While above the record minimum Arctic sea ice extent set on September 16, 2007, this year further reinforces the strong negative trend in summertime ice extent observed over the past thirty years.

Despite overall cooler summer temperatures, the 2008 minimum extent is only 390,000 square kilometers (150,000 square miles), or 9.4%, more than the record-setting 2007 minimum. The 2008 minimum extent is 15.0% less than the next-lowest minimum extent set in 2005 and 33.1% less than the average minimum extent from 1979 to 2000.

This season further reinforces the long-term downward trend of sea ice extent.

Even though the sea ice didn’t retreat this year as much as last summer, “there was no real sign of recovery,” said Walt Meier of NSIDC. This year was cooler and other weather conditions weren’t as bad, he said.

“We’re kind of in a new state of the Arctic basically, and it’s not a good one,” Meier said. “We’re definitely sliding towards a point where the summer sea ice will be gone.”

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The State of Kentucky has suddenly jumped into the world of electric cars.  First in early August Governor Steve Beshear signed an executive order that allowed low speed vehicles on Kentucky roads with speed limits of 45 mph or less.  Soon thereafter the state developed a $48 million incentive package to encourage ZAP to build an electric car manufacturing plant in Kentucky.

ZAP’s vehicles are currently manufactured in China, but according to the company’s CEO Steve Schneider, the costs of logistics for ZAP have risen in recent years, particularly to ship vehicles from California to the East Coast.  A Kentucky manufacturing plant would help reduce that cost, he said.

They sure didn’t waste any time.  Construction equipment arrived at the site of the Wilkey North Industrial Park on Thursday September 11th, and a site contractor with a work crew have been mobilized to prepare the 200-plus acre site for rough grading, according Randall S. Waldman of Integrity Manufacturing. The goal of the project is a one million square foot factory for electric vehicles, a project with an estimated value of $100 million. The factory is expected to begin producing electric vehicles within 12 months and employ up to 1,000 people initially with the possibility of more in the future.

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The Gang-of-20 bill severely limits offshore drilling to a handful of Southeastern states that must opt in to allow increased drilling, and moves the drilling boundary to 100 miles offshore (from its current 200 miles) “with states given the option to set it at 50 miles.”

Some oil industry representatives question the effect of the proposals, citing federal studies that show that more than 80% of known oil reserves are inside the 50-mile limit and therefore unavailable. Very little is known about oil reserves beyond 100 miles. Waters off almost the entire Pacific coast — where all three governors oppose drilling at the 50-mile barrier — is considered too deep for drilling 100 miles offshore.

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The lengthening lead Japan’s auto makers hold in securing supplies of advanced batteries to power the next generation of automobiles has become a rallying point for the U.S. auto industry in seeking at least $25 billion in government loans.
Over the past decade, Japan’s auto giants have been teaming up with its electronics companies, which have dominated global battery manufacturing for laptop computers, mobile phones and other products.  Now the American auto companies are playing catch-up.

Securing an adequate supply of batteries over the next few years has become a growing concern for auto makers everywhere. The U.S. industry is leery of depending too heavily on foreign battery makers allied with Japanese auto makers, for fear those suppliers would give priority to filling the orders of their Japanese partners.

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Sarah Palin’s record is not very favorable for wildlife. She’s put efforts into undoing federal wildlife protections for polar bears and beluga whales in order to protect oil and gas drilling operations, for example. But her position on wolf hunting is perhaps the most controversial.

One of Palin’s first acts in office was to put a $150 bounty on the heads of her state’s wolves, allegedly with the goal of increasing the moose and caribou population. But this was no ordinary hunt - it was meant to incentivize the aerial killing of wolves, in which private hunters take a small plane and chase down wolf packs until they’re exhausted and can’t move any more, when they either shoot them from the air or land and execute them at point blank range. A Defenders of Wildlife ad illustrating this process is available at ClimateProgress.

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Tesla engineers developed the specifications for the new gearbox and provided them to BorgWarner. The new powertrain delivers about 30% higher motor torque on a single gear ratio, and it achieves a 10% higher EPA combined range.

The Roaster torque will be increased to 280 foot-pounds, while the EPA rated range of the car will increase to 244 miles, up from 221 miles. The quarter-mile time for the car is now in the 12.9 second range.

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Trials started on September 10th and will continue for more than one year. Toyota’s PHEV will make its on-the-road debut as part of EDF Energy’s company fleet and will be tested by employees under every-day driving conditions. The modified plug-in Prius being tested will utilize nickel-metal hydride (NiMh) batteries, with an all-electric range of approximately 8 miles if the speed remains below 62 mph. When Toyota begins producing the plug-in Prius (expected for fleets in 2009), it will utilize superior lithium-ion batteries.

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BYD (Build Your Dreams) is China’s largest battery maker, and moving into the automotive industry.  BYD’s first plug-in hybrid planned for the Chinese market will be the F6DM mid-sized sedan in the second half of 2008, and use lithium iron phosphate batteries.  Its top speed is expected to be be 100 mph, with a range of 62 miles in all-electric mode and 267 miles total after the gas engine kicks in.  A fully electric version called the F6E is planned for 2009.  The F6E will be a 5 seater sedan with a top speed of 100 mph, range of 186 miles per charge, and expected battery lifetime of 2,000 cycles, or 373,000 miles.

The company is following this up with the impressive F3DM, which will be smaller, less expensive (selling for around $14,000 in China), and the company claims will have up to a 100 mile range in electric-only mode.  The F6DM styling is being compared to a Toyota Camry, while the F3DM (pictured above) is similar to a Corolla.

Currently BYD plans to sell the cars exclusively in China, expanding sales to Europe in 2-3 years.  However, Portland is trying to entice the company to bring the cars to the United States.

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The Republican presidential nominee expects a 29% increase in electricity demand by 2030, and wants 45 new nuclear power plants built by then. Industry estimates put their cost at $7 billion each.

The Energy Information Administration estimated last year that adding nuclear power capacity would cost $2,143 a kilowatt (kW) before financing and inflation. That compared with $1,434 to $2,302 for clean-coal technologies.

Over the past year, the expense has more than doubled to $5,000 a kilowatt, or $7 billion for a typical reactor, utility filings and company statements show. The increase in part reflects rising prices for commodities such as steel and cement.

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The world’s first commercial air car is currently being produced by India’s largest automaker, Tata Motors, who is licensing the technology from European-based company MDI.  A compressed-air car uses the force of super-compressed air to move the engine’s pistons up and down, as opposed to explosions produced from injecting a small amount of fuel.  At higher speeds the engine will burn a small amount of fuel to create more compressed air, sort of like how a plug-in hybrid like the Chevy Volt produces on-the-fly electricity. The hybrid air-car setup should be able use any number of fuels, including gasoline, propane, or ethanol.

So now that we’ve established how the Air Car will work, how green is it?

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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