Technology Review, an MIT publication, ran a piece on plug-in hybrids in its recent March/April issue that focused on the green implications of substituting grid-based power for gasoline.   In other words, would it be a cleaner alternative?

The piece caused me to think further about our current hybrid products and the more efficient next generation of lithium-ion based hybrids. Clearly, they are a means to greater fuel efficiency.   They do nothing to eliminate our dependency on petroleum; they only make our fuels go further.   

Fuel efficiency is good, …

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  The President of Royal Dutch Shell has published a white paper on the company’s web site which is bold in its candor and its vision.  In addition to advocating actions against human caused global warming, Mr. van der Veer says that crude oil production will peak in 2015, that supplemental sources of oil will be needed and that conservation efforts need to be increased.  His vision is remarkably close to the one I have described on this site.    Reading between the lines, one …

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Tom Konrad has written about two LED companies that he thinks are worthy of a speculative investment.   His views are always worth considering.   He wrote:

Cree, Inc. (CREE), and Lighting Science Group (LSGP.OB).

I’ve been invested in both of these for a long time, and last wrote about these LED stocks in June. I sold half the holdings of many of my managed accounts soon after that article when CREE was around $27-$30, about double the price at which I’d bought them. Smaller positions in Lighting Science …

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Gee.  Just a few days after I wrote in Newsletter # 10 that eventually shipping may revert to sail power…here is news that just such ships are being launched this month.  The ship, which uses computer-controlled sails that sound a lot like spinnakers will save 10% - 15% of the fuel cost of a voyage.  Wow.  Here is the report:
Giant sail technology could make shipping greener

John Vidal, environment editor
The Guardian,
Wednesday …

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UPS Goes Green
UPS rolled out an electric car and truck fleet this week to help with small parcel deliveries in in Northern California using 42 electric cars and trucks from ZAP (OTCBB: ZAAP). The move was made to reduce fuel consumption, reduce CO2 emissions and to provide a more maneuverable vehicle in congested urban areas.

The UPS branch in Petaluma, California (just north of San Francisco) has leased an initial fleet of 42 ZAP Xebra® electric …

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Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor Corp. is showcasing a new hybrid concept model
that is packaged in carbon fibre to reduce weight, fuel consumption and emissions.

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SANTO DOMINGO.- In the next few days president Leonel Fernandez will announce the plan to save and use energy more efficiently, which includes certain restrictions to transport, vehicle traffic in rush hours and the public and private office schedules, among other measures. read full post

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With LED light bulbs lasting upward of 50,000 hours vs. 1,000 for many incandescents, one would think a majority of consumers would embrace the new technology for their homes.  Consumers balk at cost, but once the price of LEDs drop below $10 the adoption curve really begins to take off – and at $5 nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) would consider replacing all their household bulbs with LEDs. read full post

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Amory Lovins is not worried because energy efficiency will improve so rapidly we will run out of our need for oil long before we run out of oil.

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The technology has a long way to go before it is fully competitive with gas-powered vehicles. Many of the start-ups in the space will likely fail. And there are also legitimate questions about how well these innovations—brilliant in the lab—will work in the real world on a mass scale. Of course, that’s exactly what U.S. automakers said about hybrid vehicles themselves—1 million sales ago.

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You may have noticed recently that you are hearing more and more about diesel cars.  That makes sense because diesel engines get better fuel economy than gasoline engines.

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High speed, long distance, low cost vehicle for U.S. market.   But it seems mostly useful for local travel.  Otherwise you’ll be filling it up at someone else’s house, which may not work too well.

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It is also time to seriously venture into alternative methods of power generation, including solar power and wind power. There is an ingrained notion among the people that all villages must get national grid electricity.  While this is a noble ideal, some villages are so remote and physically inaccessible that extending the national grid would be a prohibitively costly exercise.  Solar power is free once the initial investment has been made and there has never …

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The small electric vehicle being developed in Europe could have major impacts on both petroleum-based fuel usage and the capacity of the electric grid to support increased demand.  The idea is that millions of electric cars would be re-charged at low-demand times (overnight) and sell electricity back to the grid during peak times.  If it takes hold it will not have much impact in the next five years, so is not really actionable in terms of immediate investments, but it could be extremely helpful when the Rapid Transition occurs. …

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