Tag: alternative energy

The Great Auto Alliance

[An older story, but still quite relevant considering how little we’ve progressed in fuel efficiency.]

“Look at what we’re doing!”, says GM, Daimler/Benz, and BMW

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060811/tc_nm/autos_hybrid_alliance_dc_3

The big boys are making nice-nice and pooling their smarts and monies together to develop foundation systems for future vehicles. But, about these vehicles: GM and Chrysler/Daimler-Benz just don’t get the point about conservation, fuel efficiency, being responsible corporate citizens helping to reduce greenhouse gases and the effects of global warming.

“We believe that our two-mode hybrid is the best of the hybrid systems,” Truckenbrodt said. “I think all three of us can say it’s truly amazing what you can get out of if you bring wild, dedicated engineers together.”

They’re so wild and thinking outside the box, huh? Wow, hybrid SUVs getting high 20/low 30s MPG – what innovation! Howz ’bout giving people an alternative to the huge death machines rolling down the road?

DaimlerChrysler plans to use the new hybrid system in its 2008 Dodge Durango sport utility vehicle.

Ah-hemm… Durango?!? Really? This is our answer to the U.S. scaling back and becoming more fuel efficient?

GM will use the hybrid in versions of the Tahoe and Yukon SUVs it plans to make available at the end of 2007.

Again, these are huge beasts! Have you ever seen one of these muthas roll on top of a compact car?

BMW has not committed to a timetable for using the new engine system, but has said that it will make vehicles available with the upcoming hybrid engine system over the next three to five years.

BMW will kick both of GM and Chrysler/Daimler-Benz’ ass with a high performance and efficient vehicle.

TEP Methane From Landfill

Here’s a link to a story published in the Arizona Daily Star on 11/27/2005. The story really surprised me because the idea seems so simple, so novel, so forward-thinking, thinking outside the box. Who thought this idea up? Will TEP be a good citizen and use more of its resources to help make Tucson a better place to live?

Methane-gas use lets TEP cut back on coal
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/104382

By Eric Swedlund
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.27.2005

In the six years since TEP began producing electricity from methane produced at the city’s Los Reales Landfill, the program has saved 100,000 tons of coal, the utility says.

The program launched in August 1999 when Tucson Electric Power reached an agreement to purchase the methane gas from the city. The methane, a natural emission created by decomposition in the landfill, is captured and piped about three miles to TEP’s H. Wilson Sundt Generating Station on East Irvington Road, said Joe Salkowski, a utility spokesman.

The program is mutually beneficial, with TEP cutting its coal use by burning methane and the landfill operators not having to deal with the hazardous byproduct.

TEP generates 5.5 megawatts of energy from burning the methane gas, enough power to serve 5,500 homes.

The boiler that TEP uses to burn both gas and coal generates 120 megawatts of power, so the methane program cuts coal consumption by 4.6 percent.

By burning less coal, TEP can reduce its emissions. The methane program has reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by more than 870 tons and avoided the production of more than 145,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

And unlike other renewable energy sources, methane isn’t any more expensive than coal, Salkowski said. The city by law has to control landfill gas and assisting in providing clean energy is a benefit, said Nancy Petersen, deputy director for environmental services.