IfEnergy

cmonville

The world's car manufacturers are working hard to develop engines that aren't reliant on dwindling natural resources to fuel them. So-called hybrid engine cars that combine a conventional petrol or diesel engine with an electric one are available now although the present development of batteries means that the power and range of the electric power units available is limited.

A fuel cell that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity is the hope for the future for many car makers, but the huge PSA Peugeot Citroën group is aiming to go one better with a hybrid car powered by air.

The new system, known as Hybrid Air, will use compressed air to power a hydraulic motor that provides the force needed to operate the transmission and, therefore, the front wheels when the car is in gear. The tank for the compressed air will be located underneath the car and will be fed from air regenerated from the braking system.
Benefits of this system are that the car can run on petrol alone, a mixture of petrol and compressed air, and on air alone. In the latter configuration there will, of course, be zero emissions and no use of scarce oil resources. As well as the obvious advantages for the environment with this new technology, car owners should benefit from low fuel consumption of around 97.4mpg and with CO2 emissions of 69g/km. It is suggested that cars using this process could save motorists around 45 per cent of their present fuel bills as the cars are estimated to be able to run on air for about 80 per cent of an average journey.

Citroën hope to have cars running on the Hybrid Air units by the year 2016, with the current supermini, the C3, likely to be the first air hybrid model on sale. It is also planned to introduce the Hybrid Air System to larger models such as the Citroën C4 as the technology develops and more power is available when running on air.

Developments such as this will be welcomed by anyone who is concerned about the environment. Emissions of greenhouse gases should be reduced and there appear to be substantial savings on the use of petrol. The new Hybrid Air powered vehicles are likely to be around £1000 cheaper at today's prices than the present electric hybrid models, more pleasant music for the ears of motorists struggling to cope with the rising costs of owning a car.

spanginator

Renewable energy has become a key target for many multinational companies these days, engaged both in energy production and other industrial fields. Certainly, such companies as Shell or British Petroleum are interested in generation of alternative energy that is a part of their sectoral structure. This trend develops faster than one could imagine decades ago, when traditional fuels were of top priority on the energy market. Since the invention of solar panels, cells, batteries, as well as starting construction of wind farms and turbines, renewable energy was put into practice.

To date, advancement of alternative power facilities has touched big transnational companies that in sober fact have nothing in common with energy industry. One of the latest news is associated with Google network, which announced of major investments in construction of wind power stations. Specifically, representatives of Google declared an acquisition of a significant stake in a wind generator farm, which is located in Iowa State, the US. The sum of transaction is about 75 million dollars, which raises total investments of Google in renewable energy projects up to 1 billion dollars. Thanks to such a "financial contribution" 15 thousand households will get electric power in short terms. Future power station will be located in Rippey town, Green County.

It is interesting to know that Google investments into renewable energy projects are not always about getting clean energy solely. It is obvious that as any other corporate giant, its authorities are intended to receive some significant revenues. In addition, they also chase a purpose of getting energy utility for local data centers of Google. Taking into account enormous cost of providing electricity to data centers of the company, it conducts systematic investments into renewable resources.

For instance, such an idea took place in Oklahoma, where Google Energy purchased 100 MW of power produced by Oklahoma wind farm. Most of Google investments in green energy projects are related to American facilities, located in Oregon, California, North Dakota and others. Especially, Oregon wind farm is expected to be the most powerful in the world; 100 million dollars have been already invested in the project with promised capacity of 845 MW. In addition, the company also invested 5 million dollars in Brandenburg solar station. In 2013 there is one more important project Google is engaged in. It is referred to a number of photovoltaic farms in Mojave Desert, California. The construction was started in 2010.

It is impossible not to mention that Google is not the only IT company dealing with energy production. More precisely, LightSail, Startup Company on energy market, has alerted an attention of Bill Gates (Microsoft founder) and Peter Thiel (PayPal co-founder), who donated 37 million dollars in alternative various projects conducted by LightSail.
To sum up, the words of Peter Thiel in a very best way explain why such corps like Microsoft and Google should take part in advancement of renewable energy aside fuel giants and national governments: "it's time to find honest companies that can develop technologies that stand on real innovation instead of the backs of taxpayers." Thus, technological advancement and significant investment may assure green future for us.

© William Christiansen

According to the latest report on Emissions released by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), increase in energy consumption and warm temperatures have led to higher Greenhouse Gas emissions in the US. Gas emissions grew by 3.3 percent in 2010 and amounted to 6.866 billion tones in the period of one year between 2009 and 2010. Greenhouse Gas emissions from burning fossil fuels, which had shown a declining trend in 2008 and 2009, also increased by 3.6 percent in 2010. On the whole, the US Greenhouse Gas emissions rose by 11 percent from 1990 to 2010 leaving behind warning signals.

The report further mentioned that the energy consumption mainly increased because of the higher energy demands resulting from the economy recovery and manufacturing output expansion. Another reason for higher energy consumption was stated to be warmer climate conditions in the US. The warm weathers led to increased usage of air conditioners and other relief measures commanding higher energy consumption in 2010.

The US aims to reduce their domestic Greenhouse Gas emissions by an amount which is 17 percent below the 2005 emissions, by the end of 2020. The US Government indeed needs to take significant measures to implement carbon capping legislation and control energy consumption to achieve the stated targets.