The 260-mpg Volkswagen XL1 concept car.
(Credit: Volkswagen) "The plug-in hybrid offers precisely what many customers expect: unlimited internal combustion engine performance combined with attractive electric mobility ranges in everyday driving," Winterkorn said. The company acknowledges that electric vehicles will play a large role in the automotive future, but finds plug-ins to be a happy medium until infrastructure, technology, and consumers make pure EVs a viable option.
Earlier this year, the German auto manufacturer debuted the XL1 concept plug-in car at an auto show in Qatar. Based on the L1 concept, the gullwinged tandem two-seater has a carbon fiber chassis and is powered by a 48-horsepower ... Read full post & comments
Originally posted at The Car Tech blog
Liane Yvkoff is a freelance writer who blogs about cars for CNET Car Tech. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. E-mail Liane.
Jaguar says it will build a production version of the C-X75 concept car.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET) We often see concept cars at auto shows and wish the automakers would actually build them. In this case, Jaguar is granting our wish, sort of.
The company pledged to keep the body style of the concept, a low, exotic-looking car that should fit well with the McLarens, Paganis, and Gumperts of the world. Jaguar will work with Williams F1, a racing team, to develop a carbon fiber chassis ... Read full post & comments
Originally posted at The Car Tech blog
Methanol
With gas summer prices again threatening up to $4 a gallon across the U.S., everyone is looking at alternative fuels. Research into methanol, ethanol, and biodiesel is on the rise. The Methanol Institute today, for example, announced that it's backing of the Open Fuel Standard Act of 2011 (H.R. 1687) in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Methanol is just one of the several alternative fuels that are being researched as affordable alternatives to fossil fuel.
"The Open Fuel Standard Act is all about choice," Methanol Institute Executive Director Gregory Dolan said in a statement. "By ensuring that new cars can operate on something other than gasoline, Americans can reap the benefits of multiple alternative fuels. Methanol in particular is poised to play significant role in reducing our dependence on gasoline, as the most affordable, easily deployed, sustainable fuel available that would retail at the pump
... Read full post & comments
Originally posted at The Car Tech blog
Suzanne Ashe has been covering technology, gadgets, video games, and cars for several years. In addition to writing features and reviews for magazines and Web sites, she has contributed to daily newspapers. Suzanne is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive.
BOSTON--In one respect, green-tech companies are realizing what IT manufacturers did many years ago: just selling a box will only go so far.
To get a high volume of products sold, technology suppliers need to combine hardware with software and with consulting services to solve a problem.
This idea of developing a "solution" around energy-related gear is high on the mind of Mark Vachon, vice president of Ecomagination at General Electric. To do that, there needs to be an "ecosystem," or network, of partners who can pull the various pieces together.
Launched six years ago, the Ecomagination initiative is essentially a business proposition stating that there will be greater and greater competition for natural resources, which will drive demand for renewable energy and goods that improve energy and water efficiency. In five full years, GE has made $70 billion from Ecomagination-tagged products, which can be everything ... Read full post & comments
To get a high volume of products sold, technology suppliers need to combine hardware with software and with consulting services to solve a problem.
This idea of developing a "solution" around energy-related gear is high on the mind of Mark Vachon, vice president of Ecomagination at General Electric. To do that, there needs to be an "ecosystem," or network, of partners who can pull the various pieces together.
Mark Vachon
(Credit: GE) When it comes to energy technology, nuclear fusion is the ultimate "swing for the fences." Now at least one fusion venture is getting serious attention from start-up investors.
British Columbia-based General Fusion said today that it received US$19.5 million in a series B funding from venture capital and Canadian government funds. Among them was Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment fund of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
The funding, spotted by Toronto-based journalist Tyler Hamilton, will give General Fusion the money to complete the first phase of its planned development program. The company's target is to commercialize its "magnetized target fusion" technology within the decade, CEO Doug Richardson said in a statement.
Today's nuclear power plants use nuclear fission, or splitting atoms to release energy in the form of heat. Nuclear fusion, which occurs on the sun, is when two hydrogen atoms are heated to the point where they can fuse to form helium, a process which releases huge amounts of energy. In theory, that energy can be converted into electricity.
Research on nuclear fusion has been going on for decades and many people consider any practical use of fusion decades away. General Fusion's approach is a combination of existing methods, which it says will allow it to create a generator that will harness the heat from fusion to make electricity as power plants do today using cheaper methods than existing fusion research efforts.
According to a technical description on the company's Web site, General Fusion's process creates plasma, a state of matter where electrons move freely from the rest of atoms, of certain forms of hydrogen. That plasma, which is similar to a gas, is then heated in a magnetic field to 1 million degrees using a bank of capacitors, which produces a form of plasma in the shape of a doughnut.
That plasma is then compressed from a shock wave using pneumatic pistons surrounding a central sphere, causing the fusion reaction. The company also has a process for capturing the heat from the reaction. Given a significant amount of energy is needed to run the operation, General Fusion's Web site notes that one of the main technical challenges of nuclear fusion in general, once a reaction can be repeated, is creating a net output of energy.
... Read full post & comments
British Columbia-based General Fusion said today that it received US$19.5 million in a series B funding from venture capital and Canadian government funds. Among them was Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment fund of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
A sketch of the nuclear fusion generator being designed by start-up General Fusion.
(Credit: General Fusion) Today's nuclear power plants use nuclear fission, or splitting atoms to release energy in the form of heat. Nuclear fusion, which occurs on the sun, is when two hydrogen atoms are heated to the point where they can fuse to form helium, a process which releases huge amounts of energy. In theory, that energy can be converted into electricity.
Research on nuclear fusion has been going on for decades and many people consider any practical use of fusion decades away. General Fusion's approach is a combination of existing methods, which it says will allow it to create a generator that will harness the heat from fusion to make electricity as power plants do today using cheaper methods than existing fusion research efforts.
According to a technical description on the company's Web site, General Fusion's process creates plasma, a state of matter where electrons move freely from the rest of atoms, of certain forms of hydrogen. That plasma, which is similar to a gas, is then heated in a magnetic field to 1 million degrees using a bank of capacitors, which produces a form of plasma in the shape of a doughnut.
That plasma is then compressed from a shock wave using pneumatic pistons surrounding a central sphere, causing the fusion reaction. The company also has a process for capturing the heat from the reaction. Given a significant amount of energy is needed to run the operation, General Fusion's Web site notes that one of the main technical challenges of nuclear fusion in general, once a reaction can be repeated, is creating a net output of energy.
... Read full post & comments
Brammo's Engage electric motorcycle with a six-speed transmission.
(Credit: Brammo) The bikes will be unveiled this Friday in Las Vegas shortly before competing in the MiniMotoSX race.
Motorcycle manufacturer Brammo could make a big impact on the motorcycle world with this change.
While electric motorcycles have been around for some time, and even had their own race on the Isle of Man in June 2009, up until now they've mainly been seen as bikes for early adopters interested in green tech, or those who might otherwise consider a moped.
Electric motorcycles are relatively quiet, have a limited range, and arguably offer limited speed and performance when compared to comparable racing bikes with internal combustion engines. They're also fighting an image problem in a market famous for exuding a longstanding sexy, powerful, and adventurous appeal.
"Electric motorcycle design has always been a bit of a balancing act in direct drive systems where great acceleration performance comes at the expense of low top-end speed," Brian Wismann, director of product development at Brammo, said in a statement.
... Read full post & comments
There are solar panels that generate electricity and those that absorb heat for hot water. And now researchers at MIT and elsewhere say they've made progress on using the sun's heat to make electricity.
In a paper published in Nature, the researchers describe the progress they've made on a nanostructured material that improves on the heat-to-electricity conversion rate over existing thermoelectric devices.
The researchers envision that this solid-state material could be packaged either as a stand-alone thermoelectric generator or added onto existing solar hot water systems to make electricity. "Our work opens up a promising new approach which has the potential to achieve cost-effective conversion of solar energy into electricity," the researchers said in their paper.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Gang Chen said a thermoelectric generator ... Read full post & comments
In a paper published in Nature, the researchers describe the progress they've made on a nanostructured material that improves on the heat-to-electricity conversion rate over existing thermoelectric devices.
MIT professor Gang Chen and doctoral student Daniel Kraemer (right) show a prototype of a solar thermoelectric generator.
(Credit: MIT) Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Gang Chen said a thermoelectric generator ... Read full post & comments
Nissan's NV200 minivan will be the next NYC Taxi, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday.
(Credit: Nissan) 
Front interior of the official Nissan NV200 NYC Taxi.
(Credit: Nissan) The Nissan van will join New York City's taxi fleet beginning in 2013, and be the official taxi of New York for the following 10 years. All taxis currently on the road, including the city's newer hybrid cabs, will be phased out by 2018.
As part of the deal, Nissan is also providing the city with 100 plug-in electric Nissan Leaf cars to be used as test vehicles by taxi owners interested in going all-electric. Nissan will also install charging stations within the city for easy accessibility.
Rear interior
(Credit: Nissan) 
General Electric may have grown its clean-tech business fourfold over the past six years, but Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt wishes he had spent a little less time talking about it. The head of the largest U.S. conglomerate, who in January was named a top adviser on job creation to U.S. President Barack Obama, said yesterday that GE's focus on the environmentally friendly aspects of its wind turbines and high-efficiency appliances might have led his critics to believe he was more interested in saving the planet than growing the company.
"If I had one thing to do over again, I would not have talked so much about green," Immelt said at an event sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Even though I believe in global warming and I believe in the science...it just took on a connotation that was too elitist; it was too precious and ... Read full post & comments
Story Copyright (c) 2011 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Additional stories from Reuters
SunRun said that it has secured $200 million from a bank to finance the installation of residential solar panels, a sign of confidence in a business model that avoids the upfront cost of solar.
The company said that a subsidiary of US Bancorp will provide the money, which will be the largest single fund for financing residential solar projects. US Bancorp has already made financing available to SunRun in separate deals.
Prices for solar panels themselves continue to fall but, with installation half the cost of an array, the upfront cost remains a barrier to residential solar. The financing model offered by SunRun and competitors such as SolarCity allows consumers to sidestep the initial cost and pay a fixed monthly fee instead.
In this model, SunRun or other entity will own the panels and benefit from the tax credit for renewable energy. ... Read full post & comments
The company said that a subsidiary of US Bancorp will provide the money, which will be the largest single fund for financing residential solar projects. US Bancorp has already made financing available to SunRun in separate deals.
A SunRun-financed array in New Jersey
(Credit: SunRun) In this model, SunRun or other entity will own the panels and benefit from the tax credit for renewable energy. ... Read full post & comments
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/greentech/#ixzz1Ljtf2HQa
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