The All Electric Audi R8 E-Tron [Video]

New Trends: Cars that Plug into your Surge Protector

Electric cars are slowly starting to replace high end automobiles as Jaguar C X-75, BMW, Tesla, GE Watt Stations, and Volvo all begin massive investment on electric car development. Now it's Audi's turn. The all new Audi E-Tron R8:

• Cost: $200,000
• 313 Horsepower at peak
• 3319 pounds/feet of torque
• 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds

The Battery:

• weighs 1212 pounds
• store 53 KWh of energy
• charges in 6 to 8 hours using a 220V outlet
• goes 150 miles on a single charge

As Audi releases its all new electric sports car, a clear trend in the auto industry is starting to develop. Electric is the way of the future, and in retrospect, always has been. We looking at movies that have depicted the future, Demolition Man, Total Recall, The Sixth Day... electric cars are being used. Since the green car revolution is very new, critics and the media are skeptical to call the future of the automobile industry an electric one, but the money being invested by the major car companies listed above proves a steady trend towards electric cars.

Sources: [CrunchGear]

OE Designs: The OE Solar Oak Charger

Solar Tree Electric Car Charger

[by G.Chance using Google SketchUp]

The OE Technology design team has created this concept electric car charger for supermarket and corporate parking lots. By using alternative forms of energy like the Bloom Energy Box, these charging stations would use both solar energy and alternative fuels to charge parked electric cars such as the Tesla Roadster, Toyota Prius, or the Chevy Volt.

The station is built out of recycled aluminum, with organic polymer solar panels, and uses energy efficient light bulbs to provide light under solar panel awning. The idea for the solar awning was first seen at the Dell Computer Compound in Texas, where solar trees provide electricity for the computer company, as well as shaded parking.

The chargers would most likely be GE WattStations. These chargers would be placed at each parking spot, and signs would be up for electric car parking only. There should be incentives to drive an electric car as well, placing electric car parking structures in between handicap parking spots and regular parking, allowing electric car users to park closer to the buildings.

With the recent birth of the GE WattStation, parking lots in America will have to find new ways of allowing electric cars to successfully charge during the typical daily routine. By placing this charging stations in large parking lots where people park for a number of hours allows for mid day electric car charges, spanning the average



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Stanford's New Nano-Thin Solar Cell

Stanford's new solar cell uses "light trapping" to stop light from bouncing around as it does on normal solar cells, making these ultra thin cells absorb up to 10 times more sunlight. These new ultra thin cells are also "thinner than the wavelengths of light," about 400 to 700 nanometers thin. These cells are also made out of organic polymers, making them cheaper than current solar cells.

Source: [Inhabitat]

A Closer Look at the GE WattStation

To see more GE videos on Electric Cars, WattStations, and an interactive guide to see if an Electric Car is right for you, click on this link.

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Electric Cars Are the Solution - GE WattStation

The new GE WattStation's are 10 years too late. Electric car charging stations are easy to place along side roads and allow for easy access. Companies should all be developing electric cars, and companies like Tesla should be excited for products like this to be installed in major cities.

Below is the new ad for GE WattStations

Sources: [TreeHugger] [YouTube]

Peru: Adorable Energy + Carbon Forests

Peruvian farmers produce more than 400 pounds of guinea pig poop into a form of combustible gas, that has a liquid byproduct plant food called anaerobic digestion. this allows Peruvian farmers to make enough gas to power themselves, plus a little bit extra. Currently, dairy farms in wisconsin use this process to make enough electricity to power 70 homes and sell this power back to the utilities companies.

The new United Nations monitoring system that measures Deforestation and forest Degradation [UN's Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) squad] uses satellite mapping, airborne-laser technology, and ground-based plot surveys to track carbon locked up in tropical forest vegetation in Peru.

Sources: [Boing Boing]

Magenn Wind Power

"The Magenn Power Air Rotor System (MARS) is a patented high altitude lighter-than-air tethered device that rotates about a horizontal axis in response to wind, efficiently generating clean renewable electrical energy at a lower cost than all competing systems..."

Source: [Magenn Power Inc.]

The Pros and Cons of Solar Energy

Now that four US states get 10% of their energy from solar power, it is clear that solar energy is picking up some steam as a considerable future energy source. But there have been some critics of solar who argue that individual solar panel units are not worth the bang for their buck.


Solar Criticisms:

• The process of producing solar panels can be harmful to the environment and releases a large quantity of CO2 emissions.
• Solar panels are only 12% efficient. [SolarExpert]
• Government "feed-in tariffs" for solar energy and other micro-renewables  are not as effective in lowering CO2 emissions as other forms as subsiding, "an army of caulkers, insulators and energy auditors to descend on every home..." to make every house as energy efficient as possible. [TreeHugger]

Recent Solar Advancements: 

• As most solar plants are in desserts, dust can be a major problem. Scientists have developed a self-cleaning coating for solar panels, used on the Mars Rover, that uses a electrically sensitive material deposited on glass or transparent plastic sheets and sensors to monitor dusk levels. When dust levels get too high, an "electric charge sends a dust-repelling wae cascading over teh surface of the material, lifting away the dust and transporting it off," the panels. [TreeHugger]
• Photon enhanced thermionic emission [PETE] cells, developed at Stanford University, allow solar panels to harness light and heat from the Sun simultaneously, which could double the current rate of solar panel efficiency. [Engadget]

Social Advancements Due to Solar Energy:

• MORE JOBS. England's first utility-scale solar plant was just announced, highlight government support for the solar industry. This government support has allowed Solarcentury, Britain's largest solar company, which was able to hire 150 new employees. [TreeHugger]

Development Achievements Due to Solar Energy:

• SolarAid is an amazing organization that has been bringing solar power to rural Africa through micro-lending, giving villages and schools electricity for the first time. [TreeHugger]

SolarAid | Where donations go | Schools from Brad Bell on Vimeo.

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First U.S. Wave-Power Farm

The United States first wave-powered farm is off the coast of Oregon. The wave energy producer is composed of Ten 200 ton buoys [150 ft. x 40 ft], costs $60 million dollars, and powers 400 U.S. homes. 


Sources: [Gizmodo] [USA Today] [Good] [Inhabitat]

The Bloom Box - The Future of Power

A Wireless Power Plant in a Box [MUST SEE]

Originally designed to create oxygen on Mar's, this NASA developed technology creates energy from Oxygen. With $400 million invested in the company, and 20 major company users including Google, Fedex, Walmart, Staples, and Ebay, the Bloom Box is quite possibly the future of home electricity usage. 

CBS: 60 Minutes Interview [Video]

Sources: [Engadget] [CBS News]

The Sequoia Solar Truck

Sources: [Green Technology] [Sequoia Solar]

Up Close and Personal: Inside a Wind Turbine

Sources: [Tree Hugger] [Tree Hugger 2]

This Week in Green Development

Complete, Stand-Alone Off-Grid Refrigeration System

Promethean, an MIT offshoot, has designed a solar powered stand alone refrigeration system for the developing world.

Solar-powered food storage container: our refrigeration system is designed from the ground up to use very little electrical power. The food storage container can cool and preserve a variety of products—such as milk, fruits and vegetables—using as little as 100W of power. As a result, we could efficiently and economically power it with solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.


Solar-power optimizer: a "black-box" control system maintains the operation of the entire system, minimizes energy consumption and optimizes the use of available solar power. The solar-power optimizer uses proprietary algorithms to efficiently transfer power from solar panels to various electrical loads in the system.


Low-power, low-cost heat exchangers: to reach our cost and power consumption goals, we’ve designed our own heat exchangers to cool and preserve the products. For milk cooling, one of our heat exchanger cools the milk immediately to arrest bacteria growth and maintain milk quality according to international standards.


World's Largest Wind Turbine Offshore

Underway in Norway, the wind turbine will generate 10 MW of Power.



Sources: [Tree Hugger] [Green Technology] [Promethean]

How Many Jaffa Oranges Does It Take to Power an iPhone?

I'll give you a hint, they spent over $1600 on oranges. 

Sources: [Engadget] [Imperial Leisure]

Stayin' Mobile - The Solar Backpack

The Piggy Back - Soular Back-Up Pack

I hate it when my iPod dies on my way to work. Now I can charge it on my walk to the train so that I can listen to my music for the entire ride.


Sources: [Crunch Gear] [Neon Green]

Solar News: The Future of Chinese Solar

With the worlds largest solar powered building being constructed in China [above], it is clear that China has invested heavily in solar panel production. The video below illustrates how the Chinese vision of the solar energy market has the country uniquely positioned to become the World's number one manufacturer of solar panels. This will benefit other nations by driving down the cost of solar panels so that industries of solar panel installation can thrive world wide.

Caution: Allowing China to control the world solar panel market means US and other world markets will continue to import cheaper technology from China instead of  developing and manufacturing it at home, adding to an already high deficit balance of payments problem. Also, a solar energy war with China could be just what the US needs to boost the economy and create more jobs.

Sources: [Gizmodo] [Green Technology] [Climate Works]

Wind-Powered Highway Lights

Green Tech of the Week

Nothing says green development like wind-powered, disconnected from any power grid, highway lights. Though this product is very self-explanatory, my question is what happens if there is heavy traffic, at night, on a windless day?


Sources: [Gizmodo] [Turbine Light] [Inhabitat]

What is Operation Green Goods?

OPERATION GREEN GOODS started as a paper I wrote during my junior year at Wesleyan on how to affectively create more green jobs for the US economy and promote environmental development world wide. Operation Green Goods is the systematic development of a green US goods transportation system.

By making all vehicles and mediums that transfer goods green throughout the US, green jobs would be created, the US would have a viable export and service to help shorten the current account deficit gap, and countries such as China and India that ship millions of goods into the US a year would have no choice but to adopt green standards in order to deliver goods within the US. The developed economy of the United States has been based off of reliable road systems [highways] that allow goods to travel across the country creating more market access, and high levels of education that spawn creativity and ingenuity. The systematic change of this system from one based on gas prices to how green transportation can be will completely change the foundation and definition of a green based economy.

Implementation:
By placing solar panels on the top of electric cargo trains in order to produce energy for cabin lights, refrigeration, and eventually locomotive power will reduce the goods transportation carbon foot print. Also by placing large roll-able solar panels on the top of 18-wheeler tractor trailers in order to create energy for refrigeration, cabin electricity, and power for electric trucks, the transportation industry in America could be green over night.


Through the advancement of solar technology uses in everyday lives, more jobs would be created in the solar panel production and installation industries. The teachings and selling of green technologies abroad will also create more jobs through the flow of technology transfers.

This section of OE Technology is dedicated to tracking the feasibility of the US GREEN TRANSPORTATION PROJECT.

Alternative Battery Technology

Coca-Cola Powered Cell Phone

This sugar fuel cell powered phone is working concept by "Chinese designer Daizi Zheng" who "has conjured up a vision for a soft drink-powered cylindrical Nokia of the future that pounds Coca-Colas to stay juiced: just screw off the top, pop the can, and pour." [Alternative Fuels]
Source: Engadget

Yogen Ripcord Charger

Charge your GPS in the middle of the desert, polar ice cap, or any other remote destination. [Alternative Energy]
Source: Engadget

The Future of Batteries

The introduction of the PowerMat that charges devices without plugging in any cords has advanced the future possibilities in charging electronic devices. Below are some of the developed battery and energy technologies currently being worked on.

130 Twirls

The Twirl battery concept, designed by Song Teaho and Hyejin Lee, allows for 130 twirls of the phone battery for another two minutes of talk time. Using the same technology as crank batteries, this type of technology would be perfect for a lot of other applications outside of cell phones or cameras.


Charge your Phone or Camera from your Wireless Internet connection

Being able to plug your phone into the Airnergy WiFi Harvesting Charger would allow you to charge your phone or camera without pluging the device into the wall.

After precharging the Airnergy with "WiFi power," the device was able to power a Blackberry from 30% power to 100% power in 90 minutes, illustrating a clear future in wireless power applications

Source: Engadget, Gizmodo, and Yahoo! News