Ed Ring

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), publisher of TerraGreen magazine, is holding a conference entitled "Pathways to Green Publishing" on Saturday, the 5th of April 2008, at the Players' Building, Delhi Secretariat, in New Delhi. Here is "Pathways to Green Publishing's" program, here is an overview of TERI and the event, and here is a form to register. It should be interesting to learn how India, a burgeoning emerging superpower, will transition to clean practices in their publishing industry, ranked 12th in the world.  The one day conference will have three very practical sessions that in sum should provide a comprehensive assessment of ways to transition to clean...

Is an affordable EV mini-roadster almost here?  PML Flightlink's EW Series of roadworthy in-wheel motors includes the EW 30/60.  Each of these motors weighs just under 40 pounds, or 18 kilograms, and each motor runs up to 14.4 kilowatts, or 19.3 horsepower. PML Flightlink's EW Series 30/60, 14.4 kW in-wheel motor. (Photo: PML Flightlink) With "internal tapered heavy duty roller bearings that can withstand heavy radial radial loads for robust use," and "standard flange fittings to accept different wheel rim sizes," this appears to be the wheel we've been looking for. The specifications look great (view detailed performance data and diagrams); with four of these lightweight 30/60 motors combining to deliver about 80 horsepower, you...

Back in 2005 we published the feature "Jatropha in Africa - Fighting the Desert & Creating Wealth."  About two years later we rewrote the editor's introduction to this story, stating, among other things "the yields claimed in this story have been challenged by many of our readers, and the author may have been optimistic."  Today yet another reader challenged the yields noted in our feature.  Their comments - coming from someone with operating experience in Madagascar - add useful data to the ongoing question as to the economic and ecological sustainability of first generation biofuels: "Dear Sir:  Your suggestion that Jatropha curcas could make an 'incredible contribution to economic development in Africa' overlooks a number of important points. Assuming your seed/ oil yield claims are achievable, it would require a harvest of about 400 million tonnes of seed to deliver the volume of oil you refer to. Under most circumstances, Jatropha...

According to the Lightning Car Co. website, "the electric prototype build [is] now well underway" and they are taking pre-orders for the Electric Lightning GT.  Is this real?  Here is a summary of their claims - and the in-wheel motors, supplied by PML Flightlink, would be a first... The Lightning GTS (Photo: Lightning Car Co.) The chassis brings to mind a British GT -- vintage 1960s -- but underneath the carbon fiber and Kevlar skin lies a sophisticated honeycomb endoskeleton. The car costs about $100,000 - more than a Porsche 911 Turbo, more than an Audi R8, even more than its nearest EV cousins, the Fisker Karma, or the Tesla Roadster.   The Lightning GTS is a sports car, the brainchild of Arthur Wolstenholme who produced the upmarket Ronart...

Everyone tends to agree that 100% battery powered cars need batteries with energy densities only achieved with lithium ion technology, but virtually all hybrid cars still get by with nickel metal hydride batteries.  No more. Today in Geneva, Switzerland, at the 78th International Motor Show, General Motors announced that by 2010 they will be using lithium ion batteries for their entire (and expanding) hybrid vehicle fleet.  Just for clarification:  There are three basic ways to use electrical systems to power a car (1) a 100% battery powered car such as the vaunted Tesla Roadster, (2) a "series-hybrid" car, where the gasoline (or diesel) engine has no connection to the drive-train, only to an onboard generator that powers an electric motor for traction - such as the upcoming Chevy Volt, (3) and a standard hybrid, or "parallel hybrid," where the gasoline engine and the electric motor-generator(s) share...

Finally a design that could work on flat roofs that combines an efficient heat collection plumbing with 2-axis motion for the concentrators.  Heliotron Energy from Greece has a design that puts an array of single-axis concentrators onto a rotating turntable, which gives the concentrators 2-axis capability. Each concentrator is about one square foot in size, and they each rotate up and down with their base parallel to the surface of the turntable, and each has 90 degrees of mobility, from vertical - to face due east at sunrise, or due west at sunset, to horizontal - to face straight up at noon.  The turntable rotates 180 degrees from east to west each day to ensure the concentrators constantly face the sun. Because the up-down axis of each concentrator requires an axle parallel to the suface of the turntable, within the each axle is a highly efficient heat exchanger to heat...

We occasionally get press releases from a group known as Trans-Mediterannean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC) or TREC UK, visionary proponants of massive development of solar concentrators combined with large scale new HVDC (high voltage direct current) transmission corridors. Parabolic solar thermal collectors (2 axis). (Photo: TREK UK) According to pro-TREC sources, an area of 254 kilometers x 254 kilometers of hot desert, if covered with concentrating solar power plants, would provide electricity equivalent to the current annual electricity consumption of the whole world. Needless to say we decided to crunch the numbers on that one.  If you assume these 64,516...

What would it take to turn CO2 gas into a carbonate solid?  According to Mark Clayton, VP of Corporate Relations for Austin based Skyonic, the process could be commercially viable in a few years. What if fossil fuel had zero emissions? (Photo: Skyonic) "Our rough numbers show that with the costs of the chemicals we use and the value of the byproducts, chlorine and hydrogen, the process can almost pay for itself financially," said Clayton.  Apparently officials at Luminant, one of the biggest power generators in the United States, are in agreement, since they have invested in Skyonic and are working with them to build a demonstration plant.  "We want a full scale design by the end of...

There is a recently published book by Jonah Goldberg entitled "Liberal Fascism" that attempts to define the term, as well as, somewhat provocatively, admonish the political left that the "right wing" has no monopoly on fascism.  The book, which is scrupulously researched, describes the economic and political history of fascism, making the case that (1) European fascism was originally a left-wing, socialist, populist movement, and (2) the American counterparts of the European fascists were the progressives. Liberal Fascism Jonah Goldberg's incendiary treatise. The hardest thing for most readers to get past - and I've read most of the online reviews of this book - is that fascism is...

Although it's been operating since June 2007, today Acciona dedicated their 64 megawatt solar thermal plant in Boulder City, Nevada. According to the Chairman of Acciona, José Manuel Entrecanales, the plant cost $260 million and will operate for several decades.  The plant is rated to produce 64 megawatts in full sun and is expected to produce about 130,000 megawatt-hours per year. A parabolic trough at Nevada Solar One. (Photo: Acciona) While there have been solar thermal plants installed in recent years, particularly in Spain where Acciona has their headquarters, this is the first utility-scale solar thermal plant built in the USA since 1991. It is interesting to compare...