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1. Samsung Launches Software for More Efficient Phones, Gadgets
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2. Kevin Rose's Next Startup to be Green Focused?
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3. Tesla's Ze'ev on CARB's "Misguided" ZEV Mandate
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4. The Daily Sprout
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5. China Gives Cree Unexpected Rise in Sales
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6. Cow-Powered Ride Shows Biogas is Fun!
Samsung Launches Software for More Efficient Phones, Gadgets
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
Vampire power drains, one of the ongoing bugaboos of making consumer electronics greener and more efficient, is a serious problem for mobile devices. Luckily, Samsung is on the case with what’s essentially a software hack designed to optimize the high performance features of the flash memories in smart phones, using the major mobile operating systems.
The software will boost the efficiency of devices using Windows Mobile(CE), Symbian, Linux and RTOS. The inclusion of Linux is savvy and necessary — it will also make all the open-source geeks out there happy (and give them something else to play with).
The new software optimizes data transactions within its memory chips, boosting performance through faster booting, downloading and searching — three of the most processor-heavy and therefore power hungry things you can ask a modern processing chip to do. The faster and more economically you can power up, transfer data or search through that data, the less energy you'll use. Ergo, greener mobile devices.
And don't think this applies to just phones. It also helps out digital cameras, digital camcorders, memory cards and digital TVs, as well as smart phones (including 3G phones).
For you developer jockeys, the software is expected to shorten application design times, which means you'll either get more do-able deadlines, or your project managers will just shorten timelines even more. And the cherry on top? The new upgrade is also cheaper. What could be better than that?
For us mere mortals out there, what this all will mean is that our phones and gadgets (at least the ones made by Samsung) will work faster and use less energy. And for the planet, it means things are just a little bit greener.
Kevin Rose's Next Startup to be Green Focused?
Craig Rubens - Startups
Could Kevin Rose, Silicon Valley wunderkind and founder of Digg, Pownce and Revision3, be going green? The Internet entrepreneur proposed a gadget idea on his personal blog recently (hat tip Smart Planet) that could potentially be its own cleantech startup. The idea is a power management system for devices in the home that would communicate wirelessly and be remotely controllable via the web. Not entirely novel, but Rose did offer a few new twists that could make this a killer device for eco-savvy gadget geeks. While Rose tells us he’s way too busy with Digg to tackle another startup, he hopes the idea catches on and says he’d be one of the first buy his own device.
Similar to Tendril’s recently unveiled energy management system, Rose’s proposed idea — which in an attempt to pitch to Apple he calls “iPower” — would include a base station that wirelessly communicates with a number of WiFi-enabled wall plugs to turn attached devices on and off. Rose’s value-add to the idea is integrating it with your phone’s GPS. By occasionally pinging your phone’s GPS, the system would know when you’d left home, prompting it to, for example, turn off the lights that you left on. And you could control the system remotely over the Internet through either your phone or computer.
Rose’s idea sounds like a good partnership with smart-charging startup Green Plug. Green Plug’s chips keep track of a device’s power needs and can cut power to a device once it’s charged. Green Plug CEO Frank Paniagua recently told us that his company is hoping to partner with consumer electronics OEMs to get its chips into devices and chargers. If Green Plug’s chip sets could be upgraded to talk wirelessly, you could have smart electronics that not only monitor energy use but would react to your presence, no extra plugs or base station needed.
For those who impressed friends by controlling your iTunes from your iPhone imagine being able to turn your lights on and off with the swipe of a touch screen.
Tesla's Ze'ev on CARB's "Misguided" ZEV Mandate
Craig Rubens - Policy
Tesla’s president and CEO Ze’ev Drori has exercised his civic duty via the age-old agent of democracy — the strongly-worded letter. Drori posted a letter on Tesla’s blog to Mary Nichols, Chairperson of the California Air Resources Board, that vehemently disagrees with the Board’s decision to slash the zero emission vehicle mandate by 70 percent.
Critics say that at the behest of large automakers, the Board drafted a new mandate, which requires a mere 7,500 ZEVs on California roads between 2012 and 2015. The ire of Drori’s letter boils down to his assertions that the board is “misguided” in its fact finding process, which led to the “erroneous” conclusion that an electric vehicle wouldn’t be commercially available until 2012. Drori is quick to point out that Tesla is already delivering ZEVs and lists Nissan, Daimler, BMW, and Mitsubishi as other automakers who have announced plans to sell ZEVs in California by 2010.
But Drori has some advice for CARB — the mandate is not beyond redemption. Drori lays out four essential amendments that he says the Board needs to make to truly foster the manufacture and adoption of zero emission vehicles in California:
- Increase, not decrease, the minimum number of Pure ZEV required in Phase III (2012-2015).
- Eliminate the substitution of Pure ZEVs with Enhanced AT-PZEVs.
- Set the minimum ZEV requirements on a yearly basis rather than for three years, thus preventing manufacturers from getting an additional three year grace period and eliminating "blackout" years.
- A complicated credit system differentiates the way “intermediate vehicle manufactures” and “large vehicle manufacturers” can redeem and trade gold credits, earned by putting zero emission vehicles on the road. Drori wasnt to change the expiry system on these credits so that manufacturers of pure ZEVs can make full use of those credits and not be forced to sell them at steep discounts because of their short lifespan.
The Board will probably repeat the same mistakes it made back in the 90s that were so well documented in Who Killed the Electric Car?. But Drori’s letter shows that startups are indeed paying attention to policy and are trying to have their voices heard in the system.
The Daily Sprout
Katie Fehrenbacher - Misc
Biowaste-to-Fuel Company Files $100M IPO: Changing World Technologies, a company that turns biowaste — like fats, bones, greases, and feathers — filed to raise up to $100 million in an IPO. The company is taking agriculture waste that has often gone back into the animal feed supply (hello, mad cow) and creates oil that can power vehicles or generate electricity.
Solyndra Angling for $350M For Manufacturing?: Michael Kanellos takes a look into thin film solar startup Solyndra’s risky attempts to raise $350M in convertible funding — Greenlight.
Solar Record! NREL Claims 40.8 Efficient: NREL researchers says they have a world record in solar cell efficiency on their hands; an “inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cell” that converts 40.8 percent of light that hits it into electricity — NREL press release.
Canadian Solar — Fine Earnings, Not-so-Fine Stock: Shares of Canadian Solar dropped despite solid earnings. Don’t you hate it when that happens? — Forbes.
Mossberg Column Getting Greener: — Mossberg Column writer Katie Boehret does a hands-on review of various gadget buy back and recycling sites. WSJ Mossberg.
China Gives Cree Unexpected Rise in Sales
Kevin Kelleher - Big Green
Cree, the maker of LED lights and chips, is having its best day on the stock market in nearly six months, rising 16 percent to close at $22.20 after posting fourth-quarter results and issuing a first-quarter forecast late Tuesday that were ahead of Wall Street’s expectations. Since hitting a 52-week high of $35.50 at the end of February, shares of Cree its stock had lost more than half of their value.
Cree saw net profit rise 31 percent in the quarter ended June 29, to $8.4 million, or 9 cents a share. Excluding one-time items, the profit was 16 cents a share, or three cents above the figure estimated by analysts. Revenue grew 22 percent to $136 million, again above the Street’s average forecast of $131 million.
And for the quarter ending Sept. 28, Cree said it sees revenue coming in between $138 million and $142 million. The midpoint range of $140 million is higher than the $136 million Wall Street had forecast.
The market had been split over whether Cree would beat or disappoint this quarter. Last week, Morgan Keegan’s Harsh Kumar raised his rating on the stock to outperform from market perform, arguing that the stock had fallen to attractive levels. A day earlier, American Tech Research and Merriman Curhan Ford expressed more cautious views. It seems bullish is the way to go for now.
Cree’s lights have won some attention in the Chinese Olympics. But as CEO Charles Swoboda noted in a conference call with analysts, while the Olympics may have started in its most recent quarter, Cree recorded that revenue in the previous one. So the Olympics had no direct benefit on its most recent earnings. As Swoboda said on the call:
The Olympic effect we got really pretty much ended in Q3 [ended March 30]. We had very little, if any, impact on our Q4 numbers from the Olympics. I will tell you though, it was strength in China and it's really the video display business that is driving it. I would attribute it more to overall infrastructure investments in China that are driving the whole video screen market… So what you're really seeing now is just infrastructure build out in China and it was just a nice upside for us last quarter.
Swoboda also mentioned that the company is working through some inventory issues that will stabilize margins going forward. Between that, an unexpected rise in sales to China and an undervalued stock, investors seem to be taking a new look at the LED maker.
Cow-Powered Ride Shows Biogas is Fun!
Craig Rubens - Big Green
In a ridiculous publicity stunt that shows the lighter side of cow power, northern California utility PG&E and BioEnergy Solutions said today they will power a children's train ride with renewable biogas, courtesy of California dairy cows, at the California State Fair this weekend in Sacramento. The ride, dubbed the "Barnyard Animal Train," will run on biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion of cow manure. Fun for the whole, and Holstein, family.
Biogas can actually deliver some serious power. According to a recent study, cow power could potentially provide enough energy to power a full 3 percent of our national grid. PG&E Vice President of Gas Transmission and Distribution Robert Howard certainly showed enthusiasm in the company release: "We're proud to partner with these innovative dairy farmers and demonstrate the potential for the state's agriculture and power sectors to work together to meet California's climate goals,"
This smelly publicity stunt is part of PG&E’s partnership with BioEnergy Solutions. Earlier this year, the two opened up a cow-powered gas pipeline that will pump out some 3 billion cubic feet of biogas a year. The project has the blessing of the California Public Utilities Commission and is expected to meet the electricity needs of some 50,000 PG&E residential customers. PG&E also has a contract for another 3 billion cubic of biogas from Microgy, which the utility tells us will be delivered later this year.
In the meantime, we’re waiting to hear about the “Bovine Biogas Bumper Cars,” “Flatulent Ferris Wheel” and “Cow Pie Log Flume.” We may be disappointed. But if any E2T readers are heading to the fair, please send in pictures of the "Barnyard Animal Train."
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