Green Thoughts Blog

In a bid to win the fuel-efficient car race, Honda is pushing forward with new plug-in hybrid and battery-powered electric model cars for the 2012 model year. Honda is also planning to release the Hybrid Honda Fit late in 2010 and a small diesel car targeted for the European market in 2012.

Honda's hybrids for 2012 will include the next generation of the Hybrid Honda Civic, which will utilize lithium-ion batteries instead of nickel-metal hydride packs which are currently used in all of Honda's hybrids. Acura, which is owned by Honda, will begin to leverage Honda's Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) technology as well to compete with Toyota's Lexus line of hybrids.

Honda is hoping that they can catch up to Toyota's popular selling Prius by utilizing lithium-ion batteries that have a better power to weight ratio than the nickel-metal hydride packs used by Toyota.

Electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors (TSLA) shares opened on the NASDAQ at $19, which was 12% higher than its initial offering price of $17. Despite a down day on both the Dow and NASDAQ, Tesla ended the day up an impressive 40.53% to close at $23.89. The company has lost almost $300 million since it was founded in 2003 by Elon Musk (who also founded PayPal and Zip2 Corp.) and is not expected to turn a profit until 2012 when it releases the Model S. Currently, Tesla only offers the pricey Roadster for $100,000. The Model S is expected to be a more reasonable $50,000.

Looking to harness the power of the vast amount of sunlight that shines on the Sahara desert, the European Union is backing multiple projects to import solar energy from Northern Africa into Europe. Guenther Oettinger, the European Energy Commissioner, recently stated that Europe will begin importing solar energy from Northern Africa within the next 5 years. Numerous projects will contribute towards helping Europe reach its goal of generating 20% of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020, but the majority will eventually come from the Desertec solar initiative. Desertec is a long range, multi-billion dollar project that will supply Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa with energy from renewable sources, with fossil fuels as a backup. The European Union is currently backing the construction of power transmission cables along the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea to transport energy from Northern Africa to Europe.

Google announced a $38.8 million investment into the "Peace Garden Wind" farm in North Dakota. The $190 million wind farm is run by NextEra Energy Resources and will be Google's first investment in an energy project instead of a company. The Peace Garden Wind farm will produce 170 megawatts of power annually. Some features of the wind farm include:

• 113 turbines
• Real time adjustments to the blade pitch angles
• Round the clock monitoring
• Blades with 15% more swept area

NextEra Energy Resources is a subsidiary of FPL Group (NYSE: FPL).

The American Lung Association released their "State of the Air 2010" report on Wednesday. The report analyzes ozone and particle pollution levels and then ranks the cities/neighborhoods in three categories:

• Ozone
• Short-term particle spikes
• Long-term particle averages

California once again performed poorly with three cities - Los Angeles, Fresno and Bakersfield - all ranking in the top 10 in the three categories.

Ozone

1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
2. Bakersfield, CA
3. Visalia-Porterville, CA
4. Fresno-Madera, CA
5. Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, CA-NV
6. Hanford-Corcoran, CA
7. Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX
8. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
9. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
10. Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury, NC-SC

Year Round Particle Pollution

1. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
2. Bakersfield, CA
3. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
4. Visalia-Porterville, CA
5. Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA
6. Fresno-Madera, CA
7. Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, AL
8. Hanford-Corcoran, CA
9. (tie) Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington, OH-KY-IN; St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL
10. (tie) Charleston, WV; Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI; Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH

Short Term Particle Pollution

1. Bakersfield, CA
2. Fresno-Madera, CA
3. Pittsburgh-New Castle, PA
4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA
5. Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, AL
6. Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, CA-NV
7. Salt Lake City-Ogden-Clearfield, UT
8. Visalia-Porterville, CA
9. Modesto, CA
10. Hanford-Corcoran, CA

After more than 9 years of debate, the Cape Wind offshore wind farm project has been approved for construction in the Nantucket Sound. The 130 turbine project has been heavily debated in the Cape Cod area over the years and was finally approved by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday. While offshore wind farms are common in Europe, Cape Wind will be the first in the United States. The wind farm will cover about 5% of Nantucket Sound's 500 square miles and each turbine will be over 40 stories tall. The estimated cost of the project is between $800 million to $1 billion.

April 22, 2010 is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, which was created by US Senator Gaylord Nelson in the spring of 1970. Later that same year, the federal government created the Environmental Protection Agency which has been working to protect human health and the environment ever since. Volunteer or attend an Earth Day event near you.

GE has announced plans to invest $450 million over the next 10 years for wind turbine manufacturing, research/development and service facilities in England, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The Norway facility will be involved in testing GE's new 4 megawatt offshore wind turbines which utilize a new drive train technology that does not require gearboxes. The technology was developed by Norway based ScanWind, which GE acquired in 2009. With the European Wind Energy Association predicting more than 70% growth in offshore wind generation in Europe during 2010, investing in European projects is desirable to most alternative energy companies.

The cellphone industry is finally catching on regarding reducing phantom loads. AT&T will soon start selling the new AT&T Zero Charger which stops drawing electricity once a cellphone is fully charged or is disconnected from the charger.

Smart grid start-up company GridNet has now added Cisco as one of its investors, to go along with other high profile investors such as Intel Capital and GE Energy Financial Services. Founded in 2006, GridNet will use the funding for its smart grid network infrastructure. GridNet has developed software products for both residential smart meters and also real-time monitoring for utility companies.

At the recent TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference in Long Beach, California, Microsoft founder Bill Gates stressed the importance of clean energy sources. He even went as far as to say that developing clean energy sources is more important than developing vaccines, a cause to which he has donated billions of dollars. Gates said that there are 5 key areas where research and development should be focused:

• Carbon capture
• Storage technology
• Nuclear
• Wind
• Solar photovoltaics and solar thermal power

Gates particularly focused on nuclear research that could turn spent uranium into electricity. He noted that the United States could power the entire country for 100 years with the country's spent uranium supplies.

How does your energy bill match up to your neighbors? Where you live in the country will affect how much electricity you need to use (and how much you pay too). According to the U.S. Department of Energy, here are the average annual energy bills for a household by region:

• Midwest $1,768
• Northeast $2,319
• South $1,758
• West $1,491

Learn how to lower your energy bill

As an update to our post about the Google PowerMeter, Google has announced the first set of utility companies that will be taking part in the Google PowerMeter pilot program. The pilot program is taking on a global scope by including utility companies in Canada and India and includes both small and large scale utility companies. The program is currently limited to certain customers of the utility companies, but Google will be expanding the rollout later in the year.

California: San Diego Gas & Electric
Canada: Toronto Hydro-Electric System Limited
Florida: JEA
India: Reliance Energy
Kentucky: Glasgow EPB
Missouri: White River Valley Electric Cooperative
Texas: TXU Energy
Wisconsin: Wisconsin Public Service Corporation

In February, we reported on BrightSource Energy signing the world's largest solar energy deal with Southern California Edison for 1,300 Megawatts of electricity. BrightSource has now broken its own record and signed a deal with PG&E for 1,310 Megawatts of electricity. The deal includes seven solar facilities that will be built in California's Mojave Desert by 2017.

An area of concern for BrightSource is navigating its way through the license approval process in California. Estimates for when the licenses will be approved put their projects behind schedule by several months and the company is also dependent on energy transmission lines being installed. As an alternative, BrightSource is also investigating building power plants in Nevada where they can get their projects approved faster.

The deal with PG&E brings BrightSource up to an impressive 40% of all large scale solar deals in the United States.

Image Credit: BrightSource Energy

When you think of Google, the first thing that usually comes to mind is a cutting-edge high tech company. However, in an effort to lower the company's carbon footprint, Google is going low tech by using goats to mow the lawns at its' corporate headquarters instead of gas lawn mowers. Google rents 200 goats from start-up company California Grazing once a year for about a week to eat the grass and also fertilize the land (via goat droppings). Google says that it costs the same amount to have goats graze the fields once a year as opposed to hiring a landscaping company to mow the lawn and the goat droppings also help to make the ground more fertile over time.

The Piaggio MP3 Hybrid three-wheeled scooter, is gearing up to become the first plug-in hybrid vehicle available in the United States. From the makers of the Vespa scooter, the Italian scooter should be available to U.S. consumers in the first quarter of 2010. The plug-in hybrid will go 40 miles on a standard charge and includes a gas powered motor, giving the scooter an estimated 141 miles per gallon. The battery pack is composed of lithium batteries that can be charged in 3 hours from a standard wall outlet. In addition to being charged by plugging it in, the battery pack for the electric engine can also be recharged while running in gas engine mode. The driver can easily switch between electric and gas mode by flipping a switch on the handlebars. The company has not said what the price tag for the Piaggio MP3 will be, but it is being estimated in the $8,000-$10,000 range.

A new green technology initiative was announced in Miami which aims to connect almost all of the homes and businesses in Miami-Dade County to a new smart grid by the year 2011. The project comes with a hefty price tag of $200 million, but approximately $100 million of the funding will come from the Obama administration's federal stimulus plan.The Energy Smart Miami project is a collaborative effort between industry heavyweights and also a green technology startup company.

Florida Power & Light is the local utility company which will be tying everything together. FPL will be installing smart meters provided by General Electric in all of the county's homes and businesses. These bi-directional meters will allow FPL to communicate with the home electrical system to monitor and control electricity use. The monitoring and control will be provided by software from California based startup company Silver Spring Network. Silver Spring's design is based on an open architecture which will allow different systems to work together. Cisco Systems is also involved in the project and will be providing hardware and network technology.

An early pilot program will consist of approximately 1,000 homes which will have smart meters and thermostats installed. For more information vist: Florida Power & Light, General Electric, Silver Spring Network and Cisco Systems.

Today is Earth Day 2009. Founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970, Earth Day is meant to increase awareness of environmental issues. This year's theme is "The Green Generation Campaign", which focuses on three key principles:

• Ending our dependency on fossil fuels.
• Encouraging individuals to adopt a green lifestyle.
• Creating "green collar" jobs.

What will you be doing to celebrate Earth Day? Check out our list of Going Green Tips to get started.

For more information on Earth Day, visit Earth Day 2009.

Struggling automaker General Motors announced a partnership with Segway to develop a two seat version of Segway's electric personal transporter. In order to receive additional bailout funds from the government, GM must present a new operating plan that the government agrees to. Teaming up with Segway is one step towards proving to the government that the company can start producing efficient alternative energy powered vehicles. But one must wonder if this is too little of an impact coming much too late. GM will need to do a lot more to revolutionize the way they do business and survive during this economic downturn.

The two seater Segway, nicknamed "Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility" (P.U.M.A.), is targeted towards city driving and will have a range of about 35 miles. We view this as more of a niche product, kind of like the original stand-up Segway. With other electric cars like the Aptera 2e offering longer distances and (slightly) roomier accommodations, it might be difficult for P.U.M.A. to catch on in a large scale way. While P.U.M.A. is an innovative idea, GM needs to show the government innovative ideas that will be big sellers that will help them to survive as a business.

The three-wheeled all electric 2009 Aptera 2e is soon to become a reality. Aptera is planning on making its 2e model available in California later this year, where it will be classified as a motorcycle because of its three-wheeled design. Some specifications include:

• 100 miles per charge
• Charges in 8 hours on a standard 110V household outlet
• 336V lithium iron phosphate battery (weighs 500 pounds)
• Seats 2
• Approximately 1500 pounds
• 90 mph top speed
• Equivalent of 70 horsepower
• $25,000 to $40,000 price tag

The Aptera 2e also has other eco features such as interior fabric that is made from recycled materials and the dome lights use LED bulbs. There's also an "Efficiency Meter" for realtime energy usage monitoring. One of the design goals of the Aptera was to minimize wind drag and the designers liken its shape to that of a bird. The wind drag coefficient is 0.15, which even beats the 0.25 coefficient for the new Toyota Prius.

The company is also developing plug-in hybrid and gas versions of the Aptera. They are predicting 250 mpg for the hybrid model and 100 mpg for the gas powered model.

When shopping for electronics, it's important to purchase products that consume a minimum amount of energy, are made from non-hazardous materials and can be recycled. Today we take a look at the Sony VAIO VGN-NS235J/S Laptop. It's features include:

• 15.4 inch display
• 2.16 GHz Intel Dual-Core T3400 Processor
• 4 GB RAM
• 250 GB Hard Drive
• Built-in webcam

It is a good multi-purpose laptop for everyday use and its lightweight design makes it easy to carry around. The VAIO line of Sony laptops are very popular and have a good performance track record. From an environmental standpoint, the Sony VAIO VGN-NS235J/S Laptop meets the following criteria:

• Energy Star 4.0 certified.
• Silver EPEAT designation, which means it satisfies 23 required criteria plus at least 50% optional criteria for reducing environmental impact.
• RoHS compliant, meaning restricted use of lead, mercury and other hazardous materials.

Organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Earth Hour began in Australia in 2007 when 2.2 million homes and businesses simultaneously turned off their lights for one hour. The following year, Earth Hour expanded past Australia to include 50 million people turning off their lights. This year, the WWF has set an aggressive goal of 1 billion homes and businesses turning off their lights for an hour. Major landmarks and companies around the globe will be participating this year to make it known that they care about the environment and the effects of global warming. To participate in Earth Hour, simply turn off your lights on Saturday March 28, from 8:30pm-9:30pm local time.

The Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, has completed installing the largest roof top solar system in the United States. The solar system contains 13,321 photovoltaic panels and can produce a maximum capacity of 2.4 megawatts. This equates to approximately 26% of the convention center's electricity and will lower its greenhouse gas emissions by over 2,300 tons per year. The solar panels, owned and operated by Pepco Energy Services, cover 290,000 square feet of roof top space on the 500,000-square foot building.

The Obama administration's commitment to clean energy in the stimulus plan is starting to pay off -- literally. When Steven Chu was appointed Energy Secretary, he committed to providing loans to clean energy companies to help the industry and to help create jobs. Last week, the Department of Energy provided solar startup company Solyndra with a $535 million loan guarantee to partially fund construction of a new manufacturing plant in California. The construction project will create about 3,000 construction jobs and over 1,000 jobs once the factory is operating.

Solyndra's photovoltaic system utilizes panels of tube-shaped solar cells that can absorb sunlight along the entire 360 degree surface. The Solyndra system is targeted towards flat/low-sloped commercial rooftops. The company estimates that there is approximately 30 billion square feet of commercial rooftops in the United States that could utilize their PV system. Because of the tube-shaped solar cells, the Solyndra panels can be flat mounted and installed closely together, thus maximizing the amount of rooftop space used.

As part of Walt Disney's "Corporate Responsibility Report", the company is setting aggressive environmental goals for itself to lower the company's carbon footprint and impact on the environment. The company plans to reduce its carbon emissions by 50% over the next 4 years and reduce its electricity usage by 10% over the next five years. The goals also include reducing water consumption, utilizing clean energy and reducing garbage. The initial focus will be on the theme parks which consume the most energy and produce the most waste.

Disney theme parks have already implemented some green projects. For example, in 2007 the Disneyland Railroad and Mark Twain Riverboat were converted to run on biofuel made from the used cooking oil from Disney's restaurants. While the biofuel costs more, it saves Disney over 150,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year and reduces their greenhouse gas emissions dramatically. Disney also uses natural gas to run the trams that connect the theme parks and hotels.

Previously we reported on the Tendril Residential Energy Ecosystem (TREE) and how Tendril's application programming interface (API) and use of the OpenADR standard would be a benefit to their products. One example of this is the Tendril Vantage Mobile application for the Apple iPhone. The Vantage Mobile application will allow users to monitor and control the energy in their home from their iPhone, no matter where they are (as long as they have a cellphone connection). By using open standards and API's, Tendril is enabling other companies to create software applications that can work with their systems, which in turn can increase the number of users.

The application currently supports cost/usage data and price change events. New enhancements also include historical data for your utility bill and hourly/daily data which will allow users to make short term adjustments to how energy is being used in their home.

Image credit: Tendril Networks, Inc.

NRG Energy announced a project to develop 3 solar power plants in southern California and the Southwest, which could total up to 500 Megawatts of clean energy. This will be NRG's first solar power project and the solar plants will be built using concentrating solar power technology provided by eSolar.

eSolar's design is similar in concept to the BrightSource Energy "Luz Power Tower", in that it uses a field of reflective heliostats to concentrate the sun's rays onto a thermal receiver (a.k.a. power tower). Water is pumped into the thermal receiver so that it can be converted to steam by the heat from the concentrated solar rays. The steam is then used to power a turbine to generate the electricity. The eSolar design also reuses the steam after it passes through the turbine by cooling it, which converts it back to water, so that the water can be fed back into the system. eSolar uses a modular design where multiple 46 Megawatt power units can be combined to scale up for large installations. Each power unit contains 16 power towers.

For more information visit NRG Energy and eSolar.

As a plug-in to their Microsoft Dynamics AX business management software, Microsoft is providing their "Environmental Sustainability Dashboard" free to Dynamics AX customers. The dashboard will allow businesses to collect data needed to monitor and calculate their carbon footprint, with the goal of being able to reduce their energy usage and utility bills. Dynamics AX works with existing Microsoft products to help mid-size and large businesses improve their productivity and operational efficiency.

We previously reported on the release of the Google PowerMeter. The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard will now put Microsoft and Google in competition with each other yet again. The main difference being that the Google PowerMeter will be a free online service to residential homeowners and businesses and Microsoft's Environmental Sustainability Dashboard requires purchasing the Microsoft Dynamics AX product, which is used by businesses only. While the two products differ in their approach, they both share the same goal of being able to analyze energy consumption so that users can save on their utility bills and lower their carbon emmissions.

First Solar announced on Monday that is was buying the assets of rival solar start-up company OptiSolar in a $400 million all stock deal. The deal will give First Solar control of all of OptiSolar's in-progress solar projects, including the much anticipated Topaz Solar Farm in California which will be the world's largest solar farm producing 550 megawatts of electricity. The Topaz project is scheduled to start supplying Pacific Gas & Electric Co (PG&E) with power in 2011.

Despite a slowing economy, First Solar continues to secure deals which is putting it ahead of its competitors. Major California utility companies, such as PG&E and Southern California Edison, have all turned to First Solar to help them reach the mandated goal of 20% of their generated power from renewable sources by the year 2010.

The Energy Star 5.0 specification, which goes into effect July 2009, will specify stricter requirements for computers and their accessories such as power adapters. The specification will also include gaming consoles for the first time. Some highlights of Energy Star 5.0 include:

• 85% minimum efficiency at 50% of rated output.
• 82% minimum efficiency at 20% and 100% of rated output.
• "Sleep modes" which consume less energy.
• Increased power adapter efficiency to 87%.

Some early adopters of the new Energy Star 5.0 specification are companies such as Apple, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens and Lenovo. Check out The Better Planet's list of the top selling green desktop computers and laptops.