China’s Solar-Powered City
Design That Solves Problems for the World’s Poor
Changing Ecologies of Food and Agriculture
The Green View From Beijing
‘Synergies’ Between Renewables, Efficiency Would Cut GHG Emissions
(more)
(Posted by David Zaks in News and Views at 8:23 PM)
Filed under: Diesel, Solar, Transportation Alternatives
Take a look above at the picture of the new green ferry, the Miss Statue of Liberty, which will be ferrying up to 600 passengers at a time to view the Statue of Liberty in New York. The statue, of course, reminds people of freedom, and being free of petroleum is what this ferry is all about. An on-board “solar sail” provides some electric power for the boat, and also is capable of catching the wind for forward motion. Additionally, there are two diesel engines which provide thrust. I would like to see real a picture of this craft, so if somebody knows where to find one, please reply to this post or shoot us a line.
The vessel is being made by Solar Sailor Holdings in Australia, at a cost of 8-10 million dollars. I will I had some data to compare that price to, but I haven’t been ferry shopping in a while. This article says it will cost about $2 million more than a standard ferry, though. Another green touch: the design is said to create a small wake, which is better for the marine ecosystem.
[Source: WSTM News New York]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Hydrogen
Dr. Atkins may have thought that carbs were bad for you, but Virginia Tech researchers think they could be good for your car. Y.H. Percival Zhang and his colleagues want to use sugary carbohydrates combined with water and a mixture of enzymes to produce hydrogen on the fly. The polysaccharides would be substances like starch or cellulose that would be blended with a combination of enzymes that wouldn’t naturally be found together.
The enzymes would feed off the starch to get energy to split the water and produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen would be used to power a fuel cell and the water from that process would be recycled back into the enzyme process. Since the carbon dioxide is coming from biomass it is environmentally neutral. The equivalent of a twelve gallon fuel tank would hold enough starch to produce 4kg of hydrogen which could provide 300 miles of range with the latest fuel cells.
The sugar-hydrogen-fuel cell process evidently has an energy conversion rate three times higher than sugar-ethanol-internal combustion. Now they need to increase the reaction rates for the hydrogen to make it fast enough to be useful as a transport fuel and reduce the cost of the enzymes. The question is how much biomass is necessary to produce 27kg of starch? Then they have to ensure that our cars don’t get to fat from all the carbs. And this hydrogen idea can’t even be called an oil industry scam.
[Source: Virginia Tech]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
This has just arrived in my mailbox from colleagues sitting in the same vast hall of the IWC, during the debate on “The Future of the IWC”. The wonders of batteries and wireless connections! I’m currently listening to a proposal for the creation of a Southern Atlantic whale sanctuary, as put forward by Brazil and Argentina.
Greenpeace Statement on the Future of the IWC
“The IWC Cannot Continue As it Currently Operates”
The only consensus on the future of the IWC is that it cannot remain the same. Greenpeace agrees, and believes the IWC should be modernised to address the major threats to whales and end the debate on the most preventable cause of whale mortality â commercial hunting.
Continue reading The Future of the International Whaling Commission…
Hola Todos
Antes que todo, quiero comenzar con la primera actividad que desarrollamos el Domingo 27 de Mayo. En una calida Anchorage, junto a alrededor de 300 personas se hizo una marcha por la defensa de las ballenas, donde tuvimos la presencia de muchas familias completas y algunas celebredidades de los muy conocidos show de TV, Heroes y That’s 70 Show, que nos acompañaron y participaron al termino de la marcha que rodeo el Hotel Captain Cook, donde se está desarrollando la reunión de la CBI. Al final de la marcha, la gente formó con sus cuerpos una ballena jorobada la que fue grabada y fotógrafiada desde el aÃre. Para terminar con la Big Blue March, quiero decirles que está se desarrollo en 41 paÃses en todo el mundo.
Continue reading Los Latinoamericanos van a la cabeza por la conservacion de las Ballenas…
Filed under: Biodiesel, Diesel, MPG, GM, HUMMER
I know what you’re thinking – the last thing that would belong on AutoblogGreen is a Hummer H2. But this is not an average H2 – this has a 6.6L Duramax diesel V8 cranking out 510 horsepower running on… biodiesel. Burning said fuel, it achieves 26 mpg fuel economy. Whether this is combined cycle, city or highway, the auction does not specify. Nonetheless, for a modest $68,995.00 Buy It Now, it can be yours, and you can be (mildly) green to the environment in style.
It was built by Mash Motors Inc., and has a newly assigned Kansas title because of the encompassing nature of the conversion. It used 99 percent GM sourced parts (so why can’t GM make it and sell it themselves?) and replaced the stock transmission with an Allison M1000 6-speed transmission with a selectable transfer-case (2HI, 4HI and 4LO). The interior has been left mostly stock, with the exception of the info-tainment system and of course the usual 12-inch subwoofer. The exterior has some extra chrome shiny goodness, but for the most part, you could call this a sleeper H2, in more ways than one.
[Source: eBay / Thanks for the tip, Cameron!]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Filed under: Etc.
This, although not strictly related to automobiles, strikes me as something that our readership might be interested in. According to current trends, researchers have theorized that May 23rd, 2007 – that’s right, just a few days ago, was the date when the world went from mostly rural to mostly urban. Now, when they pick exact dates like this, the statement is not meant to be taken entirely literally, but you get the idea. That means that over 50 percent of the world’s population lives in an urban setting. That might lend you to believe that people should need to drive less and use smaller vehicles for their travels, but we know that this is not the case. Perhaps we should say that people could drive less using smaller vehicles, but the masses choose not to, for the most part. Does that equal a distress signal to you, or no? It seems that most urban junk is ending up in rural areas.
If the United Stated had it all to do over again, knowing what we know now, might the landscape be a bit different? Could you imagine urban cities with electric charging stations at street corners instead of gas stations? How about well-designed mass transit options in large urban areas?
[Source: Gizmag]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Filed under: MPG, Renault, Natural Gas
LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) cars are considered to be less polluting than gasoline counterparts. In countries like France, the UK or Italy, it’s even less taxed than gasoline or diesel. In some other countries, like Spain, it’s only available for professional drivers.
Dacia, the Romanian subsidiary of Renault, is offering a great offer for Italian customers. Not only they will be able to buy a 1.4 liter 75 HP car for less than 8,000 EUR but they will include the LPG conversion for free. This is possible because the Italian government helps motorists with 695 EUR to convert engines from gasoline to LPG and that’s the price Dacia Italy asks for the conversion which is be covered by the standard 2-year warranty. All Dacia Logans sold in the EU reach the Euro 4 emission levels with the help of sequential multiport injection.
The standard-engine has an unimpressive mileage 26 MPG (US) and 166 g of CO2/km (24 and 170 for the optional 1.6 liter).The Dacia Logan can also be purchased with a sturdy 1.5 dCi 70 HP diesel car good for 40 MPG and 125 g of CO2/km, albeit without particulate filter.
The Dacia Logan is a no-frills sedan which was once thought for emerging markets but they can’t cope with the demand in western Europe for cheap cars.
Related:
[Source: Dacia Italia via Yahoo Autos Italia]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, MPG
The Japanese Trade Ministry is going to provide $1.7 billion in assistance to local carmakers over the next five years to help them develop cleaner cars. They will kick in about $42 million a year toward developing better cheaper batteries for electric cars. The target is to get the retail price of electric cars down under $25,000 by 2010 and under $16,500 by 2020.
Additional funds will go toward reducing the cost of hybrid systems and hydrogen powertrains in order to make them mainstream. Currently fossil fuels account for nearly one hundred percent of transportation fuels but the government has set a target of reducing that to eighty percent by 2030.
[Source: The Auto Channel]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Max admitted to a perpetual state of confusion yesterday, but when it comes to making the right choices for greening our lives, many of us feel the same way. We're surrounded by choices, particularly in how we spend our money, and more and more products and services are touting their environmental benefits. So, which is it: hybrid or high-mileage conventional vehicles? Biodegradeable disposeable products, or recycled ones? Paper or plastic?
Of course, we try to answer many of those questions here at GO (paper or plastic? Neither!). But, you may still be faced with decisions that put you in a quandary: you can see environmental benefits in both options, but aren't sure which choice is best. So, we've created a discussion forum for those green quandaries.
Throw your confusion out to the GO community: more than likely there's are members here who can help you make the best choice. Even if you get a discussion going, and there's no clear winner, you know more than you did when you started.
Thanks to GO member serenity_ii for the suggestion — it's a good one!