Small can be Safe

The Smart car is coming to the US and it is TINY. It gets good gas mileage, has lots of interior space and while it is not going to carry Sheetrock home from Home Depot is overall relatively practical. But the one thing that comes to mind is that with all of the huge SUVs on America's roads, is this tiny car safe. Well the fine folks at top gear ran one head on into a concrete wall to find out. The result: it did very well, in fact the doors even still opened and closed after the accident. Here's the video.

Who Knew That Alternative Renewable Energy is Cheap

So I always get these flyers in my electric bill telling me about the NJ Clean Power Choice Program (other states have similar programs) and I usually just toss them thinking that it would be very expensive to get all our electricity from renewable sources. Today I actually figured it out, and then signed up. I looked at the past years electricity usage and guess what, getting all of our electric from a mixture 50% wind, 1% solar and 49% low impact hydro would cost an additional $3.90 a month, 8 months out of the year. It will however shoot up to a whopping $5.53 for the summer months, and this is with central a/c usage. Not only will it cost you less then the price of a lunch each month but each household that enrolls will reduce CO2 emissions by over 10,000 lbs a year, the equivalent of planting 1.35 acres of trees. Not a bad deal.

Texas Never Ceases to Amaze Me

The mayor of Austin Texas has an unusual transportation, energy and pollution solution. The mayor's plan is to significantly increase the number of electric cars in Austin, then while the cars are parked during the day they will be plugged into the power grid and sell power back to the city when it is needed and charge the cars when it is not. This will allow Austin to purchase much more of it's electricity from wind sources, currently not possible because wind generators produce the most at night when it is not needed. Electric cars could charge at night with wind power and then provide power to the grid during the day. This may be a far fetched idea but it makes sense, the technology is available and it has support. The only major obstacle is the auto industry which doesn't mass produce an electric vehicle anymore.

Save the world by driving a BMW 7 series

David Pogue has an excellent write up of BMW's new hydrogen 7 series and hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels. What makes hydrogen such an attractive energy storage devices is that it could easily be created from clean energy such as wind or solar, it can be created at fueling stations where it is needed eliminating the need to distribute it, it can be used in liquid form to power a modified traditional internal combustion engine or used in a fuel cell to power an electric motor.

I agree with David Pogue and applaud BMW's decision to leap frog the semi-clean alternative fuels and push what I believe will end up being the worlds most dominate clean energy storage device, until something better comes along.

Investors Want to Know: Ethanol vs. Biodiesel

The Motley Fool has an interesting article about the Ethanol vs. Biodiesel debate from an investors perspective. This is a good angle to use in order to determine what may be our next major alternative energy. If the energy source is profitable for companies then they will support it, a major hurdle in the past. Both of these fuels have environmental benefits but also have major disadvantages. “the sad truth is that even if all of the corn and soybean production in America were dedicated to their production, the country would replace only 12% of gasoline consumption and meet a mere 6% of diesel demand.”


However, this is a good start. As production technology improves, the gallons per acre will improve which some experts estimate from todays output of hundreds of gallons per acre to thousands of gallons per acre by 2030.

Hydrogen Fuel is Only A Matter of Time

Pennylane over at Bio Banter had a good write up about an article describing hydrogen as the fuel of the future. Penny is excited about hydrogen and rightfully so. Hydrogen has many hurdles to clear before it can become a viable energy source such as establishing a distribution network, efficient storage and clean production. Once it clears those hurdles, hydrogen will be a versatile energy storage medium that has all of the advantages of gas without the greenhouse gases.

3 Starving Children Per Gallon

According to this article, the increase in ethanol production is raising the cost of food all over the world. Most ethanol and biodiesel is made from corn, which is also the main ingredient in livestock feed and corn syrup. With corn prices going up, nearly all food, from chicken to cereal is effected by it.