Monday, October 4, 2010

Electric Bike Runs (Almost) on Water

By Charlie Sorrel

SiGNa’s fuel-cell powered electric bike will run for 60 miles on a single charge. More impressive is that it runs on water.
The bike itself is really just a showcase for the fuel-cell tech from the energy company. The cells uses sodium silicide in the form of a sand-like powder. Add this to water and it “instantly creates hydrogen gas.” This hydrogen is then used to generate electricity. Because no hydrogen is stored, the cells are safe, and excess electricity is stored in batteries for an extra boost when you get to a hill. The cartridges are hot-swappable and are fully recyclable.
The main advantage (apart from the safety aspect) is that you can just swap-in a new cartridge when you need it, instead of having to stop to recharge (the units weigh around 1.5-pounds each, less than most batteries). You also get better range: a battery-powered bike typically gets 20 to 30-miles on a charge. The downside is infrastructure: you can find a power-outlet pretty much anywhere in the world. Try finding a compatible fuel-cell in a backwater general-store.
The current units can be designed to put out anything from 1-Watt to 1-Kilowatt. Their futire is probably not in electric bikes but in bigger transportation. Imagine driving your car into the gas-station, popping the hood and swapping in a fuel-cell, just Like Doc Brown drops a tube of plutonium into his time-traveling DeLorean.
Pre-orders for the cells are being taken by SiGNa. For a bike, you’ll probably have a long wait. Full, technical press release below.
Produce High-Pressure Hydrogen From Water [SiGNa. Thanks, Mike!]

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Drivers with DUI charges skirt license rules with electric scooter

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Paris 2010: Smart Debuts Electrically Assisted ebike Hybrid

Posted Today 01:30 PM by Steve Diehlman
Category: Green, Paris Motor Show

Boeing solar plane could circle the earth for five years

Boeing solar plane could circle the earth for five years - BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, Friday 1 October 2010 at 00:15:00 * Prototype SolarEagle due to be tested within four years * Boeing has confirme...

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A Tribute to the Segway

Red Segway I2 New with Custom Red Handle

A Tribute to the Segway

Car of the future powered by bodywork

Fresh: Mississauga residents celebrate Car Free Day...by Lubo

Fresh: Mississauga residents celebrate Car Free Day...

Not a car with batteries, but a car that is a battery

Not a car with batteries, but a car that is a battery

Volvo is working on a car that can actually energize itself. We take a look under the hood.

Mon, Sep 27 2010 at 4:36 PM EST

Comments

IT'S ELECTRIC: Volvo's ReCharge plug-in hybrid concept car could have "energized" body parts. (Credit: Volvo)

Until now, the main focus of electric car designers has been finding places to store the heavy and bulky batteries. But suppose the car’s body was itself the battery? That’s the intriguing premise of a project jointly undertaken by the Imperial College of London and Volvo, which is already planning on fielding a small fleet of electric C30 sedans.

No, they’re not smoking anything funny. The Imperial College researchers are working with a polymer resin and carbon fiber blend to make special body panels (such as the spare wheel housing) that could store enough energy to restart a hybrid car’s engine, or add a minor amount of range to an electric car. Here's a closer look:

Ontario Power Authority Finalizes Price for New Ground-mounted Solar Category

Power from the Sun: A Practical Guide to Solar Electricity

Ontario Power Authority Finalizes Price for New Ground-mounted Solar Category

Segway owner killed in scooter accident

New York TimesSegway owner killed in scooter accident -

4 hours ago

British millionaire businessman, Jimi Heselden, who bought the US-based firm that manufactures the self-balancing Segway scooter, was found dead at the ...

Monday, September 27, 2010

New ebike market... alcoholics!

Environmentally Friendly Motorbikes Review/ Video

Environmentally Friendly Motorbikes Review

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Scooter Style Ebike on Subway / People acting like this are going to ruin it for the rest of us

From Toronto E-bike Riders Group

The 15 most toxic places to live

The 15 most toxic places to live

Best U.S. places to survive the apocalypse

SLIDE SHOW: Best U.S. places to survive the apocalypse
	Many people believe the end of the world is just around the corner. Here's a list of the best places to go in the event of the apocalypse. Aug 13, 2010 - By Laura Moss \| Earth Matters, Wilderness & Resources

Exclusive: Iceland entrepreneurs on fast track for electric car revolution

Our blogger traveled to Iceland to find out how one company is bucking a deep recession to build the world's first all-electric transportation network.

Fri, Sep 17 2010 at 11:54 AM EST

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MAN ON A MISSION: Gisli Gislason with the first Tesla in Europe. (Photo: Jim Motavalli)

REYKJAVIK, ICELAND -- Yes, Iceland is financially depressed, and the car market has plummeted an amazing 80 to 90 percent since the country’s banking crisis hit. But that hasn’t stopped a small but ambitious band of green-minded entrepreneurs, gathered at this week’s Driving Sustainability 2010 conference in Reykjavik, from planning a makeover for the country’s transportation fleet.

With an environmentally friendly population of just 300,000 souls clustered around the capital city, plus abundant geothermal and hydro electricity potential (10 times what the country could actually use), Iceland is uniquely positioned to plug in. And a new company called Even, a spinoff of Northern Lights Energy, thinks it can lead the charge, having already signed up 50 leading companies to buy fleets of electric vehicles and charge them from Even-supplied fast-charging stations.

According to Even founder Gisli Gislason, major banks, the national postal service, a leading phone company, and five municipalities have signed onto the plan, which will launch formally in a few months when it has 100 signatories. Gislason is also signing up cars for resale in Iceland, and has a standing order for 1,000 Tesla Model S models, which hit the road in 2012. Gislason bought the first Tesla Roadster delivered in Europe, and it was on display at the conference.

Even also has orders for 100 cars made by India’s Reva (maker of the G-Wiz) and (probably the first to arrive) 20 trucks from the Britain-based Smith Electric Vehicles (which just announced a major sale to PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division). Many electric vehicle makers have had visits from Gislason, including Zap and the Norway-based Think (which is to get its first small fleet of City vehicles next month as part of a car-sharing operation Even is involved in).

The Even plan uses a subscription model. According to Even’s Sturla Sighvatsson, consumers in Iceland will pay just $35 a month for unlimited home or public charging, which is intended to be high-voltage AC “fast charging,” which can take a car from zero to full in just half an hour.

Iceland’s original plan was to transform the country’s transportation fleet with hydrogen, and to that end it opened a hydrogen station and imported three Mercedes Citaro fuel-cell buses. But the buses ran for only three years, and it proved difficult for Iceland (no auto company’s idea of a major market) to lure fuel-cell vehicles. Hydrogen could be a long-term prospect, however, since it’s one way to store excess electricity capacity.

Several years ago, the Icelandic government signed a memorandum of understanding with Mitsubishi (already a supplier to the country’s geothermal industry) to supply i-MiEV electric cars. The Icelanders envisioned a fleet of several hundred, but so far only two or three cars have been delivered. It probably doesn’t help that the local Mitsubishi dealer was taken over by the banks (as have many other local car dealers unable to survive the crash).

Even’s plan won’t work unless there are actual electric vehicles to plug in to the new chargers. I personally think a great solution would be to convert cars to electric right here in Iceland, but despite the existence of plants making ambulances, fire engines and the monster trucks that make a sport of outback driving, there’s no EV conversion yet.

Recycling: It’s No Longer Optional. It’s Necessary

The heat under your feet

The heat under your feet The Gift

In MWh per capita Iceland, Sweden and Norway rank as the top three geothermal countries in the world. While Iceland is well known for their expertise in geothermal energy, you may be surprised to hear that Norway has an impressive track record when it comes to shallow thermal energy.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Bamboo Bike Project

Nearing Production

Imagine creating an affordable product and a sustainable industry tailored to both meet urgent demand and use native materials. This is what the Bamboo Bike Project (BBP) is doing in Kumasi, Ghana. We’ve honed our bamboo bike design to be suitable for road conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, and created a system by which these bikes can be produced in local conditions in Africa with local directions and local labor. Now we’re moving onto the next step, a production run in Africa’s first-ever Bamboo Bike Project facility!

Student flies like a bird, powered only by himself

By Jerry James Stone, TreeHugger Posted Thu Sep 23, 2010 3:48pm PDT for guest_bloggers 1 Comments

Leonardo da Vinci dreamed up a wing-flapping, human-powered flying machine over 500 years ago. But it wasn't until now that someone could actually make it work. Read full post »

Geothermal electric cars?

By Jim Motavalli Posted Wed Sep 22, 2010 10:21am PDT for daily_green_driving 0 Comments

jim motavalli at geothermal energy plant in iceland

Visionaries hope to tap Iceland's abundant geothermal energy to run electric vehicles. Read full post »

Iron Man 2 (Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)

Mini Scooter E concept bike (2010) first photos

Mini Scooter E concept bike (2010) first photos
CAR Magazine
BMW is strong in motorbikes and has form with the half-bike/half-car C1 – and the Megacity project is likely to include electric bikes. ...

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6" Display, Graphite - Latest Generation

Electric bike company nets $12.5M investment

Electric bike company nets $12.5M investment
Daily Journal of Commerce
... Europe and Asia starting to churn out bikes by 2011. Brammo's newest motorcycle, the Empulse, is 100 percent electric and will be compatible with the ...

Thursday, September 23, 2010

A GIO Scooter Orientation

GIO in T.O.

A GIO Scooter Orientation

Monday, September 20, 2010

Brammo electric bikes scales up production

Brammo electric bikes scales up production

Sunday, September 19, 2010

A Toronto electric scooter orientation!

Kiel Takes GIO for a Test Drive

Lubo Ebiker's Blogspot: Kiel Takes GIO for a Test Drive

GIO Electric Scooter - bid on CP24 Breakfast

CP24 Breakfast, Toronto

Hosts of CP24 Breakfast, a popular morning show in Toronto, gave away a GIO 500W e-scooter on March 26, in celebration of the station’s one year anniversary. To promote the contest, Melissa Grelo and Steve Anthony asked viewers to write in with their favourite milestone from the past year. The winner of the e-scooter was selected live on-air. ...