Greener Green Grass: August 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009

Gas 2.0

Driving On Electric Glass: Solar Highway Awarded Prototype Funding
Chevy Volt Takes a Dive - for Safety!
Enertia TTR Electric Motorcycle in Select Best Buy Stores NOW
Angry Green Girl’s Hybrid Bikini Carwash

Driving On Electric Glass: Solar Highway Awarded Prototype Funding

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 02:01 PM PDT

Asphalt is ugly and flaky, and requires constant supervision. Snow and road repair can slow down traffic worse than an ugly accident, and the resources that go into building maintaining high-use highways are intimidating to consider.

But there may be another way. A radical intelligent highway design utilizing solar panels, LED lighting, and heating elements has been awarded funding by the Department of Transportation to the tune of $100,000. Will the Solar Highway soon replace asphalt, and how will we all adapt to driving on glass?

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Chevy Volt Takes a Dive - for Safety!

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 11:07 AM PDT

What would happen if your Chevy Volt’s battery pack got wet during a carwash? What if you tried to drive it through a foot of standing water after a rainstorm? What would happen if you lost control of your Chevy Volt and drove it into a canal?

Water and electricity do not go hand-in-hand, exactly, and despite the excitement and energy surrounding Chevy’s upcoming Volt EV, a number of people are still asking questions about the basic safety of the Volt’s powerful batteries.

GM took those concerns to heart, and released some rare “behind-the-scenes” commentary on the car’s underwater testing on GM’s VoltAge blog.

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Enertia TTR Electric Motorcycle in Select Best Buy Stores NOW

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 11:02 AM PDT

Brammo followed up the massive hype of the brand’s initial launch with by taking on the famous Isle of Man TT motorcycle race back in June with the Enertia TTR sportbike (shown, above).

As impressive as their racing efforts were, however, the latest news out of Brammo is even more impressive: the bikes are on available at select Best Buy stores … NOW!

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Angry Green Girl’s Hybrid Bikini Carwash

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 10:49 AM PDT

I don’t know much about Sophia “the Angry Green Girl”, but this woman absolutely KNOWS how to get attention. Case in point? She’s hired a dozen bikini-clad LA models to wash any hybrid vehicle that happens by in the hopes of generating some press for her new website, under the banner of “Shamelessly exploiting everything I got to save our world.”

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Sunday, August 30, 2009

Gas 2.0

BMW Reveals Awkwardly-Named Plug-In Hybrid Concept Car

Posted: 30 Aug 2009 04:30 PM PDT

I’ve always been of the mindset that fuel efficiency and performance do not have to be mutually exclusive. A new concept car from BMW pursues that ideology, blending almost 600 ft-lbs of torque with a 62.6 mile-per-gallon fuel efficiency.

Called (take a deep breath) the Vision EfficiencyDynamics turbodiesel plug-in hybrid concept, it combines a lot of future technology into a polarizing design that is sure force people to draw lines in the sand.

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Gas 2.0

DOE Offers $1 Million Prize For Breakthrough Hydrogen Technology

Posted: 26 Aug 2009 07:23 PM PDT

File this one under “weaksauce”. After trying to cut research funding by hundreds of millions for hydrogen technology (most of which was restored by Congress), the Department of Energy has announced a $1 million prize for a hydrogen technology breakthrough. The contest seeks an entry that will improve current hydrogen storage issues, involving highly-pressurized tanks.

But plenty of rules, red tape, and a short deadline may shortchange this contest of its best entrants.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Gas 2.0

Three Key Elements to ECOtality’s Electric Vehicle Project

Posted: 26 Aug 2009 01:57 PM PDT

-Above: the Nissan “Leaf” Electric Vehicle (learn more on the Nissan/eTEC partnership).

With $99.8 million from the Federal Government, ECOtality is on a mission to make America plug-in ready.

There's been a tremendous flurry of activity in recent weeks with President Obama's announcement of $2.4 billion in grants to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of the next generation of U.S. batteries and electric vehicles. We at ECOtality and our subsidiary Electric Transportation Engineering Corporation (eTec) are thrilled to be a part of that activity as the recipients of $99.8 million grant for the largest electrification transportation project in history.

Our history in electric transportation dates back to 1989 and we have worked on every EV initiative in North America since then. Today, through our grant from the federal government, we're embarking on an exciting project to truly make America plug-in ready: we are partnering with Nissan to deploy 5,000 zero-emission battery electric vehicles and 12,750 charging stations in five markets across the United States.

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Hoarding The Rare Earth Wealth: China May Limit Export Of Rare Elements

Posted: 25 Aug 2009 08:20 PM PDT

The big scare about oil is that it’s a dirty and diminishing resource. We are running low on supplies while polluting our environment. While we do consume oil at a ghastly rate, there are plenty of other materials that go into the cars, computers, and cell phones that we have all grown very accustomed to. Rare metals not easily accessible. China currently controls 95% of the rare-metal market, having flooded the market last decade with cheaper metals and wiping out most of the competition.

Whether sensing a precarious position or a powerful one, China is now considering a partial or total ban on certain rare earth elements. Some of these elements are directly related to the future of fuel. What will hybrids do without their Lanthanum?

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