2010

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Hondas F1 KERS motor: 60 kW, 21,000 RPM, >7 kg

Green Car Congress

by Jack Rosebro. 2009 Honda Formula One chassis configuration, showing KERS component location. Click to enlarge. During the EVS 25 electric vehicle expo in Shanghai earlier this months, Honda engineers presented a glimpse into the development of an advanced high-performance electric motor that Honda had designed as part of a KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) intended for its 2009 Formula One race car.

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South Bay Bicycle Coalition Scores $240,000 Grant! Huge Grassroots Victory for Brand New Bike Group

Creative Greenius

South Bay Bicycle Coalition members including Redondo Beach Councilman Steve Diels, with County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas and County Department of Public Health Staff upon awarding of the grant. That's South Bay Bicycle Coalition Chairman, Todd "Elvis" Dipaola rocking the shades. Your Greenius got great news from downtown Los Angeles on Friday when my pal, Todd Diapola called me from Kenny Hahn Hall of Administration to report he and the other representatives of the South Bay Bic

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Tony Hayward's New Electric Car!

Electric Cars are for Girls

What sort of going away present do you give a guy who's resigning from his post at BP after spilling all their shareholders' oil into the Gulf? Lemme think.Hey, I've got it! How about an electric car? It only takes 25,000 signatures to get him the keys.

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GM’s assembly line delivers bouncing baby Volt

Revenge of the Electric Car

Chris Paine and the Revenge crew (Sean, Craig, Jessie, and Jessica) are proud to say that they are among the first film crews ever to professionally film mass production of an EV. (Of course, this is mostly because no one has made them in so long.) Since GM will be one of the first to the EV market with its Volt in 2011, we came to film them being put together through the multiple stages of the car manufacturing process.

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How serious is Norway about climate change? So much that its streetlights self-dim

emissions global warming Norway climate change carbon dioxide youtube lighting

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Coulomb, MasterCard, and the future of public charging

Plugs and Cars

Coulomb Technologies unveiled San Francisco's first ChargePoint America charge stations yesterday in a Priority Parking lot along the Embarcadero. The charge stations and installations were paid for with federal stimulus and California Energy Commission grants won by Coulomb. Mayor Newsom and many city employees were there, along with large signs and representatives of MasterCard.

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Paris To Test Banning Gas-Guzzlers (Yes, SUVs!) In City Core

Green Car Reports

Why are many European carmakers now planning to build electric vehicles? Because many European cities are widely expected to ban high-emissions vehicles from their city cores over the next decade--perhaps even vehicles with any emissions at all. Now, Paris may be the first city to experiment with such a policy. Next year, it will begin to test.

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More Trending

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Mission Motors reveals the Mission R race-ready electric superbike motorcycle

National Green Transportation

Do you like this story? Indications have been building all year that Mission Motors was preparing to unveil a new electric superbike, the most recent hint being a silhouette that's graced their website for a couple months. Yesterday that bike, the Mission R, was.

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Earn a Masters Degree in – electric vehicles

Green Cars News

If you’re a regular reader of TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk you probably already consider yourself an expert on the subject of electric vehicles. However, do you think you would be good enough to earn a Masters Degree in the subject? Believe it or not, that could actually be a possibility after The Renault Foundation and ParisTech developed a [.]. Tags: Electric cars Green cars Latest news Renault Electric Vehicle Masters Degree electric vehicles Masters Course ParisTech Renault Foundation Sustainabl

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Study Finds On-Road Transportation Sector the Greatest Net Contributor to Atmospheric Warming Now and in Mid-Term; Power Sector Takes the Lead by 2050

Green Car Congress

Radiative forcing due to perpetual constant year 2000 emissions grouped by sector for 2020 (left) and 2100 (right) showing the contribution from each species. The net sum of total radiative forcing is indicated by the title of each bar. From Unger et al., PNAS. Click to enlarge. A new study by led by Nadine Unger at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) that analyzes the net climate impacts of emissions from economic sectors rather than by individual chemical species has found that o

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MIT-Led Team Designs Two Airplanes That Would Use 70% Less Fuel Than Current Models

Green Car Congress

An MIT-led team has designed an airplane that is estimated to use 70% less fuel than current planes while also reducing noise and emission of NO x. The design was one of two that the team, led by faculty from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, presented to NASA last month as part of a $2.1 million research contract to develop environmental and performance concepts that will help guide the agency’s aeronautics research over the next 25 years.

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Faurecia and Accenture partner on products and services for connected and autonomous vehicles

Brief

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Jaguar Introduces C-X75 Gas Micro-turbine Extended Range Electric Vehicle Concept

Green Car Congress

The C-X75. Click to enlarge. Jaguar has unveiled the C-X75 concept, an extended range electric vehicle that uses twin gas micro-turbines from Bladon Jets to power two switched reluctance generators from SR Drives. ( Earlier post.) Traction is provided by four 145 kW (195 bhp), 400 N·m (295 lb-ft) traction motors at each wheel for total drive power of 580 kW/780 bhp.

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Study Concludes Peak Coal Will Occur Close to 2011

Green Car Congress

A multi-Hubbert analysis of coal production by Tadeusz Patzek at The University of Texas at Austin and Gregory Croft at the University of California, Berkeley concludes that the global peak of coal production from existing coalfields will occur close to the year 2011. The HHV of global production is likely to peak in 2011 at 160 EJ/y, and the peak carbon emissions from coal burning will also peak in 2011 at 4.0 Gt C (15 Gt CO 2 ) per year, according to the study.

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Graphene-based supercapacitor offers energy density comparable to NiMH battery, but with rapid charge and discharge

Green Car Congress

Ragone plot of graphene supercapacitor. Credit: ACS, Liu et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers from Nanotek Instruments and Angstron Materials have developed a graphene-based supercapacitor that exhibits a specific energy density of 85.6 Wh/kg at room temperature and 136 Wh/kg at 80 °C (all based on the total electrode weight), measured at a current density of 1 A/g.

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Chevy Volt Delivers Novel Two-Motor, Four-Mode Extended Range Electric Drive System; Seamless Driver Experience Plus Efficiency

Green Car Congress

by Mike Millikin and Jack Rosebro. The Volt drive unit combines two motors and three clutches to deliver four distinct operating modes to maximize efficiency and provide a seamless driving experience. Click to enlarge. During the serial media launch events for the Chevrolet Volt, GM provided more detail (subsequent to the completion of related patent work) on the novel drive architecture applied in their first extended range electric vehicle to enhance the efficiency of both the battery electric

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ExxonMobil announces 6th oil discovery offshore Guyana with Ranger-1; Guyana may move from non-producer to regional powerhouse

Oil

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Energy Secretary Chu says US faces a new Sputnik Moment in Chinas clean energy successes

Green Car Congress

In a speech at the National Press Club, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that the success of China and other countries in clean energy industries represents a new “Sputnik Moment” for the United States, and will require a similar mobilization of innovation to enable the US to compete in the global race for the jobs of the future. Secretary Chu observed that China’s investments in clean energy technologies represent both a challenge and an opportunity for the United States.

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Sanyo Supplying Li-ion Batteries for Suzuki Swift Plug-in Hybrid

Green Car Congress

Sanyo Electric recently announced an agreement with Suzuki Motor to supply lithium-ion battery systems for the Swift Plug-in Hybrid. ( Earlier post.) Suzuki has already announced its intention to start manufacturing the vehicles. The plug-in is powered by a 55 kW, 180 N·m AC synchronous motor and a 2.66 kWh Li-ion battery pack. The 0.66L engine is the K6A, earlier versions of which were used in the Cappuccino.

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Study Finds Environmental Impact of Li-ion Battery for BEVs is Relatively Small; The Operation Phase is the Dominant Contributor to Environmental Burden

Green Car Congress

Environmental burden of a gasoline-fueled ICEV relative to that of a BEV (100%) assessed by four different methods: abiotic depletion potential (ADP), nonrenewable cumulated energy demand (CED), global warming potential (GWP), and Ecoindicator 99 H/A (EI99 H/A). Credit; ACS, Notter et al. Click to enlarge. A team from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) compiled a detailed lifecycle inventory of a Li-ion battery and produced a rough lifecycle analysis (LCA)

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BREAKING NEWS: Hermosa Beach To Become Carbon Neutral City! Acting Locally, Thinking Globally

Creative Greenius

Ever since the Copenhagen climate treaty talks ended in impotence two months ago there hasn’t been a single ounce of positive news on the international scene about our chances of cutting the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and getting CO2 levels back down to the safe 350 ppm zone. Here in the United States our President and Congress haven’t shown the leadership or sense of urgency necessary to prevent a climate catastrophe and they’ve given the people no hope for their

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Survey Finds Fuel Efficiency Impacting US Consumers’ Future Auto Buying Decisions

Green Car Congress

A new survey by Capital One Auto Finance found that more than half of respondents (53%) say that their next car will be more fuel efficient than their current vehicle and 55% would be very likely or somewhat likely to give up a larger vehicle for a more fuel-efficient model when they buy their next car. While the overwhelming majority of those surveyed (96%) do not currently own an alternative motor vehicle and two-thirds (76%) have never driven or test-driven one of these types of cars, nearly

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Researcher Describes Conceptual Cold Fusion Battery, or Small Power Unit

Green Car Congress

Professor George Miley of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and director of its Fusion Studies Lab, reported on progress toward a “cold fusion battery”—a small power unit that uses a low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) (i.e., “cold fusion”) to process an energy release from an electrolytic cell operating at low temperature and that could be competitive with a Li-ion battery or a fuel cell—at the 239 th national meeting of the American Chemical Society

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Study Suggests That Optimal Use of Bioenergy as Fuel or Electricity Depends on Market and Regulatory Policy Contexts; Higher-Level Assumptions Can Constrain Questions and Affect Results

Green Car Congress

A new study by a team from UC Berkeley and Stanford University suggests that determining the optimal use of biomass to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—i.e, conversion to fuel molecules or to electrons—depends on market and regulatory contexts that are outside the scope of attributional life cycle assessments (LCA). A 2009 life cycle analysis by Campbell et al. suggested that converting biomass into electricity for EVs abates more GHG emissions than does converting biomass into liquid

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Ford Becomes First Automaker to Join the Water Disclosure Project

Green Car Congress

Ford Motor Company is the first automaker and one of several companies taking a leadership position in joining the Water Disclosure Project , which will establish a water disclosure protocol for companies around the world and promote conservation and stewardship. The initiative is sponsored by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which established the disclosure and reporting framework used by 2,500 of the world’s largest companies to report carbon emissions.

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Ford and Portland General Electric Partner to Prepare Region for EVs

Green Car Congress

Ford Motor Company and Portland General Electric will collaborate to help prepare the city of Portland and the Pacific Northwest for the operation of electric vehicles. Ford and PGE will work together to share information on charging needs and requirements to ensure the electrical grid can support the necessary demand for electric vehicles, as well as partner on consumer education outreach around electric vehicles.

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Forecast: Algae-Based Biofuels Production to Reach 61M Gallons per Year by 2020

Green Car Congress

According to a new report from Pike Research, algae biofuels production will grow rapidly over the next decade, reaching 61 million gallons per year and a market value of $1.3 billion by 2020. While barely a drop in the bucket for biofuels, Pike says, this represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 72%, roughly on par with early development in the biodiesel industry.

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New split-cycle concept to control diesel HCCI combustion

Green Car Congress

Turbocharged HCPC engine scheme. Click to enlarge. A team from Universita degli Studi di Pisa (Italy) and Rolf Reitz at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are proposing a novel combustion concept—Homogenous Charge Progressive Combustion (HCPC)—based on a split-cycle principle to control HCCI combustion in diesel-fueled engines. Ettore Musu from the University of Pisa presented a CFD study of concept at the SAE 2010 Powertrains, Fuels and Lubricants Meeting in San Diego.

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General Motors Kicks Off National Electric Vehicle Training Tour For First Responders

Green Car Congress

by Jack Rosebro. A Chicago Fire Department firefighter using a hydraulic. cutter to remove the roof off of a pre-production Chevrolet Volt. during a demonstration at the 2010 Fire-Rescue Conference. International in Chicago. Click to enlarge. Using a pre-production example of the Chevrolet Volt as a teaching tool, General Motors launched a nationwide electric vehicle training tour and outreach project for emergency personnel this week at the 2010 Fire-Rescue International Conference in Chicago.

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Toyota unveils RAV4 EV demonstration vehicle; targeting fully-engineered version in 2012 for market

Green Car Congress

The RAV4 EV demonstrator. Click to enlarge. Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), USA, unveiled the second-generation Toyota RAV4 EV demonstrator vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Toyota will build 35 of these Phase Zero vehicles—essentially converted RAV4s—for a demonstration and evaluation program through 2011. Tesla Motors is supplying the battery and other related components.

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The Social Non Profit – Working Smarter with Social Tech

Green Car Congress

The Social Non Profit. I believe that non profits are more capable of fulfilling their Mission, meeting their business goals, empowering (liberating) their staff and engaging their stakeholders when they choose to work smarter using social technologies. As non profits embark on a working smarter path I see them incrementally evolving into a social non profit state (continuous dynamic process).

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Synthetic Biology Breakthrough: Venter Institute Scientists Create First Self-Replicating, Synthetic Bacterial Cell

Green Car Congress

Self-replicating synthetic bacteria (JCVI-syn1.0 isolate) shown in electron micrographs using two different methods. Source: Gibson et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), a not-for-profit genomic research organization, have successfully constructed the first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell. The team synthesized the 1.08 million base pair chromosome of a modified Mycoplasma mycoides genome.

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Amazon.com Packaging FAIL – Hey Jeff Bezos, Who is the Airhead That Packed This?

Creative Greenius

I ordered my new 2011 wall calendar for my office from Amazon.com because they had the best price and free shipping. But I thought that free shipping meant “no cost&# not “brain free.&# Apparently that’s not the case because Amazon sent me my 2011 calendar in a box big enough to ship a flat screen TV. Check it out: When the box arrived via Fed Ex ground, I got excited thinking someone had sent me a large gift… I mean this box was huge, dwarfing my large sized trash an

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Porsche Developing Electric Vehicles; 3 Electric Boxsters Slated for Testing

Green Car Congress

A Porsche Boxster. Click to enlarge. Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart is researching and developing all-electric vehicles, with three electric Boxsters to be in testing as part of the Stuttgart Model Region for Electromobility project. The work is in conjunction with the ongoing development of hybrid concepts already in regular production. Through the test process, Porsche intends for the three electric Boxsters to provide an initial insight into new electric drive components and battery s

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Survey Finds Many Americans Have a Very Poor Understanding of Energy Use and Savings

Green Car Congress

Mean perceptions of energy used or saved as a function of actual energy used or saved for 15 devices and activities. The diagonal dashed line represents perfect accuracy. Inset: Individual regression curves for 30 randomly selected participants. Source: Attari et al. Click to enlarge. A new survey by researchers from Columbia University, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University finds that many Americans have a very poor understanding of energy use and savings.

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Marathon Announces First Oil from Deepwater Droshky Development in Gulf of Mexico

Green Car Congress

Marathon Oil Corporation announced that its Droshky development in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico has begun production on time and under budget. This marks the first new deepwater production since the Obama Administration halted drilling after the Deepwater Horizon accident. The new well had already been drilled at the time of the incident. Marathon owns a 100% working interest in Droshky, which is expected to produce approximately 50,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day at its peak, consisti

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Chrysler to Develop New Fiat 500 Electric Vehicle for the US; Ram PHEV to Offer 20 Miles All-electric Range

Green Car Congress

Fiat 500EV. Click to enlarge. Chrysler Group LLC plans to engineer and produce a battery electric vehicle using the Fiat 500 platform. Previewed earlier this year at the 2010 North American International Auto Show, the Fiat 500EV demonstrates the immediate benefits of the alliance between Chrysler Group and the Fiat Group as well as the speed at which the two companies can work together on advanced vehicle programs, according to Chrysler.

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