Porsche green lights electric vehiclesQuestPoint

It will be interesting to see how many electric vehicles make it to the streets within the next few years. San Francisco and other cities around the country are creating plans for electric charging stations. Already Tesla and Toyota are teaming up in a big way and moving their manufacturing operations to the old NUMMI plant in Fremont California. Nissan, Renault and Ford are also in the EV (electric vehicle) space and now Porsche has announced it is developing a hybrid sports car the 918 Spyder. There has been no date set for release or how many will be made, but there has been speculation that the car could sell for as much as $650,000. It is also testing an electric version of the Boxer line.

Michael Macht, President and Chairman of the Board of Management of Porsche AG: “Production of the 918 Spyder in a limited series proves that we are taking the right approach with Porsche Intelligent Performance featuring the combination of supreme performance and efficient drivetrain concepts. We will develop the 918 Spyder in Weissach and assemble it in Zuffenhausen. This is also a very important commitment to Germany as a manufacturing base.”

The Supervisory Board of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, gave the green light to series development of the Porsche 918 Spyder. Reflecting the overwhelming response from the public and customers to the Concept Study, the Supervisory Board gave Porsche’s board of Management the mission to develop a production model based on the car already presented. This concept version of an ultra-high-performance mid-engined sports car with plug-in hybrid technology made its debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show and at Auto China in Bejing, hitting headlines worldwide.

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GREEN FOR ALL ANNOUNCES

Green jobs are a reality, and now is the time to honor the innovative companies that are creating them. With support from the Citi Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, SJF Advisory Services and Green For All have partnered to launch a Green Jobs Award Program, which seeks to identify, recognize, and promote private companies that are leaders in quality green job creation.

APPLY HERE

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MOBILE SOLAR PHONES SPREADING IN INDIA

The phone, known as the VF 247 is targeted at India’s huge rural mobile phone market. The solar powered device would be a boon to many users who face shortage of electricity in the villages of India. They will no longer be required to be near an electrical outlet to charge their phones. The VF 247′s launch comes almost a year after Samsung launched its first Solar powered phone in India the Guru 1107. According to Vodafone, the VF 247 solar powered phone charges by itself, by exposure to ambient light.

Sun Boost, the special inbuilt hardware and software ensures that the phone charges also in a room, under normal daylight. This means one doesn’t require exposure to direct sunlight. Normal ambient light should be enough to power this one. The phone requires eight hours of direct sunlight to be fully charged. Once charged it will last for more than eight days and offers about four hours of talk time. As for the features, it boasts of an FM radio, color screen and a powerful torch light. More details are yet to be unveiled by Vodafone.

The phone is expected to be priced at around the Rs.1500 mark ($32 us) and would be available across India starting next month.

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JEFF OLSHESKY – BEYOND SOLAR

Listen to the work Beyond Solar has done in India below.

QuestPoint n The Mix interview here

Read the story here

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Largest Rooftop Solar Project in Northwest Now Online for Portland General Electric Customers

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) has completed installation of the largest rooftop solar project in the Pacific Northwest — a 673,000-square-foot, 2.4-megawatt project atop the roofs of seven ProLogis distribution warehouses in Portland, Gresham, and Clackamas.

Working with local contractors, PGE and ProLogis began construction of the $14 million solar project in March 2010 and brought the project online in early July 2010. This is the second rooftop solar project with ProLogis, a distribution facilities company, bringing PGE’s total solar build-out with ProLogis to 3.5 megawatts of solar energy.

“Solar is clearly growing in Oregon and our customers are helping drive that,” said Carol Dillin, PGE’s vice president of customers and economic development. “We have seen unprecedented growth of residential and business solar projects in our area over the past two years which, coupled with the growth in solar manufacturing, helps develop more clean, renewable resources for the region and stimulate Oregon’s green economy.”

With the new 2.4-megawatt project, PGE will have more than 14.3 megawatts of solar capacity in its resource mix, including the 104-kilowatt solar highway demonstration project with the Oregon Department of Transportation and more than 10.7 megawatts of customer-owned solar energy projects PGE supports through its net metering program. PGE also expects another 17.5 megawatts of customer-owned solar energy projects to come online through the state’s recently adopted five-year solar energy incentive pilot program, the Solar Payment Option program.

In 2009, PGE ranked among the top 10 utilities in the western regionfor solar installations, according to the national Solar Energy Power Association.

PGE partnered with U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, ProLogis, and several Oregon companies on the project. Northwest Solar Solutions, a division of locally-owned Snyder Roofing and the installer for this project, estimates 60,000 hours of family-wage electrical and roofing work in Oregon were created by this project.

The renewable energy generated from the solar project is now included in PGE’s energy resource mix and helps the utility meet the state’s renewable energy standard of providing 25 percent renewable energy by the year 2025. PGE expects it will be at nearly 9 percent renewable energy in 2010.

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