Britain has a big dream they're working on, to use wind power to provide electricity to a large portion of the country. I don't remember the percentage but they're going for wind power in a big way. As is Europe in general.
Wind power growth blowing away forecasts discusses the progress. Apparently they are well ahead of their forecast growth, and are on target to supply enough electricity from wind to provide the electricity needs of Glasgow and London.
Water contamination can have a negative affect on the health of you and your family. The effects may be immediate or long term. A USGS survey found that 70% of private wells were contaminated. EPA recommends that you test for a minimum of coliform bacteria, nitrate and lead, even if you have public water.
A simple water test can restore your confidence in the safety of you and your family. More importantly, testing may reveal contaminants that you have unknowingly been living with for many years.
Suburban Water Testing labs offers an extensive array of tests that can be performed. The tests come in various cost levels. This is information which can give you peace of mind.
Here's an idea that ought to appeal to everyone. Rainforest Forever is selling trees in the Amazon rainforest. Or, more specifically, what they're selling is the timber rights. By buying up timber rights, you'll gaurantee some section of the rain forest does not get logged.
What you receive is a certificate and GPS coordinates for your tree.
Why should you care? Why should you buy protection for trees? Here's a few of the reasons they offer:
Why is it that India has multiple companies building electric vehicles, and in the U.S. it's so difficult to find any for purchase?
Ultra motors display electric vehicles, launch later this year discusses a new company which has developed both a two-wheeler and three-wheeler electric vehicles. The three-wheeler is for demonstration, runs at 50 km per hour carrying a load of 500kg for 100km on single charge, and shows that the technology is not only affordable, clean and quiet but that it is scalable to heavy-duty applications.
In India the phrase "two-wheeler" means a motorcycle or scooter. The phrase "three-wheeler" is a sort of vehicle which doesn't exist in the U.S. I have a picture in an earlier article about plans by Mahindra (another Indian car company) to produce electric three-wheelers.
Ultra Motors is an English company. It's possible their plans are for offshored production in India and to distribute the vehicles worldwide. At the speeds quoted above, the three-wheeler is suitable only for congested urban areas (of which India has many).
Oooohh... this is more interesting than I thought as they've developed a nice hub motor.
Here's an interesting idea: Attach a large kite to a cargo vessel, using the kite similarly to a sail. It will decrease the fuel required to move the ship. With decreased fuel you have decreased pollution, especially important as ocean ships tend to use the dirtiest of diesel fuel available.
Now, why use a kite? Why not use a regular sail? First, this system can be retrofitted onto existing ships very easily. Second, there's a technical advantage in that a ship using a kite does not "heel" in heavy wind, keeping the ship and crew safer.
See: Beluga Shipping to Try “Wind Hybrid” Kite Propulsion Assist for Cargo Vessel
Company: Skysails
Suzuki to Bring Subcompact Swift to North America: The idea is to capitalize on the interest in high gas mileage vehicles. What with the high gas prices last year, and that this year will continue with high gas prices, the American Public will certainly be primed for a vehicle like this. The specs quited are impressive, such as a 39mpg fuel economy for the gas version, and 51mpg for diesel.
This story: Five Chinese Cities Test Clean Hythane Fuel in Buses (evworld.com, Jan 3, 2006) discusses how Hythane has an agreement with five cities in China to test their fuel in city buses. They're getting ready for the 2008 Olympics to be held in China. What's Hythane? That's a good question, because this is the first I've heard of them, but the answer is very interesting.
Hythane (hythane.com) makes a fuel by adding hydrogen to natural gas. They explain it best:
Hydrogen and methane are complimentary vehicle fuels in many ways. Methane has a relatively narrow flammability range that limits the fuel efficiency and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions improvements that are possible at lean air/fuel ratios. The addition of even a small amount of hydrogen, however, extends the lean flammability range significantly. Methane has a slow flame speed, especially in lean air/fuel mixtures, while hydrogen has a flame speed about 8 times faster. Methane is a fairly stable molecule that can be difficult to ignite, but hydrogen has an ignition energy requirement about 25 times lower than methane. Finally, methane can be difficult to completely combust in the engine or catalyze in exhaust aftertreatment converters. In contrast, hydrogen is a powerful combustion stimulant for accelerating the methane combustion within an engine, and hydrogen is also a powerful reducing agent for efficient catalysis at lower exhaust temperatures.
In other words it makes natural gas a better fuel. Hmmm...
Seems to me this gives an interesting adoption advantage over other systems. A battery EV or a fuel cell vehicle both require a wholesale switchover. It's hard to simply make a few changes to an existing vehicle to turn it into a battery EV or fuel cell EV.
On the other hand, vehicles running on compressed natural gas (CNG) are common. And a gasoline engine is very similar to the one which run's CNG. And finally it would allow reuse of the infrastructure that provides gasoline.
