Wind turbine

A large wind turbine on a small outer island is one of Hong Kong's few sources of renewable energy. One of the reasons not more are being built is that the wind in the city is simply not strong enough, a problem it shares with many places worldwide.

Electric vehicle maker and importer Zap (stands for zero air pollution) announced in mid January that it had partnered with the consultancy Lotus Engineering to explore the feasibility of new concepts for electric cars. Yesterday, Zap announced that it will pursue a long-range, high-performance electric car based on Lotus’ lightweight APX concept design (pictured above). Zap will display the concept, which it is calling the Zap-X, at the upcoming North American Dealers Association (NADA) annual meeting in Las Vegas. Zap plans to use Lotus Engineering’s APX (Aluminum Performance Crossover) concept design as a platform for a revolutionary breed of electric car. Zap claims this project will lay the basis for a “production-ready electric all-wheel drive crossover high performance vehicle for ZAP in the USA market.” The battery system for the vehicle (details have yet to be disclosed) boasts a 350 mile range between charges and a 10 minute recharge time. Four in-wheel motors will give the Zap-X a total of 644 horsepower and a top speed of 155 mph.

from coopamerica.org

With the movie An Inconvenient Truth drawing record audiences last summer, and groups as diverse as the “Evangelical Climate Initiative” and the Pentagon sounding the alarm on the coming climate catastrophe, our country could be on the cusp of taking real action on a very real danger.

But how much action is enough to match the scale of the solution to the scale of the problem?  Based on the data — such as rapidly melting polar icecaps — showing that climate change is happening faster than anyone had thought, it is increasingly clear: Baby steps won’t do it.

We need a bold action plan that can evaluate corporate, government, community, and household plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – especially carbon emissions -- to levels we can live with.

A New Jersey civil engineer powers his home with solar panels and hydrogen tanks. Can it work in the mainstream? By Jared Flesher | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

EAST AMWELL, N.J. - Mike Strizki lives in the nation's first solar-hydrogen house. The technology this civil engineer has been able to string together – solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer – provides electricity to his home year-round, even on the cloudiest of winter days.

Mr. Strizki's monthly utility bill is zero – he's off the power grid – and his system creates no carbon-dioxide emissions. Neither does the fuel-cell car parked in his garage, which runs off the hydrogen his system creates.

It sounds promising, even utopian: homemade, storable energy that doesn't contribute to global warming. But does Strizki's method – converting electricity generated from renewable sources into hydrogen – make sense for widespread adoption?

According to some renewable-energy experts, the answer is "no," at least not anytime soon. The system is too expensive, they say, and the process of creating hydrogen from clean sources is itself laced with inefficiency – the numbers just don't add up.

Strizki's response: "Nothing is as wildly expensive as destroying the whole planet."

Life free from the power grid

Strizki lives with his wife in a rural section of Central New Jersey. His 12-acre property is surrounded by trees and his gravel driveway leads to a winding country road. His 3,500-square-foot house has all the amenities, including a hot tub and a big-screen TV.

It was here, four years ago, that Strizki set out to do something that's never been done in this country – power his home completely through a combination of solar and hydrogen. "My motivation was, I saw what fossil fuels were doing to the environment," he says.

Strizki works for a company that installs solar panels. In previous jobs, he's helped integrate hydrogen fuel cells into cars, a boat, a fire truck, and an airplane. His latest project, the one involving his house, is an extension of that expertise.

The solar-hydrogen house took longer to complete than Strizki expected – a strict local zoning officer and the state permitting process caused delays, he says – but in October 2006, the system finally went online. The total cost, $500,000, was paid for in part with a $250,000 grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.