Western Wind Energy Corp. of Coquitlam, British Columbia, and Arizona Public Service have agreed to expand the terms of their current 15 MW agreement, to add an additional 25 MW of wind energy production, boosting the total to 40 MW.

If there is sufficient available capacity in the current transmission system, the agreement would go to 45 MW.

The added power will be generated from Western Wind's Kingman Steel Plant facility. The two companies have not yet agreed on final details on the extra capacity, but Western Wind anticipates executing a formal agreement within the next two months.

The addition to the APS agreement means that Western Wind Energy now has more than 185 MW of projects either in production or development.

Western Wind Energy is in the business of acquiring suitable land sites, capital, and technology for the production of electricity from wind energy.

It's long been a policy of the Bush administration to delay any actions to deal with global warming until a battery of comprehensive studies have been conducted. It initiated the Climate Change Science Program in 2002 to coordinate these studies. This approach was a marked contrast to that of many other Western nations, which already have adopted restrictions on greenhouse gases.

The first of these comprehensive studies ordered by the Bush administration was published in May. The report examined the discrepancies between temperatures measured by surface monitoring stations, which had shown a clear warming trend over the past few decades, and satellite readings of the mid-level atmosphere, which had not shown such a trend. This difference in measured temperature trends had been used as evidence by some, such as novelist Michael Crichton, to support the argument that global warming was a hoax.

The new report clears up the differences, coming down on the side of global warming. "The evidence continues to support a substantial human impact on global temperature increases," said Thomas Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center and an editor of the report. "This should constitute a valuable source of information to policymakers."

For those holding out hope that global warming is a scientific error, the Climate Change Science Program will be issuing 20 more reports over the next several years.

A company that makes construction equipment has built a diesel car with the aim of topping 300 miles an hour on the Bonneville Salt Flats this August.

The motivation for the company, JCB, appears to be to showcase a production engine that it makes in-house to power a backhoe. It has put two modified versions of the engine into a streamlined land speed racer that it calls JCB Dieselmax.

The JCB Dieselmax has two engines, modified versions of a diesel originally developed to power a backhoe.

The twin engines in the race car are based on the JCB 444 engine, so-called because the design of the engine involves lots of fours—four cylinders, four valves per cylinder, and total displacement of 4.4 liters. According to JCB, production models have peak torque at 1,300 rpm ranging from 320 newton-meters naturally aspirated to 620 Nm with a charge-cooled turbocharger.

Each racing engine has many of the same features as the production model, although bore and stroke have been modified for a total of 5 liters. Among other changes are a redesigned piston, higher temperature exhaust valves, and special racing direct-injection technology.

The engines also will have a specially designed two-stage, charge-cooled turbocharging system. Each engine will develop almost 1,500 Nm of torque at 2,500 rpm, the company said.

JCB is based in the United Kingdom and to add to the mystique of its speed record challenge has engaged Andy Green as its driver. Green is a Royal Air Force officer who drove Thrust SSC, a car powered by two jet engines, through the sound barrier in 1997.

JCB's flying-start, one-mile record attempt will be observed by the United States Auto Club, representing the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the world racing body. Dave Petrali of the USAC's Record Team will be the chief FIA official on site.

According to Petrali, the FIA has not seen a great deal of activity with diesel-powered vehicles. He said that Dieselmax, as a 10-liter car, is in diesel Category A Group III Class 11. The FIA international record for that class is 158.870 mph, set in 1936. The top speed recognized by the FIA for any diesel is 235.756 mph, set by Virgil W. Snyder driving a Class 10 car, Thermo King Streamliner, at Bonneville in 1973.

Also on the land speed front: The student team that developed the world's fastest electric car says it plans to build another one, powered by fuel cells.

The students, who operate out of the Center for Automotive Research at Ohio State University, designed and built the Buckeye Bullet, a streamliner clocked at 315 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in October 2004. It carried a 900 V system of nickel metal hydride batteries.

The group says it now plans to build the Buckeye Bullet 2, which will use hydrogen fuel cell technology as a source of electricity for a land speed racer. The team said it has about 50 sponsors lined up to support its latest effort. Last month, the research center, also known as CAR, opened a hydrogen fueling station.

Many of the students who participated in '04 remain on the team, including its leader, Isaac Harper, a spokeswoman for the OSU School of Engineering said. CAR's director, Giorgio Rizzoni, advises the team. He is an ASME member and a former chair of the Dynamic Systems and Control Division.

Carmakers may be looking at retooling their factories to react to higher gas prices, but engineers at Rice University in Houston have gone several better. They have built a car that is so small, it doesn't even have room for a fuel tank.

There's no room for passengers,either.

Light strikes motor in the middle of the nanocar, making a paddle turn and the car move forward.

The nanocar built by mechanical engineering professor James Tour and his colleagues does have many attributes of a more familiar vehicle. There's a rigid chassis and the four axles (each made of alkyne) turn freely. And the team recently added a motor. When struck by a beam of light, the motor turns in one direction and propels the nanocar through toluene solvent much like a paddlewheel.

The nanocar measures 3 nanometers by 4 nanometers and is itself not much more than a stunt. But the principles developed in creating it may one day be used in more useful nanoscale machines.

With sales by Detroit automakers plummeting and Chinese competitors kicking down the door, Midwestern manufacturers have been taking it on the chin. Yet Ohio Gov. Robert Taft thinks his state is a great place for manufacturing. He traveled to Germany's Hanover Fair recently to press the flesh and try to entice offshore companies to build factories in his state.

Other states, such as Arizona, Massachusetts, and Virginia, had a presence in Hanover. The Chancellor of Germany and Prime Minister of India attended with their retinues. Ministers from across Europe slipped in and out of the fair. Taft was the only U.S. governor in attendance.

He had something to talk about, too. Recent tax reforms have made Ohio more competitive, he explained in a room overlooking the fair. Ohio reduced personal income tax by 21 percent, and will eliminate taxes on machinery, equipment, and inventory by 2008. It exempts the first $1 million of annual revenue from taxes, and will erase all corporate income and franchise taxes by 2010. Recent laws limited liability lawsuits and reduced worker compensation costs.

Ohio also encourages exports. While it taxes sales inside Ohio at $2.60 per $1,000, it places no taxes on goods and services that are sold to customers outside the state.

It adds up. Taft pointed to a firm that builds a $32 million facility, has a $7 million payroll, and earns a 10 percent profit on sales of $50 million, 90 percent of them outside the state. It would pay taxes of $451,000 in 2010, down from $1.2 million in 2005 before the reforms.

Location is another of the governor's selling points for Ohio. "We're a one-day drive from 60 percent of the U.S. population, and we're affordable compared with the coasts," he said.

Manufacturing accounts for 20 percent of the state's economy. Ohio's Third Frontier Project will invest $1.6 billion in technology start-ups over 10 years. Much of the money is aimed at leveraging strengths in composites, advanced materials, and biomedical innovations. "We have more top-rated hospitals than any other state," Taft said. The state is also adopting programs to begin training engineers in high school.

Many European manufacturers, including ABB and Siemens, have a presence in Ohio. "I'm here to thank the European companies that have moved to Ohio," Taft said. "It's important to raise our image, build relationships, and let them know that the governor of Ohio is supportive."

Carlisle Companies Inc. in Charlotte, N.C., has acquired the heavy vehicle off-highway brakes division of ArvinMeritor in Cardiff, Wales. It is creating 30 jobs and safeguarding an additional 50 jobs there.

Carlisle is buying a 50,000-square-foot production unit and will equip it as a modern brake manufacturing, assembly, and test facility, which will become Carlisle's European off-highway brake business headquarters. The new entity will be known as Carlisle Brake Products (UK) Ltd.

The site will also accommodate a dedicated off-highway brake products design and development team focused on providing Carlisle's customers with the next generation of brake systems. The European aftermarket operation, currently managed in Switzerland, is being relocated to Wales as well.

Many CEOs of American science and technology companies are aware of recent reports that the United States is in danger of surrendering its leadership role in science and technology because it is producing fewer scientists and engineers and there is more competition for them.

In addition, while many CEOs acknowledge that their industries suffer from a lack of women, African-American, Native American, and Hispanic-American science, technology, engineering, and math workers, they are not tapping this underutilized talent pool.

These are among the findings of a new survey commissioned by Bayer Corp. The Bayer Facts of Science Education XII: CEOs on STEM Diversity: The Need, the Seed, the Feed surveyed 100 senior executives who lead U.S. companies that hire people skilled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

About eight in 10 respondents (81 percent) said that in elementary school, science should be taught as the fourth basic subject and be given as much emphasis as reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Nationwide registrations for new hybrid vehicles rose significantly in 2005, according to R.L. Polk & Co., a consultant company in Southfield, Mich. The figure grew to 199,148 in 2005, a 139 percent increase from 2004.

For the second year in a row, Toyota Prius led the segment, with 52.6 percent of new registrations.

Overall, the hybrid category reflects just over one percent of new vehicle registrations in the United States.

China Automotive Systems Inc., a supplier of power steering components and systems in China, has entered a joint venture agreement with Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., a fast-growing independent automobile manufacturer in China. The new venture will focus on research and development and the manufacturing of power steering systems and components. The joint venture company, under the name of Wuhu Henglong Auto Steering Systems, will be based in Wuhu, Anhui, China.

The U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego has awarded General Dynamics Robotic Systems of Westminster, Md., an $8.5 million contract for two unmanned surface vehicles for the Littoral Combat Ship Anti-Submarine Warfare Mission Module. The total value of the contract, if all options are exercised, will be $11.3 million.

The Boeing Co. has received orders for more than 350 of its 787-9 Dreamliners, the next generation of its highly efficient long-range aircaft due to enter service at the end of this decade. No. 350 was reached with an order for five of the planes, placed by Air Pacific, flag carrier of the Republic of Fiji. The airline will receive the first of the planes in 2011.

SensAble Technologies Inc. of Woburn, Mass., says a new addition to the FreeForm product line—the FreeForm Modeling system with the Phantom Omni haptic device—is now shipping.

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© 2006 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers