I did not drive at all on Monday.
If you live in New York City, London, Paris, or on Mackinac Island, and you either have access to a great subway system or cars are banned from your small island, going for 24 hours without driving is not a big deal. But here in Chicagoland, despite a decent public transportation system, driving is a way of life. So I decided to spend a day without getting into my car or any other car, and see how I would fare.
With gas prices steep, public transit ridership is at an all-time high. Instead of cutting back on public transportation services, we should be reforming our national transportation system to create more affordable travel options for the whole country.
Check out these facts about oil and gas to learn more.
Percent of the world’s transportation energy currently supplied by oil.
Cost of barrel of oil on July 18th, 2007.
Cost of barrel of oil on July 18th, 2008.
27 Roadsters are currently in various stages of assembly, and the company hopes to reach a monthly production rate of 100 cars by this December.
In a blog post on the company website, Tesla CEO Ze’ev Drori has reprinted the content of a note he sent to customers last Friday in which he states that Tesla has finally “broken the logjam” and already delivered 9 Roadsters to California.
Editor’s note: This post is a lead-in story to the Gas 2.0 interview with Mil Ovan, Senior Vice President and Co-founder of Firefly Energy.
Last week John McCain, the presumptive presidential nominee for the 2008 Republican ticket, suggested that a $300 million government-sponsored competition would be a good way to spur development of next generation battery technologies.
His comments generated debate in the blogosphere and around the United States. Meanwhile, Barack Obama, the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic ticket, called McCain’s proposal a gimmick suggesting that $300 million was not enough.
Regardless of my feelings about the proposed competition or the candidates themselves, it got me thinking about just who might win it if it were to become a reality. All that thinking led to this post, and, hopefully, to several others that will look at the most promising next generation battery technologies on the horizon.
This week I’ll start with Firefly Energy.
Editor’s note: This interview is a companion piece to Part I of the Gas 2.0 series about who might win John McCain’s proposed $300 million dollar battery competition if it were to become reality.
Last week John McCain, the presumptive presidential nominee for the 2008 Republican ticket, generated debate by suggesting that a $300 million government- sponsored competition would be a good way to spur development of next generation battery technologies.
His comments got me thinking about just who might win such a competition it if it were to become reality.
Firefly Energy is one of the companies that made it to my short list. Founded in 2003, they have been working on reinvigorating old-hat lead-acid battery technology in such a way that it would become brand new and cutting edge once again.
Firefly’s innovation is that they’ve taken the heavy lead plates you’d find in a classic lead-acid battery and replaced them with a light carbon-graphite microcell foam that’s been impregnated with lead.
I recently had a chance chat with Mil Ovan, Senior Vice President and Co-founder of Firefly, about the company, their take on McCain’s competition, Firefly’s battery technology, environmental worries about lead, the Oasis battery, electric vehicles and the company’s plans for the future.
Editor’s note: There’s no doubt about it: high gas prices are changing the ways Americans drive (and even causing them choose alternatives to driving). Our friends at Low Impact Living take a look today at the most extreme practices of driving with fuel economy in mind: hypermiling. As writer Jason Pelletier points out, some of these tactics involve safety risks… so be very careful with some of the more aggressive methods. This post was originally published on Thursday, June 5, 2008.
You may have heard about folks out there who describe themselves as “hypermilers”. What is that, you might ask? Well, it’s basically just someone who gets more out of a gallon of gas than the rest of us. Not a little more, though, but A LOT more - hypermilers can often nearly double the EPA listed mileage for a given car. One of the leaders in the hypermiler movement, Wayne Gerdes, can get nearly 60 mpg out of his 2005 Honda Accord (EPA est 34 mpg), and once got 127 mpg out of a Prius (EPA est 42 mpg)!
We all can learn from what they do, for their tips range from things we all should be doing anyway all the way up to the downright crazy / illegal things that it takes to get up into the mileage stratosphere.
This little number has been getting some good press lately (see EcoGeek and Inhabit), and for good reason: it’s the first commercially available electric vehicle with a price tag and functionality that could meet the needs of the average city driver (assuming you can afford it).
OK, you aren’t going to fit a family of 5 in there, but that’s not what it’s made for. Green Vehicles, manufacturer of the 3-wheeled TRIAC EV, calls it a “modern freeway commuter,” because the zero-emissions vehicle can reach 80 mph and will get you into the carpool lane with a single driver. Safety-wise, it has a structural steel cage the company says is the “same metal skeleton used in race cars” and a low center of gravity to maintain balance (but surprisingly has no airbags).
Ypsilanti, Michigan is in the outlying suburbs of Detroit and is, itself, a city with a long automotive heritage going back to the Tucker Torpedo and Kaiser Motors and extending to a present day Ford assembly plant and the last Hudson dealership in the country and an Automotive Heritage Museum. But now, a local couple have embarked on a different direction towards automobiles, encouraging drivers to embrace a new mindset with a website called DriveSlowly, which they are unveiling for Earth Day.
Despite our hopes and best plans, sometimes we still have to drive. And while that high-end, high-performance hybrid remains out of our budget, we’d still like to do better with the vehicles we have. One way to accomplish that is by just driving a bit more slowly.
If you ever buy retail biodiesel for your diesel vehicle, it turns out you might not be getting exactly what you paid for—or you may be getting quite a bit more.
In a new study, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used highly accurate radiocarbon testing on samples from 20 different biodiesel blenders to determine the biodiesel content of their fuel (so-called “splash blenders” mix pure biodiesel and diesel together before selling it at the pump).
“It’s a huge problem for the industry,” says Teresa Alleman of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, who recently completed a study showing that biodiesel manufacturers have improved the overall quality of pure biodiesel over the past year. If consumers pay a premium for biodiesel that they aren’t getting, she says, public confidence could be shaken. Also, blenders receive a tax credit based on the amount of biodiesel used, which could mean some sellers have received larger credits than they merit.
The first part of this guide should give you some good resources for finding biodiesel at home and on the road. But don’t think you have to rely on retail biodiesel to get by. Homemade (aka “homebrew”) biodiesel may be available in your area, or you may be inclined to make your own.
While fuel quality obtained by this method can vary considerably, it’s still possible (even likely) to get fuel that meets national standards. That being said, you may have to get your hands dirty, and this will require a bit more research than finding a local biodiesel pump.
Options 1-3 of this guide are located here.
Another option for the intrepid is to join hands with other biodiesel enthusiasts and participate in making the fuel yourself. Biodiesel co-ops pool resources, equipment, and know-how, and may be the best way to learn to make biodiesel. While you don’t necessarily have to get your hands dirty to participate in a co-op, it can be satisfying work, builds community, and lies at the heart of the biodiesel movement.
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