Cost of Renewable Energy Dropped in 2009, But...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:59:54 GMT

Photo: Flickr, CC But Financing is Harder to Come By The good news is that the cost of renewable energy has gone down in 2009, but the bad news is that this decline was offset by higher financing costs caused by the global financial meltdown. What's harder to determine exactly is what portion of that decline in cost was due to lower demand/overcapacity, and the end of a shortage of silicon for solar panels, and which part was due to real technical progress in the manufacturing process. It's the latter that will really matter in the long term.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Rust Belt to Clean Energy Industry: Help Us Help You

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:26:32 GMT

"A mirror facet for a solar dish is cut on a machine at Tower Automotive in Livonia, Mich." Photo: Stirling Energy Systems From Rust Belt to Green Belt Economic development officials from U.S. states that have been hit hard by decline in manufacturing (especially auto part makers), collectively known as the rust belt, are now trying to attract green manufacturing jobs. After all, representatives of those states claim, if we're going to make enough solar panels, solar collectors for solar thermal plants, wind turbines, etc, we'll need factories and a skilled workforce.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

UK Charging Ahead with 30 Million Investment in EV Charging Stations

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:26:25 GMT

Apologies for the Bad Wordplay UK Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis (nice alliteration) has announced that his government would be investing 30 million in charging stations for electric cars. The initiative is called "Plugged-In Places" and the stations will be located on streets, in car parks and in commercial, retail and leisure facilities in 3 to 6 cities/regions of the UK. Mr. Adonis said: "Our aim is for electric and low carbon cars to be an everyday feature of life on UK's roads in less than five years. There is still a lot of work to be done, however Plugged-In Places is one very significant step putting us firmly on the path to a low carbon future." ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Is There a Future for Compressed Air Cars?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:05:21 GMT

Photo: Wikipedia, CC We Must Look at Complete Life-Cycles A new study published in Environmental Research Letters pours some cold water on those who think that compressed air cars are the future. The technology does sound very good on paper: Simpler than fuel cell vehicles and electric cars and there are no tailpipe emissions. But if you dig a bit deeper than this and look at the whole picture, the picture becomes less rosy...... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Rolls Royce Could Launch an Electric Phantom In a Year

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:36:07 GMT

Photo: Rolls Royce Does It Matter? Depends How You Look at It... Autocar reports that a source inside the company told them that Rolls Royce could have an electric version of its Phantom super-luxury car on the road by the end of 2010: "Internally it's thought that the near-silence of electric propulsion, and the fact that full torque is available from a standstill, would align perfectly with Rolls-Royce's core values. Engineers are currently hard at work making this a reality, although a running prototype has yet to hit the road."... Read the full story on TreeHugger

U.S. Military Wary About Offshore Wind Power Off Coast of Maryland

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:11:53 GMT

Photo: Wikipedia, CC Maryland Offshore Wind Development Martin O'Malley, the governor of Maryland, would like to see offshore wind power developed off the cost of his state, but the U.S. military has expressed fears that the turbines could "disrupt flight and weapon test ranges, as well as erroneously appear on radar as unidentifiable aircraft." Three military bases in the region are using that area in the Atlantic for training missions and flight tests.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Video Game Developers Want Authentic Electric Sports Car Sound, Record Tesla Roadster in Action

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:06:42 GMT

Photo: Tesla Motors Roadster #203 Got Quite a Workout Making a video game used to be all about a few guys writing code. But as the the industry grew into a mammoth, the production of games turned into huge enterprises employing tons of people and requiring more and more realistic sounds and images. One way to get realistic sounds is of course to go out in the field and record the real thing (we're pretty far from the BEEP BEEPs of old-school games). That's exactly what a few sound engineers from Microsoft Game Studios did when they found themselves needing some electric car sounds for the upcoming games Forza and Project Gotham Racing. Tom Burt, the owner of the electric Roadster #203 generously donated some sounds...... Read the full story on TreeHugger

CycleTracks iPhone App Tells San Fancisco TA Where Bike Paths Should be Built

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:05:44 GMT

Image: CycleTracks iPhone App from Apple App Store Crowdsourcing Bike Path Planning People don't always go where you think they will. You can try to predict the best places for foot paths and bike routes, but you'll never be able to know for sure if they are located optimally... Unless there's a way to know where people are naturally going (the path of least resistance). That's exactly what the new free iPhone app by the San Francisco Transportation Authority is trying to do. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

EPA Proposes First Toughening of Air Quality Standards for Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Since 1971

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:08:44 GMT

Source: EPA About Time It's been almost 40 years since the EPA's SO2 standards were strengthened. Sounds like a tightening was overdue... Until now. The EPA is look at a proposal to establish a new national one-hour SO2 standard, between 50 and 100 parts per billion (ppb). "The existing primary standards were 140 ppb measured over 24-hours, and 30 ppb measured over an entire year. The Agency also is taking comment on alternative levels for the 1-hour standard up to 150 ppb."... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Asia is Outspending the USA 3-to-1 in Clean-Tech Investments

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:39:12 GMT

The Race for Clean-Tech is On A new study by the Breakthrough Institute and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation shows that the U.S. could be left behind by Asia (specifically by China, South Korea and Japan) when it comes to investing in clean-tech and clean energy. "These [three] Asian governments will invest $519 billion in clean technology between 2009 and 2013, compared to $172 billion by the U.S. government," the report titled says. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Barack Obama and Hu Jintao Announce US-China Electric Vehicles Initiative

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:02:18 GMT

Photos: Public domain Good Intentions, But Let's Wait for Real-World Results The Chinese government and many Chinese businesses have been making pretty big bets on electric cars in the past few years. In fact, the richest man in China, Wang Chuanfu (in Chinese: ), owes much of his fortune (at least on paper) to investments in electric cars and their batteries. So it isn't surprising that electric cars were on the agenda during the meeting between Barack Obama and Hu Jintao; what came out of it is the US-China "Electric Vehicles Initiative".... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Action Beats Talk: Santa Clara to Get Pilot Bike-Sharing Program in Mid-2010

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:39:47 GMT

Cyclists in Santa Clara. Not the actual bike-sharing program since there are no pics yet. Photo: Flickr, CC First in the Bay Area Despite talk about a bike-share program in San Francisco for the past couple of years, it looks like Santa Clara will actually beat them to the punch with a pilot program to be launched in mid-2010. Market research began last April, and about 1,200 surveys were conducted in the target area. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Automobile User Trade Organization (A.U.T.O.) Lobbyist Veronica Moss Visits Time Square

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:59:00 GMT

Quite a Character I think the less I say about this one the better. You just have to see for yourself, and hopefully get it... For those who missed the previous appearance from Veronica, check out her interview (at the wheel of her SUV) here: Meet Veronica Moss, A.U.T.O. Lobbyist. I think she's a great character. Would love to have her visit other pedestrian and/or bike-friendly places to see her reaction. Via Streetfilms... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Nissan LEAF: Instead of Engine Choices, People Might Have Battery Choices

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:49:31 GMT

Photo: Nissan Bigger Battery Optional, Instead of Bigger Engine With gasoline and diesel powered vehicles, one of the biggest option choices facing buyers is engine size. 4 cylinders? A V6 maybe? Or even a V8? That's an important decision since the engine is at the heart of a vehicle. But when it comes to electric vehicles, the heart is no doubt the battery. This is why Tesla has announced battery options for its upcoming Model S electric sedan, and it is why Nissan is suggesting that it might eventually offer different battery options with its LEAF electric car.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Deadly Leopard Seal Tries to Feed Live Penguins to Photographer (Video)

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:40:26 GMT

"Bloody Hell! That's the biggest leopard seal I've ever seen!" Leopard seals are pretty scary predators, especially if you're a penguin. But they can be friendly to other leopard seals, which is something that photographer Paul Nicklen learned during one of his trips to Antarctica. He was taking underwater photos when a leopard seal started feeding him penguins, starting with live ones, which were released close to him (to see if he would catch them), and ending with half-chewed dead ones. One theory is that the leopard seal saw his reflection in the lens of the camera and thought that Nicklen was a fellow predator, but an awkward one in need of some help. This went on for FOUR DAYS. You have to check out the video below, the photos are great!... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Echo: Queen of the Elephants

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:32:19 GMT

Photo: Animal Planet Great Documentary Coming to Animal Planet At the feet of the Kilimanjaro, about 1,200 elephants have been going through one of the worst drought that the savannah has seen in living memory. For those majestic animals, it is a struggle to stay alive, and to keep those around them safe. Echo: Queen of the Elephants is a new documentary ("Echo has been invaluable in teaching us about the social interactions, communication and leadership of elephants," says Moss. "But to those who have studied Echo for all these years--she is much more than a research subject. Echo is a powerful presence in our lives and the lives of her family. She's been a companion; she's given us joy and filled us with wonder on a daily basis, and for that, I will always be grateful." ) about a group of elephants led by their matriarch, Echo. It was filmed by some of the same people who made the acclaimed Planet Earth, so you know it's going to be something else...... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Pumping CO2 Underground to Extract Geothermal Energy

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:47:24 GMT

Photo: Wikipedia, Public domain It Could Work We usually hear about pumping CO2 underground in the context of carbon capture and storage (CCS). But there might be another use for that CO2 in the field of geothermal power. It hasn't been proven to work yet, but some money from the Federal stimulus funds has started to flow to 9 projects that want to test this out. The idea is: "Carbon dioxide that's cycled through hot regions kilometers underground can efficiently bring heat to the surface, where it can be used to generate electricity. The likelihood is that the process would leave lots of carbon dioxide underground, and thus out of the atmosphere"... Read the full story on TreeHugger

William Lind: Conservative Arguments for Public Transit (Video)

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:09:58 GMT

Building Bipartisan Support for Public Transportation Our friends at Streetfilms did a short interview with William Lind, co-autor of Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation. Mr. Lind seems to want to help "liberal transit advocates" translate some of their ideas in language that political conservatives can related to (well, some of them anyway), and his main goal seems to be the expansion of rail in the US. I highly recommend that you watch the video above if only for the part where he talks about how subsidized the highway system is. Via Streetfilms. See also: Warren Buffett Makes a $44 Billion (!) Bet on Trains.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Garmin Eco-Route Add-on Turns Your GPS Into a Green-Driving Teacher

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:57:08 GMT

Image: Garmin Knowledge is Power Most of us probably don't realize that over the past few years our cars have turned into computers on wheels. There are tons of sensors everywhere, but most of that information isn't available to the driver. That's a shame, because if it was parsed through a user-intuitive interface, it could provide very useful feedback that could help people drive more efficiently (the Prius LCD effect). Well, this is exactly what Garmin is trying to do with a new add-on cable that can plug into your car's diagnostics communication port and feed that real-time data to your GPS device.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Whale Penis Leather Option Dumped by Russian Luxury Armored Car Company

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:52:59 GMT

Photo: Dartz A New Kind of Penis Car For Billionaire Oligarchs with No Taste Some companies specialize in excess. Nobody really needs a Rolls Royce, but some people feel a need for exclusivity. Other companies go ever further and attempt excessive excess, like Dartz with its Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition armoured car (price tag: 1 million, or $1.65 million). It comes with tons of bling, such as ridiculously hyper-expensive vodka in a flask made out of pure gold, gold-plated windows, pure tungsten exhausts, and diamond-encrusted white gold speed gauges. Totally ridiculous, but I guess if you're some billionaire oligarch with no taste, it can work. Dartz seems to have gone a bit too far with the seats, though: They wanted to make them from whale penis leather (apparently it's very soft), and this drew protest from many environmental groups.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Is San Francisco Dangerous for Pedestrians?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:05:39 GMT

Source: Dangerous By Design It's the Jungle Out There! San Francisco is definitely pedestrian-friendly in many ways compared to many cities, but being walkable doesn't always mean that it is safe. A new report by Transportation for America ranks the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area 13th safest for walkers, based on an index that takes into account annual pedestrian deaths and the percentage of workers who commute by foot. Our friends at Streetsblog SF dug deeper and found that things are worse than they first seem: "47.7 percent of all traffic fatalities in San Francisco are pedestrians, more than four times the national average of 11.8 percent. The rate of pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents is 2.60 in San Francisco, 70 percent higher than the national average of 1.53."... Read the full story on TreeHugger

This is Big: U.S. Could Double Hydropower Capacity With Minimal Impact, Says Steven Chu

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:01:13 GMT

Photo: Wikipedia, CC Probably a Good Place to Start U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said that hydropower capacity in the United States could "double with minimal impact to the environment", mostly just by installing more efficient turbines at existing hydroelectric projects or at dams without power components, increasing the use of pumped-storage projects, and encouraging the use of run-of-the-river turbines. These kind of improvements to the existing infrastructure could apparently add 70,000 MW of capacity. "We will be pushing this," Chu said at a White House forum. "We're not talking about a lot of large, new reservoirs. Just work with what we have and it's a massive amount of power."... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Carbon Nanotube Sponge Can Absorb Toxic Oils and Solvents up to 180x Its Weight!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:14:26 GMT

Photo: Peking University and Tsinghua University Is There Anything We CAN'T Do With Carbon Nanotubes? Cleaning up toxic spills has always been a problem. It's hard, and it's expensive, and you have to be thorough. But things might have just got easier: Scientists from the Peking University and Tsinghua University have created a sponge like no other. It is made of carbon nanotubes - regular carbon atoms arranged in a specific cylindrical shape - and can absorb organic pollutants from the surface of water (such as oil and solvents) up to 180x its weight (!) without absorbing water (see video below to see how light it is). And once its full of toxic liquids, the best part is that you can just wring it and start again.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Woo! Bicycling in New York City is UP 26% in 2009!

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:15:28 GMT

Image: NYC DOT (pdf) "Everybody get out there and ride!" The stats are out and according to the NYC DOT, bicycling in New York has shot up by 26% in 2009, which is a lot by any measure, though it is lower than the 35% increase in 2008. As you can see from the chart above, these increases are unprecedented. For more on these feel good news, make sure to check out the great video below.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Pay-Per-Mile Car Insurance Moves Forward in California

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:51:41 GMT

Photo: Flickr, CC The Greener Kind of Car Insurance Incentives are a great tool to nudge people in the right direction. It will always be harder to clean up the environment when people's personal interests are opposed to the environment, but when both are aligned, the path of least resistance leads to a better world. Pay-per-mile car insurance is a good example of such an incentive. It's not world-changing by itself, but if applied to enough motorists, it can no doubt have a significant impact. The principle is simple: The less you drive, the less car insurance you have to pay for (since on average, people who drive less are less likely to make insurance claims).... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Awesome Bike Parking at W Hotel in San Francisco

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:50:38 GMT

Photo: Mikael from Copenhagenize Not Sure How Well that Would Scale, Though Mikeal from Copenhagenize has taken these pictures of a very cool bike parking at the W Hotel in San Francisco. Included in the price of a room is access to one of three Biomega bikes (I think the one on the pics is the "Copenhagen" model), and to get it you have to get it down from its unusual parking place.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Five Hundred Oil-Industry Geologists Vote on Peak Oil

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:32:54 GMT

Photo: Zazzle Guess What the Results Were The theory of peak oil itself is fairly non-controversial. But saying that we're close to this absolutely peak in oil and gas production is still debated by very knowledgeable people on both sides. A few years ago, it seemed like the balance was tipped in the direction of the "peak oil is not a problem for the near future" side, but lately, it seems like things might be going the other way. At the Petroleum Geology Conference in London, 500 geologists took a vote on wether "Peak oil is no longer a concern" (something that was argued by some of the speakers). The results were interesting.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Another Benefit of Smart Grids: Fewer Utility Trucks Spewing CO2

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:48:13 GMT

Photo: Flickr, CC The Difference Between Snail Mail and Email One of the benefits of smart grids that we too often overlook is the fact that they'll greatly reduce the need for power utilities to send trucks (and often big ones) out in the field to gather data and fix problems. The most obvious example of this is the remote reading of meters instead of having to send people to read meters, but it will also help with maintenance and repairs since the grid will tell trucks exactly where to go to solve problems, reducing the number of miles driven. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Bio-Plastics Could Replace Up to 90% of Plastics, But Not in Short Term

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:12:23 GMT

270 Million Tons of Plastics in 2007 Bioplastics are certainly not a panacea - they have their problems - but if we are to someday move to a world free of fossil fuels (by choice or by necessity), we'll need something to make plastics. Researchers from Utrecht University conducted a study that was commissioned by the associations European Bioplastics and the European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence (EPNOE), and their findings were pretty interesting.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mavizen's 130 MPH TTX02 Electric Motorcycle Runs on Linux

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:56:44 GMT

Why did you stop? Well, I was recompiling my kernel and got a segfault... Mavizen has decided to offer a new electric bike based on the previous winner of the TTXGP so that other teams can have a solid foundation to build on for next year. The TTX02 is based on the KTM RC8 with a Agni powerplant. The twist is that they call it a "laptop on wheels" because of all the electronics it packs on top of what is strictly required to control the electric motor (dash-mounted computer that runs Linux, has wifi connectivity and a web-server, etc).... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Recent Posts by TreeHugger's Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada