Get Energy Smart! NOW!

Perhaps we need to rub our eyes, but it looks like there are outbreaks of bipartisan sanity emerging on energy issues.  A just introduced bill to promote plug-in hybrids is a poster child of sane policy concepts.
From co-sponsor Orrin Hatch (R-Utah):
“With the rapid industrialization of countries like India and China, the demand for gasoline is [...]

[Read more →]

Power storage is a key challenge for many paths forward to a better energy future. Whether finding a power storage system as efficient as gasoline or a path for cost-effectively storing intermittent power to enable renewable sources like wind and solar to pick up baseload power requirements, storage is a real challenge.  And, for hybrids/plug-in [...]

[Read more →]

Today, Wired’s Autopia published Plug-In Hybrids Weaken the Case for Hydrogen Vehicles.  It opens
The U.S. DOE continues to fund hydrogen research, a long term proposition that could be mute if plug-in hybrids become commercially successful.
Is this right? Are plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEVs) likely to make hydrogen OBE (overtaken by events)?

[Read more →]

A key challenge to better electric vehicles, including an effective Plug-In Hybrid, is the development of better batteries.  Government financing and focus in stepping in.  In both Japan and the United States, recent announcements highlight this government role.

[Read more →]

Chevy is tantalizing those of us who wish for a better energy future dominated by American technology, American workers, and a stronger American
 economy.  The Chevy VOLT concept for a stylish, plug-in hybrid, would transform the automobile market while leaping the nation forward in our ability to reduce our dependence on (imported) oil. 

[Read more →]

Hybrids are too often thought of simply in terms of personal vehicles. 

They are also penetrating the big vehicle market space.  Consider the average delivery truck and all its starts/stops. There is a lot of energy to capture there, which is why UPS is pursuing hybrids.  And, as per Walmart and its hybrid trucks, they are [...]

[Read more →]

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are looking ever more clearly to be part of the near term energy future. As per CalCars, “PHEVs are like regular hybrids but with larger batteries and the ability to re-charge from a standard outlet (mostly at night). They’re the best of both worlds: local travel is electric, and you [...]

[Read more →]