There are several reasons that HEVs may not be capturing the same level of small car market share as the ICE small cars, though price and value are certainly one of the key issues. In this segment, many consumers are inclined to go for solutions that don't break the bank, such as flex-fuel vehicles or high-efficiency or turbo ICEs. If product plans are representative of an automaker's opinion, there appears to be some agreement with this strategy as high-efficiency ICEs with improved fuel economy with minimal cost increase seem to be the direction many are headed with new products (for example, the Chevy Cruze and Ford Fiesta).

This leads one to expect that the growth of plug-in vehicles in this segment will likely be niche vehicles, similar to how small luxury cars are niche vehicles within the small car segment.

Beyond cars, consumer demand continues to push the development of trucks, whether that's crossover SUVs or full-size pickup trucks. Midsize/large SUVs and pick-up trucks combined account for about 27% of the U.S. new vehicle market, while sales of hybrids in these segments combine for about 3% (a total of 4 models, all GM). This mismatch between share of ICEs and HEVs is the result of several factors, cost of the vehicles, fuel economy gains that require many years of use to see payback, and lack of availability.

The prevailing assumption is that most consumers won't pay for small improvements from HEVs in fuel economy in big truck segments, and that assumption is likely correct. The cost recovery for a $4,000 to $8,000 premium for the HEV version likely takes many years to pay back with fuel economy gains that net savings of $300 to $500/year (based on a 12K miles per year driving cycle and $3/gallon gas price). Even at double the gas price, paybacks on expensive HEVs system are at least 5 years or longer. Additionally, let's not forget that truck buyers in the bigger vehicle segments are often looking for specific towing or cargo capabilities that HEVs have to live up to, which in some cases may drive the cost of the HEV even higher. The differences between HEV and ICE segment market share point to an opportunity within these segments for other less-costly technologies such as high-efficiency ICEs, start-stop hybrids or turbo-diesel engines.

Dave Hurst is senior analyst at clean tech research and consulting firm Pike Research
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>

If micro-inverters are the current craze in the solar industry, then I predict that solar energy monitoring systems will be the next big thing.

Micro-inverters (and other parallel technology) are given lots of attention because they can increase the efficiency of a system by up to as much as 10%-20%. Similarly, solar electricity systems that are hooked up to monitoring systems have a 10% energy production increase over systems that are not hooked up to monitoring systems, according to Will Shortt, CEO of Deck Monitoring.

PV solar panels last at least 25 years, where as inverters only come with an 8-10 year warranty. That means that sometime in the 8-10 year range the inverter will die and the system will stop producing energy. With a monitoring system in place the installer or homeowner will know immediately that the system has been compromised. Otherwise it could be weeks or months before the homeowner looks at their energy usage statement from their utility company and realizes that their solar electricity system is not longer producing energy.

Monitoring systems currently cost around $1,000, which seems like a small price to pay for installers to be able to ensure that a homeowner's system is working properly. With a monitoring system in place an installer could offer a "performance assurance", and that may be just the differentiator needed to close the deal.

All California installers are required to give a 10-year warranty, but this might compel them to give even longer warranties. Similarly, it may motivate installers to offer warranties in other states.

Combine a warranty with monitoring systems and I can see how a solar installer could proactively call a homeowner to say that they're going to drop by to clean the panels when they see the productivity drop rather than the other extreme of having a system fail for some reason, then have a furious customer calling because their $20,000 solar energy system has not been producing electricity for the past month. I'd much prefer to read stories on yelp about how great an installer is because they called a customer to say there was a problem that they were going to come out to fix before the customer even knew there was an issue.

Thomas Dinkel, CEO of SunReports said that SunPower, SunRun, Solar City, and Sungevity all offer monitoring with any systems they install, and therefore to be competitive with them other installers will likely start offering monitoring as well.

The most compelling feature of monitoring systems is the ability to measure performance against what was promised and what is expected of the system. Not only is it fun to see, but it also serves as a great indicator if something goes wrong with the system.

Lastly, when homeowners are able to view their solar energy production or energy usage in a clear, easy to view fashion, they inevitably will adjust their behavior and start using less energy, which is a great positive side-effect.

*Clean Power Finance recently hosted a webinar with SunReports and Deck Monitoring, which is where I learned much of what I just reported. However I'm sure there are other monitoring solutions out there, and I'd be interested in hearing about them too.

Reprinted with permission from CleanTechies
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>

A new study out which took a look at the recycling efforts of mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple and Nokia tells a sobering tale of how mobile phone recycling is amazingly low, with rates of 10% considered good. IDC, the firm behind this survey, believes the mobile industry faces a long road to being green.

IDC, in announcing the top five mobile phone vendors it believes are most sustainable, notes that it is "critical for the manufacturers of these devices to demonstrate their corporate responsibility by working toward greener phones that simplify safe and proper disposal and even reuse of the billions of mobile phones in the market." The top five vendors (in alphabetical order) include Apple, noted for recycling in 95 percent of the countries where its products are sold; LG; Nokia, praised for being particularly strong in the area of materials where between 65% and 80% of any Nokia device can be recycled; Samsung; and Sony Ericsson, which IDC noted had "optimized packaging to be more environmentally friendly by including recycling mailers and developing lighter boxes saving 80% on CO2 emissions from transport versus the standard box."

IDC, in determining the results of its study, used five criteria (packaging, materials, energy, end-of-life program, and overall sustainability efforts) and 20 sub-criteria. The research firm went to the manufacturers directly, physically inspecting the packaging, devices, and accessories of mobile phone manufacturers, and leveraging published corporate responsibility reports and other corporate and product environmental reports as available. It also reviewed third party rating and watchdog information from the likes of Energy Star and Greenpeace.

Reprinted with permission from EarthTechling.com
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>

Today, a consumer group, Consumer Federation of America, released a new study that clearly shows stronger pollution and fuel efficiency standards that result in 60 miles per gallon by 2025 is good for consumers' pocketbooks. But not only do consumers win, it also means less pollution, less oil dependency, and a stronger, more competitive auto industry. It's one of the best examples of why good environmental and clean energy policy goes hand-in-hand with lowering consumer fuel bills and restoring American industry to a leadership position.

Achieving 60 mpg by 2025 can be done by using and improving on technologies that already exist, such as hybrid electric cars and electric vehicles. In fact, according to a new study released yesterday by the University of Michigan, the technical potential is to triple fuel economy to 74 mpg, even before considering plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. We have learned from cell phones, microwaves, and computers that higher volumes can lead to dramatic improvement in innovation and drive down costs.

Raising standards to 60 mpg is good for consumers, good for the environment and good for jobs. Here are the top three reasons why we need stronger pollution and fuel efficiency standards:

Reason #1: Pays for itself. According to the consumer group Consumer Federation of America, cost of fuel savings technologies pays for itself in the first year of ownership.

Reason #2: Making cars and trucks go further on a gallon is the cleanest, cheapest, and fastest way to meet our energy needs. It will reduce our dependency on oil from the Middle East while cutting emissions of greenhouse gas and other pollutants.. Passenger vehicles-cars, minivans, pickups and SUVs-are the single biggest consumer of oil, accounting for about 40 percent of our oil consumption. To break our oil addiction and avoid future disasters like the Gulf spill, we must raise the efficiency of our cars and trucks.

Reason #3: Without stronger standards, American automakers could fall behind in the global race for the clean car market, putting even more manufacturing jobs at risk. As recent reports by the business consulting firm McKinsey and Company show and others, the US auto industry is locked in a global race to dominate the market for clean, advanced technology vehicles. In the 1970s, the U.S. auto industry fell asleep at the wheel when it came to building fuel efficient cars and ceded huge market share to the Japanese companies like Toyota and Honda. In the 1990s, while the U.S. auto industry chose to build Hummers rather than hybrids, it once again, fell behind in leadership to Toyota and Honda on hybrids. In the 2010's, without stronger standards, the U.S. auto industry risk losing ground to the fast rising Chinese auto industry.

This post by Roland Hwang first appeared on Switchboard, the Natural Resources Defense Council blog.
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>

Social networking website Facebook is coming under unprecedented pressure from its users to switch to renewable energy. In one of the web's fastest-growing environmental campaigns, Greenpeace international says at least 500,000 people have now protested at the organisation's intention to run its giant new data centre mainly on electricity produced by burning coal power.

Facebook will not say how much electricity it uses to stream video, store information and connect its 500m users but industry estimates suggest that at their present rate of growth all the data centres and telecommunication networks in the world will consume about 1,963bn kilowatt hours of electricity by 2020. That is more than triple their current consumption and more electricity than is used by France, Germany, Canada and Brazil combined.

Facebook announced in February that it planned to build what is expected to be the world's largest centralised data storage centres in Portland, Oregon. Although it will include some of the world's most energy-efficient computers, the sheer scale of the Facebook operation will almost certainly use more electricity than many developing countries.

The company has said it will source its electricity from Pacific Power. It uses coal power - the dirtiest form of power generation - for 67% of its electricity, and produces less than 12% of its electricity from renewable sources. The company has said it plans to generate more electricity from renewables in future but has given no detailed information.

In a statement Facebook said: "It is true that the local utility for the region we chose, Pacific Power, has an energy mix that is weighted slightly more toward coal than the national average. However, the efficiency we are able to achieve because of the climate of the region and the reduced energy usage that results minimises our overall carbon footprint.

"Said differently, if we located the data centre most other places, we would need mechanical chillers, use more energy, and be responsible for more overall carbon in the air - even if that location was fuelled by more renewable energy."

Kumi Naidoo, director of Greenpeace International, urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to commit his company to a plan to phase out the use of dirty coal-fired electricity. In a letter to Facebook, Naidoo said: "Facebook is uniquely positioned to be a truly visible and influential leader to drive the deployment of clean energy."

Earlier this year Greenpeace admitted that many of its own web hosting operations are also housed in data centres powered primarily by coal and nuclear power. The environmental group said it offset all the energy used to power its main website in Amsterdam and used renewable energy where it could. Many of its servers in Washington also used wind power.

John Vidal is the environment editor for guardian.co.uk

Reprinted with permission from ecopolitology
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>

This summer I was lucky enough to be able to drive across the county and visit 29 states and dozens of different cities. One city that really stuck out to me though was Portland. It was young, hip, and, although cool in its own right, was not at all my scene (I'm a country boy through and through). What really stuck out to me about Portland though was the traffic, or lack thereof. See, Portland has a rather complete public transportation system, which includes a lot of streetcars.

The streetcars have been a success for Portland, and other cities are taking notice. Combine that with changes to the Department of Transportation's new guidelines for building public transit, and we could see a real streetcar renaissance.

It used to be that there was hardly a city anywhere that didn't have a streetcar line running down most major roads. Before cars became popular, streetcars and steam trains were the most popular methods of travel. Unfortunately, streetcars and trains died together as Americans flocked towards cheap cars and cheap gas. Those days appear to be coming to an end though, and streetcars are poised to make a major comeback.

Portland's streetcar system is a driving factor behind many new streetcar projects. Studies suggest the streetcar lines in Portland have brought $3.5 billion of business investment and resulted in over 10,000 units of housing being built and filled. My experience is that you can get almost anywhere in Portland via their public transportation. If more cities would use streetcars, it would likely lead to similar results, all the while reducing traffic congestion and bringing in jobs. And more jobs is exactly what our country needs.

Source: USA Today | Image: Associated Press

Reprinted with permission from Gas 2.0
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>

Bjrn Lomborg may not be a household name around here, but that's through no fault of his. In November 2001, this Danish environmental author and economics professor was selected "Global Leader for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum. Lomborg was selected as one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2004. In June 2002, Business Week named Lomborg one of the "50 Stars of Europe" in the Agenda Setters category. The magazine noted, "No matter what they think of his views, nobody denies that Bjrn Lomborg has shaken the environmental movement to its core."

Controversy may as well have been his middle name, especially after his book The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World came out in 2001. The book was critical of the Worldwatch Institute's State of the World report "for using short-term trends to predict disastrous consequences, in cases where long-term trends would not support the same conclusions."

He was particularly outspoken on the subject of global warming whose importance he felt was being overstated. In the book's introduction he writes, "Global warming, though its size and future projections are rather unrealistically pessimistic, is almost certainly taking place, but the typical cure of early and radical fossil fuel cutbacks is way worse than the original affliction, and moreover its total impact will not pose a devastating problem for our future."

However, Lomborg has a new book entitled Smart Solutions to Climate Change: Comparing Costs and Benefits in which he proposes an aggressive $100 billion annual fund specifically targeting global warming solutions such as the familiar list of renewables including wind, wave, and solar as well as nuclear power and a number of more controversial geo-engineering approaches like cloud whitening, which, it has been suggested, might reflect a larger portion of the sun's heat back into space than ordinary clouds.

Lomborg's path to his current position was neither short nor straight. In 2003, the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty investigated his work and cited him for fabrication of data, deliberately misleading use of statistical methods and several other charges. However, an appeal to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation invalidated the charges. Needless to say the controversy continues, mostly simmering in academic circles.

As to his present position, Lomborg defends himself vigorously against the dreaded flip-flopper charge, pointing out that he never disputed the existence of manmade warming, but only the details of its severity and more importantly, what actions will be most effective.

The impetus behind this book was his effort to answer the question "If the world is going to spend hundreds of millions to treat climate, where could you get the most bang for your buck?" He now says that an annual investment of $100 billion will eliminate the threat of global warming by the end of this century.

Still his clear reversal comes at a critical point in time when momentum has eroded and major policy initiatives both globally and here in the US have stalled even as industry shills spreading doubt seem to have regrouped and reclaimed a significant chunk of public opinion.

RP Siegel is co-author of the eco-thriller Vapor Trails.

Reprinted with permission from TriplePundit
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>

In a conference call yesterday, Reid said he hoped that the possible addition of a renewable fuels standard-which reportedly could attract the votes of two Republicans, including Sen. Sam Brownback-might be enough to push the bill over the edge. Of course, whenever the margins are slim on a piece of legislation, you can usually expect an orgy of horsetrading-meaning that almost anything could be cut or added to the bill in pursuit of that one final vote needed for passage.

Unclear is the fate of $3.8 billion in additional funding for electric vehicles which was originally part of the more expansive Promoting Electric Vehicles Act of 2010. That bill was cut down and folded into the Energy Bill after cap and trade-and pretty much every other substantial provision-was cut from the now-dead Climate Bill. In its staid, Senate Democrats bundled together funding for Home Star energy retrofits, incentives for natural gas and electric vehicles, and new money for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, dropping any pretense that the legislation represented significant progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the Energy Bill of 2010 was born.

But even modest levels of new funding for environmental initiatives have proven to be too much for a bitterly divided Congress to stomach. Democrats hope that after the midterm elections, the seas will calm somewhat, with moderate Republicans no longer feeling as much pressure to fight the majority at every turn. Look for new funds for congressional favorites like ethanol and so-called "clean coal" to potentially find their way into the bill. Hopefully that won't mean that the already weakened electric vehicles initiative will be cut any further.

Reprinted with permission from PluginCars.com
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>

So just what did Cisco and Itron announce? It seems Itron and Cisco will develop network software, initially instantiated within Itron's OpenWay smart meter hardware, leveraging IPv6 and other "Cisco IP" goodies, for a highly secure, open, and interoperable RF mesh field area network. Itron will embed and license "Cisco IP technology" within OpenWay as well as distribute Cisco networking equipment and hardware.

Ultimately, this "platform" will be offered to all (i.e. other AMI and smart grid vendors) to help grow the market. Neither vendor would answer questions about product specifics or timing of when the "platform" would be released. Still seem fuzzy? Itron has already embraced IP in their recent revamp of the OpenWay network. An IEEE 802.15.4 working group is working feverishly on a RF mesh utility network standard, and the IETF is nearing completion of an IP-based ZigBee stack redo to be included with the eagerly anticipated Smart Energy Profile 2.0. So is there anything new and interesting in this alliance?

Plenty - at least potentially. Buzzword bingo aside, there are no "highly secure, open, and interoperable" AMI neighborhood area networks today, except perhaps the PLC-based smart meter interoperability demonstrated last year in Europe between Itron, Landis+Gyr, and Iskraemeco under the influence of EDF's 35 million meter checkbook. Other smart grid application domains, such as distribution and substation automation, are similarly challenged. These are all rapidly moving toward IP, and while IP adoption is necessary, it is far from sufficient for delivery of the "secure, open, and interoperable" promise.

Cisco may be the only vendor with the technical capability, financial heft, and market audacity to bring a unified end-to-end smart grid communications architecture to fruition, and this venture with Itron should be seen in this context.

The "Cisco IP" that Itron is licensing and embedding should be understood as both "Internet Protocol" and "Intellectual Property". This includes much of the "special sauce" that is required to actually operate a robust end-to-end network. And providing differentiated (even proprietary?) special sauce such as network management, security regimes, and performance monitoring and management, within the context of IP standards, is largely how Cisco came to lead in the market for enterprise and telecom networks.

What Cisco gains from this partnership is an opportunity to proliferate such "Cisco IP" to a growing base of smart meters. This is key puzzle piece in for an integrated end-to-end network offering, where the rewards in the home and enterprise parts of smart grid may be Cisco's biggest opportunity. Having Itron as a channel for Cisco equipment is an obvious and necessary bonus.

Itron gains badly needed "street cred" as an IP-based AMI supplier, especially versus Silver Spring Networks, who has given them fits. More importantly however, Itron likely realized that the walls of the AMI garden are down, and gaining pride of place within Cisco's unified smart grid architecture is a strong competitive move. The actual technology Itron can leverage, especially for security, won't be bad either, allowing them to concentrate on the actual AMI hardware and applications instead of reinventing the network wheel.

There are a few warning signs customers should monitor. In the press release, Cisco's Paul De Martini calls Itron's current-generation OpenWay solution "an excellent candidate for future upgrades", though the Itron execs were somewhat less equivocal during the analyst conference call. And historically "Cisco IP" has no less vendor lock-in power than the most proprietary SCADA or AMI system today.

Other smart grid vendors may feel a bit uneasy, especially Silver Spring Networks, who is still building momentum for their seemingly perpetually-imminent IPO on the strength of an IP-based system. Some Itron partners may also need reassurance, particularly Certicom, a supplier of public key encryption and key management technology, who could easily get squeezed out of OpenWay.

Given the vagueness of the specifics and timing around this announcement, it will take some time before we can assess whether any of the potential promise is being met. We'll be watching to see how Cisco assembles additional pieces in their smart grid puzzle, especially around broad architectural technologies such as network management and security. We'll also see how Itron's AMI roadmap evolves to match up with such Cisco architectural initiatives.

So it may be some time before we can declare "bingo", but in the meantime, let the buzzwords fly!

Bob Gohn is senior analyst at clean tech research and consulting firm Pike Research
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>

Water. Most Americans think nothing of it. Turn on the faucet and we expect clean water to flow under good pressure at the temperature of our choosing. But to make all that happen, water requires energy and lots of it. A full 3 percent of electrical power generation is used to treat, pump and distribute water in the U.S. (to say nothing of heating it). And in California, that figure is as high as 19 percent.

Imagine H2O is turning the concern about the intersection of energy and water into an opportunity by opening a $100,000 global competition to find the world's most promising water businesses that save energy.

Innovations could focus on a number of areas including water heating/cooling, pumping and transport or low-energy treatment. Entries for this year's competition, The Water-Energy Nexus, will be accepted beginning today, September 1, through November 15, 2010.

"Opportunities for saving energy exist at every stage of the water cycle," says Scott Bryan, Director of Operations at Imagine H2O. "Many of these innovations could be attractive to all water users from utilities down to the individual consumer."

Imagine H2O is a non-profit company created in 2008 "to inspire and help bring to market sustainable solutions to global water problems through entrepreneurship." The Water-Energy Nexus is the second contest Imagine H2O has held for water innovation. The 2009 contest, Water Efficiency, rewarded business plans that offered the greatest promise of breakthroughs in the efficient use and supply of water in agriculture, commercial, industrial or residential applications.

Like last year, this year's $100,000 purse includes cash as well as access to the Imagine H2O Incubator Program that helps bring the winning ideas to market. Business incubators have the ability to not only provide seed money and in-kind support for startups, they can also be pivotal in bringing products to market.

"This prize highlights a big market opportunity for entrepreneurs," says Tamin Pechet, Imagine H2O's Chairman. "Tomorrow's water supply system will have to be an energy-efficient one."

Reprinted with permission from Earth and Industry
read full article
Read 0 Comments... >>