Inside the doors of the new Ford Escape, oil-based materials have been replaced with those made from a common plant found in southern Asia.

Ford is using the kenaf plant to create the interior bolster on each door of the Escape, a move that’s expected to offset 300,000 pounds of oil-based resin annually. The material also means a slight decrease in vehicle weight, as the bolsters will be 25 percent lighter, though of course they make up a small percentage of the vehicle’s overall weight.

Kenaf is most commonly used to create paper, though traditionally it has also been cultivated for its fibres, which are used to make everything from rope to cloth. The kenaf inside the Escape will be mixed 50/50 with polypropylene, a commonly used thermoplastic polymer.

The Escape has become something of a test bed for new, more sustainable materials. Last year Ford announced that the truck would seeinterior mats made from recycled plastic bottles.

Now, imagine if the guy who designed them had decided to devote his energies to creating a tool to help reduce your energy consumption? That’d be pretty great, huh?

Well, that’s just what’s happened.

Tony Fadell led the teams that created the first 18 generations of the iPod, from the original chunky model right through to the sleek iPod Nano. He also led the design of the first three generations of the iPhone (you know, the ones that didn’t shatter if you dropped them). Sir Jony Ive may get all the attention, but to those in the know, Tony Fadell is a big part of the reason for Apple’s stellar success in recent years.

So, when it emerged last year that he was working on a thermostat, folks were a little surprised. How sexy is a thermostat, really? How much potential is there for design innovation?

Turns out, a whole lot — and the resulting product should be of interest to planet-savers as well as gadget nerds. Because Nest – the company’s new ‘learning thermostat’ — has the potential to seriously reduce household energy use.

As you might expect, given Fadell’s heritage, the Nest is a lot better-looking than the average thermostat. And it’s easy to use — you just turn the dial left and right to set your desired temperature. But it’s what’s going on inside that’s interesting. The Nest contains some fairly smart silicon, and that enables it to ‘learn’ your schedule and adjust the heating or cooling of your home around it.

It sounds easy: for the first few days, you turn the thermostat down a bit at night, up again in the morning, and down again when you leave the house, much like you probably do now. But after a week, Nest will start understanding when you do these things and start doing them automatically — for example, heating the house in time for your usual waking-up time, or turning off when you’re at work.

How the Nest Learning Thermostat learns

This might sound more like a labour-saving device — preventing you having to adjust your thermostat manually — than an energy-saving one. But Nest point out that an awful lot of people don’t adjust their thermostats regularly enough and, subsequently, a lot of energy is wasted heating or cooling empty homes. The EPA say that a properly programmed thermostat can cut 20% off your heating and cooling bill. But, apparently, 90% of programmable thermostats are never programmed, and many of those using manual thermostats rarely remember to adjust them.

And if you do go out at an unusual time and forget to turn it down, you can access and control Nest from a smartphone application or over the web.

Nest certainly sounds like it has the potential to seriously improve energy efficiency in homes — but we’ll reserve judgment until people start using it. The company says its initial run of thermostats is sold out, but is yet to ship. If you’ve got $249 to spare — which the company says you’ll make back in savings in less than two years — you can reserve one here.

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/15cAo)

What do you get when you cross a Nissan Leaf with a small commercial van? Well, you get more or less the bastard child of the NV200 and the Leaf, unimaginatively named the “eNV200,” on display at Detroit this week. Questions of naming aside, it actually ended up looking pretty neat.

Nissan’s decision to convert the commercial van to electric isn’t entirely without precedent; a number of commercial electric vehicles have hit the streets all over the world, and it was really only a matter of time. The eNV200 is, however, the cutest of the lot, and if you’ve read anything else I’ve ever written, you know that I place a high value on cute.

It Works Pretty Well, Too

Aside from the aesthetics, the 80kW AC synchronous motor and its 207 lb-ft (280 N-m/rpm) of torque should make the van perfectly drivable, and the 24kWh battery pack composed of 48 compact modules is supposed to give it a range comparable to that of the Leaf (although the van is larger and heavier, so I’m not sure how well that will work).  Of course, the lack of emissions is also a plus.

Like the Leaf, the van will charge from the front end, and it’s got Leaf-y headlights to complete its outside look. The interior is fitted with EV-specific gauges (hey, knowing how much range you’ve got left is super important) and other advanced telematics. The center display has a touch-screen input that’s supposed to work like a tablet.

Testing Phase, Starting Now

The e-NV200 isn’t slated for mass production yet, but Nissan does believe it would reduce operating costs when compared to combustion engine vehicles – less maintenance, lower fuel costs, and so on. According to Automobile Mag, Nissan’s already started testing the concept by sending prototypes to the Japan Post and FedEx’s London operations.

Hideto Murakami, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.’s corporate vice president did not mention cuteness inNissan’s press release; instead, he had this to say:

“With its ‘no gas, no tailpipe, no emissions’ powertrain, the Nissan e-NV200 Concept combines a quiet, comfortable driving experience with a large, highly versatile, functional interior space within a compact overall body length. A potential game changing vehicle in its segment, the battery capacity will support a driving range similar to the Nissan LEAF, while payload and cargo space will offer the same level as the current NV200. The production version would be targeted mainly at businesses, but also at private users or families in major regions.

“A vehicle like the Nissan e-NV200 Concept would energize the current compact van market in more ways than one – helping improve the quality of urban life and providing a smart financial investment for large and small businesses alike.”

Like it? More information is available at www.eNV200.com – or chime in in the comments below.

Besides receiving a lot of solar energy, the ‘Desert Kingdom’ has other competitive advantages when it comes to the potential to develop solar energy markets and technology. For one, there’s lots of open land. Secondly, it has lots of sand, which contains a high percentage of silicon, the starting material for silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and panels, as well as semiconductor chips. Thirdly, it has a fast-growing, relatively young and educated population, many of whom are looking for good private sector jobs and careers.

The Resource Curse; the Deep Roots of Oil

Being so rich and intensively invested in petroleum and natural gas, Saudi Arabia, along with other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, have been resisting and even trying to turn back the renewable, clean energy tide. The latest statistics show that the petroleum sector accounted for between 80%-90% of Saudi government budget revenue, 45% of national GDP and 90% of total export earnings. Saudi oil revenues for 2011 are expected to be about $324 billion, according to the IMF.

Saudi Arabia holds an estimated 20% of proven world petroleum reserves, though some Saudi oil industry experts question government estimates of proven reserves, asserting that the country has already reached or gone past the point of peak oil production.

In a dramatic change in position, at least given its status quo-oriented, conservatively authoritative nature, the International Energy Agency (IEA), in its 2010 World Energy Outlook, acknowledged that global conventional crude oil production peaked in 2006. With worldwide energy demand forecast to more than double by 2030, Saudi and GCC leaders appear to be reconsidering their positions on solar and renewable energy, and are directing at least some capital investment into the sector.

Saudi Arabia burns more oil to generate electricity than any of its GCC neighbors. The executive director of Saudi Aramco Power Systems, Ziyad Al Shiha, last May told the press that Saudi Arabia was burning 800,000 barrels a day in turbines and that consumption was growing fast.

Peak Oil, Environmental Degradation

Just as Peak Oil appears upon us, or at least on the horizon and approaching fast, a number of other factors have prompted Saudi and GCC leaders to give some serious consideration to renewable energy, even if mostly in the context of its potential to reduce demand for fossil fuels and its own revenues.

One such impetus is environmental degradation- of air, land and water resources, which is high in a region critically lacking in water and food security. All are threats to the health and welfare of the region’s residents, as well as to their economies. Flat or declining crude oil production, as well as the escalating costs of finding and extracting new and existing reserves, poses another challenge.

An aggressive government-led program of renewable energy and clean tech investment would address these issues. Solar, wind, geothermal and marine energy plants are much less environmentally damaging than fossil fuel plants. Solar and wind power can be incorporated into sea water desalination plants, an energy-intensive process that Saudi Arabia already relies on extensively to meet its freshwater needs. Moreover, peak electricity demand occurs during summer daytime hours in Saudi Arabia, just when solar energy production peaks.

Key Challenges: Employment and Population Growth

Another, inter-related key challenge facing Saudi Arabia and GCC governments is the need to create jobs and diversify their economies. Subsidized by oil revenue, the Saudi monarchy, essentially runs a highly militarized social welfare state.

With a population estimated at more than 26 million and growing at more than 1.5% per year (77th among all countries in the world), nearly 68% of Saudis are between the ages of 15 and 64. Young Saudis are allotted jobs in government, industries and commercial businesses, mostly in the services sector, that are either controlled by government, an oligopoly of royals and/or well-connected, super-wealthy individuals and families. Strictly limited in their employment opportunities, it’s estimated that 7% – 15% of Saudi women are employed.

Cheap foreign labor is imported to do almost all the manual labor and provide the vast majority of basic business administration and services. More expensive labor is imported to provide a wide range of more specialized skills and services. In total, it’s estimated that around 5 million foreign workers are employed in Saudi Arabia, about 2/3 of the total work force and as much as 95% of the private sector work force.

Such a strictly controlled system limits innovation and economic opportunities, and it really doesn’t make a dent in the need to create productive employment or develop a diversified economy, even as the growth in population continues to be nearly as high or higher than real economic growth. Put at 3.17 million in 1999, the native Saudi labor force has been forecast to grow to 10.76 million in 2020. With an unemployment rate estimated by government authorities at nearly 11% in 2010, some experts believe it to be higher, particularly if under-utilization of human resources is considered.

The Saudi government has poured billions into education and training in the past decade and more in an attempt to diversify the country’s economy and create jobs for Saudis. It enacted a “Saudization” program that stipulates that certain percentages of all foreign company employees must be Saudi, all of which has come to no great effect.

Solar and Renewable Energy: One Pillar of a Possible Solution

Renewable energy and clean technology have ranked among the fastest growing economic sectors in the growing number of countries that have provided adequate government support and protection, and enacted energy market reforms during the past decade. In a few major developed world economies, they’ve grown and developed into foundations for the economy and engines for job creation. Given the comparative advantages it has, there’s no reason why it couldn’t be the same in Saudi Arabia, except lack of political will, led by the opposition of powerful, vested interests.

Despite occasional public announcements that it will invest aggressively in solar and renewable energy, little in the way of real progress has taken place to date. In February, Oman’s Phoenix Solar announced it had been commissioned to build Saudi Arabia’s largest solar PV plant to date – a 3.5-megawatt project near Riyadh.

A variety of different of solar panels and configurations from Phoenix had been tested prior to the company being commissioned to take on the project. The testing and evaluation was carried out by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national petroleum company, the world’s largest producer of crude oil. That’s not even a drop in an extremely large bucket, when compared to the country’s solar energy potential. The Riyadh plant was due to come on line in September, 2011. A cursory Google search yielded no mention as to whether or not the plant has actually come on-line. No news of the project’s completion appears on among the news releases on Phoenix Solar’s website.

KAUST: Saudi’s Solar Focal Point

The focal point of Saudi Arabia’s investment in solar energy appears to be in the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Generously endowed by King Abdullah and the Saudi government, KAUST has attracted talented, promising postgraduate students specializing in solar and renewable energy from around the world.

In late September, KAUST and the University of Toronto signed a first-of-its-kind licensing agreement for the rights to the latter’s quantum dot solar cell technology, which has been developed by Dr. Edward Sargent, Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology. KAUST has been partially funding Dr. Sargent’s research and development work since 2008 as part of its Global Collaborative Research Program. The exclusive license conveys the rights to the University of Toronto and Dr. Sargent’s quantum solar dot technology across 38 countries in the Middle East, western Asia, Russia and India.

Earlier in September, KAUST announced that a collaborative effort conducted by KAUST, University of Toronto and Penn State researchers had produced the most efficient colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cell ever, with an energy conversion efficiency as high as 6%. Reported in the journal Nature Materials, the nanoscale semiconductors can be sprayed on to almost any surface, including plastics.

Impressive as such high-tech achievements are, they completely miss the boat in terms of the potential for solar energy to help address Saudi Arabia’s most vexing challenges starting today. An aggressive government strategy to import and install cheap silicon solar panels across the country could create thousands of jobs, employ thousands of young Saudi nationals, diversify the economy and do a vast amount of good in terms of benefiting the environment. It would also conserve Saudi’s petroleum and natural gas reserves, extending the life of its proven reserves for generations to come.

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/158DU)

Coca-Cola has announced a new partnership with a trio of biotechnology firms in order to develop what’s being described as the “next generation” of PlantBottle technology.

The companies involved in the deal include Virent, Gevo, and Avantium — and Coke says that it researched its potential partners for the past two years.

“While the technology to make bio-based materials in a lab has been available for years,” Coke’s VP of commercial product supply Rick Frazier said, “we believe Virent, Gevo, and Avantium are companies that possess technologies that have high potential for creating them on a global commercial scale within the next few years,”

Since being introduced in 2009 the PlantBottle — a plastic bottle created using 30 percent plant-based materials — has been distributed 10 billion times across 20 different countries. Products utilizing the packaging include Heinz ketchup and Odwalla juice.

With the next generation of the packaging, the goal is to create a bottle made from 100 percent plant materials. By 2020, Coke aims to have its entire line-up of polyethylene terephthalate plastic bottles replaced with PlantBottles.

[Press release Cleantechnica by Zachary Shahan, 17th December, 2011]
Electric cars? How quaint. Bio-fuel? How passé. Hydrogen fuel cells? That’s so last week…. No, the car of the future runs on air…that’s right, AIR…the invisible stuff that’s all around us and costs us barely anything (unless we pollute/heat it up too much).

Actually, the car of the future is already here, if ‘here’ means India 2012… it’s called the MiniCAT, or, more generically, the Air Car. The Air Car was developed by a former Formula-One auto engineer (Guy Nègre) working for Luxembourg-based Motor Development International (MDI) and it uses compressed air to push its engine pistons.

And, of course, since it runs on air, the car expels only air — clean air — with a temperature between 0 and 15 degrees below zero. The super-chilled air can be re-channelled back into the car to provide air conditioning (and with no loss of power or decrease in mileage or engine efficiency).

So, how much mileage and speed/horse power can one really get from a car that runs on compressed air?

Well, the car’s chassis is tubular and its body is made entirely of fibre glass, so it’s very light (and the whole thing is held together by glue, not welds). The MiniCAT (btw, the ‘CAT’ stand for Compressed Air Transport, I think) gets “double the mileage of the most advanced electric models” and has a top speed of 60 mph (105 kpm).

According to the same early review, the car has a range of 185 miles (300 km) before needing to “refuel” (note: refuelling will mean a few minutes of compressed air pumping at stations with specially designed air compressors, and will cost about 100 rupees, or about 45 cents, for another 300 km of range).

Now, filling up the car’s entire tank takes about 3-4 hours, which the owner can do at home thanks to the car’s on-board [electric] compressor.

What about powering interior electrics?

A single microprocessor controls all the car’s electrical functions (which are very few — this is low-budget people). A tiny radio transmitter sends instructions for turn signals, wipers, lights, heat/AC, etc.

 What about oil for moving engine parts?

 The MiniCAT requires just 1 litre of vegetable oil, which needs changing every 30, 000 miles (50,000 km). Beyond this, there is very little maintenance to be done due to the car’s remarkable simplicity.

The perfect (motorized) urban vehicle?

OK, as you can see by the pictures, it’s no boat, and probably only a little bit safer (in an accident) than a motorcycle. But with its power-saving features, decent mileage and speed, way-low maintenance, and carbon-neutral/pollution-free features, the vehicle may become a main contender for the perfect city automobile (and cities would get a good bit cooler as a result too).

Possibly the least green thing about the MiniCAT is that it will use rubber tires (but perhaps these can be made from recycled rubber).

Aesthetically, although it has some of the design attributes of many motorized mini cars, it, nonetheless, has a distinct look amongst that field of vehicles… kinda looks cool, actually.

And what about cost-savings? What’s the bottom line here?

The MiniCAT can be had (soon) for just 365, 757 (rupees, that is), or, about 8,200.00 USD (when it gets here).

If all this sounds just too good to be true, the world won’t have too long to wait to find out — the manufacturer, Tata Motors of India, plans on introducing the car to the teeming streets of India in August of 2012.

It might not hold off the Mayan prophesies of doom (or the plethora of doom-sayers), but if it ever catches on in a global way, it could just help us avoid the pending environmental catastrophes we could be facing.

The Climate Group says in its Information Marketplaces report that while there’s been a boom in city infrastructure organizations using open APIs, cities needs to take a more proactive approach in promoting and utilizing open APIs for city services.  

The report notes that the greatest increase from sectors using open APIs between 2009 and 2011 has been in city-based technologies:

• Retail, with 550 percent growth in open APIs
• Utilities, with 185 percent growth.
• Transportation with 2300 percent growth
• Government sector applications with 278 percent growth

 Other interesting stats from the report include a look at the job benefits from the smart grid for cities.

The Smart2020 report says:

• The smart grid creates 50 percent more jobs than the average infrastructure project.
• Smart grid initiatives have created over 12.000 jobs in Silicon Valley.

The company has unveiled an all-new 6MW turbine — dubbed the SWT-6.0 — with rotor blades that come in both 58 meter (190 feet) and 75 meter (246 feet) varieties, the latter being the largest amongst 6MW turbines with a resulting diameter of 154 meters (505 feet). The towerhead alone weights in at 350 tons.

Despite this, Siemens claims that the turbine is the lightest in its class and features 50 percent less parts compared to similar offshore turbines. According to the company, the reduced weight “significantly reduces infrastructure, installation, and service costs, and boosts lifetime energy output and profitability.”

A prototype of the turbine has been tested in Denmark since May of this year.

“We expect the SWT-6.0 turbine to become the new standard for offshore wind power projects around the globe,” Siemens CTO Henrik Stiesdal said. “With its smart design and low weight, the SWT-6.0 will contribute significantly to the reduction of the cost of energy for offshore wind power.”

Plans to install the turbine in locations in Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom are already underway.

According to a report from Bloomberg, renewable energy saw $187 billion in investments, while traditional forms of energy production drew $157 billion. The renewable portion includes energy derived from solar, tidal, wind, and biomass sources.

The rise in investments has been spurred by an increase in renewable energy subsidies — there were approximately $66 billion in renewable subsidies in 2010 — as well as the reduction in production costs for things like solar panels. Many countries, in particular Germany, are also relying on renewable power to make up for a loss of nuclear energy.

“The progress of renewables has been nothing short of remarkable,” the United Nations’ Achim Steiner told Bloomberg. “You have record investment in the midst of an economic and financial crisis.”

However, despite the boom, many companies are still struggling. Recently, a number of solar manufacturers in China — including the world’s largest producer of solar panels — saw significant drops in shipments.

The town of York, Me., is putting up what could be a bridge to a better future, not because of it where it goes but because of what it is made of: plastic.

Plastic bottles have been the bane of landfills for decades because they do not degrade. To find other uses for these strong and persistent materials, some manufacturers have melted them into boards for beach house decks or spun them into clothing materials.

But while plastics recycling has become more common since the 1980s, far more could be done, environmental policy makers say. The nation recycles only 27.5 percent of its hard plastic bottle waste, versus 71 percent of its newspapers and 67 percent of its steel cans, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 figures.

Now comes Axion International, a New Jersey-based company founded in 2007 that has developed a process to make a building material that is strong enough to supplant steel and concrete but is made out of discarded laundry detergent containers and milk cartons. The material, a plastic polymer that is essentially a mix of shredded heavy plastics and a bit of fiberglass, was developed by Thomas Nosker, a professor of engineering at Rutgers.

Steven Silverman, Axion’s president and chief executive, says the manufacturing process is very clean; it uses electricity to heat the materials only, and no additional chemicals are added in recycling the plastics. The resulting polymer can be extruded into any shape.

In addition to prefabricating the 26-by-15-foot bridge in Maine, Axion’s current projects include everything from railroad ties to a boardwalk in Trinidad and Tobago. But Mr. Silverman is already exploring other uses for his product, including building sound barriers along highways, which are usually constructed from concrete, and I-beams. The product costs a little less than steel and concrete in most cases, he said.

It is twice as expensive to make railroad ties from plastic as hardwood, but there are dividends. Hardwood trees are not felled, and the plastics are impervious to bugs and water. And they will last a very long time — just as they do in the nation’s choked landfills.

Turning plastics into bridges is just one sign of how the recycling industry is maturing.