Welcome to our website about the innovations of technology that allowed the ground breaking research performed by the participants in the Shell eco-marathon inspire all types of practical efficiencies. They include not only eco friendly vehicles but also inspire eco friendly homes and living spaces as well as the vehicles we will be driving tomorrow. Alternative energy refers to non-fossil fuels some of which are hydrogen, solar power and other fuels that come from different types of biomass.
This site provides information on solar power and eco friendly cars and cars that use alternative energy sources and sustainable fuel efficient smart cars. The green cars and concept cars use solar power and fuel cells as well as traditional combustible energy sources to compete with teams from all around the world. From Florida to California where the American eco marathon is run annually and from St. Petersburg Russia to Sweden where the innovators from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology invented the innovative Spiroscar for the urban competition at the Shell eco marathon in May 2007.
The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) unveiled a new type of concept car in the Shell Eco Marathon. The goal of the team was to travel in their eco friendly car longer than the other alternative energy cars designed by the other teams using the smallest amount of fuel or alternative energy. The Shell Eco Marathon is run in France each year since 1985 at the Nogaro Circuit in May.
KTH competed with two cars competing in each of the two different classes. The first class being the prototypes category and the other is the urban concept car category which is specifically geared toward the real world scenario of urban driving conditions and habits.
The first entry from KTH to the Shell eco marathon was the Agilis car. The Agilis currently holds the Swedish record of 500 km traveled per Liter of fuel consumed. The Spiros Car competed in the urban race for the 2007 Shell eco marathon and uses lightweight versions of parts found in normal cars already on the road.
The European Shell eco marathon is sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell and is held annually in France in May. In 2007 there were 257 registered competing teams from 20 different countries. The worlds leading design and engineering students compete to try to encourage innovation in alternative energy and fuel efficiency in the concept cars that they invent. The objective is to build fuel efficient, low emission vehicles that focus on energy efficiency and use both conventional fuels and alternative energy sources as well like solar power, windpower and other forms of fuels. As the team innovate in alternative energy transport the marathon demonstrates that science and research and developing new technologies can help today's and tomorrow's scientists create real world solutions to the energy crisis and global warming. It is really all about sustainable mobility. As the race enters its 21st year the participants will encourage and foster innovation and ideas about fuel efficient cars and the impact they will have on transportation in the future. These competitions are a tremendous opportunity for engineering and design students to gain experience and assist with the development of technical careers all around the world. The continuing goal is to promote vehicle designs that have low CO2 emissions and utilize alternative energy sources. In the future perhaps even windpower will be employed and harnessed like it is for residential and commercial applications and be used to power the vehicles of tomorrow. The teams develop new prototypes every year that can complete seven laps of the circuit that is about 25km. These prototypes are often futuristic and sleek in design. The urban concept category are different in that they are developed as the transportation for practical applications of urban living of tomorrow. Many of these vehicle will fit the standards of the road today. These vehicles must complete 14 laps of the circuit with stop and go type travel to simulate real world situations. The engines employed are combustion, fuel cell and solar power. Solar powered engines have pushed the concept envelope by traveling at 30km/hr and using only 129,568 joules of energy. There are eco races all around the world and in America the Shell eco marathon takes place in April at the California Speedway.
Gas to liquid technology is now being employed regularly in the eco races and is derived from natural gas. This biodegrable and eviromentally friendly fuel is almost sulpher free and clean burning. Swedish team Spiros KTH made a big splash in 2007 with a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition for which they hold a patent. The spiros car does not employ spark plugs and can run on any fuel type. This type of sustainable mobility will meet the needs of the global community and its growing population without harming the environment or contributing to global warming. With world demand for energy expected to double by 2050 there is a need to reverse the trend of global dependence on fossil fuels. This can be accomplished by making the engines that burn fossil fuels more fuel efficient and by utilizing clean alternative sources of energy. The transpotation sector is responsible for burning nearly 60% of the fossil fuels consumed worldwide.
The world of autmotive engineering is participating with Bosch providing miniature fuel injectors. SKF has been providing a wide variety of ball bearings to make the cars run smoother. The tires which have been provided by Michelin are specially designed low resistance tires which greatly improve the fuel efficiency of the vehicles.
Corruptively speaking the Toyota Prius 75, the fuel efficient smart car which is wildly popular and very eco friendly has CO2 emissions of 104gCO2/km traveled. These prototype and experimental concept cars only emit about 4g CO2/km traveled. Most scientists now agree that global warming is being caused by human activity and in part is being augmented by the burning of fossil fuels. This means that we must rush to develop the solutions to the CO2 issues today and not tomorrow. Now it is not only the cars that are getting in on the act. Many homebuilders are developing eco friendly construction technologies to contract homes and commercial buildings. We recently discovered some of these green buildings and homes by searching the Tampa Florida area MLS system and realtor listings. As we searched the homes and buildings we found that many of these properties were employing green and environmentally friendly building products and energy efficient appliances. Much of the Tampa real estate and St. Petersburg real estate that we searched employed at least some form of environmentally friendly construction materials. You can search these eco friendly and green homes at their website.
Here are some helpful resources we have discovered on the web. In our research on green and eco friendly homes we discovered serveral Florida home inspectors who specialize in energy efficiency and home inspections in Florida to ensure energy efficiency and check the quality of insulation and windows in the homes they inspect. We recently attended one such home inspection in Florida in which the inspector used an infared scanner to check the homes energy efficiency. Check out this site about Florida home inspections and home inpectors.
Another great site we discovered was a site about how to advertise real estate including how to attract buyers to homes which are eco friendly and energy efficient. This site has information about all the latest real estate media and real estate marketing strategies that real estate agents and home owners are using to attract new clients and shocase the latest in the real estate industry like eco friendly and green homes.
Recently we started to fall in love with the Beaux Arts style of architecture and discovered a site that talks about the style and it characteristics. The site details information about how these homes are designed and explains clearly how the style can be identified. We started to think about how different architectural styles can be used to create energy efficient homes even those with Beaux arts style of architecture.
We are big football fans and history buffs so we loved a site that we found that is all about the history of football and football leagues. It talked about the different changes that the NFL and other football leagues. The site also gives examples of old football uniforms and the history of football both college and professional football leagues.
