Google will put up a large chunk of the funding to develop a major wind-energy project in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The company announced this week that it would fund some 37 percent of the “Atlantic Wind Connection” (AWC), a 350-mile wind-power infrastructure complex planned for the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to Virginia.
The underwater power “backbone” will connect 6,000MW of offshore wind turbines, “equivalent to 60 percent of the wind energy that was installed in the entire country last year and enough to serve approximately 1.9 million households,” according to Google’s Green Business Operations Director Rick Needham, who announced the deal on the company’s official blog.
Read more: Google Invests in Superhighway for Clean Energy
Nissan has announced its projected pricing on the new, all-electric Nissan Leaf, and the pricing makes this car an affordable option.
Figures at this point put the Leaf at about $32,800, or around $25,000 after federal tax credits kick in. Add in some state incentives, like California's $5,000 rebate and you're looking at an electric car for about $20,000.
Read more: Nissan Leaf is an Affordable Electric Car
The nation's first ever biorefinery designed to convert switchgrass into ethanol has recently been christened in Tennessee. The demonstration facily is 74,000-square-foot and experts predict that the plant should produce 250,000 gallons of ethanol. In addition to switchgrass, the plant uses matter from agricultural residue (such as corn cobs) and bioenergy crops.
The plant is expected to open for commercial purposes in 2012. Tennessee has allocated $70 million on the project of turning switchgrass into ethanol, or "grassoline" as they call it. The impetus for the project comes from the Federal government as Congress has mandated an increase in the use of ethanol.
Local growers, up to about 40 in the region, are receiving subsidies to grow switchgrass for use as ethanol and at present about 2,600 acres of the crop are being grown in the area.
A New Mexico Indian tribe, the Jemez Pueblo, is looking to build the first utiltiy-scale electric plant powered by solar energy on tribal lands.
Other tribes, notably the Navajo in Arizona and New Mexico, have used solar power in the past but not on this scale.
This project, set to be housed on a 30-acre site with about 14,850 soalar panels, would really be the first of its kind.
More information here .
Nissan North America, Inc., today announced that Nissan and the City of San Francisco, on behalf of the Bay Area EV Corridor program, are working to advance zero-emission mobility by promoting the development of an electric vehicle (EV) charging network in the nine-county region. The cities of Oakland and San Jose, county governments in the Bay Area and other public and private stakeholders are participants in the regional EV Corridor program.
First Solar, Inc., a Tempe, AZ manufacturer of solar modules, has recently announced a huge 500 MW contract with Southern California Edison (SCE). The plan is for First Solar to engineer, procure and construct two solar facilities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in southern California. The company will use its thin-film photovoltaic solar modules for the project and it is expected to provide energy for about 170,000 homes in the area.
This latest solar project is expected to help meet California's ambitious goal of delivering 20 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010.
Construction is expected to begin in 2012 for the Desert Sunlight 250MW project near Desert Center and in 2013 for the 300 MW Stateline project in northeastern San Bernardino County.
More details from the First Solar Press Release.
Image courtesy of First Solar
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GM has recently announced its soon to be released Chevy Volt is capable of 230 MPG. The number is derived by combining the first 40 miles in electric mode, powered by the battery alone. Thereafter, the car will continue to run off the battery but it will be charged with a fuel-powered engine-generator--granting an extended range of 300 more miles.
Critics of this recent announcement claim that GM is simply using hyperbolic figures for marketing purposes with fuzzy math and unrealistic driving conditions. In fact, the "230" figure appears to be a marketing tool as an ad campaign will have the number "2" and "3" followed by the round electrical outlet. The fact is that the fuel economy standards for electric and serial (or series) hybrid vehicles has not truly been ironed out. The standard methodology for determinining mpg doesn't quite fit electric vehicles and is easily manipulated.
For more info see:
http://green.autoblog.com/2009/08/11/gm-ceo-henderson-announces-the-volt-will-get-230-mpg-in-the/
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE57F1OX20090816?sp=true
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/11/AR2009081101090.html
http://www.chevroletvoltage.com/
Nissan Motor Company recently announced the forthcoming release of its new electric vehicle sedan that will likely go about 100 miles on a single charge.
The company suggested the car would be officially unveiled on August 2 in Japan and would hit US and Japanese salesrooms in 2010. The car would be equipped with a computer system, labelled the EV-IT, that would provide key data to the driver such as a navigation map with the driving radius within its current range as well as the ability to calculate if the vehicle is within range of a pre-set destination.
The driver will also be able to monitor the cars data online or via cell phone, checking things like the state of the battery charge as well allowing the owner to remotely switch the charging function on/off or set the air conditioner timer.
Nissan has been one of the leading car manufacturers in developing an electric car these last few years and this move might just push it to the lead if they can come up with a viable product. However, note that this industry has historically been long on promises and short on a product when it comes to electric vehicles.
More information should be forthcoming in August on Nissan's EV Website, www.nissan-zeroemission.com.
Bizjournals.com notes that "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 includes $8 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy and transmission projects, $11 billion to improve the electrical grid, $6.9 billion to improve federal buildings and make them more energy efficient, plus $2 billion in loan guarantees and grants for advanced battery technologies and $1.5 billion in grants and loans to help schools become more energy efficient."
The news, coupled with a report from the CleanTech Group that "clean technology venture investment reaches record $8.4 billion in 2008 despite credit crisis and broadening recession", is evidence that the fundamentals of green and clean investments remain strong for 2009. The group goes on to note that the "top clean technology sectors in 2008 were solar, biofuels, transportation, and wind. Solar accounted for almost 40% of total clean technology investment dollars in 2008, followed by biofuels at 11%."
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