In 2001, Dale Earnhardt died in a devastating accident during a NASCAR race at the Daytona International Speedway in his number 3 car. The number 3 car was retired since then. Now, it has returned with an ethanol-powered engine. It was raced at the Daytona 500 on February 22, 2014 by Austin Dillon, the grandson…
For Greater Cincinnati, Ohio and Kentucky households: The harsh polar vortex-caused storm that took place in January resulted in an energy bill increase of at least 11% compared to last year. The average household incurred a gas and electric bill of $288 in Ohio, and $276 in Kentucky. I suspected there would be at least a…
Climate change has many potential implications, but one of the scariest possibilities could intensify them all, and catastrophically. It is thermal runaway. Thermal runaway is defined as a situation in which heating causes conditions, or a domino effect (as I like to call it) which causes further heating. There are multiple thermal runaway scenarios to…
The 2015 Ford Expedition has been equipped with a 3.5 L Ecoboost engine, and a six-speed automatic transmission, taking the place of the 5.4 L V8. Bear in mind that the litre rating is not indicative of power output. The 5.4 L V8 is physically larger, but not necessarily more powerful. Ecoboost engines pack a…
Toyota has begun testing wireless charging on three Prius cars. Each of them is equipped with a WiTricity wireless charging system (resonant induction charging). This concept can charge the Prius cars in as little as 90 minutes, which is quick enough to recharge employee vehicles in office parking lots, so that they can have a…
Limited production of the electric Rimac Concept One cars is to begin in 2015. Rimac Automobili is considering the production of only 88 of these cars for the moment. The Croatian-built Rimac is an electric performance car equipped with four electric motors, one of which is at each wheel, facilitating what they call ‘All Wheel Torque…
To reduce a residential community’s cost of going solar, one could pool all the participating residents’ money to achieve quantity discounts, due to the large quantity of panels purchased under these solar group purchases. However, do you think it is possible to reduce the cost even further? Yes! It is! This is so important because…
2014 might be a better year for electric vehicles. IHS Automotive predicts that global electric vehicle production will increase by 67% in 2014, while global production for vehicles overall is forecast to increase by 3.6%. This translates to a production increase from 242,000 in 2013 to 403,000. The 2013 figure was actually 44% better than…
Mitsubishi sold 17,805 Outlander PHEVs over the course of 2013. In, Japan, they sold 6,608. In December, this PHEV outsold all of the other plug-in vehicles in Japan. This is a good start for Mitsubishi in the budding PHEV industry, where prices are still a bit high, and everyone is struggling to get their own…
The Blackfriars railway bridge in London, U.K. (above the river Thames) has now been furnished with 4,400 solar panels, a collaborative effort between First Capital Connect (the company that runs the Blackfriars Railway station) and Solarcentury. This solar panel array is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 511 tonnes per year. Apart from that, other…
In India, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by six companies for the construction of 4,000 MW of solar power plants. This is classified as an Ultra Mega Solar Power Project (UMSPP). That is enough to power up to 1.3 million homes (assuming that they consume an average of 3 kW). This project will…
Acura developed a new luxury hybrid which consists of its new three-motor propulsion system assisted by a V6 engine. It is the RLX Sport Hybrid SH-AWD. 119 HP of the power is provided by the electric motors, which utilize a 260-volt battery pack. The remaining 258 HP is provided by the gasoline engine. It has a…