Birmingham City tries a Four-Day-Week

2,400 city employees in Birmingham, AL will be working
four-day weeks this summer. The city believes this may save employees
up to $1 million in gas expenses alone, or about five million pounds of
CO2.

The motivation of the change was cited as fuel costs for both the
city and its workers, but the move also highlights how we can reduce
emissions and save money at the same time. In addition to the fuel
savings consider the savings in keeping the office locked down: no air
conditioning, no computers, lights, or elevators, all of which add up
to more energy savings for the city. And the effect on employees is
huge:

“People are more excited about having a four-day
week than they have been in the past about receiving a cost-of-living
raise,” said Deborah Vance, Langford’s chief of staff. “It’s savings
for the city, but it’s also actual savings realized by the employees.”

No wonder other cities are following the trend.

Perhaps the most refreshing thing is that you won’t find this
analysis on any academic studies of how to reduce carbon. Perhaps its
just a bit too radical, even if Birmingham is behind the innovation
instead of Berkeley? Hey, this is American Dream! You work hard and
prosper. You don’t want anybody telling you you can only work hard four
days of the week. But when reality of high energy prices sets in its
hard to argue with the rationale of these cities:

• 20% less commuting (and carbon)
• Significantly less
  energy use (the extra hours in the morning and evening will be worked
  at cooler times, so the A/C won’t need to crank so hard).
• More people starting earlier in the day (and finishing later) reduces road congestion at peak times, improving mileage.
• Perhaps
  everybody would use their extra day to get out in the sunshine and
  exercise and reduce obesity levels, thereby reducing health care costs
  in the city (or maybe this would increase emissions?

And can there be benefits to the business too? Some personal observations:

• People do less work on Fridays anyway.
• I’d be a happier employee (and therefore more productive) if I only worked four days a week.
• You’d save money in energy bills.
• Your Carbon Balanced Business offset wouldn’t cost as much.

Is anyone currently working a four day week, or thinking about it
and care to share their experiences? Do TerraPass members think a four
day work week is a reasonable “silver bullet” solution for climate
change?

Source: TerraPass

Venture EV: Electric 2-seater

Venture Vehicles has in development what appears to be a fantastically green and cool new mode of transport. You can now pre-register for the VentureOne’s e50 and Q100 hybrids or the Venture EV (all electric)
The hybrids have a 300+ mile range and can get up to 100 miles per gallon with a top speed of over 100mph. It is a 3 wheeled vehicle that is fully enclosed with state of the art steel safety features and includes airbags and side impact beams, making it much safer than a motorcycle.

This mini-cooper sized vehicle seats two with sleek wrap around windows. The videos on their flytheroad.com website make this trike looks a blast to drive, the front “cab” driving area is able to lean up to 45 degrees on turns while leaving the engine area horizontal. The videos on the VentureOne website shows this very well.

The planned price tag of $23,000 for the EV model and 18K for the hybrid might be a bit steep for such a small “car” but your savings on gas and the good karma you’ll have by not adding to greenhouse gas pollution makes it a serious temptation. They plan to release this in late 2008.

The Model G: Google's Plug-in Hybrid Program

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in one of the company's new plug-in hybrids. Mr. Page points to the dashboard fuel economy display, which reads 99.9 mpg. (Photos by Bradley Berman.)

When Henry Ford’s neighbors watched the young inventor roll his first gas-powered contraption out of a backyard shed, they had no way of knowing how the rickety four-wheeled carriage would begin a revolution in human transportation.

More than 100 years later, the billionaire founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, backed out of a parking space in a Toyota Prius converted to run almost exclusively on energy from solar panels. This demonstration of the capabilities of plug-in hybrids, and the two-way flow of electricity between car and electric grid, could have a profound impact on transportation in the 21st century.

“Symbolically, this event is very important” said Stephen Schneider, one of the authors of the recent United Nations report on climate change. Dr. Schneider, a professor of enviornmental studies at nearby Stanford University, was at Google's headquarters to observe. “We have to get people to stop thinking big is cool, and start thinking efficiency is cool” he said.

The Google founders’ two-minute journey was part of the company’s celebration, on June 18, announcing the switching on of the largest solar installation to date on any corporate campus in the United States. The installation will help the company reduce its environmental footprint and power its new fleet of plug-in cars with clean solar electricity. The dashboard display of the converted Prius driven by Mr. Brin and Mr. Page showed a fuel economy reading of 99.9 miles-per-gallon, the highest number that the Toyota hybrid is capable of showing.

One highlight of the event occurred when Mr. Brin tapped a key on a laptop computer to launch the so-called “vehicle-to-grid” capabilities of the “ReChargeIt” project. With the keystroke, a nearby energy meter, paused and then spun backwards, showing the flow of energy out of the plug-in car’s batteries and back into the electric grid. The crowd cheered when the meter, projected on a large flat-screen monitor, reversed directions.

Google teamed with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to pull off this demonstration of the two-way flow of electricity between car and electric grid. "Clean energy technology can dramatically shift how we make and use energy for our cars and homes by charging cars through an electric grid powered by solar or other renewable energy sources, and selling power back to the electric grid when it's needed most" said Dr. Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google which is spearheading the ReChargeIt project.

Mr. Brin taps the key to launch Google's vehicle-to-grid initiative.

“The new energy economy is being created right before our very eyes,” said Brad Whitcomb, vice president of customer products & services, Pacific Gas & Electric. “We’re also exploring how this new energy economy can transform our transportation infrastructure.”

For several years, academic researchers and government labs have pointed to vehicle-to-grid (V2G) exchange as a way to provide greater stability to America’s aging electric grid. In a V2G world, cars will become mobile energy storage devices—and garages, parking lots, and roads will become a distributed transportation energy web, much the same as the Internet has become a distributed system for information.

Google.org also partnered with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to create a free car-sharing program for Google employees. With Enterprise’s backing, the program will eventually expand to include 100 plug-in hybrids. Greg Stubblefield, president of California and Hawaii Enterprise Rent-A-Car, said “If Google can do for automobile engines what they did for search engines, then we’re off to a great start.” The addition of 100 plug-in hybrids to Google’s fleet will provide invaluable data related to the performance and long-term viability of plug-in hybrid technology.

David Vieau, president and CEO of A123 Systems, the company supplying the lithium batteries in Google’s new plug-in Priuses and Ford Escape Hybrids, admitted that there was still a lot of work to do on the battery systems before plug-in hybrids are ready for mass production. Vieau said that the battery industry has recently made great progress. “But if you think I’m saying game over, I’m not.” Many prominent auto battery experts view the safety, cost, and longevity issues associated with lithium batteries as the Achilles’ heel of plug-in hybrids and electric cars.

When Mr. Page was asked if his family roots in Detroit had an effect on his support of advanced car technology, he declined to answer. One attendee associated with the project was more forthcoming. “This project tells General Motors and Ford and the American political establishment that it’s time for a change, and we’re not going to wait any longer,” said the gentleman, who asked not to be identified. “If Detroit doesn’t lead, California will.”

Google.org also announced that it will distribute $10 million in grants to organizations accelerating the development of battery technology, plug-in hybrids, and vehicles capable of returning stored energy to the grid.

source: HybridCars.com

Honda drops off the Hybrid radar - for now.

Honda is dropping the hybrid version of the Honda Accord. Honda’s decision to place a hybrid system in the V-6 version of the Accord, rather than the more fuel-efficient four-cylinder vehicle, was a critical error. That decision—to use hybridization to offer greater performance rather than maximum fuel efficiency—came during the early days of the hybrid market. Honda took one on the chin for the entire hybrid market, learning a bitter lesson that hybrid buyers want fuel efficiency in a gas-electric vehicle.

The removal of the Accord Hybrid from the market follows Honda’s decision last year to discontinue the Honda Insight, the first hybrid to enter the market. While the Honda Insight was the reigning fuel efficiency king for six years, the two-seat teardrop designed vehicle was not practical for many car buyers. Unlike the Toyota Prius, a runaway hit because it strikes the right balance between practicality, adequate performance and superior fuel efficiency, Honda erred with the Accord Hybrid by falling below hybrid-level fuel economy levels and with the Insight because of impracticality.

As reported in the San Jose Mercury News:

The decision wasn't a surprise, as sales of the Accord hybrid have been tepid since it arrived in 2004. Most analysts blame the model's failure on Honda's decision to pair electric components with a V-6 engine instead of with a higher-mileage four-cylinder gasoline motor.

In the United States, Honda dealers sold just 5,598 Accord hybrids last year, and just 439 last month. Rival Toyota sold 24,009 Prius hybrids in May, the car's best sales month in history, and 106,971 in 2006.

"The cancellation of the Honda Accord hybrid points out the fact that hybrid manufacturers have largely been unable to expand the public's perception of hybrids beyond high fuel economy," said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book and its kbb.com Web site.

Mr. Nerad states the obvious point somehow missed by Honda with the Accord. The public expects hybrids to have high fuel economy. Honda learned that lesson the hard way. It remains to be seen if other carmakers will benefit from Honda’s mistakes.

To Honda’s credit, the company has apparently learned from its own miscalculations. The company will offer a new, smaller dedicated hybrid car—about the size of the Fit, but not based on that model—within two years. With the release of the yet-to-be-named new Honda hybrid, the company is likely to regain its position as producer of the most fuel-efficient vehicle available in the U.S. market.

Tesla Roadster: Not your neighbor's electric car

If you have not yet heard of the battery powered Tesla Roadster, where have you been hiding your sustainable self? We are almost rendered speechless by the awesomeness factor of this amazing electric vehicle, which goes from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds, drives up to 250 miles per charge (which costs under $5) and comes with an aesthetic that not only competes with its luxury brethren - but leaves the stodgy non-electric models in the dust.

(more…)

Solar Recharging for your Hybrid

I pitched an idea like this one last summer.... I'm glad someone is making it work.



Much like the roofs of houses and warehouses, a car roof is just empty space, so why not hook up some solar cells to the latest hybrids? Solar Electrical Vehicles is looking to do just that with a solar roof module for hybrid cars. The cost is about $2000-$4000 for a supplemental battery and solar module rated at 200-300 watts. For the Prius this adds up to 20 miles per day of electric mode driving with higher-capacity batteries adding another 10 miles.

Modules in production work with the Toyota Prius, Highlander and RAV4 EV, Ford Escape Hybrid and Dodge Sprinter Hybrid. In the future they hope to integrate them with Teslas and upgrade to a 320-watt module, up from 212-watts currently.

While not adding a whole lot of economic benefit to hybrid cars, it's an easy solution for people looking to squeeze more juice out of them. Unlike solar additions in homes, hybrid cars have the technology already built in to benefit from a solar add-on making them a simple installation.

source: Treehugger

Prototype Prius gets 125+ MPG

We've already heard that the 2008 Toyota Prius might be capable of over 80 miles per gallon, but it looks like Toyota isn't stopping there. Lithium Technology Corporation has just created a prototype plug-in Prius that demonstrably gets 125+ miles per gallon. The car uses a new kind of large-scale lithium ion battery that uses lithium iron phosphate as the cathode (wikipedia).

These batteries are well suited for cars. First, they don't explode when punctured and second, they have a very high discharge current. The Prius' battery stores 7 kWh of electricity in 63 Li-ion cells, and the vehicle relies exclusively on the batteries for the first 60 miles of travel. The prototype is, of course, a plug-in, so the mileage-boosting energy comes from the electric grid. And, no, grid energy isn't emissions free, but it's a heck of a lot more efficient than internal combustion.

This is a surprising leap from Lithium Technology Corporation. I've been expecting more news about Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries for a while, but to hear that they've boosted the mileage of a prototype vehicle so substantially is very exciting. Maybe Toyota will actually have something ready in 2010 to rival GMs ultra-efficient plug-in hybrid Volt.

source: EcoGeek.org

Hypermiling - Techniques for Maximum MPG

The passion that burns in Laurie With isn't visible until she gets behind the wheel of her Honda Civic hybrid -- and drives real slow.

She accelerates gently when the light turns green, and coasts down hills to save gas. On highways, she stays in the right lane and watches the big SUVs zoom past.

"When I see someone roar past me, I think, 'They just used enough gas to last me a week,' " she said.

She is part of a small and extremely dedicated group of drivers around the country who call themselves "hypermilers." They almost exclusively drive hybrid vehicles, and their goal is simple: squeeze every mile they can out of each drop of gas.

Some of their tips are a matter of common sense and could help any driver, especially now, with gas reaching $3.50 a gallon: avoid jackrabbit starts, use alternate routes to avoid stop-and-go traffic, anticipate lights and drive a bit slower.

But those are just a start. Hypermilers slightly overinflate their tires to cut rolling resistance, seize every chance to coast with their gasoline engines off and sometimes "draft" like race cars behind larger vehicles.

Some of these techniques are dangerous, and some can't even be done in certain vahicles.

Chuck Thomas, a 49-year-old computer programmer in Lewisville, Texas, milks his hybrid Honda Insight for about 75 miles per gallon, 10 more than the government estimate for the vehicle in mixed gas-and-electric driving.

"I do as few accelerations and brakings as possible to get up to speed and maintain it," he said. He cruises a bit below the speed limit, avoids lane changes and coasts to red lights.

Wayne Gerdes, who runs a Web site dedicated to high mileage ( www.cleanmpg.com) and claims to have coined the term hypermiling, lists a variety of other techniques:

• Park at the highest point of a lot, facing the exit, so gravity can help get the car moving.

• Use "pulse and glide": Accelerate to above the speed limit, then shut the gasoline engine down and glide to a speed below the limit. It is fairly easy to do in a hybrid, but in a gas-only vehicle it can be dangerous because power brakes might not work and some automatic transmissions won't re-engage at highway speeds. In a gas-only vehicle, without a lot of practice, "you can wind up killing somebody," Gerdes says. (It's also illegal in many places.)

source: The Columbus Dispatch

Updated EPA Calculations means lower Hybrid numbers

The EPA has changed the way it calculates mileage in vehicles in America. The result? Some pretty drastic changes.

Mileage for the Prius has dropped from 60/51 mpg city/hwy all the way to 48/45 mpg while the Honda Civic hybrid dropped from 49/51 mpg to 40/45. The change reflects the difference in testing environments, of course, but Sam Abuelsamid at AutoBlogGreen reports that there could be another reason there was such a significant drop.

Hybrid cars can be tuned to perform well in specific environments. They are largely computer controlled, and how the hybrid drive train operates is up to the engineers that create the car. Abuelsamid speculates that engineers at Honda and Toyota tweaked the computer control specifically for the EPA test. The result was inflated mileage and decreased real-world efficiency.

Seems more like something American automakers would do? Apparently not, the Ford Escape Hybrid only dropped from 36/31 to 31/29.

Source: AutoBlogGreen

PETA Wants Hybrid Car Tax Credits for Vegetarians

Source: PETA

SYNOPSIS: A University of Chicago report shows that switching to a vegetarian diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Toyota Prius.

This morning, PETA founder and President Ingrid E. Newkirk dispatched letters to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urging them to extend vegetarians the tax break currently given to hybrid car owners for purchasing a vehicle with low carbon emissions. Newkirk’s request comes in light of a University of Chicago report showing that switching to a vegetarian diet is more effective in countering global warming than switching from a standard American car to a Toyota Prius. Newkirk also cites a scientific report recently published by the United Nations that concluded that the meat industry generates more greenhouse gases than all the world’s transportation systems combined, including cars, trucks, planes and ships.

"The single best thing that any of us can do to for our health, for animals, and for the environment is to go vegetarian," says Newkirk. "Anyone who buys a hybrid in order to cut down on their contribution to global warming and uses it to drive to the supermarket to buy chicken, steaks, and milk should face up to the fact that there’s no such thing as a meat-eating environmentalist."

For more information, please visit PETA’s Web site GoVeg.com.

Well, I'm a Vegetarian who drives a Toyota Prius.... would I get double tax credits?

With the ElecTrec bike, pedal or not it's your choice.

ElecTrec full suspension electric bike
The ElecTrec Electric Bicycle is a really great find in an electric bike available today. This 8-speed full suspension electric mountain bike with 26" wheels is powered by a high torque 600 watt motor with a free-wheeling designed propulsion system. This allows for the greatest comfort while providing a significant amount of torque and power. Its 24 volt 14 amp battery supply allows for a 15-20 mile range per charge with nominal pedaling and can reach speeds up to 18 MPH. Its battery takes three to four hours to fully charge.

There are also conversion kits. For $500, people can turn almost any bike - hybrids, cruisers, mountain bikes - into an electric version of itself.

For every electric bike sold in the U.S., there's 148 sold in Europe. The numbers are even more significant in Asia.

I would like people to see electric bikes as a transportation mode, not simply for leisure.