Thin-film Solar cells. That's the place to be... in about 5 years. Right now solar power is just cool, but its going to get better. To compete with fossil fuels it needs to get past the $1 per watt point, but right now its about 4 times that much and not very arousing to a solely fiscal analysis. That doesn't mean that other catalysts can't drive projects, as you can see with Google's and San Diego's solar projects.
Filsom, a Swiss Firm Solar Cell Firm, projects that in 5 years solar will be marginally cheaper than fossil fuels. And after another 5 years it'll be half as costly. Thin-film is a new process that prints solar collectors onto a flexible backing that can be placed on many more surfaces than traditional technology. Imagine every rooftop you see providing the power for everything underneath it. And with thin-film, the sides and windows of the buildings can contribute too. So alternative power doesn't have to be about endless fields of mirrors and collectors. We can just repurpose some of the impervious surfaces that just radiate solar collection. Win-freaking-win.
Showing posts with label solar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar. Show all posts
Friday, March 02, 2007
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Too. Many. Carticles...
Ok, I'm not sure how to go about this so I'll just start with the stupidest one and work up from there.
The HHR was a terrible idea to begin with. Its just ugly. So now the news that you can pay $200 MORE for one without three seats five windows and one door makes me wonder what the hell is going on. Are people buying these? Is this the new child-snatcher mobile? Watch out plain white van, the HHR is coming after your target consumer.
You know those stickers on new cars "estimating" the milage? You know how they're wrong? Well apparently the EPA is taking this matter by the horns and is revising the testing system for the first time since 1985. The result? Most estimates will drop by around 12%. Now I'm not sure what these tests consist of or how they were revised, but it sounds to me like car companies got pretty good at jumping through the hoops over the last 21 years. Making cars appear more efficient than they are. Class action lawsuit?
Doing your part for the environment by driving a Prius? As with most be cool-and-make-a-statement products marketed to US consumers it may not meet up with expectations. People have been worried about the dust to dust cost of the battery component for a while; disposing of the materials is as detrimental that burning gas for the life of the car. Well look at this article about the Toyota supplier that provides nickel for the batteries. The area in Canada around the factory has become so desolate from sulfur-dioxide emissions that astronauts went there to practice driving their moon buggies.
But the nickel's voyage only begins there. Its shipped 10,000 miles around the world before reaching the battery incarnation in Japan. And then they ship the completed cars back around the world to wherever they're selling them. Is all this worth 40, maybe 45 mpg? (with the updated EPA estimates) My 11 year old Honda gets 35 and didn't require exotic materials.
Sure they do oil in Texas, but they also do bio-diesel. Well, they used to do bio-diesel. The use of these fuels produces nitrogen oxide emissions, which the state found unacceptable as they passed legislation against it last year. The industry has had one year to lower the emission levels, but that's almost up. I'm all for reducing pollution, but I'm not sure this is the way to encourage growth in a small market. You need to offer incentives, not just penalties. Right now what reason is there to try and develop this technology besides the goodness of your convictions?
Thanks Nissan, you're doing a great jeorb. The new hybrid Altima will be available in 8 states to meet their stringent clean air laws. But here's the kicker: they don't think they can make money on it. Yeah just another reason I'm not impressed by hybrids. People don't want to pay for them, companies can't make a profit from them, the environmental costs of producing and disposing of them, they still run on gas, and they misrepresent themselves as being a kind of environmental salvation.
Does diesel hybrid make sense? I'm the first to admit that I'm not an engineer, and don't know all that much about designing cars. But aren't diesel engines least efficient when they first turn on? When they're cold and not completely burning the fuel? So how does that translate to a system where the engine kicks on for a little while to top off the batteries and then switch off? Seems like we should have one big diesel that's always running, and you just hook your car up to it when you need some juice.
Fusion power. That's where its at. But until we get that ITER online, we'll just have to use the old-fashioned kind. That solar power folks, and its getting better. So I like to see people finding applications, cause demand drives research. So peep these guys giving their lackluster hybrids a tweak by fitting solar roofs on them. They're getting 20 miles a day already even without the ninja photo-voltaic cells that are coming. 20 miles a day could put some people in the range of using zero fuel on a daily basis, and still having the option to drive 50 miles on a weekend getaway if they'd like.
You know I like the Tesla roadster. I know it probably has its own environmental issues but I don't like the Tesla for its fuel efficiency. I like the concept, a small company building a redonkulous performance car by developing new technology while reusing body designs with plans to downscale it into a reasonable production technology. And its a sweet car. You don't even realize how fast you're going. Just ask this guy who got the first ticket while driving a Tesla. Shit, if I had one I wouldn't care.
The HHR was a terrible idea to begin with. Its just ugly. So now the news that you can pay $200 MORE for one without three seats five windows and one door makes me wonder what the hell is going on. Are people buying these? Is this the new child-snatcher mobile? Watch out plain white van, the HHR is coming after your target consumer.
You know those stickers on new cars "estimating" the milage? You know how they're wrong? Well apparently the EPA is taking this matter by the horns and is revising the testing system for the first time since 1985. The result? Most estimates will drop by around 12%. Now I'm not sure what these tests consist of or how they were revised, but it sounds to me like car companies got pretty good at jumping through the hoops over the last 21 years. Making cars appear more efficient than they are. Class action lawsuit?
Doing your part for the environment by driving a Prius? As with most be cool-and-make-a-statement products marketed to US consumers it may not meet up with expectations. People have been worried about the dust to dust cost of the battery component for a while; disposing of the materials is as detrimental that burning gas for the life of the car. Well look at this article about the Toyota supplier that provides nickel for the batteries. The area in Canada around the factory has become so desolate from sulfur-dioxide emissions that astronauts went there to practice driving their moon buggies.
But the nickel's voyage only begins there. Its shipped 10,000 miles around the world before reaching the battery incarnation in Japan. And then they ship the completed cars back around the world to wherever they're selling them. Is all this worth 40, maybe 45 mpg? (with the updated EPA estimates) My 11 year old Honda gets 35 and didn't require exotic materials.
Sure they do oil in Texas, but they also do bio-diesel. Well, they used to do bio-diesel. The use of these fuels produces nitrogen oxide emissions, which the state found unacceptable as they passed legislation against it last year. The industry has had one year to lower the emission levels, but that's almost up. I'm all for reducing pollution, but I'm not sure this is the way to encourage growth in a small market. You need to offer incentives, not just penalties. Right now what reason is there to try and develop this technology besides the goodness of your convictions?
Thanks Nissan, you're doing a great jeorb. The new hybrid Altima will be available in 8 states to meet their stringent clean air laws. But here's the kicker: they don't think they can make money on it. Yeah just another reason I'm not impressed by hybrids. People don't want to pay for them, companies can't make a profit from them, the environmental costs of producing and disposing of them, they still run on gas, and they misrepresent themselves as being a kind of environmental salvation.
Does diesel hybrid make sense? I'm the first to admit that I'm not an engineer, and don't know all that much about designing cars. But aren't diesel engines least efficient when they first turn on? When they're cold and not completely burning the fuel? So how does that translate to a system where the engine kicks on for a little while to top off the batteries and then switch off? Seems like we should have one big diesel that's always running, and you just hook your car up to it when you need some juice.
Fusion power. That's where its at. But until we get that ITER online, we'll just have to use the old-fashioned kind. That solar power folks, and its getting better. So I like to see people finding applications, cause demand drives research. So peep these guys giving their lackluster hybrids a tweak by fitting solar roofs on them. They're getting 20 miles a day already even without the ninja photo-voltaic cells that are coming. 20 miles a day could put some people in the range of using zero fuel on a daily basis, and still having the option to drive 50 miles on a weekend getaway if they'd like.
You know I like the Tesla roadster. I know it probably has its own environmental issues but I don't like the Tesla for its fuel efficiency. I like the concept, a small company building a redonkulous performance car by developing new technology while reusing body designs with plans to downscale it into a reasonable production technology. And its a sweet car. You don't even realize how fast you're going. Just ask this guy who got the first ticket while driving a Tesla. Shit, if I had one I wouldn't care.
Monday, August 21, 2006
More Like The H-Drifter.
Remember ZipZaps? Well this is not that. It is a small car, but the zip is lacking. The explaination is what makes this interesting. The toy is meant as a demonstration of hydrogen fuel cell technology. That's right you generate your own hydrogen and pump it in at a tiny filling station. Watching solar electrolosis: neat at first, but then you get distracted by grass growing. Still I spose its on par with any of those at home science experiments I did when I was a kid. Growing crystals, baking soda and vinegar, sucking eggs. The article basically comes to the conclusion that I've been asking about for a while now. Why are we using electricity to make hydrogen to put into cars? Lets just make better batteries and skip the middleman.Nevertheless, the H-racer does provide a powerful lesson about the feasibility of a hydrogen fuel economy. And that lesson is that, as demonstrated, it is a disappointing power delivery system. As you patiently wait ten minutes for the fueling station to extract enough energy from the solar panel to create enough hydrogen to eventually run the car, you can’t help wondering why you didn’t just strap the solar panel and a battery to the car and be done with it? Instead of a miracle fuel, the tank full of hydrogen is just acting as a complicated battery with plenty of built-in inefficiency and extraordinarily low capacity.
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