Tuesday, December 18, 2007

xFruits - 21st Century Sustainable Technology - 4 new items

Nanosolar Starts Shipping Thin Film Solar Panels  

2007-12-18 08:00

Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups

nanosolarmartin1.jpgWe brought you word last week that thin film solar company Nanosolar had started producing solar panels recently at its San Jose, Calif. plant, meeting its goal to begin manufacturing before the end of 2007. Now Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen writes on the company blog that the five year old company, that has raised at least $100 million in funding from investors, has shipped its first product and received its first check of product revenue.

nanosolarmw1.jpgNice going guys. The achievement is important, because thin film solar companies have been notoriously slow at reaching commercial manufacturing and have faced delays in getting products to market. Roscheisen writes that the company’s solar products are “the world's first printed thin-film solar cell in a commercial panel product,” and “the world's lowest-cost solar panel . . . profitably selling solar panels at as little as $.99/Watt.” The company has started shipping panels for deployment in Eastern Germany and says that the first MW of panels will be installed in a solar power plant.

The company is getting a bit nostalgic over its first three “commercial” panels, keeping panel #1 on exhibit at the headquarters, putting panel #2 up for auction on eBay, and panel #3 is getting donated to the Tech Museum in San Jose.

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The Daily Sprout  

2007-12-18 02:06

Craig Rubens - Misc

USDA Reports Biofuels Fueled Record Farm Income: A report released today from the USDA’s Economic Research Service says that biofuels have helped push net U.S. farm incomes to an all-time high, bumping up $28.5 billion dollars to $87.5 billion - Bioact.

Daimler Gets 1,000 Orders For Hybrid Bus: New York MTA plans to replace half its fleet with the diesel-electric hybrid buses which get 30 percent better fuel economy while emitting 90 percent less particulate matter, 40 percent less NOx and 30 percent fewer greenhouse gases - Green Car Congress.

Stanford Study Says Wind Can Provide Solid Energy: The study says that by interconnecting multiple wind farms wind energy can provide a reliable base at lower costs than present - Stanford News Service.

Bio-Based Bulk Chemicals Could Save 1B Tons of Carbon: Analysis from Dutch researchers at Utrecht University suggests that using biomass as a feedstock for making bulk chemicals, the basic chemicals used to make other chemicals, instead of petrochemicals could keep 1 billion tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere - Biopact.

IBM Finds Consumers Willing to Pay More For Green: A study conducted by Big Blue found that the majority of consumers in developed countries would pay more for environmentally friendly energy but were uninformed of their energy options - IBM.

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EVS23: Ford's plug-in Escape hybrid handover videos  

2007-12-17 20:19

Sebastian Blanco - anaheim-convention-center

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Back at EVS23, Ford handed over the keys for a plug-in hybrid Escape to Southern California Edison. I've finally had time to edit together the video I shot that day, so watch it already. :)

In the first part of this video (above) we see the PHEV Escape arrive at the Anaheim Convention Center and the official handoff of the keys from Ford to SCE. As you can see, Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of sustainable mobility technologies and hybrid vehicle programs, doesn't answer a lot of questions about the vehicle's battery, but does say that the PHEV uses a 10 kWh battery. Ford's Susan Cischke, senior vice president, sustainability, environment and safety engineering, sat down with AutoblogGreen after the hand-over to talk about the car and the unique (as far as I know) input screen in the vehicle that lets the driver adjust the gasoline and electricity costs so that the cost per trip is accurately displayed during the drive. Very sweet.

Part two of this video will be posted after the break once I finish editing it.

Gallery: EVS23: Ford SCE PHEV Escape Ceremony





 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

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Electric bus service starts in Castelló  

2007-12-17 19:37

Xavier Navarro - castellón

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Castelló City Council in Spain has announced new services for a new type of bus line. The city itself didn't have many opportunities for a tram system, so they decided to look somewhere else. And they came up with a French solution: a guided electric bus. The chosen model, called Cristalys, is a shorter version of the Civis currently working in Clermont-Ferrand in France. The system has been called "TVRCas" (Transporte de Vía Reservada de Castellón).

The model is accessible for wheelchairs because the motors are inside the wheels. The EV bus is guided by a cam placed on the top of the windshield which "reads" the painted lines on its assigned platform. There's a driver that can override the system in case of failure.

According to the official site, the bus will run every 20 minutes linking the center of the city with the outskirts. It seats 8 passengers, but it can carry up to 35 (standing up). Maximum speed is 37 km/h (22 mph) but that should be plenty, since the average speed of urban buses is calculated at 15 km/h (9 mph). The bus' batteries need four hours to recharge.

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[Source: Ajuntament de Castelló]

 

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

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Posted by Chad S at 1:56 AM

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