Jurdy

Police use electric cars

“It’s very Brighton,” people apparently cooed at the newest addition to the Sussex Police.  The southern England police force is trialling an electric car for its patrols.

I’m not that sure about this move. I love electric vehicles. If they’re powered from renewable sources then there is a great potential to minimise a footprint but this particular vehicle is not necessarily the best one to showcase the technology.

The £12,500 buggy is capable of 28mph and has a range of 50 miles.  Consequently, it will not be used for any police chases; even a mobilty scooter gave the vehicle, from GEM, a run for its money, the Guardian sarcastically reported.

And herein lies the problem.  Bicycles are faster around towns than cars. They cost less and work well in cities such as London and Bristol.  They also command respect.

I want this technology to be received well.  It has to be if it is to be adopted but, this means it must be seen as cool and glamourous.  There are also several better, more green uses for the money, a top of the range mountain bike, for example.  An electric bike would also match the speeds suggested by the organisers.

Sussex Police will be trialling the technology throughout the town’s week-long Gay Pride parade, which ends on Sunday.

Is air the key to electric cars?

Anyone who has worked in consumer electronics will tell you that power is a key issue for device manufacturers. Their customers want amazing quality at a rock bottom price with unlimited memory and they want the devices to last forever and a day before recharging them.

The chips could usually keep up with the demand but the battery technology has really struggled when trying to keep pace. And, unfortunately, the same is true for cars.

It seems Toyota’s research labs are looking at this problem and have come up with a potential solution - air.

Yes, seriously, Tech Radar has reported that the company is investing heavily in air batteries for an alternative to the current generation.

According to Tech Radar:

“Air batteries, which create electricity from a reaction between oxygen in the air and a zinc negative electrode, can store five times as much electricity as a similarly sized li-ion battery, although there are problems before they can be commercialised.”

The batteries are already being used in hearing aids but nothing larger and scaling them up to a car’s size will prove a huge challenge.

If Toyota does pull this one off, however, then the major limiting factor for electric cars could finally be removed.

Grey skies loom over Games

The Olympic Games are nearly here. It’s less that two weeks until the opening ceremony. Athletes have already voiced concerns over running through the smog. The double Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie pulled out of the marathon in March because of the smog.

Last week Greenbang took a look at Beijing’s clean up act, but it appears this is not working. At the time of writing China Daily’s headline story was on the Games’ organisers throwing everything possible at the smog problem:

“More vehicles could go off the roads and all construction sites and some more factories in Beijing and its neighboring areas could be closed temporarily if the capital’s air quality deteriorates during the Olympic Games.

Indeed, Li Xin of Beijing’s equivalent of the environment agency has been quoted as saying:

“We will implement an emergency plan 48 hours in advance if the air quality deteriorates during the August 8-24 games,” Li Xin, of the Beijing environmental protection bureau, was quoted as saying.

As the Guardian has reported:

“The amount of particulate matter in the air has failed to reach the national benchmark of 100mg a cubic metre for the past four days. Today, it rose to 113, more than double the far tougher ideal standard of 50 set by the World Health Organisation.”

Toyota increases Prius production… by 70pc

Greenbang has written about the Prius several times before. It is the original and most well known of the hybrid powered cars. Indeed, the car has even made appearances on South Park.

And, with petrol prices rising, interest is being sparked in green technologies. Indeed, the green car sector has bucked the current economic trend and its sales have increased.

This is backed up by Toyota’s move to increase its production to 480,000 units per year.  That’s a 70 per cent increase on current supplies.  It’s also 280,000 higher than originally predicted in May.

According to Treehugger, the company will be rejigging its production facilities with the manufacturing of its Wish minivan moving, freeing up space at its Tsutsumi plant, where the car is already made.

Rubbish hydrogen

There’s something really satisfying about recycling. It may be the smash as bottles break in the bottle bank. It could also be the holier-than-thou mindset that one instantly adopts. In reality, it’s probably neither so we should stop analysing and get back to work.

The business newswires have been on great form today with an announcement from the Nippon Steel Corp.capturing our eye. The Japanese company has developed a technology to produce hydrogen from garbage.

Basically, landfill now becomes of use. The newswire also cited the Nikkei business daily, which suggested waste disposal costs could be cut by 20pc.

The technology comes from a collaboration between Nippon Steel, Kyoto University and the University of Kitayushu. The ministry of economy, trade and industry also chipped in a few yen.

According to the newswire “Nippon Steel aims to sell the equipment to municipalities. The hydrogen gas extracted could be used for fuel cells to power cars and factories, while the ash residue could be used to create cement, the report added.”

Shai Agassi asks for people’s voice

Shai Agassi really is one of the most inspiring people Greenbang has ever met.

He’s the man behind Project Better Place, a business that looks to move people over to economies that rely on clean alternatives to oil.

We’re publishing his press release in full because we like what he’s doing, although we’ve heard there have been a few sticking points with the design of his electric cars.

Thing is, even if that’s true, it’s unlikely to stop Shai. If you meet him, you’ll understand. Here’s our interview with him.

Anyway - Mr Shai…

Palo Alto, Calif. (July 28, 2008) – In its ongoing effort to help people live free from oil, Better Place announced today the unveiling of its new brand identity and online campaign aimed at connecting people online with a shared mission and goal. In addition to the company name and Web site (www.betterplace.com) refresh, Better Place launched a dynamic and uniquely animated logo that visually represents the core pillars on which the company stands – people, planet, prosperity and plug.

Better Place is moving the world off of oil by redefining the economics and experience of transportation – but it cannot do it alone. As part of today’s announcement, Better Place also launched its “10 Words” campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to provide a platform via “minifestos” for people to voice their reasons for ending the world’s addiction to oil.

“Across the globe, people are feeling the pain of rising prices at the pump,” said Joe Paluska, Chief Marketing Officer, Better Place. “We’re calling upon the community to tell the world why we must end our addiction to oil. The switch from oil to electric transportation is inevitable.”

The Better Place Model
As a true mobile operator, Better Place delivers transportation as a sustainable service. The company is building the infrastructure needed for the successful widescale deployment of zero-emission electric vehicles (ZEV) powered by renewable sources of energy.

To do so, Better Place partners with the world’s leading automakers to create the EVs; battery manufacturers to build clean, safe batteries; energy companies to accelerate the migration to renewable energy; and policy makers to lessen the economic and social grip that oil has on nations. The Better Place research and development team integrates existing technology components through Better Place software, charge spots and battery exchange stations so that driving an EV will be as convenient as driving a gas-fueled car.

Tell Us Your “Minifesto”
Through the company’s 10 Words campaign, Better Place is asking everyone to create their own minifesto answering the question in 10 words or less: Why do you think we must end our addiction to oil? By creating a minifesto, people from around the world are given a public platform to express their personal reasons for ending our dependence on oil.

How it works: A contributor must first choose from one of Better Place’s four core pillars to identify the overarching reason why they want to end oil dependency. For example:

People: to provide a sustainable and enjoyable driving experience for all

Planet: to recover from climate change

Prosperity: to create new economic opportunity

Plug: to see zero-emission, electric cars rule the road

Next, they must enter their 10 words, name and photo. The system will automatically integrate their message into a personalized animated minifesto – in practical terms, a short online movie published on http://10words.betterplace.com and available to share with friends, embed in blogs, other Web sites or community profile pages.

The World’s First Dynamic Animated Brand
Teamed with branding firm Addis Creson, Better Place designed its visual brand elements, including a logo, to incorporate not only the name and “switch” (the icon), but also clever animation. The switch portion of the logo dons a sky blue color that reflects not only the color of Planet Earth, but also the spirit of optimism.

When animated, the logo quarters transform into various graphical images reminiscent of the brand, including quotation marks, a butterfly, a lighthouse lens, a bird, and even the letters of the alphabet. Wherever and whenever possible, the logo will be leveraged in motion graphics, on LED signage and the Internet.

To experience the Better Place brand and learn more about how you can participate in the 10 Words campaign, please visit: www.betterplace.com.

About Better Place
Better Place is a venture-backed company that aims to reduce global dependency on oil through the creation of a market-based transportation infrastructure that supports electric vehicles, providing consumers with a cleaner, sustainable, personal transportation alternative. Launched in October 2007, Better Place will build its first Electric Recharge Grids in Israel and Denmark and plans to activate the infrastructure on a country-by-country basis with initial deployments beginning in 2010.

Wind power: “Expensive and unreliable”

Says a study.

The publication of a major independent study funded by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) says there are hidden costs and reliability issues from wind power.

Just take a trip to Margate and look off the coast line. You’ll see a bunch of wind turbines in the sea. Quite often, the turbines aren’t moving. That’s because starting them is a pain in the arse.

Now then - you could whinge about this, which is fair game if the UK is putting big money (said in Max Bygraves style) into it. Or you could change the design of these a bit.

We hear that’s what’s happening to make turbines turn quicker. But will the people at the top of the buying chain realise this?

This is what the REF has to say:

Because the UK is a large economy in a small land area it has limited access to cheap biomass for heat, and in order to meet the EU assigned target of 15% of Final Energy Consumption the UK would have to rely very heavily on electricity. Government estimates that some 30% of UK electricity would have to be renewable by 2020, but it also assumes very dramatic energy conservation which seems improbable given our rising population On more realistic assumptions the level could be as high 45 to 50%.

On the basis of its optimistic view Government estimates that some 28 GW of wind would be necessary, a quantity greater than that modelled in the new study (25 GW).

The study casts doubt on the feasibility of such large wind fleets. Using wind data supplied by the Met Office, and corroborated with empirical data from the wind fleets of Ireland and Germany, together with information about times of peak electricity demand for the past six years, the researchers calculated that in January, the coldest month of the year when energy demand is highest, the wind farms can produce very little energy, frequently as little as 4% of their rated output.

Additionally, the authors argue that conventional fossil fuel plants would need to be switched on and off as many as 23 times a month to make up the shortfall in supplies. They conclude that this would impair efficiency, and reduce emissions savings.

The new study therefore confirms doubts as to the wisdom of a large wind fleet, and supports REF’s long-standing recommendation that the contribution of wind should be limited for technical and economic reasons, to about 10 GW, mostly offshore where winds are stronger and more reliable.

“Wind energy is fine on a small scale, but it works less well on a large scale because British weather and wind is too variable”, says James Oswald, an engineering consultant and former head of research and development at Rolls Royce Turbines who led the research.

“Wind power does not obviate the need for fossil fuel plants, which will continue to be indispensable. The problem is that wind power volatility requires fossil fuel plant to be switched on and off, which damages them and means that even more plants will have to be built. Carbon savings will be less than expected, because cheaper, less efficient plant will be used to support these wind power fluctuations. Neither these extra costs nor the increased carbon production are being taken into account in the government figures for windpower.’”

“The British Wind Energy Association sometimes claims that wind produces power for 80 to 95% of the time, but the number of hours wind produces some power is irrelevant, what matters is how much power for these hours and how much it fluctuates hour to hour.”

“Times of zero wind output are rare, but can be significant. In fact new data shows that wind output was zero at the moment of peak demand in 2006. This was when a high pressure system sat squarely over Britain for ten consecutive days which lead to high demand and very little wind.”

John Constable, Director of Policy and Research for REF, said: “Poorly thought-out political enthusiasm for windpower has propelled us towards levels of deployment which are irrational and very expensive; this study is a helpful corrective, and will enable us to plan how to get the best from wind technology at reasonable cost.”

Wave power wave to miss Canada?

Darn it, Harry. We had heard British Columbia in Canada was quite far ahead in its clean tech innovation.

Greenbang’s always wanted to go there, but has not yet made it.

Canada.com says: “But unlike several European countries, B.C. has shown little desire to nurture the industry. [Chris Campbell, executive director of Nanaimo-based Ocean Renewable Energy Group], predicts B.C. will be generating a significant amount of wave and tidal power in 15 to 20 years, but he worries that it may be using foreign technology.”

Mr Campbell is worried that the UK will overtake Canada in its ‘aggressive’ support of wave technology.

Greenbang has just interviewed several wave and tidal energy companies. They seem to think the UK’s support of their business is anything but aggressive.

Fascinating - before reading that, we’d have assumed Canada would have been miles ahead. You learn something every day…

Motor show video - NICE

In the second of Greenbang’s British Motor Show video reports Rowan Horncastle speaks to the NICE Car Company about its growth.

Greenbang tracks the explosion of the environmental industry, reporting on news of green innovation and thought leadership.

We blog on this rather than the environmental problems of the world because we are interested in the answers to climate change.