Energy – Page 111 – Things Are Good

From Sails to Solar

As the price of oil increases (because we are running out of the stuff) some smart people are realising that we need to look elsewhere for energy. It is only suiting that the shipping industry does this since renewable resources for energy (wind) have been used longer than human-made forms of energy. One company, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, has designed a ship that uses three forms of energy: wind, solar, and water.

The linked article also has a list of other innovate approaches that have been spawned by this boating project.

Thanks, Emily!

Oiling the Squeaky Wheel

Venezuela has ordered Royal Dutch/Shell to pay almost $131 million in back taxes. The government is cracking down on tax evasions by oil companies and so they also confiscated financial data form Chevron. Hugo Chavez, the current president of Venezuela, is trying to tighten the government’s control over the lucrative and strategic oil industry. The government has said that they are going to alert two more oil companies in the coming weeks if they owe back taxes or not.

Hydrogen Made Efficiently?

There is a start up company that has researched a new way to produce hydrogen. Producing hydrogen is generally inefficient with (until now I guess) a energy loss of 70% on average when used in a car. So this is promising. Oddly enough the trick was to pour some salt on the wound

Yellow = Green

New York City yellow cabs are going green. They were having some problems with government red tape, but that seems all cleared up now. The cabs will be converted into hybrid cars to ensure much better fuel efficiency. Apparently 7 out 10 New York state citizens support a switch to hybrid vehicles.

Hopefully this will pave the way for more and more cars turning into green machines.

My lightbulb is almost as efficient as a car!

A British gas company has created a very efficient auto. Using hydrogen it needs only 25 watts to travel 25,000 miles (in theory). This car may put the Swiss car previously discussed here to shame. This car, however, will be piloted by a 13 year old for weight and space concerns.

After reading many arguments that hydrogen is a false hope it is good to see that really efficient vehicles can be made.