December, 2010

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The Social Non Profit – Working Smarter with Social Tech

Green Car Congress

The Social Non Profit. I believe that non profits are more capable of fulfilling their Mission, meeting their business goals, empowering (liberating) their staff and engaging their stakeholders when they choose to work smarter using social technologies. As non profits embark on a working smarter path I see them incrementally evolving into a social non profit state (continuous dynamic process).

Insight 312
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Amazon.com Packaging FAIL – Hey Jeff Bezos, Who is the Airhead That Packed This?

Creative Greenius

I ordered my new 2011 wall calendar for my office from Amazon.com because they had the best price and free shipping. But I thought that free shipping meant “no cost&# not “brain free.&# Apparently that’s not the case because Amazon sent me my 2011 calendar in a box big enough to ship a flat screen TV. Check it out: When the box arrived via Fed Ex ground, I got excited thinking someone had sent me a large gift… I mean this box was huge, dwarfing my large sized trash an

Waste 310
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Paris To Test Banning Gas-Guzzlers (Yes, SUVs!) In City Core

Green Car Reports

Why are many European carmakers now planning to build electric vehicles? Because many European cities are widely expected to ban high-emissions vehicles from their city cores over the next decade--perhaps even vehicles with any emissions at all. Now, Paris may be the first city to experiment with such a policy. Next year, it will begin to test.

Gas 167
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Lithium Batteries for an Electric Golf Cart

Electric Cars are for Girls

My golf cart has a 48volt system requiring 6 eight volt batteries. existing US batteries are on last legs and shopping for new ones.

Golf Cart 151
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How serious is Norway about climate change? So much that its streetlights self-dim

emissions global warming Norway climate change carbon dioxide youtube lighting

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Ten Reasons Why You'll Really Enjoy Owning an Electric Car

All Cars Electric

This month has seen a lot of witty articles about the pros and cons of electric transportation, usually titled ‘Ten reasons why electric cars.’ followed by: "suck" or "don’t work" or "will change your life". or even reasons why it’s not worth arguing about it at all. The focus has been largely centered around the.

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Mission Motors reveals the Mission R race-ready electric superbike motorcycle

National Green Transportation

Do you like this story? Indications have been building all year that Mission Motors was preparing to unveil a new electric superbike, the most recent hint being a silhouette that's graced their website for a couple months. Yesterday that bike, the Mission R, was.

Motoring 104

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Manufacturer Spotlight: Kia

Green Cars News

Where we stand: December 2010 The second largest automobile manufacturer in South Korea, Kia has been taking significant steps forward in recent months as it bids to be among the frontrunners in the green car race. The Paris Motor Show 2010 was particularly important for the company as it took the opportunity to unveil a [.].

Kia 63
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GM Confirms, Yes, We're Losing Money on Every Volt We Build

Green Car Reports

Doug Parks, vehicle line executive for the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, GM's range-extended electric vehicle, confirmed Tuesday that the company loses money on every Volt it sells. This should hardly be a surprise. It's called R&D, folks Every major automaker spends billions of dollars a year on research and development costs. And they know that when.

Volt 166
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Mission Motors Unveils Mission R Electric Racing Superbike

Green Car Congress

Today at the Long Beach International Motorcycle Show, Mission Motors unveiled the Mission R, the company’s new electric racing superbike. The Mission R features the latest components from MissionEVT, the EV powertrain technology arm of Mission Motors. The Mission R packs 14.4 kWh and 141 hp in a package smaller than a modern 600cc sportbike. The liquid-cooled 3-phase AC Induction motor creates 115 ft-lbs (156 N·m) of torque at the crank from 0 to 6400 RPM, propelling the Mission R

Motoring 294
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Solar reactor for the two-step thermochemical production of fuels from water and carbon dioxide

Green Car Congress

Schematic of the solar reactor for the two-step, solar-driven thermochemical production of fuels. Click to enlarge. A team from Caltech, ETH Zürich and the Paul Scherrer Institute have devised a solar reactor for the two-step, solar-driven thermochemical production of fuels. In a paper published in the journal Science , they report stable and rapid generation of fuel over 500 cycles.

Solar 278
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Faurecia and Accenture partner on products and services for connected and autonomous vehicles

Brief

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Catalytic cracking of vegetable oil sludge to produce biohydrocarbons

Green Car Congress

Researchers in Viet Nam and Belgium have developed a catalytic cracking process to convert vegetable oil sludge to renewable hydrocarbon fractions. Their paper, in which they compare the results of this process to a pyrolysis process, is in press in the journal Fuel. Vegetable oil sludge is a major byproduct of vegetable oil factories, and consists of triglycerides (61%), free fatty acid (37%) and impurities (2%).

Oil 275
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GM sourcing components for the Chevy Volt produced from recycled oil-soaked plastic booms from BP spill

Green Car Congress

Steps in recycling the booms to auto parts. Click to enlarge. General Motors has developed a method to convert an estimated 100 miles of the oil-laden plastic boom material used to soak up oil from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year into parts for the Chevy Volt. The booms are made out of polypropylene material, and are virtually entirely recyclable once the waste oil and water are removed.

Oil 262
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Report: Toyota to make plug-in hybrids in China

Green Car Congress

The Nikkei reports that Toyota Motor Corp. plans to begin assembling plug-in hybrids in China by 2012. The joint venture with China FAW Group Corp. will make the hybrids, with output likely starting at a few thousand units a year. The joint venture already has a track record for producing the Prius, the Japanese carmaker’s mainstay hybrid. Toyota intends to position the joint venture as the Chinese supply base for plug-ins, which are touted as the next big thing in environmentally friendly

Plug-in 261
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GE demonstrates dual battery system for electric buses; pairing high-energy density sodium battery with high-power lithium battery optimizes performance and lowers cost

Green Car Congress

Electric bus with dual battery system. Click to enlarge. The hybrid systems research team at GE Global Research has successfully demonstrated a dual battery system for an electric transit bus, pairing a high-energy density sodium metal halide battery with a high-power lithium battery. A123Systems—which is a partner in the project, and in which GE holds a significant stake ( earlier post )—provided the Li-ion power battery.

Sodium 256
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ExxonMobil announces 6th oil discovery offshore Guyana with Ranger-1; Guyana may move from non-producer to regional powerhouse

Oil

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GM and HRL team use vertically aligned graphene nanosheets to increase Li-ion electrode high rate capability

Green Car Congress

Researchers from General Motors Global Research & Development Center and HRL Labs report enhancing the high rate capability of Li-ion anode materials through the used of vertically aligned graphene nanosheets on the current collector. Their paper is in press in the journal Electrochemistry Communications. In this paper, we demonstrated that the high rate capability of electrode can be achieved by engineering the existing electrode materials.

Li-ion 255
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Yeast and plant fatty acids produce durable recyclable plastic; conversion into biodiesel

Green Car Congress

Dr. Richard Gross, professor of chemical and biological science at Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly), has developed a method for producing a strong, highly ductile bioplastic using yeast and fatty acids of plant oils. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Like all plastics, the new material is a polymer—a large molecule comprising smaller, repeating units called monomers.

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Audi to launch 11.6B investment program in 2011; focus on future technologies, including electric and hybrid drive systems

Green Car Congress

Audi plans to invest about €11.6 billion (US$15.3 billion) between 2011 and 2015, primarily in new products and technologies, as well as in upgrading its sites. This marks the largest investment program in the company’s history. About 80% of all investment—more than €9.5 billion (US$12.5 billion)—will go to developing new products and to technologies of the future such as electric and hybrid drive systems.

Audi 247
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SCAQMD awards AC Propulsion $300K grant for 3 electric service van conversions

Green Car Congress

The California South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) has awarded AC Propulsion a $300,000 grant to integrate its electric drive system technology into commercial service vans ( three Ford E250 vans supplied by Comcast) in Southern California. AC Propulsion will launch the conversion program by developing the electric propulsion system and conversion process for the full-size vans that are used by service fleets nationwide.

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Massachusetts sets state GHG emissions limit for 2020 at 25% below 1990 levels, releases plan with additional measures, including Pay As You Drive auto insurance

Green Car Congress

Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Ian Bowles has set the statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions limit for 2020 required by the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008 at 25% below 1990 levels, the maximum authorized by the Act, saying that measures already in place will get Massachusetts much of the way toward that goal. A targeted portfolio of additional policies, chosen because they promise overall cost savings, will allow the state to reach the most ambitious targe

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EU SARTRE road platooning project moving to testing phase; firsts tests of two-vehicle train by end of year

Green Car Congress

Earlier work by the PATH project found all vehicle geometries average a decrease in fuel consumption with platooning. Credit: PATH report. Click to enlarge. The EU SARTRE project (Safe Road Trains for the Environment, earlier post )—which aims to develop, test and validate. technology for vehicles that can drive themselves in long road trains. on highways—is currently aiming to carry out the first development tests of a single lead. and following vehicle before the end of 2010.

Vehicles 244
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GE in framework agreement with Chinas CSR to form US JV targeting high-speed rail and other rail technology in US

Green Car Congress

GE has entered a cooperative framework agreement with Chinese transportation equipment major CSR Corporation Limited (CSR) to establish a US-based joint venture to advance high-speed and other rail technology in the US. The partnership represents an investment of approximately $50 million in the joint venture with the potential to sustain or create 250 US jobs by 2012 for the first phase of the agreement.

China 240
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Report: BYD scuttles F3e battery electric vehicle

Green Car Congress

Gasgoo.com. BYD has decided not to put the F3e EV into production due to the lack of an enabling environment for electric cars in China, according to a report in China Business News which cited Wang Jianjun, deputy general manager of BYD Automotive Sales Co Ltd. The Shenzhen-based automaker was initially engaged in development of all-electric vehicles, but changed its mind after a market investigation and consultation with the dealers for everyone thought there were still problems with the suppo

BYD 240
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SKF creates global powertrain and electrical business unit

Green Car Congress

SKF, the world’s largest producer of bearings and seals, has created a new global business unit within its Automotive Division: the Powertrain and Electrical Business Unit. The new unit will combine SKF’s previous Powertrain and Electrical motor businesses to establish a unit dedicated specifically to addressing the current and long-term needs of new powertrain technologies that are driven by energy efficiency demands, as well as the emerging global alternate drive systems vehicle ma

Global 240
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Toyota to demo Prius Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles in New York City

Green Car Congress

Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. (TMS) announced that New York City will join the company’s US Prius Plug-in Hybrid vehicle (PHV) demonstration program. Five new Prius Plug-in Hybrid vehicles (PHVs) will be used on city streets as part of Toyota’s partnership with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

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Keasling: metabolic engineering will soon rival and potentially eclipse synthetic organic chemistry; designer cells for fuels and chemicals

Green Car Congress

The future of engineered biocatalysts. Pathways, enzymes, and genetic controls are designed from characteristics of parts. The chromosomes encoding those elements are synthesized and incorporated into a ghost envelope to obtain the new catalyst. The design of the engineered catalyst is influenced by the desired product and the production process. Credit: AAAS, Keasling.

Engine 239
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Newly engineered yeast can simultaneously ferment glucose and xylose to produce ethanol; significant cost benefits in ethanol production

Green Car Congress

A collaborative led by researchers at the University of Illinois and including the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California at Berkeley, Seoul National University and BP have engineered a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae —the common industrial yeast—to co-ferment glucose and xylose simultaneously to produce ethanol.

Engine 236
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USABC awards $5.43M in advanced battery technology contracts to 5 firms

Green Car Congress

The United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC), an advanced research collaboration among Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Company, announced approximately $5.43 million in advanced battery development and technology assessment contracts to five firms. The competitively bid contract awards are funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and include a 50% cost-share from each of the contracted companies.

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Honda announces second plug-in vehicle testing program; Japan joins US, China may follow

Green Car Congress

The plug-in hybrid electric test vehicle for Japan. Click to enlarge. Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced its second Electric Vehicle Testing Program, this one with Saitama Prefecture for its next-generation personal mobility products, including electric vehicles (EVs); plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs); electric scooters; and electric carts. The specifics of the testing program, testing vehicles, and solar-powered charging stations made their public debut in Japan.

Plug-in 236
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Hertz adds smart fortwo EVs to rental fleet, partners with Starwood Hotels on Hertz Global EV program

Green Car Congress

The Hertz Corporation and smart USA, a subsidiary of Penske Automotive Group, Inc., are partnering to bring smart fortwo electric drive vehicles to Connect by Hertz car sharing and Hertz Rent A Car locations in New York; Washington, DC; and San Francisco. The vehicle placements are part of the Hertz Global EV program, which will offer a variety of 100% electric and plug-in hybrids to car sharing and rental customers worldwide.

Fleet 236
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Report: US to test Japans CHAdeMO quick charging system for EVs

Green Car Congress

The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that the US will incorporate 310 quick charges using Japan’s standardized CHAdeMO system ( earlier post ) in its large scale EV tests being held in Arizona, California, Texas, Tennessee, Oregon and Washington State. This will be the first time a large number of quick chargers using the CHAdeMO Method are used overseas and is seen as an initial step toward the Japan system becoming the world standard.While competition is intensifying worldwide over how to standar

Japan 231
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Advanced biofuels conference in Singapore to focus on cellulosic and algal produced bioenergy

Green Car Congress

Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology and Singapore’s Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) announced the second Keystone Symposia conference on Biofuels in Singapore from 1-6 March 2011. The conference titled “Biofuels” will discuss: Bioenergy: The Options for an Economic and Sustainable Future, Sustainability of cellulosic ethanol (Biofuel produced from non-food biomass), Algae Biofuels (Deriving fuel from algae), Development of new biomass feedstocks and Potential

Singapore 231
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Automobile production in Japan dropped 6.7% in November, led by 30.3% decline in small cars

Green Car Congress

Automobile production in Japan dropped 6.7% year-on-year in November to 802,009 units, according to data from the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. Passenger car production dropped 8.2% to 689,808 units, led by a 30.3% decline in small cars to 165,866 units. By contrast, production of standard cars of more than 2L displacement rose 3.7% to 415,548 units.

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China exempts consumption taxes on biodiesel retroactive to 1 Jan 2009

Green Car Congress

Xinhua. China has exempted consumption taxes on pure biodiesel made from waste animal fats or vegetable oils. The new policy is effective from 1 Jan. 2009 and taxes already paid will be refunded, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the State Administration of Taxation. The move is aimed at boosting the renewable resources sector, easing demand for petroleum and protecting the ecological environment, the announcement said.

2009 231
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Hyundai completes development of 3rd generation fuel cell vehicle; targeting mass production in 2015

Green Car Congress

Tucson ix Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle. Click to enlarge. Hyundai Motor Company has completed development of its next-generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicle—the Tucson ix Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV)—and will begin testing next year with an eye toward 2015 mass production. ( Earlier post.). Hyundai’s third-generation FCEV is equipped with a 100kW fuel cell system and two hydrogen storage tanks (700 bar).

Tucson 231