Honda 's new home Hydrogen Solar Station

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Honda has developed a hydrogen re-filling station for the home - and it’s solar-powered.

If Honda has its way, your home will soon be transformed into a service station.

Honda has developed a next-generation solar-powered hydrogen fuelling station in the US that can be installed in your home - effectively removing the need for regular retail refilling stations.

The prototype is designed to refill a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in an eight-hour overnight cycle. It produces half a kilo of hydrogen in that time, which is enough to replenish the supply sufficiently enough for the average everyday commute.

One of the biggest benefits of Honda's new system is that it doesn't require the costly and bulky compressor of the previous solar hydrogen refilling station. The compressor with a high differential pressure electrolyser.

The new system can also pump energy back into the grid, allowing the owner to "sell" unused electricity to an energy supplier.

Honda says that the key to getting hydrogen stations into people's homes is to make it convenient, clean and energy efficient - the 48-panel solar powered system runs on off-peak energy and Honda says it wants to push the use of fuel cell vehicles forward.

"The combination of fuel cell electric vehicles and solar hydrogen stations could lead to the establishment of a hydrogen society based on renewable energy, resulting in a major reduction of CO2 emissions and greater energy sustainability."

According to Honda, it's all part of the plan to make hydrogen - in particular, the company's FCX Clarity fuel-cell vehicle - a mainstream option for the future.

"With fast fill public stations providing 5-minute fuelling time for longer trips, and the opportunity of convenient night-time slow filling at home... the Honda FCX Clarity can cover a wide range of driving demands from the daily commute to weekend trips."

The Honda FCX Clarity is currently only available in America and Japan as a lease vehicle, though it has been reported that Honda plans to offer affordable hydrogen cars to the mass market within ten years.

(SMH)

Mini-Prius Concept - Eight new Hybrids on the way

Toyota has unveiled a compact hybrid concept that will be cheaper and more fuel efficient than a Prius and spawn a new family of Prius-badged models.

The Japanese brand's new FT-CH has yet to be confirmed for production, but the company said at the concept car's reveal at the 2010 Detroit motor show that it plans to introduce a new range of petrol-electric models to capitalise on the strength of the Prius brand.

"We know we need to offer a wider variety of hybrid choices," says Toyota Motors Sales USA president Jim Lentz. "This is a car that our dealers and customers have been asking for.

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Radical Toyota FT-CH hybrid

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"We're developing a Prius family to take advantage of the Prius brand. There are more models planned and FT-CH is a concept we are considering."

Toyota says the FT-CH production version would be smaller lighter and more fuel efficient than the Prius, and that it will appeal to a "younger, less affluent demographic than Prius" and be priced below the world's most famous hybrid car.

The FT-CH is 560mm shorter (3886mm) and 25mm narrower than a Prius, though Toyota says the concept still seats four passengers in comfort.

Toyota says it will launch eight new hybrids over the next few years, none of which will be next-generation versions of existing petrol-electric models.

The Prius badge will be applied to a number of these new hybrids, though says Prius won't necessarily be considered a sub-brand within the company as with Scion that's used for Toyota's US range of models targeted specifically at younger customers.

Toyota says, however, that it is considering how it will apply model names to the different Prius models - including the current Prius itself.

It is hoping the new family of hybrids will help establish the Prius name as a global household name as great as Apple.

"I think the best analogy [for the range of Prius models] is that it's like the iPod with the Nano, the Shuffle, etc. The iPod name ... we're not trying to steal Apple's thunder, but it's incredibly strong branding," said Mike Michels, Toyota vice president of communications.

"What's prompting this is that our research shows that the Prius recognition is incredibly strong ... and it's probably higher than any of our brands except the core brands of Corolla and Camry. So we're trying to leverage that."

Petrol-electric hybrids will become the core drivetrain for Toyota and the company plans to sell one million hybrids annually.

It sold 530,000 hybrids globally in 2009 and Toyota is working on having a hybrid version of every model in its range on the market by 2020.

Plastic Baby Bottles and SIGG Bottles contain dangerous BPA...

HEALTH authorities will come under increasing pressure to ban baby bottles made with a certain chemical after evidence showed they can be harmful and are being withdrawn elsewhere in the world.

The chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) is widely used in plastics - particularly food and drink containers as well as food tin linings.

The chemical leaches into the containers' contents when heated.

It has been thought the chemical in tiny doses had posed no real health threat but British scientists have declared "compelling" evidence the chemical is linked to breast cancer, sex hormone imbalances and has adverse health risks to babies.

European scientists will this month campaign to have baby bottles which contain BPA removed from shelves.

Last year US baby bottle manufacturers removed BPA from products.

The Canadian Government has banned the use of BPA, the French Government last year introduced legislation to have it banned and even the chemical's leading producer Sunoco - which once staunchly defended BPA - now refuses to sell it to companies producing plastic food and drink bottles for children under the age of three years.

Related Coverage

• Plastics component affects intestine The Australian, 15 Dec 2009
• Baby bottle cancer link Courier Mail, 1 Dec 2009
• Reader's Comments: Town votes to ban bottled waterNEWS.com.au,
• School bans bottled waterHerald Sun, 25 Aug 2009
• My right to bear plastic Daily Telegraph, 11 Jul 2009

In Australia, Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said yesterday it was the Therapeutic Goods Administration's responsibility to raise safety issues regarding the plastic.

In turn, the TGA said it was an issue for the federal health department, which declared it an issue for Food Standards Australia New Zealand, which in turn confirmed it had no regulatory authority whatsoever over baby bottles and had never commissioned its own study on the BPA issue.

Food Standards said the group was monitoring the overseas BPA debate and up-to-date science found there was a "maximum daily safe limit".

Queensland grandmother and anti-BPA in bottles campaigner Nadia Duensing warned that as other countries banned baby bottles containing BPA, Australia could become the "dumping ground" for companies no longer able to sell their BPA products elsewhere.

Some of the biggest-selling baby bottle brands in Australia still sell bottles with BPA in them, including Avent, owned by Philips. A Philips spokeswoman said yesterday that the company was acting responsibly.

Paddington mother Alison Charles said her son Hugo was on the bottle and she had never heard of any potential danger.

SIGG:

SIGG's trendy aluminum water bottles have scored a lot of free advertising in recent years. In Touch Weekly raved about how Madonna's kids sipped from the lightweight, eco-conscious and super-cute bottles. Julia Roberts was photographed with one. Jennifer Garner was too. The Swiss brand became the must-have accessory as consumers rushed to find alternatives to plastic bottles that contained bisphenol-A (BPA), a controversial chemical used to harden plastics, which some studies have linked to diabetes, premature puberty in girls and reduced sperm count in men. SIGG's reusable aluminum bottles seemed the perfect antidote, a one-two punch protecting both our health and the environment.

But many consumers are feeling deceived now that the company has been outed for failing to tell the public that its bottles were not BPA-free, at least not the ones that were manufactured before August 2008. The company had boasted that its proprietary plastic liner didn't leach BPA into liquid like other bottles did. What it neglected to divulge was that the bottles contained the substance at all. While there's no evidence that the first-generation SIGGs did in fact leach BPA, there's still plenty of grumbling at the company's lack of disclosure. The news is especially troubling since the company internally acknowledged the chemical's questionable safety record as early as 2006, when it quietly decided to formulate a new, BPA-free liner.(Read about reassessing the dangers of BPA in plastics.)

"SIGG was one of the companies that profited from all the bad publicity over BPA," says Elaine Shannon, editor in chief of the Environmental Working Group, an environmental science research and advocacy group in Washington. Shannon's group urged SIGG last month to offer customers full refunds; SIGG declined.(See a quick guide to FDA regulations.)

To placate the masses, SIGG has agreed to exchange those older, BPA-laden bottles for new ones through Oct. 31, but I'm still feeling betrayed. Like many parents I know, a couple years ago I tossed all the baby bottles I had — and any suspect sippies too — and invested in SIGGs, which cost about $20 each.

The blogosphere is full of people like me who hopped on board the environmental, health-conscious bandwagon, only to find out we were going in the wrong direction. "I'm feeling kind of like I did when I found out that John Edwards cheated on his wife," Kellie Sloan Brown wrote on her blog, GreenHab: The Browns Go Green. "It isn't the worst thing to ever happen in this world, but I still feel really disappointed because I thought SIGG to be a genuinely green company."

SIGG has been around for more than 100 years, but it's been fairly recently that its bottles have popped up everywhere, with everyone. Much of its popularity can be traced to research publicized in 2007 about BPA's questionable safety. Since then, Chicago, Connecticut and Michigan have restricted the chemical, and more than 20 states are considering similar bans. The Environmental Protection Agency has placed BPA on a priority review list.

Nena Baker feels particularly duped; she switched to SIGG while researching her book The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-Being. After having given the bottles as gifts to friends and family, Baker, whose book came out last year, is now accusing SIGG of "greenwashing."(Read "Going Green Just Got More Cost-Effective.")

The consumer uproar has been eye-opening for SIGG CEO Steve Wasik. He thought going green just meant being good to the earth; he didn't realize it meant fessing up too. "Being a green company also means being held to the highest degree of corporate transparency," he wrote in an e-mail. "I fully expect that SIGG will not let consumers down in the future."

So how can you tell which lining you've got? Peer inside your bottle. If it's a shiny coppery-bronze, it's the old, BPA-infused liner. If it's a pale matte yellow, you've got the EcoCare liner, a new powder-based, co-polyester, water-based liner that SIGG says is 100% BPA- and phthalate-free.

Question is, do we believe the company this time?

Japanese Whalers Destroy Greenpeace Boat

Ady Gil in action.

Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd's stealth boat Ady Gil was cut in half by a Japanese security vessel in the Antarctic today, says the group's leader Paul Watson.

The $1.5 million high tech vessel's wreckage was sinking but its crew of six were rescued and uninjured, he said.

Captain Watson said the Ady Gil was idling in waters near Commonwealth Bay when it was suddenly approached and rammed by the Japanese ship Shonan Maru, which has been detailed to provide security to the fleet.

Earlier today the fleet was contacted for the first time by the Ady Gil, and Sea Shepherd's surprise third vessel, the Bob Barker.

Captain Watson, aboard the Steve Irwin, said he was still 500 miles from collision point.

"This seriously escalates the whole situation," Captain Watson said of the collision.

According to the Institute of Cetacean Research, the Ady Gil's crew were launching projectiles at the Nisshin Maru, and attempted to entangle its propellers with rope.

Looking more like Batman's spacecraft than a boat, the biodiesel-powered trimaran Ady Gil arrived at the Southern Ocean stand-off between Japanese whalers and activists yesterday.

It was reported this morning to be about 50 nautical miles away from the whaling fleet.

Japan's Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu had earlier warned two security ships would be used to protect the whaling fleet, intervening when Sea Shepherd tried to block the transfer of harpooned whales to the factory ship Nisshin Maru.

Captain Watson this morning announced the existence of a secret third ship in the Sea Shepherd flotilla.

He said he was confident that with three ships, Sea Shepherd would be able to cause maximum disruption to the whaling, which has been underway for around a month.

The Rudd Government has repeatedly called for caution by both sides in the wilds of the Antarctic.

"We have reminded the masters of protest vessels of their obligations under international law to take all steps to ensure safety of life at sea, particularly in the inhospitable conditions of the Southern Ocean," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said recently.

"We are also passing the same message to the government of Japan."

Source: theage.com.au

Old houses Green - New houses Inefficient

I was recently in Hay in a heatwave visiting Bishops Lodge. Built in 1888, the iron house was designed by the architect John Sulman to combat the Riverina summer heat.

On one of the hottest days this year, the interior of the house felt cool, despite it being built of lightweight corrugated iron and bereft of air-conditioning. Its deep verandas shaded the rooms, its shutters kept out direct sunlight, and natural Cyprus pine sawdust packed its walls and improved the insulation.

Often built at a time when energy was expensive, older buildings use natural heating, cooling, light and ventilation. They do not rely on the grid to let occupants cope with the heat because they have windows that open, and a smaller ratio of glass-to-walls, which reduces the temperature increase inside. Deep verandas cool older houses and wider overhangs minimise heat from the sun. Living rooms on the first floors of Victorian terraces often catch the breeze and escape radiant heat from the ground.

The Bureau of Statistics tells us that one in seven houses built in Australia simply replaces an existing house. Not only will the demolished house have been smaller, it will have consumed less energy. Think of all the energy that goes into those new buildings replacing the old. The building industry is a significant contributor to global resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, along with household energy use.

Building construction consumes 32 per cent of the world's resources, including 12 per cent of its water and 40 per cent of its energy. Buildings also produce 40 per cent of the waste that goes to landfill dumps and 40 per cent of air emissions. Household energy use contributes about 9.5 per cent of Australia's total greenhouse emissions.

Left unchecked, the energy consumption of our building industry and housing seem destined to continue to rise. Not only has the average floor area of new dwellings increased by about a third since 1986-87 but the number of people in each dwelling has reduced. We build the largest houses in the world - 44 per cent bigger than they were a quarter of a century ago.

Concrete production alone has increased 400 per cent since 1970 - accounting for an estimated 6 per cent of human-related carbon emissions. Home builders often claim their new buildings are more energy efficient but older houses have a role to play in retaining Australian heritage and reducing our emissions.

A study by the British Empty Homes Agency, New Tricks with Old Bricks, estimates that reusing empty homes could save 35 tonnes of carbon dioxide a property by removing the need for the energy expended on new building materials and construction.

They compared old and new buildings and found that not only did older buildings emit less carbon dioxide, but even a well-insulated new home would take several decades to make up for the large amount of embodied carbon dioxide used in its construction.

It is time to rethink our love of new homes and rediscover the old. And if you must build new, there are significant lessons to be learnt from the past. There is no better place to start than traditional bush architecture, and its construction techniques have never more relevant.

Think of corrugated iron. It is low maintenance, durable and recyclable. Add a veranda for natural ventilation and shading. Collect and store water from large roofs. Consider using earth in building, with its minimal embodied energy and heat storing thermal mass. Use timber - the most common frontier building material now recognised as a carbon-capturing renewable resource with low embodied energy and excellent insulation.

Being environmentally responsible begins at home. Old houses, as well as their potential heritage significance, have immense value environmentally as well as historically. If you seek proof, call in to Australia's oldest surviving homestead, Elizabeth Farm, at Parramatta. On a warm day, sit on its cool, shady veranda and understand that old and green belong together.

Kate Clark is director of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW.

Jack Green Energy Goes into Receivership..

POWER generators owed $5 million by the failed energy retailer Jackgreen are unlikely to redeem a cent from the collapsed group, the company's administrators say.

Jackgreen, which was Australia's largest specialist renewable retailer, toppled into voluntary administration the week before Christmas after failing to pay a $500,000 bill to the NSW government-owned Integral Energy.

Apart from Integral, other power companies seeking $5 million in unpaid debts from Jackgreen are Origin Energy, AGL Energy, NSW's government-owned Country Energy and a Queensland supplier, Energex.

An administrator from PKF, Atle Crowe-Maxwell, said these unsecured creditors faced an uphill battle in reclaiming funds from Jackgreen, as they were lower in the queue than secured financiers and employees.

Three quarters of Jackgreen's staff of nearly 100 have been sacked, and Jackgreen shares, which last traded at 3.8c before the collapse, are, in effect, worthless.

''I don't think there's going to be anything left for unsecured creditors at this point in time, let alone shareholders,'' said Mr Crowe-Maxwell, who was appointed by Jackgreen's board.

Jackgreen creditors will hold their first meeting today, before the company's future is decided towards the end of this month. Mr Crowe-Maxwell said liquidation appeared the most likely outcome.

Since Jackgreen's retail licence was revoked on December 18 receivers have also been appointed by the group's major secured creditor, which is owed about $11 million.

A receiver with Jirsch Sutherland Partners, Sule Arnautovic, said Jackgreen's accounts showed it was owed about $25 million in unpaid bills from customers, but without its licence the group has few other assets.

Jackgreen's 75,000 customers were transferred to other suppliers when it lost its licence, and Mr Arnautovic said he was expecting a large number of disputes over its attempts to reclaim the money.

Jackgreen did not generate power, but specialised in selling renewable electricity from cheap methods such as hydro generation, rather than more expensive options such as solar or wind.

Its collapse comes despite growing public interest in green power generation. The company's troubles appear to have been caused by gaps in its cash flow rather than low customer numbers.

Ben Freund, the chief executive of the power price comparison website GoSwitch.com.au, said the cheaper forms of renewable power sold by Jackgreen remained the most popular environmentally friendly option with consumers.

''In theory everybody wants to go green, but in reality most consumers are not prepared to pay for it out of their own pockets.''

(SMH ARTICLE)