iPhone 4S em Portugal a partir de 629 euros
Já é conhecido o preço do iPhone 4S em Portugal. A Apple vende-o desbloqueado a partir de 629 euros (versão 16GB).
RYNO: Moto eléctrica de uma roda
Tem um sistema de equilíbrio semelhante à Segway e promete competir com a Vespa e as scooters eléctricas.
DeLorean regressa ao futuro
Um novo modelo DeLorean vai sair da linha de montagem na Irlanda do Norte. Agora, eléctrico.
Veículos eléctricos livres de impostos em 2012
Os veículos exclusivamente eléctricos continuam isentos do imposto sobre veículos (ISV) em 2012.
STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH!
Vídeo legendado e transcrição do discurso de 2005 de Steve Jobs em Stanford.
Showing posts with label ENERGY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ENERGY. Show all posts
EU to become free of petrol-fuelled cars by 2050
Green industries will enjoy 'explosive' decade
Range Anxiety: Fact or Fiction?
Far from urban centers and up through the Sierra Nevada foothills, this is the sort of road trip that's supposed to strike fear in the heart of an electric car driver. "Range anxiety" is the name for angst over being stranded with a dead battery, miles from a plug.
Yet Arnett made the Yosemite trip without fear. He was driving his "Signature One Hundred" series Roadster —a high-end sports car said to travel up to 244 miles on a full charge. A year later, he did it again in a convoy with four other Tesla owners, stopping to top off at an RV resort about 35 miles outside of Yosemite. "Range anxiety," Arnett said in an email, "doesn't exist for me."
But range anxiety does exist, at some level, among the general public. A survey conducted last year by the Consumer Electronics Association found 71 percent of respondents feared running out of charge on the road—placing range anxiety among the most common perceived disadvantages of electric vehicles, according to the study.
A number of strategies for putting range anxiety to rest have emerged in recent years, and the pace is poised to pick up as more electric cars roll out. Governments from the United States to China to Ireland are investing millions of dollars to install charging infrastructure so drivers needn't stray too far from a plug. Software developers are building applications for smartphones and in-car telematics systems that make it easy to find charge points on a map.
The startup Better Place, based in Palo Alto, California, aims to set up large networks of charge points and stations where batteries can be swapped out in five minutes or less—theoretically affording the convenience and ubiquity of gas stations. The company has just opened its first European location where consumers can sign up for Better Place service plans and order a Renault Fluence Z.E. vehicle, designed to be compatible with Better Place's automated battery-swap system. General Motors, meanwhile, has opted to equip its plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt with a small gas engine to power the car for about 250 miles beyond the battery pack's estimated 25-50-mile range.
"It's a logical notion that a car with less range creates anxiety," said Marc Geller, a longtime electric vehicle advocate and co-founder of Plug In America. "Automakers and critics have long suggested that it was a critical flaw," he said. As a hurdle for electric vehicle adoption, however, Geller believes the issue has been overblown. Whether you are driving a Hummer or a Prius or a Leaf, he reasoned, "When you're nearing empty, there's anxiety." So the important question, he said, is not whether this anxiety exists, but whether it increases or decreases when people drive an electric vehicle.
The Realities for Electric Vehicle Owners
People who are new to electric cars generally come to the experience with some level of apprehension about range, said Geller, "If only because they've been told to." But for most people, it drops off over time. "The number of people who actually run out of juice," he said, "is very small."
"On a normal day," said Geller, who owns a RAV4 EV and a Nissan Leaf, "there's absolutely no concern about range." On a day when he expects to drive about 100 miles (the distance Nissan says some drivers can drive on a full charge, although the EPA pegs the Leaf's range at 70 miles), nipping range anxiety in the bud requires a simple strategy: "I plan." That can mean building in time for charging along the way or at his destination, he said. If he's going to travel from San Francisco to Sacramento, for example, Geller looks up charge points the day before, checking locations and ascertaining whether any stations are broken or unavailable.
Infrastructure for higher voltage "fast charging" will be a "welcome addition to the toolset," especially for intercity travel, said Geller. These "level 3" charging stations can deliver an 80 percent charge in about 30 minutes at 440V, compared to several hours for a full charge with a standard 240V ("level 2") charger. "If someone has to go 60 miles, and there's a fast charger on that corridor," they would be more likely to leave a gas car at home, he said.
For Arnett, the software engineer who has put his Roadster to the test with road trips to Yosemite, it's rare for the charge level to drop below even 50 percent. But he has experienced the EV equivalent of running on fumes, reaching home with only a few miles of range left. "That was because I made too many wrong turns coming home from a trip to Napa," he explained. Plus, he had been in a hurry to get home so he didn't wait for a 100 percent charge before leaving Napa. "I charged just enough to get home with a little extra margin," he said. "I used all the margin."
Other factors outside of a driver's control can accelerate depletion of the battery charge and potentially set the stage for range anxiety. In winter conditions, the Chevy Volt (which runs its heater on electricity) delivered only 23 to 28 miles of range on electric power in initial assessments published by Consumer Reports last week. The Nissan Leaf has averaged about 65 miles of range in the magazine's preliminary tests, and its mileage gauge has proven unreliable. In at least one instance with the heater on, the gauge dropped unexpectedly to 19 miles from 36 miles, according to Consumer Reports. For someone 25 miles from an outlet, anxiety would be a reasonable response.
Hans Tobeason, a TV writer and producer living in Los Angeles who drove an EV1 during the 1990s and now owns a Nissan Leaf, has also peered into the abyss of a dwindling battery charge. With the EV1, Tobeason said, he ran out of juice about once a year. Upon realizing that he "wasn't going to make it," he would pull up to a friend's house nearby and plug in for a couple hours using an emergency charger.
With the Leaf, said Tobeason, "I wouldn't be surprised if I goof up once a year," and need to make an unplanned stop for charging. As more charging stations are installed and opened to the public, however, it may not be necessary to prevail upon friends for an outlet.
Read more at NG...
Japan vending machines to charge electric cars
The consortium includes Forking Co., a major vending machine operator, and Panasonic Electric Works which will develop and produce electric vehicle chargers with rivals.
Forking has business ties with companies which own a combined 1.2 million vending machines across Japan, or about a half of the national total, company official Reiko Kobayashi said.
The firms plan to install some 10,000 electric vehicle chargers at the sites of the vending machines in the first year of the project, which is due to start at the end of March, she added.
Charging machines "will be installed where beverage vending machines already exist or together with new ones. There are various options," she said.
SoftBank Telecom and SoftBank Mobile are due to provide telecom services to connect the charging systems, the group said in a press release.
Automakers such as Nissan, which launched its all-electric Leaf last year, are gambling that electric cars with zero tailpipe emissions will catch on and, some time in the future, start to drive traditional gas-guzzlers off the road.
But many consider the lack of a charging network as the key obstacle to the proliferation of electric vehicles, prompting consumer concerns such as "range-anxiety", or the fear that their cars will run out of juice between charging points.
LA colleges lose millions in flawed green plans
As head of a $5.7-billion, taxpayer-funded program to rebuild the college campuses, Eisenberg commanded attention. But his plan for energy independence was seriously flawed.
He overestimated how much power the colleges could generate. He underestimated the cost. And he poured millions of dollars into designs for projects that proved so impractical or unpopular they were never built.
These and other blunders cost nearly $10 million that could have paid for new classrooms, laboratories and other college facilities, a Times investigation found.
The problems with Eisenberg's energy vision were fundamental. For starters, there simply wasn't room on the campuses for all the generating equipment required to become self-sufficient. Some of the colleges wouldn't come close to that goal even if solar panels, wind turbines and other devices were wedged into every available space.
Going off the grid did not make economic sense either. Given the cost of alternative energy technology, it would be more expensive for the district to generate all its own electricity than to continue paying utilities for power.
Weather and geology also refused to cooperate.
Three solar power arrays had to be scrapped because the intended locations were atop seismic faults.
Plans for large-scale wind power collided with the reality that prevailing winds at nearly all the campuses are too weak to generate much electricity. To date, a single wind turbine has been installed, as a demonstration project. It spins too slowly in average winds to power a 60-watt light bulb.
In the end, Eisenberg's grand plan was scaled down to what was actually doable, which was a fraction of the green energy capacity he had envisioned.
By then, the district had committed at least $4 million to designs for solar and wind energy farms that would never get beyond blueprints.
As one project after another was scratched, an elaborate plan to pay for it all with money from private investors fell apart. But the investment banks that put the deals together had to be paid for their work. The cost: $2.8 million.
At Southwest College, the district spent an additional $1.2 million on a parking lot shaded by solar panels, only to abandon the project with the work half done.
At Valley College, one of the solar arrays that was actually built sat idle for 14 months, thanks to a dispute between a contractor and the district over who was supposed to arrange a hookup to the power grid. The delay cost $1.5 million in potential energy savings, according to the college.
Eisenberg, the district's executive director of facilities planning and development, conceded some mistakes but voiced no regrets. He cast himself as an environmental visionary and predicted that the college system would eventually achieve energy independence. "Somebody needs to be first," he said. "If the great explorers really had a map and knew where they were going, maybe we wouldn't have the result we have today."
Unyielding enthusiasm
Eisenberg, now 59, grew up in Sun Valley, the son of a TV repairman and a secretary for the probation department. He was student body president of North Hollywood High School and became the first member of his family to attend college. He earned a bachelor's degree in urban studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master's in public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
After a succession of jobs managing public buildings in Wisconsin, Eisenberg was hired in 1993 as facilities chief for Washington County, Ore., which encompasses suburbs of Portland.
In 1995, he and his wife, Christine, filed for personal bankruptcy, listing assets of $236,000 and liabilities of $262,000. Most of the debt, aside from their home loan, was to credit-card companies; they also owed $21,000 in back taxes. The bankruptcy case was closed after the couple completed a payment plan in 1999.
Eisenberg ran into difficulties at his job as well.
His boss, Bob Davis, "wanted to get rid of Larry because of mismanagement," Washington County Commissioner Andy Duyck said in an interview. Duyck said he did not know the reason for Davis' displeasure, and Davis, the county administrator, declined to comment.
Eisenberg recalled that Davis "let me know he was unhappy" with his job performance. He depicted it as a clash of management styles: Davis' was conservative, while his own was creative and entrepreneurial, Eisenberg said.
"I'm not risk-averse," Eisenberg said. "In retrospect, maybe they think they should have gotten rid of me sooner."
Eisenberg left the Oregon job in August 2003 to become head of facilities and new construction for the Los Angeles college district. He acknowledged that he had not told district officials about his bankruptcy. He said it had no bearing on his professional life.
Eisenberg was put in charge of the campus construction program, one of California's largest public works projects.
A mandate from the district's Board of Trustees to incorporate renewable power into new buildings offered him a chance to make his name as a leader in green construction.
He was tireless in promoting the program's eco-friendly aspects, traveling at taxpayer expense to Zurich, Switzerland, to speak at a conference of the International Sustainable Campus Network. He made similar presentations in New Orleans, Seattle and Atlanta.
His advocacy had a messianic tinge. In one e-mail to his advisors, he described his renewable-energy agenda as "what the world needs now. No one else is doing it. We can and will."
The trustees encouraged Eisenberg's push for green energy, even as his plan grew steadily more ambitious. They liked the idea of freeing the colleges from dependence on fossil fuels and were content to leave the practical details to him.
But Eisenberg's enthusiasm obscured an inconvenient reality: With the technology now available, the cost of renewable power exceeds that of energy derived from burning coal and natural gas.
Green energy advocates often argue that the added cost is justified by the reduction in pollution, particularly carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
Eisenberg talked up the environmental benefits of his plan. But he also insisted that it would cost less than continuing to rely on conventional sources of electricity. Private investors, he explained, would put up almost all the money in order to take advantage of tax breaks, and they would pass the savings on to the district.
In the end, he said, government subsidies would reduce the district's purchase and installation costs as much as 90%.
One thing was for sure: No matter how it was financed, the bill for all those solar panels and wind turbines would be huge. Eisenberg's cost estimates for taking the nine campuses off the grid ranged as high as $975 million — this for a college system that in 2010 spent less than $8 million on power bills.
An engineering consultant put the cost far higher: $1.9 billion. That number caught the attention of Marshall Drummond, then chancellor of the college district. It was enough to pay for several dozen new classroom buildings. In December 2008, the chancellor summoned Eisenberg and his energy team to explain.
Drummond was unimpressed by what he heard. In an e-mail to college presidents, he complained about "missing components and what may be shaky assumptions." He called Eisenberg's plan "an unvalidated 'dream.'"
Drummond welcomed Eisenberg's push for solar power and his efforts to maximize energy efficiency in new buildings.
What concerned him were what he called "Martian technologies."
Eisenberg wanted to spend $98 million on hydrogen fuel-cell equipment that had never been put into commercial operation. He called for spending $59 million on untried hydrogen storage devices and $78 million on batteries. The idea was to stock up on solar power during the day and use it at night, a concept experts see as too costly to be viable with current technology.
Eisenberg also proposed $78 million in geothermal and wind projects — even though local weather patterns had led his own technical advisors to conclude that these plans made no sense.
In regions prone to extremes of hot and cold, pumping water through pipes hundreds of feet underground to heat or cool buildings with geothermal energy can produce big savings. But in Southern California's temperate climate, a geothermal system would not work well and the savings were unlikely to justify the cost, the advisors said.
Eisenberg's enthusiasm for wind energy also outran the facts. Among the projects he touted was the Windjet, a windmill that could be built in various sizes, including one as big as a Ferris wheel.
Its creator, a Manhattan Beach inventor named Brad Sorenson, called the Windjet the "highest efficiency wind power system in history." It existed only in miniature prototype, run in part with a bicycle chain. Sorensen hauled the contraption around in the trunk of his car.
Eisenberg wanted to put one on each of the nine campuses.
A district energy advisor, Andrew Hoffman, dismissed the Windjet as a fantasy, telling Eisenberg that Sorensen "claims he can extract more power from the wind than is theoretically possible.
"When dealing with issues on the human scale, the laws of Newtonian physics are non-negotiable," Hoffman wrote.
Undeterred, Eisenberg asked Sorensen how soon he could produce a Windjet for each college. "We need to proceed immediately with purchase and installation," Eisenberg told the inventor in an e-mail.
Nothing came of the proposal.
"I don't think it's really ready for the world," Sorensen said in an interview.
Read more...
Friedman defende fim da petrodependência
Thomas Friedman: O que está a acontecer hoje no mundo árabe é a mãe de todos os toques a rebate. E o que diz a voz por trás do sino é claro como água: "EUA, vocês construíram a vossa casa no sopé de um vulcão. O vulcão está a lançar lava em todas as direcções e tudo indica que está prestes a explodir. Saiam daqui!" Neste caso, "saiam daqui" significa "ponham fim à vossa dependência do petróleo".Duvido que alguém esteja a torcer mais que eu pela vitória dos movimentos democráticos no mundo árabe. Mas mesmo que as coisas corram bem, o percurso será longo e tortuoso. O melhor que podíamos fazer neste momento era lançar um imposto de 25 cêntimos (cerca de 20 cêntimos de euro), num processo faseado a começar com 5 cêntimos por mês em 2012 e usar este dinheiro para amortizar o défice.
Aprovar legislação que imponha um aumento futuro de combustíveis produz efeito de imediato, observa o economista de Princeton Alan Blinder. O efeito sobre o investimento e a aquisição de combustíveis é muito anterior ao aumento efectivo do preço. Com uma pequena taxa sobre a gasolina podemos reforçar a nossa segurança económica e estratégica, ajudar a vender mais carros eléctricos e contribuir activamente para a generalização dos valores democráticos no Médio Oriente, livres de preocupações quanto aos nossos interesses petrolíferos. Sim, teríamos de pagar mais pelos combustíveis - mas seja como for eles vão aumentar; o melhor é ficarmos com parte do aumento para nós.
Já estava na altura. Ao longo dos últimos 50 anos, os EUA (bem como a Europa e a Ásia) trataram o Médio Oriente como se não passasse de uma série gigantesca de bombas de gasolina: Arábia Saudita, Irão, Kuwait, Bahrein, Egipto, Líbia, Iraque, Emirados Árabes, e por aí fora. A nossa mensagem à região sempre foi a mesma: "O negócio é o seguinte: vocês mantêm as bombas a funcionar e os preços baixos e não precisam de se preocupar muito com os israelitas. Pelo que nos diz respeito, podem fazer o que vos apetecer. Podem privar os vossos povos de direitos civis, a corrupção é a que quiserem, a intolerância pregada nas mesquitas também, os vossos jornais podem atribuir ao Ocidente todos os projectos de conspiração que entenderem e as mulheres podem continuar analfabetas. Se quiserem também podem criar estados-providência sem capacidade de inovação e os vossos jovens não precisam de estudar. Desde que as bombas não parem de funcionar e vocês não se metam muito com os judeus, podem fazer tudo."
Foi esta atitude que permitiu que o mundo árabe se tivesse isolado do curso da história nos últimos 50 anos - ao longo dos quais foi governado pelos mesmos reis e ditadores. Pois bem, a história está de volta. A combinação da subida do preço dos alimentos com o desemprego em massa dos jovens e as redes sociais está a permitir que estes jovens se organizem contra os seus líderes e derrubem as barreiras do medo que mantinha estas cleptocracias.
Mas agora é melhor apertarmos os cintos de segurança. Não estamos a preparar-nos propriamente para um passeio, porque acabou de saltar a tampa a toda uma região com instituições frágeis, uma sociedade civil com pouco vigor e praticamente nenhuma tradição democrática ou cultura de inovação. O relatório das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento Árabe de 2002 avisava quanto a tudo isto, embora a Liga Árabe se tenha assegurado de que este relatório era ignorado no mundo árabe e esquecido no Ocidente. No entanto, este documento - compilado por vários intelectuais árabes dirigidos por Nader Fergany, um especialista egípcio em estatística - foi profético. Merece ser relido à luz dos acontecimentos recentes para avaliarmos a dificuldade enfrentada pela transição democrática.
Segundo o relatório, o mundo árabe sofre com três graves défices - educacional, de liberdade e de independência das mulheres. Um resumo deste relatório no número do Outono de 2002 da "Middle East Quarterly" recordava os dados-chave: o PIB combinado de todo o mundo árabe era inferior ao de Espanha. Os gastos per capita com educação nos países árabes baixaram de 20% dos países industrializados nos anos 80 para 10% em meados dos anos 90. Se relacionarmos o número de artigos científicos com a população total, a média do mundo árabe por milhão de habitantes foi cerca de 2% da do mundo industrializado. Quando os dados foram reunidos, traduziam-se no mundo árabe 300 livros por ano, um 50 avos do que se traduz na Grécia. Em sete regiões do mundo, os países árabes obtiveram a classificação mais baixa da Freedom House no que dizia respeito a liberdade no fim dos anos 90. No início do século xxi havia no mundo árabe mais de 60 milhões de adultos analfabetos, sobretudo mulheres. Daqui a dez anos, o Iémen poderá ser o primeiro país do mundo a ficar sem água.
É esta a tão louvada "estabilidade" proporcionada por estes ditadores - a das sociedades paradas no tempo. O sucesso dos movimentos democráticos no Egipto e noutros países e a sua capacidade de se modernizarem seria excelente para eles, mas também para o resto do mundo. Temos de fazer o que for possível para os ajudar. Porém, ninguém deve ter ilusões sobre o regresso dos árabes à história. O processo será convulsivo. Vamos torcer por eles, sem nos intrometermos.
Artigo originalmente publicado no New York Times. Versão portuguesa publicada na edição de quinta-feira do i
Estonia plans nationwide mobility network
Estonia announced Thursday that it would sell 10 million carbon credits to Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation and use the proceeds to set up a nationwide network of charge-points for electric cars, the AFP reported.Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said that the government had approved the sale of the unused credits -- tradeable allowances granted by Brussels to European Union members in a drive to limit greenhouse gas emissions by industry.
"Under a Green Investment Scheme, the proceeds will be invested into the establishment of a country-wide charging infrastructure for electric vehicles," Ansip told reporters.
Around 500 Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric cars are to be provided to local authorities for use by social workers. A grant scheme is also to be set up to support the purchase of electric vehicles by private individuals.
"We hope that around 1,000 electric cars will be on our streets by the end of 2012," Ansip added. That figure includes the 500 allocated to local authorities.
Estonia -- a former Soviet-ruled nation of 1.3 million which joined the EU in 2004 -- holds a general election on Sunday.
The centre-right Ansip rejected suggestions that he had made the announcement Thursday in a drive to get the environmentalist vote.
"Talks have been ongoing for a long time and it is pure coincidence," he insisted.
The plan involves setting up some 250 points able to charge an electric vehicle's battery to up to 80 percent capacity within 30 minutes. They are to be located in major cities and along main highways.
"This is a very innovative project. The future will show whether and when electric cars will be in mass use, but this will help us to increase rapidly the number of electric cars in Estonia and to save energy," Economy Minister Juhan Parts told reporters.
Sol e sal: Siemens testa protótipo de central eléctrica em Portugal
O protótipo foi hoje apresentado na primeira conferência anual da associação Energyin -- Pólo de Competitividade e Tecnologia da Energia, que está a decorrer em Viseu.
João Festas, responsável na Siemens pela área de negócios das energias renováveis e pelo acompanhamento de novas tecnologias da energia, explicou à agência Lusa que a tecnologia que existe atualmente "usa um óleo térmico para fazer o aproveitamento de calor do sol e depois usa sal fundido para fazer armazenamento de energia térmica".
O protótipo que vai ser testado em Évora "vai usar já o sal fundido a circular no campo solar para ser diretamente o sal fundido a obter a energia térmica do sol, evitando um meio de permutação de calor", acrescentou.
Segundo o responsável, a vantagem é que "o sal fundido permite aumentar muito a temperatura do sistema", uma vez que "o óleo térmico tinha uma limitação de 400 graus, porque depois vaporizava e a pressão criada destruía os sistemas do campo solar".
Ao conseguirem atingir-se "temperaturas mais altas com o sal, a eficiência do sistema subirá bastante e o preço da energia baixará", frisou.
O protótipo representa um investimento total de cerca de cinco milhões de euros, comparticipado pelo ministério do Ambiente alemão.
Segundo João Festas, será o primeiro a ser testado em Portugal e o segundo em todo o mundo, uma vez que a Siemens tem uma participação na empresa Archimede Solar Energy, que já tem um protótipo em Itália.
A Universidade de Évora começará em maio a terraplanar o terreno e, no mesmo mês, a EDP Inovação vai disponibilizar água, eletricidade e todas as utilidades necessárias.
"A partir de junho começaremos a entrar no terreno, com a construção civil das sapatas para receber depois os coletores solares. Pensamos que até dezembro a fase de construção estará terminada e depois seguir-se-ão três anos de experiências com o protótipo", avançou.
João Festas admitiu estar "com grandes expetativas", até porque será também possível "testar vários tipos de sal", uma vez que cada um tem o seu ponto de fusão "e permite evitar o congelamento do sistema a temperaturas mais baixas".
Em Évora será instalado "um 'loop', ou seja, um sistema de parabólicas e de espelhos que, todo seguido, permite obter as temperaturas adequadas à entrada e saída" do sistema.
"Vamos construir um 'loop' completo para poder testar as temperaturas de operação já como se fosse uma central comercial", explicou, acrescentando que terá cerca de 350 metros de comprimento.
Recharging posts for electric cars put into use in Hainan, China
The recharging posts were erected on Haifu Road in the provincial capital Haikou by Hainan Power Grid Corp., a subsidiary of China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd. (CSG).
The recharging posts will mainly be used for a government fleet of 30 electric cars, which will take to the street during the first half of this year, said Hu Bin, a recharging station program director with the Hainan Power Grid Corp.
Haikou was singled out in May 2010 as one of the 25 pilot cities in the country for the promotion and operation of electric vehicles.
Construction of recharging facilities began in November last year by the power company.
According to an electric vehicle development plan by the Haikou municipal government, the city will have installed six recharging stations, along with 759 recharging posts by 2012 to serve 1,050 new energy vehicles, including 400 electric vehicles.
The Chinese government introduced policies in 2010 to boost the development of new energy vehicles, including electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.
According to a development blueprint released in September last year, China aims to have more than 500,000 new energy vehicles on the road by 2015 and 5 million by 2020.
In the meantime, China will build 4,000 electric vehicle charging stations over the next five years and another 6,000 before 2020.
Portugal: 10% of all cars electric by 2020
Portuguese prime minister José Sócrates said his country wants at least 10% of the nation's car fleet to become electric by 2020. The announcement was made at Abu Dhabi's World Future Energy Summit (WFES 2011), where the Portuguese Government and some of the nation's top CEOs have showcased their latest renewable energy projects.Mobi.e, Portugal's electric mobility network, was one of the stars, with its stand attracting investors and particularly many young Emiratis interested in electric cars.
CEIIA's MobiCar was also on display, with the Portuguese media reporting on Lebanon's Government interest in the low-cost electric vehicle.
Portuguese technology will soon be incorporated in Masdar City, a high-density, pedestrian-friendly development near Abu Dhabi, where current and future renewable energy and clean technologies are showcased, marketed, researched, developed, tested and implemented.
Related posts (in Portuguese):
VIDEO: Portugal apresenta Mobi.e e MobiCar em Abu Dhabi
MobiCar desperta interesse internacional em Abu Dhabi
More on WFES 2011:
UN calls for clean energy revolution (Khaleej Times)
Renewable energy sector has lots of spark left, experts say (Khaleej Times)
Masdar World Future Energy Summit (Environmental News Network)
VIDEO: Portugal apresenta Mobi.e e MobiCar em Abu Dhabi
A rede de mobilidade eléctrica Mobi.e e protótipo do primeiro veículo eléctrico de tecnologia portuguesa, o MobiCar, estão em destaque na World Future Energy Summit 2011, o maior evento mundial no sector da energia, que decorre por estes dias, entre 17 e 20 de Janeiro, em Abu Dhabi, nos Emirados Árabes Unidos.
Texto de Mobi.e e vídeo da RTP:
Soluções portuguesas na 'montra' mundial de Abu Dhabi
Na maior feira internacional de energia, que decorre de 17 a 21 de Janeiro em Abu Dhabi (Emirados Árabes Unidos), a aposta de Portugal nas energias renováveis e na mobilidade eléctrica foi sublinhada pelo primeiro-ministro José Sócrates.
No discurso de abertura da World Future Energy Summit (WFES), o primeiro-ministro português lembrou que o país conta com"um dos maiores parques fotovoltaicos do mundo e um dos programas mais ambiciosos na área das energias renováveis". O investimento no sector atraiu para Portugal"as maiores empresas de energia solar, hidrica e eólica", afirmou José Sócrates, que considerou que a aposta é importante não só para o ambiente como para o crescimento económico.
"Portugal é reconhecido nesta área como líder, em resultado das reformas dos últimos seis anos nas energias renováveis, na eficiência energética, na mobilidade eléctrica, na construção sustentável e em smart grids", declarou o primeiro-ministro. "Somos exemplo de como é possível fazer reformas e ter resultados em pouco tempo", defendeu.
Sócrates falou ainda do futuro, afirmando que Portugal tenciona criar em Évora uma smart city semelhante a Masdar. A cidade no emirado de Abu Dhabi, em construção, é a primeira do mundo com zero emissões poluentes, através de projectos inovadores de eficiência energética e mobilidade eléctrica.
Após a cerimónia de abertura, o xeque Khalifa bin Zayed, anfitrião do evento, visitou em primeiro lugar o pavilhão de Portugal, onde estão presentes empresas nacionais como a EDP, Efacec, Eneida, Amorim Isolamentos, Solar Plus, Martifer Solar, Novabase, CEIIA,Tekever, a Janz e o Instituto de Soldadura e Qualidade, entre outras entidades.
Em busca da internacionalização em Abu Dhabi
É o maior evento mundial do sector energético e uma oportunidade única para a internacionalização de empresas e soluções nacionais na área. Mobi.e, CEIIA, Efacec e Novabase estão na WFES de Abu Dhabi, nos Emirados Árabes Unidos, para celebrar novas parcerias além-fronteiras, numa altura em que um mundo em crise se reinventa e investe na sustentabilidade.
"A presença do Mobi.E no WFES representa essencialmente uma oportunidade para apresentar a nossa solução para a mobilidade eléctrica aos principais players da energia, uma vez que nesta feira estarão presentes milhares de CEO de grandes empresas deste sector", explica João Dias, responsável do Gabinente de Apoio à Mobilidade Eléctrica (GAMEP).
A organização do evento em Abu Dhabi não acontece por acaso. "Abu Dhabi está, de forma muito inteligente, a utilizar as receitas da exploração de petróleo para desenvolver uma economia energeticamente sustentável. Daí ser natural que as autoridades e empresas dos Emirados possam demonstrar interesse por projectos pioneiros a nível mundial como o Mobi.E", considera João Dias, que cita o exemplo de Masdar. As autoridades dos Emirados estão a construir naquele local a primeira cidade do mundo com zero emissões de carbono.
O responsável português afirma que o Mobi.e pode assumir um importante papel na estratégia dos Emirados: "Não existe a nível mundial nenhuma outra solução tão avançada como o Mobi.E que permita tornar a mobilidade eléctrica uma realidade no curto prazo. O Mobi.E encaixa perfeitamente na estratégia de Abu Dhabi de ter o state of the art das tecnologias da sustentabilidade".
O CEIIA (Centro para a Excelência e Inovação na Indústria Automóvel), por seu turno, leva a Abu Dhabi o Mobi.Car, o primeiro automóvel eléctrico de tecnologia portuguesa. O CEIIA está no Médio Oriente tanto para apresentar soluções nacionais como para "identificar projectos que estão a ser criados noutras partes do mundo e, eventualmente, desenvolvê-los em Portugal".
"Apesar de estarem a passar um momento difícil, a crise nos Emirados Árabes Unidos é muito mais suave do que a que se passa em Portugal. Além disso, o sector automóvel, uma das principais áreas de negócio do CEIIA, continua a ser uma indústria onde os EAU apostam fortemente, e nos últimos anos têm procurado novas soluções de mobilidade", aponta o director comercial Alexandre Teixeira. "É precisamente em Abu Dhabi que estão sediadas várias empresas de Fórmula 1", exemplifica o responsável.
A presença no emirado é, por isso, obrigatória. "Estamos a falar de uma das maiores feiras de energia do mundo, onde é possível ter uma grande exposição internacional e por onde, só no ano passado, passaram cerca de 4 mil CEO'S, com poder de decisão e selecção dos projectos onde querem apostar", recorda Alexandre Teixeira.
Para empresas como a Novabase, a presença em Abu Dhabi vai além de uma oportunidade de negócios no Médio Oriente. "A WFES é um evento à escala planetária. Nele estarão presentes os principais actores do mercado da energia e nele se discutem as problemáticas ligadas às diversas fontes de energia e tecnologias, numa perspectiva verdadeiramente global", descreve Luís Lobo.
A empresa tecnológica decidiu em anos recentes investir em força em campos de forte desenvolvimento como o das smart grids e da mobilidade eléctrica. "Estas duas áreas atingiram um patamar de desenvolvimento tal, que permite à Novabase considerar a exploração de mercados internacionais. Como resultado da presença neste evento, esperamos resultados em termos de novas parcerias e, possivelmente, o estabelecimento de contactos com potenciais novos clientes", afirma o responsável.
A Efacec aposta em Abu Dhabi no reforço da internacionalização, num momento em que os seus negócios externos "representam já mais do que actividade em Portugal".
"Esse facto, que deriva de uma aposta estratégica definida há alguns anos, leva a que tenhamos todo o interesse em estar presentes numa feira deste tipo, pois a energia é uma das nossas principais actividades", explica Pedro Silva, director da Efacec.
Em Abu Dhabi, a aposta vai para a inovação. "Seleccionamos algumas actividades da Efacec, ligadas aos novos paradigmas ao nível de sustentabilidade energética, que são a mobilidade eléctrica, as redes inteligentes e as renováveis, as quais daremos a conhecer aos visitantes, esperando desse modo detectar novas oportunidades em mercados externos. Em qualquer destas actividades estamos envolvidos em projectos dos mais avançados a nível mundial e esperamos que isso seja uma vantagem que daremos a conhecer", afirma Pedro Silva.
Electric vehicle charging station market in the US to exceed $4B by 2016
The projections in the electric vehicle study by Zpryme's EV Insights Practice and sponsored by Airbiquity (download ‘The Electric Vehicle Study’ for free www.zpryme.com) show that the charging service market value is expected to grow at faster rate than the charging station market value, but the charging station market is expected to be almost eight times larger than the service industry by 2016.
With such high anticipation for the growing U.S. EV market, developing and deploying charging stations has quickly become an extremely competitive race. Both large companies and start-ups are vying for market share, including Coulomb Technologies, ClipperCreek, ECOtality, ABB, GE, Siemens, Leviton, AeroVironment and Pep Stations.
Some key market value projections (2011 - 2016):
Electric vehicle sales:
Annual EV/PHEV unit sales are projected grow by 36.2% annually from 2011 to 2016, from 43,400 to 203,200.
The total EV/PHEV stock are projected to grow from 104,200 in 2011 to 730,700 in 2016.
Charging Stations:
Home (level II) charging station unit sales are projected to grow by 37.7% annually from 2011 to 2016, from 25,400 to 125,900.
Home (level II) charging station sales will grow from $239.6 million to $1.07 billion during this time period. Home charging stations are projected to account for 32.1% of the market value in 2011 and 27.0% in 2016.
Public (level II) charging station unit sales are projected to grow by 43.1% annually from 2011 to 2016, from 13,600 to 81,300.
Public (level II) charging station sales will grow from $282.0 million to $1.60 billion during this time period. Level II charging stations are projected to account for 37.8% of the market value in 2011 and 40.7% in 2016.
Fast (level III) charging station sales will grow from $193.4 million to $1.15 billion during this time period. Level III charging stations are projected to account for 25.9% of the market in 2011 and 29.1% 2016. (see table 1 above)
Fast (level III) charging station unit sales are projected to grow by 44.2% annually from 2011 to 2016, from 2,200 to 13,500.
EV Charging Service Users:
Annual new charging service users are projected to grow by 40.4% annually from 2011 to 2016, from 27,600 to 150,400.
The cumulative total number of charging service users is projected to grow from 39,800 in 2011 to 574,900 million in 2016.
VIDEO: How to charge your electric vehicle with home solar panels
Who will struggle the most in 2011? Non-EV American drivers
Gas prices have been drifting upward to nearly $3 per gallon, from about $2.62 a year ago. And energy analysts expect them to stay there or go higher in 2011, thanks to oil prices that are approaching $100 per barrel. And that's happening in a fairly soft global economy that has curtailed demand for oil in many countries, which means there could be a price spike if growth turns out to be stronger than expected.
Back in 2008, when pump prices topped $4 per gallon, drivers reacted by driving less and downsizing their wheels. But for many, the lesson was short-lived: Lower-mileage trucks and SUVs have been making a comeback, thanks partly to discounts designed to move slow-selling merchandise. That could make buyer's remorse a surprise theme of 2011.
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Azores Islands, Portugal, test electric buses
According to the Açoriano Oriental newspaper, quoted by Mobi.e, the regional government bought a 30 to 36 seats bus with an estimated autonomy of 120 kms, and another 18 to 22 seats vehicle with an estimated autonomy of 100 kms.
Related: South Korea starts commercial operation of electric battery buses in Seoul
Nissan Leaf drivers to be ranked for efficient driving via telematics system. Yes, like a video-game
Nissan's Carwings system records and displays daily, monthly and annual data for distance traveled, electricity consumption and average miles per kilowatt-hour (kWh), among other figures. Best of all, it shows drivers how they stack up against other Leaf owners — and awards a virtual trophy to the top scorer. Check this image below originaly posted on MyNissanLeaf:
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5 electric vehicle predictions for 2011 by PluginCars.com
1 - The majority of people who drive a plug-in vehicle won't own it. Thanks to car rental fleets, taxis, and car share programs, getting people into plug-in vehicles will be more influential in the long run than getting them to sign on the dotted line.
2 - Automakers will get push back from EV owners about how long it takes vehicles to fully charge. Most vehicle charging will be done overnight, enabling owners to wake up to a fully charged battery without concern for the rate at which it was charged. But because automakers decided to take the cautious (and less expensive) approach of installing onboard charging equipment that provides a maximum of 3.3 kW to the batteries, a full charge will take longer than necessary leaving some consumers feeling like they overpaid for charging equipment.
3 - The most popular selling EVs won't have four wheels. Electric two-wheeled vehicles, including bicycles, scooters and motorcycles are a huge global market that will continue to overshadow electric passenger vehicles for the foreseeable future. China is by far the largest market, with more than 48 million sales projected. In North America, the sale of two-wheeled EVs will outnumber passenger PEVs by approximately 8:1 in 2011, but the gap will be narrowed to close to 2 to 1 by 2015 as passenger vehicles sales will grow much more quickly.
4 - Many EV charging stations will spend the majority of their time idle. The strategy of installing a network of charging equipment may be good psychologically for EV owners and the automakers, but the business benefit for the owners of charging equipment will be lacking during the early days of EV sales. During 2011 and 2012 there will not be sufficient penetration of EVs for charging spots to see many visits–if any—per day.
5 - Somebody somewhere will have a bad EV experience and the media will overreact. The first time a driver is left "stranded" by running out of charge will be cause célèbre for the doubters to highlight the superiority of gas cars. The potential also exists for EV owner frustration if the promised all-electric driving range advertised is not realized. Heavy-footed drivers and trips taken in extreme weather will substantially cut into driving efficiency, but that should not be a surprise or especially noteworthy.
Read more of it and get the white paper at PluginCars.com
VIDEO: Deepwater Horizon's Final Hours, by the NYT
It was no better there.
That same explosion had ignited a firestorm that enveloped the rig’s derrick. Searing heat baked the lifeboat deck. Crew members, certain they were about to be cooked alive, scrambled into enclosed lifeboats for shelter, only to find them like smoke-filled ovens.
Men admired for their toughness wept. Several said their prayers and jumped into the oily seas 60 feet below. An overwhelmed young crew member, Andrea Fleytas, finally screamed what so many were thinking:
“We’re going to die!”
It has been eight months since the Macondo well erupted below the Deepwater Horizon, creating one of the worst environmental catastrophes in United States history. With government inquiries under way and billions of dollars in environmental fines at stake, most of the attention has focused on what caused the blowout. Investigators have dissected BP’s well design and Halliburton’s cementing work, uncovering problem after problem.
But this was a disaster with two distinct parts — first a blowout, then the destruction of the Horizon. The second part, which killed 11 people and injured dozens, has escaped intense scrutiny, as if it were an inevitable casualty of the blowout.
It was not.
Read more of this extensive piece by the New York Times, or watch the video below:
Keys to tomorrow's roads may be in lithium
But if President Barack Obama is to fulfill his goal of putting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, a once-obscure metal crucial for the batteries in those cars, lithium, will probably be mined by the tens of thousands of tons here in the high Andes. Its boosters say lithium will one day rival petroleum in value, and that has prompted a race to secure mining rights across this craggy, bone-dry mountain range where vast salt flats contain some of the world's largest deposits.
"These are the most notable reserves at the moment," said Horacio Dias, a geologist who manages operations here for Exar, an Argentine affiliate of Canada's Lithium Americas Corp. "We think there is enough here to last many years." Mining executives are banking that lithium-ion batteries, which carry a longer-lasting charge than the lead acid variety long used in vehicles, will become cheap enough to help spur a mass market for electric cars or gas-electric vehicles. The Obama administration, trying to reduce America's reliance on foreign oil, has provided $2.4 billion in grants to car companies, battery makers and suppliers.
Whether the salt beds here in the heart of South America become a lithium mecca, as mining companies predict, depends as much as anything on American scientists as far away as Watertown, Mass.
There, A123 Systems, a battery technology company with roots at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, is working to create lithium-ion batteries that would give electric cars a greater range — say, 200 to 300 miles — between recharging. A typical battery uses only a few pounds of lithium, but other components make such batteries expensive — by some estimates, well over $10,000 each — and bulky.
Failure could mean that cars such as General Motors' new Volt, a gas-electric hybrid that costs $41,000 before a $7,500 federal tax rebate to buyers, will remain too pricey for all but a small number of American car buyers. The Volt can go about 40 miles on an electric charge before the driver must switch to the car's internal-combustion engine. Fully electric cars can go 100 or more miles between recharges.
"We need to demonstrate that we can reduce the cost of this over the next four or five years to make the sale of these things take off without government stimulus," said David Vieau, chief executive of A123, which received a $249 million federal grant to build factories in Michigan. "It is a critical component for getting the volume up and helping drive the cost out while we make these batteries more efficient." Some of the projections on the future of electric cars — and lithium use in cars — are promising.
Nissan has said that by 2020, one in 10 cars worldwide may use lithium batteries. And Pike Research, a consulting firm in Boulder, Colo., said the market for lithium-ion batteries could expand to $8 billion in five years, from less than $900 million this year.
"Virtually every major car company around the globe has some sort of a hybrid electric vehicle program going," Vieau said.
Electric cars and their gas-electric cousins are not new. Ferdinand Porsche's hybrid was presented at a Paris exhibition in 1900. In the United States, there were 50,000 electric cars plying the roads in 1918. But big oil discoveries and Henry Ford's introduction of the Model T quickly established the dominance of the internal-combustion engine.
It is only now, with the United States consuming more than twice as much oil as it produces, that policymakers are considering a shift that would place less emphasis on gasoline-powered vehicles.
If that happens, the role of lithium will expand dramatically, with mining companies scrambling to secure the metal, said Ann Marie Sastry, chief executive of Sakti3, an Ann Arbor, Mich., company that is working to develop batteries with more juice. Lithium is now used in ceramics, to power cell phones and laptops, and even as a component in drugs to treat manic depression.
Much of the world has had its eyes on Bolivia, which President Evo Morales claims has infinitely more of the metal than all other lithium-producing countries combined. His socialist government is trying to lure mining companies, but Bolivia's terms call for those investors to also fund a Bolivian-based lithium-ion battery industry.
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Off-topic: Nigeria drops bribery charges against Cheney after $35 million dollar settlement
The Nigerian charges, filed in early December, were just the latest fallout from a $180 million bribery scheme that Kellogg Brown & Root, a former Halliburton subsidiary, has admitted carrying out with three other companies in a joint venture to develop a liquid natural gas facility in the Niger Delta.
In 2009, Kellogg Brown & Root, a former Halliburton subsidiary, pleaded guilty in federal court in the United States to paying the bribes. Halliburton and KBR paid a record $579 million fine to settle the federal charges, and this April, a top KBR executive was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role.
As a result of this week’s $35 million settlement, “all lawsuits and charges” against KBR and Halliburton have been withdrawn by Nigeria, and government officials have pledged not to bring further criminal charges or civil claims against the company related to the bribery offenses, Halliburton said in its statement.
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