Can Wind Power Get Up to Speed?

Time Magazine has some good news on the potential for wind power in the USA with this piece: Can Wind Power Get Up to Speed? With the potential to generate 16 times the amount of power that this country needs from the Midwestern States alone and even more if offshore wind is harnessed, the potential does exist for this country to show fossil fuel a huge fist. And T Boone Pickens, oilman par excellence turned wind entrepreneur, is clearly spot on in his promotion of wind power in this country.

With more and more of the media pointing out solid research - the Time piece references NASA investigations - I hope some of the die-hard skeptics as far as wind power is concerned are drawn into a positive dialogue over the potential for wind power. I also hope that the USA leaps into this and pushes the envelope for bigger and better wind turbines. There is tremendous potential for this country as well as for power generation in other countries in markets that are currently dominated by European companies. It would be good to offer some friendly competition with US products.

Semi Finalists in a Tough California Clean Tech Contest

I was sent this link by my good friend of many years, engineer and entrepreneur in India, Kulasekaran, who is also a supporter of this blog and a frequent discussion participant here: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/5-clean-tech-open-startups-watch The California Clean Tech Open is a major contest in an environment and technology conscious state, to support new businesses with innovative technologies, business plans and ideas etc. The five semi-finalists here could well become major corporations in the future and bring about a mini revolution (or a major one) considering that they have amde it this far in the contest.

Of the listed companies, the one that interests me the most in the potential that it offers for South Asia, is Armageddon Energy: http://www.armageddonenergy.com/ Their design for mount them yourself solar photovoltaic cells is something that could be extremely useful in the electric supply deficient cities and small towns in South Asia. While I am fascinated by the idea of do it yourself zero net energy homes like the Parco Homes designs: http://www.parcohomes.com/Parco_Homes/Parco_Homes.html unfortunately, I don't think that South Asia has the vision or foresight to look ahead at technologies like these. Parco are one of many companies with very interesting zero net energy home designs - I have written about others on this blog - unfortunately, this very good idea, is not likely to appeal to Jaikishan or Jahangir Average. And therein, lies a tragedy . . .

My thanks to Kulasekaran for sending me the Fast Company link. This is one more website that I shall make it a point to watch in the future.

A Website That Can Teach You to Save Fuel and Money by Hypermiling

I have written about hypermiling before, but it was through Autoblog Green that i came to learn about Clean MPG: http://www.cleanmpg.com/cmps_index.php?page=hypermiling a nice site that I signed up on at once. I am no expert - and I am happy to admit this whenever asked. As a learner, I do think that many who visit my blog would find this a useful site. DO try and use some of the techniques that they talk about to save fuel and post back to let me know how you find this. And, of course, do sign up.

Thanks and happy saving through hypermiling!

The First Air Car Test - Tata are Licensees of the Technology

Edmunds.com's Insideline blog has the first test of the MDI Air Car by any magazine / website at: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=151246?tid=edmunds.il.home.photopanel..1.* This, of course, is a technology that some have been saying would never work. And others have been decrying for reasons known 0nly to themselves and to the industries that write their paychecks. There has been some speculation about how the air to fill this car's tanks would be compressed. These people haven't, of course, heard of wind, solar or geothermal power for some reason. And, of course, when an Indian company buys the rights to a certain technology and plans to use it in its cars, it has to be a mistake, right? These are the same bozos who also said that the Nano would never be made, and, probably, are the same doofuses who said that Renault's takeover of Nissan was such a flop show that Renault could have thrown gold bars worth what they paid for Nissan into the sea. Yes, there are idiots writing in mainstream newspapers and magazines, if you didn't know. And MDI, like Renault, are French, so they must be just as bad as those Indians, right?

Which makes Insideline's test all the more admirable. They have tested the Air Car in France and made it clear that they have seen that the technology works. Sure, it needs to be improved. The internal combustion engine was invented more than a hundred years ago and the large auto manufacturers are still working to improve it. What is significant is the short fill up time - just two minutes using compressed air pumps at filling stations. And, I think, this technology could be used on motorcycles also. My hat's off to MDI for their amazing new idea and to the Tatas for having the foresight to rush and support the technology by licensing it at once. MDI's website is: http://www.mdi.lu/english/airpod.php and, of course, if you want the Tatas's website with links to all their companies, check at: http://www.tata.com/

Dale Vince's Electric Car Runs Quite Fast Indeed!

Trust an eccentric Brit to pull off something spectacular if he puts his mind to it, and you won't go wrong. That is the country that gave us the jet engine, after all, as it did thrust vectored aircraft, several amazing cars, some of the world's best stereo systems and much more. While the Brits love few things more than arguing and living the good life, they do some amazing work whenever they set their minds to it, and they do it in a fashion that no one else can emulate. I have posted about dale Vince and his company Ecotricity www.ecotricity.co.uk before. He had plans to manufacture what he called a "wind powered car," and while the term was somewhat sensationalist because the car was not directly powered by the wind, it was accurate because he owns the most profitable company generating power using the wind after all. Turns out that the car, a modified Lotus Exige, has some amazing performance as this link on Autoblog Green and this video show: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/06/24/video-ecotricitys-electric-exige-wind-car-exceeds-expectations/

As friends who are interested in electric vehicles understand, this is the same platform used by Tesla for their roadster. This is a proven platform, after all, and one that has been very successfully demonstrated as far as using it for electric vehicles is concerned. I like this idea of a different vehicle with similar shattering performance - I do wish that the final version of whatever Vince decides to call his car, would look different from the Lotus offering, though. Mark my words - this does have the potential to be another great British car produced by yet another eccentric British genius. I can't wait for more updates on this!

When Fuel-Efficient Hybrid Cars are a Bad Idea - Toyota's Environmentally Harmful Plan for Manufacturing the Prius

Toyota's Prius hybrids have been a huge hit since the first version was launched some years ago. The cars are very fuel efficient, though the technology used is not quite the be all and end all as Toyota and the Prius's many fans would have you believe, because lower tech cars like the Volkswagen Jetta diesel have proven as fuel efficient in a combined in-city and highway cycle. Some experts have criticized the use of Nickel in the Prius's batteries as a major environmental issue, though I am not sure if the alternative of emitting more burnnt petrol gases into the atmosphere is an acceptable substitute.

However, there is a completely different reason why Toyota needs to be opposed and the Prius boycotted, that is, unless they reverse their decision over where to manufacture it. Autoblog Green has this piece about Toyota planning to destroy 17th century rice paddies to build more Priuses. It is not only the destruction of the paddies that I am concerned about. The cars will be built in Japan and then shipped to the USA and other countries burning (and polluting the atmosphere at that) huge amounts of oil. Why on earth can't Toyota just build them in the USA, their biggest market for these cars? They do build excellent trucks here in Texas and cars in California and some other locations, after all . . . The Autoblog Green post about Toyota's ridiculous plan is at this link: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/06/22/toyotas-push-to-build-green-cars-may-destroy-17th-century-japan/

Fortunately, for someone contemplating a hybrid in order to show fossil fuels a tiny fist (they do burn gasoline after all) there are options other than the Prius. Honda's new Insight is a nice car if somewhat smaller than the Toyota. And, if you want a bigger car, Ford has its Fusion Hybrid (and its up-scale Mercury Milan version which I plan to buy shortly) which is less fuel efficient than the Prius but a lot bigger, mroe comfortable, and, if you want a Toyota comparison, a better car by every report out there than the Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Please do your bit to knock some sense into Toyota - if you are contemplating buying a Prius, don't. At least, not until the company decides to preserve the paddies and adopt less environmentally harmful manufacturing practices. Thank you!

Please Sign This Petition to Ask Manmohan Singh to Pass a Renewable Energy Act by 2010

While I am not always in full agreement with Greenpeace on everything that they do, I have been a strong supporter of their recent campaign to persuade the Tatas into looking at their new port from the perspective of the sea turtles which come there to breed. It is a good campaign and one that deserves support - I love the outdoors and the mainr eason why I like the idea of Renewable Energy is that it would make a beautiful country like India even more beautiful. How would you like to walk along the shores of the Kodai Lake without the fumes form highly polluting buses and cars burning your nostrils, for example? We do have the technology to produce cleaner vehicles as we know - Mahindra has a mild hybrid vehicle, Tata has electric cars that the company sells in Norway and an Indo-British team won the first TTXGP.

However, the electricity produced in India - whatever little is produced - is from the filthiest means possible: using coal. It is not only the burning of the coal that is an issue. The transportation of the coal from Indonesia and Australia is a dirty process, as is the horrendous destruction of the beautiful Indonesian forests by that country's greedy coal mafia. There is also something that our politicians don't care a hoot about - the fact that India is bathed in sun the whole year and we can use that sunlight to power homes. We can use the winds that blow over the country to do the same. We can use the sewage that we dump into the oceans to generate methane to burn and produce power with. The possibilities are endless.

Greenpeace India has a petition campaign to persuade the Prime Minister to pass a Renewable Energy Act by 2010. A link to this is here: http://www.greenidol.in/ Please sign this petition. And get your spouses, your children, your parents, their friends and your friends to all sign this. Please spread the word around. And please push hard.

India spends half of all the foreign exchange that it earns on importing crude oil and coal. We don;t have to send our hard earned money to Saudi Arabia or Indonesia or China or wherever to make the rulers of those countries, and their businesspeople richer. This money could stay back in India and help us to become a richer country. And a cleaner one.

Thank you for signing this petition. Thank you also for getting at least 10 people to sign it after you do and requesting that they get 10 more to do so and so on. Please do it for India and for the earth. Thank you.