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1. 12 Green Living Tips for the Whole House
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2. Will Valence's European Bet Win It a Profit?
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3. 2010 Toyota Prius Preview ??? With Blue Men
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4. Detroit Auto Show: 5 Automakers to Watch
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5. What a Dark Year for Solar Stocks
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6. Is This Product Really A Smart Green Choice?
12 Green Living Tips for the Whole House
jchait - Home & Garden
Some green living tips are fairly room specific. Other green living tips, once enacted benefit your entire household. Some all-over green home tips include…
- Use plant-based, natural, organic, and biodegradable soaps, detergents, and cleaners. You can make your own products, or look for these aspects on green cleaner labels.
- Green clean the air in your home.
- Make it a goal to use cloth everything - cleaning cloths, napkins, and if you’re up for it, cloth diapers.
- Go one step further with the above tip and purchase only organic textiles.
- If all cloth is too big a step, purchase recycled, unbleached paper products.
- Use LED lighting where you can and install energy saving bulbs in other light fixtures.
- Reuse items in your home instead of tossing them.
- Buy sustainable furniture when you can.
- Scale down and buy and own less stuff; which might even free you up to live in a smaller house.
- When remodeling, remodel green.
- Paint your rooms with earth-friendly paints.
- Turn all the thermostats in the house down a few degrees.
What other green tips can you think of that benefit your entire house?
Will Valence's European Bet Win It a Profit?
Jennifer Kho - Automotive
Valence Technology has been working to bring phosphate-based lithium-ion batteries to large-format applications such as vehicles since 1989. In other words, it’s essentially been waiting for the electric-car market to take off for nearly two decades.
But the company thinks its waiting period is over. It says it has found a real – not potential – market for electric vehicles across the pond. And company officials are betting that Europe, not the U.S. or Asia, will be the ultimate winner in the race for the electric car.
Valence makes lithium-iron-phosphate and lithium-iron-magnesium-phosphate batteries for hybrid and electric commercial vehicles. It claims its batteries can fully charge and discharge more often than regular lithium-ion batteries, and also are less likely to catch fire (phosphate is a key ingredient in fire extinguishers).
Valence began to focus on Europe about two years ago, when it realized that automakers there already were launching electric delivery vans and hybrid buses, CEO Bob Kanode said. “We were looking for a market where we could sell and we found Europe, with its incredible designs and very strong government and public support,” he said. “[Europeans] are absolutely dedicated to alternative-energy solutions and view this [electric vehicles] as maybe their last opportunity to make a difference in the automotive sector.”
Among other customers, Valence this year signed sales deals with Smith Electric Vehicles, a UK maker of electric commercial vans and trucks; PVI, a French manufacturer of electric buses and other vehicles; and Oxygen SpA, an Italian company that makes an electric scooter called Cargoscooter. Companies such as Modec, a UK-based supplier of electric delivery vans, and Wrightbus, a UK Wright Group subsidiary that makes double-decker buses, also are testing Valence batteries. Through these relationships, Valence is building connections to large automakers, such as Renault, which is a PVI partner; Peugot, which is an Oxygen partner; Volvo, which is a Wrightbus partner; and Ford and Isuzu, which are Smith Electric partners.
The company has already grown large in size — it has the capacity to make 100 metric tons of cathode material per month and about $20 million worth of battery packs per quarter. Valence plans to eventually expand from commercial vehicles into consumer cars, and also is working with UK and Spanish utilities to bring backup batteries to the electrical grid, Kanode said.
Still, Valence’s success in Europe has yet to translate into a profit. The company in November posted a second-quarter net loss that grew 26.5 percent to $6.2 million, or 5 cents per share, from $4.9 million, or 4 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. At the same time revenue rose 3.5 percent to $5.8 million from $5.6 million in the same quarter in 2007.
And the company faces several challenges. For one thing, battery limitations mean that electric vehicles have shorter ranges than their gasoline counterparts, and that could limit the market. For example, most of Valence’s partners get ranges of more than 100 miles, Kanode said. Automakers such as GM and DaimlerChrylser have previously said they are aiming for alternative vehicles that can travel at least 300 miles before refueling, to be comparable to gasoline cars. Drivers are accustomed to being able to drive long distances on a single tank, and range could be even more of an issue with electric cars, which can take hours to recharge.
Electric car advocates argue that most drivers don’t need long ranges. After all, most European commuters travel less than 60 kilometers (about 37 miles) daily, or less than 19 miles each way, with 80 percent of German car owners driving 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) or less each day, according to GM. “We often give people that are testing us surprisingly more range than they want,” Kanode said. “It’s not a problem.”
Also, Valence is developing more efficient lithium-vanadium-phosphate and lithium-vanadium-phosphate-fluoride batteries, he said. Higher efficiency could increase the batteries’ runtime (and the vehicles’ range).
Meanwhile, the economy could slow the hybrid- and electric-vehicle market. In November, U.S. hybrid sales fell 50 percent from the same month last year. Earlier this month, Norwegian electric-car maker Think Global halted production, and in October, Menlo Park, Calif.-based Tesla Motors announced layoffs and the delay of its next model.
The uncertain economy could make it more difficult for Valence to raise more money to expand and also could hinder some of Valence’s customers from attracting funding to buy its batteries, Kanode said. “Nobody knows what this market is going to do,” he said.
Nonetheless, Valence expects support for electric vehicles will stay strong in Europe, regardless of the economy. “People view it as an absolute necessity to reduce dependence on foreign oil and everyone is very concerned about the environment and determined to reduce their footprint,” Kanode said. “We don’t see any slow-up at all. It’s a very different environment from the United States.”
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2010 Toyota Prius Preview ??? With Blue Men
khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars
Finally — a good look at the coming 2010 Toyota Prius. Not just a taillight or a window switch, but a good, slow pan around the whole car while jazzy piano music plays (”Something’s Coming” by Leonard Bernstein, naturally) and the Blue Man Group plays with a boomerang.
The BMG gets inside the car, too, and plays with the tech features, like iPod integration and the futuristic dashboard readouts, which look like they were designed by Tony Stark. That’s “Iron Man” to the less geeky of you.
The video is about three and half minutes long, the perfect length for a Friday afternoon snack break. The car is set to debut at the Detroit auto show, and I’ll be there, blogging like crazy. Come back in about ten days to see what this sucker looks like in the metal.
Detroit Auto Show: 5 Automakers to Watch
Josie Garthwaite - Automotive
The North American International Auto Show will go light on the glitz and gas guzzlers this year, as exhibitors (two of them fresh from a bailout) seek to demonstrate efficiency, innovation and frugality. Even SUVs — most notably the 30-mpg-highway 2010 Chevy Equinox — are sporting improved fuel economy. With at least seven manufacturers, including Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., opting out of corporate representation at the Detroit event, smaller startups and new green concepts from established automakers just might steal the show. We’ll be watching to see how these five electric and hybrid vehicle exhibitors perform in the spotlight:
BYD Auto: Chinese battery company BYD made its North American debut at the 2008 Detroit show with its H6 DM hybrid. Over the last year, BYD has entered the green auto race in earnest, thanks in part to a $230 million investment from Warren Buffett, the launch of a plug-in hybrid (the F3DM) earlier this month, and plans to roll out an all-electric car, the e6 (pictured below) in 2009.
Fisker Automotive: The Irvine, Calif.-based startup unveiled prototypes of its electric Karma at last year’s show, and plans to display the production version (revealed earlier this month and pictured below) in 2009. The company also plans to show off a hybrid concept convertible called the Karma S.
Honda: The production version of the 2009 Honda Insight Hybrid (pictured below) is slated to debut in Detroit, kicking off what the company hopes will be a year of fierce competition with the Toyota Prius. According to Edmunds, the Insight is expected to carry a $20,000 price tag, compared with $22,720 plus a $700 “destination charge” for the 2009 Prius.
Tesla Motors: The San Carlos, Calif.-based startup will have floor space in Detroit for the first time this year to display its Tesla Roadster (below). Don’t expect to see the long-awaited Model S sedan — it’s slated for an unveiling later in 2009.
Toyota Motor Corp.: Toyota is going gangbusters for green this year. It plans to debut one all-electric concept vehicle and two hybrid concepts — a sports car called the Toyota FT-HS Hybrid Sports Concept, and a Lexus sedan called the HS250h that’s expected to give efficiency priority over the juiced-up engines seen in previous Lexus hybrids. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company will base the limited-range, $20,000 electric model on a subcompact that the company has in the works for a possible launch in the next few years. That’s not all. The company will also show the buzzy 2010 Prius (pictured below) and Camry Hybrid.
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What a Dark Year for Solar Stocks
Kevin Kelleher - Big Green
Many are glad to have shut the door on 2008. Few are likely to be happier than solar-power companies.
Of the six solar stocks valued at more than $500 million (a club that grew much smaller during 2008), none outperformed the S&P 500 index, which fell 38 percent last year. The stock that came closest to matching it was First Solar, which lost 48 percent in 2008. First Solar's low-cost thin-film technology kept profits growing, and kept the stock from falling further.
Behind First Solar came SunPower, which slid 72 percent. Yingli Green Energy, Suntech Power, JA Solar and Evergreen Solar all lost more than 80 percent this year, which is more than the Nasdaq fell from the frenzied peak of March 2000 to the rock bottom of October 2002 (a decline of 78 percent).
The declines are especially stark considering there was some positive news for solar companies that could have caused a rally in a normal year. Congress finally renewed a solar tax credit. VCs invested billions into solar startups. States like California and Massachusetts were leaning on utilities to use more solar power.
But this was not a normal year. Not only were solar stocks coming off surreal rallies in 2007, when all six stocks saw their share prices more than double, they were hit by several bearish forces in the closing months: a credit crunch restricting access to new capital, a collapse in oil prices, a severe drop in spending from homeowners and companies. All while a glut in solar modules threatened to trim prices.
In 2009, while access to capital might remain tight, the solar industry again has some things in its favor once the economy bottoms out. Polysilicon prices may fall as new factories boost production. Signs indicate that solar power is starting to be as cheap as grid electricity. Fiscal spending or new tax credits could spur buying of solar panels.
Ernst & Young's Joseph Muscat suggested to the AP that the balance will shift from negatives to positives sometime this year.
“Right now the challenges in the economy are weighing more heavily than those incentive programs to try to keep the industry moving along at a good pace… I do believe that the cleantech renewable energy sector will be the first to emerge when the market stabilizes.”
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Is This Product Really A Smart Green Choice?
jchait - Home & Garden
In the last post, Green Product Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Buy I said I’d gather some resources that can help you answer some of the questions offered. Here you go…
Now keep in mind that some of the questions only you can answer, but in some cases, you find info about a company or product that can help you to make a green purchasing decision.
Does the product have a long shelf life?: To learn more about product reliability and life expectancy, try looking at the following…
- Consumer Reports
- Consumer Search
- Find consumer input For example, Amazon.com, LUSH, Epinions, and other companies and websites offer places where consumers can post opinions, suggestions, and reviews.
Is the company who made it / sells it a good green and ethical company?:
- Household Product Database
- National Green Pages - to find a greener alternative for almost anything.
- 100% Fair Trade companies
- 2008 World???s Most Ethical Companies
Can I recycle the item and or packaging?:
Could I get it from a local company: Check your local yellow pages or do an online search but use your area as a search perimeter.
How toxic is this product?:
- For beauty product safety visit Skin Deep.
- Toxic Product List
- U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
- Washington Toxics Coalition
Is it tested on animals?: Visit Caring Consumer to see companies that do and do not test on animals.
If you do a little research before you buy a product, you can make sure that you’re getting the least toxic, and most eco-friendly product for your dollar.
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