The inherent gross inefficiency of the internal combustion engine surpasses even that of conventional thermal power plants. About 5% of the energy in the fuel actually moves a typical automobile. Battery electric vehicles, fuel-cell electrics, plug-in hybrids and others that eschew ICE technology get much more bang for the buck. California is proving this, as […]
How can you not love California if you’re an environmentalist? I’ve lauded the Golden State a few times here for its forward-thinking, smart, and economically advantageous approach to power, transportation, planning, building and curtailing greenhouse gases. The federal government has so many times taken California’s lead, most recently in pumping up the Corporate Average Fuel […]
We refer to the American dream. You know how it goes: house with a yard (with a blisteringly bright green lawn, swimming in fertilizers and pesticides), two cars in the garage, AC at a touch (freezing your brain, making you sick and drawing more and more power), that big plasma TV on which to watch the […]
CAFE – That stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy. What President Obama announced today was a much higher federal requirement, negotiated with the car companies, for more miles per gallon on average for cars sold in the United States. As we know, Lower Gasoline Consumption = Lower GHG Output. How much? Billions of tons of […]
Want to save the planet? I do. Want to save money, the public health, energy and not be reliant on Big Oil? Me too. Okay, here’s the equation then: Internal combustion engines are inherently inefficient – losing as much as 85% of the power that goes into the gas tank along the way to moving […]
Now might be a good time to talk again about the promise of the electric or fuel-cell vehicle. Given the Gulf of Mexico disaster, one would hope that it must start to penetrate, sooner rather than later, that it is past time to leave the internal combustion engine behind. The naysayers talk about the “romance” […]
This batch of links is dedicated to my friends in Washington D.C., who are home from work, staring out their windows in awe of mass precipitation. To ease your Snowmaggedon boredom, some light reading: 1. If the climate accord works, will the climate notice? Maybe. But success depends on what countries do after 2020. 2. […]
Project Better Place is coming along nicely. These are the folks who could catalyze the quest for the electric car’s full penetration into all the world’s markets. I love this stuff – see Future Car for instance. Here’s an eye-opening interview with Shai Agassi, PBP’s founder. I mean, how cool is this?!
Hawaii – One aspect of these paradise islands that takes away some of the glimmer is their reliance on fossil fuels, all of which is imported. The Hawaiians have resolved to not only shift this state of affairs by transitioning to renewables, but they’re going for all the gusto: They’re shooting for 70% of their energy […]
Electric Cars – There’s more good coverage on the promising trend to ZEV surface transportation. See Any colour as long as it is green* from the “FT” yesterday. Mitsubishi is getting out in front of GM and Renault-Nissan on electric cars. The car is small but it’s got range and it’s ten times cheaper to […]
I sat in on some of the exciting sessions of the FPA's annual World Leadership Forum (WLF) this week. If you're interested in the recent developments in the financial industry and the bigger picture of the "geoeconomy," there were two panels of experts discussing some of the ins and outs of those issues which you […]
Permafrost , I wrote about the problem of thawing permafrost here recently. One group of researchers in Canada, at least, believes that permafrost is more "stubborn" than previously thought and will melt more slowly than predicted. See this story from AFP. The qualification in this is that the uppermost layers of permafrost may degrade as […]
Chokepoints – I’ve written a good number of times about various big renewable energy projects coming on line and in the pipeline, how $7 trillion is one number that a leading expert predicts is going to be the sum total of renewable business globally just a couple of decades down the road, and how distributed […]
Right up there with algae, I'm loving electric cars these days. See several recent posts here, here, here, here, and here. Now let's get a look at some news from Spain and France. Spain Sees 1 Mln Electric Cars in Energy Plan is the arresting headline from Reuters' PlanetArk service. When? By 2014! See also […]
As you no doubt know by now, transportation accounts for about 13% of worldwide GHG. Figure SPM.3. (a) Global annual emissions of anthropogenic GHGs from 1970 to 2004.5(b) Share of different anthropogenic GHGs in total emissions in 2004 in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq). (c) Share of different sectors in total anthropogenic GHG emissions […]