Now, imagine that a company, somewhere, could sell you solar panels that can produce between 2 and 4 times more electricity (for the same physical coverage) than “regular” (off the shelf) solar panels.

You’d think such an awesome technology would be either out of price and / or unavailable before at least a few years but you’d be wrong, on both assumptions.

Meet the innovaors at Nanosolar, in Palo Alto, CA who have taken the “nanotechnology” path to greatly improve the solar cell “productivity-level”. The foundation for their solar panels is so well-thought that it seems their ongoing research is constantly yielding more impressive “results” that T&L companies (and other types of companies, too) will surely want to learn more about.

The way things are going, Nanosolar is on track to make electricity:

• cost-efficient for -ubiquitous- deployment (read: everywhere, anytime);
• mass-produced on a global scale (free energy for everyone);
• available in many versatile forms (creative applications, even for the T&L operators).

Nanosolar has developed proprietary technology that makes it possible to simply roll-print solar cells that require only 1/100th as thick an absorber as a silicon-wafer cell (yet deliver similar performance and durability).

There’s a CNN video explaining all of this so you may want to watch it (.wmv format).

The unique approach Nanosolar has perfected dramatically lowers the process cost and complexity involved in the production of thin-film solar cells and makes it possible to scale production very rapidly.

The performance these “nanotech-enabled” solar “films” is so impressive that it might just be possible, right now, to put solar panels on mostly any kind of building, be it residential, commercial or industrial.

We’re pretty sure, here at NavSite, that you’re hoping Nanosolar can (somehow) adapt their impressively “thin” solar panels to fit on trucks, trains, boats and even planes. Well, given the nature of the technology, in our humble opinion, there’s nothing stopping them of doing it.

Tags: nanosolar, nanotechnology, solar energy, environment, thin solar panels

“According to the Federal Highway Administration‘s (FHWA) recently released report Freight Facts and Figures 2005 (FHWA-HOP-05-071), international trade is growing faster than the overall U.S. economy. Between 1980 and 2003, the U.S. economy, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), doubled, while foreign trade quadrupled in real value, reflecting unprecedented global connectivity. Ocean, rail, and air carriers use trucks and highways for some component of almost every shipment. Already tight infrastructure capacity will be stressed further by limited new construction and the growing demand from freight transportation. In fact, the FHWA Freight Analysis Framework indicates that by 2020 freight volumes will increase by 70 percent from 1998 totals, and freight volumes through the Nation’s primary gateway ports could more than double. Finding ways to improve the operational efficiency of moving this freight is critical to the Nation’s economic vitality and global connectivity.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) recognize that moving freight involves moving information as well as the goods themselves. Although excellent information management can increase freight efficiency, poor information management can add costs, slow handoffs, open security gaps, create delays at gates, and even lead to erroneous freight movements.

Given the important and growing role that goods movement plays in the U.S. economy and the impact that it has on the transportation network, USDOT’s ITS Joint Program Office and FHWA recently launched the Electronic Freight Management (EFM) project. EFM aims to improve the “information highway” that moves critical business information and facilitates the multimodal movement of airfreight, generating benefits for both private and public stakeholders. In particular, the project addresses weaknesses in freight data exchange processes that add costs, create security gaps, and, over time, contribute to congestion.

“It is well accepted that technology systems and electronic data represent one of the few remaining tools for improving both productivity and security,” says Margaret Irwin, director of customs and cross-border operations for the American Trucking Associations. “In addition, regulatory costs can be successfully managed in the long term only by replacing labor-intensive paperwork with electronic systems. Given that international trade now represents 25 percent of our country’s GDP, it is particularly important for ports and borders to operate more efficiently.”

EFM advances several concepts, but the single key concept is to promote electronic data exchanges along a supply chain in an end-to-end manner more robustly than is currently being done.

Typically, freight movements are supported by point-to-point communications, either paper-based or electronic, between parties who agree to such communications. Using the Internet to make data available broadly to any authorized and authenticated user in near real time is key to enabling freight transportation networks to operate more efficiently and securely. This type of data exchange provides buyers and other authorized parties with open visibility into supply chains. Program officials expect that these improvements will help to reduce unnecessary traffic on the transportation network and mitigate congestion.”

For more insight on EFM, please read the original article which goes about covering important themes like the best approach to have, the international data standards to observe, the public and private sector benefits as well as the added security.

This initiative is already bearing fruit and the transports and logistics industry should continue supporting such bold attempts to help our freight flow from the sending point to its destination, as fast and as efficiently as possible.

Tags: freight efficiency, freight flow, transit, highways, transport, logistics, destination

What if all this time we’d been lied to? What if gas, or even hydrogen wasn’t our best alternative? What if some powerful people found happiness in enslaving you and your company to the fuel pumps?

Influent voices are now rising to explain, with abundant proof, that it would be a lot more productive and cost effective to use batteries, instead of hydrogen fuel, to power our vehicles.

Sadly for us all, though, it’s a lot more profitable for the apparently omnipotent petroleum industry to develop the hydrogen technology, despite the considerable dangers involved, than investing for the development of efficient batteries.

Why? Because hydrogen will keep us tied up to the pumps.

Again, it’s all about the money.

Would it be possible that we’re all spectators to a giant play resembling a global conspiracy to move us all from one dependency (fossil fuel) to another (hydrogen)?

Sony Pictures has launched, on June 28th 2006, in both Los Angeles and New York, an amazing documentary / movie titled “Who Killed the Electric Car?” that tackles this situation head-on. The movie should be available locally, in most cities, this summer — as a T&L Professional, you should probably see it.

You may ask yoursefl why you should sit at your local cineplex looking at a “documentary” for a few hours? It’s a good question but let’s start with a few facts. In 1996, not so long ago, electric cars began to pop up on California’s roads. They were quiet, fast (zippy, to be precise), produced no exhaust and basically ran without any gasoline… a dream on four wheels, right?

Ok, so why are electric cars on the way out?

What happened?

In the transports and logistics industry, it’s hard to imagine daily business without using fossil fuel but, in comparison, look at the rest of our lives.

We use batteries in toothbrushes, rasors, flashlights, remotes, wireless phones, portable devices and computers… nowadays, even the books we buy for our kids come with little battery powered sound systems that play music while they read!

I’ll admit we either have to recharge the batteries once in a while (or even change them) but overall, we’re getting decent performance.

Why can’t we use batteries in our vehicles, especially for shorter commutes?

Imagine the savings in the T&L industry if all short distances could be taken care of by electric vehicles. Nobody would want to switch back to fossil fuel or even hydrogen so why are we so passive and tolerant about those “alternatives” now?

The ongoing debate over how to fuel the many vehicles in our highly mobile society will not stop here but hopefull, by asking questions, T&L operators from around the world will keep an open mind about what the future may have in store.

Tags: electric cars, gm, mobile society, fossil fuel, hydrogen, no emissions, documentary

If the latest developments are any indication, the gas retailers will look to install much more advanced fuel pumps that’ll sell gas, of course, but a whole lot more.

Think about buying a cup of coffee, a lottery ticket, downloading MP3s and even check traffic reports — all without ever leaving the pump! Such a “modern” pump was previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas.

Killing time at the pump may never be same!

Based on Dresser Wayne’s popular and field proven Ovation fuel dispenser, the Ovation iX features the same stylish design, user-friendly interface and reliable performance. But it also offers a range of new tools specifically engineered to increase retailer’s profits while reducing their costs.

Powered by Dresser Wayne’s state-of-the-art iX Technology Platform, the Ovation iX can be equipped with:

iX Media, which helps retailers drive in-store sales with customized full-motion video promotions on a dispenser-integrated 10.4” color display, with built-in speaker.

iSense, which reduces ownership costs by remotely and automatically troubleshooting and fixing potential site equipment problems before they occur.

iDPOS, whose fault-tolerant design guarantees uninterrupted fuel and merchandise sales by independently managing transactions and credit card sales even if the in-store POS is offline.

The Xflo Meter, Dresser Wayne’s fastest, most accurate fuel meter ever, virtually eliminates meter drift, meaning it never needs recalibration and therefore, the retailer loses less money.

The Ovation iX also features clutter-free side-hanging hoses, an intuitive ATM-style interface, integrated flow rate controls, and an easy-to-access panel door. It can also be fitted with an optional cash acceptor, Wayne SCAN, Wayne TRAC and Healy vapor recovery equipment.

Transports and logistics companies should be happy such developments are underway because, in essence, they’re meant to help customers “refuel” faster and somewhat more conveniently (for gas and everything else).

On the flipside, since it’ll be easier to buy loads of stuff at the pump, company managers will probably want to check their employee’s gas bills more closely, in the future!

Tags: gas pumps, refuel faster, convenience, gas bills, dresser, ix media

In the transports and logistics world, there are few prospects as exciting as limitless free power. Thanks to Victor I. Klimov, who works as Team Leader at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, solar power generation could soon become a lot more efficient.

Imagine having solar cells as small as molecules and you get an idea of where Dr Klimov and his pals are taking the future of solar panels by taking advantage of today’s hottest nanotechnology advances.

On the one hand, you have an abundant amount of -largely untapped- solar energy which is available almost everywhere on Earth (during day time) and on the other, you have the latest nanotechnology shrinking techniques. For Dr Klimov, the fit made perfect sense.

Based in New Mexico, the research team has achieved something which may help shape the way we power stuff in the not-so-distant future and not just pocket calculators. Technically speaking, for one photon of sunlight, you get two electron’s worth of electricity. That’s a huge leap over today’s solar panel capabilities!

By shrinking the functional element of a solar cell to a few nanometers (that’s a millionth of a millimiter), each captured photon can be made to generate two -or even more- charge carriers, which makes it twice as efficient (or more) than today’s best solar panels.

The good news is that this hot technological prowess could, sooner than later, be available for all sorts of applications since the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, based in Golden, Colorado, has successfully replicated Dr Klimov’s experiment.

It’s natural to assume that for anything remotely located and needing a power source to function, this discovery paves the way for very efficient solar panels which can, for instance, power all sorts of electronic signage (especially LED-based)… or even satellites!

Now, more than ever, a sunny future awaits all T&L companies who can successfully integrate such engaging technologies in their operations or offerings.

Tags: nanotechnology, solar power, solar panels, lanl, klimov, energy

So you’re wondering transportation companies can make sense of this overwhelming array of offerings to get down to business and precisely manage all their assets?

Well, we asked ourselves the same thing, here, at NavSite.

We found a nice software solution for all the asset management needs T&L companies can possibly have. It’s called GuideTI and it’s developed by a Canadian firm called COGEP. The people behind the code have “on the field” asset management experience and it shows because their solution is easy to operate and a treat to manage.

C-Level executives aren’t the only ones looking to gain significant insight in the future. Asset managers from the world over are actively looking to make their planning, intervention and cost control tasks easier — and more accountable.

The GuideTI software does just that for production equipment, buildings, vehicles, information systems and basically any significant asset that must be managed. To achieve this, COGEP uses the following modules:

• Management of Asset Lists
• Maintenance Management
• Management of Calls / Requests
• Work and Resources Management
• Management of Replacement Inventory
• Purchasing

In turn, based on these modules, users and managers can enjoy the benefits of this toolset, such as:

• Extensive Performance Indicators
• Import / Export of Information
• Integration with Existing ERP
• Secure Web Interface
• Wireless Network Capabilities
• Barcode Capabilities

All of this is intended to push upward any company’s efficiency level. This is important because the new transportation market realities include:

• Higher asset performance and readiness levels
• Availability, uptime and reliability of all managed assets
• Strict corporate governance guidelines
• Streamlined BPM (including consolidations)
• More proactive risk management
• Compliance with safety, environmental and public regulations
• Capability to manage outsourced service providers

All of this can’t be achieved without a solid technological foundation. High reliability, performance and availability of all your assets makes a huge difference on T&L companies’ bottom line. Using software for asset management isn’t an “if” question anymore, it’s more about “which” solution will be the best.

If you have recommendations, please submit them in the comments.

Tags: guideti, cogep, asset management, outsourcing providers, bpm, corporate governance, monitoring