Merry Christmas

Greenbang is chilling out on the sofa this Christmas Eve and just wants to thank EVERYONE who has read and/or helped the blog this year.

A massive Merry Christmas to you all, and here’s to a top 2008.

Low Carbon Accelerator invests £900,000 in RLtec

Low Carbon Accelerator, which is a company although the name doesn’t really indicate that, has invested a further £900,000 in ResponsiveLoad Limited.

RLtec develops grid-management technology to increase the energy efficiency of the whole electricity supply chain.

Products fitted with RLtec’s Controller can detect the state of the grid and ensure that the device, for example a refrigeration unit, subtly changes its consumption times to reduce the need for standby generation.

US energy supply companies have also confirmed that the RLtec technology has several potential applications that could be adopted within the existing infrastructure. RLtec are now working with the supply chain in the US to generate commercial demand response projects.

Dr Stephen Mahon, Chief Investment Officer of Low Carbon Investors, LCA’s Investment Manager, who sits on the board of RLtec, said: “The global market for demand response products is estimated at approximately $15 billion per annum. The growth in this market is driven by increasing electricity demand, the need to operate grids more efficiently and with greater stability when renewable energy is integrated, and a need to reduce carbon emissions and costs.

“LCA’s investment will enable RLtec to deliver commercial opportunities and continue marketing in the UK, US and South Africa whilst further develop licensing opportunities in white goods and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning markets.”

Pubs go carbon neutral

Word reaches Greenbang of new methods pubs are using to making drinking guilt-free. And no, it’s not by banning you from texting your ex after you’ve had a skinful - the latest trend in pub is deguilting is going carbon neutral.

One such establishment, the Agincourt Hotel in Sydney, has relieved the environmental burden on its patrons by promising to offset the carbon impact of their drinking.

From the pub’s website

:

The Agincourt Hotel is Australia’s first carbon neutral Pub. We have certified our hotel “NoCO2″ with the Carbon Reduction Institute - so when you have a drink at the Agincourt, you are also helping the environment. At the Agincourt, we are tackling global warming - 1 drink at a time!

Greenbang would like to know if you’ve come across a similarly green beer outlet closer to home? If so, share the good news by posting a comment below.

Plants that grow plastic

Given a chance to splicing some genes, Greenbang would like to mix up nature to produce a gigantic kickass penguin, which would act as her henchman, butler and bodyguard. Luckily Greenbang has never been given the chance.

Some far more sensible types have been at working with the genetic mixing pot in an attempt to create environmentally friendly plastics with engineers at US firm Metabolix coming up with a strain of plants which grows plastic polymer inside. Jeepers.

Marketwatch says:

“This is a company that has market-disruptive technology,” said Pamela Bassett, a Cantor Fitzgerald analyst covering the industrial-biotechnology sector. “They have tremendous upside potential. They could be leaders on the ground floor of an entirely new industry.”

Although plastic-making plants are still a few years away from commercialization, Metabolix has already grown test batches of plastic-producing tobacco, switch grass and sugarcane plants. If successful, the company will cash in on its vision of mundane acres of weeds as plastics factories in the fields.

Check your emissions on your mobile

If Santa’s brought you shiny new a mobile phone this Christmas, why not have fun this holiday season by studying your own greenhouse gas emissions and generally engendering all sort of consumer guilt?

Not only can you feel bad for a bit, mobile software developed by the EC which analyses users own contribution to global warming can keep you feeling bad although the year by analysing emissions on a daily, weekly or annual basis.

Says the EC team behind the software:

Although easy to download and use, mobGAS is a sophisticated application that calculates an individual’s emissions of the three main greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide CO2, methane CH4, and nitrous oxide N2O. It does so by compiling basic information inputted by the user on, for example, how they regulated their heating, what means of transport they took or the household appliances they used.

If you fancy giving the hilarity a go yourself, you can download the necessary bits and bytes on your mobile here.

A real Tesla motor

This one’s a bit old, but is essentially what you’ll get if you can part with $100,000. They’ve apparently got some problems with the transmission in this though. So let’s hope it’s all sorted by April next year…

Tesla interior

Shiny Tesla shot

It was a bit gutting that all the prototypes were in repair as it meant there was nothing for us to test drive.

That was a bit of a blow, really, after we’d travelled all that way.

But this car was the shiniest of the bunch.

More Tesla plug shots…

Plug this into the wall for a really good ride…

Pic: Tesla charges on…

This is the Tesla - charging away in its development garage.

The charge takes three hours.

But don’t forget that lithium batteries, which Teslas run on, become more inefficient as they get older.

Greenbang tracks the explosion of the environmental industry, reporting on news of green innovation and thought leadership.

We blog on this rather than the environmental problems of the world because we are interested in the answers to climate change.