Google is in the news for some energy innovation:

these asphalt acres are getting their day in the sun, with search giant Google joining other companies in planting groves of pole-mounted solar panels between the rows of Saabs and SUVs, generating clean power and providing a little shade at the same time.

Google’s Mountain View, California, headquarters is getting a 1.6-megawatt solar system — enough to power about 1,000 homes — that will feed about 30 percent of the complex’s power demand.

I like the fact that someone realized that stringing together small arrays on roof-tops makes sense but should not be the limit, especially when you look out over a sea of perfectly flat parking spaces. I also thought of at least two benefits beyond those mentioned in the article:

1. Shading the asphalt and cars, which reduces wear from the sun and may even provide some shelter from rain. How dumb are we as a civilization to park cars on black asphalt and then run cooling systems to compensate, when harvesting the sun would achieve the same result with additional benefits?
2. Emergency-backup source of energy for business continuity.

The 10 Famous Monkeys* in Science page is hilarious. It also has some neat insights, including the description of a risk management approach by the US government in the 1950s:

Never send a man to do a female monkey’s job. That was the logic of the U.s. Army’s Medical Research and Development Department in 1959 when they wanted to gauge the body’s physical response to space travel. Instead of relying on fit, able-bodied Americans, researchers there turned to two highly patriotic gals named Baker (a squirrel monkey) and Able (a rhesus monkey). On May 28, the monkeys steeled their nerves, entered the nose cone of a Jupiter AM-18 missile, and embarked on a suborbital mission into space. It would take two more years before a human male, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, had the guts to attempt the same thing.

I also thought the Koko and Nim Chimpsky entries were funny, but you have to read number 10. Power supplies are such a drain…

A california company has announced plans to build more giant 2-ton bio-diesel reactors, elsewhere in the world:

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. (BUSINESS WIRE) Nov. 13, 2006 — Green Star Products, Inc. (US OTC: GSPI) today announced that it has signed an agreement with De Beers Fuel Limited of South Africa to build 90 biodiesel reactors.

Each of the biodiesel reactors will be capable of producing 10 million gallons of biodiesel each year for a total production capacity of 900,000,000 gallons per year when operating at full capacity, which is 4 times greater than the entire U.S. output in 2006.

A photo of the reactor is here. Green Star also just announced a US$140 million contract with Vietnam.

Incidentally, the Green Star site claims they build these giant reactors so their biodiesel plants will emit almost zero net Global Warming Gases. Coupled with the reduction from engine emissions, that seems to add up to a big total reduction:

It is an established fact that the use of biodiesel fuel in diesel engines will reduce CO(2) Global Warming Gases (by 78% on a life cycle basis)

Audi is definitely leading the world in diesel-engine development in terms of sheer performance. Edmunds explains that the German automaker is showing gasoline engines should soon be little more than a memory:

Consider those for a moment. The diesel-powered Audi A8 4.2 TDI is not only more economical than the gasoline-powered A8 4.2, it also produces fewer greenhouse gases and, most importantly for readers of this Web site, it’s also significantly quicker.

More importantly, perhaps, is the contrast between European and American energy policy and consumption:

For the past few years, while the U.S. has been bemoaning ever increasing gas prices, the Europeans have been experiencing a quiet, bloodless diesel revolution. The introduction of multivalve, common-rail direct-injection and pre-ignition technology has transformed the diesel engine from a noisy agricultural workhorse into an ultrarefined, economical powerhouse worthy of the finest performance and luxury cars. Across Europe, more than a third of new cars now stop at the black pump and in some countries, diesel cars outsell petrol.

People around the world used to buy American cars because they stood for something — the image of freedom, liberty, and love for the open road, etc. — not because they actually liked the technology or trusted the companies. Now that the Bush administration has all but completely destroyed the positive image of America, and thus washed away the base of competitive advantage US car companies had, global consumers are likely to buy cars that make more sense. Passenger diesels definitely fall into that category. Well, I guess that begs the big question of regulation, security and the rational consumer, but that’s probably best discussed another day.

Edmunds also gives a nod to BMW’s diesel performance:

Today, the economic rationale in favor of diesel is still relevant, but it’s been joined by more emotive impulses. In the U.K., for example, the BMW 530i and 530d cost similar money. They have the same power output (231 hp), but the diesel has dramatically more torque — 212 lb-ft vs. 384 lb-ft. The 530i gets to 62 mph 1.3 seconds quicker than the 530d (which takes 7.8 seconds), but in the midrange, when the torque becomes more relevant, the diesel car pulverizes its petrol rival. That it’s astonishingly refined, even at idle, and achieves an average of 42.2 mpg to the 530i’s 32.1 mpg (European “combined” estimates for manual-transmission vehicles), is really the cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake. The 530d is the enthusiast’s choice, pure and simple.

Had American politicians had any sense about them, clean diesel engines would be a mandate. It’s a clear path to reduce consumption and emissions with little/no impact to consumer preferences for high-performance vehicles. And with 2008 VW diesel technology already being spotted with “extensive exhaust aftertreatment, including catalyst, particle filter, etc, but no urea injection” there is little reason not to get excited about biodiesel…