Photo Credit: SmartUSA

While driving around the San Francisco Bay Area this week we’ve had our first sighting of the Smart Car, a small vehicle taking Europe by storm. This is a conventional gasoline powered vehicle in tiny size: 1 liter/70hp engine, 61″x106″, and maximum weight of 2,300lbs. The vehicle gets between 33-41 mpg (EPA 2008) and has a range of around 300 miles with a two people and a little luggage.

On the emissions front, Smart Car plays a few tricks like positioning the catalytic converter close to the engine and blowing fresh air into the exhaust system to fully oxidize carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. It has qualified as an Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle in California.

The Smart Car is available in 3 flavors and the MSRP ranges from $12,000-$17,000 depending upon the model and options selected. Can’t wait to get one? Reserve yours here.

Bristol, UK firm Marine Current Turbines successfully installed a 1.2MW turbine in Northern Ireland in the fast moving Strangford Narrows. This is the largest tidal harvest turbine installed to date (not including the tidal barrage systems that have been in use for some time in France for instance.)

MCT has plans for a 10.5MW project in conjunction with EDF off the coast of Wales scheduled to come online in 2012.

Attribution: DuelingAnalogs.Com

This cartoon is clever on many levels, but I truly love the PC/Mac analog as those “holy wars” have been raging in recent decades. Between this sort of thing and the new Anonymous movement aimed at eradicating scientology, they’re in for some interesting times. Recently, we watched the movie Bowfinger where Kit Ramsey, the celebrity character played by Eddie Murphy, found refuge in a place called Mind Head – it was a very thinly veiled scientology play and it was hilarious.

When we started looking at business opportunities in the clean tech space, one of our original concepts was that of the “smart plug.” Given the heavy tech background of the team, a tech device made a huge amount of sense. We obviously decided to go another way, however, we still believe the idea has merit. That’s where Green Plug comes in.

Image Credit: Green Plug
Green Plug has taken the approach of creating a small bit of silicon enabled by smart software to allow for the efficient charging of any DC device from their hub. When the device charge is complete, the power to that charging port is terminated. The net is, it delivers just the right amount of juice to the right device a the right time and not a watt more.

Ultimately, we didn’t choose to pursue a similar idea as we believed it would take substantial government regulation to force device manufacturers to include such silicon and software in their products. While we still hold this view, it’s great to see that Green Plug has provided a viable alternative and as the regulators step up to the challenge there won’t be technology lag. In the meantime, we do believe Green Plug will have an uphill climb, good luck!

My original title for this was “Only in Ohio”… From the Akron Beacon-Journal:

HT: Oz

What can you say? It’s not every day a victim provides as much detail as this one chose to share. Robbery, sex, drugs, video tape; that’s an epic tragedy. Poor dog.