Looks like the Toyota domination might be shrinking a little. New challenges are arriving from Honda with their new Insight competing against the Prius, and Ford with the new Fusion Hybrid competing against the Camry Hybrid.

Car and Driver had a recent comparison test, and picked the Fusion as their favorite. I've been reading C&D for as long as I've been able to read, so that review always counts a lot for me.

The Fusion as another big advantage right now. From Ford:

Buyers of a new 2010 Fusion Hybrid or Mercury Milan Hybrid this year will qualify for the $3,400 tax credit, the highest credit amount ever offered for hybrids purchased or placed in service after Dec. 31, 2005. The Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner Hybrid, the most fuel-efficient SUVs in America, continue to qualify for a $3,000 tax credit, the highest available tax credit of all hybrids on the road today.

Fusion Hybrid's class-leading 41 mpg rating in the city and 36 mpg on the highway, which tops the Toyota Camry Hybrid by 8 mpg in the city and 2 mpg on the highway, helped Fusion garner the significant credit amount, which is based on a vehicle's potential fuel efficiency.

We swore in a new president today, and with that, hopefully a new approach to energy and the environement.  It's fresh, and limited, but here is the official plans:  (Link at the bottom.)

ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The energy challenges our country faces are severe and have gone unaddressed for far too long. Our addiction to foreign oil doesn't just undermine our national security and wreak havoc on our environment -- it cripples our economy and strains the budgets of working families all across America. President Obama and Vice President Biden have a comprehensive plan to invest in alternative and renewable energy, end our addiction to foreign oil, address the global climate crisis and create millions of new jobs.
The Obama-Biden comprehensive New Energy for America plan will:

• Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.
• Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.
• Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars -- cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon -- on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.
• Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Energy Plan Overview

Provide Short-term Relief to American Families

• Crack Down on Excessive Energy Speculation.
• Swap Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Cut Prices.

Eliminate Our Current Imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 Years

• Increase Fuel Economy Standards.
• Get 1 Million Plug-In Hybrid Cars on the Road by 2015.
• Create a New $7,000 Tax Credit for Purchasing Advanced Vehicles.
• Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard.
• A “Use it or Lose It” Approach to Existing Oil and Gas Leases.
• Promote the Responsible Domestic Production of Oil and Natural Gas.

Create Millions of New Green Jobs

• Ensure 10 percent of Our Electricity Comes from Renewable Sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
• Deploy the Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Energy Source – Energy Efficiency.
• Weatherize One Million Homes Annually.
• Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology.
• Prioritize the Construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline.

Reduce our Greenhouse Gas Emissions 80 Percent by 2050

• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.
• Make the U.S. a Leader on Climate Change.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/energy_and_environment/

By implication, that means less money for start-ups in the next few years. Companies are going to be forced to look for alternative capital sources. The big question will be, where? Consider what it cost to start a company like Facebook. Now consider what is involved in producing bio-fuels, or an electric car. The capital crunch is going to have deep effects on the green-tech market.

Venture capital fund raising drops 71 percent in Q4 | Markets | Markets News | Reuters

We are told that although solar has made considerable strides in its march towards this Mecca, we are not quite there yet. The magic number for modules, say they, is $1; at a buck a watt. At that point it will finally be cheaper to produce subsidy-free electricity from a module than buy it from the grid. Once you're convinced of this conventional wisdom, it's hard to see PV being cost-competitive right now or any time in the next few years. Roughly speaking, current module prices range from $2.50 to $4.00/W, so a $1/W module would take quite some doing.

At the risk of being at the receiving end of many a derisive "d'oh" from informed citizens for my perceived Captain Obviousness, there are so many problems with this train of thought that it's hard to know where to start. The notion that a single, round number will drive solar cost-competitiveness the world over is a considerably misleading, blatant one-size-fits-all oversimplification at its finest; moreover, the anointed choice for that number, in the event one must be named – $1/W – is just plain wrong.

Greentech Media | Grid Parity and the Great $1 Myth

"According to Vectrix, the Vx-1 costs just one cent per mile to operate (the equivalent of 357 mpg), compared to 50 to 87 mpg for most other gas-powered scooters.

It’ll also do 0 to 50 in 6.8 seconds, so it’s not your granny’s scooter.

Weighing in at 515 pounds, with a 60-inch wheelbase, the Vx-1 is powered by a brushless motor with a peak power capacity of 21KW, and a nickel metal hydride supplies the juice. Storage capacity in the bike is only enough for the helmet (40 ltr), so you might be wearing a backpack until someone designs panniers or a rear rack for it. Riding a Vectrix Vx-1 does require a motorcycle license."

Vectrix Vx-1 Electric Vehicle Unveiled at International Motorcycle Show Long Beach : Gas 2.0:

More Catch Up Posting - Products


Convert Your Prius to a 100+ MPG Plug-In Hybrid Electric Car

Infinite Power Solutions Gets $13 Million for Solid-State Rechargeable Batteries

Honda says they will have an electric motorcycle on the market in 2 years.

Why focus on electric motorcycles before a viable electric car? Says Fukui, "History shows that motorcycles remain strong in a difficult market environment and have always supported Honda in difficult times. People showed renewed interest in the value of motorcycles which consume less fuel for commuting purposes as well as for their easy-to-own/easy-to-use efficiency."

I'm a big fan of biofuels if the come from a smart feedstock. I don't know enough about aquaculture to know if this is the answer, but it's certainly a compelling argument.

Citing the work of Robert Glenn, a plant biologist at the University of Arizona, two biologists argue in this week's Science that "the increasing demand for agricultural products and the spread of salinity now make this concept worth serious consideration and investment."

Glenn has been arguing for the value of all kinds of saltwater farming to a small but growing audience for nearly thirty years, but it is the demand for biomass to turn into fuel that brought NASA calling. His team's report for the agency estimates that salt-loving crops could be used to produce 1.5 billion barrels of ethanol annually on a swath of new agricultural land almost five times the size of Texas.

 Read More

Is there nothing the might yeast can't do?

Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), led by Dr. Jay Keasling at UC Berkeley, have engineered the common industrial yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae with an n-butanol biosynthetic pathway, resulting in a ten-fold improvement in n-butanol production from one of the strains to 2.5 mg/L. An open access paper on their work was published online 3 December in the journal Microbial Cell Factories.

Butanol has a number of advantages over ethanol for use as a biofuel—it is more hydrophobic; has a higher energy density; can be transported through existing pipeline infrastructure; and can be mixed with gasoline at any ratio.

Green Car Congress: JBEI Researchers Engineer Yeast to Produce n-Butanol: "JBEI Researchers Engineer Yeast to Produce n-Butanol"

More Catch-up Posts - Deals announced

Bio-fuels-
Blackstone Cleantech Venture Partners Leads Coskata Series C Round of Financing

Chemrec Completes US $20M Funding Round for Biorefinery Technology

Typical pulp & paper mills produce thousands of tons a day of a liquid biomass called black liquor. Currently this by-product is burned in steam boilers with low energy efficiency for production of steam and electricity. Chemrec has developed a proprietary gasification technology that enables the conversion of black liquor into renewable motor fuels, biomaterials or electricity.

Solar -
Total Invests $45M in Organic Photovoltaic Company Konarka

Stories I found interesting, but didn't get around to blogging about.

Recycling- 
Market for Recyclables in U.S. Dwindling Rapidly Via GreenBiz


Efficiency-
Turning Wasted Heat into Dollars in China Via GreenBiz

"There is more opportunity in China than anywhere in the world," Ballentine said of waste-heat recovery.

There have been lots and lots of projects announced, and I just haven't kept up with them.  This is a catchup post for anything worth reporting, but for things I don't have anything specific to say about.  Roughly grouped together.

Solar-
1 Gigawatt Solar project for Jordon Via Treehugger
850 MW Solar project for California Via Treehugger

Florida - From Sunshine State to Solar State

This solar thermal plant, which is located on the Atlantic coast just north of Palm Beach County, will consist of 180,000 mirrors, spread over 500 acres. It also matches solar power with an existing combined-cycle natural gas plant, so that when the sun is not shining, the natural gas can take over the work of powering the turbines.

Arizona Becomes Home to Largest CIGS Thin-Film Solar Array

In Tucson, Arizona, the largest known CIGS thin-film solar array began operations at Global Solar Energy's manufacturing facility. The array is comprised of CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) thin-film solar panel technology that doesn't make use of the more expensive silicon component as material. The reason why this is the largest thin-film array today and why there aren't many arrays made of thin-film solar cells is because these thin film cells are less efficient than conventional ones and have a shorter lifespan.

Spire has been Awarded a $54 Million Contract to Supply Solar Cells to the Federal Correctional Institution

Spire Corporation (Nasdaq: SPIR), a global solar company providing turnkey solar factories and capital equipment to manufacture photovoltaic (PV) modules worldwide, today announced that it has received a contract worth $54,940,000 from the Federal Prison Industries, Inc, otherwise known as UNICOR, to supply solar cells for the Spire-installed Turnkey Photovoltaic Module Factory located at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Otisville, New York.

Wind-
Denmark's Largest Onshore Wind Farm Opens

Greengate Gets Municipal Approval for 550-MW Wind Project


Data Centers-
$1.4 Million for building a Green Data Center

How's this for an immediate return on investment: Build a greener data center, and get a $1.4 million rebate from your electric company. That's what happened with NetApp.

3 years ago, the company didn't even build cars. GM has had nearly 100 years experience. Chinese cars are coming, and it seems to me that a plug-in like this could be the beachhead that they need to gain acceptance among US consumers. And strike fear in the hearts of the big 3. Remember, Toyota and Honda started building cheap economy cars, as kid Kia and Hyundai. All have proven to be forces in the market. BYD could be next, and it's interesting to note the Warren Buffet has invested.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/12/byd-f3dm-electric-plug-in-hybrid-china.php

Ocean fertilization may cause changes in marine ecosystem structure and biodiversity, and may have other undesirable effects.

While controlled iron fertilization experiments have shown an increase in phytoplankton growth, and a temporary increase in drawdown of atmospheric CO2, it is uncertain whether this would increase carbon transfer into the deep ocean over the longer-term.

I've posted before about geo-engineering, and it's potentials, and my fears about it getting out of control. Turns out many others feel the same way.

That really puts the risk in context. We're talking about altering ecosystems of planetary scale for a benefit that won't actually relieve us from dealing with all the other issues, such as conservation or alternative energy generation.

Good article over at Treehugger

As an environmentalist and a car guy, I love any excuse to post about cars here. I don't think the Tesla will ever make a meaningful impact on the global environmental situation. For $100K, someone that really cares about the environment could by 5 Honda Fits. One to drive and 4 to give to 4 drivers less fortunate than them, to use in place of the old, polluting cars they drive currently.

That said, it's a seriously cool piece of automobile, and I would love to drive one. And technology does have a way of trickling down. At one point, cars like Corvettes introduced fuel injection, and now there isn't a car sold in the US without it. The Tesla may prove to be useful as a platform for technology development, and for that, it is cool.

And Top Gear is the best car show ever. Seriously.


Tesla apparently has issues with some things in the report, check out the AutoBlogGreen report on that.