Google eyeing Ormat geothermal union?

Is Google about to get cosy with Israeli geothermal company Ormat? As Loyd Grosman would have said during his Through The Keyhole stint, “let’s examine thur evidence”.

Venture Beat notes Google co-founder Sergei Brin said in an interview with Israeli paper The Marker last week that Ormat is a great company and could turn geothermal energy into big business.

While Brin wouldn’t spill the beans on whether any Israeli clean tech companies were on Google’s shopping list, he did say the conditions were good for Google acquisitions in general, and said there are a lot of interesting companies working in the field of renewable energy.

Israeli paper Haaretz says senior Google executives met with their counterparts from Ormat at two alternative energy conferences recently, while Google co founder Larry Page has visited an Ormat geothermal plant Nevada.

Google.org has been investing in green tech at a rate of knots in recent times. Example: the $10 million it put into solar company Brightsource earlier this month.

Flint calls in expert panel over eco-town plan

Remember the government’s eco-towns scheme - a plan to put a series of brand spanking new carbon neutral Milton Keynes-a-likes over this brown and pleasant land?

Well, Housing Minister Caroline Flint has decided there’s no better way to get companies bidding to build the towns to come up with crackerjack plans than to inflict a panel of 14 experts on them.

The panel will, according to Flint (well, according to Flint’s press release writer who presumably gets paid to come up with arse-clenchingly bad nuggets like this) “inject new thinking” and “aim as high as possible in each potential location”.

The panel, Flint reckons, will put their two-pennies worth into the bidders on subjects like transport, design, community, technologies and jobs.

Here’s who’s who in Flint’s gang:

• John Walker (Chair) - Former Chief Executive, British Urban Regeneration Association. Expert in delivery of large mixed use development
• Dr Liz Goodwin - Chief Executive, Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP). Expert in use of natural resources and recycling
• Stephen Hale - Director, Green Alliance. Environment expert
• Sir Peter Hall - President, Town and Country Planning Association. Expert in urban issues, housing and planning
• Wayne Hemingway - Founder, Red or Dead. Expert in design and social issues
• Stephen Joseph - Executive Director, Campaign for Better Transport. Transport expert
• Nick Mabey - Chief Executive, E3G. Expert in energy issues and economic
• Kris Murrin - TV presenter, expert in sustainable transport and children’s issues
• Sunand Prasad - Royal Institute of British Architects President. Expert in design and architecture
• Liz Reason - Director, Reasons to Be Cheerful consultancy. Expert in innovative approaches to energy issues and climate change
• Sue Riddlestone - Director, BioRegional Development Group. Expert in sustainability and sustainable development
• Joanna Yarrow - TV presenter, green-lifestyle specialist and founder of sustainability company Beyond Green
• Richard Simmons - Expert in architecture and the built environment
• Lynda Addison - Managing Director of Addison & Associates. Transport and planning expert.

Arnie’s $221 million assault on diesel emissions

Wise words from Governator Arnie Schwarzenegger in 1987, when his political career was but a twinkle in a PR man’s eye and he was content to dress up in camo and careen around the jungle on the hunt for a murderous alien crab in Predator: “if it bleeds, we can kill it.”

Today’s target is bleeds toxic particulate matter and if Arnie’s got anything to do with it, its days are most definitely numbered: diesel fuel emissions.

Arnie’s weapon of choice is ladling out $221 million in grants from the California Air Resources Board to projects whose raison d’etre is to find ways to trim those nasty emissons.

The California Air Resources Board will be handing out the grants a little like this:

• $198.4 million to upgrade over 8,200 trucks with cleaner equipment and engines
• $16.5 million for 18 new locomotives
• $2.5 million for shore electric power for cargo ships docking at the Port of San Diego
• $4.3 million for 17 freight-related harbor craft

The emissions are on the chopping block, says the board, because of their “potential to cause cancer and other respiratory problems” and for air quality reasons.

Here’s more:

Over their life, the projects to be funded are estimated to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 26,900 tons and particulate matter by 1,800 tons. ARB and the local agencies administering the monies will focus on projects that quickly reduce emissions and achieve benefits throughout the state, such as directing 94 percent of the total to cleaner trucks and locomotives that may travel within multiple corridors.

How many hybrids will Honda sell?

Earlier this week, Greenbang asked you to guess how many people drive a Prius. Today, there’s the second leg of the eco-car guessing game. It’s called guess how many models of its new hybrid car Honda expects to sell annually?

You’ve got 30 seconds (feel free to imagine the Countdown music playing for extra effect).

So, what’s your guess? Was it 200,000? Good guess!

Yep, Honda expects to sell 200,000 hybrid cars, following the introduction of a new model early next year. And there’s more: Honda’s also planning to introduce a “new sporty hybrid based on the CR-Z, Civic Hybrid, and the addition of a Fit Hybrid model”.

Take a guess what those four models are expected to sell annually? Right again! It’s 500,000 units.

This cavalcade of numbers comes courtesy of a speech by Honda’s CEO earlier this week. Here’s more deets from him on the car itself:

With a convenient and compact 5-door/5-passenger size and an exterior design that employs the concept of the FCX Clarity, this vehicle will achieve unique and highly innovative characteristics as a dedicated hybrid model.

For its hybrid system, a compact, lightweight, and highly-efficient IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) system was developed with the idea of providing motor assist when it is necessary during startup and acceleration while relying on the engine as the main power source.

Through a newly developed platform which positions the control unit and battery underneath the cargo space, this new dedicated hybrid vehicle achieves light and comfortable driving. It is nearing final development as a vehicle that creates a new world of driving that is not offered by a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle.

Various technologies, including a function to assist more fuel efficient driving, are being installed to achieve a further improvement of practical fuel efficiency, so that customers can actually experience the excellent fuel efficiency of this vehicle.

Moreover, in addition to weight reduction, significant cost reduction was achieved through various measures including making key components of the system such as the control unit and battery more compact, creating a thinner motor, and further advancing the equipment and processes used to produce the motor.

Democratic Convention powered by beer

Waste beer.

Say it out loud: “waste beer”. And once more.

No, doesn’t sound right does it? Almost oxymoronic in its unlikeliness. But apparently, according to the Molson Coors Brewing Company, there actually is such a thing as “waste beer”.

Hey, dry those tears, now, at least the waste beer in question is being used for the good of society - it’s being used to fuel politicians.

No, not making you feel better about the whole thing? Greenbang will plough on regardless.

The Molson Coors Brewing Company has announced it’ll be turning the waste beer from its Golden, Colorado, brewery into ethanol. The fuel will be used to power General Motors flex-fuel vehicles used at the Democratic National Convention.

Here’s a little bit about all that beer:

Coors is the nation’s first major brewer to convert its waste beer into ethanol. The company began recycling waste beer — beer lost during packaging or deemed below quality standards — and converting it to ethanol in 1996, in a facility owned by Merrick & Company and operated by Coors. Today the Golden ethanol facility produces about three million gallons of ethanol per year. The production of ethanol from waste beer also helps Coors eliminate about 70 tons of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from its emissions annually.[…]

Fuel mixed with ethanol from the Coors facility will help power a fleet of vehicles provided by General Motors, the Official Vehicle Provider of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. This fleet, which includes vehicles with biofuel capabilities and hybrid technology, will provide transportation for numerous delegates, staff, members of the media and other special Convention guests.

Two VC clean tech funds close with over $150 million

Two VC funds with their beady eye on the world of clean tech have this week announced they’re now shut tighter than a nun’s knickers.

The lucky pair are Capricorn Venture Capital and Craton Equity Partners, both of which have closed with investments that look a bit like telephone numbers.

First up, Capricorn Venture Captial, which has shut the doors on its Capricorn Cleantech Fund with over €100 million. Those who joined in for the first time included pharma company Solvay Group and 15 new private investors, while existing investors including investment company PMV (ParticipatieMaatschappij Vlaanderen), Belgian financial services company Ethias and a Dutch pension fund all upped their participation in the investment.

And where will all those euros go? Here’s where:

The fund invests in European growth companies developing innovative breakthrough technologies in the field of e.g. renewable energy and energy efficiency, water purification and re-use, bio-based material conversion and biorefinery platforms, clean air, climate change, green chemistry and advanced materials, materials recovery and recycling.

And onto Craton, who closed its Clean Tech fund with $191.5 million. Craton said its institutional investors are “are some of the nation’s largest” but didn’t give any names.

Here’s where it will be splashing the cash, according to one of Craton founders, Bob MacDonald:

Craton’s philosophy is to invest in those technologies that are known alternatives to carbon intensive technologies currently in use. Craton focuses on investing in small emerging growth companies whose products and services provide green building materials, renewable energy generation, alternative fuels, water remediation and management, and solid waste reduction and conversion technologies.”

US ships ordered to cut sulfur in fuel

Ships look harmless, don’t they? Providing quoits-and-ballroom dancing based entertainment for the almost dead and cross-Channel, vomit-drenched transport for the rest of us. But don’t trust the scamps. Cargo boats are apparently churning out dangerous emissions like there’s no tomorrow.

According to The Associated Press, the US Senate has had enough of all this shipload of emissions coming from cargo vessels, and a Senate committee has passed a legislation that could make sure that boats only use lovely green fuel.

The problem says AP, is the “cheap, asphalt-like diesel that oceangoing ships currently burn” which has “a sulfur content many thousand times higher than the diesel sold for US trucks” and can contribute to respiratory illnesses and other unpleasantness.

The bill that made it through the Senate committee would mean that US ships, or vessels visiting US ports would need to cleaner, less sulfurouse fuel.

“The folks who live around ports and who work at the ports deserve to have the cleanest air possible. That fuel is available,” Senator Barbara Boxer is quoted as saying.

Greenbang wishes the bill safe harbour in the Senate.

Boulder breaks ground on $100m smart grid plan

In December next year, there’s going to be a bit of a celebration in Boulder, Colorado. No points if you guessed that’s because of Christmas, a lot of points and a triple word score if you guessed that’s because
Xcel Energy’s $100 million SmartGridCity project will have gone live, after work on construction kicked off recently.

The dodgily-named SmartGridCity is Xcel’s plan to put some cleverness into the electricity grid, allowing it to “better monitor, manage, and even balance itself” using a “portfolio of smart grid technologies designed to provide environmental, financial and operational benefits”. Or to put it another way, the smart grid will give users a bit more insight into where they’re using electricity and how they can cut down consumption, even turning off energy-hogging devices remotely.

According to Xcel, all the design work’s now over with, the company’s put in orders for the necessary kit (including 15,000 smart meters to be installed at the rate of 2,500 a week until this August) and construction on the project has already begun, with the implementation of the high-speed communications network and smart grid sensing equipment.

Here’s how the rollout will work:

Phase I: March 2008 - August 2008
• Includes full-system automation, monitoring and smart meters for the first group of SmartGridCity customers. Involves upgrades to two substations, five feeders and nearly 15,000 meters (representing both residential, commercial and light industrial customers) in Boulder.
• Web portal will provide consumers with insight into their energy use and information for better home energy management.
• A dedicated customer service phone number (1-877-887-3339) and e-mail address (SmartGridCity@xcelenergy.com) for SmartGridCity customers.
• Some customers can choose to have in-home automation tools, allowing increased control over home energy use and costs.
• By mid-August, initial capabilities should be demonstrated.

Phase II: September 2008 - December 2009
• Complete the installation of a distribution and communication network for remaining areas within Boulder (an additional two substations, 20 feeders and smart meters for an additional 35,000 premises).
• Expanded in-home automation installations.
• Enable Web portal access to all SmartGridCity customers.
• Begin initial integration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, solar and wind co-generation sources onto the grid in Boulder.

Sorry…

This has nothing to do with green business, but I need to say a big, fat sorry to anyone who received several emails from me (Dan) today inviting them to join LastFM - the online radio service.

This wasn’t me sending all these emails, but LastFM.

It’s very annoying. I called the company and they’ve apologised for a ‘bug’ in the system.

Some people have taken this as a terrible offence, so if I have caused significant damage to your day, sorry.

Have your say on the future of green building

Got an opinion on how green green buildings should be? Then it’s time to make it heard. The most well-known green building certification, LEED, is getting a makeover and the people behind it, US Green Building Council, want to know what you think about the whole shebang.

The LEED 2009 spec, which “represents a reorganization of the existing LEED rating systems for commercial buildings, combined with a series of major technical advancements focused on improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions, and addressing other environmental and human health outcomes” according to the Council, is now up for public comment.

If you want to give your tuppence worth, then you’ve got until June 22, 2008, at 5 PM Pacific Time to put it in. You can find all the proposed changes and how to submit your comments here.

Here’s some details from the Council to be going on with:

LEED 2009 is not a “tear down and rebuild” of the LEED that exists in the market but rather a reorganization of the existing LEED Rating Systems along with several key advancements. LEED 2009 consists of prerequisite and credit alignment and harmonization, transparent environmental & human impact credit weighting, regionalization and a predictable development cycle. Prerequisite and credit alignment and harmonization has enabled USGBC to organize and administer LEED in a new way.

The LEED “bookshelf” is an organizational structure that will be used to administer LEED Rating Systems. This framework allows credits and prerequisites to be housed uniformly across multiple rating systems where possible. The rating systems on which USGBC is accepting comment are outputs of this bookshelf organized to be familiar to LEED users. Changes currently under development for LEED Online are envisioned to update the way project teams access LEED but the credit and prerequisite structure and mix of credits that make up a LEED Rating Systems remain the same. As the LEED bookshelf is an organizational framework and not a change to the requirements in LEED it is not part of the public comment process. Additional information about LEED Online will be available in the coming months.

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.