Solar Roads, Charging Roads, And The Future Of Transportation | FastCompany Here are two great innovations, that could potentially have a profound impact on the future of transportation. Solar Roads: Imagine that you could replace the concrete or asphalt with solar cells beneath a layer of glass. Operating at 15% efficiency the U.S. road system would provide more than four times our current electricity needs, or about as much electricity as the whole world uses. It’s a lot of potential power. Charging Roads: What if an electric vehicle can be recharged without wires while on road. Using magnetic induction technology, a company called Wave is trying to achieve just that. 

Solar Roads, Charging Roads, And The Future Of Transportation | FastCompany

Here are two great innovations, that could potentially have a profound impact on the future of transportation.

Solar Roads: Imagine that you could replace the concrete or asphalt with solar cells beneath a layer of glass. Operating at 15% efficiency the U.S. road system would provide more than four times our current electricity needs, or about as much electricity as the whole world uses. It’s a lot of potential power.

Charging Roads: What if an electric vehicle can be recharged without wires while on road. Using magnetic induction technology, a company called Wave is trying to achieve just that. 

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More Electric Cars Added To S.F. Bay Area Car Sharing Fleet | Sustainable Cities Collective The idea of car sharing, where multiple paying members of an organization have hourly access to a scattered fleet of ready to go vehicles, is a really great idea for cutting down on car pollution. That being said, the fleets of these car sharing entities are in some ways only as green as the vehicles in them, which thus gives San Francisco Bay Area based City CarShare a strong leg up via the fact a large amount of its vehicles are making use of green technology. City CarShare recently announced it had added two new Ford Focus Electric vehicles to its car sharing fleet, bringing its total green tech car number up to 178. This is broken down to include 160 hybrids, 13 plug-in hybrids and five all-electric cars, giving the nation’s largest non-profit car sharing organization a mix of vehicles that are 44 percent oriented towards cars with close to or straight up zero emissions.

More Electric Cars Added To S.F. Bay Area Car Sharing Fleet | Sustainable Cities Collective

The idea of car sharing, where multiple paying members of an organization have hourly access to a scattered fleet of ready to go vehicles, is a really great idea for cutting down on car pollution. That being said, the fleets of these car sharing entities are in some ways only as green as the vehicles in them, which thus gives San Francisco Bay Area based City CarShare a strong leg up via the fact a large amount of its vehicles are making use of green technology.

City CarShare recently announced it had added two new Ford Focus Electric vehicles to its car sharing fleet, bringing its total green tech car number up to 178. This is broken down to include 160 hybrids, 13 plug-in hybrids and five all-electric cars, giving the nation’s largest non-profit car sharing organization a mix of vehicles that are 44 percent oriented towards cars with close to or straight up zero emissions.

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ragtag: IBM’s Jon Bentley on powering our electric vehicles t’s no wonder that interest in electric cars is growing fast in the UK. Cheaper and more compact designs and many new models are coming onto the market over the next 12 months; they also help to save on the congestion charge which is a good consumer incentive. Electric cars are gaining in popularity even more, as car owners are increasingly concerned with rising petroleum costs and transport-related CO2 emissions. The benefits stretch beyond just consumer – electric vehicles (EVs) have enormous potential for creating a cleaner transport system to help the UK meet its 2050 carbon reduction targets, as well as reducing noise and pollution in urban areas. But there are still a number of questions to be answered before EVs are able to win over traditional cars in popularity. The most pressing of these include: who gets the bill when you recharge at work or in a public place? How do utilities meet the need for all that additional electricity? How do we afford to build out the infrastructure when the cars aren’t widely available – and who will do so when the business model for selling electricity for consumers is unclear? And will people buy the cars, when the infrastructure to power them doesn’t yet exist? As part of IBM’s UK Smarter Energy initiative, IBM is leading a project by the Energy Technologies Institute to analyse the impact electric vehicles might have on the UK power grid. We are responsible for the co-ordination of a consortium of companies including EDF Energy, E.ON and Imperial Consultants. As a result, a set of recommendations will be proposed on integrating plug-in vehicles, electricity networks, charging points, and payment systems and helping to ensure compatibility across the UK, together with the intelligent information infrastructures to underpin them. But already at this early stage it is clear that EVs cannot and should not be viewed separately from the necessary upgrades to the UK energy infrastructure, such as smart grids and smart metering. At the moment, we have a chicken-and-egg situation. If there aren’t enough users and enough vehicles, then the infrastructure doesn’t get built. If there isn’t enough infrastructure, then the vehicles aren’t purchased. Lithium air batteries To help the matter, IBM is also researching commercially viable lithium air batteries with the aim of enabling electric vehicles to travel up to 500 miles on one charge. At the moment, lithium-ion technology can’t compete with the energy density of old-fashioned gasoline. So batteries’ energy density will have to improve greatly over the next 10 years to enable a large-scale electric car industry. Successful and timely implementation of EVs in the UK is no small challenge. But IBM is proud to be working on a smart and environmentally friendly transport solution that will provide an enhanced and environmentally friendly consumer experience to UK car owners.

ragtag:

IBM’s Jon Bentley on powering our electric vehicles

t’s no wonder that interest in electric cars is growing fast in the UK. Cheaper and more compact designs and many new models are coming onto the market over the next 12 months; they also help to save on the congestion charge which is a good consumer incentive. Electric cars are gaining in popularity even more, as car owners are increasingly concerned with rising petroleum costs and transport-related CO2 emissions.

The benefits stretch beyond just consumer – electric vehicles (EVs) have enormous potential for creating a cleaner transport system to help the UK meet its 2050 carbon reduction targets, as well as reducing noise and pollution in urban areas.

But there are still a number of questions to be answered before EVs are able to win over traditional cars in popularity. The most pressing of these include: who gets the bill when you recharge at work or in a public place? How do utilities meet the need for all that additional electricity? How do we afford to build out the infrastructure when the cars aren’t widely available – and who will do so when the business model for selling electricity for consumers is unclear? And will people buy the cars, when the infrastructure to power them doesn’t yet exist?

As part of IBM’s UK Smarter Energy initiative, IBM is leading a project by the Energy Technologies Institute to analyse the impact electric vehicles might have on the UK power grid. We are responsible for the co-ordination of a consortium of companies including EDF Energy, E.ON and Imperial Consultants. As a result, a set of recommendations will be proposed on integrating plug-in vehicles, electricity networks, charging points, and payment systems and helping to ensure compatibility across the UK, together with the intelligent information infrastructures to underpin them.

But already at this early stage it is clear that EVs cannot and should not be viewed separately from the necessary upgrades to the UK energy infrastructure, such as smart grids and smart metering. At the moment, we have a chicken-and-egg situation. If there aren’t enough users and enough vehicles, then the infrastructure doesn’t get built. If there isn’t enough infrastructure, then the vehicles aren’t purchased. Lithium air batteries

To help the matter, IBM is also researching commercially viable lithium air batteries with the aim of enabling electric vehicles to travel up to 500 miles on one charge. At the moment, lithium-ion technology can’t compete with the energy density of old-fashioned gasoline. So batteries’ energy density will have to improve greatly over the next 10 years to enable a large-scale electric car industry.

Successful and timely implementation of EVs in the UK is no small challenge. But IBM is proud to be working on a smart and environmentally friendly transport solution that will provide an enhanced and environmentally friendly consumer experience to UK car owners.

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electricpower: 250 Smart EDs coming to U.S. this fall with $599/month leases attached This is a post about the numbers. Here are three important figures about the second-gen all-electric Smart ED that was on display in New York City yesterday:250 units are coming to the U.S. starting in October 2010 Leases will be $599 a month for 48 months (plus $2,500 due at signing, for a total of $31,252 before taxes or any potential governmental rebates), and Daimler takes the cars back at the end of the four years. The car has a top speed of just 62.5 miles per hour. Autoblog Green

electricpower:

250 Smart EDs coming to U.S. this fall with $599/month leases attached

This is a post about the numbers. Here are three important figures about the second-gen all-electric Smart ED that was on display in New York City yesterday:

  • 250 units are coming to the U.S. starting in October 2010
  • Leases will be $599 a month for 48 months (plus $2,500 due at signing, for a total of $31,252 before taxes or any potential governmental rebates), and Daimler takes the cars back at the end of the four years.
  • The car has a top speed of just 62.5 miles per hour.

Autoblog Green

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In Copenhagen, 14 of World’s Biggest Cities Commit to EVs : Gas 2.0 Fourteen of the world’s largest cities agreed to take steps over the coming year to make their cities more electric vehicle-friendly. The announcement was made at the ‘Climate Summit for Mayors’, which is being held alongside the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Half the world’s population lives in cities that account for more than two-thirds of carbon emissions. And as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made the case in Copenhagen on Tuesday at the Climate Summit for Mayors during the UN COP15 climate summit cities and other sub-national units of government will play a critical role in implementing the kind of innovative solutions necessary to clean up our transportation infrastructure in a carbon-constrained world. In that vein, a group of fourteen of the world’s largest cities took a step in that direction in Copenhagen on Wednesday.

In Copenhagen, 14 of World’s Biggest Cities Commit to EVs : Gas 2.0

Fourteen of the world’s largest cities agreed to take steps over the coming year to make their cities more electric vehicle-friendly. The announcement was made at the ‘Climate Summit for Mayors’, which is being held alongside the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Half the world’s population lives in cities that account for more than two-thirds of carbon emissions. And as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made the case in Copenhagen on Tuesday at the Climate Summit for Mayors during the UN COP15 climate summit cities and other sub-national units of government will play a critical role in implementing the kind of innovative solutions necessary to clean up our transportation infrastructure in a carbon-constrained world. In that vein, a group of fourteen of the world’s largest cities took a step in that direction in Copenhagen on Wednesday.

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IBM, UC Berkeley and five US National Labs collaborating on electric vehicle battery with 500-mile range IBM, UC Berkeley and five US National Labs are collaborating in a consortium to make an electric vehicle battery that goes all the way up to 500 miles per charge. The project wants to make this happen by using a lithium-air battery, which… (via Gizmodo)

IBM, UC Berkeley and five US National Labs collaborating on electric vehicle battery with 500-mile range

IBM, UC Berkeley and five US National Labs are collaborating in a consortium to make an electric vehicle battery that goes all the way up to 500 miles per charge. The project wants to make this happen by using a lithium-air battery, which…

(via Gizmodo)

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