Archive for December, 2009

Evoasis News-Internal Release
San Diego-December 28th 2009

Electric Vehicle Rapid-Charge Facility and Retail Developer Evoasis Corporation announced today that they will begin to reward users and operators of electric, plug-in hybrid and flex-fuel vehicles with Reward Points which can be redeemed by ATOM Cardholders at Evoasis’ retail stations or online with Evoasis’ Partner Merchants. “Tracking a vehicles ‘green footprint’ whether it be a pure electric, plug-in hybrid, flex-fuel, fuel cell or natural gas/propane powered or even hydrogen fuel is not that difficult to do” said Angus Clark, Evoasis Corporation’s Chairman.
“We look at our ATOM Membership base from a number of angles, including their use of energy in their homes and businesses, as well as their cars, fleets or commercial and rental/ride share miles”.
Also, as energy companies continue to deploy large scale installed bases of SmartMeter technology, Evoasis can and will monitor home and business use on behalf of its Members and apply reward points for energy saving activities such as turning down cooling and heating systems, use of solar and wind energy and other carbon-credit producing activities.
Evoasis is currently in pre-launch preparation with a number of US utility companies, top-tier IT companies and Fortune 1000 providers of goods and services.
Further developments will be announced in the Spring of 2010.

Renewable energy sources are becoming more commonplace for business users, with Google being a good example of both a user and promoter of the technology for renewable energy production. For home use, however, the cost of using green energy solutions, such as wind and solar power, is still quite high. Another problem that exists is how to store the energy generated efficiently and cheaply.

Panasonic may be about to solve that storage problem by introducing a large lithium-ion storage cell targeted specifically at homes. By 2011 the Japanese electronics manufacturer is aiming to have such a cell available that will hold enough energy to power the average home for a week. If such a storage solution existed then green energy solutions which aren’t guaranteed to produce energy 100% of the time, would become more viable and cost effective.

Panasonic is well positioned to attempt such a battery solution due to its recent acquisition of electronics company Sanyo, which has been pushing hard into the renewable energy sector. Last year Sanyo announced it was expanding solar cell production in the U.S. and has since introduced a number of new solar and energy storage solutions such as solar parking bays in Japan and eneloop storage gadgets.

The combined experience of the two companies means Panasonic will be able to produce a complete solution for the home which will include an energy use monitoring system accessible through a TV. More specific details of what Panasonic has planned are expected on January 8th, but the company’s clear goal according to its president Fumio Otsubo is, “realizing CO2 emission-free daily life” in the home.

Read more at Physorg.com

Matthew’s Opinion

Local storage of energy at home takes a lot of the pressure off power companies to continue to produce all the power we need. Instead the current energy grid we all rely on would become the backup power source rather than the primary one. In the long run that saves a lot of money for governments who would need to invest very heavily to keep pushing up energy production as populations grow.

The other benefit of local battery storage is that individual households can choose the level of green energy investment they make. If you want to put double the number of solar panels on your roof that your neighbor has then that’s fine. In the short term your costs will be higher, but you save that money through reduced electricity bills over time. Storage is no longer an issue due to the lithium-ion battery in your attic space.

As is usually the case it all comes down to cost and solar energy especially is still too expensive for a lot of people to consider. But I believe if a cheap battery solution exists then the price of the other required components will come down too. If Panasonic start offering a complete solution then that will surely reduce the cost to the end user significantly as well.
Source: Geek.com

BY HIDEO KAITO

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

2009/12/28

Eco-friendly and emerging markets are the new buzzwords of Japanese industry, especially among automakers.

Many of the nation’s leading companies are redrawing their business plans to focus on these new opportunities.

In the automobile sector, for example, an announcement Dec. 9 in Tokyo was symbolic of the way the auto industry is embracing this new era. It was the day that Suzuki Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG trumpeted their agreement to enter into a comprehensive alliance, including a capital tie-up.

In announcing the formation of the world’s largest auto-making group, Volkswagen Chairman Martin Winterkorn said the agreement would allow his company to make substantial inroads into Asian markets. For its part, the Japanese automaker stands to gain environmental technology developed by Volkswagen.

Suzuki has a strong base in the fast-growing market in India with its low-cost technology in producing minicars. Volkswagen has a strong presence in China and a reputation for “green” technology.

The global automobile market is still reeling from the global recession that hit in fall 2008. In 2008, global sales of new vehicles reached 61 million units. The figure is projected to plummet to around 55 million vehicles this year.

However, demand for automobiles in newly emerging economies is expected to remain strong. In industrialized economies, demand for eco-friendly cars is expected to increase.

In another move that is linked to accelerating the development of electric cars, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. revealed in early December that it had asked PSA Peugeot Citroen for a possible capital injection. MMC is set to supply its i-MiEV electric cars to the French group for sales under the latter’s own brand.

Two American automakers that filed for bankruptcy protection this spring are also moving to strengthen their positions in the global market.

Chrysler Corp. received a capital injection from Italy’s Fiat group and is pinning its hopes on the development of compact cars to bring about its recovery.

General Motors plans to invest $700 million (about 62 billion yen) in production facilities for the Chevrolet Volt electric car. It also retracted its plan to sell the German automaker Opel, which has a strong presence in compact cars.

Japanese electric appliance producers are also focusing on the environment and newly emerging economies.

In an October speech at an electronics exhibition in Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Panasonic Corp. President Fumio Ohtsubo stated: “We will place ‘ecology’ as the main axis of all our business operations. We also want to create a new volume zone in the various regions depending on what people there want. This will be different from simply selling cheap products.”

Panasonic made Sanyo Electric Co. a subsidiary on Dec. 21. One objective in acquiring Sanyo was to ramp up its efforts to sell appliances in newly emerging economies while also taking advantage of the rechargeable battery technology developed by Sanyo for eco-cars.

Sony Corp. is strengthening sales of low-priced LCD TVs in China, India and Brazil. In November, Sony revealed it was also moving into the rechargeable battery field.

In April, Takashi Kawamura, chairman and president of Hitachi Ltd., said his company’s business operations would focus on social infrastructure sectors for a low-carbon society, such as railways and nuclear power generation.

Japanese companies are trying to diversify while undergoing major restructuring.

Many domestic factories have been shut or moved overseas, and thousands of nonregular workers have lost their jobs. Companies have also implemented early-retirement programs to trim their payroll of regular employees.

The streamlining has reverberated among the small businesses that serve as parts suppliers. Some executives of major electronics companies say it will be difficult in the long run to maintain a manufacturing sector in Japan due to high labor costs and a strong yen.

Even while Japanese companies focus more on the environment and newly emerging economies, the average Japanese consumer is unlikely to benefit.(IHT/Asahi: December 28,2009)
Source: Asahi Shimbun

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Green technology companies could see a little more investor interest in 2010 if rising oil prices encourage energy users to look for alternative sources of fuel.

In a sign of what might be on the horizon, California solar company Solyndra Inc filed for a $300 million IPO on Friday. The company has long been viewed as a potential IPO candidate.

But don’t expect a torrent of new green technology IPOs until a revolutionary new technology emerges, which could be years off, analysts said.

Green energy was a small corner of the IPO market in 2009, and the deals had mixed results.

Lithium ion battery company A123 Systems Inc was one of the most successful IPOs of the year, with its shares rising more than 50 percent in their first day of trading in September.

The stock has since given up some of those gains, but is still 47.5 percent above its IPO price.

On the other hand, Chinese thin film solar panel maker Trony Solar Holdings Co Ltd postponed its IPO indefinitely last week.

In other words, investors were choosy when it came to alternative energy IPOs in 2009, but 2010 could be different if oil prices keep rising.

U.S. crude oil prices were below $34 a barrel in February, but are now above $73.

“That’s definitely a positive for these IPOs in 2010,” said Bill Buhr, an IPO Strategist at research house Morningstar, but he added that he does not expect a huge surge in green tech deals next year.

Green companies’ offerings represented a small portion of the overall U.S. IPO market this year. Energy and power-related IPOs — which include both traditional energy and alternative energy — ranked fifth by dollars raised in 2009 in the IPO market, according to Thomson Reuters data. They accounted for about 8.5 percent of issuance by companies going public in 2009.

MORE CAPITAL

But green energy companies have raised more capital in recent months, from sources including venture capital, private equity, public equity, and debt funds. That could translate to more companies ready to go public in coming years.

According to London-based New Energy Finance, green companies — from solar and wind power, other renewable energy, electric vehicles and energy storage — raised just $13.3 billion in the first quarter of 2009, its lowest quarterly amount since early 2006.

But in the third quarter, that figure rose to $25.9 billion, aided by improved public markets and the first flows of green stimulus funds from governments, the research firm reported in October.

Few analysts foresee the green energy market becoming frothy in 2010.

“Emotion is totally gone in the IPO market,” said IPOdesktop.com President Francis Gaskins. “Story stocks are not going to make it.”

He said investors are focused on a company’s numbers and growth potential.

Green technology companies seeking IPOs will need to show alliances with companies that are already public or with well-known backers, said IPO Boutique Senior Managing Partner Scott Sweet.

But there is a passel of relatively mature green technology companies that could raise money in IPOs in coming years, analysts said, citing smart grid networking company Silver Spring Networks; electric car maker Tesla; and pharmaceutical, biofuels and carbon capture company Codexis.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin in New York, Additional reporting by Laura Isensee in Los Angeles and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Editing by Dan Wilchins and Richard Chang)

Auto Maker Expects to Make Los Angeles Its First U.S. Market for Planned Electric-Car Sales; a Focus on Fleet Customers

By NORIHIKO SHIROUZU

BEIJING—BYD Co., the Chinese auto maker part-owned by one of Warren Buffett’s companies, is likely to choose the Los Angeles area as the lead market for the electric car it plans to start selling in the U.S. late next year, a senior executive said.

BYD is also leaning toward choosing the West Coast metropolis as home to its U.S. headquarters for the auto business, Henry Li, a BYD senior director in charge of its auto business outside China, said in an interview Wednesday.

Mr. Li said an official decision hasn’t been made, but the Los Angeles area is “at the top of the list.” and is likely to be chosen. The region is attractive because electric cars are “most suitable for densely populated areas with lots of air-pollution problems,” and because the region is one of the largest and wealthiest car markets and is known to be the leader in adopting new technologies, he said.

Source: WSJ Online

The billionaire recently told a class of business students at Rice University, Texas, that he believed in just 20 years time every new car on the road would be electric, in response to a question about peak oil theory and the decline of oil production.

His prediction comes after Renault-Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, recently said he expected EV sales would reach one million in the US by 2015.

A study released last month called the Electrification Roadmap expects there to be at least 14 million EVs in the US by 2020, and predicted that 75 per cent of all short trips in 2040 would be covered by electric vehicles. Evoasis predicts it would need 5600 of its EVSTAT stations to cover these 14 million vehicles, as each EVSTAT can cover a local population of 2500 Vehicles per station.

In 2008, Buffett’s investment firm put US$230 million into Chinese battery maker BYD who is rapidly expanding into the EV market.
As he recently bought a national US train company and owns Mid-American Power company which has also recently invested in Nuclear power generation. Could it be that Buffet expects to fuel EV’s with Nuclear power or is he planning to transport stored energy from wind and solar farms on his new freight train system?

One thing is for sure, when Buffet speaks, the markets listen and having someone of Buffet’s stature placing the financial muscle of his Berkshire Hathaway investment company in eco-infrastructure will help to kick off a “boom” in the EV industry, which is poised to become one of the drivers of the New Economy.

Note on Copenhagen and Global Warming. Any politician or global leader who is trying to understand whether mankind is warming the planet ought to take one simple, decisive 10-minute test. Start your fossil fuel-powered vehicle in your garage with the doors closed and stand there for 10 minutes while trying to decide if the planet is getting warmer or not. Within ten minutes the conclusion should be obvious (if the person is still conscious). I expect most would conclude after they are done throwing up and getting rid of the headache and runny eyes that IT REALLLY DOESN”T MATTER IF THESE CARS ARE WARMING THE PLANET OR NOT! The fact is that they are choking the planet with toxic fumes. Whether Co2 levels will cause global warming or the next ice age doesn’t really matter does it? We need to clean the planet no matter what temperature it is in 100 years.
I would rather leave clean air to our Grandchildren and let them worry about the sun block and air conditioning.
Note: Please don’t try the above-mentioned garage experiment without having someone outside to assist you in case of emergency. You might actually be rendered unconscious within 10 minutes.
Perhaps that is why we have been so unconscious about our planet;
Too many car fumes have been ingested by too many leaders?
Hmmmmmm…
Angus Clark-Evoasis