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Archive for March, 2011
ARPA-E Technology Showcase: Project Spotlight
Mar 1st
Last night, we had the chance to visit with a few of the researchers and scientists behind the exciting projects on display at the 2011 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit Technology Showcase. The following projects represent a few of the highlights we found:
PolyPlus
At Berkeley, CA-based PolyPlus Battery Company, researchers are developing a lithium-air battery that could enable an electric car to travel 500 miles on a single charge. Compared to the best lithium-ion battery technology available today, the rechargeable lithium-air battery prototype that PolyPlus is working on could store more than five times the amount of energy.
William Mouat explains the PolyPlus battery technology (Credit: DOE Photo/Ken Shipp)
National Parks Clean Up with Alternative Fuels
Mar 1st
Blue skies, pristine mountain vistas, endless open space and … choking fumes from motor vehicles? Even though the latter clearly doesn’t belong in our National Parks, maintaining their air quality has become a real challenge. With 275 million tourists visiting our National Parks each year, a tremendous number of personal vehicles and tour buses visit on a regular basis. So how do you balance providing open access and freedom of mobility with limiting pollutants? To address this dilemma, many parks are working to adopt clean alternative fuels, advanced vehicle technologies, and other fuel-saving measures with the help of Clean Cities in the Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Program.
The National Parks Service and Clean Cities collaboration has deep roots. Since 1999, the initiative has helped to fund the purchase of low-speed electric vehicles, the installation of electric charging stations, and other alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure (including biodiesel, compressed natural gas, E85-ethanol, and propane). As a result of industry partnerships, Toyota donated 23 Prius hybrids for rangers to use in five parks, as well as $5 million to support environmental education projects. Similarly, Ford retrofitted Glacier National Park’s classic Red Bus fleet to run on propane, a cleaner, domestic fuel. The buses also free tourists from having to rely on their personal vehicles.
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