Jeremy Jacquot | posted on August 20, 2008

The next big cleantech innovation may, ironically, come from a company that thinks small. Nanotechnology, a multidisciplinary field of applied science that operates at the atomic or molecular level, is increasingly making the leap from the lab …read full discussion

Tony Borroz | posted on August 11, 2008

 Gordon Murray, famous for knocking the Formula One racing world on its collective ear on more than one occasion (with such notable designs as the Brabham F1 fan car and McLaren’s almost all conquering MP4/4) has been turning his fertile imagination towards personal transportation of a greener, if no less fun, stripe. …read full discussion

Craig Rubens | posted on August 4, 2008

The “hydrogen hybrid eco-exotic” sports car, the Scorpion, is a small step closer to the roads, Ronn Motors claims, with today’s announcement that the firm has signed a contract to have Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters do all the carbon fiber body work for its prototype. The company plans to unveil a complete prototype in November in Las Vegas.

…read full discussion

Mark Frauenfelder | posted on July 22, 2008

Chris Borroni-Bird is the director of Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts at GM. He’s leading the effort at GM to make fuel cell vehicles, based on a “skateboard” style chassis called AUTOnomy that incorporates the fuel cell, motors and electronics control.

GMnext kindly invited me to visit with Dr. Borroni-Bird and have a discussion with him about “innovation, technology, energy, the environment, and their impact on the future of the automobile.” He’s a fascinating innovator with ideas that could change transportation around the world. I hope he succeeds.

Here are more videos from our conversation. (Note: GMnext compensated me for my video appearance.) Link Chris Borroni-Bird and Mark Frauenfelder in conversation (GM Next)

Jeremy Jacquot | posted on July 7, 2008

Sequesco joins a growing list of startups that are using synthetic biology to custom-produce advanced biofuels. But unlike competitors SunEthanol andAmyris, which are engineering microbes to make cellulosic ethanol from various plant biomass sources, it uses waste carbon dioxide as its primary feedstock. …read full discussion

Jeremy Jacquot | posted on July 3, 2008

Drawing a sharp contrast with his Democratic rival, John McCain today assailed government subsidies for ethanol production and unveiled a set of proposals aimed at encouraging the development and mass adoption of electric vehicle technologies. …read full discussion

Phillip Torrone | posted on July 3, 2008

Bunnie has an interesting write up about AAAS’s Science publication “The MPG Illusion” he writes…

Here’s an interesting question.Suppose you had a household with two cars, and each car needs to be driven 10,000 miles per year. One car consumes 34 MPG, and the other car consumes 18 MPG. Since gas is expensive, you want to replace one car. Because of utility constraints, you have two choices:

• Replace the 34 MPG car with a 50 MPG car — a 16 MPG improvement
• Replace the 18 MPG car with a 28 MPG car — a 10 MPG improvement

Which car replacement would save you the most gas?

…read full discussion

Chris Morrison | posted on July 1, 2008

In an event held today by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and electric vehicle startup Tesla Motors, a few more details were revealed about the lower-priced successor to Tesla’s Roadster, production of which is still getting underway.

In a surprise move, Tesla is canceling plans to build a manufacturing plant in New Mexico, where the company had been offered significant incentives to locate. It will now build its facility somewhere in the Bay Area, near its headquarters in San Carlos. …read full discussion

Katie Fehrenbacher | posted on June 30, 2008

Former Intel Chairman Andy Grove says the grassroots plug-in hybrid vehicle movement is like the 1970s-era Northern California Homebrew Computer Clubs that paved the way for the personal computer. The way the early PC-hobbyists kick-started the personal computing movement, plug-in conversion shops will similarly be able to proliferate the electric vehicle technology, Grove told the AP in an interview this weekend. …read full discussion

Chris Morrison | posted on June 17, 2008

If plug-in and full-electric vehicles are ever to hit the road in significant numbers, their downtime at the charging plug could create a challenging new load for utilities. V2Green has software that it says can orchestrate vehicle charging with the generating capacity of the electrical grid. …read full discussion