Too much energy is wasted by converting it. We could cut energy use by as much as 30% in 10 years by removing some links from the energy chain.

Sometimes the best solutions to the energy crisis are the simplest, and often they’re right in front of our eyes. Consider the use of solar power to light a home. Even the most advanced photovoltaic solar panels convert just 20% of the available sunlight to electricity. The resulting direct current (DC) then must undergo conversion to alternating current (AC), losing another 20%. If that AC goes on to light an incandescent bulb, which is only 5% efficient, you end up using a fraction of 1% of the original sunlight as room light. (Even switching to compact florescent bulbs, which are 15% efficient, makes little difference in overall energy efficiency.) But if you were to simply leave sunlight as light—via proper skylights, window orientation, and louvers—nearly 80% of the light ends up as illumination.

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Advanced nanotech batteries are becoming a driving force in making electric cars that go farther and faster between charges, up to five times farther than today’s conventional batteries, and China may play a role in bringing this new technology to market.

Electric car pioneer ZAP and lithium-polymer and nanotech battery developer Advanced Battery Technologies, Inc. today announced the opening of a joint development office in Beijing to expand their research, manufacturing and marketing of advanced batteries for electric cars using the latest in nanotechnology.

ZAP recently completed a purchase agreement to acquire $5.168 Million in lithium-polymer and nanotech batteries from Advance Battery Technologies for use in ZAP’s line of XEBRA electric cars and trucks as well as other vehicles and battery systems.

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The Top Ten most economically impactful energy innovations by the year 2010 are predicted to be:

1. A shifting energy industry structure
2. Hybrid Vehicles
3. Smart Energy Management Systems
4. Distributed Power Generation
5. Fuel cells
6. Gas to Liquid Conversion
7. Advanced Batteries
8. Energy Farms
9. Solar Energy
10. Methane Hydrate Crystal Mining

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Many cities around the world now participate in annual car-free days to raise civic awareness of the effect of automobiles in the city and to help identify ways for urban areas to thrive without cars. In South America, Bogotá, Colombia has become well known for its annual Car Free Day. The streets of Bogotá, Colombia were first closed to personal motor vehicles from 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM on February 24, 2000. A $25 fine encourages its seven million residents to use skates and bicycles as the only wheeled vehicles for the day. Nearly 200 miles of streets, alleys and other pathways are reserved for bicycles and pedestrians. The other streets are left open to buses, shared taxis and emergency vehicles. With fewer cars, air quality has been shown to improve.

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Shanghai took the first leap towards the future of ground transport by constructing the world’s first magnetic levitation (Maglev) train. Reaching speeds of up to 430 kilometers per hour (260 mph), the Maglev is the world’s fastest form of public ground transport. The futuristic train rushes commuters between the airport and downtown Shanghai. The 20-mile trip takes less than 8 minutes. Magnetic levitation transport has several benefits in addition to speed. The lack of wheels or onboard engines make the trip quiet, energy efficient, and pollution-free. Highlights:

* 8 million passengers had traveled on Transrapid in Shanghai by October, 2006
* Magnets lift the train 10 millimeters above the track
* China is planning a 125-mile line between Shanghai and Hangzhou
* Germany’s first maglev train to the Munich Airport is expected to start service in 2010
* Several Maglev routes have been proposed and are being studied for the USA

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Part sporty convertible, part shopping cart–the Concept Car, proposed by the MIT Smart Cities Project, is creating a new view vision for the future of personal urban transport.
As part of the Smart Cities Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), researchers propose a stackable, foldable Concept Car designed to revolutionize urban transportation networks and improve transportation efficiency. The two-passenger car–still on the drawing board–can be stacked at key points of convergence throughout a city, near subway and bus lines, for example, allowing commuters the flexibility to combine public transportation with personal mobility. The electronically charged cars would be similar to luggage carts at an airport and to innovative bicycle sharing programs common in European cities. Users simply occupy the first car in the stack, and return it to any other stack throughout the city. Designed not as a substitute for but complement to personal vehicles and other forms of transport, the Concept Car will, it is hoped by its MIT innovators, promote a more “socially responsible and effective means of urban transport.”

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For many motorists, 75 cents and 100 miles per gallon of gasoline would be a dream. For Oakwood resident Alan Shedd, it’s a reality. For nearly six months, Shedd, an engineer with Jackson Electric Membership Corp., has been testing his company’s plug-in hybrid electric Toyota Prius, one of the first of its kind.

As part of a two-year research project, sponsored by Cooperative Research Network, Shedd and a team of engineers converted a hybrid Toyota Prius into a plug-in, gasoline-electric hybrid. The keys to creating this environmentally friendly and fuel efficient vehicle involved, among other things, increasing the size of the battery and adding a plug-in charger.

The car’s lithium-ion battery, located in the trunk, “is like an oversized computer battery,” he said. Holding up to nine kilowatt-hours of energy, it is composed of 2,400 smaller battery cells, each the size of a roll of quarters.

Using both electricity and gasoline for power, the modified Prius gets great gas mileage. The car can go 600 to 800 miles “easily on one 10-gallon tank,” Shedd said.

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The U.S. General Services Administration has purchased 55 Saturn Aura Green Line hybrid sedans to bolster its inventory of fuel-efficient vehicles. In addition to purchasing the Saturns, GSA also purchased more than 24,000 alternative fuel vehicles for federal customers this year.

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Discoveries in nanotechnology have led to what many consider the next generation of solar technology: ultra-thin amorphous silicon, organic and inorganic solar cells derived from nanocrystals that convert sunlight into electricity at a fraction of the cost of silicon-based solar cells. They are also more flexible, less brittle, and can even be painted onto structures, allowing more possibilities for building integrated architectural design, and helping to ensure that more of our future electricity generation will be derived from the clean energy of the sun. Greater research investment in these technologies is yielding continually higher sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiencies, bringing them closer to full-scale commercialization.

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The common windmill design used to capitalize on air currents, while centuries old, operates at around 1% efficiency in terms of the power it harvests from the wind, due to the deflective blade design and friction losses. But a new technology unveiled last year in China seeks to dramatically boost the output of wind-driven generators by using the virtually frictionless advantages of magnetically levitated turbines. Since there’s virtually no touching of moving parts, the MagLev wind turbine requires far less servicing than a traditional windmill – which dramatically lowers the operating costs to under five U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. If projections are accurate, giant 1-gigawatt versions of these machines could have a 12-month ROI – a scenario sure to catch the eye of investors worldwide.

Magnetic levitation uses the repelling properties of magnets to lift an object off the ground. In this case, the object is a wind-harvesting fan. The benefit of having it floating in midair is that it cuts down on the friction that causes so much inefficiency in the traditional windmill-style wind energy harvester we see dotting our coastlines. Friction is also the key factor necessitating frequent maintenance of windmill turbines, adding considerably to the cost of running them.

Without rotational friction to overcome, a wind turbine generator can begin to harvest power from air speeds as low as 1.5 meters per second.

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