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NTSOC  |  The NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center is located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado and receives up-to-the-minute status reports from radar, satellites and Santa cams on Christmas Eve

The movers and shakers of 2008

2008 proved to be both an interesting and challenging year for the transportation sector.  

Each year, automakers unveil their latest and greatest designs.  2008 was no different, except for one overarching trend: more emphasis on fuel economy. Check out the radical new fuel-efficient designs.  

The humble Recreational Vehicle has been the butt of jokes since, well, a long time.  It turns out those cracks may have been undeserved. A 2008 study shows RVing might just be the greener travel choice.   

Fuel?  We don’t need no stinkin’ fuel.  At least, participants in World Aeolus don’t.  Their wind-powered cars race, as the wind blows so to speak. 

Speaking of green racing, the University of Calgary’s Schulich I solar-powered race car recently made a trip from sunny Dallas to sunny (if slightly colder) Alberta.

The brightest ideas of 2008

From ideas that are bright because of their simplicity to ideas that are simply bright. Check out the best and the brightest from 2008.

The expression “reliable as the tides” is an expression for a reason. The tides are as reliable as sunrise and sunset.  Finding ways to harness this cheap, renewable, and predictable energy source definitely counts as a bright idea.

If the downside to biofuels is diverting crops from food production…well, then what about using crops that have no food value?  Research into cellulosic biofuels such as switch grass aims to give us the best of both worlds.

Of course, a review of the year’s brightest posts should include the one titled “A Bright Idea.”  MIT’s announcement of new storage capabilities for solar power definitely qualifies.

Hydrogen fuel cells are the bogeyman of renewable energy sources – often threatened, seldom seen.  It’s never been cost-effective or efficient enough to be practical, but researchers at Penn State have discovered it might just be possible – even if just eventually.

The top energy trend of 2008

And the winner is: solar power. In 2008, applications for solar power technology were popping up all over the place.

Try the golf course – where the sun is always supposed to be shining, in theory anyway.  But what needs power on the back nine?  You do, if you’re playing all 18.  Soon solar-powered golf carts may just be as common as divots.  

Municipalities across North America are switching from coin-operated parking meters to pay stations.  Switching over to a system that takes payment by credit, debit, and pre-pay cards necessarily means electricity – and cities are trying to use less energy, not more.  The solution?  Solar-powered pay stations.  

Around since the 1800’s, solar-powered water heating technology is as simple as it sounds. But new technologies are making its use increasingly widespread, even in countries you might not expect.

“Big box” stores, such as Wal-Mart and K-Mart, have heretofore-unused advantage thanks to their big, broad, flat roofs.  Hence the “box” sobriquet.   What better place for long rows of electricity-generating solar panels? 

And we give a nod to Triumph International’s unveiling of the solar bra. With a photovoltaic panel, the bra generates enough electricity to charge a mobile phone or MP3 player. Brings a new meaning to supporting alternative energy.

The creatures and critters of 2008

They exploded, slithered, twittered, munched away and got eaten. Our best picks for energy in the animal kingdom this year.

As a group of University of Calgary researchers discovered, bats are susceptible to sudden drops in pressure created by windmills blades and can succumb to a condition know as barotrauma.

Checkmate SeaEnergy created an alternative energy technology that puts the “ee!” back in “green.” Called the Anaconda, the device is a long, rubber tube that will slither through ocean waves to generate electricity. JLo and Ice Cube would be proud.

FuelFrog lets you track and share mileage, the cost of gasoline and your efforts to be more fuel efficient. A little bit of public shame can be a good thing.

Research from Penn State suggests that grazing muskoxen may be sending us closer and closer to an overheated planet. Climate models are tricky.

Kangaroos produce fewer greenhouse gases that cows. They are plentiful and their padded feet don’t erode the soil like cloven hooves do. An Aussie argument in favour of marsupials as a climate change solution.

Weirdest stories of 2008

When it comes to innovation, truth is always stranger than fiction. Here are a few truly weird stories from 2008.

Sometimes ideas are so obvious, they become weird.  Where can you find more energy to burn than the club?  The energy-generating dance floor, in retrospect, was in inevitable.  

What’s “greener” than green?  The first European settlers on the prairies harnessed the insulating power of sod. Why not their great-great-great grandchildren?  Green Roofs demonstrate that old ideas can indeed become new again.  

Much attention has been given to climate change and its impact on everything from migration routes, to the food chain, even the very survival of a given species.  What about their sex life?  

Raindrops and diapers and grape juice – oh my!  Jamie Hyneman of the popular TV show Mythbusters looks at some decidedly unusual potential sources of energy.

Even the military is getting in on the green auto trend, with Hybrid Tanks in development.

Revenge of the nerds?

Three of U.S. president-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet picks – Nobel laureate physicist Steven Chu as Energy Secretary, former New Jersey environmental commissioner Lisa Jackson as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and former EPA Administrator Carol Browner as the president’s “climate and energy czarina” – could be characterized as the “revenge of the nerds”.

An early advocate of a scientific approach to climate change, Chu has run Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy facility operated by the University of California, since August 2004. During that time, he has spearheaded a multidisciplinary mission to evolve the lab into a world leader in alternative and renewable energy research, among other things.

His Nobel Prize was shared in 1977, while he was still at AT&T Bell Laboratories, with fellow American William D. Phillips and Frenchman Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, for their work on ways of cooling and trapping atoms. Chu joined Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley in 1987 as a professor in 1987 and remained there until the Berkeley appointment.

A key player in the National Academies of Science ongoing America’s Energy Future project, Chu also co-chaired the InterAcademy Council’s report Lighting the Way: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future and has published more than 220 papers. His appointment is in sharp contrast to the retired military officers and energy-sector executives who have been Energy Secretary in previous U.S. cabinets.

His environmental credentials can be summed up by remarks at a National Clean Energy Summit. He dismissed as a “myth” the notion that modern society has all the technologies needed to solve the energy challenge. “I think political will is absolutely necessary,” he said. “But we need new technologies to transform the landscape.”

Jackson, a New Orleans native, led New Jersey’s progressive efforts to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions and Browner, currently Obama’s transition team adviser on energy and environmental issues, headed the EPA during the Bill Clinton presidency and will coordinate policy from the White House as an influential link between Chu and Jackson.

Each has an impressive track record which could give Obama unprecedented leverage as he tries to make good on his key campaign commitment to a $500-billion economic stimulus plan he hopes to put in place shortly after his inauguration next month.

Prowling the Pumps – December 16, 2008

Canadian Gasoline Prices

Average across Canada

The average price of gasoline in Canada decreased for the 14th consecutive week. The drop wasn’t much, 0.6¢ per litre, but it was still a drop. It would have been more, but prices actually increased in some of the larger cities like Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Hamilton and London (the national average is population-weighted).

Provincially and territorially, decreases occurred everywhere except Quebec, which remained the same as last week. The biggest drop, 12.3¢ per litre, occurred in the Northwest Territories. The other big declines were in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Least Expensive Gasoline in Canada (per litre)

For the first time since we began prowling the pumps, the price of gasoline in each of the 60 cities in the survey was below $1.00. In fact, in only one city does gas cost more than 90¢. And in six cities, it costs less than 70¢.

Big changes in the low-price five (actually six this week because of a tie for fifth place). Ontario cities have been largely replaced by Alberta cities. This is due to continued decreases out west combined with the aforementioned price increases in southern Ontario.

Most Expensive Gasoline in Canada (per litre)

Wishful thinking last week was that we’d all be paying less than a buck a litre before Christmas, and that came true this week. Labrador City, the most expensive of the pricey five, came in at $0.905. And this week marks the first time that five different provinces are represented in the pricey five. Timmins has the dubious distinction of being the first Ontario city to join that elite club.

Last week the Prowler wondered if we’d see a run up in oil prices prior to the OPEC meeting December 17. Well, it seems the opposite has happened – a price decline after the cartel announced a 2.2 million barrel per day production cut. Oil prices are now hovering just above the $40 US per barrel mark. It seems the market was expecting some large non-OPEC producers to announce production cuts and when that didn’t happen, it reacted in a seriously negative way. OPEC was hoping to stabilize oil prices between $70 and $80 per barrel.

And $40 per barrel might be one of those so-called “psychological barriers” above which the price bounces around a bit, “testing” the market until it finally breaks through, then plunges another five bucks per barrel over night. That seemed to happen on the way up; no reason why it won’t happen on the way down.

So, will the other producers fall in line? Will oil prices start heading back up?

We’ll see what happens next week.

Pricing by Province

	Last Week	This Week	Change
BC	0.841	0.804	-0.037
AB	0.738	0.697	-0.041
SK	0.801	0.782	-0.019
MB	0.791	0.771	-0.020
ON	0.766	0.757	-0.009
QC	0.798	0.798	0.000
NB	0.802	0.724	-0.078
PE	0.752	0.719	-0.033
NS	0.799	0.745	-0.054
NL	0.929	0.851	-0.078
YT	0.909	0.899	-0.020
NT	1.022	0.899	-0.123

Climate outcome ‘hangs on coal’

The end of oil could lead to more emissions according to some scientists.

Full Story [BBC News]

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