The folks over at Green Upgrader found this video, and another one, that both make fun of the idea that coal energy is clean energy. The US has huge reserves of coal and generates over half its electricity by burning it. According to the folks at Coal is Dirty, that alone produces 10% of the global CO2 emissions. And that’s before you even look at the other emissions from burning coal (everything from sulphur dioxide to health-damaging mercury).

So, if coal is dirty, then what are the alternatives?

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Just ahead of the London Motor Show, Lotus has announced a special edition of its Elise sports car, the Eco Elise. This eco-friendly version of an already pretty efficient little sports car, improves the Elise’s footprint throughout its life, from production to eventual retirement without sacrificing performance.

How have they done this? A large part of the changes are in the choice of materials used to make the car. While the structural and drivetrain components remain mostly the same, sustainable materials like hemp, eco wool and sisal have been used for body panels and trim and a new water based paint has been used for the exterior finish.

On the more technical side, a new gear change light has been added, letting the driver know the optimum time to change gear, and flexible solar panels have been integrated into the car’s hemp hard top roof panel. The solar panels contribute power to the car’s electrical system, saving energy that would have come from the engine. No numbers have been provided for the amount of power generated, and given the size of the Elise’s roof panel, and the information about Toyota’s plans for solar panels in their next generation Prius, I imagine it is not much power.

[Via AutoBlog.]

The internet is buzzing this morning with a report from the Nikkei business daily newspaper in Japan that Toyota plans to add solar panels to the next generation Prius, in addition to its plug-in capability.

Most of the comments seem to be skeptical of the amount of value adding the panels can bring, but Canadian engineer Steve Lapp can provide actual data since he modified his 2001 Prius back in 2005 to include solar panels on the roof. His initial three panel system generated around 270W, but he was hoping to boost that to 360W with the addition of a fourth panel.

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There have been a number of eco-friendly transportation announcements over the past few days, so here’s a quick round up of the ones that caught our attention:

• A cardboard bicycle from a student at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. Created initially in an attempt to reduce theft, the low cost cardboard bicycle which is made almost entirely from recyclable and recycled materials and uses interchangeable mechanical parts.
• Inhabitat reports that Mercedes Benz intends to convert their entire line up of luxury cars to alternative fuels by 2015. That might sound like a long time in the future, but it is only 7 years away!
• SolarLab will be launching a solar powered rickshaw in London next year as a pilot program. If it performs well there, it will be released into other cities around the world too. The solar hybrids are human/electric hybrids combining pedal power and solar electric power from an array of photo-voltaic panels on the roof of the rickshaw. [Via InHabitat.]
• In Austin, Texas, Doug Pelmear claims he has modified a 1987 Ford Mustang engine, perfecting ideas his grandfather had 60 years ago, and his car now achieves 110 mpg. The car produces 400 bhp, and is claimed to go from zero to 60mph in just 3 seconds.

As oil prices continue to rise, consumers will become more and more interested in lower cost alternatives. Luckily for the planet, many of the solutions for reducing our dependency on oil are also good for the environment - a win, win situation.