There is no denying that electric cars are going to be one of the biggest components of the future of green vehicles. The ease by which they are made, compared to other green vehicle types, and the rapid technological development in the industry ensures electric’s place in history. However, where some may be content in knowing where electric is going and may decide to allow their designs remain unchanged; one company is striving to radically alter the way electric cars are charged. Specifically, they plan to totally eliminate the need to plug in and charge electric cars.

Halo IPT is a New Zealand based company that is dedicated to taking electric green vehicles and making them entirely wireless. Using magnetic fields, Halo IPT plans to implement pads along highways, parking areas, and at homes that would correspond with pads that would be installed underneath electric vehicles. The two pads would react with each other and create an electric charge similar to the way most wireless charging systems work with home electronics. Halo IPT’s plan is to have these pads implemented along highways while maintenance is being done on them and to have them connected to the electrical infrastructure already connected to the highways. This would allow for an effortless installation of the system while also cutting down on the money that would be needed in order to begin implementing this plan.

While the overall plan is indeed a revolutionary new way of charging for green transportation, it does have some kinks in it that would need to be worked out. According to the company, the method of paying would be handled electronically through tariffs that the driver would set. The idea is that each driver would have a set tariff that would allow them to simply park at a designated charging pad and be charged for exactly the amount of time they were there. Beyond that, an exact pricing plan has not been ironed out and it would seem that the payment plan for this kind of service might be one of the biggest obstacles drivers would need to get over for adopting Halo IPT’s service beyond the physical implementation of the technology on vehicles and roadways.

Currently, Halo IPT is hoping to begin a commercial testing of their green vehicle technology sometime in 2012. In order to get themselves to the point where they would be able to perform a full commercial demonstration, the company is asking for companies and organizations to adopt the technology in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Whether or not they will receive widespread support remains to be seen, but they are not necessarily setting themselves up for failure either. With their plan firmly set, Halo IPT believes it will only be a matter of time before their wireless charging technology can be fully implemented across New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and even beyond.

Article by Richard Cooke, appearing courtesy Justmeans.

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I recently finished reading  a book I strongly recommend to anyone interested in sustainable development and energy. It is packed with figures and findings that I believe will easily start discussions among CleanTechies.

The author, David JC MacKay, is Professor in the Department of Physics at Cambridge University and was recently appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change responsible for the Low Carbon Transition Plan.

One of the main findings of this book is that electrifying our cars and installing heat pumps in our buildings would enable us to cut significantly both our greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel consumption. Both solutions are much more efficient than the current traditional ones and could benefit from massive electrification to answer all our energy needs.

Below is a selection of the book’s key findings:

Sustainable Electricity: MacKay believes that the UK and Europe in general can’t count solely on renewables. He shows that wind, biofuels, hydro, solar PV and other energy sources don’t add up enough energy to answer our current needs and will do so to an even lesser extent in the future, once we have a strong electrified transport sector.

So we need a plan that provides additional resources, for example concentrated solar (like the Desertec project), or nuclear, or a combination of both. Clean coal may also add up enough electricity if proven viable.

North American Energy Consumption: The author notes that the continent should first and foremost decrease energy consumption from 250 kWh per person per day to the current European or Japanese levels of 125 kWh. This could enable the continent to rely solely on renewables with the installation of concentrated solar in its deserts.

European Energy Consumption: With Europeans consuming the equivalent of 125 kWh per day per person, we see a breakdown of transport accounting for 40 kWh per day, and heating for another 40 kWh. Delivered electricity amounts to 18 kWh but due to the inefficiencies of the system, this comes from 45 kWh of energy. With improved efficiency, we could go from the current 125 to around 80 kWh, a figure similar to that of Hong Kong. (This simplification for the sake of the argument doesn’t take into certain factors that are are tackled in detail in the book.)

Future Scenarios: In chapter 27, the author gives five examples for plans that add up enough electricity. The baseline plan is as follow: Clean coal 16 kWh per day per person, nuclear 16, tide and wave 5.7, hydro 0.1, waste 1.1, pumped heat 12, wood 5, solar thermal 1, biofuels 2, solar PV 3 and wind 8. The four other plans give more or less importance to each of these energy sources. In one plan, nuclear accounts for 44 kWh when in another plan, wind energy accounts for 32 kWh.

Transportation: Today, electric cars need as little as 15 kWh for 100 kilometers while models running on oil need 70 to 90 kWh. Hence, electric cars are already five times more efficient than current conventional models. (Side note: SUVs – also called spaceships by the author – need around 120 kWh…) High speed rail and other sustainable alternatives also have to be pushed forward. A full high speed train only consumes as little as 3 kWh per passenger, and biking consumes even less: 1 kWh.

Housing and buildings: The author is an advocate of both retrofitting and reducing the winter thermostat from 20°C to 17°C, which alone brings savings of 30% (page 292). By combining both solutions, David MacKay halved his heating bills. With a coefficient of performance (COP) of 4 to 5, heat pumps retrieve the heat contained in the outside air or soil and distribute it indoors. Another advantage of this solution is that it can bring air conditioning during hotter days.

The book is available for free on the official website. You can download it in one document or read it per chapter. The paper version can be bought for around $32 / €22. Published this year, it is up to date and explains simply but most effectively (and with a good sense of humor) how we can create a low carbon energy economy.

Grade : 20/20. A must read.

Readability: Maximum as it brings a lot of data.

Further information: MacKay in a recent article on the BBC – most interesting.

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In the last few weeks both Shell and BP have pulled out of developing off-shore wind developments in the UK due to better incentives and support from the US government in the form of tax breaks and incentives.

The same is true for Spain where in the last few years the country has been unprecedented growth in wind farms along the majority of the eastern part of the country. Then just as the country was seeing clean and green as a way forward – they remove the tax break for further development. Almost overnight the work stops, new planned sites are abandoned and people are laid off.

Interesting enough in eastern Europe, such as Bulgaria, Romania and Russia the emphasis is on developing renewables to under-pin existing systems – on the proviso that any investment helps improve infrastructure – its true that the returns are considerably smaller than areas like the UK, but the incentives will be picked up and developed, allowing these countries to develop a trading market to countries that have missed the boat, err that will be you then UK and Spain? Watching the Wilder Hill New Energy index smash down by almost two-thirds this year, wiping out three years of real growth, is indicative of a market in decline, just like all of the other markets. The FT reports that Global IPO volume for hydro, wind, solar and bio-mass companies are all under $4bn in the year to date, down from $14bn in 2007. Add to this the exit by the majors creating additional uncertainty and the clean tech industry is going to have a tough 12 months, without radical change at government level.

Please don’t get me wrong I have not just dropped onto this planet and am well aware of the global credit chaos which is forcing governments to become global bankers. In addition to this I also understand that as a business, companies like Shell need to invest in areas of the world that will generate the best shareholder return, whenever the shareholders return that is. However these decisions are going to have a detrimental impact on the next 20 years for European states that do not have the foresight to support clean/ green initiatives and investment. We have already seen the almost farcical previous state of carbon trading in the US where depending on the controlling power it’s either on the statute or not – hopefully this will change in January for good with the new management in place. But there are lessons to be gained from creating a realistic and sensible playing field that encourages growth for all businesses to understand the pitfalls and the rewards of developing renewable energy – otherwise corporate support will concentrate on tried and tested revenues and green will remain in waiting.

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