The Ford Motor Company is taking a new step forward in the process of researching new possibilities of producing biofuels. The company's scientists are currently studying algae as a feasible automotive biofuel, as part of a plan aimed at reducing the dependence on oil and pollution.
Google has recently announced to have invested in a $5 billion project that consists in building a transmission backbone. The connection, called Atlantic Wind Connection would be a 350-mile power transmission linking wind turbines of 6,000 MW capacity.
For singles and newly-wed couples, a car with just two doors would be enough, but if you have a wife and three kids and want to be as green as possible, you may as well buy an electric car, but a 4-doors one... just like the Renault Fluence ZE, whose concept has been presented at this year's Paris Motor Show.
Solar panels, throughout their entire existence, have had the same issue over and over again: once the Sun's light began to hit them with an angle, they became inefficient, so fixed solar panels were only great at noon. Soon after people realized that, they began constructing all sorts of contraptions that would modify the panels' position so to face the Sun directly.
An Israeli firm called R-Jet Engineering has designed a new jet engine that could lower the fuel consumption by 25%. Just like current jet engines are twice as efficient compared to those built in the 1960s, this one, if applied on commercial airplanes, could offer significant savings in fuel and greenhouse gases.
The facility, dubbed Sarnia Solar, is made up of 1.3 million solar panels that are set on a surface of 950 acres and deliver an annual 120,000 MWh. The Sarnia Solar Project integrates solar panels "designed to create the smallest carbon footprint of any PV technology available."
One of the first 100 percent electric mass-production cars in US is to be launched this year and will be for sale starting 2011. The CODA Sedan will be manufactured by a private American firm that sells battery systems and all-electric vehicles.
It's known from high school that aluminum can split water in hydrogen and oxygen, with aluminum hydroxide as byproduct. A team of Purdue University researchers has developed a mechanism that uses this reaction between aluminum, water and a liquid alloy to extract hydrogen directly from seawater and use it in boats and ships.
In secret and in plain view, Google's seven test cars have driven more than 140,000 miles with little intervention from humans, out of which 1,000 were totally autonomous. The program could save lives and fuel, because computers are not heavy-footed and do not accelerate more than necessary and don't brake right after that, like many humans do.
Lithium ion batteries have been so far the best option for storing energy. Lithium is nevertheless an expensive material and a precious natural resource, whose extraction involves complex chemical processes, often damaging to the environment. Sodium-nickel chloride batteries, on the other hand, promise a cheaper alternative to lithium ion due to recent innovations from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
