Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore discusses his hopes and fears for the future of the smart grid.
(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)SAN MATEO, Calif.--Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore hopes that America's next-generation power grid will be a lot like the Internet. Or at least that's the plan.
How close we get to that goal depends on what happens in the next five years, Gore said in a speech here on Thursday evening at blog VentureBeat's GreenBeat conference, where he outlined many of the challenges the United States faces in upgrading its power grid. Along the way, he made comparisons to how the advent of the so-called smart grid will enable the kind of solutions and business innovation that the Internet brought during the 1990s.
"The analogy to the Internet is quite an exact one. Not completely exact, but it's very relevant for lots of reasons. We are moving inexorably toward a widely distributed energy generation and storage model. We are still locked into the old centralized energy generation model," Gore said. "The rapid development of new generations of new smart storage systems are going to make a tremendous difference in connection with the smart grids." Those systems are designed to enable easier storage of unused electricity for peak times, when supplying it to large groups of customers can be difficult and more expensive.
Gore also foresees an entirely new set of devices and instruments to help utilities and consumers control and monitor usage--technology and business models that may not yet have been imagined. "(It's) much the same way the Internet made it possible to see this generation of Internet-ready devices that did not even exist before the Internet began to build out," Gore said.
... Read moreThe winter months are on their way. Soon, we'll be continually running our heaters and leaving the lights on longer. During these months, energy bills soar.
But there are online resources that can ease the pain. They probably won't chop your bills in half, but they do offer suggestions that will help.
Energy Savers
The U.S. government's Energy Savers Web site provides some of the finest resources on energy efficiency of any tool in this roundup.
When you go to Energy Savers, you can learn all about energy conservation. The site has content on renewable energy, ways to reduce your energy consumption, and more. It also has information on how to perform home-energy audits to see what you could do to reduce your energy bill. All in all, Energy Savers is an extremely useful site if you plan to reduce your energy bill.
Energy Savers helps you find energy-efficient products.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)Energy Star
Energy Star has quickly become a buzzword in the home-energy space, but its Web site is one of the most useful in this roundup.
When you get to Energy Star, you can do quite a bit. I used the site to find information on energy-efficient appliances. The content it provided was outstanding. Aside from that, Energy Star features tips on how to address some inefficient energy issues in your home. One of the site's best resources is its list of potential tax credits that you can get by acquiring Energy Star products. The page provides several links for you to find the products that help you qualify for the credit. I really liked Energy Star. If you're looking to find appliances that match your financial goals, this site is for you.
Energy Star lists all the tax credits you can qualify for.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
WARREN, Mich.--General Motors' announcement on Tuesday that it expects that the Chevy Volt will get an eye-popping 230 miles per gallon begs an obvious question: how can the mileage of electric vehicles be compared to gasoline cars?
It's a problem that the Environmental Protection Agency is working on with the Department of Energy, the Society of Auto Engineers, and California, an EPA representative said on Wednesday. But that system for testing mileage is still in development and not yet public.
The EPA also put out a statement on Tuesday saying that it has not tested the Volt for mileage yet and "cannot confirm the economy values claimed by GM." GM said that its mileage estimate, including triple digit combined city and highway driving, was based on a draft methodology developed by the EPA.
The lack of verifiable tests, however, hasn't stopped automakers from tantalizing consumers. The all-electric Nissan Leaf, due in late 2010, boasts the equivalent of 367 miles per gallon, and the electric Tesla Roadster claimed over 100 miles per gallon mileage as well.
Pressed on how mileage numbers for the Volt were arrived at, GM executives offered some details, saying that the number will vary depending on how far people drive before they replenish the car's batteries.
"I'm confident that we will be in triple digits" with Chevy Volt mileage, said GM CEO Fritz Henderson at a press conference on Tuesday.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)The draft EPA methodology figures that a plug-in electric vehicle driver will go a certain number of miles on batteries alone and then another portion on the gasoline engine, explained Frank Weber, the global vehicle line executive for the Chevy Volt. To arrive at the mix between battery versus gasoline, the EPA is studying average American driving patterns, executives said.
The EPA is also developing another, less familiar metric for electric vehicles. In the Volt's case, it will take 25 kilowatt-hours to go 100 miles. Weber said the models behind the EPA methodology are "robust," adding that he expects the EPA to disclose more about the tests later this year.
To come up with 230 miles per gallon for city driving, GM assumes that Volt owners charge the car's batteries once a day, which enables them to do the majority of their driving from electricity drawn from the socket. The Volt, due late next year, is designed to run 40 miles on electric charge and then use a gasoline engine to sustain the battery for longer trips.
Misleading?
Triple digit combined fuel efficiency is certainly impressive--the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight hybrids both sport combined mileage of about 50 miles per gallon depending on driving style.
But immediately after GM's announcement, people began complaining that the claim is misleading.
... Read more
WARREN, Mich.--For all the attention on the electric Chevy Volt, General Motors has big expectations for another key car segment: small cars.
The auto giant opened up its design studios and testing grounds to the media on Tuesday to showcase its product pipeline of 25 new models over the coming two years. Having dramatically cut costs, its turnaround now rides on its ability to sell new cars.
Certainly, GM will continue to sell SUVs, trucks, and large sedans--highly profitable product categories that flourished when gasoline was cheaper than now. But GM's designers have sharpened their focus on smaller fuel-efficient cars and crossovers, betting that rising gasoline prices are inevitable.
"The days when we did a great Silverado (pickup truck) and did an adequate small car--over. We can't do that as a company," CEO Fritz Henderson said during a press conference on Tuesday. "If we do (small cars) well, I think we'll reopen ourselves to a market that frankly we haven't done as well as we should."
The Chevy Spark, one of GM's upcoming 'small and cool' cars.
(Credit: General Motors)The smaller cars--none would qualify as a tiny, two-seater--will help the company meet fleet mileage mandates and help GM better compete on fuel efficiency, company executives and analysts said.
But GM's vice president of global design, Ed Welburn, made clear that the goal isn't just to turn out "econoboxes" that post good mileage ratings.
"Cool and small is the next big thing," said Welburn said. "Small cars have been done before but it was always like, 'I can't afford big so I have this.' I believe small cars can be cool."
Higher gasoline prices
During a tour of GM's design studios on Tuesday, company executives showed the compact cars and smaller crossovers in its pipeline. Later this year, GM will release the Chevrolet Cruze, a four-door compact, and introduce a two-door compact, the Chevy Spark, in 2012.
Although the Chevrolet entry-level brand will tend to have most of its compacts, even its higher-end brands--Buick, GMC, and Cadillac--will introduce or are exploring smaller models.
On Tuesday, Welburn took the wraps off an entry-level Cadillac. Even designers at its GMC brand, known for its giant SUVs and trucks, have created a model of a compact, which roughly resembles a Nissan Cube.
Meanwhile, its Buick lineup will feature a smaller crossover, a new compact sedan, and a plug-in hybrid crossover, which will all be available over the next two years.
GM has been able to get substantially better fuel efficiency on its large vehicles, too, noted Dennis Virag, the president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Chevy Equinox, for example, gets about 32 miles per gallon while most SUVs get about 20 or 22, he said.
"The whole trend in the industry is towards smaller and fuel-efficient vehicles but the consumer still wants the amenities," Virag said.
Henderson said that GM is seeking to meet or exceed the industry benchmark on fuel efficiency not only to meet government mandates but to appeal to consumers who expect gasoline prices to continue going up.
"Our fundamental premise of planning for higher gas prices is the right premise," he said.
Corrected at 9:17 a.m. PDT: The name of the maker of the Cube was incorrect. It is Nissan.
WARREN, Mich.--The gas-electric Chevy Volt will get triple-digit mileage, including an estimated 230 mpg for city driving, General Motors said Tuesday.
The 230 mpg--teased in a stealth advertising campaign on billboards and during baseball games--is based on a draft methodology for electric vehicles developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, GM CEO Fritz Henderson said here.
The struggling auto giant held a media event to offer an update on its product and technology plans as it tries to stimulate sales following a bankruptcy and restructuring that has left it 60 percent owned by the U.S. Treasury Department and 11 percent owned by Canada.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson at company's Tech Center in Warren, Mich.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)Henderson said that GM is confident that the combined highway and city mileage for the Chevy Volt, due to go on sale in late 2010, will be in the triple digits. Expressed in electrical terms, the performance will be 25 kilowatt-hours for 100 miles.
"Having a car that gets triple-digit fuel economy, we believe, will be a game changer for us," Henderson said.
Other plug-in electric sedans are also expected to have triple-digit fuel efficiency once they come to market. The all-electric Tesla Motors' Roadster, which is available now, advertises triple-digit fuel economy as well.
The EPA model is being developed for cars used in different climates and a mix of electric and gas driving conditions, GM executives said. City mileage will be better for the Volt because the extended-range electric power train runs for 40 miles on battery alone and then uses an internal combustion engine to recharge batteries.
The cost of fueling a Volt will be significantly less than gassing up at the pump, Henderson said. In Detroit, where off-peak electricity rates are 5 cents a kilowatt hours, it will cost about 40 cents to recharge batteries overnight.
On the cost of the car itself, Henderson said that GM has not priced the Volt but that it will be expensive because it is a first-generation product. Unconfirmed estimates are said to be around $40,000.
The car will qualify for a $7,500 federal tax credit and GM is working on bringing down the cost of future generations of the Volt, particularly the battery system, he said.
Increasing domestic natural gas production and retrofitting buildings to be more efficient should form the basis of a low-carbon U.S. energy policy, according to a statement put out Monday during the Clean Energy Summit.
The summit, held for the second year in Las Vegas, brought together some of the most recognized political figures shaping energy policy, including Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and businessman T. Boone Pickens. Other speakers included Bill Clinton, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Al Gore, and green jobs advocate Van Jones.
The event was organized by the Center for American Progress and the Energy Future Coalition, which jointly put out a memo touting the benefits of natural gas and building efficiency.
The memo says that there is now technology to tap natural gas in so-called nonconventional sources, namely trapped in shale deposits in the U.S. "This creates an unprecedented opportunity to use gas as a bridge fuel to a 21st-century energy economy that relies on efficiency, renewable sources, and low-carbon fossil fuels such as natural gas," according to the memo. (Click for PDF of full text.)
Natural gas can be used to make electricity and as a transportation fuel. The memo recommends investing in natural gas filling stations for large trucks and buses, which are much harder to run from electric batteries than passenger cars. In addition to reducing imports of oil, natural gas burns cleaner than coal, emitting half as much carbon
Efficiency, considered the most cost-effective way to reduce fossil fuel use, was a consistent topic of discussion at the summit as well.
The Center for American Progress and Energy Future Coalition estimated that retrofitting 40 percent of U.S. homes and buildings would save consumers $1,200 a month on energy bills and create 625,000 jobs.
"Energy efficiency should be the first source we turn toward to meet energy demand and reduce consumers' bills" said Reid, who is a key figure in the energy and climate bill being considered by Congress. "It creates more jobs than nearly every other energy investment and the cheapest, cleanest, safest energy is the energy we never have to use."
A new breakthrough may change the attitude that the incandescent lightbulb has had its day.
Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) have unquestionably gained popularity for their energy efficiency when compared to the traditional incandescent bulb. Millions of people around the world have been encouraged by politicians, governments, energy utilities, and even lightbulb companies themselves to phase out traditional incandescent bulbs in favor of CFLs (or even LEDs) to save electricity in the home.
But now researchers at the University of Rochester in New York say they've found a way to make an incandescent lightbulb more efficient.
Chunlei Guo, associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester.
(Credit: University of Rochester)A group led by Chunlei Guo, associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester, has been testing the effects of ultra-fast lasers on the properties of metals and decided to try a tungsten filament (the tiny wire in the typical lightbulb).
The group blasted the tungsten filament with an ultra-fast short-pulse laser for a femtosecond. A femtosecond is to a second "what a second is to about 32 million years," according to the researchers.
The blast changed the properties of the surface metal on the filament so that it formed nanostructures and microstructures that enabled it to shine significantly more brightly while still using the same amount of electricity.
"We fired the laser beam right through the glass of the bulb and altered a small area on the filament. When we lit the bulb, we could actually see this one patch was clearly brighter than the rest of the filament, but there was no change in the bulb's energy usage," Guo said in a statement.
The change in the filament has enabled the incandescent light bulb to shine as bright as an average 100-watt bulb, but consume less electricity than the average 60-watt bulb.
Full details of the project, which was sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, will be published in the next issue of "Physical Review Letters."
Is the Chevrolet Spark GM's next compact to be made in the U.S.A.?
(Credit: GMC)General Motors announced today plans to build a small, fuel-efficient car at an idled UAW manufacturing plant in the United States.
The news tempers previously announced plans to import 17,300 small vehicles from China in 2011, which probably didn't go over well with the UAW.
Currently, about 67 percent of GM cars and trucks sold in the U.S. are built in the U.S. By producing another car domestically, GM anticipates that U.S. production levels will increase beyond 70 percent by 2013.
The proposed car was not announced, but an article from Automotive News speculated that the Chevrolet Spark is one of three small cars that General Motors could export from China to the U.S. The Chevrolet Lova and Aveo were also named as import possibilities.
The U.S. automaker already has the Chevrolet Cruze and Volt slated for production next year to help it comply with increased efficiency requirements of a fleetwide fuel economy of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.
... Read morePresident Obama announced plans to establish more stringent national auto mileage standards on Tuesday, a move that will accelerate the arrival of energy-efficient technologies such as hybrid cars and diesel engines.
The plan calls for a 5 percent annual increase in car makers' fleet-wide fuel efficiency starting in 2012. The standard, which addresses cars and light trucks, will be 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016, four years sooner than previously planned. (Click for PDF with details.)
The stricter mandate also presses automakers to quickly adopt fuel-savings technologies in an industry reeling from falling car purchases. But auto manufacturers on Tuesday voiced support for the plan and its timeline.
"This new agreement will go a long way toward preserving the widest possible range of consumer choice in new vehicle purchases, (and) allow sufficient lead time for manufacturers to thoroughly engineer and test next-generation technologies before they are launched to the public," said Michael Stanton, the CEO of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers. "And (it) provides a sufficient degree of flexibility to mitigate costs in very capital-intensive new vehicle development."
Obama announced the agreement at the White House with members of his cabinet, the presidents and CEOs of 10 automakers, environmental advocates, and the president of the United Auto Workers. He said a series of "major lawsuits" will be dropped in support of the national standard.
The proposal creates a single fuel economy standard for the U.S. and regulates greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Auto manufacturers had complained they faced three different sets of regulations--the national Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard, California's proposed rules, and potential regulations on emissions from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The speeded-up efficiency rules will add about $600 to the price of producing a vehicle compared to the current law, according to reports. But the higher efficiency will mean that consumers will be able to recoup that cost in about three years, Obama said in his speech.
President Obama announcing an agreement on national gas mileage standards.
(Credit: Screen capture by Martin LaMonica/CNET)"Yes, it costs money to develop these vehicles, but even as the price to build these cars and trucks goes up, the cost of driving these vehicles will go down, as drivers save money at the pump," he said.
Some changes, such as low rolling-resistance tires, offer relatively cheap ways to bring fuel efficiency to cars while more advanced technologies such as gasoline direct injection and "stop-start," where a car turns off when not moving, are more expensive, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2953 Analytics, and Automotive News (registration required).
Who can adapt?
Meeting these new standards is doable in part because most global automakers are already selling more efficient models in Europe, said Bilal Zuberi, a venture capitalist at General Catalyst Partners.
Ford, for example, already sells more efficient diesel engine cars in Europe with added emissions control equipment. Company Chairman Bill Ford last month said that the company intends to bring its smaller, fuel-efficient models from Europe to the U.S. General Motors has some hybrids in its fleet and it is developing an extended-range electric drivetrain for the Chevy Volt and other cars.
"GM is fully committed to this new approach," said CEO Fritz Henderson in a statement. "GM and the auto industry benefit by having more consistency and certainty to guide our product plans."
Financially strapped Chrysler, on the other hand, has emphasized its larger cars and Jeep platform, which will make it harder to meet new standards, although a proposed tie-up with Fiat would add small, fuel-efficient cars to its fleet, Zuberi said.
"This (policy) would mean a much faster, and hopefully not too painful, adoption of hybrids," said Zuberi. "Almost every car will have a mild type of hybrid and there will be greater penetration."
He added that the demand for fuel-efficient technologies also creates opportunities for partnerships and potentially acquisitions of electric-car component suppliers and start-ups, such as Fisker Automotive, Bright Automotive, and Tesla Motors, which announced an electric powertrain licensing deal with Daimler on Tuesday.
"With this action and President Obama's pledge to put 1 million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015, we are off to a good start," said Sherry Boschert, co-founder of advocacy group Plug In America.
The policy will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil in the next five years, the equivalent of taking 58 million cars off the road for a year, according to the White House.
"This agreement is the breakthrough the nation needs to cut carbon emissions and help consumers deal with volatile gas prices," said Jim Kliesch, a senior engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists' Clean Vehicle Program, in a statement. "Automakers have the technology they need to meet and beat these standards while saving consumers billions."
Within the Department of Defense's announcement detailing further plans for facility improvements, under money allocated to it through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), there are some little green gems that may have gone unnoticed.
In its March Expenditure Plan, the Defense Department had said it planned to spend $300 million on "near-term energy technology research."
Now it plans to spend an additional $346 million on "energy-related projects, enabling the DOD to lead the way in the national effort to achieve greater energy independence," according to the Department of Defense April 28, 2009, Expenditure Plan (PDF).
As we've reported, even before ARRA was approved, the Defense Department began to move toward renovating its facilities to make them more energy-efficient.
In January, it awarded LED manufacturer Cree a contract to supply over 4,200 recessed LED lights for the Pentagon.
That same month the U.S. Army announced an initiative that could eventually replace 28,000 gas-powered vehicles at over 155 Army installations with neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs).
