electricity

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Speed Bumps Generate Irritation, Electricity

October 14, 2009 in Biz News, New Tech, emissions by kristen | No comments

It’s no secret that speed bumps are irritating, but it may help to know that driving over them will generate electricity — at least at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C. or a McDonalds in New Jersey.

The speed bumps, called MotionPower, are built by New Energy Technologies. According to a post on the New York Times’ Wheels blog, the action of a car driving over the bump sends the energy to a generator. A green light comes on to let you know it’s working.

No word on how much electricity the speed bumps actually generate, but it should be enough to power roadsigns or streetlights. It’ll be on the market sometime in the next couple of years, and cost about $2000. I know a street here in Portland that could power the nearby middle school if it replaced its seemingly dozens of speed bumps with these babies.

PHEVs Get a Tax Break

October 6, 2008 in Biz News, Consumer News, EVs, PHEVs, racing by kristen | 2 comments

The bailout bill passed by Congress last week included “sweeteners,” as anyone with a radio, TV, Internet connection, or newspaper subscription has learned by now. What didn’t make the top of the news was the fact that a couple of these provisions to sweeten the Wall Street bailout bill directly affect alternative fuels — in a good way, for once.

Buyers of plug-in hybrid vehicles will receive a $2500 tax credit, plus $417 per kilowatt hour for batteries greater than 4 kwh. This makes the Chevy Volt $7500 cheaper, as GM’s Volt blog was happy to point out. The credit will apply fully to the first 250,000 PHEVs sold, then will be phased out over the next year’s worth of sales after than landmark number is reached. (See Section 205 on page 186 of the bill.)

The bill also extends the 30% clean-burning fuel property tax credit to electricity, and moves the deadline for taking the credit out a year to December 2010. (See Section 207 on page 197 of the bill.)

Since that information, while useful, was dry as sand, here’s  video of a souped up Smart ForTwo beating the pants off a Ferrari in the quarter-mile (38 seconds):


EVs Get a Theme Song

September 14, 2008 in EVs by kristen | No comments

Los Angeles-based songwriter Trudee Lunden is using her rock-n-roll powers for good rather than evil. Check out her MySpace page and listen to the song “Electricity.” Though it is not one whit like the song about electricity that used to play on “School House Rock” when I was a wee girl, it is the first and so far only song I’ve heard about electric vehicles.

The song is performed by co-writer Tom Fair “Extraordinaire” and includes subtle lyrics like “let’s keep building electric cars” and “Electricity charging up my battery.” It name-checks Tesla and Aptera, both companies at the cutting edge of EV technology. This places the tune in the pantheon of songs devoted to the cars one loves, like “Little Deuce Coupe” and “Little Red Corvette.” Though I don’t know that anyone has penned an ode called “Unleaded Gasoline” yet.

If I’m being persnickety, I did find a safety issue in the lyrics. If an EV driver, especially one new to the technology, put the pedal down and pushed it hard, as suggested by “Electricity,” they’d be riding a whole lot of torque. Not much of a problem in your Zap Xebra NEV, but a big deal when you can finally get into a Tesla.

Photo by flod.