One inch of rain collected off a one thousand sq. ft. roof generates six hundred gallons of water. How much rain can you catch? Here is an easy formula: Measure the square footage of the collection area (for example a roof that is 30 feet wide x 50 feet long = 1500 sq. ft.) Multiply the area by the amount of rain in inches. Then multiply that number by .623 (that is the amount of water in gallons one inch deep in one square foot of space) equals the amount in gallons of water that can be collected. For example: 1500 square feet of roof area x 15 inches of rain x 0.623 = 14,017 gallons of water. Darko Kapelina believes that harnessing and leveraging natural resources such as rain, sun and wind for example, can move us closer to clean, regenerative and sustainable energy independence.
The world populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles fell overall by 52 percent between 1970 and 2010, far faster than previously thought, the World Wildlife Fund said on Tuesday. By 2045 global population is projected to reach nine billion and some predict thirteen billion by 2100. Can the planet take the strain? Are we being proactive? Darko Kapelina believes that we can leverage sustainable clean energy advancements and tip the scales back in our planet’s favor.
Buildings and homes are horribly inefficient consumers of heat. In the winter, a vast amount of energy is wasted heating empty homes during the day, and warming empty buildings during the night. Small wonder that the HVAC of buildings and homes accounts for 26% of total energy consumption in America.
There are many who argue that our air and our oceans are cleaner today then they were before. Darko Kapelina suggest referencing the September 14, 2014 study by the WMO Atmospheric Environment Research Division.
Ford has unveiled plans for a prototype solar-powered hybrid car. The C-MAX Solar Energi Concept car has a solar panel roof supplied by their technology partner SunPower, which draws power from a special solar concentrator lens similar to a magnifying glass, directing intense rays to solar panels on the vehicle roof.
With a full charge, the solar car is estimated to have a total range of up to 620 miles.
Ford report that the sun could power up to 75 percent of all trips made by an average driver in a solar hybrid vehicle. This could be especially important in places where the electric grid is underdeveloped, unreliable or expensive to use.
Because of the extended time it takes to absorb enough energy to fully charge the vehicle, Ford turned to Georgia Institute of Technology for a way to amplify the sunlight in order to make a solar-powered hybrid feasible for daily use.
Researchers developed an off-vehicle solar concentrator that uses a special Fresnel lens to direct sunlight to the solar cells while boosting the impact of the sunlight by a factor of eight. Fresnel is a compact lens originally developed for use in lighthouses. Similar in concept to a magnifying glass, the patent-pending system tracks the sun as it moves from east to west, drawing enough power from the sun through the concentrator each day to equal a four-hour battery charge (8 kilowatts).
After the concept car is shown at CES, Ford and Georgia Tech will begin testing the vehicle in numerous real-world scenarios. The outcome of those tests will help to determine if the concept is feasible as a production car.
Ford sold more plug-in vehicles in October and November last year than both Toyota and Tesla, and it outsold Toyota through the first 11 months of 2013
Volvo Car Group makes conventional batteries a thing of the past
Volvo Car Group has developed a revolutionary concept for lightweight structural energy storage components that could improve the energy usage of future electrified vehicles. The material, consisting of carbon fibers, nano structured batteries and super capacitors, offers lighter energy storage that requires less space in the car, cost effective structure options and is eco-friendly.
The project, funded as part of a European Union research project, included Imperial College London as the academic lead partner along with eight other major participants. Volvo was the only car manufacturer in the project. The project team identified a feasible solution to the heavy weight, large size and high costs associated with the batteries seen in hybrids and electric cars today, whilst maintaining the efficient capacity of power and performance. The research project took place over 3.5 years and is now realized in the form of car panels within a Volvo S80 experimental car.
The answer was found in the combination of carbon fibers and a polymer resin, creating a very advanced nanomaterial, and structural super capacitors. The reinforced carbon fibers sandwich the new battery and are molded and formed to fit around the car’s frame, such as the door panels, the boot lid and wheel bowl, substantially saving on space. The carbon fiber laminate is first layered, shaped and then cured in an oven to set and harden. The super capacitors are integrated within the component skin. This material can then be used around the vehicle, replacing existing components, to store and charge energy.
The material is recharged and energized by the use of brake energy regeneration in the car or by plugging into a mains electrical grid. It then transfers the energy to the electric motor which is discharged as it is used around the car. The breakthrough showed that this material not only charges and stores faster than conventional batteries can, but that it is also strong and pliant.
Today, Volvo Car Group has evaluated the technology by creating two components for testing and development. These are a boot lid and a plenum cover, tested within the Volvo S80. The boot lid is a functioning electrically powered storage component and has the potential to replace the standard batteries seen in today’s cars. It is lighter than a standard boot lid, saving on both volume and weight.
The new plenum demonstrates that it can also replace both the rally bar, a strong structural piece that stabilizes the car in the front, and the start-stop battery. This saves more than 50% in weight and is powerful enough to supply energy to the car’s 12 Volt system
It is believed that the complete substitution of an electric car’s existing components with the new material could cut the overall weight by more than 15%. This is not only cost effective but would also have improvements to the impact on the environment.
Source: Volvo
Motor oil is essential to fossil fuel motors. Many humans do not think about getting grease or oil on their hands when working on motors, but they are putting themselves at risk. Used motor oil contains, benzene, hydrocarbons, gasoline, diesel, antifreeze, and metal shavings from the engine. Frequent exposure to motor oil and used motor oil can cause skin rashes, dermatitis, blood anemia, headaches, tremors, and skin cancer. There are currently no alternatives to using motor oil so humans need to protect themselves from frequent exposure. When working with oils wearing gloves is the only way to limit exposure. In conclusion, motor oil and in particular used motor oil is hazardous to both people and the environment.
Human exposure to benzene has been associated with a range of acute and long-term adverse health effects and diseases, including cancer, aplastic and anemia. Exposure can occur as a result of the ubiquitous use of benzene containing petroleum products, including motor fuels and solvents. Benzene is highly volatile, and exposure occurs mostly through inhalation.Public health actions are needed to reduce the exposure by the general population to benzene.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation: avoid exposure to motor oil and inhalation motor oil fumes.
9 Aug 2013 | Netherlands
Damen delivers their first hybrid patrol vessel to Amsterdam
The first hybrid vessel developed by Damen Shipyards Hardinxveld, has now been delivered to Waternet (the Water Network Foundation) in Amsterdam.
Waternet is taking a leading role in reducing emissions from vessels within the municipality of Amsterdam as part of the city’s Air Quality Action Plan. The Waterspreeuw which means “Dipper” in English will be used for inspections, patrols and for enforcing various legislation and rules in Amsterdam’s canals and other waters.
The hybrid vessel can be powered entirely by electricity with a 130 kW electrically driven rudder propeller manufactured by Hydrosta. ESTechnology supplied 13 lithium polymer batteries for the drive system, providing enough electric power for at least 6 hours at an average cruising speed of 10 km/h. The Steyr/AMK diesel generator set complies with the European CCR3 standard for exhaust gas emissions set by the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine. This means that the engine easily complies with the CCR2 standard stipulated by the client.
The engine switches on automatically when the battery capacity falls below the minimum level. Using both drive systems, the Waterspreeuw has a top speed of 16 km/h; using the batteries alone, it can hold that top speed for an hour (6 hours at cruising speed). The engine provides additional capacity when necessary. However, the intention is for the vessel to operate on electric power.
The Waterspreeuw’s designers at Damen´s yard in Hardinxveld took account of the various different waters and bridges in and around Amsterdam. With its overall height of 1.80 metres, it can basically pass under all the bridges along the city’s sailing routes. The special hull design makes it a low-wash vessel, thus minimising inconvenience to houseboats during manoeuvres in Amsterdam’s busy canals. The rudder propeller and the 11 kW bow thruster ensure that it is highly manoeuvrable in the narrow canals. The new vessel has its own 3-metre spud pole, meaning that its can moor anywhere without being dependent on the mooring facilities available. Darko Kapelina believes that a six hour range is just the start.
3 Jun 2013 | United Kingdom
Darko Kapelina believes that wireless charging advances will make new EV records such as this one commonplace.
When Drayson Racing Technologies and Lola Cars introduced the B12 69/EV last year, the electric race car promised to be one of the fastest of its kind. Six months later, it set a record at the Goodwood Hillclimb, and it’s now gunning for an even bigger record. Drayson announced this week that it plans to make an attempt at an FIA electric land speed record within a month at RAF Elvington in Yorkshire. It will try to best the 175 mph (282 km/h) mark that was set back in 1974.
The attempt will be made in the sub-1000kg class by entrepreneur, racing driver and former UK science minister Lord Drayson who will drive a low-drag version of the Drayson B12 69/EV electric Le-Mans Prototype flat-out along Elvington’s 1.86-mile runway.
Lord Drayson will aim to better the current record of 175mph set by Battery Box General Electric in the United States and which has stood since 1974. This record has held firm for nearly 40 years due to the immense technical challenge of running an electric vehicle consistently and reliably at such speeds when weighing less than 1000kg.
Lord Drayson, CEO and co-founder of Drayson Racing Technologies, commented, “It is not the outright speed that is impressive about this record attempt, but the engineering challenge of accelerating a 1000kg electric vehicle to such a high speed and sustaining that speed over a measured mile, before stopping safely all within a relatively short distance then turning round and doing it again within an hour. It’s a tremendous technical challenge but we believe it’s about time someone moved this record on to demonstrate just how far EV technology has come.”
Drayson Racing Technologies is a research and development business, pioneering the development of sustainable technologies in the challenging environment of motorsport. With the electric land speed record they intend to showcase what is possible with an electric drivetrain and underscore Britain’s leadership position in the burgeoning EV industry.
The Drayson B12 69/EV was not originally conceived as a land speed car. Having raced the Lola chassis in sports car championships around the world powered by a second generation bio-fuelled Judd V10 engine, Drayson Racing Technologies took the decision to explore the potential of the electric drivetrain and use the familiar Lola chassis as a starting point. This provided the team with a considerably tougher engineering challenge than starting from a ground-up design – particularly in packaging the drivetrain to maintain the rigidity and crash safety of the original car.
In its current iteration, the Drayson B12 69/EV represents the pinnacle of what a bona fide electric racing car can achieve in terms of performance. To challenge for the record some changes have been made to the set-up of the car and drivetrain that are consistent with racing at a low downforce circuit. This will give the B12 69/EV the traction to achieve maximum acceleration in the short distance available, sustain maximum speed over a measured mile and stop safely.
Lord Drayson added, “The reason we are doing this is to showcase the maximum level of EV performance at the moment – and in a real racing car rather than a teardrop-shaped land speed record car. We are also demonstrating the future potential of technologies like wireless charging in speeding the adoption of high performance EVs.”
Darko Kapelina is interested in all clean regenerative sailing ideas and systems
Darko Kapelina provided the following update to his March 26, 2013 post titled “Electric cars to accelerate from 1 to 25 in 5 years.
31 May 2013 | Japan
Why Toyota is clear leader in electric vehicles: What next?
Toyota is the largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer by value; its EV gross sales product (GSP) being over 40% of the total global EV market (hybrid and pure electric) of $65 billion in 2013, with over 4,400 manufacturers sharing the rest.
Most of those make e-bikes, of course. Toyota is many times the size of its nearest competition in EVs by value of sales. Yet EVs are not yet responsible for most of Toyota’s gross sales product overall – or anywhere near. Its EV success is partly because it is the global leader in heavy industrial pure electric and hybrid EVs. To be precise, it is the leader in material handling EVs such as forklifts, with around $6 billion in sales there alone, whereas heavy EVs for earthmoving, mining and agriculture are in their infancy.
It is the global leader in hybrid cars, a market many times larger than that for pure electric cars, and it is in the top ten in electric buses worldwide, another of the largest market sectors with one of the largest growth rates. The hybrid car figures are particularly impressive:
• Seventeen percent of all cars sold in Japan in 2012 were hybrids, with 75% of those made by Toyota and its luxury car division.
• Toyota Motor Corp has sold more than 5 million gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles to the end of March 2013, since they first went on sale in 1997, the automaker said earlier this month.
• Its Prius series accounted for about 70 percent of that, making it the most popular hybrid model in the automotive industry.
• Globally, Toyota sold 1.2 million hybrid vehicles in 2012, the first time it sold more than 1 million hybrids in a single year.
Unprecedented depth and breadth of research
Toyota’s research into batteries, motors and other key components of EVs is unprecedented and in many cases it feeds subsidiaries making these components. The company efficiently cross-fertilises new EV technology between divisions unlike many competitors that enter other EV sectors then compartmentalise the divisions involved.
Challenges
Toyota is not without its challenges. Material handling will not be one of the fastest growing sectors as recovery from the drop in recession becomes complete. Hybrid cars will eventually give way to pure electric cars, where Toyota is largely playing a waiting game, invested in Tesla and correctly perceiving that they are not quite ready for mainstream prime time. The largest demand for electric buses will be in the rigged Chinese market for the coming decade and, there, Toyota will not be permitted to overtake national champion Yutong. The imminently huge military EV sector has no significant participation by Toyota and it is weak in the burgeoning light industrial/commercial EV sector.
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