A new EV concept by Daimler subsidiary Smart gives new meaning to the humble sunroof, with the inclusion of a porous, hexagonal roof that has transparent solar cells that are designed to provide light and energy during the day, and at night transform into built-in LEDs. Smart is set to release the performance details of its Forvision model in preparation for the Frankfurt Motor Show 2011 this month. But EarthTechling reports that the car includes a variety of other energy saving features, such as the use of light-weight plastic in the making of its wheels and other body parts, while its windows and windshield are coated with a heat-shield technology that reflects more sunlight away from the vehicle.

In other EV news, a new study by the US Technology Strategy Board has predicted that the so-called "range anxiety" that is attached to electric cars – seen as one of the major roadblocks to their mass market acceptance – will wear off quickly as drivers begin to understand the capabilities and charging patterns of EVS. Venture Beat reports that the study showed that three months after buying an EV, only 35 per cent of EV drivers were concerned about reaching a destination before running out of power, compared to 100 per cent of EV drivers when they had first bought an electric car. The report also showed that more seasoned EV owners drove the cars until the battery fell below 50 per cent charge, but that electric car owners still wanted longer ranges.

Meanwhille, innovation strategist Mark Johnson said in BusinessWeek last week that he believes the EV is "nearing a crossover point" on the key barrier of price performance. "Over the coming months, two leading e-car models, the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt, will expand beyond limited test markets," Johnson wrote. "The global launches will be supported by new business models for creating a charging infrastructure." Johnson and his team at Innosight made calculations – using Kiplinger.com’s Green Car Calculator – on five car models to figure out how much they’d cost over five years of ownership. They compared the all-electric Nissan Leaf and the plug-in Chevy Voltto the Toyota Prius hybrid and popular gasoline models, the Ford Fusion and the Lexus CT. The results showed that at $4 per gallon of gas, the Leaf would be cheaper to own than a Toyota Prius, even factoring in the initial costs of a Leaf being $US10,000 higher. And the Volt would be less expensive to own than a Lexus and even a Ford Fusion – factoring in the federal tax credit for EVs and five years of fuel bills.

Souped-up on seaweed

Could seaweed help revolutionise modern battery storage? According to Technology Review, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Clemson University believe they may have found an algae-derived ingredient that would not only make lithium-ion batteries more efficient, but also cleaner and cheaper to manufacture. In research published last Thursday by Science, the scientists show that when alginate is used instead of polyvinylidene fluoride (the typical polymer binder used to mix with an electroactive graphite powder to make battery anodes) it results in a more stable silicon anode that has, so far, been demonstrated to have eight times the capacity of the best graphite-based anodes. The polymer alginate is made from brown algae, says TR, including the type which forms forests of giant kelp, and is widely used as a gelling agent and a food additive. And while the the full potential of a silicon anode will not be achieved until a matching cathode can be deveoped, even without this step alginate-silicon anodes could increase the capacity of li-ion batteries by 30-40 percent, according to the researchers.

An Apple a day...

It's a well-known fact that Google has a bit of a thing for solar power, but what if fellow IT giant Apple was to throw its weight behind the technology? As GigaOm's Katie Fehrenbacher points out, Apple has been exploring the use of solar to charge its gadgets for a while now, including the idea of embedding solar cells in its electronic devices. "But if Apple made the leap to an actual commercial launch," she says, "it could be a solar game changer." According to Fehrenbacher (according to Patently Apple), Apple has two solar-related patents granted and five solar applications filed in total. The most recent was granted a month ago for a voltage converter and controller for charging a device with solar power. The previous patent was awarded in January 2011 and includes technology to monitor and control a charge from a solar source for a mobile device.

With the price of solar cells gradually coming down, one of the barriers to solar gadgets is being removed, says Fehrenbacher. And if Apple decided to launch a gadget with embedded solar, it would bring those prices down even more. She then quotes Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst, Nat Bullard, who has described Apple as “a fierce negotiator for components,” and said that if it was interested in solar it could lock up low-cost supply deals for solar parts as it did with iPod and iPad components like glass and memory. "If any company could reliably integrate PV into consumer portable electronics, it is Apple," Bullard told GigaOm. "Given its other devices, it would likely make the simplest, most elegant integration. It may sacrifice some nominal performance (and greater freedom of choice) for the sake of simplicity and robustness – as it has done time and again in the past decade."

Meanwhile, Google reported last Wednesday that is uses 260 million watts continuously across the globe, making it the first major internet company to reveal how much energy it uses – information that will help researchers and policy makers understand how soaring internet usage and cloud computing will contribute to future global energy consumption, says Technology Review. 260 million watts (or 260 MW) is equivalent to the amount used to power around 200,000 homes, and roughly a quarter of the output of a standard nuclear power plant. And in Google's case, the vast majority of this energy is used by its data storage centres.

Just add water

In the same week that Citigroup's Michael Eckhart described hydro power as "the backbone" of renewable power generation ("wherever it’s available"), US energy secretary Steven Chu has announced that the DOE is funding 16 projects aimed at advancing hydropower technology, in a nationwide effort to make it more efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly. The department says the $US17 million in funding would be spread between companies, universities, national laboratories, and local governments across 11 states over the next two to three years, with the purpose of boosting R&D and deployment of advanced hydropower technologies.

According to the government statement, all of the 16 projects are focused on one of four main hydropower technologies the US is keen on advancing. These are: sustainable small hydropower – hydro technologies that can be deployed at existing or constructed waterways; sustainable pumped storage hydropower – a method that can be used for generation during peak power periods that involves moving water between reservoirs at different elevations; environmental mitigation technologies for conventional hydropower – technologies that will help decrease environmental effects such as fish mortality; and advanced hydropower system testing – system tests of conventional hydropower technologies at a Bureau of Reclamation canal drop near Madras, Oregon. The DOE describes hydro as America's "largest, most reliable, and least expensive source of renewable power generation," and says it expects these projects to move the US closer to achieving its goal of generating 80 per cent its electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.