While there is not usually a shortage of electric vehicle news to go around, it isn’t often that there is a truly remarkable story to share. A story that shows what humanity can do with an electric vehicle and pushes it to the very limit to show us just how far a little hard work and ingenuity can bring us. One such story is the one that follows Racing Green Endurance and their electric vehicle marathon that spanned North and South America in order to show the remarkable potential of zero carbon emission electric vehicles in our world today.

Racing Green Endurance began in the August of 2009 when eleven students and staff members from the Imperial College London decided to drive a racing electric vehicle the entire distance of the Pan-American Highway. The car in question is SRZero Electric Sports Car from Radical, a British racing car company. The SRZero has an impressive top speed of around 125 miles per hour, with the ability to go zero to sixty in seven seconds, and an estimated range of around 250 miles before absolutely needing to be recharged. The incredible distance is managed by the way the car is able to transfer energy gathered during breaking into electricity for use in the lithium ion batteries that power the car. Essentially, every time the drivers hit the breaks the kinetic energy would be transferred into power that would further extend the range of the vehicle.

Yesterday, the team behind Racing Green Endurance’s electric vehicle arrived in Ushuaia in the Argentinean province of Tierra del Fuego after seventy days of driving. The journey had initially begun nearly 16,000 miles away at the very top of the Pan-American Highway in Fairbanks, Alaska early in July of this year. Along the way, the Racing Green Endurance team passed through fourteen countries before finally reaching their destination. According to the team’s Public Relations Director, Andy Hadlands, Racing Green Endurance hopes that by showing the remarkable potential of electric cars over the course of this massive journey that people around the world will see just how impressive they can be.

The success of the trip is a fairly remarkable story by all accounts and one that is certain to raise eyebrows for electric car enthusiasts and newcomers alike. The fact that such a long trip could be made by a vehicle that is charged solely off electricity and its own kinetic power, all while giving off zero carbon emissions, is truly fascinating. Where Racing Green Endurance will go now with their SRZero is unknown, but it would be interesting to see a trip that spanned the entire world. While one single car can obviously not physically drive the entire globe, the message that could be delivered by making such a trip would more than account for that technicality.

Article by Richard Cooke, appearing courtesy Justmeans.

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It all sounds very grandiose and really too good to be true, but a number of  Persian Gulf states, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Qatar are hoping to be able to satisfy a good portion of their massive energy needs through alternative and renewable energy sources, instead of relying mostly on oil.

In a part of the world that experiences some of the hottest summer temperatures, averaging above 44 degrees Celsius during at least 4 months of the year; and whose energy growth use is growing by more than 10% per annum, these countries have their work cut out for them to be able to realize 70% of their total energy needs  from alternative and renewable energy by the year 2030.

By trying they definitely are, and with unique sustainable environment projects like Abu Dhabi’s zero-carbon Masdar City and Qatar’s carbon-neutral Energy City being able to produce a good part of their required energy needs may not be as far fetched as it seems.

In the two noted examples, both Abu Dhabi and Qatar plan to use a combination of renewable energy power sources to provide electricity and other energy needs for these pilot projects which will be the basis for the gradual switching from conventional power sources to those such as solar energy and wind power, geothermal and hydrogen (which also can be used to power cars and other vehicles).

In regards to geothermal power which utilizes energy from volcanoes and hot springs, and is now said to be more economical than either coal or natural gas, the UAE and other Gulf States may find it worthwhile to do business with an Israeli company, Ormat Industries, which is now said to be involved in a large geothermal energy project in Indonesia.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country and one that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. If Indonesia can do business with an Israeli company like Ormat (which is also involved in solar energy projects), so can countries like Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

In order to generate more interest in renewable and alternative energy projects in the UAE and other Gulf states, various international conferences and exhibitions are being held there, including the Alter Energy 09 Convention, recently held last month at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center, with the theme of developing and implementing alternative and renewable energy to reduce dependence on conventional energy sources.

And then there is the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi,   in January 2010, that will feature the concept of environmentally sustainable “eco-cites” of which Masdar City will be one of when completed.

Fortunately for these Gulf countries, most of them have enough remaining oil wealth to finance these projects without having to apply for crippling loans from the World Bank (whose theme is a “world free of poverty”) or other financial institutions.

These countries are also acutely aware that they need to wean themselves off dependence on petroleum for both their livelihood and primary energy source;  for they are aware of the reality that in regards to oil, it won’t last forever.

Article by Maurice Picow appearing courtesy of Green Prophet

[photo credit: Ioan Barbulescu]

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It sits in the middle of a harsh, barren desert, sweltering in searing heat. It has no clean water, its sea is polluted and there is no topsoil, just a covering of sand. It is also the biggest per capita consumer of fuel, massively reliant on cars, power-hungry desalination and air-conditioning. And with all this, can the United Arab Emirate state of Abu Dhabi really succeed in building a new “green city” in the Middle East?

If you can believe visionary people like architect Gerard Evenden (his words above), from the British architectural firm Foster & Partners, yes it can. Billions of dollars are riding on the assumption

Masdar City is the project Evenden is referring to. Masdar City is a $22 billion USD project being financed by the  Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company and is largely designed and planned by Foster & Partners.

So how is this so-called totally green city going to work in one of the hottest and driest regions on earth? According to Evenden, this futuristic project of 6 million square meters will eventually house around 50,000 people and will be completely environmentally sustainable – in every possible way.

As he noted in a recent Financial Times article The Greening of Arabia, by Edwin Heathcote :

“if you can make it work here, you can make it work anywhere.”

In one of Green Prophet’s previous articles on Masdar City it was noted that: “the project will be one in which commercial and residential entities will blend with each other to create a totally harmonious and ‘zero carbon’ environment, where all lighting and air conditioning systems will be powered by a 40 to 60 megawatt solar power plant, a 20 megawatt wind farm, and geo-thermal and hydrogen based power.”

The construction itself will be such as to shelter the inhabitants from the blistering Arabian sun and will include specially constructed walls, screens and meshes to allow breezes to enter and keep sunlight out as much as possible.

All this sounds absolutely wonderful and almost too good to be true. But as we pointed out earlier, Masdar City could either be a practical community innovation or expensive showcase.

The project has one big drawback – the construction itself.  Any true environmentalist knows that a significant construction project, such as the many that have been going on in various locations of the UAE, can in themselves be very damaging to an environment that is very fragile, to say the least.

Anyone visiting these locations must sometimes wonder at what expense to the environment these projects will cause, including island projects like Abu Dhabi’s planned $27 billion USD Saadiyat Island commercial, residential and leisure time project currently under construction, and mooted to become Abu Dhabi’s cultural center.

But once completed, Masdar City will hopefully prove to be as green and sustainable as its planners and developers say it will;  and will not be just a “showcase” project as Saadiyat Island looks to be by many.

What do you think? Voice your opinion below in our comments.

Article by Maurice Picow appearing courtesy of Green Prophet

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