Horses, carriages, and a governor's ride

At the risk of beating a horse that's already taken plenty of abuse, Raising Islands will weigh in on the Hawai'i Governor's decision to lease a new vehicle.

And the decision by her administration to lease one of the most energy inefficient vehicles on the market. Her 2008 Infiniti QX56, at 12 miles to the gallon, requires twice as much gasoline to go a mile as the average car in the United States. It takes nearly three times the fuel of the average car in Europe. And it takes four times what Toyota's Prius hybrid gets.

This is all surprising, ultimately, because the governor has good instincts on energy in other areas. She has, in both words and actions, promoted an aggressive policy of moving Hawai'i off its dependence on oil.

Gov. Linda Lingle has worked with the federal government to promote wind research in conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Lab. Also, in a well-publicized agreement, she signed on with the feds, utilities and others to modernize Maui's electrical grid. She signed a bill to ease the way for biofuel farmers seeking access to state lands.

In perhaps the biggest move, she announced early this year the Hawai'i Clean Energy Initiative, a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy to move Hawai'i from an overwhelming dependence on imported oil for its energy to attain a goal of, by 2030, getting 70 percent from renewables—including wind, sun, ocean, geothermal, and bioenergy – to supply 70 percent or more of Hawai‘i’s energy needs by 2030.

“This innovative, unprecedented partnership builds on the progress the state has made to increase energy independence by decreasing Hawai’i’s reliance on imported oil. Our islands’ abundant natural sources of energy, combined with the considerable capabilities of the Department of Energy will help Hawai‘i lead America in utilizing clean, renewable energy technologies,” she said at the time.

After all that sweetness and renewable light comes the debacle over her official car.

Someone selected for the governor—one must assume it wasn't her, although she has not repudiated the choice—one of the most gas guzzling cars available on the market.

Rather than making a statement for efficiency, or even getting something that gets somewhere close to average U.S. fuel efficiency, Lingle's car is a lumbering dinosaur, of the kind much of the world is abandoning.

The 2008 Infiniti QX56 was selected to replace her 2004 Ford Expedition.

The Infiniti, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, gets 12 miles a gallon in the city and 17 to 18 on the highway, depending on the car's configuration. Figures on the DOE website indicate that's actually WORSE than the mileage of the old Ford Expedition—which is listed at 13 city.

Her staff, according to media accounts, said they selected the big Infiniti in part because its lease price was two-thirds that of a hybrid. One must wonder what hybrid they were pricing.

Yahoo Autos says the Infiniti's manufacturer's suggested retail price is $55,550 for the four-wheel-drive model.

The Ford Escape—a smaller car, a hybrid, but still an SUV—is well under $30,000. The Prius, of course, is less than $25,000. Both get multiples of the Infiniti's mileage.

The Chevy Tahoe hybrid, which is monster-sized like the Infiniti, gets 20 miles to the gallon, and costs less than the Infiniti—the MSRP is $52,395.

Let's go to the outer edge of fuel economy—the Hummer. The top listed MSRP for Hummer H3 is $38,560. The H3 gets 14 and 18—better mileage in the city than the Infiniti, and it's significantly cheaper.

Who knows what's going on with this decision? It doesn't seem to match Gov. Lingle's message. That said, we can perhaps set this issue aside as an unfortunate lapse, and move forward on the larger issue of more energy self-sufficiency for Hawai'i.

In the words of Gov. Lingle's official website: “Hawai‘i’s energy paradigm must fundamentally change, and it must be an urgent, rapid transformation. With each passing day, energy independence becomes a more critical issue for our environment, economy and security.”

© 2008 Jan W. TenBruggencate

Flying on weed: algae biofuels in airlines

More airlines appear to be banking on algae as a possible source for jet fuel in a world of oil shortage or impossibly high oil prices.

(Image: An algae cocktail.)

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is a major player in the new Algal Biomass Organization, whose motto is “Algae for Energy.” See www.algalbiomass.org for more. Air New Zealand, Continental and Virgin Atlantic have all joined up.

Algae appears to be turning into the next hot topic in the fuel world (previous hot topics: hydrogen, corn ethanol). See raisingislands.blogspot.com/2008/06/algae-fuel-of-future.html and raisingislands.blogspot.com/2008/06/algae-biofuel-is-airlines-new-best.html.

In Hawai'i, Cellana is a join venture of Royal Dutch Shell and HR Biopetroleum, which are working on the technology of making biofuel from algae at the Hawai'i Natural Energy Lab.

Dutch airline KLM has announced plans to begin testing algae biofuel in its planes. Virgin Atlantic has already flown a flight using a mix of regular jet fuel and biofuel.

What's so special about algae? Here's what Algal Biomass Organization has to say:

“Renewable Fuels: Algae are an ideal low cost, renewable and environmentally progressive raw material that can be converted into biofuels. They can grow rapidly (doubling in biomass in as little as a few hours), require limited nutrients, and can annually deliver up to 2,000–5,000 gallons of fuel per acre of non-arable land.

“Environment: Algae do not require fresh water to thrive and so they will not compete for limited supplies of fresh water. In addition, they can also be used to clean wastewater and to recycle greenhouse gases such as CO2, NOx and SOx. As the algae grow, they can be harvested and converted to next- generation biofuels.

“Economic Development: As developing nations continue to look for ways to spur economic development, algae-based industries can be a central part of an overall strategy. Many developing nations currently import nearly 100 percent of their fuel. An algae-based energy strategy provides a way to either reduce oil import costs, create fuel/feedstock export revenue, or both without competing with food crops.”

The other thing that makes algae biofuel attractive continues to be the price of petroleum. At this writing, crude prices stood at $133.81 a barrel.

© 2008 Jan W. TenBruggencate

Sea levels rising faster than thought

In Hawai'i, we know sea levels are rising.

New science is suggesting they're rising faster than most scientists have predicted up to now.

In the Islands, ocean levels lapping the beaches are up more than half a foot since the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.

In some areas, notably on the Big Island, they appear to be up more than that. That's because the Big Island is sinking slowly due to its vast weight, at the same time ocean surfaces are rising.

Because our lifetimes are short on a geological scale, we don't think much about the massive variability in ocean levels. But it's clear that oceans were once so low that Maui, Moloka'i, Lāna'i and Kaho'olawe were one island. There were no humans here then to name it, but today we call that Maui Nui, Big Maui.

The USGS says that just 20,000 years ago, when glaciers were at their peak, oceans were nearly 400 feet lower than they are now. (See pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs2-00/)

At times between glacier eras, sea levels were 10 to 60 feet higher than now.

The agency reports that if every glacier in the world melted—an unlikely occurrence—oceans would rise 80 feet.

Ocean scientists have been reporting for some time that the average rise in sea levels for the past century or more has been 1 to 2 millimeters per year. Over a century, that's 10 to 20 centimeters or roughly 4 to 8 inches.

Now, scientists reporting in the journal Nature say it's been going considerably faster than that in recent decades.

“Following the review of millions of ocean measurements, predominantly from expendable instruments probing the upper 700 metres of the ocean, we were able to more accurately estimate upper-ocean warming, and the related thermal expansion and sea-level rise. We show that the rate of ocean warming from 1961 to 2003 is about 50 per cent larger than previously reported,” said weather and climate researcher Dr. Catia Domingues, of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). She is the organization's Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship scientist, and works with the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research.

She worked with co-authors John Church, Neil White, Peter Gleckler; Susan Wijffels, Paul Barker and Jeff Dunn, who are variously from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative Research Centre and California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

So, what's going on?

The short version is this: The climate is warming. The oceans soak up 90 percent of the additional heat. Water expands as it heats. Therefore sea levels rise.

And it all appears to be happening faster now than previously guessed—and faster than the estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

At the very least, this information is valuable to people making decisions about the uses of coastal lands. As an example, in Hawai'i, that would include planning for coastal highways, sewer and water lines, utility corridors and the like.

“Our results are important for the climate modelling community because they boost confidence in the climate models used for projections of global sea-level rise resulting from the accumulation of heat in the oceans. These projections will, in turn, assist in planning to minimise the impacts and in developing adaptation strategies,” Domingues said in a CSIRO news release. (www.csiro.au/news/OceansWarming.html)

© 2008 Jan W. TenBruggencate

Honda shipping hydrogen car this summer

Honda is getting ready to market a hydrogen fuel cell car in the United States, but it is unlikely to find a parking spot in Hawai'i, if only because of a lack of hydrogen fueling stations.

That could change in time, so it pays to pay attention to the technology.

(Image: The Honda FCX Clarity. Credit: Honda. For more, see http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx%2Dclarity/)

The car is the Honda FCX Clarity, and it will be available for lease at $600 a month. It is expected to be available in limited numbers in California this summer. Honda selected lessors who live near the existing California hydrogen fuel stations. The car is not being offered for outright sale.

The Clarity is being called a zero emissions car, although it isn't, really. It has emissions, but its emissions are just water.

Honda got the first gas-electric hybrid car into the U.S. market, but Toyota's Prius became the hot car in that category. With Clarity, Honda is once again first, and time will tell whether it will hold the lead against competitors. This time, however, automotive writers are declaring the vehicle a winner.

This car looks like a sleek standard sedan, and it's a four-seater.

The new Clarity has all the hot stuff. Heated and cooled seats. Phone and navigation controls on the steering wheel. Satellite radio.

And instrumentation that may define the new standard. In Honda's words: “A multi-layered instrument panel floats before your eyes, and 3-D gauges stand out with the information you need. The futuristic hydrogen-consumption gauge changes color and size to reflect hydrogen consumption as your driving conditions change. During high consumption the ball becomes large and amber colored. As consumption decreases, it shrinks and turns yellow then blue.”

The front-wheel-drive car has two sources of power: a hydrogen-fueled fuel cell that produces electricity; and a lithium-ion battery pack that produces electricity. Both or either can power the Clarity's electric motor, which is the latest version of a motor technology that Honda initially developed for its EV Plus electric car. The motor is rated at 134 horsepower.

One thing: Without any combustion going on, the Clarity ought to be very quiet.

The car has a range of 280 miles on a fill-up of 4.1 kilograms (9 pounds) of compressed hydrogen at 5000 pounds per square inch.

That leaves the issue of fuel.

“Increasing the numbers of convenient hydrogen refueling options is one of the last remaining hurdles to widespread adoption of fuel cell vehicles,” Honda says on its FCX Clarity website.

One future option, for those who have a source of natural gas, might be Honda's Home Energy Station, an evolving system that both powers the family home and makes hydrogen for the car.

While the industry loudly proclaims their hydrogen vehicle is emission-free, there remains the inconvenient fact that you need to make the hydrogen, and that requires energy. Just as an emission-free electric car needs to use energy to make the electricity.

Still, Honda says it's moving in the right direction.

“CO2 emissions for a household using the Home Energy Station are 30 percent lower than those for an average household using a gasoline-engine car and commercial electricity and heat.”

The Home Energy Station is still experimental. Learn more here: http://world.honda.com/FuelCell/FCX/station/.

The site includes a conceptual diagram of a solar-powered Home Energy Station, which would take fossil fuels out of the equation.

© 2008 Jan W. TenBruggencate

Solar probe: into the sun for science

NASA has announced plans to send a spacecraft on repeated forays into the sun.

How are they going to keep it from burning up?

They're going at night.

(Image: false color photo of the sun from the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.)

Nah. Couldn't resist, but on the exceedingly slim chance anyone bit, that's a joke.

In fact, the seven-year Solar Probe Plus mission, set to launch in 2015, will use a heavily insulated spacecraft full of instrumentation. It will make repeated passes through the Sun's corona, followed by swings around Venus to gain some gravitational slingshot oomph.

The Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Lab will design and build the spacecraft. Appropriately, it will use solar panels for its energy, but they'll be liquid cooled, and will retract when it gets too intense out there. The probe will be designed with a carbon composite shield to handle up to 1400 degrees Centigrade. That's significantly hotter than your standard pizza oven, and also hotter than most electronics are made to handle.

At its closest, the probe should be nine times the radius of the sun from the surface—a little more than 4 million miles.

Two key questions about the sun need to be answered, NASA says.

One is why does the temperature rise when you move away from the sun. Another: Where is the start of the solar wind, which sends charged particles blasting through the solar system. It doesn't seem to be actively blowing coherently when you get near the sun.

University of Hawai'i solar astronomer Shadia Habbal, who works at the university's Institute for Astronomy, has been involved in the planning for the mission. Her particular interest, she said, is the source of the solar wind—how it goes from apparently being disorganized near the sun to flowing in a much more organized fashion as it moves out among the planets.

According to NASA's Solar Probe Science and Technology Definition Team Report:

“Solar Probe will be the first spacecraft to venture into the unexplored inner reaches of the heliosphere where the solar wind is born. Through high-cadence in-situ measurements of the solar wind plasma, energetic particles, and fields... supplemented by coronal and photospheric imaging, Solar Probe will provide the data needed to solve, finally, the twin mysteries of coronal heating and solar wind acceleration.”

To learn more about the solar probe, see http://solarprobe.gsfc.nasa.gov.

© 2008 Jan W. TenBruggencate