While the argument about whether a Hummer H2 is actually more environmentally friendly than a Toyota Prius has long since been debunked (even if it keeps popping up its ugly head), it does raise a valid point. A major part of the environmental impact of transportation devices like cars and trucks comes during the manufacturing and disposal phases of their existences. Evaluating environmental impact requires total lifecycle analysis of the product, something that Toyota has done for the new 2010 Prius.

The Tsutsumi plant that builds the Prius is one of five ISO14001 certified Eco-factories in the Toyota network. The factory has a 50,000m² solar array on its roof that generates 5,000 2,000 kW per hour of electricity, about half of the plant's total requirements. Another 22,000m² of the factory is covered in a photocatalytic paint that converts NOx CO₂ to oxygen and nitrogen. A number of initiatives including zero land-fill waste, water recycling and reduced volatile organic compound use are all part of the overall effort to reduce the impact of building Priuses.


[Source: Toyota]

For years, we've been watching as solar-powered race cars travel at relatively high rates of speed for hours on end – as long as the sun happens to be shining, of course. In fact, the World Solar Challenge has been taking place in Australia every few years since 1987, and the actual vehicles competing in the event got so fast that race organizers eventually had to alter the rules in the name of safety back in 2005. Since these solar-powered racers had gotten so fast and capable that in 2007 the World Solar Challenge altered its mission in the hopes that more real-world solar cars could hopefully benefit from the lessons learned during the competition.

But there is a problem with most of these solar racing vehicles. In the name of maximum efficiency, solar racers force their single drivers to lie in all sorts of convoluted positions, lack any sort of active safety systems (like airbags, anti-lock brakes or crumple zones) and are made from extremely expensive, high-tech materials. In other words, none of these solar-powered race cars will ever be construed as something you could possibly drive to work. What's the problem? Why can't we build a workable solar car?

That's the subject of today's Greenlings post. Click past the break to read all about solar-powered cars.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol says it was able to save roughly $1 million in fuel costs in 2008 (reportedly a 16.4-percent savings) by increasing stationary patrol time. Sitting stationary does save fuel if the other option is to drive around on patrol. Still, it's a well-known fact that police officers often leave the engines in their cruisers idling in order to power the various electric doodads required in their jobs. As you would guess, lots of fuel gets burned away in these circumstances.

To combat this particular problem, nearly 1,200 patrol cars in Ohio are reportedly set to get a new five-watt solar panel that will provide sufficient juice to power the officers' patrol-car radios. Each unit will reportedly cost $37 and will be wired directly to the car's stock lead-acid battery, which is expected to both reduce fuel costs and increase the life of the car's battery.

Another interesting and green-related tidbit: the brackets used to fasten these solar panels to the rear decks of patrol cars were fashioned from misprinted license plates. Click past the break for a short video.

[Source: Green Car Advisor, WTOL Toledo]

Want to know more about the solar moonroof option that's available on the latest third-generation Toyota Prius for 2010? Read on. According to Tech-On from Nikkei newspaper in Japan, the actual polycrystalline Si cells used by the automaker are supplied by Kyocera and are arranged in six columns and six rows.

These 36 cells are about 16.5-percent efficient and reportedly generate over 50 watts of power, which is sufficient to directly power an electric fan that helps keep the cabin cool when the car isn't running. Toyota's first design apparently sent power to a battery, but the Japanese automaker was worried that the power source would degrade over time with frequent use.

Interestingly, the inclusion of the solar moonroof precludes the use of the standard car's Pagoda roof, which slightly increases the car's frontal area and therefore negatively impacts overall aerodynamics somewhat, though not enough to cause any measurable decrease in efficiency. According to Toyota, the unit is quite robust and there is no need to be concerned that the solar system isn't able to withstand the rigors of automotive use.

[Source: Tech-On]

A new solar carport has just been launched in the UK from a company called Romag Holdings, a firm that produces "specialist transparent composites" including laminated photovoltaic panels. Called PowerParks, these carports would act as a shelter and charging point for electric vehicles. Each unit has a peak output of 150 kilowatts. When there's nothing plugged in to the PowerPark, the solar power is fed back into the grid, so the energy collected is never wasted.

So far, there's only one PowerPark installation at Romag's corporate headquarters, but that's likely to change in the near future. According to the company, supermarket chains, schools, airports, train stations, hospitals and commercial office buildings all around the world have all shown an interest in the units. There's even a chance that the solar canopy could make its way across the pond and into the United States. At this point, pricing isn't set in stone but is reportedly comparable to other photovoltaic solutions.

[Source: Wired]

Solar technology, while promising, doesn't quite seem ready to power our vehicles. Large solar installations that constantly collect the sun's rays and store them for later use may be an excellent option to power electric vehicles, but even the best photovoltaic cells in the world are not yet efficient enough to generate enough electricity to provide for any meaningful range, at least for the kind of vehicle that most people would want to drive.

There will always be enterprising individuals out there, though, that take matters into their own hands by creating the vehicle of their dreams the best way they know how. Such is the case with one inventor from Palo Alto, California, who has apparently welded the rear half of an electric utility trailer to the front forks and steering head of a small motorbike. The best part is undoubtedly the large, rectangular solar panel that pivots to face the sun when parked and provide a roof for the rider when moving.

Practical? Not even close. Awesome? Without question. Click here to for a fun caption contest from Wired. Hat tip to Gene for taking the pic!

[Source: Wired]

There is section of the DC Auto Show, called the Green Car Pavilion, that is intended to highlight alternative fuel vehicles. Before the show officially opens tomorrow, we managed to take a walk around the GCP and saw an interesting collection of vehicles parked there. One was the bright yellow ride that you see here: a 1985 Pontiac Fiero (well, so said the info sheet taped to the car, EV Album says it's a 1986, see more details after the jump). A long time ago, certainly before the recent uptick in home electric car conversions, its gasoline guts were ripped out - professionally, of course, by Solar Electric Engineering of Santa Rosa, California - and replaced with 18 6-volt Trojan R-125 lead acid batteries and a series wound GE motor. With the conversion came a name change: from Fiero to Destiny 2000.

Today, the Destiny 2000 can go 50 miles on a charge, has a top speed of 75 mph and a 0-60 time of 11.2 seconds. There was no one around to learn a bit more about the car, so in lieu of actual information, let's imagine the fun one could have in a Fiero EV.


Photos Copyright ©2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.

Undeterred by the fact that ethanol is the worst type or alternative energy, the federal government is in love with corn ethanol, perhaps a bit too much. Over the years, the American farm lobby has worked and worked to get subsidies for corn growers and, more recently, ethanol producers. The result, as calculated the Environmental Working Group in a new report, is that ethanol (including made-from-corn biofuel) now receives more than three times as many federal dollars ($3 billion in 2007) than solar, wind, geothermal and other biomass combined. With ethanol, especially corn ethanol, losing its luster (see here and here), the imbalance of the pie chart above will hopefully get the Obama administration and the new Congress to reevaluate how renewable energy resources are spent in the coming years. Cellulosic ethanol, solar and wind power all deserve a bigger slice, don't you think?

[Source: Environmental Working Group via Green Car Advisor]

We'd imagine that the UK Petrol Retailers Association would have a vested interest in making the business model of the tried-and-true gas station survive. So, we aren't all that surprised to read about the group's suggestion that future gas stations should carry solar roofs that feed power into electricity dispensers, especially now that the Prime Minister has pledged large sums of money for EV development. The alternative, of course, would be to charge your electric car's battery right at home while it's not being used. If you wanted to go renewable, you could set up your own solar or wind-powered charging station right in your garage. Still, there are a number of individuals who don't have a place to store their cars, let alone its associated charging gear, so the idea of stand-alone charging stations definitely has some merit. Whether or not these solar stations deserve any government help is another matter entirely.

[Source: Auto Express]

When I head just how (comparatively) cheaply you can get solar panels installed in Austin, Texas, I was pretty jealous. The real short version is that a $20,000+, 3 kWh system can be yours for around $6,000 thanks to local and federal tax breaks. And considering the amount of sunshine that Austin gets, this is a real deal.

I head these numbers while hovering around the Lighthouse Solar booth at the Austin Alt Car expo this weekend. The company can add the aforementioned solar panels to your roof or build an entire carport out of the way cool panels. To give you an idea, the carport in this picture is a 1.7 kW size. Depending on the location, it might even make sense to use the special double-sided solar panels. Light-colored concrete and pools, for example, reflect a lot of light upwards and the collectors on the bottom of the glass can suck up the energy just as well as the ones on top.

There are about a half-dozen companies in the Austin area that can install solar panels, and the tax credits would apply no matter who you choose. Even with this many companies offering solar services, Lighthouse has done around 50-60 this year, which I think speaks volumes to the potential of solar energy if it's made affordable.