european edition - ErpecNews

22
Germany to get
hydrogen fuel station
network
The development of a German network of
hydrogen filling stations is gaining pace. The
automotive manufacturer Daimler AG and
the Linde technology group announced in
Stuttgart that they intended to open 20 new
filling stations in Germany over the next
three years. This will more than triple the
number of public hydrogen filling stations
in the country. The new stations are to be
set up in the regions of Stuttgart, Berlin and
Hamburg, which are already supplied with
hydrogen along the most popular North-South
and East-West axis. For the first time, this
would enable every location in Germany
to be reached by a fuel-cell vehicle by the
year 2015.
EV quick-chargers
in first phase of
‘Green Highway’
As part of the ‘Green Highway’ project where
California, Oregon and Washington are
partnering to turn Interstate 5 into the first
alternative-fuel-friendly freeway in the U.S.,
AeroVironment is installing Level 3 EV quick
chargers along the route in Southern Oregon.
For this first phase of the project, from the
California state line to the Willamette Valley,
150 miles of the highway will have convenient
access to EV chargers that can fully charge
a battery in 30 minutes. Eight interchanges
will be picked based on common destinations,
vehicle range and driving distances.
The chargers will be installed by the end of
the fall. The project is being funded by the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
tOtaL hold solar exhibit
at motorway sites
To raise customer awareness of solar energy,
the 126 TOTAL motorway stations in France
have launched the 1.2.3. Soleil operation running
to the 17 July. The exhibition is visible
in all TOTAL motorway stations explaining
solar power to young people and the stations’
customers.
ALTERNATIVEFUeL News
Ireland's first electric taxis take to the road
One of Europe's first electric taxi services has
been launched in Dublin, offering people a
taste of how environmentally friendly electric
Charging EVs as quick as pumping gas
There might be a quicker and easier way to
charge your EV, thanks to a team of researchers
at MIT who created a liquid-flow battery for
EVs that can be recharged in the same amount
of time it takes to fill up a gas tank. The battery
involves a black and gooey electrolyte which
holds suspended positive and negative electrodes
Gasoline from pine and corn waste
Three global companies from the worlds of
agriculture, petroleum and car manufacturing
are lead investors in a company called Virent,
which has developed a biogasoline that is practically
the molecular equivalent of conventional
gasoline. The milestone is significant because
the feedstock consists of woody, non-food waste
from pine and corn (aka corn stover), a vast
improvement over corn, soybeans and other
food crops. The partnership is also significant
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Shell and Cosan: a lower-carbon future with biofuels
Shell and Cosan launched a multi-billion dollar
joint venture that will become a leading producer
of the low-carbon biofuel, ethanol made from
sugar cane. Named Raízen, this major retail
and commercial fuels company will operate
transport can enhance city living. ESB ecars
and Dublin-based NRC Taxis teamed up to
offer the first electric taxi (e-taxi) service in
Ireland. The new initiative was unveiled in
Dublin City by ESB Chief Executive Padraig
McManus and NRC Director Liam Brady today.
Two e-taxis will now operate on Dublin's streets,
including one wheelchair-accessible vehicle.
This is one of the first “working” electric taxi
schemes in Europe and is part of a wider EU
research programme that includes gathering
data on the performance of electric transport
in an urban setting.
that provide the EV with juice. When all the
energy has been zapped out of the electrolyte,
you can simply remove a container holding the
goo from the battery and recharge it. Then you
can put it back in the battery and you're ready to
go. The team at MIT envisions this happening
as quickly and easily as it takes to pump gas.
because the three companies are Honda, Shell
and Cargill and Virent is one of 17 members of
the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium,
which funded the biogasoline project through
a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
With global corporate support building for
alternative fuels, it seems that the Obama
administration is cultivating some powerful
new allies to counteract pressure from the
fossil fuel industry.
in Brazil, one of the world's fastest-growing
markets. Raízen will produce and sell over 2
billion litres a year of the lowest-carbon biofuel
commercially available – ethanol made from
Brazilian sugar cane. Raízen will distribute
biofuels and over 20 billion litres of other industrial
and transport fuels annually through
a combined network of nearly 4 500 Shellbranded
service stations. In Brazil it becomes
the third largest fuels company. Plans would
extend the company's reach in future years
to export more ethanol to other key markets.