Posted by Kelly Smith on Mon, Jun 28, 2010
Experts from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Pentagon, the U.S. State Department, and the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines have discovered a huge wealth of mineral deposits beneath the war-torn soils of Afghanistan. Minerals such as copper, iron, gold, aluminum, silver, and lithium have the potential to have an amazing impact on Afghanistan’s economy and infrastructure if they can be mined without corruption.
This is a big discovery on the worldwide renewable energy front as well, since lithium is used to make rechargeable batteries. Lithium ion batteries are the most popular rechargeable batteries on the market today since they are lightweight, don’t lose charge easily, don’t degrade in performance over time, and don’t cost a great deal more than standard batteries.
Rechargeable battery technology is an important aspect of green power because batteries are places where energy can be stored after it has been collected from a green energy source such as solar panels. Both fuel cells and rechargeable batteries are also important to the further development of electric car technology.
Electric cars need to plug into an electric power source to charge. Electric cars like the Chevrolet Volt can run for 40 miles on electricity alone without dipping into their gasoline reserves. If the Volt can’t be recharged after 40 miles of driving, it can still travel hundreds of miles on just one tank of gas. Using a car such as the Volt can seriously decrease the carbon footprint of individuals and businesses concerned about sustainability.
Electric cars are preferable to standard cars because electricity burned in a power plant, although it still creates emissions, is much cleaner than the internal combustion engine in a gasoline car. An even more planet-friendly solution would be electric cars powered exclusively by green electricity from renewable energy sources. That is the green transportation of the future, and rechargeable batteries are a step in the right direction.
Posted by Rahul Chitrapu on Wed, Jan 13, 2010
BYD, short for Build Your Dreams, is planning to launch Chinese-built electric cars in the U.S in the later part of 2010.
BYD has a very interesting story. Its founder, Wang Chuan-Fu, was described as a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch by Charlie Munger around the time when Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's legendary company, made an investment in BYD. Wang started BYD in 1995 with $300,000 and set out to manufacture cellphone batteries to compete with Sony and Sanyo. Within 5 years, BYD was the world leader in cellphone batteries. Having known the automotive business very little, Wang entered it in 2003 and started churning out cars that became best sellers in China.
BYD plans to introduce an electric plug-in called e6 into the US this year. A large part of the plug-in's success will depend on BYD's lithium-ion ferrous phosphate battery technology. e6 is a five passenger car that can travel upwards of 200 miles on a single charge.
But how helpful will electric cars be in reducing carbon emissions if the electricity required to charge them comes from fossil fuels? Instead of burning gasoline in a car engine, coal or natural gas is burnt in a power plant. The emissions, though less in magnitude, will still be released. But, what if the electricity required to charge the car came from green energy sources instead? Now, that would make a much bigger difference.