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]

The Solar Golf Cart

The solar golf cart, save energy while hitting the greens, "... will allow most golf carts to become solar powered vehicles." These solar panels produce up to 180 watts of power, supplying 3 amps of electrical current

Why should Golf Course should Buy this Product

• "The solar panels can generate up to 180 watts and supply 3 amps directly to a 36 or 48 volt battery. Overall, this will increase the distance the cart can go on a single charge by 30%." [Meta Efficient]
• Federal Tax Credits

To be specific [From Cruise Car]:

• Most powerful solar panels on the market: 190-380 Watt Solar Panel Top Systems output up to 88 Volts.
• Batteries constantly recharge in the sun extending the battery life by up to 30%.
• Lower electricity bills.
• Increases driving distance by 5-12 miles per day on the average.
• Eco-friendly; zero carbon emissions when operating on solar power.
• Easy to install, no maintenance.
• Quality construction: mono-Crystalline solar panels, U.L.Certified High Grade Industrial Wiring, Compression Tested Glass.
• Full 10-year warranty included; an extended 25-year warranty is available.
• 2-5 year customized leasing programs available.

Cruise Car even sells a kit that will let you make most golf carts solar powered.



Sources: [Meta Efficient] [Cruise Car]

Jaguar C-X75 Electric Sports Car

Tesla... Look Out

• 0 to 60 in 3.4 seconds,
• 780bhp due to 4 electric motors and two of micro gas turbines
• Top speed of 205mph

"There are four 195HP electric motors at each of the wheels, powered by an extended range system similar to the one inside the Chevy Volt."  - Crunch Gear

"You can go for 68 miles just on electric juice or 560 if you let the gasworks recharge the Li-ion battery pack on the go." - Engadget

Sources: [Engadget] [Uncrate] [CrunchGear] [TreeHugger]

Energy Monitoring - EnergyHub

The EnergyHub allows home and business users to monitor their utilities usage in order to live greener and save money. The energy monitoring solution also allows for utilities companies to send you electronic messages on usage. There is also a EnergyHub mobile app that allows you to check and manage your energy usage on the go.

EnergyHub CEO, Seth Frader-Thompson

Source: [Inhabitat] [EnergyHub]

Mobile Wind Turbine

Pope Design created The Mobile Wind Turbine, which would allow electricity creation in rural and hard to reach regions of developing countries. It can also be used for natural disaster relief for floods and hurricanes, providing electricity for rescue efforts.

I think the use of mobile solar trucks, such as the Sequoia, are better than mobile wind turbines because there is always sun shine, but wind turbines are only very successful in windy areas such as shores and coasts. It is still an amazing concept though.

Source: [Inhabitat]

PLANYC 2030 - A Greener New York City

I saw a brief report on NY1 about Mayor Bloomberg's new green NYC plan. After further investigation, NYC may become one of the greenest cities in the whole country. Here is the plan for NYC 2030.

Source: [nyc.gov - PLANYC 2030]

Electric Cargo Vans

This 100% electric van uses Tesla batteries for power. It was created by Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation for eco-friendly deliveries. This is a major step in making the US transportation of goods system 100% electric.

Source: [TreeHugger]

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 Better World by Design 2010

Join OE Technology and countless other green technology enthusiasts for a 3 day conference on making the world a better place at Brown University and RISD in Providence, RI.

Facebook Event Page:

A Better World by Design '10

Register for Event Page:

Registration

Electric Heavy Duty Truck

This Electric truck is used in the Port of Los Angeles to hall containers short distances, as well as to near by storage facilities. It is a testament to how close the green technology is to creating full size electric 18-wheeler trucks, and how we will soon be able to make the entire US goods transportation system 100% electric [with some solar help].

Source: [Youtube]

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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Volvo Stores Energy in Electric Car Panels

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"Imagine a car whose body also serves as a rechargeable battery..."

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With electric cars becoming increasingly more popular due to public power stations like GE's WattStation and electric car charging parking spots at California Costco's, car companies are working strenuously to come up with new electric car innovations. Volvo is working on a car were it's side panels, roof , and car hood are made from battery's.


Sources: [TreeHugger] [Green Technology] [Mother Nature Network]

Wind & Solar Cell Phone Towers

Ericsson Wind and Solar Cell Towers

Ericsson is planning to power 118,000 mobile phone towers using renewable energy in the Developing world. The project is expecting to save 600 million gallons of diesel. Ericsson is using "vertical wind turbines [which] can have some noise-cutting, cost-cutting and reliability advantages over traditional spinning windmills and may be perfect for in-city wind electricity generation, as well as personal backyard installations." [TreeHugger] [Gizmodo] [TreeHugger]

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Motorola Solar and Wind Powered Cell Phone Networks in Africa

Motorola has installed solar and wind powered in Dordabis village in the Khomas region of Namibia. The green solar and wind toers will operate the MTC Namibia's GSM network. [TreeHugger]

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T-Mobile Solar Cell Towers in US

These solar cell towers are "... in Chalfont, Pennsylvania. The 12 panels are enough to take the tower off grid, and even occasionally add power back onto the electric grid." [TreeHugger] [Green Yahoo!]



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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]

Cheap, Organic, and Clear Solar Panels

Imagine having the entire side of a New York City skyscraper act as one large solar panel, while still giving it's tenants beautiful windows. We're almost there...

The University of Cambridge has created a low cost and organic solar cell, made from organic plastic. The future uses of this product are said to be used in awnings, umbrellas, and even windows. These organic photovoltaic cells are cheap to produce but have lower efficiency rates.

But university researches in the Cavendish Lab and Carbon Trust have been working on efficiency improvements, a longer lifespan, a low cost, low toxicity raw materials, a "cost-effective manufacturing process," an an economy of scale focused product line. This technology could possibly lower China's grip around solar panel production.



Source: [Inhabitat]

Green Tech: EcoVea Shower Monitors

The EvoVea shower lowers energy and water consumption by digitally monitoring water usage, creating 80% water savings and 70% energy savings. The electronic control pad allows you to precisely set the water's temperature and flow rate, allowing for up to 13 liters of water per minute.

Sources: [Inhabitat] [Reveeco]

Green Living: Amazing Green 5000 Square Foot Home

RIVER ROAD

"This 5,000 square foot residence, providing the setting for work, daily living and play, explores a full range of “green,” sustainable technologies, including: geothermal HVAC, foam-in-place insulation, windows constructed of reclaimed cypress, vegetated roof, rain-screen wall construction, cistern for storm-water collection and landscape watering, efficient lighting, water-saving plumbing, and segregating functions that allow portions of the house to be closed off when only partially occupied. The four-bedroom house compound includes combination living/kitchen areas, dining/library, master bedroom/home office and a 2-bedroom guest wing..."

Source: [Inhabitat] [Studio-A Architecture]

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]

The "Green" War

Europe: The Current Kings Solar Energy
According to the 9th Annual Photovoltaics Status Report, Europe is responsible for 73% of the worlds solar installations in 2009. Europe had a total of 5.8 GW of solar energy, with Germany as the continued dominate European solar leader. [TreeHugger]

World Solar Energy Levels:
Germany (3.8 GW)
Italy (0.73 GW)
Japan (0.48 GW)
United States (0.46 GW)


China: The Clean-Tech Lab for the World
China has now become a green technology center for the world, as they are planning to build a 102 MW Wind Farm by Shanghai. As OE Tech has said before, China is the world's leader in solar panel production, and now has become a leader in green technology development.

Peggy Liu, the founder and chairwoman of the Joint US-China Collaboration in Clean Energy, said "What the US doesn't realize [is that China] is going from manufacturing hub to the clean-tech laboratory of the world," clearly placing US clean energy development under the spotlight. [New York Times]


The US?
In order for the US to catch up to German solar investment, Obama would need to multiply current solar output by levels 8, which would cost quite a bit of money, but would also create a lot of new US jobs in the process. To catch up with China, the US will need to start investing in grand scale clean-energy projects, [like Operation Green Goods], in order to compete with China and Europe.

Brian Merchant recently wrote an article entitled, "If Obama had Chosen Energy over Health Care...," where writes about David Brook's article, An Alternate History, discussing if Obama had chosen his Energy Bill before health care, and how this decision would have allowed Democrats, "to spend the entire summer talking about technological advances, private sector growth and breakthrough productivity gains." Though this maybe true, I disagree with both Merchant and Brooks. Choosing healthcare before [not instead of] energy allows Obama to concentrate on green job development during the second half of his term, a perfect jump start into his second term.

Merchant writes, "But Brooks is right about one thing -- doing energy would have given Obama and the Democrats a chance to engage the public on the economy, and to make genuine strides towards genuine, sustainable job creation..."What I don't agree with here is the phrase, "doing energy would have..." helped out economy, but is this to say that passing a huge multi billion dollar energy plan tomorrow would not help stimulate US employment? Timing is everything, waiting to pass an energy bill and create more jobs for our returning troops and the currently unemployment meant waiting for a war to be over. The new National Train System will cost the US $50 billion and should create many new jobs as well.

In the end, it is clear that the US is under scrutiny for not investing in more Green technology programs, both at home and abroad. Not investing in major green tech programs hurts our reasoning for not joining the Kyoto Protocol. But I truly believe that this is on purpose. Creating mass amounts of green sector jobs for unemployed Americans and returning US troops is a sure-fire way to win the 2012 election.

Watch and see..!


Sources: [TreeHugger] [New York Times] [TreeHugger - Obama]