Solar plane takes off in Switzerland

Agence France-Press reports on the historical solar plane flight that took off this morning in Switzerland.

Star Impulse (picture right) set off to fly on a 25 hour trip from Payerne, Switzerland. The ground crew will see if it can take in enough electrical charge during daylight hours to continue overnight.

The round-the-clock flight by the prototype built last year is the first major hurdle for the project since it started seven years ago, with the aim of flying around the world by 2013 or 2014.

The speed is only 22 miles per hour with a single pilot. This is much slower than a small aircraft like a Cessna that reaches over 100 mph.

Read the full story: Solar plane sets out on historic flight

Photo from France 24

MIT designs "greener" passenger plane

MSNBC reports on a new passenger plane design by MIT researchers for NASA that will cut fuel consumption and emit less carbon than traditional airplanes by 2050.

The design will feature engines near the tail of the plane; which the researchers say will cause less drag than today's models with engines on the wings.

The 180-passenger D “double bubble” series was designed for domestic flights, meant to replace the Boeing 737 class aircraft, the most popular jetliner in the world right now. The design is called a “double bubble” because it uses two partial cylinders placed side by side. Those two cylinders create a wider structure that looks like two soap bubbles joined together.

Read the full story: Fly the eco-friendly skies

Photo from Discovery.com

Electric car to power utilities and income

Reuters reports on the University of Delaware researchers who have fashioned an electric car to not only run on just electricity but also to store and generate electricity for utilities.

This technology on the prototype car is called vehicle-to-grid or V2G and the professors hope this will also generate future revenue.

To help lay the groundwork for V2G in Delaware, the state passed a 2009 law - the first of its kind in the world -- requiring utilities to compensate electric car owners for power sent back to the grid at the same rate they pay to charge the battery.

At a current cost of about $75,000 per [Toyota] Scion - including V2G conversion and the basic car -- the vehicles are beyond the reach of most drivers. But [Professor Willett Kempton, who is leading the university's V2G program], argues that costs will fall as production increases. With all costs optimized, a V2G car should eventually sell for $3,000-$5,000 more than an equivalent gasoline model, he said.

And Kempton estimates that the value of providing storage and electricity generation to utilities is $4000 per year.

Read the full story: Electric cars give power back to grid

Photo from University of Delaware

Sierra Leone to save mangroves

Reuters reports on conservationists' efforts to protect what's left of West African mangrove forests.

The mangrove trees have been cut down to fuel salt production in Sierra Leone.

For generations, villagers have scraped "salt dust" from the soil, added seawater, and boiled it over wood stoves.

Marie Kano, head of the salt producers association, said many of the mangrove trees used for fuel have already gone. "We don't have any wood left now," she said. "My children, sister and father ... all used to cook salt. But because there is no wood anymore, they all left and went to town."

Now conservation groups are trying to salvage the few remaining forests while helping the poor residents keep their livelihoods.

Solar-panel fueled salt extractors are being introduced, the mangroves replanted and carbon trading schemes in the works.

Read the full story: West Africa sets out to protect dying mangroves

Photograph by Royalty Free / CORBIS

Pedal the New Zealand monorail

Reuters video (that does not allow embedding anymore by the way) reports on a new bicycling monorail in New Zealand.

The Schweeb utilizes a special clear pod that users pedal to get around on the set monorail track in Rotorua, New Zealand.

Right now it's in development but the creators hope to incorporate their technology in cities as a clean transport system.

Watch the video: A monorail that gets you pedaling

Toyota's green sheen fades

GreenBiz.com reports on how marketing "green" is changed after the high-profile Toyota Prius recall.

Toyota had become a darling of the eco-minded, a case study in the green halo that can inure to old-line companies that bring environmental innovation to mainstream audiences. Toyota seemed to have done it the right way: with products that weren't just greener, but better -- in this case, high-aesthetic, high-performance, affordable cars.

But now that ideal has experienced a crash-course in reality, a collision of technological snafus and a corporate culture that shunned transparency for expediency — and may have committed criminal neglect.

Read the full story: Toyota and the future of green marketing

Photo from GreenBiz.com

Norwegian electric car, made in Indiana

The New York Times reports on Norwegian electric car maker named Think, who will manufacture in an Indiana plant.

The Think City, a battery-powered, two-seat hatchback, is set to begin rolling off the Indiana assembly line in early 2011, ramping up to a potential annual production of 20,000 cars by 2013. Think said it will spend more than $43 million to upgrade the Elkhart factory, which is expected to eventually employ more than 400 workers.

Read the full story: Indiana chosen for electric-car plant

Photo by PR Newswire

Fly solar for zero environmental impact?

Ecotravel News was away celebrating the holiday season but is now back and ready with new travel news for the (almost) new year.

USA Today reports on the solar-powered plane that engineers hope will be a prototype to be used for future commercial trips.

While the world's attention was tuned to the recent global climate conference in Copenhagen, in an old airplane hangar on a small Swiss airfield, a group of visionaries, dreamers and engineers was busily assembling a vehicle that is their solution to global climate change and the future of commercial aviation. This airplane uses no fossil or bio-fuels. It is a solar-powered airplane, collecting the sun's rays on 12,000 solar cells spread across its wings to charge the special lithium-polymer batteries that will continue to power the airplane from sunset till the next sunrise.

Read the full story: Can a solar-powered airplane be the future of aviation?

Photo by David Grossman

Buy electric and get high tax credit

Environmental News Network reports on the momentum electric cars are gaining.

Federal tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles have a $2500 base and can go as high as $7500 depending on battery kilowatt capacity.

Read the full story: Electric cars generate sweet tax credits

$45k electric car coming soon to CA

GreenBiz.com reports on the new electric Coda car that will be available soon in California.

The Coda (picture right) is reported to go 100 miles before needing a recharge, and can drive at up to 80 mph. The price is $45,000 but buyers can apply a federal rebate of $7,500 dropping the price to $37,500.

That’s not exactly a car priced for the masses but Kevin Czinger, Coda CEO says: “Things will only get better. We will drive down price and drive up performance.” The company will ship its first cars next fall, he says, and hopes to sell a few thousand vehicles in 2010. Sales will initially be limited to California.

Read the full story: An (almost) affordable electric car

KLM tests first passenger flight fueled with renewables

Reuters video reports on the first passenger airplane flight using renewable fuels.

KLM Dutch Airlines flight which circled the skies over The Netherlands used a 50/50 mix of biofuel and traditional fuel. Although it carried passengers it was still a test flight.

Watch the report below:

Electric cars not so clean; report

Reuters reports that electric cars aren't as clean as touted according to a new scientific report.

"For electric vehicles to become a major green alternative, the power fuel mix has to move away from coal, or cleaner coal technologies have to be developed," said Jared Cohon, the chair of a National Research Council report released on Monday called "Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use."

About half of U.S. power is generated by burning coal, which emits many times more of traditional pollutants, such as particulates and smog components, than natural gas, and about twice as much of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Read the full story: Electric cars don't deserve halo yet: study

Photo by Thomas Peter / REUTERS

Electric Trabant unveiled

Reuters video reports on the Frankfurt car show where three new electric car models were shown as well as an electric Trabant.

Trabants, nicknamed Trabis, were the most common and often only available car in communist East Germany. Residents waited 15 years to even receive one of these cars after they had put in an order. They are now seen as a symbol of the former communist country and regarded with a "derisive affection," according to Wikipedia.

Watch the report below:

Cars to run on used clothing?

Reuters video reports on bio-fuel made from old clothing.

Swedish engineers have created a chemical process that breaks down cotton and synthetic fabrics into bio-fuel (ethanol and methane) which could fuel vehicles.

The scientists claim that this process uses less energy than extracting from plant sources and "50 percent more ethanol is produced."

Watch the report below:

Cape Cod wind farm controversy

Reuters video reports on the controversy over a proposed wind farm off the heavily touristed coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Cape Wind corporation claims their installation will "produce 75 percent of the cape and islands electricity."

Opponents claim the 440 foot turbines will ruin the natural landscape that tourists come for and hurt the economy when those visitors vacation elsewhere.

Watch the report below:

Ride a bike, power a bus, get paid

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the new conception bike-sharing program that the designer hopes will create energy to power a hybrid-bus system.

Chiyu Chen, a design student at the Royal College of Art, has conceived of an urban bike sharing program that not only provides riders utility, but also powers the local bus system – and pays them to do so.

Users check out specially designed bikes from a locking station using an ID card. Inside the bikes is a system that stores kinetic energy generated from braking. Riders go where they need to, and when they’re finished, bring the bike back to the locking station. Locking up the bike transfers the energy generated by the trip into the city grid – or, as Chen envisions, into a hybrid bus system.

Ride enough – and generate enough energy – and bike sharers can earn a bus pass. Completing the trifecta: the locking stations would be placed near bus stations, both to make renting a bike convenient and to facilitate easy bike-to-bus recharging.

Read the full story: Bike sharing that creates energy - and pays you to ride?

British hydrogen fuel-cell car

New Scientist reports on the new hydrogen fuel-cell car unveiled in London this week.

The Riversimple Urban Car is so far only a concept car that runs on the energy created by combining hydrogen and oxygen.

Plans for leasing of this vehicle should be underway by 2011 in the UK claim the company.

Read the full story: New hydrogen-powered city car takes to the road

French compressed-air car

Reuters video reports on a compressed-air car that will most likely go on sale in France in 2010.

Watch below:

Obama cuts funds for hydrogen vehicles

The Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog reports that among President Obama's budget cuts is $100 million funding for hydrogen vehicle technology.

I never thought I would write anything positive about the Bush administration but they were the ones back in 2003 to call for funding of research into hydrogen fuel technology.

But it looks like it's very expensive when alternatives like electric cars are cheaper:

But lately, enthusiasm among auto makers and politicians has been shifting away from hydrogen toward electric vehicles. One reason: the enormous projected cost of developing an infrastructure of hydrogen filling stations. The National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, said last year that the total cost of deploying a national hydrogen network could be as high as $200 billion, including $55 billion in government aid through 2023. And that amount, the council said, would be enough to put only two million hydrogen cars on the road - a small fraction of the total U.S. vehicle population of about 300 million cars and trucks.

Read the full story: Running on empty

Continental latest airline to test biofuel

CNN reports on Continental Airlines foray into the biofuel testing arena.

Continental is the first national airline to test a mix of algae and jatropha oils in a 50-50 mix with traditional jet fuel.

The test, performed yesterday out of Houston, compared a biofuel plane with one running on all jet fuel.

The Boeing 737 burned less fuel in the biofuel-powered engine than a conventionally powered engine, and the two performed identically during the one-hour, 40-minute flight, Boeing spokesman Terrance Scott said.

We reported last September on Boeing, Virgin, and eight other airlines' commitment to working on biofuel development in the commercial airline industry.

International carriers Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand tested their own biofuel mixes last year.

Read the full story: Biofuels take to the skies in airline tests