An exclusive programme of presentations with internationally renowned speakers addressing the subject of “Solar Mobility – Battery Systems, Fuel Cells and Biofuels for Sustainable Electromobility” awaits participants in this year’s Solar Summit Freiburg 2010 taking place at Freiburg Concert Hall from 13 to 14 October. The congress, which is being held in English, offers all specialists from the automotive, electricity, hydrogen and fuel cell technology and battery system sectors sound insight into the developments of the coming years in the area of sustainable electromobility and alternative forms of mobility.
The focus of the event is the direct comparison between vehicle concepts based on battery, biogenic fuel and hydrogen drive systems. In more than 20 lectures, innovative solution approaches for vehicle and drive concepts as well as for battery and charging systems are being presented. Read on
Author Archives: quest
Electric vehicles lighting the way
French electric vehicle company Lumeneo is to reveal the Neoma at the forthcoming Paris Motor Show. Larger than the existing Smera model, the Neoma is designed as four-seater town and surburban transport. Just 2.5 metres long, the Neoma has an electric motor situated at the front, with a seating arrangement that completely fills the interior space. We’ll learn more about the Neoma EV when the Paris Motor Show kicks off on September 30th.
Frito-Lay Rolls Out All-Electric Delivery Trucks in NYC
PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay North America division will deploy five all-electric trucks in New York City this month as part of a green fleet expansion that will place 176 electric delivery vehicles on the road over the next year. The trucks developed by Smith Electric Vehicles can travel 100 miles on a single charge. They produce no tailpipe emissions and emit 75 percent less greenhouse gas than diesel-powered trucks. Read on
Westinghouse Akeena Solar expand in California
LOS GATOS, CA. Akeena Solar, Inc. d/b/a Westinghouse Solar, today announced that it is expanding its distribution business to include sales in California, the largest solar market in the U.S. To implement this distribution expansion, the company will exit its solar panel installation business in the state, focusing exclusively on its manufacturing and distribution business. This move will position the company to sell its award-winning Westinghouse Solar Power Systems directly to dealers in California for the first time.
“Expanding our channels to include authorized dealers in California will accelerate the growth of our distribution business,” said Barry Cinnamon, chief executive officer of Westinghouse Solar. “California is the largest state in the country for solar products, accounting for approximately 50 percent of the U.S. market. Westinghouse Solar panels are safer, more powerful, more reliable and easier to install than other products on the market today. Our outreach to qualified solar installers in California begins immediately, making our panels available to more consumers in the state. Read on
Ecotourism Hawaii style
The travel industry, as with most functioning industries, is ever changing and evolving as consumers find new interests. One of the newest aspects of tourism and travel is Eco-Tourism.
The sole purpose of Eco-Tourism is to maintain and improve the environment for future travelers and generations to enjoy and venture to areas that are protected, tranquil regions, or unpolluted natural areas. Conservation, recycling, and energy efficiency are among the many environmental aspects targeted through Eco-Tourism. Minimal travel to natural destinations are often transported in clean burning vehicles and usually feature a walk or hike that explores local culture that supports the area.
One of the newest and most exciting series of tours that Discover Hawaii Tours offers is our line of Eco-Tours.
These tours showcase a different side of the islands, while educating on the natural history and exploring beautiful sites of cultural significance. With these tours, we take you to the Big Island’s Kilauea Volcano, Maui’s Hana Highway, and many locations around Oahu, including Sacred Sites, hidden waterfalls and even a swim with Wild Dolphins off of Oahu’s West Coast.
Go on a fabulous tour and discover native plants and flowers, hidden beaches and waterfalls, and an abundance of spectacular sites that are only found in Hawaii. Ecotourism is an excellent and necessary manner in which to preserve the environment that is so important to Hawaii and the rest of the world.
Clifftop home is both gorgeous and green
Joanne Ellis’ new clifftop home on Bainbridge Island shows green can also be gorgeous.”It’s pretty darn awesome,” Ellis says in describing her dream home with floor-to-ceiling windows that look east to Seattle. Yet its drama and Puget Sound location is only part of its allure. It’s also energy-efficient.
Courtesy of Coates Design
“The whole house is designed to passively cool and heat itself,” Ellis says. It’s oriented to capture sun and shade, and its concrete floors and concrete interior wall hold the heat.
On a 100-degree day last year, she says the house was comfortable without air conditioning. Ellis” home — chosen as “This Week’s Green House” — earned the top or platinum rating in June from the private U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program. Her architect Matthew Coates says it’s the first LEED-platinum house in Washington that’s not in Seattle. The 2,450 square-feet home, which has a separate 700 square-foot apartment, spared no expense on its green features, which include geothermal heating, two 1,500 gallon cisterns, a vegetated roof, a 4-kilowatt solar array and Loewen triple-pane wood windows. Read on
Scotland to be World HydroPower leader
The state-owned utility Scottish Water is to be given new powers to build windfarms, hydro schemes 
and “green” power stations in partnership and competition with established energy companies.
The company, one of the country’s last remaining state-owned firms, could generate £300m or more in extra revenues by using its 80,000 acres of land and vast pipe network for renewable energy projects.
The proposal was unveiled by Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party, in his government’s last legislative programme before next May’s Scottish elections. He claimed it would turn Scotland into “the world’s first hydro-economy – wisely exploiting our water to help drive our economy”.
Salmond is resisting pressure to convert Scottish Water into a mutualised company under public ownership, similar to Welsh Water, to generate much-needed revenue and offset cuts of up to £3.7bn expected in next month’s spending review. Read on