If you’re pondering your next choice of vehicle, then Santa Monica’s AltCar, the Alternative Energy and Transportation Expo, is the place for you this weekend. The event features 100 eco-friendly vehicles for test drives and for sale, including:
Researchers at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin say they might have found an improved way to store energy that could make wind and solar power installations wildly more efficient.
Using a one-atom thick, carbon-based material known as graphene, the research team says it has already matched the energy storage capacities of today’s ultracapacitors. Eventually, their calculations show, graphene sheets could store twice as much energy as a standard ultracapacitor.
We currently have two main ways to store electrical energy: in batteries and in ultracapacitors. Finding an effective way to store large amounts of energy is critical for making the most of renewable energy sources like sun and wind, which deliver variable — rather than constant and steady — amounts of energy.
All sources of fuel are required to meet Texas Renewable Energy Credit Standards and Texas Forestry Management Practices.
Businesses and some environmental groups have nonetheless voiced concern over the cost of the project and its environmental impact.
Converting the U.S.’s ample and renewable volumes of cow manure into biogas could provide as much as 3 percent of the nation’s electricity needs, say two researchers at the University of Texas at Austin.
In a new study published in the online journal Environmental Research Letters, Amanda Cuéllar and Michael Webber conclude that harnessing the full potential of cow poop power could not only help generate as much — or more — electricity as wind and solar power do today, but could greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Across the U.S., researchers, startup companies and investors are exploring the potential of creating large amounts of green, renewable fuel from the humblest of sources: algae.
If you think the energy/food potential for hemp is underutilized, wait’ll you get a gander at algae. This little microorganism really packs a punch.
According to The Book of General Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know is Wrong (2006, Harmony Books) (I highly recommend it, by the way — it’s packed with fascinating information and weird insights), algae breathes out more oxygen than all the world’s land-based plants and trees combined. Certain types of algae also deliver a whopping amount of protein and nutrients per farmed acre (20 times more than soy beans, in the case of spirulina).
In an effort to curb water consumption, the city of Austin is offering free, low-flow toilets to residents whose commodes are more than 12 years old and have tanks larger than 1.6 gallons.
Photo courtesy of Jarhelm via Wikimedia Commons
Editor's note: Today, we're pleased to launch a content partnership with eco-friendly technology company Ecotality. Each Friday, we'll feature a post from Ecotality's blog; they'll return the favor to us.
By Ecototality blogger A Siegel. Originally published on Thursday, March 29.
Austin’s Mayor, Will Wynn, is a serious plug-in hybrid vehicle supporter. And, he has been a strong advocate of PHEVs (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) from Austin to
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