that could make this kind of ridiculous mileage. The next one which I shall buy very soon, will be one; and then, I'll try to join the hypermilers' ranks.

On the other hand, USA Today also reports a sad phenomenon of birds getting killed by flying into power lines and wind turbines in the USA and about measures to do something about it: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-06-23-birds_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip Fortunately, this is the USA and serious money and efforts are being put into preserving the wildlife. In India, for example, some morons would think about locating Nari Kuravas around these lines and ask them to eat whatever falls off the lines for dinner.

In other news, a Swedish university and private enterprise in that country are building an office building which wuld be heated by the body heat of its occupants. Considering how much energy gets wasted during the winter months because heating is required (yes, you know, I live in Sh!tcago, Ill-annoy) this is an idea that could revolutionize the building industry. The swedes plan to complete the building in Stockholm in 2010 and I hope that their design is replicated elsewhere in the world. If we show Fossil Fuel one Fist, we also need to show our electric utilities the other one. The Swedish building has been featured at Gizmag at: http://www.gizmag.com/human-body-heat-building-stockholm/8792/

Gizmag also has another interesting idea which is very similar to something that good friend Niro told me about some time ago. They plan, Gizmag reports, to build a "heel-strike generator system" so that pedestrians on sidewalks, in stadiums, railway stations etc would generate power by walking on specially designed floors under which generators would utilize the energy of their feet on the ground. Niro's plan is for treadmills which harness energy to run a fruit juicer or something of the sort and it is another idea that needs to be worked on. Who knows? Maybe I'll write to Scott Wilson who are designing these heel strike systems and talk to them about it. Thanks, Niro! The link to this project is at: http://www.gizmag.com/heel-strike-generators-to-harness-pedestrian-power/9518/

In the midst of all this, I keep hearing the same groups from friends in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh about power shortages right through these countries, of crowded roads and air thick with so much smoke that you could pick a shovel and start loading the carbon into a sack if you were so inclined. Come on, people! These are countries with a lot of sunshine. All of these countries have deserts and long coastlines. And they also have, despite their overcrowding, vast areas of waste land where they could set up some of these renewable energy projects. Solar thermal energy conversion systems could be a big thing in places like Rajasthan and on some of the barren southern coasts of India. India has done a reasonably good job of using wind energy but there are other countries in South Asia who have not. They need to buck up.

I must sign off for now - I did promise to make at least one post a day and did not do that yesterday, just three days into this blog. Well, I intend to make up with twice the usual amount of information tomorrow. Do write in and let me know what you guys think.

Cheers!