Category Archives: Green Tech

A Cost Effective Way To Make Hydrogen?

By Kate Weinkauf  

elecDeveloped by Dr. Alden H. Gajo as a means of creating cost-effective hydrogen, the AS1 Stack-On Electrolyzer appears to be one of the first cost effective ways to produce hydrogen that is available to the public.

While other electrolyzers that produce similar hydrogen output can cost over $10,000, the AS1 will cost you fractions of the price as it is selling for less than $400. The AS1 was created with three specific and altruistic goals: (I) to help reduce carbon greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow or stop global warming (2) to reduce or eliminate our country’s dependence on foreign energy sources, specifically crude oil (3) to help create a better and cleaner environment for our children and our grandchildren.

From these objectives came a product that can efficiently and effectively create hydrogen for practical purposes such as: a) creating hydrogen on demand and on a continuous basis for pennies per liter b) combining hydrogen with compressed natural gas (CNG), making this an ideal low cost solution to a CNG refueling station, offering instead a CNG-Hydrogen blend c) use as a home hydrogen refueling station.

With the holidays just around the corner, this could be an excellent gift for those who like to tinker with hydrogen, for researchers who need in-lab on demand hydrogen, or for educators trying to spread the word about this new fuel. Let’s face it, allowing a family member to assert energy independence is a much better gift than a lousy sweatshirt with bluebirds perched on holly branches. For more information about this product, sold exclusively through Fuel Cell Store, click here.



San Francisco Planning $1 Billion Electric Car Charging Network

By Michael d'Estries  

California gets all the cool toys. Not only did the state recently approve initial development of a multi-billion dollar bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but now plans have been unveiled for a $1 billion dollar charging station network for electric cars. From the article,

San Francisco Bay Area cities promised to build the electric car capital of the United States, announcing a plan on Thursday to work with start-up Better Place to put battery-powered autos on the road in 2012. Mayors of San Francisco, Silicon Valley capital San Jose, Oakland and other cities in the region said they would offer incentives and standardize infrastructure with Better Place, a start-up that aims to offer electric cars as a service, like a cell phone, at prices similar or below standard cars.

Better Place already has experience in building charging station networks; albeit in smaller markets like Israel, Denmark and Australia. Their plan is to garner the capital for the project over the next 18 months (no easy task in today’s economic environment) and then launch a test for 2010. By 2012 — when the market for electric cars is a reality — a full launch will occur around San Francisco.

Gizmodo gives us the DL on how this will all be paid for:

Naturally, a project this vast isn’t going to be cheap—$1 billion is a lot of money to burden the taxpayers with. Fortunately, that won’t be a problem because the project will be funded with an incentive plan directed at companies who install the chargers. Building permits will also be expedited to help move things along. Better Place will also be working with Renault-Nissan to distribute electric vehicles in “much the way telecoms distribute cellphones. Customers will subscribe to drive a certain number of miles and get an electric vehicle at a discounted price. Better Place will own the battery.”

What do you think? Too much too soon? Pie in the sky development? Or just what America needs to kick-start the electric automobile revolution?

The Energy Efficiency Summit East to be held in D.C.

By Kate Weinkauf  

The Energy Efficiency Summit East 2008 will explore the current status and future direction for energy efficiency and demand programs, technologies, and finance. Held in Washington, D.C. from September 8-10, this conference will bring utilities and energy service companies together with emerging customer groups to explore opportunities for expanding the use of energy efficiency and demand response technologies.

This Summit provides the occasion for government regulators to examine how to implement energy efficiency while investors and technology developers will provide an overview of new technologies that reduce energy usage. The Summit will also include an Executive Forum on Sept. 8, ‘08, “Overcoming the Market Barriers to Commercializing Demand Management & Energy Efficiency Technologies”. Hopefully putting all of these great minds together will begin a solution to our renewable energy needs and set in motion, at the very least, a dialogue for solutions.

For more information, please visit the official site here.

V2GREEN=V2G

By Kate Weinkauf  

Currently there is no way to store large scale energy. If energy is sent to the grid and goes unused, it is wasted. However, if there was a way to utilize electric vehicles (EV’s) as energy storage units that returned energy to the grid during peak hours, less energy would be wasted (as many of you know, this is called vehicle-to-grid or V2G technology), and V2Green has become a V2G innovator.

V2Green is a company that offers, as the CEO John Clark states: a “technology [that] establishes intelligent, two-way communication between the electrical grid and distributed power resources.” The V2Green System also allows utilities to manage the flow of energy back to the grid when necessary. This is especially valuable because intelligently managed electric power helps to reduce petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions.

And don’t worry—this technology is not some mirage of the future. This year, Xcel Energy deployed the V2Green System in the first real-world successful trial of V2G technology, demonstrating both its capabilities and economic value, putting us on the path toward more efficient energy usage.

Solar Powered Table Turns Treehuggers Into Executives

By Michael d'Estries  

solar table

The world of solar-powered tables is growing. Over on Earth First, I wrote earlier about a table — that besides charging your gadgets — is apparently also an aphrodisiac. At least, that’s what the advertising tells us.

This new photovoltaic-endowed table, created by Oakland-based design-building studio Because We Can, was commissioned by solar manufacturer SunPower. Apparently, they were looking for some new office furniture for the executive areas and wanted to make a statement. From the site,

“The surface of the panel is a smooth plastic, and the solar panel drops into the steel frame of the table. The panel is fully functional and collecting power as it sits in this sunny office.”

We’ll take one, please!

via CasaSugar

Exclusive: eTec Interview Sheds Light On Future “Fast” Charging Devices, Hydrogen Generation

By Michael d'Estries  

etec.gifWelcome to a new series exploring the different technologies and companies that are a key part of Ecotality’s vision for a greener and more sustainable future. First up is eTec, a company that specializes in next-generation energy storage and alternative-transportation testing.

Tell us a bit of what eTec specializes in — and where the company is positioning itself over the next couple years.

eTec is focused on technologies and solutions surrounding Energy, Transportation and the Environment. Initially focused on electric vehicle infrastructure, ETEC has expanded into areas of battery research, energy storage, advanced vehicle testing, and hydrogen technologies. eTec has strong fast charger branding in the airport, industrial lift-truck and low speed electric vehicle markets and is well positioned to develop charging products for the emerging plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and pure electric vehicle on-road markets.

The Minit-Charger appears to be an excellent fast-charging accessory for electric and plug-in vehicles. Can you describe how it works and it we might one days see these things in our garage?

Minit-Charger utilizes patented charging methods that allows faster charging wthout the destructive effects of over-charging and un-controlled temperature rise. The eTec Minit-Charger fast-charge system will more likely be deployed at commercial facilities where people spend at least 10-15 minutes such as restaurants, malls and in fleet applications. It is typically not necessary to fast-charge at home, the residential home could have an eTec overnight charge system that typically would complete the charge in 6-8 hours.

The “Hydrogen Future” is generally expected to be 10-15 years away. In your experience working on technologies to make a hydrogen infrastructure a reality, does this ring true? Could it happen faster?

We believe we could get to a cost effective solution pretty quickly with the hydrogen ICE vehicle conversions, but the hydrogen supply is still an expensive proposition. We are conducting a study for the US DOE looking at utilizing existing off-peak nuclear energy to see if an economic solution can be achieved in the near term for bulk hydrogen production. There are several other such studies underway to better understand what the best approach would be for hydrogen generation. It’s very difficult to predict what advancements might take place to get us there.

Click here to continue reading the interview…

Flush Your GreenEgo Down a Waterless Urinal

By Kate Weinkauf  

waterless.jpgYesterday was the last day of the three day Green West Exposition and Conference held in Los Angeles, California at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Yet, for California being such a leader in the green movement, the limited turn-out of exhibitors was surprising—for which there were certainly grumblings amongst visitors. Granted, this was the first Green West exposition, and it was the last day, but Green West boasted less than 75 exhibits, the majority focusing on green architecture.

The conference contained the usual burgeoning technologies in green home construction and interior design, green media materials, a variety of recycled products from bags to faux lawns, solar panels and LED lights, information on ecovolunteerism, several fascinating displays on water saving toilets and waterless urinals. Perhaps the most interesting, however, were the three exhibits about automotive technology.

It was interesting to discuss the different automotive technologies with the exhibitors—each believing quite strongly that their technology is the solution for future automotives. While I understand the importance of believing in your product, I was surprised by the egos involved. Many of the automotive exhibitors simply dismissed other technologies with a wave of the hand before trumpeting the viability of their own. When discussing PHEV technology with a fuel cell exhibitor who supports hydrogen fuel cell development in California, he was quick to judge the potential of PHEVs. The attitude of “my technology is better than yours” was rampant. Many of the exhibitors could not see past their own technologies and were too busy poking holes in competing technologies to leave an attendee feeling confident about our green future.

It is not news that we are a world in desperate need of environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions. It is encouraging, then, that we have green conferences (however small) working toward those solutions. BUT, we are never going to make tangible progress if ego interferes with intellect.

Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio R. Villaraigosa suggests Los Angeles is “on track to become the cleanest and greenest big city in America,” but for this to become a reality, green industry and technologies need to drastically improve their open-mindedness within their own industries.

Solar Powered Aircraft Being Developed For Five-Year Flight

Skynet anyone?

By Michael d'Estries  

aurora_pxccx_7071.jpg

A government agency has awarded a new contract to Aurora Flight Sciences for the development of a radical and ultra-efficient aircraft capable of staying aloft in the stratosphere for five years — or more. The latest design, called Odysseus, uses solar energy to power the aircraft during the day and stored solar energy for the night. From the article,

” The objective of the Vulture program is to develop an aircraft capable of remaining on-station uninterrupted for over five years to perform intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and communication missions over an area of interest. The technology challenges include development of energy management and reliability technologies capable of allowing the aircraft to operate continuously for such extended durations. Vulture, in effect, will be a persistent pseudo-satellite capability, in an aircraft package.”

This would be an incredible UAV if expectations are fulfilled. Currently, global climate change research, weather monitoring, and regional-scale telecommunications are the expected uses.

via ecofriend 

BMW’s Hydrogen Car Actually Cleans The Air Around It

By Michael d'Estries  

h7.jpg

BMW has been handing over their Hydrogen 7 sedan to several celebrities and other notables as part of a trial of the new technology out in the real world. The car is actually a hybrid of sorts that allows the owner to either use hydrogen or gasoline as the fuel of choice. This week, however, at the 2008 SAE World Congress in Detroit BMW showed off a pure hydrogen concept car that not only burns clean, but also emits fewer carbon monoxides than found in the air around it. From the article,

“This means the engine breaks down or converts the carbon monoxides it takes in. The emissions tests, run by Argonne Laboratories, also show a similar reduction in non-methane organic gasses. The vehicles other emissions are all so low that standard automobile emissions testing wouldn’t have detected them.”

How about that? Not only can you drink the waste water from this thing, but it will also make the air you breathe cleaner. Sounds like a must-have for any future inhabitant of Los Angeles.

BMW has no plans to market the hydrogen-only vehicle and will stick to the current H7 for future sales.

via Green Tech Blog

World’s First Integrated Building Turbines Spin To Life In Bahrain

By Michael d'Estries  

bahrain.jpg

I’ve always thought integrated building turbines were a smart idea — but generally they could only be found on models or drawings of ‘potential’ green architecture. No longer. The Bahrain World Trade Center made history earlier this week by allowing its new integrated blades to start catching some wind and generating electricity. They are expected to provide between 11%-15% of the building’s power. From the article,

“he elliptical shapes of the two buildings of the architecture funnel and even accelerate the wind towards the turbines. And there’ll be no shortage of wind too, what with the Bahrain World Trade Center in direct path of the onshore breeze blowing from the Gulf coast. According to the project manager, the cost of turbines was reduced to 3.5 percent of the whole project’s, which means that should the turbines work as expected, the project is financially viable.”

It’s about time we create buildings that take advantage of their height and air flow to work for them, rather than against. The Middle East is currently a hot bed for green tech — so look to other projects in the coming months to wow even further.

via goodcleantech

[UPDATE] Metaefficient has posted a sweet video of the three turbines in action. Take a look here.




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