Green Cool Hip

The last two months have been particular busy trying to complete year-end projects, and as a result has taken my focus off the site. In addition, I recently got involved (from a technical standpoint) with the Rebuild Haiti effort now underway, following the recent earthquake which has devastated this beautiful island.

But 2010 is here and GreenCoolHip wants you to go out and see two of the best green movies of 2009 if you have not already done so.

If I were asked to choose one movie last year that would be captivating and open our eyes to how we treat our planet and its living organism, it would be impossible. However, I could manage to round up two.

Food Inc., the documentary film by Robert Kenner, takes a hard look at how farm animals are raised in the United States and reveals the shocking truth about how we grow and harvest our crops. In our culture of more, bigger, faster and not necessarily better, we have traded quality and long term health concerns and let corporations put profits ahead of our safety and our environment. I bring up Food Inc. as a must-see movie because we all need to ask ourselves the following question. How can we take care of our planet if we don’t take care of ourselves?

Which brings us to our second choice, Avatar. After his 1997 blockbuster hit, Titanic featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, James Cameron waited 12 years before releasing his next movie, which almost instantly became a hit grossing over 1 billion dollars in a short period of time much like Titanic.

In Avatar, Cameron depicts a future where earth, after being trashed and having all its natural resources exhausted by its abusive inhabitants cannot longer sustain life. So we do what we do best and set out to exploit another people on another planet, except that we did not expect them to resist and fight back.

I will not delve too much into the movie as it’s excellent and I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who have yet to see it.

There will certainly be some great movies in 2010 urging us to think about the environmental impact of our actions. But for now, go out and see Avatar in theaters, or if you would rather stay home, grab a copy of Food Inc.

Enjoy!

Fisker Automotive will be opening a plant in Wilmington, Delaware to manufacture its plug-in hybrid vehicles. This plant will support Fisker Automotive’s project NINA, aimed at developing a more affordable family sedan costing in the neighborhood of $40,000 after tax credits.

With production set to debut in 2012, new factory and supplier jobs are expected to be created which will be a boost to this sagging economy.
The Department of Energy recently awarded a $528 million dollars low interest loan to the innovative new company.

We have previously heard about a coffee shop in the Netherlands that generates electricity through its revolving door and a Tokyo train station generating electricity through special flooring tiles installed in front of ticket turnstiles. In every case it is accomplished by converting kinetic energy into electricity.

Now, a Burger King in Hillside NJ is applying the same concept to produce electricity as vehicles go through its drive-thru.

With America being so dependent on imported fuel to power its industries, finding new creative ways to generate electrical power has become a necessity.

WATCH the video below.

Imagine a world where one can pull over to the side of the road at any time and refill his vehicle. You must be wondering how or thinking that a container of gasoline in the trunk is in order. Well, hold on to your seat for this one. All one needs to do in this not so distant and not so futuristic world, is drink enough water in order to pee at will. Yes, Urine. A Urine-Powered vehicle may soon become a reality.

According to Dr. Gerardine Botte and her team at the University of Ohio, extracting hydrogen from urine is easier than getting it from water, thus making a hydrogen vehicle powered by Mr. Pee very likely.
Our scientist tells us that a molecule of urea comprises four hydrogen and two nitrogen atoms and requires 33 times less electricity to be released than if it were extracted from water. This should make it hopefully easier and cheaper to power future vehicles.

Aqua Power Systems, a Japanese company, is already offering batteries that can be powered by urine, among other liquids, for sale.

Although this groundbreaking technology is still in its early stage, there’s hope my urine may some day become an additional source of income.

Happy Drinking!!

I hate fuzzy math. We have all seen fuzzy math with statistic polls, financial stats, etc… In almost every case, it’s always been an industry or company trying to push a product to consumers. I have recently met a number of people who are excited over GM’s latest claim of the Volt’s 230 mpg. If we take a few seconds to review the numbers provided by GM for its widely anticipated Chevy Volt, due to hit market in 2010, some things get lost in translation or in this case, lost in calculation. In order to clarify things a bit, let’s take a real look at the number “230″ thrown at us by GM.

For simplicity, we’ll use 50 miles as the magic number that the average vehicle owner commutes daily in the United States and assume that a gallon of gasoline costs on average $3. The Volt has an effective range of 40 miles on a full electric charge, after which the gasoline engine kicks in. GM claims the gasoline engine generates electricity that is used to recharge the battery, but does not provide how much of the gasoline is used to drive the Volt. Getting to that number should be a matter of running the car in a test lab and compiling some data. GM has this capability and either has not done so or at least is keeping this number from the public. I tend to believe the latter.

So, let’s assume that the vehicle gets 50 miles a gallon and omit the cost of recharging the battery using your home standard 110 volt outlet at night. Ten (10) miles a day is driven on gasoline power. In a five-day workweek, the average commuter drives 50 miles on gasoline which consumes one (1) gallon of gasoline. Now, remember we also drive 40 miles a day on electricity, which is the volt range on a single full electric charge, according to GM. Thus we get 200 miles of electric driving over 5 days. Finally, add the 200 miles and the 50 miles, we can easily conclude the Volt goes 250 miles on a gallon of gas. Substract 20 miles for idle time, that would use either electricity or gasoline, and we have 230 miles.

Or we can arrive at the conclusion that it costs 40 cents to recharge the Volt’s battery when using your home power outlet and the cost of gallon of gasoline averages $2.30. Driving 40 miles or less a day, the cost of a gallon of gasoline would let us drive our Chevy Volt for 230 miles.

Now that GM has started this trend, we can expect every auto manufacturer to come up with such bogus number. Nissan is already claiming 367 miles per gallon with the Leaf, which is by the way a true zero emission car (no gas tank) but not much of a looker in my opinion.

So, if you fill up your tank and embark on a cross-country trip, will you get 230 miles a gallon and be able to drive from New York to Los Angeles on a full tank of gas, (assuming a 15-gallong tank)? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Is the Volt the right step for GM? DEFINITELY.

Although, not a zero-emission vehicle, it surely looks Green, Cool & Hip.

If you are in the United States and looking to buy a hybrid electric vehicle, there are quite a few models to choose from. As every auto manufacturer races to deliver hybrid electric cars, this list will surely grow in the next few months. View our slideshow below.

The US House of Representatives has just passed a bill that will make 150 million dollars available over the next five years for Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles and the infrastructure to support them.   This is a good step towards reducing smog considering that the United States only account for less than 2% of the total number of these vehicles in the world.

However, setting up this infrastructure across the country will require more than 150 million dollars.  Converting the majority of  local public transportation fleet and government vehicles is where this initiative will have the most impact.

Though still a fossil fuel, natural gas is however cleaner than diesel and gasoline, and reduces CO2 emissions.

Over the past few years, European farmers have been raising animals and growing crops on their farms while feeding electricity to their local power grid.  Animals and crops share the field with solar panels which provide an additional source of revenue for the farmers.

Although it enjoys less sun than other parts of the world, Germany has gone as far to pass a law that guarantees a minimum price for each kilowatt of electricity.  One farmer claims annual revenue over half a million dollars from the sale of its electricty.  Now the fever is catching among farmers in France where one farmer plans to produce enough electricity from its photovoltaic installation to power as much as 4,000 residences.  French Secretary of Environment and Energy, Jean-Louis Borloo was quoted as saying “France’s ambition is to play a leading role in the technological revolution which is about to happen in solar power”.  To prove it, the French government has taken steps similar to Germany to guarantee a minimun tariff for the sale of electricity.

With the United States enjoying more sun than these countries and the price of electricity steadily rising along that of fossil fuel, I suspect it won’t be long before U.S. farmers start looking to the sun for additional revenue.

If you’re a subscriber of popular mechanics, you may remember an article last November about an eco-friendly tire by Yokohama made of mostly orange peel.  Well, it has hit the market and not surprisingly, will be available in sizes that fit the Toyota Prius, Camry Hybrid, and Honda Civic Hybrid.  Made from 80% non-petroleum products, this tire has roughly 20% less rolling resistance which may well deliver an additional 3% saving in fuel on these already gas sipping vehicles.

With its zero emission plant in Japan and environmentally-friendly products, Yokohama is showing the world how seriously committed it is about protecting the planet.

I have a collection of flashlights at home, not because I’m a collector, but because I tend to buy a new and different kind of flashlight every time the batteries run out.
Now that I stumbled upon SolarLite and bought a couple of those hybrid flashlights, I believe my compulsive behavior towards flashlights may have come to an end.

SolarLite is a flashlight that is powered by solar power and a backup lithium battery that can provide up to 50 hours of light and last for 7 years.  Its solar panel is made up of photovoltaic cells and much like solar calculators also captures room light to recharge.

Its one watt LED bulb provides bright light of up to 40 lumens and can lasts for 11 years without any dimming effect, whereas most standard flashlights have a range between 2.5 and 10 lumens.

This flashlight even floats when tossed in water and functions at depths of 80 feet.

With an all around flashlight such as the SolarLite, one can become friendlier to the planet by not contributing to the 3 billion batteries thrown into U.S. landfills each year, and at the same time keep its wallet greener.