This item was in a Forbes.com newsletter I get. It reports on a fascinating new idea in solar electric power generation. It’s one of those classically “elegant” solutions that seem so simple and obvious that one wanders why no one thought of it before. Go to http://www.forbes.com/technology/forbes/2008/1117/058.html?partner=technology_newsletter to read the full article. They simply make huge balloons that have the form of segments of rotated parabolas, with a thin reflective coating on one half and a clear film on the other half. At the focal point of the reflective rotated parabola, which is inside the balloon, they situate a solar cell array. For a video that explains the concept much better than I can, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kROgE4Jdm-k . This looks like something we could duplicate and study in the AFV Lab.

Solar Bubbles

Kerry A. Dolan 10.29.08, 6:00 PM ET
Forbes Magazine dated November 17, 2008

Here’s an audacious bet: Cheap plastic balloons with solar cells inside can solve the world’s energy problem.

Behind a warehouse workshop in Livermore, Calif., an 8-foot shiny plastic balloon soaks up the abundant late September sun. Its shape reflects so much heat to its middle that you can’t leave your hand on it or you’ll burn. Insert a round plate covered with solar cells into the balloon and you may have the next idea in renewable power.

Eric Cummings, the brainy scientist who dreamed up the balloon idea, dismisses flat solar panels as expensive to install and difficult to deploy. The curvature of his balloon concentrates more sunlight onto fewer photovoltaic cells. He envisions vast farms of his 1-kilowatt balloons strung on wires and producing gigawatts of power.

Cummings has no deals yet with a utility, but his company, Cool Earth Solar, raised $21 million from Quercus Trust, a Los Angeles private equity firm, and other investors to build a 1.5 megawatt installation in California’s Central Valley. Construction of a test project in a field of brown weeds across the street from its offices is just beginning. “This is scalable in a way that dwarfs other options,” he boasts. “The goal is to be the 100% solution” to the energy crisis.

Cool Earth Chief Executive Robert Lamkin, who previously oversaw the development and construction of power plants at Calpine and managed plants at Mirant, says rather boldly that next year the company will have its costs down to $1 per watt, installed—at which point it can compete with natural gas and beat other kinds of solar technologies. Typical photovoltaic panels on rooftops cost up to $8 per watt installed. Solar thermal power, which concentrates heat to make steam, is aiming for $4 per watt. (These costs are all in terms of peak watts. Nights and clouds included, solar’s average cost per watt is four times as much.)

Whether solar balloons are viable has yet to be proved. “It’s definitely a nice idea, but this doesn’t appear to be a game changer,” says Daniel Kammen, a professor in the Energy & Resources Group at UC, Berkeley. Kammen says far bigger balloons up in the jet streamwould generate more electricity. Says Christopher Porter of Photon Consulting in Boston, “Relative to other solar, we’re not particularly excited about concentrated photovoltaics as a broad technology group.”

Cummings, 41, is undeterred. He has a doctorate in aeronautics and quantum chemistry from the California Institute of Technology—and a record of solving challenging problems. At the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Cummings solved a 150-year-old electromechanical design problem in three months, pioneering a method to quickly and simply separate molecules.

Concentrating the reflected light into a receiver produces 300 to 400 times as much electricity out of each solar cell as a system without a concentrator, the company claims. A water-cooled jacket on the back side of the receiver keeps it from overheating. The balloon can add or bleed air to maintain its shape.

Cool Earth’s balloons can last five years but are so cheap it plans to replace them once a year. Or more frequently. It has yet to test against BB guns.

I found this article on the web this morning. This looks like an interesting idea. The University of Colorado has fitted a biodiesel refinery into a small trailer and takes it around to schools, fairs, exhibits and produces biodiesel on site from local resources, like spent cooking oil. Could this be a future AFV Lab project? Go to http://www.coloradodaily.com/news/2008/oct/27/students-brewing-biodiesel-fuel-at-cu/ to read the details.

Students brewing biodiesel fuel at CU

By Lance Vaillancourt
Monday, October 27, 2008
Creating cleaner, more sustainable, and more cost-effective fuel from someone’s garbage may sound like a pipe dream, but according to two University of Colorado students involved with the CU Biodiesel program, not only is it possible, it’s easy.

“I’ve taught everyone from post-graduate students to second-graders how to brew their own biodiesel,” said CU senior Mike West, director of education for CU Biodiesel. “That’s the whole point of the project — to show people how easy it is to brew biodiesel.”

The project West is referring to is a self-contained biodiesel trailer called ESTER, short for “fatty acid methylester,” or scientific name for biodiesel. By using the vegetable-oil waste donated from such restaurants as Spud Brothers on 10th Street and CU cafeterias as the primary ingredient, or “feed stock,” ESTER is equipped with a processor that converts it into a finished product that is 80 percent biodiesel and 20 percent glycerine.

According to CU junior Josh Jaffe, director of outreach for CU Biodiesel, both byproducts of the conversion go right back to the benefit of CU causes. The biodiesel is used by the Buff buses to transport students and the glycerine is donated to the CU Recycling Center to be used as a fertilizing agent for composting.

“This is going to be CU’s in-house, or in-parking lot, biodiesel production facility,” Jaffe said of ESTER, which began construction three years ago through a $46,000 grant from the CU Environmental Center.

With a fully-functioning conversion system projected to brew as much as 500 gallons of biodiesel every month, West and Jaffe said that the trailer only needs a few additional adjustments in order to meet safety codes and should be operational within weeks.

The trailer’s mobility will help fulfill its secondary function as an educational tool that can be taken to off-campus locations for on-the-spot workshops, presentations and demonstrations.

“Diesel engines were originally designed to run on peanut oil,” said Jaffe. “It was only when petro was introduced as cheaper that people stopped using peanut oil — so in a way, this is what we should have been using the whole time. It’s not really pioneering, it’s more like backtracking.”

According to West, the bulk of the cost of producing biodiesel comes from obtaining the feed stock. This stands ins sharp contrast to the vast sums of money expended in the exploration for and extraction of petroleum. Biodiesel is not only a cleaner and more sustainable source of energy, West asserts, it is also more cost-efficient….

Source: http://www.coloradodaily.com/news/2008/oct/27/students-brewing-biodiesel-fuel-at-cu/

This article was on the AutoBlogGreen.com blog this morning. It is an interesting application of the technology of individual electric motors in each wheel driven by an ICE powered generator.  I have wondered how long it would take for technology and innovation to develop to the point that this could be done.  After all, practical application of the idea has been around for at least a half century or more.  The diesel electric railroad locomotives that ended the era of the steam engine railroad locomotive utilize the same technology.  A diesel engine drives a generator which in turn drives electric motors in each drive wheel.

Web surfing from this site led me to the “PML Flightlink” site, http://www.pmlflightlink.com/ which, in time, led me to this very interesting site, http://www.pmlflightlink.com/archive/news_mini.html. The Pml Flightlink Ltd company has converted a mini to its system, too, but what makes this particular conversion unique is that it has no friction brakes, but relies strictly upon regenerative braking. Quite interesting, I think.

SEMA 2008 Preview: PML Flightlink to show Ford F-150 PHEV

Posted Oct 25th 2008 at 4:39PM by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Ford, SEMA Show

PML Flightlink, makers of the 640-horsepower electric MINI from 2006, is headed to SEMA this year with a new concept vehicle to display. Based on a full-size Ford pickup truck, it would be hard to come up with a platform further from the MINI that the company originally used. Still, the concept F-150 will feature a similar setup to those used on PML’s earlier concepts, including the Volvo ReCharge concept. The motors themselves are a permanent magnet pancake style and are integrated within the wheels. This design could potentially rid the truck of many drivetrain components such as, of course, the engine and transmission as well as the driveshafts and transfer case that would otherwise be necessary for a four-wheel drive truck. Instead of going the full electric route, though, the SEMA-bound F-150 will use a plug-in series hybrid powertrain, so the truck’s on-board battery can be recharged by the stock gasoline engine. We’ll see if we can’t track down more details closer to the truck’s debut.

Source: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/25/sema-2008-preview-pml-flightlink-to-show-ford-f-150-phev/

Came across this item on the autobloggreen.com blog this morning.  I must say that this is an interesting variation of the over a century old idea of a sleeve valve engine.  These early sleeve engines used a sleeve or sleeves that were concentric with the centerline of the piston and moved either axially to the piston, in the case of the two sleeve engine, or axially and rotationally, in the case of the single sleeve engine.  These early engines suffered problems because of the reciprocal nature of their valve system, i.e, the constant “stopping and starting” and the wear that comes with it.  (Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeve_valve to read about these early engines.)  This variation uses a sleeve, but it rotates around the piston.  It has a single opening machined into the sleeve.  The engine block has an intake port and an exhaust port located at right angles to each other.  The sleeve is driven at half the speed of the crankshaft, just like a conventional cam shaft.  As the piston starts down on intake, the opening in the sleeve begins to align with the intake port and fuel/air is drawn into the engine.  At mid stroke, the port is fully open, and at the end of the stroke the port is fully closed.  Of course, variations of this timing can be made by simply changing the length and positioning of the opening.  On the compression and power strokes, the opening in the sleeve is effectively closed by the cylinder wall.  When the piston comes up on exhaust, the opening aligns with the exhaust port and the exhaust gases are expelled, and the whole cycle repeats.  This system has value in that head design has more flexibility.  The plug can be placed anywhere in the head and various types of “squish” and “swirl” can be used, because there are no valves in the head restricting design.  Piston tops will not have to have valve head reliefs cut into them, eliminating their sharp edges that are a prime source of detonation and preignition.  Instead of regrinding a cam every time different valve timings are required, the engine builder simply cuts a different sized or located hole in the sleeve.  I think it merits further development.

PGO working on rotary valve scooter engine

Posted Oct 23rd 2008 at 5:44PM by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, On Two Wheels

The good ‘ol four stroke internal combustion engine has life left in it. Despite the fact that the world’s oil supplies are getting more expensive and harder to extract, the short-term truth is that there’s still no cheaper way to power a vehicle than with petroleum. This being the case, engineering work is still being done on the basic design of the engines that power our cars, motorcycles and scooters. Further proof of this truth comes by way of Taiwanese scooter manufacture PGO, which has partnered up with RCV Engine Ltd. of the U.K. The two firms are working on rotary valve technology for scooters. So far, the rotary valve engines have really only made waves in the model aircraft industry, a market that RCV is very active in, but PGO believes the engines in the 125-150cc range could power its scooters.

The technology seems rather elegant and does away with the valvetrain of a four stroke engine, a major source of losses and maintenance. The cylinder, including the combustion chamber, rotates around the piston as it moves through its stroke. Click here for more details on how the technology works. PGO hopes to reduce the costs of engine manufacturing while increasing power and lowering emissions. So far, though, no specific engines have been announced.

[Source: CENS via 2 Stroke Buzz]

Source: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/23/pgo-working-on-rotary-valve-scooter-engine/

Came across this article on the AutoBlogGreen.com blog this morning. It’s an interesting concept. The “soleckshaw” driver simply exchanges his spent battery at a solar powered charging station for a freshly recharged battery and then goes on his way. Go to http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/22/solar-powered-rickshaws-to-run-around-the-streets-of-delhi/ for the entry.

Meet the soleckshaw, the solar-powered rickshaws running in Delhi

Posted Oct 22nd 2008 at 4:36PM by Jeremy Korzeniewski

The pedal-powered rickshaw is a time-honored method of getting around in many countries where not every citizen has the means to drive a car. Of course, time marches on, and the classic rickshaws are definitely a step or two behind the times. Still, there is a market for zero emission people carriers, especially in developing countries that don’t already have other mass-transit solutions in place. Plus, while it may not seem like everybody’s cup of tea, there are a large number of people that make their living pedaling rickshaws. Enter the soleckshaw, a hybrid human- and solar-powered rickshaw that was recently shown off in Delhi. The project also includes solar charging stations where used-up batteries can be swapped for fresh ones.

The soleckshaw is powered by a 350-Watt, 36-volt brushless DC motor driving the rear wheels through a differential. There’s room for two passengers out back and the vehicle can reach 12 miles per hour or so. The battery is good for about 45 miles of range, which equates to about six hours of service. Each soleckshaw is expected to cost around $450.

[Source: India Press Inormation Bureau via Wired]

Source: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/22/solar-powered-rickshaws-to-run-around-the-streets-of-delhi/

Bellow is an excerpt from this article on the greencarcongress.com blog this morning.  Direct Injection may be an idea whose time has come.  Go to http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/10/hotfire-project.html#more to read the full article.  The article states the strategy achieves an approximate 15% fuel savings through use of direct injection and variable valve timing.

HOTFIRE Project Wins Engineering Award; Homogeneous Direct Injection with Fully Variable Valve Train

21 October 2008

Project HOTFIRE has taken the top award in the automotive sector in ‘The Engineer Technology + Innovation Awards 2008’ in the UK. The project team, comprising engine designers from Lotus Engineering, fuel injection specialists from Continental Powertrain and thermodynamics and mechanics experts from University College London and Loughborough University, developed a gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine concept that reduces fuel consumption by 15%. The project was funded by EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council).

The end application of this project is a direct injection spark ignition engine architecture that does not require stratified lean burn combustion to achieve the approximate 15% fuel savings. This ensures that the system can be used over all speed/load ranges and eliminates the need for an expensive lean NO_x trap which is usually required when lean combustion is employed.

—Geraint Castleton-White, Head of Powertrain at Lotus Engineering…

Source: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/10/hotfire-project.html#more

I came across this item on the About.com Hybrid Cars & Alt Fuel blog this morning.  It includes a table that lists the energy equivalents of most popular transportation energy sources. It may be of use in evaluating the MPGe (Miles Per Gallon Equivalent) of alternative fuels and thus facilitating an “apples to apples” comparison of alternative fuels.  Go to http://alternativefuels.about.com/od/resources/a/gge.htm?nl=1 to read the details.

Energy Equivalency Calculation

Using fuel energy equivalents provides the user with a comparison tool for gauging various fuels against a known constant that has relative meaning. A common method of measurement is the Gasoline Gallon Equivalent. The chart at the bottom of this page arrives at the equivalent measurement by comparing the BTU content per unit of each fuel type and then calculating the ratio.

What’s a BTU?

As a basis for determining energy content of a fuel, it is helpful to understand exactly what a BTU (British Thermal Unit) is. Its scientific definition goes something like this: British Thermal Unit - The amount of heat (energy) required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.

Think of it this way: it’s basically a standard. Just as PSI (pounds per square inch) is a standard for measuring pressure, so too is a BTU a standard for measuring energy content.
See GGE conversion chart below

Source: http://alternativefuels.about.com/od/resources/a/gge.htm?nl=1

BMW has an entry into the electric car market now, and, as to be expected from BMW, it’s a good one.  0-60 in about 8.5 seconds, top speed of 95 mph, and a range of 150 miles.  Go to http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/10/bmw-group-elect.html#more to see the details.

BMW Group Electric MINI to Debut at LA Auto Show in November

18 October 2008

The MINI E. The zero-emission MINI will sport a plug logo in Interchange Yellow. Click to enlarge.

The BMW Group will introduce its battery-electric MINI E (earlier post) at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. BMW says that it will deploy a fleet of some 500 of the all-electric vehicles for private use in daily traffic.

The MINI E will be powered by a 150 kW (204 hp) electric motor fed by a 35 kWh lithium-ion battery pack (28 kWh usable), with a single-stage helical gearbox transferring power to the front wheels. The MINI E’s electric drive train produces a peak torque of 220 Nm (162 lb-ft), with 0 to 100 kph acceleration in 8.5 seconds. Top speed is electronically limited to 152 kph (95 mph).The battery pack will support a range of more than 240 km (150 miles).

Based on the current MINI, the car will initially be available as a two-seater. The space taken up by back-seat passengers in the series model has been reserved for the lithium-ion battery pack. The 380V lithium-ion storage unit comprises 5,088 cells grouped into 48 modules. These modules are packaged into three battery elements that are compactly arranged inside the MINI E.

The MINI E’s lithium-ion battery can be plugged into all standard power outlets, with charge time dependent on the voltage and amperage of the electricity flowing through the grid. In the USA, MINI will provide its cusomtres with a fast-charging wallbox. To be installed in the customer’s garage, the wallbox enables higher amperage, and provides a full 28 kWh recharge after 2.5 hours. Based on the car’s range, a kilowatt hour translates into 5.4 miles (185 Wh/mile).

Regenerative braking can extend the car’s range by up to 20%.

The MINI E’s brake system comes with a newly developed electric underpressure pump. Its Electrical Power Assisted Steering (EPS) is the same as the one used in mass-produced MINIs. Both brake and steering assistance react to driving conditions and are thus extremely efficient. Even the air conditioning’s electrical compressor only operates if desired or necessary.

Weighing in at 1,465 kilograms (3,230 lbs), the MINI E has an even weight distribution. Minor modifications made to the suspension ensure safe handling at all times. The Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) system has been adapted to this model’s specific wheel loads.

The MINI E will initially be made available to select private and corporate customers as part of a pilot project in the US states of California, New York and New Jersey. The possibility of offering the MINI E in Europe as well is currently being considered.

The limited-production MINI E series will be manufactured through the end of 2008 at the company’s Oxford and Munich sites. MINI’s UK plant will be responsible for manufacturing the entire vehicle with the exception of the drive components and the lithium-ion battery, with the brand’s series models rolling off its assembly lines concurrently. The units will then be transferred to a specially equipped manufacturing complex situated on BMW plant premises where the electric motor, battery units, performance electronics and transmission will be integrated.

MINI E customers will join forces with BMW Group experts to assist in the project’s evaluation. The cars will be offered on a one-year lease with an extension option. Monthly lease installments will cover any required technical service including all necessary maintenance and the replacement of wearing parts. At the end of the lease, all of the automobiles belonging to the project will be returned to the BMW Group’s engineering fleet where they will be subjected to comparative tests. Only lockable garages or similar buildings will qualify as homebases and power stations for the MINI E.

MINI will establish a service base on both coasts of the US, staffed by service engineers that are specially trained to perform maintenance and repair work on the MINI E’s electrical components. In the event of drive malfunction, these experts will provide professional support at the customer’s local MINI dealer or the service base’s specially equipped workshop. Technical inspections will take place after 3,000 miles (just under 5,000 kilometers) and at least after six months.

The MINI E has already gone through the major phases of product development for mass-produced vehicles and passed numerous crash tests on the way. Aspects investigated besides passenger protection were the impact of collision forces on the lithium-ion battery and finding a non-hazardous location for it in the car. The MINI E’s energy storage unit emerged completely unscathed from all of the crash tests mandated by US standards.

The BMW Group says that it plans to start series production of all-electric vehicles over the medium-term as part of its Number ONE strategy. The development of innovative concepts for mobility in big-city conurbations within the scope of “project i” has a similar thrust, as its objective also includes making use of an all-electric power train.

Source:  http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/10/bmw-group-elect.html#more

This article was on the RenewableEnergyWorld blog this morning. It makes some interesting points. For instance, it proposes the idea that, in the world of Sustainability, bigger is not necessarily better and that there is something to be said for local, smaller sustainable energy development projects. This brings to my mind several local entities that could benefit from such decentralization. The first to come to mind is the ongoing biodiesel project Ian Heatwole is spearheading. I don’t know what his business model is, but, in accordance with this article I can see it as possibly involving local farmers “trading” their soybeans for diesel fuel to run their equipment. This would result in substantial cost savings and reduction in energy consumption from transporting diesel fuel, be it petroleum diesel or biodiesel, over great distances from huge refineries.  Another local entity that could implement the ideas in this article is the Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC), a local consumer owned supplier of electricity.  “Chartered on June 26, 1936, the Cooperative today serves over 38,000 residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial accounts in the Virginia counties of Augusta, Rockingham and Shenandoah, and Hardy County, West Virginia.” according to its website. Perhaps the SVEC could prevail upon its farm members to install windmills on their farms or solar panels on poultry houses in return for favorable electricity rates. Food for thought, don’t you think? I’m sure there are other instances that may benefit from this decentralized concept of energy production and use. Go to http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=53804 to read the full article.

Rural Power: The Key to Sustainability

The next twenty years could see up to US $1 trillion of investment in renewable energy in rural areas. Wind and solar power will be harnessed; and non-food crops will provide the fuel for a new generation of biofuels. But will rural areas reap the benefits of this massive investment or will communities merely observe the remaking of rural economies?

Source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=53804

This item was on the Gas2.org blog this morning. Quite an accomplishment, I think. Go to http://gas2.org/2008/10/14/texas-teen-builds-his-own-electric-car-on-10000-budget/ to read more.

Texas Teen Builds His Own Electric Car on $10,000 Budget

Written by Andrew Williams

Published on October 14th, 2008

40 Comments

Posted in Electric Cars (EVs)

This fall, Texas teenager Lucas Laborde will be driving to school in an electric car he built himself. The 17 year old spent last summer converting a conventional gas-powered car to run on batteries. Total cost? Around $10,000.

Luke’s EV is based on a kit car, known as a Bradley GT II, which his father bought on eBay for just $5000 splashing out a further $5700 on electric conversion parts and batteries. The rest was left up to Luke’s ingenuity and technical know-how.

After 150 hours of work, Luke had hooked up eight 80-pound lead-acid batteries in the space left after removing the fuel tank, as well as several other ‘creative locations.’ He finished up with an EV capable of travelling 40 miles between charges, a top speed of 45mph, (more than enough for the local school run), and heaps of low-end torque. As Luke told reporters, “it has a lot of power.”

The car isn’t without a few ‘quirks’ though; the weight of the batteries has caused the fiberglas body to twist slightly, meaning that the gull-wing doors don’t completely close. However, by using his own initiative, and making use of widely available existing components, Luke Laborde has put many global car companies to shame by creating a working, highway-ready EV, in far less time and on a much lower budget.

Image Credit - Steve Striharsky at bradleygt2.com

Source: http://gas2.org/2008/10/14/texas-teen-builds-his-own-electric-car-on-10000-budget/