Gas 2.0 |
- Test Drive: Volvo V70 and C30EV Show Battery-Powered Promise
- ‘Clean Coal’ for Energy? Not So Fast DOE.
- Egg-ish Nissan Electric Land Glider May be Built With Infinti Badge
- Three-Wheelers Approved for DOE Funds
- $400 Per Gallon Gas And The Green War Of The Future
- Up Close And Personal With Coskata’s New Flex Ethanol Plant
- U.S. Senate Reinstates Funding for Hydrogen Car Research
| Test Drive: Volvo V70 and C30EV Show Battery-Powered Promise Posted: 19 Oct 2009 04:23 PM PDT
Volvo C30EV on the road. This post was written by Andrew English and originally appeared on the Popular Mechanics website. In this rough economic climate, it appears Volvo has weathered the storm. In September, Ford’s Swedish car-making arm, Volvo, showed a 16 percent sales increase over last year—one of only nine automakers to do so. And the Swedes are showing a firm embrace on the latest environmental technologies, even if the company doesn’t quite have the wherewithal to put them all into production right now. What will be in European showrooms next year is the plug-in hybrid V70 wagon with the capability of traveling 31 miles in electric-only mode. We’re going to have to wait for the battery-electric C30EV coupe, but Popular Mechanics was given a preview drive of both recently. |
| ‘Clean Coal’ for Energy? Not So Fast DOE. Posted: 19 Oct 2009 12:48 PM PDT
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) along with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is looking to fund $2 million dollars in coal research as part of the University Coal Research (UCR) Program. The research projects will be an attempt to improve the “fundamental understanding of the chemical and physical processes that govern coal conservation and utilization, by product utilization, and technological development.” From an Administration that is attempting to reduce America’s dependence on oil through greenhouse gas emissions reductions, this is one of the—excuse me—stupidest ideas our country has had… at least for today. Look people, coal is NOT clean, even though the coal industry wants you to believe it is. As a matter of fact, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, a front group for the coal and utility industries, is currently running a ‘clean coal” campaign in excess of $35 million according to a Washington Post article from last year. |
| Egg-ish Nissan Electric Land Glider May be Built With Infinti Badge Posted: 19 Oct 2009 11:32 AM PDT
Here’s one for the strange book: according to Automotive News (subs. req’d), the egg-shaped, tilt-wheel, 2-seat, Nissan electric car concept set to debut at the Tokyo Motor Show this week known as the Land Glider is apparently under serious consideration for actually being built. Not only that, reportedly the company also thinks it would work well as a luxury Infiniti. I don’t really know what to say, except… maybe Nissan knows something about rich people that I don’t? |
| Three-Wheelers Approved for DOE Funds Posted: 19 Oct 2009 09:45 AM PDT
Many manufacturers of high-mpg and electric vehicles have adopted a 3-wheeled layout for cost and weight savings, and—in some cases—aerodynamic efficiency. In most states, however, these vehicles are classified as motorcycles. That motorcycle moniker has made them ineligible for DOE funds set aside to foster innovation among American automakers… until now! More details, after the jump. |
| $400 Per Gallon Gas And The Green War Of The Future Posted: 19 Oct 2009 09:34 AM PDT
The U.S. military has been pushing for the development of alternative fuels for a while now, and nobody paid much attention until the Pentagon finally put a price tag on the oil habit. As reported by Roxana Tiron in thehill.com, last week Pentagon officials disclosed that getting conventional petroleum fuel to remote combat locations in Afghanistan costs a whopping $400 per gallon. There couldn’t be a more clear illustration of why the “drill baby drill” mentality is a non-sequitur when it comes to energy security. Regardless of whether petroleum fuels are domestic or imported, they need to be transported to their point of use. That’s not much of a problem when you’ve got modern seaports, highways and fuel depots, but to paraphrase one infamous former Secretary of Defense, you have to fight the war you have, not the war that’s got the ideal infrastructure to support your fuel of choice. |
| Up Close And Personal With Coskata’s New Flex Ethanol Plant Posted: 19 Oct 2009 09:23 AM PDT
Pennsylvania is beautiful this time of year, but I missed most of it since I made the 400+ mile drive mostly in the dark. It took eight hours of dodging speeding semi-trucks and going through many miles of tunnels, but I finally made it to the Westinghouse Plasma Center in Madison, PA. In case you’re asking, yes, the same Westinghouse that makes flat screen televisions (among other nifty tech stuff). The Coskata semi-commercial flexible ethanol plant, dubbed “Lighthouse”, is located here. This facility is essentially a working scale model of a full size ethanol plant, and the processes and technology here can one day soon be scaled up to produce as much as a 100 million gallons of flex ethanol annually. The important word here is flexible, because unlike other ethanol products, the Coskata process can use just about any carbon matter to produce ethanol. This means the very garbage filling our dumps may one day instead fill our cars. |
| U.S. Senate Reinstates Funding for Hydrogen Car Research Posted: 19 Oct 2009 01:49 AM PDT
In an unexpected U-turn, the U.S. Senate has agreed to continue to back research for the next generation of hydrogen cars - funding that the Obama administration had earlier proposed to cut. The move came last Thursday as Senate members voted to commit $187 million to hydrogen research, almost as much as was promised before the indecision. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Gas 2.0 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment