Energy Efficient Cars – Energy Storage, Vehicle Efficiency and Biofuels

New Energy Storage Developments

One of the greatest challenges presented by the prospect of clean cars that run in part or completely on a renewable energy source is the three-fold issue of storing energy within the vehicle: storage device size, storage longevity, and recharge time. Though similar problems plague most intermittent energy sources, including solar and wind power, vehicles present a much greater challenge due largely to the physical constraints of their size. While wind and solar power plants typically use deep cycle batteries for this purpose, they are too large, too costly and too slow to cater to the unique demands of vehicles.

According to a new study announced by the University of Maryland in College Park, a new and improved electrostatic nanocapacitor could be the solution. According to the university, they’ve developed a means of high-density energy storage that’s both compact enough for vehicle use and up to 10 times more efficient than any technology that currently exists (Source: EnergyMatters.com.au). The basic idea behind the nanocapacitor is that nanotechnology is used to create many fast moving energy conduits that transport energy back and forth from the source(s) to the reception site, which in this case is the engine. The hope for this technology is that you would be able to stack these nanocapacitors in layers within the car and that they’d be able to deliver high-power energy quickly enough for the engine to function properly without the power storage drawbacks of the more traditional battery sources (Source: Eng.UMD.edu). This discovery holds a great deal of promise and could solve many of the issues that more conventional clean car battery technologies have been unable to.

Efficient Vehicle Design

Another area of transportation research with potential is the so-called “hypercar,” which is a machine designed to eliminate the waste of vehicle function. There are many ways to accomplish this, including improvements to internal combustion processes, reduction of composite material weight, streamlined aerodynamics and other design changes. By eliminating this waste, these vehicles could be extremely efficient and pollute far less (Source: AssociatedContent.com).

One of the more interesting such projects was championed by the Rocky Mountain Institute in 2007 and is called “MOVE,” which stands for “MObility + Vehicle Efficiency” (Source: Move.RMI.org). In a recent announcement from this project, Indiana’s Bright Automotive has released plans to produce a plug-in hybrid vehicle that would get 100 mpg in the next few years. The project claims that it would be able to manufacture 50,000 of these cars by 2012. The vehicles, which start in an all-electric mode for the first 30 miles of “tank” operation, then use hybrid technology to run on a combination of electric power and fuel for the next 400 miles (Source: Move.RMI.org).

I would argue that this model of vehicle design should be adopted for use with any clean-car power technologies that ultimately prevail in the marketplace. Imagine a vehicle that runs on a combination of renewable and electric energy that wastes the least amount of power possible thanks to intelligent engineering. You’d have a vehicle that rarely needed to be “plugged-in” because it could both drive longer using the same amount of energy and recharge itself to some significant degree. Though it may sound like a thing of futuristic movies, cars like these may be just one breakthrough away.

New Biofuel Study

Hypercars like those in the works by RMI could also become even more “green” if Exxon Mobil produces results in its’ new 600 million dollar, six-year study of algae-based biofuels. This study is aimed at developing biofuels from photosynthetic sources that could be refined into ethanol using existing oil-industry infrastructure for expediency (Source: NYTimes.com, July 14). There are several companies exploring the practical use of algae-based biofuels, which can be grown without placing a strain on existing agricultural food sources and grow in part by ingesting and processing CO2. Though this idea has a great deal of potential, existing studies of algae-based fuel are finding that growing the stuff is trickier than it sounds. Solix Biofuels, which is based in Fort Collins, Colorado, has spent the last five years trying to perfect the conditions and reduce the significant up-front costs of growing the algae (Source: PopularMechanics.com, March 2007). Among the challenges are water temperature controls and CO2 atmospheric controls, both of which currently require expensive materials and housing to combat. While Exxon Mobil will face these same issues, they have both funding and infrastructural advantages that may take algae-based biofuels from small-scale development to a fully realized, widely-distributed fuel source.

Energy Efficient Buildings – Revamping Existing Spaces

Improving Energy Efficiency in Large Buildings

A recent British study found that 70% of the carbon reductions sought by 2020 can be achieved by investing in energy efficiency measures (Source: TheClimateGroup.org, July 6). As a hot topic at the G8 Summit this week in Italy, many of the tested methods that may help to achieve this goal will be discussed at length. The focal areas of this study include buildings, lighting, vehicles, motors and a reduction in deforestation, all of which the study claims bear reasonably low investment costs for the high rate of return in efficiency gain.

At a time when stimulus dollars in the United States are being allocated precisely to such “green” infrastructure projects, one must wonder how much of that money will or should be allocated for use in existing structures. With such a variance in structural composition, scale, and location, the challenges that exist are very broad in scope and make for a difficult blueprint or set of standards across all projects.

So, how do we tackle this issue? Considering that buildings account for about half of the CO2 emissions in the United States, this is an important question. Is it possible to compile lists of suggested improvements based on studies of several buildings, some fraction of which may ultimately apply to individual projects down the road? The good news is that we may be getting closer to an answer for that question. As I write this blog, there’s a large-scale energy efficiency retrofitting evaluation of the Empire State Building in Manhattan. The project, announced in April, is the product if a collaboration between four groups: the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Rocky Mountain Institute, Johnson Controls Inc. and Jones Lang LaSalle (Source: Envirovaluation.org, April 11). The program has a budget of $500 million dollars and is truly the first of its’ kind, utilizing experts from a range of specialties to formulate a comprehensive energy efficiency overhaul of one of the largest, oldest buildings in the middle of one of the busiest cities on earth.


The goal of this group is to reduce the emissions waste of the Empire State Building by up to 38%. Another goal of this project is to maintain performance of the building’s systems while getting the best possible “bang for your buck” in improvements, while providing a basic formula for other office building structures to follow. So, what were some of the winning ideas? The analysis revealed eight areas that would mark prudent efficiency upgrades, including:

• Changes to window lighting and window insulation.
• Radiator insulation to prevent the escape of generated heat.
• Better tenant-controlled lighting in each work area.
• More efficient building climate controls.
• More advanced ventilation controls.
• Building-wide HVAC upgrades.
• More (for a full list, please click here).

In addition to office buildings, we stand to gain a great deal of benefit from retrofitting existing homes and residential buildings as well. The challenges on this front are similar to those in the commercial sector, except for the depth of credit access that may be available to make these improvements. For a corporation or corporations, taking on an energy efficiency improvement project is more likely to be financially feasible and is likely to pay dividends more quickly than a similar project for a residential structure. One step in the right direction on this front is the Thousand Home Challenge. This challenge is the brainchild of a non-profit called ACI, which strives to bring together sponsors, architects, engineers, and designers to make real, measurable improvements to a thousand homes in an effort to lay a blueprint for energy efficiency improvements in the residential sector. According to their materials, residential energy consumption accounts for 21% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States (Source: AffordableComfort.org).



When it comes to the topic of improving energy efficiency in existing buildings, it’s clear that we have a long way to go. I can think of no better place to start than at a meeting of some of the most powerful forces in the world during this week’s G8 summit.

Wind Energy – Recent Developments and Topics

Regional Energy News – Rocky Mountain West:

Duke Energy Generation Systems is planning to build a 51-megawatt wind farm on the eastern plains of Colorado. The group, which is a commercial arm of the university, negotiated an energy purchase agreement with Tri-State Generation and Transmission, an organization of dozens of energy cooperatives in the region. The wind farm will span roughly 6,000 acres on the eastern plains and is slated to open in 2010 (Source: Charlotte Business Journal, July 6).

This wind project will connect directly into the existing Tri-State transmission lines, enabling the quick 2010 turnaround to Tri-State customers. This project is the second renewable energy partnership announced by Tri-State this year; the first was for a 30-megawatt solar generating facility located in New Mexico, which was announced in March (Source: Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, July 6).

As a non-profit network of cooperatives, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has a very interesting operations model. Every day, Tri-State focuses on maximizing minute-to-minute energy price savings for its customers as it directs power to its grids while simultaneously adhering to a hodge-podge of regional and national regulations. In addition, Tri-State negotiates long-term deals with energy providers to help meet the same goals over longer-term time windows. As a group that’s fully accountable to its’ customers, it serves as a possible model for energy operations on a larger scale in the long-term. What’s interesting about this deal with Duke is that Tri-State is taking action to exclusively support this project, rather than simply purchasing renewable energy credits from disparate sources throughout the region.

While other energy cooperatives exist and function in largely the same manner, few if any grapple with the unique geographical challenges and sheer physical span that Tri-State does while serving large portions of Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, and New Mexico. At the very least, it will be interesting to see how many additional renewable energy projects that Tri-State either backs or outright purchases in the next few years. For more information about Tri-State, please visit their website, http://www.tristategt.org/ .


Offshore Wind Farm Study:

One of the more interesting announcements in the wind energy sector came on June 24, 2009, when the Federal Government announced that it would lease offshore land to wind-energy companies for data gathering on potential wind farm construction. The land spans an area of six to 18 miles off of New Jersey and Delaware and the idea follows suit with some established European energy strategies in countries like Denmark (Source: WindEnergyNews.com, June 24).

Without the use of some federal land, particularly in such population dense areas as the eastern seaboard, wind energy will be difficult to utilize. In addition, the densely populated areas in those regions are most in need of reliable renewable sources. If the results of the study are positive, the involved companies may be able to build wind farms within the next five years.


High Altitude Wind Power:

On the research front, a study on high altitude wind patterns was announced in the Energies Open Access Journal this June. The study looked at jet-stream driven wind patterns around 30,000 feet above sea level to assess whether or not that energy may be an efficient source for some larger cities. According to the study, wind energy potential at this altitude is up to 10 times stronger than on land (Source: WindEnergy.com, June 19).

The technology of capturing wind energy at high altitudes, however, is still tenuous at best. In order to stay in place at high altitudes, a device must include a floating or flying mechanism (an engine), which requires energy to operate and potentially renders it less efficient. An equally, if not more difficult issue is the transmission of this power to the ground. Thus far, the devices being developed for this application include sky-to-ground tether lines that would transmit the generated energy to a plan or line on land. A third, and less often discussed challenge for this method of energy collection, involves our current use of air space. Though heavily regulated and monitored above 18,000 feet, air space and flight travel may prove to be very tricky hurdles for energy companies to get over with the federal government.