The Green Optimistic

Nobody would have ever though that Central and Eastern Europe would have the technology or financial resources to build a super car or a zero emission vehicle. This is why we are now astonished as the Hungarian company called Antro developed a hybrid car that is also able to run on solar power.

Ford recently disclosed their long term plan coming to align with governmental laws related with fuel efficiency: by 2020, at least 25% of Ford’s new cars will be either electric or hybrid vehicles. In North America, 7 of 10 vehicles will be gasoline-electric hybrids, such as the current Fusion hybrid version.

Bloom Energy has just brought to the market a new fuel cell system that is able to run on various fuels. While working on natural gas, it can decrease the CO2 emissions by half compared to conventional power sources.

They managed to increase the efficiency with almost 40% of their solar cells, from 6,7 percent to 9,6 percent. To reduce even more the costs, these solar cells are build with an inexpensive ink-based process.

Fuel cells can be used in various applications such as spacecraft, remote weather stations, large parks, rural locations, military applications and automotive industry. Fuel cells have hydrogen as the base element for their power.

The genome sequence was published in the journal Nature, and its main purpose was to better understand the plant’s capacity to turn sunlight, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water, into concentrated energy, protein, and nutrients for human and animal use.

We all know that one of the industries that pollute the most is the automotive industry. With several millions of vehicles on the roads, that consume every day millions of tons of fossil fuels, the air in the megacities becomes more and more unbreathable.

2010 comes with no surprises anymore as it continues the trend imposed last year, when most of the manufacturers presented electric vehicles and hybrid or plug-in hybrids.

We all need electricity for powering different stuff in our home, to make our lives more pleasant. But if the electricity is produced using green sources it’s even better. One of the most used types of energy up to now was hydropower, but this one involves the construction of dams, weirs or other structures that could affect fish.

Just few days ago, Tesla Motors announced that they will start the collaboration with Panasonic for the development of the next generation battery cells for the EV.

Wastewater treatment plants are usually packed with industrial-sized aerators, pumps and other machines that usually use a lot of electricity from the grid. But SunPower Corp. developed a solar power system for the West Riverside Wastewater Treatment Plant in Corona, California that is able to generate one-megawatt of energy

A recent study made by Jennifer Burney from Stanford University, shows hope for the next generations: it seems that solar-power irrigation systems have significantly enhanced the living standards of sub-Saharan Africa villagers.

Switzerland can finally brag with their most expensive sports car: Protoscar has just finished the development and manufacturing of a 1 million Euro electric sports car prototype called Lampo.

One of Europe’s largest automotive manufacturers, Mercedes-Benz, announced that the next generation of the S-class will come with a plug-in hybrid engine.

Glycerin is the most important component in many of the products we use, from soap to cosmetics, foods and pharmaceuticals. We even use it for biofuel production, algae growth and fuel cells. But it seems that in this moment glycerin really represents an issue as the large quantity developed by biofuel refineries cannot be assimilated by the market. The excess glycerin is incinerated on the market or illegally disposed.

Stirling engines are known to mankind for about 200 years but they are not so widely used today, except maybe for the pacemakers and long-distance robotic spacecrafts. This will soon change as 60 stirling engines will be used in Phoenix, Arizona, to harvest solar power which will be converted into electricity.

The Sanyo’ HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer) is a double-sided photovoltaic module that can be mounted very easily over carports, canopies, porches and other types of coverings.

The partnership between Kia and Hyundai resulted in some huge steps forward regarding fuel cell technology. Kia has just released some footage about their latest FCEV prototype called Borrego (Mohave for the Korean market).

By April 2010, Toyota will put in place around 21 charging stations for plug-in hybrid vehicles(PHVs) and electric vehicles(EVs)in Aichi Prefecture . The most interesting thing about these stations is the fact that they are charging themselves using solar power.

NASA has recently been very interested not only in space exploration but as well in the rising energy costs and climate change. NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, has developed a system of growing algae in waste-water for the biofuel production.