Why Are Hybrid Cars So Popular?

Hybrid Cars have become so popular that life is unimaginable without them. They have become a vital part of our everyday lives. The advancement in the field of mechanics has brought forth Hybrid Cars in such a way that people rely on them to fulfil their daily tasks.

Apart from being a basic requirement of each and every individual, Hybrid Cars have gained the status of luxury and prestige. Hybrid Cars have become defining statements of the individuals and of their lifestyles.

Hybrid Cars have succeeded in giving freedom and liberty to people which they previously lacked. They no longer have to depend upon the public transport for their transportation. People have become more mobile due to Hybrid Cars. The continuous advancement in technology has only increased the popularity of Hybrid Cars by making them more advanced, technical and up to date.

There are various other reasons that make Hybrid Cars so popular. The brand, the car-make, the manufacturer, the model, the engine and the various other features, including the leather seats and the colour helps in making a particular car popular. The functionality, the features and the performance also make a car impressive, popular and well sought after.

It is important to take the example of the Honda Civic to get an understanding of what goes into making a car popular. The comfortable level of Honda, its compact size and the reliability it has gained over the past years has made it a famous car. It has become a yardstick of standard and class in the automobile industry. The performance and the engine of Honda are also up to the mark. The safety features and the great exterior and the interior also make it a highly sought after car.

The provision of quality and technology in the Hybrid Cars at the most economical price also makes some Hybrid Cars popular. In the current situation of economy, people are considering such Hybrid Cars which are not heavy on their pockets or require high maintenance. So, the factors that make the Hybrid Cars popular are different for different lifestyles and social classes of the people.

The green and Hybrid Cars are also gaining popularity due.. The eco friendly nature of the Hybrid Cars is helping them in gaining popularity in the car industry. People are choosing the Hybrid Cars; in fact many of them are trading their conventional vehicles for the Hybrid Cars. The rise in the gasoline prices has also facilitated the popularity of the Hybrid Cars. The fact that the government also offers tax breaks to people who own Hybrid Cars gives them an edge over the conventional Hybrid Cars.

People are willing to pay a little extra for those Hybrid Cars that help them in defining their personalities, social status and lifestyles may choose the IS 200d. Many nations of the world are also making their expertise in the car manufacturing industry to gain competency and to stimulate the growth of the economy.

Filed Under: Business

Consequences of Carbon-Free Energy Production

There are some identifiable sources of carbon-free energy creation, including wind, nuclear, hydropower, as well as “carbon neutral” sources of energy which include biomass and bio-fuels. All of these sources are considered renewable energy (the exception being nuclear) since they are all constantly being replenished. Their positive impact is that they lower greenhouse gas emissions, but despite this advantage they each, nevertheless, have negative impacts on the environment in other ways.

Statistically these sources of energy only provide approximately 14% of the energy needs used across the globe. They break out as follows: nuclear power provides the world with 6.2% of the world’s energy needs; hydroelectric power 2.2%; wind power is just over 1%. Bio-fuels and biomass make up another 4% of the world’s energy needs.

The environmental drawbacks of these resources vary. Hydroelectric power is a clean source for energy particularly where carbon emissions are concerned; however, regarding fish it has been a great environmental hazard. Those who depend on fishing as an occupation have been negatively impacted by the production of this “clean energy.”

Nuclear power results in essentially no greenhouse emissions, but there are other environmental consequences. There are risks and environmental damage from uranium mining and processing. The nuclear waste itself is extremely hazardous and accidents that occur in any aspect of nuclear processing and disposal can result in very serious consequences to both people and the environment.

Where wind power is concerned there are negative consequences that affect wild life habitats and that also negatively affect specific species.

As for bio-fuels they adversely affects crop production. To meet our goals for gasoline, 80% of the country’s cropland would have to be converted over for energy production. As cropland sizes increase to accommodate both human consumption and energy creation there will be a push to increase the exploitation of forest land and other soil resources.

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Current Alternative Energy Producers

Most countries would like to be able to switch all their energy use requirements from fossil based sources to renewable ones. They have set lofty goals and are attempting to meet them.  Many of the present day energy needs are being met by renewable energy sources. Most of this advancement is being accomplished by the developed nations of the world like the U.S., Brazil, China, Spain and Germany. Currently, the most utilized form of renewable energy is hydroelectric power. Wind and solar energy, however, are also on the move.

Hydroelectric power throughout the world is developed primarily where dams have been built to control and focus the use of moving water. China has capitalized on this form of renewable energy, particularly with its Three Gorges Dam. China is the world’s leader in the production of hydroelectric power, creating 171 gig watts (GW). The next contender is Canada with 90GW, followed by the U.S. with 79 GW, then Brazil, Russia, India, Norway and then Japan at 27 GW.  These numbers can be a bit confusing when you take into account total electricity usage. For example, Norway is 9th on the list of hydroelectric GW creation, but the amount it does produce in this manner covers 98% of its electricity needs. China, by comparison, who is number one in hydroelectric GW production only meets 18% of its electrical needs using this method.

Wind energy producers starts with the U.S. which produces an installed capacity of 25,369 megawatts (MW), followed by Germany with 23,902 MW,  Spain with 16,740 MW, China with 12,200 MW, Indea, Italy, France , the United Kingdom and so on.

As for Nuclear energy (essentially carbon free) the countries that have the highest installed capacity are first the U.S. with 106 GW followed by France with 63GW, Japan with 49 GW,  Russia with 22 GW then Germany, South Korea, down to Sweden with 9 GW.

Finally solar energy producers are ordered as follows: Germany first with 5,400 MW, Spain with 3,300 MW, Japan at 1,970 MW, the United States at 830 MW and finally South Korea at 350 MW. In the world at large the number of grid-connected solar PVs is 13,000 MW.

Filed Under: Energy, General Tagged With: , ,

Alternative Fuel Options

There are many types of alternative energy available to us today; however when considering alternative energy sources for automobiles, the options are considerably narrowed. Currently we consider bio-fuels (made from bio-energy), electricity and to a much smaller degree hydrogen.

As far as the bio-fuel options are concerned we are generally looking at either ethanol or biodiesel. Ethanol is the product of certain crops, like soya beans and corn available in temperate climates like North America. Tropical climates generally create ethanol from sugar cane. Ethanol has been effective in automobiles as long as the gasoline introduced in the vehicle is made up of no more than 10% ethanol. There are some Flexi Fuel Vehicles (FFV) which can handle blends with 20% to 80% ethanol.

For vehicles that run on diesel, a vegetable oil based biodiesel fuel can be used without modifying the vehicle in any way. IT has been published that greenhouse emissions by 12% when a car runs off a 10% ethanol blend fuel, and by 41% when running on biodiesel. At present the U.S. creates just over half of the world’s production of ethanol, some 34 billion liters. Europe produces some 75% of the world’s biodiesel fuel, approximately 8 billion liters.

As far as electric vehicles are concerned other than smaller automobile companies like Tesla Motors, no one is currently producing mass market electric cars, although we have now seen the emergence of Chevy Volt and the Ford Focus. However these major auto producers, Ford, GM, Honda and Toyota have mainly concentrated their efforts in the more marketable Hybrid electric cars which combine electricity and gasoline energy sources.

There are some hydrogen fuel cell cars available, but the mass production and marketing of such vehicles and particularly cars that run just on hydrogen are still some time in the future. Before hydrogen will become economically competitive with our current fossil fuel economy the cost of hydrogen fuel cells will have to be lowered by a factor of ten or more and the production of hydrogen will need to also be reduced by a factor of 4 or more.

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: , ,

Renewable Energy Production

Renewable energy refers to those forms of energy production which are obtained through renewable resources such as sunlight, moving water, wind, geothermal heat, rain and tides, etc. These forms of energy production are considered renewable since they replenish themselves naturally all the time. In a general sense these forms of energy production are considered alternatives to fossil fuels (petroleum products) and nuclear power which during the ‘70’s and ‘80’s were referred to as “alternative energy.”

By 2008 the world’s consumption of energy had shifted 19% over to renewable sources. Traditional forms of biomass, used primarily for heating made up 13% of this number while hydroelectricity made up 3.2% of it. The remaining 2.7% came from wind, bio-fuels, geothermal and solar sources. Approximately 18% of electricity generation now comes from renewable sources – 15% from hydroelectricity and the remaining 3% from newer forms of renewable energy.

The installed capacity of wind power throughout the world in 2009 was 158 gig-watts (GW). It is growing at a rate of 30% each year and is most widely used throughout Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Photovoltaic (PV) (electricity generated by solar energy) generated in excess of 21 GW by the end of 2009. Spain and Germany have PV power stations throughout their countries. The U.S. and Spain also have solar thermal power stations in operation, the largest of which is located in the Mojave Desert, called the SEGS power plant.  It is a 354 megawatt (MW) facility. Geothermal power is generated in the largest amounts at “The Geysers” in California. It is rated with a capacity of 750 MW. Ethanol fuel is another renewable source of energy. Brazil has a world class renewable energy program that includes a production of sugar-cane created ethanol that makes up 18% of the nation’s automotive fuels. The U.S. is another country that produces and utilizes large amounts of ethanol fuel.

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