DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has set a seemingly impossible task, known as the Vulture program, by calling for an aircraft which can remain in the sky for five years while generating five kilowatts of power for a 1,000 pound payload. The Odysseus by Aurora Flight Sciences, which has been selected as one promising design by DARPA, doesn't appear capable of flight at all to many onlookers. The odd Z-shaped wing is actually three separate machines which can change their combined shape in order to catch the suns rays throughout the day and flatten out at night, when the Odysseus would fly on battery power alone. Together, the three sections would span almost 500 feet. Advanced composite materials and double-sided solar panels are employed to make the concept appear possible. If DAPRA's vision proves successful, aerial vehicles like these could take the place of satellites for surveillance and communications purposes.
The X-Prize foundation was established help spur developments in a variety of areas including space travel, medicine and genomics. We've had plenty of coverage here of the Automotive X-Prize where the target is to develop a production viable car that can achieve the equivalent of 100mpg. The foundation is now establishing what it calls the Energy and Environment Prize suite that includes the Automotive Prize. The suite will include a number of prize competitions that go beyond just transportation to include clean energy sources. A Biofuels X-Prize has already been created to inspire breakthroughs in next generation sustainable liquid fuels. The biofuels prize competition will officially launch later this year with a prize of at least $10 million. Other categories that will be attacked in the next couple of years include solar power, water, sustainable housing and carbon capture. In total the energy and environment prizes are will give away up to $100 million.
Sometimes we get a little fired up about new developments in solar technology. This new solar energy system (pictured above) from SUNRGI is making us downright delirious. What is it exactly? Thought you'd never ask. This, my friend, is the latest in concentrated solar technology or Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics ™ - XPV™ as it is referred to by the company. If it lives up to its extraordinary claims of producing electricity for a meager ¢5Kwh, we may all be saying "Good-bye coal, helloooo sunshine".
It works by using a magnifying glass to concentrate sunlight to make it 1,600 times brighter than the sun. It's focussed onto a photovoltaic cell that converts more than 37 percent of the sunlight directly into electricity. Of course, there are other companies that make similar types of concentrated solar systems that can concentrate light by 500 times but where the SUNRGI excels is in the dissipation of the heat that gets created. Apparently it has some nanotechnolgical goop made by Spectrolab that helps conduct the heat away from the cell so it stays only 20 degrees above the outside temperature instead of 3,300 degrees which helps it reach that 1,600 times figure. Already tried and tested, co-founder Robert Black says it should be on the market in 12 to 15 months.
All right, so maybe some of the homebuilt solar-powered cars that we've shown here in the past aren't the best-looking contraptions. Give then this, though: they certainly are useful. The latest example was made by a California man named Brent Hatch, who decided enough was enough when he got a $700 gas bill. With seven kids to drive to school and back along with record-high gas prices, it's easy to see why Hatch was fed up. His solution centers around a four-wheeled, pedal-powered bike that has been equipped with three roof-mounted solar panels. These provide electricity to a small electric motor. Maintenance charges have also gone down considerably, with the only real wear item being the vehicle's sole rear tire, which is powered. Perhaps it's not the most elegant solution we've ever seen... but it's hard to argue that it gets the job done. Watch a video of the machine in action here.
Spain is a country with plenty of sun hours, and wasting the solar resource is really missing a good opportunity. So, after similar announcements from Seat and Nissan, and thanks in part to the Spanish Government's incentives for installing solar panels, GM has decided to install up to 320,000 m2 (about 80 acres) of electricity-producing solar panels on the roof of its factory in Figueruelas, near Zaragoza, Spain. The agreement was announced by French company Veolia and represents an investment of about € 53 million. The Figueruelas factory currently mounts the Vauxall/Opel Corsa and Meriva models.
At the INTERMOT show in Cologne, Germany, running from October 8-12 this year, there will be a special section at the Innovation Centre which will showcase alternative drive two- and three-wheelers. The show will include vehicles that are already on the market, like the Vectrix scooter and electric E-Max scooter, and future vehicles, like a natural gas-powered Suzuki and hybrid Piaggio MP3, on display. A solar-powered test track powered by Salon AG will be on-hand for visitors to test out some of the latest electrically-driven machines and to recharge spent electric vehicles.
INTERMOT organizers believe that now is the time to put alternative energy on display, and they are intending to highlight the fact that environmentally friendly does not necessarily equal low performance. Besides alternatively-powered vehicles, the exhibit will also display eco-friendly parts, accessories and clothing related to the two-wheeled industry. The entire list of all INTERMOT exhibitors can be found at this link.
It's Earth Day, so we would have been shocked to see the day slip by without a press release from Zap about their something or other. True to form, the EV company presents us with news that the Sopraffina Marketcaffe in Chicago will be using an electric Xebra truck with solar panels on the roof in its catering business (read more after the jump). Can't let the Ford Transit Connect have all the food fun, right?
The Xebra is Zap's one legitimate electric vehicle that has more than two wheels, but it does have some drawbacks compared to a "real" car because it's classified as a motorcycle. Still, for deliveries in downtown Chicago, running on electrons is a pretty good plan. Not a lot of sunlight reaches the street in the middle of the Windy City, but if you're on Lakeshore Drive, those panels should be able to suck up some juice. The three-cents-a-mile operating cost has got to be appealing to the business owners as well.
We've run across a few solar-poweredtwo-wheelers before, but this one, known as the Sunny Day, is a concept that makes some sense. Many bikers who are interested in the utmost efficiency already streamline their bikes, so why not coat that bodywork in solar cells? We're not certain how efficient the solar cells could be or how many the limited real estate would allow, but even a bit of electric-boost could be helpful to commuters. Additionally, the bike folds down, offering the cells a more direct look at the sun and easing storage issues. The Sunny Day bike was recently awarded Grand Prize win in the 12th annual International Bicycle Design Competition. We'd have chosen it, too.
I'm wondering if my skills at assembling Ikea furniture will be useful for the SUNN. The SUNN is a solar electric car in a kit that can apparently be assembled in your garage in four or five days. The kit includes everything that you need except the batteries and solar panels which have to be locally sourced to save you a bundle on shipping. Solar panels and batteries are heavy and thus expensive to ship.
Don't expect Tesla-like performance, however. Sunn's maximum speed is rated at 25 mph. If used without solar panels, you will be able to drive for 20 miles. Plug-in the solar panels and you will get extra 3 miles from the hood and 14 from the roof panels. That's 34 miles.
According to the website, this can be classified as a NEV in the U. S., which makes it legal if you register it. The manufacturer supplies you with the Manufacturers Certificates of Origin for all of the major components. Full specs and video after the jump.
Thule, self proclaimed "experts in maximizing a vehicle's roof space," have decided to maximize their own roof space, so to speak, by installing a 318-kilowatt (kW) DC solar photovoltaic (PV) system at their Seymour, CT U.S. headquarters. Consisting of two separate arrays with a total of 1,876 solar panels, the system will provide 26 percent of the facility's total electrical needs. The sun-loving system was subsidized by The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund's On-site Renewable Distributed Energy Program and is owned by Nautilus Solar Energy, LLC, which will provide electricity at a fixed-price below what other energy sources cost.
According to Fred Clark, President of Thule, Inc., "We encourage our employees to ride bikes to work and provide facilities for those who do so -- leading to Thule being recognized as an industry leader in going green by Bicycle Retailer and Industry News." Adding a solar roof will certainly do nothing but add to that green reputation.
Until more eco-friendly alternatives become available, most of us are stuck burning fossil-fuels for our power, whether we're driving or just powering the lights in our homes. With that in mind, researchers from the Middle East are working on new ways to reduce the emissions from methane-gas burning turbines for power generation. Using very high heat and very low oxygen levels, Mohamed Sassi of The Petroleum Institute in Abu Dabi, along with Mohamed Hamdi and Hamaid Bentîcha from the National School of Engineers of Monastir in Tunisia, have modeled what is known as flameless combustion, or flameless oxidation (FLOX). This new process could drastically reduce the harmful NOX emissions associated with gas-burning turbines while also being more efficient.
We have hopes that the widespread generation of power could be taken care of with alternatives such as wind, solar and wave power, but since even landfills give off methane gas, technology such as this could prove very useful in the future.
Lately when talk of using solar energy via large installations comes up it seems the suggestion will invariably be made that we should cover huge swaths of the desert with a solar panel blanket. This strikes me as a little wrong-headed. What might seem a barren wasteland to some is home to a large variety of flora and fauna and there's just a little bit of irony in the proposition of destroying the environment to save it.
I've always thought that rooftops in the cities where we live would be the ideal location for solar panels, and apparently Southern California Edison agrees with me. With a little help from the world's favorite Terminator, the Californian utility has announced a project to install 65 million square feet of thin-film solar panels on rooftops across three Southern California counties. As Arnold says in the video after the jump, this is the equivalent space of "1100 football fields" The project begins this very summer and will take five years to complete. With a total cost of $875 million, the amount of electricity produced will be 250 megawatts which is enough to power 162,000 homes. My humble math skills tell me that each of these homes could have their power needs met for $5,468.75. That sounds like a good deal! Now, if I could only figure out how many miles 250 megawatts would move an Aptera.
Although introduced in the Paris Motor Show in 2006, the Venturi Astrolab was spotted again at the EVER Salon in Monaco (Green Cars Autoshow). The concept, which showed an interesting tandem lightweight (only 280 kg!) architecture, was designed to provide the maximum surface available to recharge the car's batteries.
The car has a total surface of 3.2 m2 which provide 600 W of energy to charge the NiMH Venturi NIV-7 batteries in five hours. With that, you have 18 km (12 miles) of range. But, if you plug it in, the range jumps to about 110 km (70 mi). The concept allowed the development of a solar roof for the second generation of the Eclectic announced for this year's Auto Show.
We're getting close to the start of the 2008 Shell Eco-marathon Americas, and the list of 38 teams that will participate in the competition in some ways mimics real-world power train usage. The overwhelming majority (28) of the vehicles will use combustion engines to try and top last year's incredible 1902 mpg winning score. Alongside the gas engines will be six fuel cell, one LPG, one diesel, and two solar entrants. You can find a full list of the schools from five high schools and 24 universities that are participating - and the names of their vehicles - after the jump. The competition runs from April 10 to 12 at the California Speedway in Fontana, California. The goal is to go the furthest distance on the least amount of fuel. Based on the names alone, I like Peanut Butter and The Hot Pocket. Good luck to all the teams.
Last year, the Sundance Channel premiered the show Big Ideas for a Small Planet. AutoblogGreen took a look at two Season one episodes in particular, Drive and Fuel, because they directly related to our daily topics. Big Ideas is back for season two and if you weren't convinced by our reviews last year that this is a show worth watching, then fire up iTunes for a free download of the Power episode (I'm not sure how to link to something within iTunes, but if anyone knows the secret, feel free to share. UPDATE: thanks for the link, david r.). Of course, you can always watch a lot of the show online at the Big Ideas website.
As you might guess, the Power episode is about renewable sources of energy. The 25-minute show takes a look at the Solar Decathlon and the way wind power is replacing coal in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.
DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has set a seemingly impossible task, known as the Vulture program, by calling for an aircraft which can remain in the sky for five years while generating five kilowatts of power for a 1,000 pound payload. The Odysseus by Aurora Flight Sciences, which has been selected as one promising design by DARPA, doesn't appear capable of flight at all to many onlookers. The odd Z-shaped wing is actually three separate machines which can change their combined shape in order to catch the suns rays throughout the day and flatten out at night, when the Odysseus would fly on battery power alone. Together, the three sections would span almost 500 feet. Advanced composite materials and double-sided solar panels are employed to make the concept appear possible. If DAPRA's vision proves successful, aerial vehicles like these could take the place of satellites for surveillance and communications purposes.
At the INTERMOT show in Cologne, Germany, running from October 8-12 this year, there will be a special section at the Innovation Centre which will showcase alternative drive two- and three-wheelers. The show will include vehicles that are already on the market, like the 
Thule, self proclaimed "experts in maximizing a vehicle's roof space," have decided to maximize their own roof space, so to speak, by installing a 318-kilowatt (kW) DC solar photovoltaic (PV) system at their Seymour, CT U.S. headquarters. Consisting of two separate arrays with a total of 1,876 solar panels, the system will provide 26 percent of the facility's total electrical needs. The sun-loving system was subsidized by The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund's On-site Renewable Distributed Energy Program and is owned by Nautilus Solar Energy, LLC, which will provide electricity at a fixed-price below what other energy sources cost. 
_thumbnail.jpg "Beijing 2008: BYD e6")
