Chery auto plug-in electric

While I do not hold out any hope that these would be street-legal in the US, it is good to see that companies in China are working on electric vehicles.  BYD auto has a plug-in hybrid on the domestic market, available since Dec.  I hope they are working on an all-electric too.  Hopefully, when the world economy stabilizes, there will be affordable cars that do not run on petroleum products for Chinese consumers to buy.

China’s largest independent carmaker Chery Automobile rolled off its first plug-in electric car this week, the latest Chinese automotive company to produce an alternative energy vehicle.

The all-electric car, S18, can go up to 150 kilometres (93 miles) on one charge and has a maximum speed of 120 kilometres (72 miles) an hour, the company said in a statement.

The battery can be fully charged within six hours using a 220-volt home outlet, while 80 percent of the battery can be charged within 30 minutes, it said.

More video of Aptera 2e

Road & Track has an article and short video (in three parts) of a test drive of the Aptera 2e.  Looks cool – I hope the company does well.

CO2 monitoring satellite launch fails

The launch this morning of a satellite meant to track low-elevation CO2 levels failed.  Apparently a shield of some sort did not detach properly, and thus the satellite could not separate either.  A shame – it would have been very interesting data I think:

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will measure carbon dioxide levels by using an instrument with three spectrometers to analyze light reflected off Earth. Carbon dioxide absorbs certain wavelengths of light, particularly in the near infrared, and by measuring how dim those parts of the spectrum are, the observatory can determine how many carbon dioxide molecules the light has passed through.

Seeding the ocean

Recent research suggests the idea of using iron ore to spark large algae blooms in the open ocean to absorb CO2 might not be as effective as first thought.

A new study confirms that iron-enriched waters do, as hoped, encourage more carbon to be stored on the ocean floor. But the efficiency of artificial iron fertilisation could be as much as 50 times lower than previous estimates.

Cap and trade vs tax

While I have not spent too much time thinking about this issue, I was surprised to see that Rex Tillerson favors a tax over a cap and trade system.

It is this shaky experience with cap-and-trade that might explain an unlikely advocate of a carbon tax. Earlier this year, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson pointed in a speech to the problems with Europe’s cap-and-trade program – such as the program’s volatility and lack of transparency – as reasons he prefers a carbon tax.

Maybe he is right – Exxon understand taxes (and how to avoid them) very well.  Participating in a volatile options market is not a core competency for Exxon.  Play to your strengths, not weaknesses.

New Zealand to get plug in hybrid

The Hyundai Getz might have a plug in version for general sale soon.  This apparently is a modified version, and not cheap (roughly $45,000 vs a stock Getz around $20,000).  Still, if you can walk into a dealership and get a warrantied plug-in hybrid……  Why is the US so far behind?

With a teensy electric motor up front, a stack of lithium ion phosphate batteries, a three-point plug in the fuel filler and a whole lot of electronic wizardry, the Blade Electric Vehicles baby is more of a technical tour de force than it looks.

More importantly, it’s an electric car you’ll be able to buy, as a warranty-covered new model, maybe through Hyundai dealers from mid-2009.

FCX Clarity gets rough review

This seems like a rather rough review.  While I tend to agree that vehicle applications are probably the worst for fuel cells, I think Honda should be applauded for what they have accomplished.  It is pointed out that they may be doing this primarily to satisfy CA regulators.  That would lead to comparisons of the motives behind the EV-1.  And might imply a similar fate if the regulations changed. Gulp. Luckily, it is also pointed out that much of the car would be useful even if the power comes from batteries.  Not sure if the batteries would just “slide in” where the H2 storage tank was.  At least there was a compliment about the actual design.

Yet I have never driven a car half as advanced, as futuristic, as blind-with-science as the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.

Perhaps obscured by questions of practicality and cost is the fact — and it is a fact — that the FCX Clarity is the most beautiful car to ever wear the big H on the nose. It’s just gorgeous, a big garnet-red teardrop falling from the cheek of the future, a sweet stanza of robot-written poetry.

More solar power planned in the Mojave desert

Over a gigawatt of capacity when fully built.  This is a concentrating thermal setup, not PV.  Transmission line issues need to be addressed, but maybe some high temp superconducting lines can be tested?  What else you gonna spend billions in stimulus money on?  What, balancing the budget?  Oh yeah, forgot about that….

The largest utility in California, squeezed by rising demand for electricity and looming state deadlines to curb fossil fuels, has signed a deal to buy solar power from seven immense arrays of mirrors, towers and turbines to be installed in the Mojave Desert.

The contracts amount to the world’s largest single deal for new solar energy capacity, said officials from the utility, Southern California Edison, and BrightSource Energy, the company that would build and run the plants. When fully built, the solar arrays on a sunny day would supply 1,300 megawatts of electricity, somewhat more than a modern nuclear power plant.

Another cool UAV

This looks like an awesome aerial imager.

You may think your new ten-megapixel camera is pretty hot –- but not when you compare it to the 1.8 Gigapixel beast built for the Pentagon. The camera is designed as a payload for the A-160T Hummingbird robot helicopter now being quietly delivered to Special Forces. It will give them an unprecedented ability to track everything on the ground in real time. The camera is scheduled for flight testing at the start of next year.

…The camera is composed of four arrays, each containing 92 five-megapixel imagers. The other parts of ARGUS are the airborne processing system, which has to deal with a phenomenal torrent of data, and the ground-based element. The airborne part fits into a 500-pound pod…

The Hummingbird is unique in its ability to hover at high altitude (over 15,000 feet) and its endurance of over 20 hours. This means it can park high in the sky and scan a wide area. Robo-chopper camera-maker BAE Systems says that its imager will be able to cover an area of over a hundred square miles. The refresh rate is fifteen frames per second and a “ground sample distance” of 15 centimeters –- this means that each pixel represents six inches on the ground. (The Darpa diagram, above, suggests a smaller area of coverage, 40 square kilometers or 15 square miles, at that resolution.)

Sweet UAV

This thing looks cool.  I am not sure how it is going to get to 10,000 feet and back down in 40 min, unless that is a very strong fan, but it seems pretty cool as a surveillance device.  Link.

The circular vehicle, weighing 17 pounds and 14 inches in diameter, can fly down to inspect hazardous areas for threats without exposing warfighters to enemy fire. The T-Hawk MAV can take off and land vertically and fly more than 40 minutes, at more than 40 knots of airspeed, operating at altitudes of more than 10,000 feet.