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1. Shell Sells Solar Business (by the Seashore)
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2. The Daily Sprout
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3. Cereplast to Build Big Ol' Bioplastics Plant
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4. Does the Heritage Foundation misstate results of a CAFE-safety study?
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5. Freener-g Brings Hope to Solar Rental
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6. Hummer HX concept is ethanol-capable. Does that mean anything?
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7. Goin' Green into the afterlife: all-electric hearses for your last ride
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8. Greener Gadgets Conference: Feb 1 in NYC
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9. Toshiba's new SCiB battery charges in 5 minutes, releases March 2008 for electric vehicles
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10. Good idea? Smart-clone importers violate court injunction at Bologna Auto Show
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11. EPA makes it official: 2008 Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids get 21 mpg
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12. Tesla Store on Santa Monica Blvd in the Works
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13. Pro-ethanol folks respond to Economist's ethanol attack
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14. EVS23: The green machine - Smith Electric Truck comes to America
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15. Will Synthetic Biology Patents Endanger the Biofuel Industry?
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16. VW's TSI technology wins two awards in Japan
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17. EVS23: Kim Adelman's Plug-in Prius with Nilar nickel-metal hydride batteries
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18. Britain Sets Sites on Offshore Wind
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19. The Daily Sprout
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20. Commercial Solar in a "Land Grab"
Shell Sells Solar Business (by the Seashore)
Alexis Madrigal - Big Green
First BP quietly demoted its renewables division and decided to invest in dirty tar sands oil production. Now Shell has sold off the majority of its solar business. It's almost like Big Oil, which has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in its infrastructure, doesn't really want the clean energy industry to succeed!
Though energy companies continue to shellac themselves with green (like this), it appears that the Big Oil isn't so keen on their current clean energy returns. And while reverting back to the standard profits uber alles might not have such a dramatic effect on other industries, when the result is climate change, it's cause for concern.
Shell's solar pullout began last year, when the company sold its 600-strong solar module production business to SolarWorld. Then last month, Shell announced that it was selling its rural PV business in India and Sri Lanka. The 260 employees and 28 offices are rumored to have gone for $100 million, a drop in the bucket for a company that generated $318 billion in revenue last year.
It's hard to be surprised by moves like this when they're being made by companies that have long fought the development of alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. But some in the environmental and sustainability movements had gotten their hopes up that perhaps so-called energy companies had realized that they do, in fact, sell energy, not just fossil fuels. Recent moves by the conglomerates have a message for those optimists: "No, really, it is just about the money."
Moves away from clean energy sources by Big Oil are just fine for cleantech startups. While BP grinds away at the tar sands of Alberta, startups will be working on the technological end run. Moves like those of Shell and BP only increase clean energy startups' chances of success.
The Daily Sprout
Craig Rubens - Misc
Dems Report on White House Climate Change Manipulation: The House Oversight and Reform Committee issued a report, which Republicans call a "partisan diatribe," stating that the White House interference in climate change science was systematic - Yahoo.
SUVs Gobble Corn: According to the Economist filling "up an SUV's fuel tank with ethanol [uses] enough maize to feed a person for a year" - AutoblogGreen.
Water Investments Everywhere: Ioteq, an iodine water cleaning company, raised $5M; Worldwide Water spun off Cascade EcoSolutions to filter sediment, heavy metal, and organic contaminants; Vinod Khosla has invested in desalination in Quos - Greentech Media.
Evergreen Biofuel USA and Show Me Energy Collaborate on Biomass Pellets: The biofuel producer and non-profit farm coop will build a large biomass pellet fuel production plant in the US - BusinessWire.
Hummers to Burn Gallons of Ethanol: By 2010 all Hummers will be flex-fuel, allowing them to burn ethanol or biodiesel. Insert oxymoronic hypocrisy joke here - AutoblogGreen.
Cereplast to Build Big Ol' Bioplastics Plant
Craig Rubens - Big Green
Bioplastics manufacturer Cereplast said this week it will start operations at a facility in Seymour, Ind., that will produce half a billion pounds of bio-based plastics a year at full capacity. Founded in 2001, Cereplast is based in Hawthorne, Calif., where it already has a manufacturing facility.
They will start working on the site in January, but won't go into production until later in the year. The existing facility is "just a shell" now, according to the Cereplast spokesperson with whom we spoke, but the plan is to have the facility pumping out 500 million pounds of biodegradable, biomass-based plastics annually by 2010.
The company, which trades on the bulletin board under CERP, needed to issue some good news. In November the company reported some not-so-stellar third-quarter financials. According to their release, the company reported a net loss of $1.6 million, or a penny a per share, for the latest three-month period, compared with a net loss of $1.1 million, or a penny a share, for the third quarter 2006.
Cereplast's shaky financials notwithstanding, the bioplastics industry is starting to gain serious traction, as venture capital takes notice and more and more cities and nations move to ban petroleum-based plastic bags.
The bioplastics products made by Cereplast fall into two categories: compostables, which are made almost entirely from plant starches found in food crops like tapioca, corn, wheat and potatoes and are often used in single-use food containers and utensils, and hybrid resins, which mix bio-based polymers with traditional petroleum plastics. The hybrid resins product description notes that they're "not as influenced by the volatile prices of oil," but what of the volatile price of food?
In order to be a truly sustainable endeavor, bioplastics will have to get away from food crops and find a different biomass feedstock. Bill Collis, CEO of bioplastics startup Trellis Earth, told us last month that his company is looking for "a synergy between chemistry and non-food crop biomass." As the market appetite for bioplastics grows and production ramps up, bio-based plastics will be the new plastic.
Does the Heritage Foundation misstate results of a CAFE-safety study?
Lascelles Linton - CAFE
Filed under: MPG, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Legislation and Policy, Green Daily, USA
The video above, "The Energy Debate: Just the Facts," is from the Heritage Foundation and includes the results of a study on CAFE and safety that I think may have been misstated. The video starts out by asking the loaded question "why will raising CAFE standards hurt Americans?" to which Ben Lieberman, a Senior Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation, answers:
Raising CAFE standards will make cars less safe. In order to meet these standards cars have to be made smaller which makes them less safe in crashes. The National Academy of Sciences have confirmed this effect. Past CAFE standards have caused an estimate 1,300 to 2,600 lives per year. So, tightening these standards will only add to the death toll on the highways.
Now, let's take a look at how the study was presented to the Congress:
There have been adverse consequences as well. Safety is most important. The majority of the committee concludes that the downsizing and downweighting that occurred in the 1970s and 80s (partially in response to CAFE) resulted in an additional 1,300 to 2,600 fatalities in 1993. While fatalities were declining in this period, most committee members believe that they would have declined much more had the downweighting and downsizing not occurred. Two members of the committee dissent from this view. They believe that the data does not support this conclusion, and that the net effect on highway fatalities of the increases in fuel economy may have been zero. David Greene, one of the authors of the dissent in the report, may elaborate on that conclusion.
So, the study concludes CAFE was "partially" responsible. Maybe. In 1993, fatalities were actually going down at the time and not everyone on the committee agreed with the conclusion. What are some of the dissenting views from the National Academies? David Greene found " higher mpg is significantly correlated with fewer fatalities." I think the Heritage Foundation misstates the conclusions but we want to know what do you think. Did they cross the line? Do you think higher CAFE mpg requirements increases fatalities?
[Source: YouTube]
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Freener-g Brings Hope to Solar Rental
Craig Rubens - Startups
How does Freener-g (pronounced "free energy") compare to Citizenrē? For a start, Freener-g is focusing its efforts on being a downstream installer. Also, while Citizenrē has yet to make good on one of its 25,000-plus "signed" customers, Freener-g, Ruiz told us, has just finished wiring an eight-panel "pre-pilot" house that will be going online in Minneapolis as soon as the state inspectors give it the OK, which Ruiz hopes will happen next Monday. And in my book, eight panels is better than zero. (Update: Citizenrē has a few promotional installations showcasing residential solar, but they do not yet use Citizenrē solar equipment.)
Freener-g was founded in 2006 in conjunction with its application for Xcel Energy's Renewable Development Fund. Freener-g is one of five power-generation projects for which Xcel has approved funds. According to the Xcel announcement, Freener-g will use the money "to demonstrate the commercial viability of providing solar-generated electricity for homes based on a leasing and service package of rooftop solar panels connected to the grid. The program will use 50 solar generating systems at 5.6 kilowatts each." It's scheduled to receive the funds in the summer of '08, pending state approval.
All told, Ruiz estimates that those 50 home installations will have a capacity of 280 kilowatts and 355 megawatt hours of total production annually. Ruiz is offering straight-up equipment rental, a model he says he planned on before Citizenrē switched from their original power purchase agreement (PPA) plan. He's currently conducting a survey on his web site to collect information on customers' willingness to pay. The current estimate is $200 per month, but each system will have a slightly different rental rate.
Ruiz is also working to help get his "large Asian panel manufacturer" approved so he can distribute their panels in the U.S., which he says will help him source his panels very competitively. This is an important difference from Citizenrē, which says it plans to start building huge solar panel manufacturing plants in the U.S. sometime in 2008. While Citizenrē seems to be aiming for solar imperial largess, Freener-g's modest aspirations look to prove Ruiz's business model in the Twin Cities and see where it goes from there.
Ruiz is soft-spoken but passionate about his business. "I feel strongly about making a company that is going to be in business in 20 years," he said. His is guided by three priorities, for which he gives equal weight — people, planet and profits — as he seeks what he calls "green-minded angel investors." He stressed that, "What we do as a business needs to not only make money but be sustainable as well."
So while Freener-g's goals in residential solar rental are modest, they seem attainable, and with eight panels installed on a test home, the company has eight more panels installed than some of its competitors. There is a lot of room for growth in residential solar, especially outside the California market. SunPower CEO Tom Werner told us last week that "50 percent of the cost of a residential system is in the installation." Will the key to pushing down installation costs be in PPAs or lease agreements? While PPAs have been pushing solar as a luxury home improvement, perhaps panel rental will be what brings solar to the masses. Amid so much solar hysteria, Freener-g offers a sensible business proposition that leverages the existing and growing solar supply chain instead of trying to rebuild it.
Hummer HX concept is ethanol-capable. Does that mean anything?
Sebastian Blanco - david-rojas
Filed under: Ethanol, Flex-Fuel, HUMMER
With the news that all Hummers will be biofuel-ready by 2010, it shouldn't be a surprise that when GM set three new designers to the task of creating the next-generation Hummer - known as the HX Concept - that one of the ideas be the vehicle's E85 compatibility. Naturally, when you're working on sketching the exterior, you don't need to worry about ethanol fuel lines. Still, the GM press release announcing how new GM designers David Rojas, Min Young Kang and Robert Jablonski imagine the Hummer HX contains this line: "In its final concept form, the E-85 FlexFuel capable HUMMER HX embodies the off road spirit of HUMMER in a fully customisable package."
That isn't going to change anything in the Hummer/environmentalist situation, but it does show that GM will rarely miss a chance to promote ethanol for its gasoline-engined vehicles.
THREE YOUNG DESIGNERS SHAPE FUTURE OF HUMMER THROUGH HX CONCEPT
DETROIT - Scheduled for introduction at the 2008 North American International Auto Show, the HUMMER HX concept reflects the innovative minds of three new GM designers - David Rojas, Min Young Kang and Robert Jablonski - whose first assignment was to provide a vision for the future design of off-road vehicles.
Fresh out of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Mich., the designers' first test in GM was to design a fun, nimble and innovative HUMMER concept.
"HUMMER appeals to young people globally and served as a perfect first assignment for our newest talent," said Ed Welburn, vice president of global design and product planning. "Today's graduates from top design schools are ready to hit the ground running. The HUMMER design challenge gave our newest designers an opportunity to sprint."
The task presented numerous challenges to the new designers, from creating a vehicle for a brand that is known around the globe for its iconic design, to ensuring that the model would live up to the market's expectation of HUMMER off-road capability.
To help ensure the designs were true to the HUMMER brand, the designers were given limited design direction by Carl Zipfel, an ex-professional motocross racer and director of the HUMMER design studio.
"Carl definitely set the tone," said Rojas. "While he gave us creative liberty and challenged us to develop innovative ideas, he also defined three Hummer proportions - wheelbase, approach and departure angles, and stance - and assigned one to each of us. It gave us a chance to collaborate, but also take our own direction."
While sketching and sculpting together in the HUMMER studio, these recent graduates drew upon the creative energy of each other, further improving their individual designs, as well as that of the final concept.
"We drew inspiration from one another," said Kang. "As you're designing and sketching you try to absorb what the other designer is doing and try to make it better."
David, Min Young and Robert's collaboration inspired the HUMMER HX concept, which presents extraordinary efficiency without sacrificing the unique essence of the HUMMER brand, the world's most capable off-road vehicles.
"While we took inspiration from the HUMMER heritage and DNA, we each wanted to evolve it in a new way" said Jablonski. "We agreed it should be contemporary, compact and definitely open air. It came out great."
After three months of sketching and sculpting theme work for the new HUMMER concept, each designer had the opportunity to present scale clay models to Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman and Ed Welburn, who chose which design would ultimately become the HX concept.
In its final concept form, the E-85 FlexFuel capable HUMMER HX embodies the off road spirit of HUMMER in a fully customisable package. The HX offers an open-air driving experience via a pair of removable roof panels above the driver and front passenger and a modular, removable rear roof assembly enabling a quick conversion from closed vehicle to open vehicle SUT. It also features a slant back assembly, removable doors and fender flares.
"Working as a team, you realise it's more than one person influencing the vehicle," said Rojas. "You can see the inspiration from each of our designs in the final concept vehicle. We're all proud to have the chance to see our sketches become reality."
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Goin' Green into the afterlife: all-electric hearses for your last...
Xavier Navarro - Emucesa
Filed under: Etc., EV/Plug-in , Green Daily, European Union
Emucesa, the company that manages the cemetery of Granada, Spain (here's a link for more on the cemetery's history), has decided to replace its three hearses with greener vehicles: electric all-new ones. An unnamed Spanish company is currently working on the design of the models, which will be unveiled next January. Emucesa will replace the current three diesel Mercedes hearses, which are converted E-Class station wagons, for these all-electric end-of-life rides.
José Antonio Muñoz, manager of Emucesa, said that their first option was using converted golf carts with a special trailer behind, but that solution brought mobility problems, since the vehicles have to maneuver backwards to access niches and tombs.
The project, called Ion, will not only include the design of the powertrain and the vehicle itself, but requires that the hearses have other features, such as a sound system that plays music. Traditional funerals in Spain end up with relatives and friends walking behind the hearse to the cemetery. Now they won't have to breathe in the hearse's fumes. Emucesa is also offering greener options for funerals, such as biodegradable coffins made from carton and fabric.
Pictured above is an old horse-drawn hearse, the original green hearse option.
[Source: Granada Hoy]
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Greener Gadgets Conference: Feb 1 in NYC
Katie Fehrenbacher - Misc
The conference is being organized by Inhabitat.com, a site focused on sustainable design and run by my very own sister — yay. They launched the web site today, so check it out. The conference will address topics like design for sustainability, product life-cycle management, take-back and recycling programs, energy efficiency, greener materials, and green lifestyle and product marketing. Conference goers will also be able to test out green gadgets from the greentech cutting edge.
My panel will be the highlight — oh I jest, sister! I'm actually looking forward to hearing talks from Mary Lou Jepsen, CTO of the One Laptop Per Child Project, and Markus Terho, director of environmental affairs for Nokia. See you there!
Toshiba's new SCiB battery charges in 5 minutes, releases March 2008...
Lascelles Linton - battery
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, On Two Wheels, Green Daily, Japan
The excellent performance of the SCiB will assure its successful application in industrial systems and in the electronic vehicles markets as a new energy solution.
Toshiba's hopes to have 10 percent market share or a global sales target of 100 billion yen (895 million dollars) by 2016. Toshiba's general manager overseeing the project, Shoshi Kawatsu, won't comment on if they are in talks with automakers but he did say this;
Toshiba will ride with the trend set by automobile companies. When hybrids and electric cars become prevalent, the SCiB will probably be applied to them.
Watch out Ener1, A123 and all the other small EV battery companies, the big boys smell profits in the EV battery market water.
[Source: Toshiba via Engadget]
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Good idea? Smart-clone importers violate court injunction at Bologna...
Sebastian Blanco - bubble
Filed under: SMART, Green Daily , China
Ready for some more on the 1.1-liter Shuanghuan Bubble, the car also known as the Shuanghuan Noble (but everyone outside of China knows it as the Smart car clone)? Automotive News Europe's Luca Ciferri went to see the Bubble at the Bologna auto show and says (subs req'd) that even though Martin Motors violated a court injunction by showing the car there, they did the right thing. Now he's seen the differences between the two with his own eyes and believes that no one will easily mistake one for the other, he writes, adding:
I feel it is wrong to consider this car an exact copy of the Smart ForTwo. One significant difference between the Bubble and the ForTwo is that the Bubble's cabin is longer and less bulky. One way to make sure the Bubble looks different from the ForTwo is if it is only sold in a single body color in Europe.
He also adds that, while the Bubble is certainly not as high-quality a vehicle as the Smart, "Maybe Daimler's effort to keep the Bubble off the road will actually help by giving Shuanghuan time to fix the problems before launching it here." Wouldn't that be just the oddest twist to this entire saga?
Related:
[Source: Automotive News Europe]
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EPA makes it official: 2008 Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids get 21...
Sebastian Blanco - chevy-tahoe
Filed under: Hybrid, Chevrolet , GM, GMC, Green Daily
In September, GM announced their official MPG numbers for the new 2008 Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids. The EPA has now posted the official government verdict, and the numbers match what GM announced. The
two large hybrids share official EPA estimates: The 2WD versions get 21 city, 22 highway (21 combined) while the 4WD versions get 20 mpg in all those categories. You can find EPA's pages for the Tahoe hybrids here and the Yukon hybrids here. For comparison, the non-hybrid 2008 GMC Yukon 1500 2WD gets between 11 and 14 mpg in the city and 15 and 20 mpg on the highway (depending on engine type, fuel and how many speeds the transmission has).
[Source: Fueleconomy.gov, h/t to mulad]
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Tesla Store on Santa Monica Blvd in the Works
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
The construction wrap just went up around the future site of Silicon Valley-based electric sports car maker Tesla's Los Angeles store. The LA site is on Santa Monica Blvd., just east of the 405, and a tipster sent in this nice photo. While no Tesla stores are open yet, the company also has a planned Menlo Park, Calif., store, just up the road from the Stanford University campus. According to the company's web site, Tesla will likely target five key markets with stores: metropolitan San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami, and will open the first two stores "in early 2008."
Tesla will not sell franchises or dealerships, but will own and run all the stores, at least in California, the company says. At the stores, Tesla can not only sell cars and build buzz, but provide service for the company's electric powertrain, which requires specialized expertise. Tesla customers will appreciate it — even though Tesla is a Silicon Valley tech company at heart, a software malfunction is a magnitude different from a car breakdown.
Pro-ethanol folks respond to Economist's ethanol attack
Sebastian Blanco - e85
Actually, the study is long-term and looked at 20 years of data. The results are what's new. Reuters says that the study "shows that corn prices have minimal impact on the U.S. Consumer Price Index for food, which has been on the rise." Reuters reporter Christine Stebbins spoke with Bruce Scherr, Informa's chief executive, who said, "We're not saying that corn prices are cheap, that ethanol hasn't helped underpin the growth in the corn economy. What we are saying is to blame corn and corn-based ethanol for all of the inflation associated with food and food prices ... is to grossly under-consider all the other forces at work." In other words, don't blame E85 for all of the increased cost of your dinner.
Renewable Fuels Foundation funded the Informa study. You can read Informa's announcement or download the complete study (both in PDF).
[Source: Domestic Fuel, Reuters via Nathan S.]
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EVS23: The green machine - Smith Electric Truck comes to America
Sebastian Blanco - evs23
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, EVS23
Right next to the Modec booth at EVS23, Smith Electric Vehicles commanded a swath of floor space with their large Smith Newton electric truck. Mark Aubry, North American sales manager for Smith Electric Vehicles, was available for an interview and told AutoblogGreen about how these trucks could work for American companies. The official launch of these EVs in the U.S. was two days before we spoke.
The Smith Newton is a 26,000 pound GVW truck, a class 7 truck, 16,000 payload. Smaller versions - class 5 or 6 - are also available. Depending on customer need, these trucks can be delivered with between two and six batteries (one battery doesn't have enough power to move the truck). Using four batteries, the truck can go 150 miles with a 50 mph top speed, while two batteries give you a 40-60 mile range and work best with light products (garments, for example). More batteries also reduce the payload capacity. Each battery pack costs $16,000. With four battery packs, a 2007 Smith Newton is $150,000 ($64,000 for the batteries, $86,000 for the truck). While that's a large amount, Aubry said operating costs are a low 11 cents a mile.
Smith Newtons use sodium nickel chloride (Zebra) batteries, the current battery of choice for heavy trucks. Aubry said that Smith is testing lithium ion batteries and expects to sell trucks with that option in the near future. The Zebra-laden trucks are available now, as is my interview with Aubry (7:30 min, 5 MB).
Gallery: EVS23: Smith Electric Truck
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Will Synthetic Biology Patents Endanger the Biofuel Industry?
Alexis Madrigal - Startups
There's two ways to build an organism these days: from the top down or from the bottom up. Classic genetic engineering focuses on changing one or two genes out of the whole genome. The emerging field of synthetic biology takes the opposite tack in that it tries to take the simplest organisms and add functionality to them.
As you might imagine, it's not easy to build organisms from scratch. But some investors are betting it is the best way to achieve the kind of breakthrough discovery that could turn the oil industry on its head. A lot of venture money has gone into companies like LS9, Gevo, Mascoma, Amyris and ProtoLife, all of whom are trying to turn simple bacteria like E. coli into chemical factories. It's not so far-fetched, when you think about it. Many organisms, like any plant that we get pharmaceuticals from, already synthesize chemicals that are far more complicated than hydrocarbons like ethanol or butanol.
That's why this weekend's media alert from the Canadian technology watchdog group, ETC, is troublesome. It describes recent patent applications by the consistently controversial and brilliant scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute surrounding the creation of synthetic genomes. These patents go beyond what The Economist reported on last May. The watchdogs' Jim Thomas breathlessly describes the implications of granting such patents (US20070269862A1 and US20070264688):
"It appears that Craig Venter's lawyers have constructed a legal rats' nest of monopoly claims that may entangle the entire field of synthetic biology… For example, the list includes proprietary claims on basic research steps such as adding synthetic DNA to a living organism – which pretty much sums up the current field of synthetic biology."
While you might normally write-off ETC (who I think of as the Greenpeace of Futurism) as just making trouble for an industry they clearly don't like, you can't write off the comments of Dr. Tom Knight, a luminary in the field. He said, "This is extremely serious. If the claims were to be granted, it's like saying 'we own life.'"
I should be able to speak with the folks at the JCV Institute tomorrow. They could have overreached, but they're not patent trolls. My guess is that these applications don't end up tripping a field with such great potential, but it's worth keeping this risk in mind as the millions keep pouring into a sector that looks like a good bet to produce a breakthrough next-gen biofuel.
VW's TSI technology wins two awards in Japan
Sebastian Blanco - golf-tsi
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, Volkswagen, Green Daily, Japan
Back in April, the VW Golf 1.4L TSI won the Auto Environment Certificate from the ÖKO-TREND Institute for Environmental Research. Today, VW announced that its TSI engine technology - which is available in a variety of vehicles, including the Golf, Touran, Jetta, Golf Plus and Golf estate - won two prizes in Japan. TSI was named "Most Advanced Technology Award 2008" (a bit early, no?) from Japanese automotive journalists and "Technology of the Year" from the jury of the Japanese Automotive Researchers' and Journalists' Conference.
TSI engines are able to get more performance from less fuel. VW's 1.4L TSI petrol direct-injection engine uses about six percent less gas thanks to twin charging via a compressor with turbo charging and a reduced cubic capacity. Emissions are also reduced. From VW:
The TSI Golf typically exemplifies how this technology enables powerful driving performance at low levels of fuel consumption. As a TSI version with 103 kW / 140 PS, it sprints to 100 km/h in just 8.8 seconds, achieves a top speed of 205 km/h and yet consumes an average of only 7.1 litres of fuel in urban traffic and a mere 5.7 litres on the cruise. (read more after the jump)
VW says around 118,000 TSI-equipped vehicles have been sold around the world.
Related:
[Source: VW]
A Prize Winner Around the World - Volkswagen TSI receives two awards in Japan
Wolfsburg, 11 December 2007 - Volkswagen has received two of Japan's top automobile prizes in the category of "Technology of the Year" for the development of its TSI technology. Both the CAR OF THE YEAR committee and the jury of the Automotive Researchers' and Journalists' Conference (RJC) voted to give their first prizes to Volkswagen's innovative new engine technology.
Volkswagen models with TSI engines - the Golf GT, Golf estate and Golf Touran - landed well ahead of the competition in the CAR OF THE YEAR category of "Most Advanced Technology Award 2008". The so-called COTY prizes are awarded every year by Japan's automotive journalists.
Another cause for celebration was the decision by the jury of the RJC (comprising trade experts and journalists from Japan) to likewise award its first prize in the category of "Technology of the Year" to Volkswagen's TSI technology. Both awards were accepted by Tsutomu Umeno, president of the Volkswagen importer in Japan, who said that, "The vote taken by these juries is a clear indication that Volkswagen technology is setting standards in Japan and will continue to do so in future."
With its new TSI engine concept, Volkswagen has managed to use petrol-direct-injection technology and innovative twin charging via compressor plus turbo charger to reduce cubic capacity to 1.4 litres, thus reducing fuel consumption and emissions. The TSI engines are available in the Golf, Touran, Jetta, Golf Plus and Golf estate, with some 118,000 Volkswagen customers the world over already driving around with TSI technology under their bonnets.
The TSI Golf typically exemplifies how this technology enables powerful driving performance at low levels of fuel consumption. As a TSI version with 103 kW / 140 PS, it sprints to 100 km/h in just 8.8 seconds, achieves a top speed of 205 km/h and yet consumes an average of only 7.1 litres of fuel in urban traffic and a mere 5.7 litres on the cruise. All the TSI models on the market are alternatively available in combination with a direct-shift gearbox (DSG).
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EVS23: Kim Adelman's Plug-in Prius with Nilar nickel-metal hydride...
Sebastian Blanco - ken-adelman
Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Green Culture, Hybrid, Toyota, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily, EVS23
At the EVS23 show in Anaheim last week, I finally got a chance to talk to Kim Adelman, president of Plug-in Conversions (I missed him at the Santa Monica Alt Car Expo). Adelman offers at-home (or at-work) conversions of your own Prius by adding Nilar battery packs. Plug-in Conversions offers three different battery options - either 2, 4 or 7 kWh. The small system costs around $8,000 and bumps up the mpge rating to around 50-60 with an all-electric range or around eight miles. The 4 kWh system costs $12,500 and gives 16 miles of EV range (although Adelman was able to squeeze 19+ miles from this pack recently). The large 7 kWh pack goes for $15,000 and will move your Prius for 24 miles on electrons and pushes your mpge to 100+.
Adelman is limited by some of the restrictions that Toyota built into the Prius, such as the 34 mph speed limit when running solely on battery power. Should Toyota come out with their own PHEV Prius (which, in current testing, goes 62 mph on batteries), Adelman said, they will give Plug-in Conversions an even more fun vehicle to work with.
The additional packs Adelman uses are Nilar nickel-metal hydride packs. NiMH batteries are the ignored child of the current battery boom - everyone is looking towards lithium technology - but Nilar's Kurt Jensen says their time is not over yet. Jensen was also at the booth and spoke with AutoblogGreen about the Nilar battery technology and some of the patent issues that automakers face when working with nickel-metal hydride batteries. He didn't get into great detail about the intellectual property issues that cover this technology, unfortunately. You can hear Adelman talk about the car here (8 min, 5 MB) and Jensen talk about the batteries here (10 min, 7 MB).
Gallery: EVS23: Ken Adelman's Plug-in Conversion Prius
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Britain Sets Sites on Offshore Wind
Craig Rubens - Policy
Britain today unveiled plans to massively expand their offshore wind power generation capacity, with hopes for an installed capacity of 33 gigawatts by 2020, or enough to power all the homes in the UK. British Energy Secretary John Hutton made the announcement in Berlin, following the previous week's European Wind Energy Association ( EWEA) Conference at the German capital. The UK currently gets less than 2 percent of its energy from renewable sources and has less than a gigawatt of wind generation capacity.
Offshore wind power has suffered a significant number of setbacks, most of which continue to persist. Technical limitations in building the infrastructure to anchor towers to the seabed and wire electricity back to the mainland are still prevalent. Consumer hypocrisy in the form of NIMBYism has left numerous offshore wind projects dead in the water. Still, the prospect of harnessing the persistent and powerful gales on the open ocean is alluring, and Britain now seems set on becoming a world leader in offshore wind.
Jerome a Paris attended the EWEA Conference and has a picture and graph-filled post on The Oil Drum. This map shows the current installations of offshore wind farms. A Paris speculates that although the German government just voted to support offshore wind , "the UK market is still seen as likely to be bigger than the German one over the next 10-15 years."
Still, not all in the U.K. are in agreement over this. A strong NIMBY situation is developing in Scotland, along whose shoreline many of the turbines would be placed, as many as two turbines for every mile of coast line. "The risk is that Scotland will end up looking like a hedgehog with wind turbines all over some of our most beautiful areas," said David Bruce, chairman of Views of Scotland, a pressure group dedicated to preserving the Scottish landscape.
And some doubt whether or not Britain can actually meet that massive 33 gigawatt goal. The AP says the wind trade body, the British Wind Energy Association, thinks it will be difficult to raise Britain's wind power production by that much, and given the limited supply of wind turbines, predicts a goal of 20 gigawatts in that timeframe would be more realistic.
The Daily Sprout
Katie Fehrenbacher - Misc
Nanostellar is Golden: The Redwood City, Calif.-based developer of engineered nano-materials for emissions control, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the World Gold Council, which says it invested in the company to "facilitate the commercialization and marketing of the gold-based technology that could increase industrial demand for gold." — release.
LDK Up on Q-Cells Deal: "Chinese giant LDK Solar's (NYSE: LDK) shares jumped 28.55 percent Monday after the company said it signed a 10-year deal to sell 6 gigawatts worth of silicon wafers to Germany solar-cell maker Q-Cells." — GreentechMedia.
Seaweed Big In Bali: Or so says the AP, which gives a glowing writeup on seaweed and algae as important carbon sinks — AP.
Lightning Cells: Researchers have found electric fields inside cells as strong as those produced in lightning bolts! Wah-wah-wee-wai — MIT Tech Review.
Year In Ideas, Clean Energy!: The New York Times Year In Ideas dazzles us with quite a few clean energy and greentech innovations, including the biofuel race, airborne wind turbines, climate conflicts, and smog-eating cement — New York Times Magazine.
Commercial Solar in a "Land Grab"
Craig Rubens - Startups
With so many installers in the market, the race is now on to start signing solar clients. SunPower (SPWR) recently secured $190 million from Morgan Stanley for solar electric power installations. Andrew Beebe, President of Energy Innovations, told us last week at the ThinkGreen Conference that commercial solar is very much in a "land grab" right now. He also speculated that over the coming years some of these installers will "come off the tracks," unable to make it through the lean years of this burgeoning industry.
While individual commercial solar installations can be big, overall transactions costs can seriously cut into profits. Margins on commercial solar are tough as the "green premium" that exists in the residential market isn't as important as sheer economics. Akeena Solar CEO Barry Cinnamon expects that while profit margins for residential solar run somewhere between an estimated 15 and 30 percent, commercial solar will settle between 5 and 15 percent. Commercial solar installations usually run between 300 kilowatts and 2 megawatts, he said.
These lean margins will be a factor in quickly driving inefficient installers out of the market. Installers will need to add value for their customers while figuring out what commercial solar business model the market can support.
Recurrent CEO Arno Harris was on hand last week at the ThinkGreen conference, where he stressed the importance of getting transaction costs down: "We really have to get, as an industry, to a portfolio model where one transaction will get us to many rooftops at a time," he said. Getting away from owner-occupant customers could allow for bigger projects on leased properties. An absentee property owner does not have much motivation to pay high upfront installation fees if the economic benefit then goes to the tenant. Recurrent is hoping to use PPAs not only to break into the REIT market, but to get around the high upfront costs.
But costs aside, the immediate challenge for installers of commercial solar is getting clients. As Beebe noted: "Those who own the customer win."
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