Green Options

The Berlin electric vehicle project will have more than 100 cars and 500 charging stations.

Germany’s Daimler has teamed up with Essen-based utility RWE on a pilot project in the country’s capital. The project will see more than 100 electric cars on the road and a network of 500 charging stations.  Daimler currently has a pilot project in London, where a test fleet of about 100 first-generation Smart Fortwo electric cars are being used by corporate groups and municipal authorities, including the London Police.

Eva Wiese, a spokeswoman for Daimler, told the Cleantech Group that the new Smart cars in Berlin will have a greater range.

“The London one has 115 kilometers, and we think that with the new battery technology it will be a little better, but we haven’t specified it yet.”

Recent reports have pegged San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla Motors, maker of the high-speed electric Tesla Roadster, as a battery supplier for Daimler, but the Germany automaker is keeping tight-lipped about its power plans.

A new study published in Science Magazine concludes that an improved estimate of sea level rise (SLR) puts the increase at 0.8-2.0 meters, roughly 3.5 times the IPCC projections.

There has been significant debate regarding the projected sea level rise over the 21st century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected that neither Greenland nor Antarctica would lose significant mass by 2100. However, recently both regions have experienced significant ice loss.

Richard Kerr of Science Magazine explains the discrepancy between the IPCC predictions and recent studies.

Warming glaciers raise sea level in two main ways. They add more water as they melt, and they also add water when ice breaks off from glacial flows. The incidence of this latter phenomenon has soared in recent years for some glaciers draining the southern Greenland Ice Sheet, much to the mystification of glaciologists. Unable to model such accelerated ice losses, members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change declined to include them in their widely cited projection of up to 60 centimeters of sea level rise by 2100

Nissan plans to launch an electric concept car with solar panels built into its roof.

The Nissan Nuvu will get its power from a dozen or so leaf-shaped solar panels, before energy is channeled into batteries through a ‘tree trunk’ inside the car.   Nissan says Nuvu’s cabin will even be built with natural, organic and recycled materials to appeal to environmentalists.
Of course, solar photovoltaic panels are currently not efficient enough to fully power an electric car.  They’ll simply supplement the energy supplied by plugging the batteries into the power grid.
The Nuvu’s external dimensions are similar to those of the Toyota iQ, with a 1980mm wheelbase. But the Nuvu is 200mm taller, measuring 1700mm in height, and is just 1550mm wide next to the iQ’s 1680mm.  Unusually, it will feature two permanent seats plus a third that can be folded down for occasional use.  Nissan claims an integral luggage area will make the car suitable for shopping trips.

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC),

Following a record rate of ice loss through the month of August, Arctic sea ice extent already stands as the second-lowest on record, further reinforcing conclusions that the Arctic sea ice cover is in a long-term state of decline. With approximately two weeks left in the melt season, the possibility of setting a new record annual minimum in September remains open.

A record was set for Arctic sea ice melt in 2007.  Much was made of the sea ice “recovery” over the ensuing winter of 2007/2008.  However, while the Arctic sea ice returned to an extent similar to that of the winter prior to the record melt, much of the new ice was very thin.  Thus even though 2008 has been a cooler year than 2007 (partially due to a strong La Nina cycle), the new, thinner ice has proven to be more susceptible to melting, as the graphic following the jump illustrates.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published by the Stanford News Service in December 2007.
Last December, researchers at Stanford University found a way to use silicon nanowires to store 10 times the amount of energy of existing lithium-ion batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, but more importantly, this technology can be applied to electric vehicle batteries.

The breakthrough is described in a paper, “High-performance lithium battery anodes using silicon nanowires,” published online Dec. 16 in Nature Nanotechnology. The paper was written by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, his graduate chemistry student Candace Chan, and five others.

According to Cui: “Given the mature infrastructure behind silicon, this new technology can be pushed to real life quickly.”

Nature has published a major analysis concluding that higher sea surface temperatures caused by global warming are creating stronger hurricanes. The net effect of global warming on the frequency of hurricane formation remains uncertain. Global warming causes sea surface temperatures to increase, but it also causes wind shear to increase, which disrupts hurricane formation.

However, this new study concludes that the effect of global warming on hurricane intensity is to make them stronger.

According to Tata Motors’ managing director Ravi Kant, the company plans to launch an electric version of its Indica hatchback in Norway within a year, and will bring it to the local market at a later stage.

“Right now we want to test it out in Norway with the Norwegian party. Because, you know, lot of infrastructure is required for electric vehicles and … in Norway, they are making arrangements for electric cars,” Kant said.

“We will bring that to India at an appropriate time.”

S. Ravishankar, senior general manager at Tata Motors’ engineering research centre, said the car can run for 175 km to 200 km (110-125 miles) when fully charged with a “two-pack” battery, but mileage could vary according to the battery used.