Posted by Author on April 21, 2010
CIBC has become the first major Canadian bank to form an investment team focused on green energy and clean technology markets, forging a path that industry experts say is likely to be followed by its big-bank rivals.
Canada’s fifth-largest bank announced Tuesday it has appointed Don Roberts, a former managing director and forestry analyst at CIBC World Markets Inc., as vice-chairman of the new wholesale banking team.
Roberts told the Star the decision sends a clear signal to the market and internally at the bank that renewable energy and clean technologies are more than a passing investment fad.
“We’re really looking at a structural change in the economy to low-carbon energy sources,” he said. “So this isn’t just to take advantage of a short cycle. This is a long-term move for us.”
The 10-person team plans to offer a range of wholesale services, including pre-IPO private placements, project financing, public equity issues and corporate loans. It will also advise on mergers and acquisitions.
Tom Rand, head of the clean technology practice at Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District, said CIBC’s plan to more aggressively pursue the market – including everything from solar and wind projects to water technologies to biochemical production – could send ripples through the sector.
“The big banks don’t like to put their foot out first, but they also like to move in lock-step,” said Rand. “CIBC making the first move will certainly force the other four to move.”
The big banks have dabbled, but as Roberts explained, most of the activity has taken place in “silos” and not as part of a coordinated plan. For this reason, Canada banks have been labelled laggards relative to their European peers.
The opportunities of getting into the game now are still enormous. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that global expenditure on renewable energy projects alone will reach $150 billion (U.S.) in 2020, up from $90 billion in 2009. By 2030, the research firm predicts the market will reach $200 billion.
Progressive provincial policies in Canada, including Ontario’s Green Energy Act and feed-in-tariff program and B.C.’s carbon tax and forthcoming Clean Energy Act, are creating a long pipeline of renewable energy projects that will need billions of dollars in financing.
Meanwhile, venture investments are on the rise again after being hammered in 2009. Clean technology companies raised $1.9 billion during the first quarter of 2010, up 29 per cent from the previous quarter and 83 per cent from the same period a year ago, according to market research firm Cleantech Group.
Roberts said only $35 million in venture capital was raised by Canadian companies in the quarter. “It’s not great,” he said. “Clearly in Canada finance has been a problem. The whole financial community has to educate itself on this.”
Nicholas Parker, co-founder and executive chairman of the Cleantech Group, called CIBC’s new focus on the market “timely.” He said there’s no reason Toronto can’t become North America’s top centre for eco-financing, in the same way Canada’s largest city is the continent’s mining finance capital.
“This (CIBC announcement) can be the thing that sparks it,” said Parker.
The Toronto Stock Exchange is getting ready. The parent company of Canada’s senior stock exchange announced March 25 that it had partnered with credit-rating agency Standard & Poor’s to create a new clean technology index.
Roberts said CIBC plans to recruit for this new index. “Clearly our focus will be Canadian, but also taking other technology companies in the U.S. and elsewhere and bringing them to the TSX.”
Added Roberts: “I feel passionately that there’s opportunity here.”
Posted by Author on April 17, 2010
As citizens, businesses and non-profit organizations seek to transition to cleaner power sources like solar and wind, some big energy firms whose business models rely on polluting sources are standing in the way.
In Georgia, the energy company Georgia Power has lobbied for favorable public policies at the Public Service Commission (PSC) and State legislature that are making it difficult for the state’s residents to transition to solar power.
IPS learned that the Dekalb County school system wanted to put solar panels on their schools, but could not do it because of state policies like the Territorial Electric Service Act of 1973 which gives Georgia Power a monopoly over the purchase of energy.
“In Georgia, we have about a dozen state policies preventing creation of solar energy,” James Marlow, vice chair of the Georgia Solar Energy Association, told IPS. “One of those is the Territorial Act.”
“If you’re looking at a school, one of the common ways [of setting up solar panels] is using a power purchase agreement or PPA,” Marlow said.
Typically, one of the biggest obstacles for businesses and organizations to switch to solar energy is the initial cost of obtaining and installing the panels. A PPA allows a school system, for example, to obtain the panels for no cost from a solar installation company which finances the panels.
Then, the school can purchase the energy from the solar installation company, which would own the panels, for a 20-year period. Marlow said that a PPA client typically pays for the panels after the first five years and then saves money on energy for the next 15, all the while avoiding the use of dirty energy.
However, because of Georgia’s Territorial Act, individuals, organizations, and businesses with solar panels can only sell their energy to Georgia Power. This means they cannot enter a PPA with a solar installation company and may have difficulty affording the panels in the first place.
For those who are able to buy or lease their own solar panels, selling that energy to Georgia Power–the only allowed buyer–is subject to the rules of Georgia Power’s net metering program. Net metering is where residents and businesses with solar panels sell any excess energy produced by the solar panels to Georgia Power for use by other customers.
“The problem with the current [net-metering] program is… there’s a waiting list and it’s limited. Net-metering in Georgia has a cap of 100 kilowatt hours,” Marlow said, adding that one state in the US South, North Carolina, is taking the lead on solar power. “In North Carolina, that cap is two megawatts.”
“We requested a 5 megawatt cap in Georgia. Georgia Power has lobbied to limit that to a smaller number,” Marlow said.
But why would Georgia Power put a cap and waiting list on purchasing solar power from Georgia residents and businesses?
The company explains that its ability to purchase solar power from Georgians with solar panels is limited by the proceeds of its “green energy blocks” program, wherein Georgia Power customers are allowed to pay extra to purchase blocks of solar energy.
“We had to cap the amount we would buy back, because there’s only so much the program would bear as we rolled it out and it started to be developed,” Ervan Hancock, Georgia Power’s renewable and green strategy manager, told the Savannah Morning News newspaper in July 2009.
“Georgia Power will only buy solar energy if it’s funded through purchase of green energy blocks. Right now they only have 4,500 customers such as the US Center for Disease Control and Warner Robins Air Force Base. The funding from that goes to buy solar energy from your rooftop,” Marlow said.
However, Georgia Power charges more for solar power than it does for coal-based power, so there’s no incentive for most customers to purchase it. “They [purchasers of the blocks] would pay a slight premium to buy clean energy versus buying coal energy,” Marlow said.
Many of the purchasers of blocks of solar energy are government agencies that need to comply with government mandates to support clean energy, Marlow said.
Other states like Colorado have taken a different approach to encourage the use of solar panels. They charge all energy customers 50 cents a month, a very low amount, to support the purchase of solar energy from producers.
According to the Morning News, the Tennessee Valley Authority has enrolled 13,000 green-power customers and has no cap on the annual amount of green energy it will buy from producers. Florida Power & Light “is building three solar facilities that combined will generate 110 megawatts of electricity… Duke Energy in North Carolina plans to invest 50 million in rooftop installations.”
To be sure, Georgia Power is only following the regulations established by the legislature and PSC. However, they lobbied for those policies to be enacted in the first place, Marlow said.
“At this point, the utilities are opposed to solar and they’re not working to foster its development,” Marlow said.
In addition to regulatory tricks, there are more direct ways in which big energy companies like Georgia Power are blocking solar and wind power.
“They are trying to block clean energy by trying to flood the market with cheap, dirty energy,” said Erin Glynn, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, referring to companies attempting to build two new coal plants and two new nuclear reactors in Georgia alone. As previously reported by IPS, numerous coal and nuclear plants are in planning stages throughout the U.S. South.
“If you build these giant power plants, there will be no demand for clean energy. The clean technologies are here today. People have solar panels. The companies are blocking the market,” Glynn said.
Big energy companies are lobbying at the state and national levels to prevent public policies from shifting towards renewable energy production as well. Georgia Power’s parent company, Southern Company, employed 63 lobbyists to fight the recent federal clean energy bill.
A recent report from the Centre for Public Integrity (CPI) shows that many big utility companies employed two dozen or more lobbyists to oppose the clean energy bill, while Southern Company had far more lobbyists than any other company.
“We feel it’s very important to educate our legislators, and we continue to work with Congress to further address the issues we see as critical to our ability to provide affordable, reliable energy,” Southern Company spokeswoman Terri Cohilas told CPI.
Southern Company argues that pursuing renewable energy or taking steps to address carbon dioxide’s recent classification as a pollutant will drive up the cost of energy to consumers. However, Marlow believes that dirty and clean energy are quickly approaching “cost parity,” and he said there are indirect costs of dirty energy such as high asthma rates near coal plants.
Twenty-nine states have a renewable portfolio standard, which requires that a certain percentage of the state’s energy will be renewable by a certain date.
“California and Colorado will require 30 percent comes from renewable by 2020,” Marlow said. “North Carolina requires 12 percent. Georgia has no requirement. North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast that has a renewable portfolio standard.”
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Filed Under: Solar
Posted by Author on April 12, 2010
In a world of shrinking energy resources we all need to do our bit to assist the environment and begin to try to make the change to alternative energy sources. This Earth4Energy review will inform you about a educational system which will show you how to inexpensively and easily power your house with solar power energy. Forget about everything you have read about solar energy being too expensive, whomever mentioned that didn’t understand that you could make your own solar panels for less than$200 with readily obtainable components. That is exactly what Earth 4 energy will teach you to undertake.
Earth 4 energy is a detail by detail“How To” manual that contains fully illustrated directions for how to build your own personal solar energy system to use in your household. You may get started small and just create one or two solar power panels and power one or two home appliances, or you could be more ambitious and power your whole property with sun power panels.
There are several resources available on the internet which will explain to you how to put together your own personal sun power panels. But none of them are as well structured and easy to understand as Earth4Energy. The guide comes well illustrated and is also accompanied with videos. This explains everything so simply that anyone regardless of their Do-it-yourself know-how can follow along. No special woodworking or electrician’s knowledge are needed. Obviously if you’re a Do it yourself enthusiast then this is a challenge that you will absolutely love.
The Earth4Energy manual gets my recommendation due to its simplicity and the total lack of technical jargon. Creating your own DIY solar panels is definitely the most affordable solution to solar power your home, and Earth 4 energy does the most impressive job I’ve seen of showing you the way to do it.
The guide book will tell you about each of the items that you need to acquire and where to get them from. The most expensive parts are the solar power panels themselves. You’ll be taught how you can acquire these as inexpensively and easily as you possibly can. Solar power panels are made from solar cells. It is possible to purchase these for very reasonable prices by purchasing them used or damaged and repairing them.
The rest of the items can all be found at your neighborhood hardware store. You won’t need any kind of special tools but there are a couple of tasks that require machinery to cut flexi-glass and wood. But your hardware store should be able to cut these for you personally when you give them the measurements you require.
Upon having found the required resources it’ll be time to continue with the DIY instructions in the Earth 4 energy manual. Every step is illustrated with actual pictures of the tasks being performed and supported with training videos where required for making it even clearer. Every piece of information this is needed can be found in the manual.
Earth4Energy goes beyond just explaining to you ways to solar power your home. It’s going to tell you how to assemble a wind generator for approximately$200. Wind turbines are not viable in every home as you’ll need to be in a location with plenty of blowing wind. However they can provide an additional boost to the solar energy system and help you to produce an even greater percentage of your own electrical power.
As a added bonus you will get a guide on how to transform a diesel engine to run bio diesel fuel. It’s going to also show you what ingredients you need to create your own bio diesel and just how to acquire them free of charge.
Should you decide to buy Earth4Energy it will save you lots of money by teaching you the least expensive way to generate your own electricty. It is the most complete system available concerning how to generate your own solar power. I highly recommend Earth4Energy as it is a small investment that will return many times what you pay for it. Commercial solar panels are prohibitively expensive. Earth 4 energy could make your dream of a solar driven property easily affordable.
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Filed Under: Solar
Posted by Author on April 9, 2010
The rising cost of energy is making more people think about off grid living every day. It is now very possible to disconnect from the power grid and make all of your own energy. If you size the system appropriately, you can use solar panels or wind turbines to produce all of your own power. This can allow you to take your first step towards a full off grid living livestyle.
Let’s start by talking about solar power. Solar panels are a great option for supplying power to many homes and can work in all parts of the world, even in remote areas or places with a harsh environment. Some hardware and plenty of sun are the only requirements. If you’d like to build your own solar panel, the best guide I’ve found is GreenDIYEnergy. You can put together a solar power system that is as large or small as required and it can even be portable if your living arrangements are mobile. Solar panels are tough, require very little maintenance and can last up to 20 years if properly cared for.
A basic system includes some number of solar panels which are wired together. Solar panels in the northern hemisphere should be facing directly south for the highest power output. With older solar panels, it was more important that they point directly at the sun and many solar power systems used motors to rotate the panels so they always pointed directly at the sun, however with more modern panels this is less important.With more modern solar panels, it is less important that they point directly at the sun, but older solar power systems often had motors to rotate the panels as the sun moved across the sky. As long as modern solar panels are pointed directly south and are at the right vertical angle, stationary panels will work just fine. Another great resource for how to build a solar panel is Build a Solar Panel.
Since solar cells produce Direct Current (DC), the electricity produced by solar cells can be used to power any DC appliance or to charge batteries. Using batteries allows for storing electricity to be used when the sun isn’t shining.
In order to provide power to standard AC appliances, you will need to use a power inverter. A power inverter can be used to do the DC to AC conversion on power coming from either the solar panels or from batteries.
Another way to generate power to enable you to live off grid is with a wind turbine. Modern wind turbines are fairly small and very efficient and can be mounted on a tower, a pole or in some cases even the roof of your house. Wind turbine can generate power at night, which is an advantage over solar panels. As long as the wind is blowing, a wind turbine can produce electricity. For information about making a diy wind generator, visit Earth 4 Energy
It is possible to combine both solar panels and a wind generator in one system. This can give the best of both worlds and the same batteries and power inverter can be used with both. If it is sunny and calm, the solar panels will provide most of the power and if it overcast and windy or at night the wind turbine will take over.
Using either or both of these systems can provide enough electricity to enable you to pull the plug and start living off grid. They will let you take your first step towards completely pulling the plug.
Posted by Author on
Wind turbines that generate electricity have been around for about a century now, and they’ve been improving all the while. Perhaps more importantly, their cost has steadily decreased. Wind turbines come in a few basic classes, each of which is designed to meet a specific purpose and will likely be more or less appropriate depending on the prospective buyer’s needs.
Since they were introduced about 1930, large,commercial wind turbines have improved significantly. Some of the ways in which they’ve gotten better include: blade design, which makes a massive difference with regard to how a wind turbine operates; reliability, which is crucial for a machine you expect to operate 24/7; and efficiency, generating more power even with less wind. Generally speaking, commercial-use turbines are made from heavier materials, in order to work with higher winds on a more regular basis.
Since the strongest and most relentless winds are mostly in remote areas such as shorelines, large-scale wind turbines normally have to be located in these areas. Being “out of the way” like this makes it inefficient to have to service them all the time, so it’s necessary that these units are built to last. Large-scale turbines are the most expensive of all modern turbines, usually starting at about $25,000, and often exceeding $100,000.
Residential-use wind turbines have become more popular in recent years. Early in their evolution, wind turbines used in residential environments were often impeded by the challenge of adjusting to the erratic wind patterns that are common to residential areas.
Most early residential-use wind turbines were too heavy to be appropriate for many locations. They would often require special support structures, and they could only really generate much power from very high winds. All told, the drawbacks and costs were usually too much for many homeowners to really consider.
The most recent variety of residential-use turbine to emerge is called the micro turbine. These turbines usually don’t require the use of a tower, as they are capable of generating good amounts of energy from even low winds. In some cases, it’s actually possible to set up a micro turbine directly on your roof. By turning constantly, even without the need for high winds, these small units provide a reliable stream of power. At a price range of about $600 to $5,000, these models are much more affordable than larger ones, but will still generate enough energy to provide huge savings on electrical bills over the long term
Wind turbines vary greatly in terms of their size and power, and the price tends to vary accordingly as well. It’s possible to reduce the cost even further by building your own wind turbine. Though it might sound like a serious project, anyone can learn to build a wind turbine with the right instructions, and this will give them the chance to save a lot of money and get free electricity for life.
To know about the pros and cons of solar energy, check outAdvantages and Disadvantages of Wind Power.
For the greatest guide to building your own homemade wind turbine, you can check out Earth4Enegry Review.
For another guide to building your own solar panel, go to How to Build a Wind Turbine.
Posted by admin on November 22, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Silicon Valley electric sports car maker Tesla Motors is planning to go public soon, two people familiar with the situation said, outlining plans to sell stock and cash in on investor appetite for green technology and interest in battery-powered vehicles.
The six-year-old start-up’s investors include Google Inc (GOOG.O) founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
An IPO filing from Tesla, best known for its $109,000 all-electric Roadster, is expected any day, said one of the sources. The person did not give a specific time frame.
Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes declined to comment on what he called “rumor or speculation.” (Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Peter Henderson and Derek Caney)
By Poornima Gupta
Posted by admin on November 13, 2009
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — U.S. fuel-economy ratings, a staple of new-car window stickers since 1975, need a makeover because the arrival of electric autos makes the miles-per-gallon standard obsolete, researcher Edmunds.com said.
Buyers now need an estimate of the expense to fuel a vehicle, Edmunds.com Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Anwyl said yesterday in Detroit. Edmunds.com will petition the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department next week to make the switch, he said.
“Time and technology marches on,” Anwyl wrote in a draft of his letter to the agencies. “For an increasing number of vehicles, ‘gallons’ aren’t being consumed at all.”
Dropping the mpg benchmark for auto efficiency would mean rewriting the system of city, highway and combined mileage ratings already being tested by new technology. General Motors Co. said in 2008 it reached an agreement with the EPA on how to rate the Chevrolet Volt plug-in car, which will be able to go 40 miles (64 kilometers) on battery power alone.
The EPA, which administers the ratings program, declined to comment on the Edmunds.com proposal. The Santa Monica, California-based company operates Web sites used by consumers and auto-industry professionals.
Anwyl said buyers will find it hard to comparison shop based on fuel expense for vehicles such as the Volt, which will tap an onboard gasoline engine to replenish a discharged battery.
Prius and Volt
Under the current EPA system, Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius gasoline-electric hybrid is rated 50 mpg in city driving, while the Volt is expected to earn a 230 mpg city rating when it debuts in late 2010, Anwyl said.
The Volt would have a projected monthly fuel cost of $48, while the Prius’s expense would be $62, Anwyl said, citing Edmunds.com’s fuel-economy proposal, which is based on driving 1,000 miles a month.
“There’s still a difference, but it’s not as large as the mileage rating would suggest,” said Anwyl, who gave comparisons for several propulsion systems and fuels in his draft letter.
For example, Ford Motor Co.’s gasoline-powered Focus, which is rated at 28 mpg in combined city and highway driving, would have a $112 monthly fuel bill, while Honda Motor Co.’s Civic GX would cost $54 with the same mpg rating because it uses compressed natural gas.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s Mini Cooper E, which runs on battery power, gets a 99 mpg rating and would have a monthly electric bill of $49. A Chevrolet HHR that runs on a mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline gets 18 mpg and would cost $140 a month, according to Edmunds.com’s calculations.
“The mileage ratings no longer offer a very accurate comparison,” Anwyl said.
By Keith Naughton
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a6IyGfPCrmxk
Posted by admin on September 27, 2009
WASHINGTON — A tiny car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000.
The award this week to California startup Fisker Automotive Inc. follows a $465 million government loan to Tesla Motors Inc., purveyors of a $109,000 British-built electric Roadster. Tesla is a California startup focusing on all-electric vehicles, with a number of celebrity endorsements that is backed by investors that have contributed to Democratic campaigns.
Fisker’s Karma hybrid sports car, above, will initially cost about $89,000.
The awards to Fisker and Tesla have prompted concern from companies that have had their bids for loans rejected, and criticism from groups that question why vehicles aimed at the wealthiest customers are getting loans subsidized by taxpayers.
“This is not for average Americans,” said Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, an anti-tax group in Washington. “This is for people to put something in their driveway that is a conversation piece. It’s status symbol thing.”
DOE officials spent months working with Fisker on its application, touring its Irvine, Calif., and Pontiac, Mich., facilities and test-driving prototypes.
Matt Rogers, who oversees the department’s loan programs as a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said Fisker was awarded the loan after a “detailed technical review” that concluded the company could eventually deliver a highly fuel-efficient hybrid car to a mass audience. Fisker said most of its DOE loan will be used to finance U.S. production of a $40,000 family sedan that has yet to be designed.
“It’s the ability to drive significant change in fuel economy across a large market segment” that swayed the department to approve the Fisker loan, Mr. Rogers said. “We got quite excited.”
Henrik Fisker, who designed cars for BMW, Aston Martin and Tesla before starting his Fisker Automotive in 2007, said his goal is to build the first plug-in electric hybrids that won’t sacrifice the luxury, performance and looks of traditional gas-powered luxury cars.
The Karma will target an exclusive audience — Gore was one of the first to sign up for one. Mr. Fisker says all new technology starts out being expensive. He pointed to flat-screen televisions that once started at $25,000 but are now affordable to the mass market.
The four-door Karma, powered by a lithium-ion battery, will be able to run solely on electric power for 50 miles, and will achieve an average fuel economy of 100 mpg over the span of a year, the company says. Production is scheduled to start in December, with about 15,000 vehicles a year expected to hit the U.S. market starting next June.
Many of the 1,500 people who have made deposits on the Karma are former BMW and Mercedes owners who want an environmentally friendly car without sacrificing luxury, Mr. Fisker said.
He said he pitched the Karma to Mr. Gore at an event hosted by KPCB last year, and that the former vice president almost immediately submitted a down payment for the car.
Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Mr. Gore, confirmed that the former vice president backs Fisker and purchased a Karma. “He believes that a global shift of the automobile fleet toward electric vehicles, accompanying a shift toward renewable-energy generation, represents an important part of a sensible strategy for solving the climate crisis,” she said in a statement.
Fisker’s top investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a veteran Silicon Valley venture-capital firm of which Gore is a partner. Employees of KPCB have donated more than $2.2 million to political campaigns, mostly for Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign contributions.
Officials at Kleiner Perkins didn’t return requests for comment.
Asked whether Mr. Gore had any influence on Fisker’s application, the DOE’s Rogers said, “None at all.”
“This is a very attractive, very across-party-lines kind of vehicle,” Mr. Rogers said. “All of the detailed due diligence [was] done by independent review teams.”
Other Fisker investors include Eco-Drive (Capital) Partners LLC, an investment consortium, and Qatar Investment Authority, a state-run investor based in Qatar.
Fisker’s government loans will come from a $25 billion program established by Congress in 2007 to help auto makers invest in the technology to meet a new congressional mandate to improve fuel efficiency. In June, the DOE awarded the first $8 billion from the program to Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Tesla, which are all developing electric cars.
Some companies that have been turned down for loans from DOE say they did not get much feedback from the department about their applications. O. John Coletti, president of EcoMotors International of Troy, Mich., said his company applied for a $20 million loan from the agency last December, and last month got a one-page rejection letter from the loan program’s director, Lachlan Seward. EcoMotors’ lead investor is Vinod Khosla, himself a former Kleiner Perkins partner and a longtime campaign contributor to Republicans and Democrats alike.
“I don’t have an issue with the winners … it’s possible somebody has better ideas than us,” Mr. Coletti said. At the same time, he said, “More feedback from DOE on a timely basis would be wonderful. When you’re running a business you’d like to know whether you’re going to be able to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Mr. Coletti’s company — which makes diesel engines and is still waiting to hear from the Department on a separate loan application to help it build a manufacturing facility — isn’t without politically well-connected patrons, either. Its major investor is Vinod Khosla, himself a former Kleiner Perkins partner who has donated to campaigns.
Scott Redmond, CEO of XP Vehicles Inc., said he met with DOE officials twice in Washington after applying for a $40 million loan to develop a $15,000 to $25,000 hybrid, and that both times he was told his application looked good. Since receiving a rejection letter from DOE in August, Redmond said, he has been unable to get a full explanation as to why his request was turned down.
Mr. Rogers said he was not at liberty to discuss individual applications that had been turned down, but said the process has been handled fairly and objectively.
By JOSH MITCHELL and STEPHEN POWER
http://online.wsj.com
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Ford Motor Company has done some remarkable things with its 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid car. The Fusion drives with comfort and is built with every tool to help inform the driver of its fuel economy and coaching. The hybrid car delivers superb quality with a well-planted suspension.
For the most part, the Ford Fusion is the best car in its class, and it drives with character. While the previous hybrid model only offered a five-speed transmission, the 2010 model has a six-speed lineup, which is available with either a manual or automatic transmission. The vehicle is also equipped with a remote anti-theft alarm system, an engine immobilizer, and tire pressure monitoring.
The Ford hybrid has electronic brake-force distribution, a rear center 3-point belt, an emergency interior trunk release, and 2 front integrated and 2 rear height-adjustable headrests are also standard on this model. The Fusion features a combination of power entities including a 2.5L 155hp 136 lb-ft 4-cylinder engine with variable intake cam timing standards and an integrated electric motor.
The electric motor is housed along with the CVT transmission and mated to the Atkinson engine. The 2010 Ford automobile is a spiritual successor to the original award-winning Taurus that was gobbled up by the masses. The world of mid-size family sedans has radically changed and the Fusion Hybrid can easily compete with its foreign competition.
The Ford Fusion delivers the smoothest driving experience of any hybrid which I have driven. I did not notice the transitions from gas to electric mode. The vehicle is rated independently at 41 mpg, the highest fuel economy of any midsize sedan, and does more than 700 miles on a tank of gas.
Another fascinating thing about the Ford Fusion Hybrid is its ability to run on E85 ethanol as well as regular gasoline. When you take the wheel, you witness gauges that greet you while the leather bucket seats feature ideal firmness and supportive bolstering. The ambient lighting system offers the option of illuminating the front and rear foot wells and front cup holders.
This car also qualifies for a hybrid tax credit of $3,400 until October 1, 2009. This credit can help you save money from the sticker price. If you are looking for a new domestic hybrid car, get behind the wheel of the new 2010 Ford Fusion.
By: Kara Gilmour
http://www.newsoxy.com
Posted by admin on September 24, 2009
Oregon now has a new car maker — Arcimoto out of Eugene took the wraps off its one and onlyproduct Wednesday at Pioneer Courthouse Square.
The Pulse is the first electric car made in Oregon. It gets 190 miles-per-gallon — equivalent and up to 50 miles per charge.
Several companies are hoping to turn Oregon into Detroit West, to build and market vehicles with a green and electric bent. Arcimoto CEO Erik Stabl says being first has an advantage with consumers.
“We’re going to be moving right away next year in 2010 with 300 units locally produced here in Oregon and going from there, he said.
Clearly there is a market for electric vehicles in Oregon. Many at the unveiling were excited to get a first glimpse. Beth Rose of Portland would like to get behind the wheel.
“My normal driving is very very short distances. It would be a perfect, perfect car for me” she said while starring at the midnight blue rocket shaped three-wheeler.
Arcimoto found Mark Frohnmayer, son of former state attorney general and University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer, hopes to make a positive influence in the electric car evolution.
“If you look at what we’re trying to do with the product it’s to solve the transpiration usage pattern that is the vast majority of vehicle trips” he said.
Meanwhile the Oregon lawmakers are courting any and all companies anxious to be apart of the electric vehicle movement in the state. Representative Nancy Nathanson of Eugene wants the tax credit given to owners of hybrids to be extended to buyers of electric cars.
“I think it’s time now to make sure we offer the same kind of credit for consumers of electric vehicles” she said.
So far ten people have signed up for the new ride. They will sell for under $20,000.
By JOE SMITH, kgw.com
