Cleantechnica Archives - Green Businesses

100% Electric Vehicles & Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Sales Have Record Month

Originally published on EV Obsession. As you can see in the table above, 100% electric cars, plug-in hybrid electric cars (PHEVs), and conventional hybrid electric cars continue to do better and better. 100% electrics were up 457.48% in August 2013 compared to August 2012. And they were up 515.51% January through August 2013 compared to January through August 2012. PHEVs are also up considerably, as are conventional hybrids. The increases for each of the above (compared to 2012) are quite similar to the increases we saw in July. August was clearly the best month ever for 100% electric sales in the US, as well as PHEV sales. It’s also the best month I’ve seen for conventional hybrid vehicle sales, but I haven’t been tracking those long enough to know if it was indeed the country’s best month ever in that category. Who Are The Big Movers & Shakers? Not much has changed as regards the leaders in EV and hybrid sales. The Tesla Model S continues to do exception…

Huge Solar Plane Could Fly For Five Years

You think waiting for your flight to land seems like forever? This new solar plane is designed to stay aloft for 43,000+ hours. That's 5 years in calendar talk. I think I’ll need more peanuts. From Cleantechnica A solar-powered high-altitude drone made by Titan Aerospace is intended to be able to remain in flight for about five years. When manufactured, it would have 3,000 solar panels producing about 7 kW of electricity and would be above the clouds, so it would be exposed to sunlight constantly during daylight hours. One is scheduled for completion next year. The point of having such a plane would be to keep a payload in flight long-term, presumably in a manner similar to communications satellites. They could be used for surveillance applications such as environmental monitoring, fire monitoring and disaster response, among other things. Using a long-term solar drone/plane also has the advantage of being a vessel that can be safely brought back down to g…

Driverless Electric Shuttle debuts in Singapore (VIDEO)

My dream of one day being a shuttle driver in Singapore may now be in the gutter…but this video does show that all is not lost–especially if you’re on this 100% electric, 100% driverless shuttle.

by Jo Borrás for CleanTechnica.

One of my favorite things about St. Augustine are the tourist trolleys that shuttle people around the historic sites and let you learn the history of that old city without worrying too much about the traffic, pedestrians, drunken pub-crawlers, etc. Despite cutting down on the number of rental cars, the trolleys aren’t nearly as clean as they can be. The ones I experienced were Ford V8-powered machines, or else not-so-clean diesels with train bodies. So, how do we get the benefits of a downtown trolley without so much combustion? Singapore has the answer: an electric shuttle that drives itself called the Navia.

Here’s a quick video, from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, that …

Copenhagen Bike-Sharing Service peddles The Most High-Tech Program Yet

Where I grew up, a bike sharing meant the bike you were riding probably belonged to another kid on the street. Sometimes the bikes were even given back. I love bikes and gadgets, and I found the following article "spoke" to me. Originally published on Bikocity. For the next generation of bike-sharing innovations, take a look at Copenhagen and smile. Trains and a bike-sharing program working as one travel option now offer a GPS built into the bike. Not only do you know where to pick up your next connection – you have a schedule of all local train times between your front bars. The Europeans and Copenhageners (again) increase a bike lover’s convenience in transit with this new innovation. With an Android tablet offering a built-in GPS, real-time train departures and ticket integration, and real-time info on available bikes and docks in the area, one glides easily from destination to destination. Paul DeMaio writes: For the Blog’s U.S. readers, can you imagine Amtrak g…

White House To Finally Get Solar Panels

How many years ago was it promised that the White House would have solar panels installed on the roof? Three that seemed more like twelve. The disappointments that resulted from the unfulfilled promise were great and not at all necessary. How hard is it to get a small number of them on the roof of the White House? Offers were made to provide the technology and installation for free, and they were ignored. Finally, the installation appears to be happening, according to the Washington Post. It’s hard to tell if this great news or just sort of a buzz kill drawn out over what seemed like a less than magical drought. The premise behind having them installed back in the 1970s by then President Jimmy Carter was simple enough and that was the main appeal. If the number one house in America could be powered by solar, at least partly, then many members of the public might come to see they could use them too. They didn’t last too long though, because the center of American culture was…

HyRef Technology Revolutionizes Renewable Energy Forecasting

IBM has long been known for building some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, but what happens when it applies advanced modeling to solving the intermittency of renewable energy? The answer, it turns out, is “Hybrid Renewable Energy Forecasting” (HyRef). This new technology, already online in China, is able to produce accurate local weather and renewable energy forecasts as far as one month in advance, down to 15-minute increments. The HyRef technology combines advanced power and weather computer modeling, sophisticated cloud imaging, sky-facing cameras, and on-site sensors to accurately predict solar power and wind energy output and increase the amount of renewable electricity flowing onto grids across the world. HyRef forecast system graphic via IBM Crowded Field In Renewable Energy Forecasting Race HyRef joins an increasingly crowded field of innovative technologies seeking to accurately predict the output of renewable energy resources. The National…