21st Century Regenerative Technology

1. Elon Musk Envisions Tesla Electric Car as Low as $20K
2. The Daily Sprout
3. Berkeley OKs City-Backed Solar Loans

Elon Musk Envisions Tesla Electric Car as Low as $20K

2008-09-18 04:00

Katie Fehrenbacher - Hitlines

Shortly after Tesla held a press conference Wednesday morning touting its $250 million planned plant in San Jose, Calif., Tesla chairman Elon Musk presented his vision of Tesla’s leadership role in the auto industry at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen conference. Musk said that Tesla has the ability to accelerate the auto industry’s progress toward the adoption of electric vehicles by 5 to 10 years. Lighting even that small fire could be very important if you consider what a decade of delay can do for climate change, he said.

Tesla’s efforts to spur the auto giants will include a third-generation, low-cost electric vehicle that could possibly be priced as low as $20,000, (he mentioned $30,000 as an option, too) a price point that is “super affordable,” he explained to us in a phone interview. The company has discussed plans for a third-generation car before, suggesting prices closer to $30,000. Tesla could produce the low-cost, third-generation electric car in partnership with other major auto makers, Musk said in his speech. He also noted the company’s previously announced partnership with Daimler and said that the connection could possibly turn into a larger deal. Details haven’t been announced about the deal with Daimler, but Musk confirmed with us that Tesla’s partnership with Daimler won’t focus on its Model S. So does that mean a future Daimler/Tesla EV partnership could deliver one of its third-gen lower-cost options? We’re not sure, but it sounds like a possibility.

Musk gave a few details on Tesla’s second generation Model S sedan, which he said the company will unveil early next year. Drivers will be able to swap the battery pack out of the Sedan, and in his talk Musk envisioned battery swap stations that could offer the same convenience as visiting a gas station. He explained to us that it was not that hard to design the battery to be swappable and that it made the car easier to service.

Battery-swapping made us think Tesla might be getting on board with Shai Agassi’s Better Place, but Musk said that at this point the two startups are focusing on different markets — Better Place currently has deals with Israel and Denmark.

On the topic of electric-vehicle competitor Fisker, Musk had some strong opinions. He said that the startup had copied a strategy from Tesla, but that it was using the wrong one (the Fisker-Tesla brawl headed to arbitration in June). We asked him what he thought the market would look like in 2010, when many of the large auto makers are first launching their electric vehicles, and he said it would be significantly later than that before any serious contenders came onto the market.

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The Daily Sprout

2008-09-18 00:39

Craig Rubens - Misc

BioPetroClean Raises $5M for Bugs to Clean Water: Israeli water tech startup BioPetroClean has raised a second round of funding from 21 Ventures for its tailored bacterial "cocktails" which eat up waterborne impurities - Globes via VentureBeat.

Seqway Inventor, Nokia to Launch Eco-Developer Contest: Seqway inventor Dean Kamen has teamed up with Nokia to launch a triumvirate of eco-development contests designed to improve access to health and energy services in the developing world - CNet.

Military Contracts EnerDel With $4M for Batteries: Indianapolis-based battery developer EnerDel says it has gotten a $4 million contract from the Department of Defense to research and develop high-energy, lightweight batteries for unmanned aerial vehicles - Cleantech Group.

Who Doesn’t Want Greener, Better Batteries? A study released by lithium-ion battery maker Boston-Power has found that over a third of consumers are willing to pay more for a more environmentally friendly battery for their notebook - Press Release.

Lenovo Show Off Energy Efficient Monitors: Lenovo showed off six next-gen, high efficiency ThinkVision monitors which use LEDs to reduce energy consumption 30 to 60 percent oer previous models - Press Release.

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Berkeley OKs City-Backed Solar Loans

2008-09-17 22:00

Craig Rubens - Hitlines

While federal legislators dilly dally over the solar tax credit, local lawmakers in Berkeley, Calif., have decided to move forward with a novel solar financing program. The Berkeley City Council unanimously approved a solar loan program late Tuesday night that will see the city loan homeowners the upfront cost of solar panels and recoup the cost across a 20-year property tax assessment. The city says it hopes to start accepting applications as soon as October.

The program solves a number of problems that have been holding residential solar back. First and foremost, it removes the high upfront cost of going solar with a large, lump-sum loan, around $20,000. And it goes even further, by attaching the loan to the property title — which means that if a homeowner moves before paying off the loan, they can easily pass the payments along to the new owner. Residential solar installers, on the other hand, often require customers to pay an extra fee to break their contract should they move.

"It's a visionary model for spreading solar and ensuring people can make the effort to do the right thing and add value to their home," the CEO of Berkeley-based Sungevity, Danny Kennedy, told us.

The next step for the city is to secure a financier to front the money on the loans, and given the state of institutional mortgage houses, that could prove difficult. But city reps are optimistic: “I would argue that this is very, very secure debt," City Deputy Christin Daniel told the New York Times. The city will initially seek $1.5 million for a pilot program of about 50 homes before scaling up to a program financing hundreds of solar systems.

The Mayor’s Sustainability Advisor Nils Moe says the pilot program should start by the end of October or beginning of November and if things go well the second, much larger phase could start at the new year. While the focus of the pilot program will be on photovoltaics, Moe says the second phase could include solar thermal as well as energy efficiency technologies.

Already Berkeley’s innovative program has sparked interest elsewhere in the country. Last year Bates told us he hoped to work with the EPA to create a blueprint guide for other cities and jurisdictions to follow Berkeley’s example. Moe says the EPA has put up $115,000 to evaluate the program with the city and UC Berkley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory and create a replication guide.

This program is very different than the solar incentives Mayor Gavin Newsom pushed through in nearby San Francisco. While the Berkeley program offers a loan to cover the total cost of a solar system, the San Francisco program offers tax rebates up to $6,000 to homeowners.