Apr
30
The Biggest Electricity User Is . . .
April 30, 2008 | 1 Comment
The past few years have seen the U.S. State of California come up short on electrical power generation. Not a huge, but a seriously annoying and disruptive set of events. More illustrative might be the events currently going on in South Africa.
While rich in hard minerals like gold, palladium, platinum, coal, diamonds and [...]
Apr
29
BIG Miles Per Gallon Options for Toyota Prius Owners
April 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Hymotion, a division of A123Systems has announced the availability of a high capacity battery called the L5 Conversion Module for the Toyota Prius that will ship to customers in July of 2008. At $10,395 delivered and installed, it’s a lot of money, equal to 2772 gallons of $3.75 gasoline. With only three years [...]
Apr
28
An Activist Guide to Energy Policy Points
April 28, 2008 | 1 Comment
The post here this past Friday makes the main point that electrification over fueling needs to be the long-term policy for a successful economy. For Americans, where this blog is written and the inputs of knowledge, wisdom and the suspicions of many converge, there remains from some people a concern that America has lost [...]
Apr
25
The Survivors Guide to Energy Policy Points
April 25, 2008 | 3 Comments
Emails and conversations reveal the need for people to have worthy information to base their opinions on. Today we’re not going to get into details or particular technologies but for new visitors we’ll cover the largest scale circumstances and for the regular readers a review more concise than going through dozens of prior posts.
The [...]
Apr
24
Now Sunlight CO2 and Bacteria Equals Ethanol
April 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
A new bacterium, a cyanobacterium that is energized by sunlight and excretes the sugars glucose and sucrose with some cellulose has been created by Dr. R. Malcolm Brown and Dr. David Nobles at the University of Texas at Austin. The life of the bacteria based in the production of cellulose and the sugars could [...]
Apr
23
A Breakthrough in Fuel Supplying From Methane Hydrates
April 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Canadian and Japanese researchers have managed to efficiently produce a constant stream of natural gas from ice-like methane gas hydrates from a remote drilling rig high in the Mackenzie River Delta on Richards Island in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Called the Mallik drilling program, for the first time, Canadian and Japanese researchers have [...]
Apr
22
Bits Hit the Rock In Oregon Geothermal Plays
April 22, 2008 | 1 Comment
The weekend saw the local Oregon press let loose with the news that the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries has issued three geothermal drilling permits so far in 2008 with another application in processing. These are the first geothermal permits seen in more than 10 years. Bob Houston, Oregon State Geologist [...]
Apr
21
A New Automotive Business Model Opens Up to the U.S.
April 21, 2008 | 2 Comments
Last Tuesday Ford Motors of the U.S. and the U.K. company Tanfield Group’s division Smith Electric announced the coming sales of the Ford chassis “Transit Connect” with a full electric drive train equipped with Smith’s newest version of iron phosphate lithium ion batteries.
At double the capacity and 35% lighter than lead acid, the batteries recharge [...]
Apr
18
A Biomass to Biofuel Watershed Event
April 18, 2008 | 1 Comment
The German magazine Spiegel let slip a bit of information Tuesday. From Al Fin’s site and post titled “The Future of BioEnergy I: Biomass to Liquid” I started a little due diligence, as Spiegel has been “had” a few times over the years. It came as no surprise to read that the Spiegel [...]
Apr
17
What’s That Shale Gas Stuff?
April 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Shale gas is usually one of the best forms of natural gas. Richer in methane than many natural gas sources that have more ethane and propane it’s a desirable fuel. The reason its making news in petroleum circles is that the past few years have seen prices high enough to push the technology [...]
