Lots of interesting news today relating to Alternative Energy Research, Technology, and Policy.

1. President Bush is set to announce new initiatives to make building Nuclear Power plants more attractive, building oil refineries on old military bases, extending tax incentives to clean Diesel cars and building more Natural gas terminals. Kind of an odd mix. I’m happy to see emphasis finally being put on Nuclear power. In the near term, it is really the only feasible way to create electricity in place of fossil fuels.
2. Mercedes is producing a new diesel-electric hybrid. Interesting because all the hybrids currently on the North-American market are gas-electric. Diesel is more efficient than Gas
3. Along the same lines, Cal-Cars is advocating “plugin hybrids”. That is, regular Hybrid Toyotas, Hondas or whatever, that allow you to plug in the car to charge its’ batteries. Thus eliminating the need to gas up the car, yet without removing the capability to drive long distances using the gas engine. Makes sense to me!
4. Honda in America selling a Natural Gas powered Civic as an option to buyers. I don’t know of any other manufacturer who sells alternative fuel vehicles off the lot.
5. The fourth link to Gizmag reveals that the American Army in cooperation with GM has introduced its’ first Fuel Cell powered Hummer. You may dismiss it out of hand.. but remember than most technology that we use today has its’ roots in the military. Indeed, I wouldn’t be typing on this computer if it weren’t for the DOD. And the US Army also represents the largest fleet of vehicles in the World.. so entering into that market is important for further fuel cell research and success.
6. Now for the really far-out stuff! New Scientist reports that scientists demonstrated nuclear fusion… at a desktop level. That is, Nuclear fusion created at normal temperatures on a small scale… very cool stuff!
7. And Finally… scientists have discovered that if you electrocute bacteria with micro-amounts of electricity, you can get that bacteria to break down waste effluent/water into Hydrogen! This could be a nice way to clean up water and biomass from agricultural, industrial and residential sites and reduce costs by selling the Hydrogen produced for use in fuel cells or what have you.

Thats’ about it. Enjoy!


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