We love the X-Prize, right? They helped the private sector get into space and are now sponsoring a competition to create a commercially-viable 100 mpg car. But they're not stopping there. The X-Prize Foundation has announced that they will be creating several new prizes for a variety of environmental categories with a total worth of $100M. Apparently, this new suite of X-Prizes includes the Automotive X-Prize and may also include (but not be limited to):

1. Biofuels
2. Energy storage
3. Carbon Capture
4. Solar
5. Water
6. Energy efficiency
7. Clean aviation fuel
8. "The provision of basic utilities for developing nations"

The basis for the need, says the CEO of the foundation, Peter Diamandis, is that progress is happening too slow. Indeed, I tend to agree with him. Though the vast amount of news that we have to cover every day at EcoGeek is a testament to the fact that clean technology is developing quickly, solutions are not coming in fast enough.

The first new prize, for Biofuels, will be launched later this year, with others being rolled out over a two-year period.

The Foundation hopes that each of the sectors in which they provide a prize has the potential to truly revolutionize the economy. And with 8% of venture capital funding in America already flowing into clean technology, it's likely that they're right. Details on the "Energy and Environment X-Prize Suite" (PDF) will continue to emerge throughout the next year. And while $10 M is a bit trivial in what could end up being a trillion dollar industry, it may be that the first $10 M is more important than the last $100 B.

Via BusinessWeek

Mitsubishi is asking folks living in the UK who are interested in their all-electric city car, the iMiEV, to "register their interest." Apparently the cars will arrive at the beginning of 2009 but only in very limited quantities. Mitsubishi has created a website for interested folks to declare their intent to buy one of the cars. This, I imagine, will help them decide how many to bring the UK...not to mention help them actually sell the cars.

Interestingly,  it looks like Mitsubishi might be changing the name to the i-EV, which I would be fine with, since I'm still not sure how to pronounce iMiEV. For the rest of us in the U.S., there's not official place to register our interest...but you can sign this petition to tell Mitsubishi to bring us the car here.

Via EV Discussion List and  AutoBlogGreen

Grid parity...it's what we're all hoping for. That magical moment when solar power (or other renewables for that matter) become available at the cost of current power sources. And, if Sunrgi's claims are to be believed, it could be only 15 months away.

Sunrgi's technology is fairly simple. Basically they use a magnifying glass to concentrate the power of the sun 1600 times onto a tiny square of the most efficient photovoltaic material on the planet. While others are concentrating on bringing the price of the panels down (along with efficiency), Sunrgi actually uses panels from Spectrolab, which are three times more efficient than the cheap panels being produced by NanoSolar.

The photovoltaic cells remain efficient even when collecting these huge amounts of light per square centemeter. However, they don't remain efficient at 3000 degrees F. In fact, if this much light were concentrated on the cells, and the cells were not cooled, they would melt. Sunrgi has developed a proprietary cooling system to keep the ultra-expensive cells at nominal temperatures even at the hottest part of the hottest day. You can see, in the render, that the bottom of the panels actually look like huge CPU heat sinks.

By using such a small amount of photovoltaic material, and such a large amount of cheap magnifying glasses, Sunrgi says that their system should be extremely inexpensive. In fact, they're saying that, in sunny climates, it will be sold for around $0.05 per kilowatt, about the cost of coal. They already have demonstration units running and hope to be selling their first units (to utilities and large businesses) in twelve to fifteen months.

Award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has been on sabbatical for the last half-year or so, and he has been sorely missed. After spending years talking about how The World is Flat, Friedman began writing about a new powerful force in the global economy...the environment and clean energy. This has lead some (us, actually) to surmise that his next book might be quite ecogeeky.

Now he's back, and immediately taking on the idiocy of suspending the gas tax for the summer months:

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

And then he gets to the real meat of the issue. It's not that we don't have an energy policy in America, it's that we have the exact opposite of the policy we should have. We continue to subsidize oil and gas, and are letting subsidies for wind and solar lapse.

The neglect of these renewable energy tax credits has been discussed over and over again here at EcoGeek. Friedman's audience (being somewhat larger than our own) will hopefully finally hear this message loud and clear. I sure am glad he's back.

Do you want a hybrid Honda Fit? Or how about a hybrid Passat, or Yaris, or Cobalt, or....Yeah. Too bad. While the number of hybrids available is certainly increasing, there are just a lot of cars we can't get as hybrids, and we're just going to have to deal with that.

Or are we? A UK company has revealed a retro-fit hybrid conversion kit that has the potential to cut exhaust emissions in existing cars by nearly 40%, and improve fuel economy by 60%. The system, developed by the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA), features a removable battery pack, arranged into three portable 30kW cassettes, which upgrade existing "conventional" vehicles into hybrids.

The technology, currently being demonstrated on a Skoda Fabia, allows the car to run as a plug-in hybrid. In practice, it means the battery can be recharged via the gasoline engine, or by removing the battery pack and charging it through the mains. The rear wheels are driven by two 30 kW (50bhp) motors, while the petrol engine drives the front ones, effectively turning your car into a 4WD. Regenerative braking appears to be not included.

According to MIRA, the test model achieves an average of 64mpg (up from 39mpg), while top speed and acceleration remain similar to a standard Fabia. While this certainly isn't as impressive as the Hymotion plug-in conversion kit for the Prius, it is cheaper (probably only $4,000) and can be installed in any front-wheel-drive car.

Speaking about the new project, Derek Charters, advanced power train manager at MIRA said, “You can obtain electricity from your domestic provider far cheaper and greener than from a car engine, so plug-in hybrids make sense.

“With this project, we’ve removed the main limitation of the plug-in hybrid by allowing the battery pack to come to the mains, rather than having to park right next to a socket, which is difficult if you live in a terraced house or flat.”

Unfortunately, MIRA hasn’t yet set a date for putting the technology into production. However, providing the new system is affordable and easy to install, there’s a compelling case for launching it in the market as soon as possible. Watch this space for more.

I find my reliance on power strips embarrassing. But now I can feel even more guilty with one of these! Finally, I could see how much power I'm pulling from the wall here at EcoGeek HQ so I can feel really bad about it and, maybe, actually do something about it.

This guy remembers how much power has moved through the strip over the last day, week, month, or year and thanks to an onboard battery, it remembers forever.

It can also monitor the quality of power coming into your office, which can be useful for ubergeeks. But for us average geeks, this could be a fairly useful little tool. Two questions though:

1. How much power does the device, itself, consume?
2. How is this $99 device different from my $20 kill-a-watt mixed with a $10 power strip?

The first zero-watt display monitor from Fujitsu Siemens Computers will get you out the office door that millisecond faster after coming up with a design that uses no power at all in idle mode. The zero-watt, 22-inch monitor has a switch in the power supply unit that is controlled by the computer. When no video signal is transmitted, the switch shuts down the complete circuit of the monitor.

That's savvy, saves customers money, and protects the environment.

There's also a secondary way to save power with the monitor. A sensor continuously monitors the surrounding brightness of the environment and automatically adjusts the display. Less power is required in a dark environment than a bright one.

An earlier prototype last year used a solar panel to detect the video signal, but this version will use a relay switch instead to turn off power when it detects no signal. The new monitors will be available this summer and cost the same as regular monitors.

Via Physorg

"What's the advantage...really...of having a solar-powered airplane?"

That's the kind of question I expect from people who are not immediately enamored with anything powered directly from that great flaming ball in the sky. And I suppose it's a question that should be answered, while I sit here drooling over the fact that it exists at all.

But the DoD has now answered that question. After a lot of work funding unmanned solar powered aircraft, they've announced a plan (Project Vulture!) to create one that will only need to land once every five years. It's a little bit like a spy satellite, except it can operate under its own power, and at much lower altitudes (though still in the stratosphere).

We've seen a few other solar-powered airplanes. Some frikkin' weird concepts, some to prove that the sun can lift a man off the earth, and at least one to circumnavigate the earth.

The Project Vulture contract has been awarded to three companies: Boeing, Lockheed, and Aurora Flight Sciences. Of these, only Aurora has unveiled an actual concept. The Odysseus craft (pictured) remains very mysterious. But it seems as if it can actually fold the craft along two hinges. This might allow it to fly straight, while maximizing exposure to the setting or rising sun.

It will, of course, be entirely carbon-neutral, storing power in batteries during the day, and using them at night. Theoretically, the number of charge-discharge cycles the batteries are capable of should be the limiting factor in the length of the planes flight.

Each of the three segments are actually an independent unit that can fly, take off and land on their own. Once in the air, they link to provide the maximum amount of lift with the minimum amount of energy with a wingspan longer than that of a Boeing 767. If one of the segments is damaged, the other two can operate completely independently.

And, for those of us who are less interested in using green technology for warfare (albeit cold warfare,) Aurora says that the solar plane could also be useful for mobile communications and meteorology as well.

Via Aurora Press Release CleanTech and  GreenBang

OK, yeah, we need to make solar panels cheaper, but this is ridiculous. While double-layerd, monocrystaline, silicon wafers hold records for efficiency, they lose when it comes to cost per unit of useful energy captured. So, moving to the complete opposite end of the spectrum, we have this...pool toy?

OK, apparently the "Solar Store" is an advanced solar thermal collection device - but it sure looks like a pool toy. The device, patented by a British company, IDC, will be mass-produced and sold for $200 a piece. It can be packed into a very small area, but inflates into a two-meter square panel. Water, running through the panel, is heated by the sun before exiting the panel and being stored in traditional hot water tanks.

Initial use will be in developing nations, but because the device is so cheap, IDC says that they provide significantly faster ROI than current solar water heaters installed throughout the developed world. Though it looks to me like they're going to have to do some work proving that the panel is durable (it doesn't look like it is) and effective, it seems like it has promise to me.

The questions I'm left asking, if it's going to be on my roof, are :

1. What is going to keep it from being damaged?
2. How expensive will it be to integrate it into my current hot-water system?
3. What will my neighbors think?

Keep reading for an illustration of how the heater works.

Via EnvironmentalGraffiti

The Chevy Volt remains the near-term grail for green-car enthusiasts. The 40-mile, all-electric driving range combined with the convenience of an onboard battery charger seems to solve most of the problems that face electric vehicles.

While the car will, in the majority of applications, be 100% EV, it has the option for longer trips that pure-EVs just can't deliver.

But in a recent email exchange with PetroZero, Bob Lutz, VP of product development at GM, indicated that the Volt might actually have an all-EV version for the true enthusiasts. The car would be developed primarily for California, to meet the zero-emissions vehicle mandate.

While the range-extending electric technology of the Volt will make it appealing to the mass-consumption of American, an EV option is a welcome thought to diehard ecogeeks. The pure EV version would remove the onboard generator and, instead carry more battery packs, extending the range significantly.

Though the pure-EV isn't going to have anything like the 600-mile range of the range-extended version, it could easily triple the 40-mile all-electric range. And so now we all have one more reason to be excited about the Volt.

Via PetroZero and GM-Volt

OK, we've heard the disparagement of the Prius. It's too small, too slow, and too prissy. Auto-enthusiasts are...well...unenthusiastic with the car. But, correct me if I'm wrong, isn't that the point?

One of the really fantastic things about the Prius is that it doesn't give you 150% of what you need. You can't fit five bodies in the trunk and you won't win any drag races, but you will have a nice functional car that uses a heck-of-a-lot less gas.

But after nearly ten years of success with the car, Toyota wants to bring something new to the table. The new model Prius (2009 or 2010, we're not sure) will be bigger, longer, more powerful, and faster. All of this will come along with an increase in fuel economy as well. But a bigger engine and body mean that the heavier car will be losing total efficiency, even if a slightly-improved hybrid system bumps the mileage up a few miles per gallon.

With a larger hybrid system, and a smaller engine, we would see much larger gains. And with a plug-in system, like the one you can now buy from hymotion, the Prius could get an effective fuel-economy upwards of 100 mpg.

The good news is that Toyota seems to be looking at broadening the range of the Prius, making it into a kind of sub-brand. There might be a sub-compact version of the car, which could see very exciting mileage numbers. And they're also looking at creating a version for their Lexus brand that would be faster, larger, and less efficient.

I'm also a little disappointed in the lack of a plug-in option for this next-gen Prius, and Toyota's continuing reliance on nickel batteries. While lithium-ion remain in their sights, Toyota seems too fat and happy with their current dominance in hybrid technology to really be going after this new technology.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Prius, and I'm looking forward to driving the new and improved version one of these days. But Toyota needs to re-affirm its focus on efficiency with something spectacular before I'll buy into this Prius beef-up.

Via AutoObserver

As a biker, I see hills as a bit of an enemy. On the way up, it's certainly less than fun. On the way down, well, it can be exciting, but not necessarily safe. But it would certainly be worse if I weighed several dozen tons...

For truckers, hills and mountains are a colossal waste of energy. It requires quite a bit of effort to haul a full load up a hill, only to take more effort trying to slow the truck down on the other side. With all that kinetic energy going into the truck’s brakes, you’d be right to think there is a neat way to capitalize on the situation.

The Remote Hybrid Helper is a new system that would attach itself to the back of the trailer to help it up hills, and capture braking energy on the way back down. With its own batteries and electric motors, the pusher would assist the trailer up the hill and then use massive battery packs to capture energy generated by "falling" down the hill.

The neatest thing about this concept, however, is that the remote hybrid helper (RHH) is not just a box that you’re expected to tow around behind your truck forever. The RHH will actually drive itself around, tracking down trucks that need assistance, coupling with them, giving a helpful push, then regen-braking down the hill before finding another victim. One could imagine these things flying up and down mountain passes, linking up with trucks on either side all day long. Certainly a weird idea to conceptualize, but something that would work incredibly well to cut down on emissions and improve efficiency in trucking.

Via AutoBlogGreen