Toyota’s first hybrid; Smart Grid Market Projected to Double; Surge in Electric Cars; No Health Impact From Wind Turbines; Solar Air Purifier

Toyota’s first hybrid from 1977 This cute little sportscar had a gas turbine connected to a generator that fed an electric motor with two speeds. The concept was a one-off model built for the 1977 Tokyo Motor Show, and the standard 2 cylinder air-cooled 790 cc engine and glorious aerodynamics managed to get the little bullet to 31 km/liter (73 mpg U.S.).

Smart Grid Market Projected to Double by 2014 By 2014, the U.S. smart grid market is expected to double from its 2009 value of $21.4 billion to $42.8 billion.

The Surge in Electric Cars Why should anyone buy an electric car? That’s going to be a critical question for the auto industry—and the best answer may not be “Because they’re green.”

Study: No Health Impact From Wind Turbines A detailed literature review published on Tuesday by the American and Canadian wind industry associations found no medical basis for the health complaints that often arise near large wind-farm projects.

Portable Motorless Solar Air Purifier The Solar Air Purifier is an easy to use portable device that cleans the air giving you a healthy, odor neutralised environment. By simply placing it near any window the Solar Air Purifier will clean the air silently using its high-efficiency photo-catalysis and active carbon filter to scrub the air of any smoke and smells.

Networked EV Charging Stations; Solar Window Thermometer; 800hp concept hybrid; Mitsubishi i; Boston-Power Teams Up With Saab, Swedes for Electric Cars

First Networked EV Charging Station Installed in Canada Coulumb Technologies was due to open Canadian charging stations in the first quarter of 2009. It looks like they fell a little behind schedule, but the first networked charging stations in Canada are now open for business. And more are planned soon.

The Solar Digital Window Thermometer This thermometer sticks to the window and can easily be removed when you want to clean the window. It’ll let you know the current temperature, as well as stating the high and low temperatures for the day. It’s solar powered and stores away the energy so that it’ll continue to work even at night or in low light situations.

800hp concept hybrid Wow. How’s this for a car of the future: a sleek hybrid with a carbon-fiber chassis, active suspension, a seven-speed transaxle, and a total of 800 horsepower?

Mitsubishi i is a good car with a bad name I love this little car. The badly named i (sorry, it’s true) is an award winning kei car that’s been wildly popular in Japan ever since it was released in 2006. Mitsubishi had a couple on hand – one gas, one electric – during a recent press event and they were kind enough to let us take the gas-powered model 3,000 feet up a mountain.

Battery Maker Boston-Power Teams Up With Saab, Swedes for Electric Cars Boston-Power, a battery maker, has joined a new coalition of companies funded by the Swedish government to develop electric vehicles. The coalition — which includes struggling auto brand Saab, electric power train developer Electroengine in Sweden, project incubator and manager Innovatum Technology Park, and Swedish power industry trade group Power Circle — has built a small number of demonstration models and plans to produce more than 100 vehicles in 2010

Penny Saved Is Penny Earned: Unplug Reminder; Lowe’s Markets Home Energy; Mayor Bloomberg Looks to Danish Offshore Windfarms; Mercedes-Benz begins testing electric SLS supercar; Copenhagen Lights Christmas Tree With Bikes

Penny Saved Is Penny Earned: Unplug Reminder The Ace Plug is like an eco-voice that makes sure you do a job out of it; otherwise it will annoy the hell out of you with its pesky noises, till you yank out the plug.

Lowe’s Markets Home Energy at In-store Destination Points Lowe’s new Energy Central destination points in 21 California stores are positioned to sell consumers on a range of energy saving products at one central location in the store. Competitor Home Depot also features “Eco Options” products and signage in its nearly 1,900 U.S. stores.

NYC Mayor Bloomberg Looks to Danish Offshore Windfarms for Inspiration As the world’s eyes zeroed in on this week’s COP15 climate change talks, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg gazed on a much more placid scene – Denmark’s 209 megawatt Horns Rev 2, the largest offshore wind farm in the world. Bloomberg admired the overhead view as he toured the farm by helicopter, and expressed his desire for the Big Apple to follow suit.

Mercedes-Benz begins testing electric SLS supercar The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is nothing if not an exciting car to drive, and the German automaker is reportedly hard at work making sure that the upcoming electric version of the supercar generates the same kind of reaction from its occupants. In an interview with Autocar in the UK, AMG head Volker Mornhinweg assures that the car is now testing on the road and will hit all of its targeted performance objectives.

Copenhagen Lights Christmas Tree With Bikes At the Danish capital’s City Hall Square, 15 to 20 volunteers can sit on stationary bikes located around a massive, decorated tree and pedal away to keep it light, at least during the day. The bikes are connected to electrical tie-ups that ultimately power hundreds of lights on the tree.

Plug-in Prius; Plastic Wrap from CO2; Geothermal waste into lithium; Green roofs suck CO2; “Smart” grid utility problems

Toyota aiming for a plug-in Prius in 2 years Toyota Motor said Monday that it plans to begin commercial sales of its first plug-in hybrid vehicle in about two years, aiming to meet growing demand for fuel-efficient cars. Good, can’t wait!

Kodak to Help to Make Plastic Wrap From CO2 Although it’s made partly from carbon dioxide, Novomer says that its plastic wrap will be better for food. The company’s polypropylene carbonate (PPC) – which consists of 50 percent fossil fuels and 50 percent carbon dioxide – provides a better barrier against oxygen than traditional PPC.

Geothermal waste water could be domestic lithium source Unlike wind and solar, geothermal tends to be a lot more consistent than the sun or flow of air. It now looks like geothermal power could have another potential benefit: waste water from at least one geothermal plant in central California is rich in lithium.

Green Roofs Suck CO2 There is a lot to like about green roofs; they help keep cities cool, create habitat for birds and insects, provide wonderful amenities and just look so good on google earth. But do they actually sequester any CO2?

‘Smart’ Electric Utility Meters Prompts Revolt Some consumers argue that the meters are logging far more kilowatt hours than they believe they are using. And many find it unfair that they will begin to pay immediately for the new meters through higher rates, when the promised savings could be years away.

Energy efficiency displays; Carbon Storage on Public Lands; Stoplight Timer for red lights; Honda P-NUT compact; Reduced-cost lithium-ion battery

Millions of homes to get energy efficiency displays The days of learning about your electricity consumption once a month are the on the wane. Driven by consumer interest in energy and utility smart-grid programs, home energy information displays are poised to enter people’s kitchens and living rooms in large numbers over the next few years.

Carbon Storage on Public Lands Government-owned land must play a greater role in limiting carbon emissions, both through carbon capture and storage and increased renewable energy generation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Thursday.

Eko Stoplight Timer for Road Traffic Lights Industrial Designer Damjan Stanković has designed a simple, but very practical system for helping drivers to save fuel and drive a little more efficiently. The idea is a countdown timer that encircles a standard red stop-light. The idea means that drivers can tell how long it will be before the red light changes to amber and then green. This is a fantastic idea.

Honda P-NUT compact concept vehicle Honda took the wraps off its latest concept car this week debuting the new, hilariously named, P-NUT (Personal-Neo Urban Transport). The compact car is designed to accommodate a hybrid system or an electric engine for transport within major metropolitan areas.

Reduced-cost lithium-ion battery Ricardo and Qinetiq announced a new technology to produce cheaper lithium-ion batteries this week. Called Red Lion, the key to their claimed achievement is a new chemistry inside the cells. Instead of using cobalt cells, Red Lion batteries use iron sulphide which have an added benefit of weight reduction of about 20 percent

Solar Power System Tracks the Sun; Chevy Volts to arrive early?; Green Products at CES; Fuel cell boat; AT&T Sustainability Advisory Council

Solar Power System Tracks the Sun Mendocino College in Ukiah, California, will now be saving $14.9 million in electricity costs over the next 25 years, thanks to a just-installed solar power system with sun-tracking technology.

Chevy Volts to arrive early? Might the Chevy Volt get coaxed into customer hands earlier than November 2010? Could be, if a new deal to the Volt team worth $100 million from GM’s large cash fund (seriously, GM apparently has $46.2 billion to spend) works as planned.

Green Products at the Consumer Electronics Show The Consumer Electronics Show 2010 is in just a few weeks. It’s the biggest tradeshow for consumer electronics, and it’s dedicating more space this year for green innovation.

Fuel cell boat cruises Amsterdam’s canals Emitting only water vapour and gliding silently through Amsterdam’s centuries-old canals, a canal boat — a popular tourist attraction — powered by fuel cells made its debut cruise on Wednesday.

AT&T Forms Sustainability Advisory Council Fresh off hiring an energy director to help it reduce its carbon footprint, AT&T now is moving ahead with the creation of a sustainability advisory council. The new business advisory council will be comprised of AT&T staff, as well as third parties including the Carbon Disclosure Project, Cisco Systems, The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the University of Colorado Denver, and University of Texas at Austin.

Solar plant in Md; Bolivia has Enough Lithium; Deep-Seawater Air Conditioning System; U.S. Patent Office to Speed Up Process for Green Companies; Audi e-tron

Constellation to build solar plant in Md. Constellation Energy Group, Inc. said Tuesday it would build a solar power plant in Maryland that will be the state’s largest when completed in 2012.

Bolivia has Enough Lithium for 4.8 Billion Electric Cars According to the USGS, Bolivia has 35% of the world’s lithium resources, and since in the coming years, electric cars and plug-in hybrids that use lithium-ion batteries are expected to greatly increase in numbers, this could mean big changes for Bolivia, South-America’s poorest country.

Deep-Seawater Air Conditioning System to Cool Honolulu Frigid seawater pumped in from the ocean’s depths will soon help cool more than half of the buildings in Honolulu’s downtown.

U.S. Patent Office to Speed Up Process for Green Companies The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will accelerate the process for obtaining a green technology patent in an effort to spur the development of a renewable business here. Right now, it takes about 40 months to get a decision from the USPTO. The office will try to reduce that to around 12 months.

Audi e-tron sales to be limited to 1,000 units Audi may not be positioning itself as a “green brand,” but it’s still putting a rather big toe into the environmentally-friendly waters of electric sportscars with its R8-based e-tron, which is reportedly headed for production in 2012.

Electric VW Golf MK VII; Buses Bring Silence to the Streets; Solar Powered Racing Car; DOE offers $100 million; Recharging EVs with Wind

VW Golf MK VII could get electricified The new MK VI Golf has only just gone on sale here in North America but VW engineers are already hard at work on the next iteration. The Golf is expected to gain both a hybrid and a pure battery electric version in coming years.

New Buses Bring Silence to the Streets The newest addition to New York City’s formidable bus fleet — an experimental turbine hybrid known as the DesignLine — is notable mainly for a feature it does not have: noise.

World’s Smallest Solar Powered Racing Car The World’s Smallest Solar Powered Racing Car is basically a tiny racing car powered exclusively by solar energy. Using a tiny solar panel, the car moves along any smooth flat surface using it’s tiny electric motor. Damn, that’s tiny.

DOE offers $100 million for far-out energy tech The Department of Energy is making $100 million of government stimulus money available to researchers with ideas for radically different energy technologies.

Recharging EVs with Wind Power On the Danish island of Bornholm, a coalition of government, academia and industry are working on the Edison Project – a pilot project that uses wind power to recharge electric vehicles.

Hand Crank Twinkle Lights; Drive for geothermal power heats up; Oregon Wave Project; Fisker Karma Launch in 2010; Solar Powered Shoes

Hand Crank Twinkle Lights The folks behind Yanko Design are always thinking, and lately their thoughts are stuck on solar and renewable energy gadgets. The latest design, a hand-crank, “Eco-Twinkle Light” takes the idea of renewable energy, this time human-powered, and creates a light that is easy for kids or adults to operate.

Drive for geothermal power heats up on US campuses While solar and wind power get most of the headlines, geothermal power is quietly gaining traction on college campuses where energy costs can siphon millions each year from the budget.

Oregon Wave Project Under Way A project to build the country’s first wave power station off the coast of Oregon is finally moving forward. Wave power company Ocean Power Technologies just signed a contract with Oregon Iron Works to start building 10 buoys, with the first one to be deployed a year from now off the coast of Reedsport.

Fisker Bumps Karma Launch to 2010 Plug-in hybrid car startup Fisker Automotive had expected to launch its first vehicle, the luxury Fisker Karma, in 2009. But according to founder and CEO Henrik Fisker, who spoke yesterday at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the launch is now scheduled for September 2010

Make Your Own Solar Powered Shoes Lost Values’ solar light kit can transform your tired footwear into a kick@$$ lighting fixture for the street.

Prius one of Top 10 Innovations; Wind Turbines Have No Significant Impact on Property; Electric Cars Without a Gas Tax Hike; Philadelphia shows it pays to recycle; Green Car of Year Is a Diesel Again

Prius one of Top 10 Innovations of the Decade Ever since its U.S. introduction in 2000, the fuel-sipper has come to symbolize the environmental movement and has kickstarted an entire genre. Though it has competition, primarily from Honda and Ford, nobody comes close to the million-plus hybrids that Toyota has sold.

Study Finds Wind Turbines Have No Significant Impact on Property Value There might be other reasons left for people not wanting wind turbines near their properties, but it seems like a decline in commercial value isn’t one of them.

Bumpy Road Ahead for Electric Cars Without a Gas Tax Hike I think this is the first time I have agreed with Bob Lutz, but he’s right – Lutz told Reuters that gas prices will need to be hiked up through taxes in order for most prospective car buyers in the U.S. to cough up the extra dough for an electric car.

Philadelphia shows it pays to recycle The City of Brotherly Love launched what officials said on Thursday was America’s largest program to give residents a financial incentive to recycle paper, plastic, glass and aluminum.

LA Auto Show: Green Car of Year Is a Diesel Again (Audi A3) The Green Car of the Year is a diesel again, this time the Audi A3 TDI. It was announced Wednesday at the Los Angeles Auto Show and was amazing for two reasons: The third-generation Toyota Prius, the hybrid everybody loves, was also a finalist; also, you’d think the judges got diesels out of their systems last year honoring the Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Diesels are huge in Europe and slow sellers in the U.S. One reason for Audi’s victory: Highway mileage, 42 mpg, is 50% better than the gasoline Audi A3.