French post office to order 10,000 electric vehicles

The French post office - La Poste - announced that it will order 10,000 electric delivery vehicles over the next five years. La Poste has been testing eight CLEANOVA electric vehicles since 2005. (Earlier post.) Thirty of the vehicles were delivered to 7 customers: La Poste, EDF, Veolia, the Accor group, ALD Automotive, and the towns of Saint-Etienne and Monaco.

(2007-04-25 15:06:14 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

100% efficient organic light

peakoil.com -> sciencedaily.com :

The long, challenging technological march from the low-power light bulb Thomas Edison invented to the ultimate in a bright and energy-efficient lighting device may reach fruition in work led by the two Arizona State University researchers. A recent story in the journal Advanced Materials, details advances in the use of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) by Ghassan Jabbour and Jian Li, with help from graduate students Evan Williams and Kirsi Haavisto, a Fulbright scholar from Finland.

These researchers have developed an organic lighting device with "100 percent internal quantum efficiency" by employing newly designed host materials coupled with optimized device architecture. Internal quantum efficiency involves the number of photons generated inside the device per each electron from the electricity source. What's particularly significant about the researchers' work is that their optimized device adopts an even simpler structure than any yet reported by other research groups. "There is no waste of electricity," Jabbour says. "All the current you are putting into the device is being used to produce light. It's the first time something like this has been demonstrated. Nobody else has shown a 100 percent internal quantum efficiency for lighting devices using a single molecular dopant to emit white light."

The achievement promises significant progress in the development of solid-state lighting based on OLED technology that can be manufactured at low costs. Such devices also could provide a major source for progress in global environmental efforts to conserve energy and natural resources.

(2007-04-25 15:04:25 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Natural gas vehicles in Germany up 40.6% in 2006

greencarcongress.com -> automobilwoche.de :

The natural gas car fleet in Germany increased by 40.6% in 2006 from 38,993 to 54,772, according to the latest figures from the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamtes.

The increase is due to four reasons, according to Hartmut Hechler, chairman of the Initiativkreises Erdgas als Kraftstoff in Bayern (IEK Bayern): the lower cost of natural gas fuel, low emissions, an increasing network of natural gas fueling stations, and a broader selection of natural gas vehicles. Of those, the most important is the economic argument, according to Hechler. Natural gas fuel is some 50% less than gasoline and more than 30% less than diesel.

(2007-04-25 14:59:21 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Climate expert urges dropping clean coal

peakoil.com -> theaustralian.news.com.au :

A climate change expert has urged Australia to step away from the development of clean coal technology for power generation in favour of natural gas and nuclear energy. Jesse Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at the Rockefeller University in New York, has also bagged renewable fuels like solar and wind power saying while they may be renewable they were not really environmentally friendly.

Mr Ausubel said he believed the push to develop clean coal technology would ultimately fail - because of the high cost involved and the problem of dealing with toxic waste products like sulphur and mercury. "There is a lot of interest in somehow trying to salvage or protect the coal industry," he told the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) conference. "But truly making clean, zero emission coal is a very hard job."

Mr Ausubel said a big mistake many environmentalists made was to think that renewable fuels were more friendly to the environment. On a scale that mattered, he said, renewable fuels like ethanol and wind power required large areas of land which had to be developed at the expense of nature. Mr Ausubel said while he was a firm believer in climate change he did not necessarily accept the dire predictions of some. Mr Ausubel said he believed natural gas should be the lead fuel over the next 50 years. "Over the longer term, nuclear will resume its rise," he said. "The 21st century will be the century of methane (natural gas) but by 2100, nuclear will be dominant."

(2007-04-25 14:55:12 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Nissan, NEC to make hybrid batteries

news.yahoo.com :

Nissan is tying up with Japanese electronics maker NEC in producing batteries for ecological vehicles, an official said, signaling efforts to catch up with rival automakers that have a head start in green technology. Nissan has fallen behind Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda in developing hybrids and other ecological technologies that reduce gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Nissan has started selling hybrid cars, including the Altima, but licenses the technology from Toyota. Although sales of hybrids and cars boasting other environmentally friendly technology are still a fraction of standard models, both Toyota and Honda have seen their brand image improve from promoting such advances, such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic hybrids.

The Nikkei said the joint venture will center around lithium-ion batteries, common in gadgets such as laptops and cell phones but have yet to be fully adapted to the more rigorous demands of a car engine. Hybrids from Toyota and Honda use nickel-metal hydride batteries, although automakers, including General Motors, are working on lithium-ion batteries for vehicles.

(2007-04-25 14:45:47 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Australia : "The drying continent"

energybulletin.net -> smh.com.au :

Jim Salinger, a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Australasian chapter, painted a grim picture for Australia during the coming decades. The IPCC, set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation and the UN Environment Program, is a collaboration of more than 2500 climate change scientists and 130 governments.

"Australia is very much the drying continent," Dr Salinger told journalists in Auckland. "Large areas are likely to have less rainfall and soil moisture. This has dramatic implications for crop, pastoral and grazier land production over much of southern and eastern Australia. So they are looking at very serious consequences there," he said. "The cropping areas will be reduced. There is a potential for large drops. It is all the crops that are grown in the riverine areas and the Murray-Darling basin."

He said there would also be a projected drop in Australia's snow coverage by 20-85 per cent by 2050. "I believe that the skiing industry may not be an economic proposition. It depends on the rate of warming entirely," he said. Natural hazards, such as a rise in tropical diseases and cyclones were also projected to be more common in coming years. Extreme rainfall events, flooding and salt inundation of freshwater supplies, changes to mangroves and fire regimes, as well as coastal erosion and rises in sea levels could present challenges to some Aboriginal groups.

(2007-04-25 14:27:50 SGT) [Env] Permalink

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