Dude, Where’s My [Electric] Car!?!!
Another great find tonight, and I can’t believe this one snuck past me. Thanks to the guys at PowrTalk I think I just found my next car. And it’s already monogramed for me!
Ready to hit the American market in 2010, Miles Electric Vehicles 4-Door Sedan is the first practical, affordable, 4-door, high-way-speed rated, all-electric vehicle you can buy (if you can still get a car loan…) for around $35K USD.
According to the Miles EV website:
“In early 2004, concerned by growing environmental problems linked to micro-carbon emissions, Miles Rubin set out to make a difference – by developing a line of safe, affordable, all electric vehicles that produce zero emissions. He centered the company’s activities in Tianjin, China, where the battery industry had expert manufacturing experience. Since then, Miles Electric Vehicles has begun importing low speed vehicles and is working to develop a highway speed, all-electric, midsize sedan.”
“The MILES XS500 prototype sedan currently under development will top 80mph and travel over 120 miles on a single charge – for about the cost of a gallon of gas.”
“Miles Electric Vehicles is owned by Miles Automotive Group, Ltd, and headquartered at the historic Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, CA.”
Hopefully I can get in touch with my local rep for some additional information and to arrange a demonstration. I’ll keep you posted.
Solar + Splitting H20 + Fuel Cell = unlimited 24/7 electrical power
Some exciting news out of MIT, as published in Science Magazine and reported around the world online in the last few days… years away from being a commercial product, but an exciting development for the future of solar energy.
Source: Guardian UK
Daniel Nocera, a chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has developed a catalyst made from cobalt and phosphorus that can split water at room temperature, a technique he describes in the journal Science. “I’m using cheap, Earth-abundant materials that you can mass-manufacture. As long as you can charge the surface, you can create the catalyst and it doesn’t get any cheaper than that.”
…At night, the hydrogen and oxygen could be recombined in a fuel cell to produce an electrical current to power a home or recharge an electric car. “So I’ve made your house a gas station and a power station. It’s all enabled because we can use light plus water to make a chemical fuel, which is hydrogen and oxygen.”
With Daniel Nocera’s and Matthew Kanan’s new catalyst, homeowners could use their solar panels during the day to power their home, while also using the energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen for storage. At night, the stored hydrogen and oxygen could be recombined using a fuel cell to generate power while the solar panels are inactive. Graphic / Patrick Gillooly, MIT
Source: Physorg.com
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”
Comment ·
Prototype Generators Run on Garbage
There are two prototype garbage-chewing generators helping power Camp Victory in Iraq. They’ve been in operation since early May, and run on a pseudo-propane that is created by burning plastics and fermenting food wastes.
It still requires some diesel fuel, but only 5% of a conventional powerplant, and allows the military to save fuel, reduce the need to transport fuel, reduce the amount of garbage that needs to be disposed of, and reduces risks to troops and contractors by reducing the frequency of convoys trucking fuel and garbage around Baghdad.
About 50 percent of the diesel that the military burns in Iraq is devoted to transporting more fuel. And about half of that gets poured into generators and stoves. Which is not just a huge waste of time, money, and effort. It’s also a security issue. “Those convoys that carry fuel are also known as targets,” Army biotech scientist Dr. James Valdes tells a group of bloggers. “So our logic was that at a forward operating base, could we use the garbage to make fuel and thereby get rid of the garbage and help to keep the convoys off the streets.”
Comment ·
