Get Energy Smart! NOW!

As reported in Green Car Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency reporting on the new fuel mileage standards enables analysis of where hybrids fall out. Much press reporting has discussed how the hybrids aren’t performing as ‘claimed’, using the new standards as a way to attach hybrids’ gas mileage as falling without examining the relative changes.  […]

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Okay, we probablly all agree, the VentureOne is iPod cool. But, chances are if you’re hanging out on this web site, defining cool for you (and me) doesn’t come from American Idol or the pages of People magazine, but more fundamentally about thinking and learning about things that have a real potential to change the […]

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A new approach to personal transportation? How often do we hear that promise?  Well, Venture Vehicles might be delivering on the promise. As they put it:  “The VentureOne:  Revolutionary. Radical. Innovative. iPod Cool.”  iPod Cool: Yeah, it really is.  They’re developing a 2-passenger, flex-fuel hybrid vehicle with over 100 mpg capability. And, well, it look […]

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The New York Times has an interesting series underway on The Energy Challenge with the quite sensible subtitle: “No Perfect solution”. Articles in this series will periodically examine the ways in which the world is, and is not, moving toward a more energy efficient, environmentally benign future. The installment on wind power from back in […]

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A key challenge for wind and solar systems is intermittency. The wind isn’t always blowing and the sun isn’t always shining.  But, in many parts of the world, this presents an opportunity for complementary systems — as the wind is often blowing when the sun is not at peak and vice versa.  Combining these systems […]

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Once a week, my alarm clock is truly unnecessary … the rumblings of the trash truck, with the loud squealing of braking with the roar of acceleration between driveways, ensure that I won’t sleep late that morning.  For awhile, I’ve been wondering why hybrid technologies aren’t making into those garbage trucks. While regenerative braking would […]

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Having a readout on miles per gallon gets most drivers to drive better — in ways that increase safety and reduce fuel usage. With minimal additional cost, these feedback systems can help to improve fleet fuel efficiency through fostering changed behavior by the users (the drivers).  This is an impact that better car design, hybrid […]

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So, while happily wandering the web, half-watching the TV, on comes a ReMax ad.  What are the buyers looking for? An energy efficiency home … one with renewable energy, solar, wind, and methane … “Well,” the wife says, standing right next to the tail end of a cow, “maybe not methane.” Of course, this being […]

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Raleigh, North Carolina, is setting out to see whether it can go all LED for its lighting. The initial effort will go into a parking lot, where they see a 2-3 year payback period.  After that, they will move to streetlights.  Now, CFLs/fluorescents are several multiples in price to incandescent bulbs.   LEDs are often an […]

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Congressman Tom Udall (D-NM) just introduced House Bill 969 which, to put one to sleep like all good legislation, proposes to “amend title VI of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal renewable energy portfolio standard for certain retail electric utilities and for other purposes.”

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