Bright Automotive, which recently scored the first investment from General Motors’ new venture capital arm, aims to help steer commercial fleets toward more efficient options by decoupling size from efficiency. In other words, it lets customers have their cake (sip less fuel) and eat it too (carry more stuff). To accomplish this, Bright is developing a plug-in hybrid van called the IDEA with advanced materials that could shave thousands of pounds off the weight of conventional counterparts. I’ve written a profile of Bright for National Geographic News, covering the company’s accomplishments so far and challenges ahead as it pursues government funds on the road to commercialization.
Tag Archives: National Geographic
Tapping into the Electric Power of Heat
What if every gallon of gas in our cars and lump of coal in our power plants did extra duty? What if we could get more work out of our fuel? That’s the basic idea of waste heat recovery systems — a topic I’ve explored (and explained) over on National Geographic in this article about a high-tech startup that aims to give a boost to decades-old cogeneration technology.
By providing a thermoelectric chip that can be inserted into any exhaust flue or engine to convert heat into electrical power, San Francisco, Calif.-based Alphabet Energy hopes to become the “Intel of waste heat.” The company’s efforts fit into a larger drive by researchers, entrepreneurs, and trade groups to make use of heat energy that’s currently thrown away by factories, power plants, cars and even laptop computers. This article is part of a special National Geographic series that explores energy issues.
