A Ph.D. student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has developed a new method for storing large amounts of hydrogen at room temperature using a version of the super-material graphene. Reportedly his material is inexpensive, easy to produce, and can store almost twice the amount of hydrogen than the U.S. Department of Energy’s ultimate target of 7.5% by weight at room temperature.

I love blimps and zeppelins. Besides my fascination with steampunk and my hatred of airplanes, there is something just inherently cool about airships. I’ve never gotten a chance to ride on one, but I would jump at such a chance.

Maybe, just maybe, one day I will. And if this AIRCRUISE zero emissions airship ever gets off the ground and past the pretty-picture design stage, it is definitely the airship I would want a ride on.

According to Edmunds.com’s Green Car Advisor blog, ever since the news about potential Prius braking problems broke in the mainstream media, shopper interest in the Prius on Edmunds.com has risen significantly. “Both consideration and purchase intent for the Prius have risen about 10 percent among car shoppers doing research on Edmunds.com since the Prius brake story became news earlier this week,” said John O’Dell in a post on Green Car Advisor.

Toyota’s certainly been having a hell of a time recently. Millions and millions of cars recalled, public relations disasters, seemingly aloof executives—the scope of the whole thing is so mind-boggling to me that it’s almost hard to imagine that this is the same Toyota I grew up with. So I’ll admit it, I’m a Toyota fan boy. My family owned way more Toyotas than anything else and my first car was an ‘84 Tercel hand-me-down I got from my parents.

 Well, it’s finally happening. Ferrari is officially making a hybrid…or at least officially showcasing one.

At the Geneva Motor Show in March, Ferrari will display a hybrid variant of their 599 GTB Fiorano. Details on the car are still a mystery but it will likely utilize the all-wheel drive hybrid system that Ferrari patented in June of last year.

The battery source will be lithium-ion and it will use a version of the KERS energy recovery system. There is speculation the hybrid version will increase the model’s fuel efficiency from 9 mpg to 14. Not a huge savings.

Source - GO Media -
Written by Jerry James Stone

Porsche will not build hybrid versions of the 911 and Boxster, according to CEO Michael Macht.

While the company will make a hybrid Cayenne, they have no interest in altering their sports car lineup. Enthusiasts can now breathe a sigh of relief. The Cayenne SUV and the 4-door Panamera have been a sore subject amongst Porsche purists.

“It’s technically possible but it’s not part of the plan. It also adds weight,” he said. “We want brake regeneraton and stop-start for our sports cars, but not hybrid. They’re not driven in the city, where you get most of the advantages [of a hybrid].”

Just on the heels of Apple’s Smart Home Energy Management System, Apple has gone and filed for a patent to reinvent their ubiquitous iPod line using solar cell technology.

Transparent, or semi-transparent, solar panels would partially cover the device. If one or more of the solar cells are obstructed from light, other panels on the device will kick in to ensure a constant source of power. The device also have a standard battery in times of complete darkness.

Apple has filed for two patents using powerline networking and the HomePlug standard so that users can manage the energy consumption of their home electronics.

While other companies–Google and Microsoft–are focusing on a whole-home solution, Apple’s patent focuses on the consumption by gadgets and computers. The device would make every power outlet in your home a conduit for audio, video and data. Goodbye wifi dead-spots! Any device could have access to high speed internet.

A hardware device would control the amount of power used by the various electronics within a household. Using the HomePlug Powerline Alliance’s communications protocol, devices would share data over a building’s existing wiring. Outlets and junction boxes would also have power-enabled data ports.

Over the holidays I saw at least two lists dueling it out as to why electric cars may or may not be in your future. Those lists spanned the gamut from “Dude, they’re too expensive!“, to “Oil’s peaking, get off petroleum now!” But, although they brought up some food for thought, what those lists didn’t cover were the practical reasons to consider buying some kind of electric car (pure electric or extended range electric) in the next couple of years.

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’re already well aware that virtually all major auto manufacturers—and tons of small start-ups—are going to introduce some kind of electric car in the next 1 to 3 years. Sure, they will be more expensive initially and, yes, sooner or later we are going to run out of oil… but these points are largely abstract and subjective kinds of considerations.

Here’s an opportunity to wisely spend some of the $100 billion that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised at Copenhagen to cut the greenhouse gases of developing nations by aiding in the development of renewable energy infrastructure to by-pass fossil fuel dependence. (Previous story.)

Apparently one in four Chinese cities and seven out of 10 counties are without sewage-treatment plants, according to the People’s Daily. While there are many ways to treat sewage or municipal waste; one of the newest is the use of municipal solid waste to make renewable energy.

China has certainly made some startlingly bold and draconian moves into a sustainable new future. You might say that their One Child policy did more to slow future climate change than anything that any other nation has tried. That’s one example of their outside-the-box thinking about the future.

Then they switched to one giant national grid in under two weeks, making renewable energy a nationwide possibility. Now they are investing $9 billion a month on renewable infrastructure. Last week they opened up the grid to any producer at all of solar or wind power, passing a law that every utility must buy all the renewable power put on the grid, effectively creating the Al Gore “electranet” idea - the giant unfettered sellers market for anyone who builds wind or solar power.

It’s been a busy Fall for the making-fuel-out-of-pollution-using-nothing-but-the-power-of-the-sun crowd. First we heard about a company that says it has succeeded in creating a system that uses engineered microbes in reactors out in the desert to eat carbon dioxide and poop out diesel and ethanol. Next we heard about a crazy mirror-ring contraption that reaches amazingly high temperatures to force carbon dioxide to give up one oxygen to make a precursor to fuel. And now…

Researchers at UCLA have engineered a bacteria that can eat carbon dioxide and burp out butanol—a liquid fuel that can be substituted into our existing fuel infrastructure without modification. Yep, that’s right, even your old jalopy can burn butanol without any side effects.