Gas 2.0

Electric transport and infrastructure company ECOtality has made a move to expand its manufacturing and distribution operations for electric vehicle charging systems in China by entering into a joint venture with the Chinese firm Shenzhen Goch Investment to establish a manufacturing base in China.

In return for a $10 million investment, Shenzhen Goch Investment will have exclusive sale and distribution rights for ECOtality’s charging stations in China.

The Chinese government has instituted incentives designed to leapfrog the gasoline-based car industry. The state electricity grid has been ordered to set up electric car charging stations in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, and government research subsidies for electric car designs are increasing rapidly in China.

And an interagency panel is planning tax credits for consumers who buy alternative energy vehicles. Already the Chinese government is offering subsidies of up to $8,800 to taxi fleets and local government agencies in 13 Chinese cities for each electric (or hybrid) vehicle they purchase. Shah Agassi’s Better Place is also moving into the potential tipping point Chinese EV charging market.

The New York Times noted a report by McKinsey & Company last fall estimated that replacing a gasoline-powered car with a similar-size electric car in China would reduce greenhouse emissions by “only 19 percent” (since the country gets three quarters of its electricity from coal).

But 19 percent is actually a pretty sizable reduction in carbon emissions. And there is always the chance; (by  adding more wind and solar on a massive scale) of being able to increasingly green the grid in the future.

By contrast, gasoline cars will increasingly run on rivers of blood as we begin to scrape the bottom of the peak oil barrel.

Image via ECOtality

A first-of-its-kind summit in Madison, Wisconsin later this week will bring together researchers, innovators, policy makers, entrepreneurs and other industry leaders to discuss best practices for large-scale commercialization of second generation biofuels.

The BioRefinery/BioEnergy Summit, taking place on December 11th, is hosted by Emerson Process Management, a company that specializes in analysis, measurement, and automation of industrial processes and plant operation for oil & gas and other heavy industry. Emerson’s goal is to bring to bear their experience in plant operation, process automation, and analysis for the emerging biofuel industry. By establishing best practices for the biofuel industry, large-scale commercial production becomes viable.

I had an opportunity to speak with Alan Novak, Emerson’s Director of Alternative Fuels, about the upcoming summit and the outlook for biofuel and bioenergy.

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Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution from Adam Shake.

Bill Gates has his hands in the green again, but this time, it’s algae.  His Investment Firm, Cascades Investments LLC, along with the Rockefeller family’s venture capital firm Venrock, the WellcomeTrust, and Arch Venture Partners have invested a total of 100 million dollars in Sapphire Energy.

Sapphire Energy, a San Diego based company that launched in May of 2007, says that it’s goal “is to be the world’s leading producer of renewable petrochemical products.” The companies website goes on to say “Critically important, there is no ‘food vs. fuel’ tradeoff. The process is not dependent on crops or valuable farmland. It is highly water efficient, delivering 10 to 100 times more energy per acre than cropland biofuels.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Sapphire is working towards a 10,000-barrel-a-day algae-based oil facility, and can now concentrate on production and engineering problems. Meanwhile, Gates’s involvement may signal a broader interest in alternative biofuels.”

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Here’s an interesting idea: instead of putting the airbag in the car, put the car in the airbag.

Sure it sounds silly, but XP vehicles, a start-up in California, is doing just that with their upcoming electric car, the Whisper™. Apparently, XP has taken the same sort of airbag technology developed to safely land recent NASA missions on Mars and used it to create an inflatable polymer car frame in which they pack all the essentials for it to actually be considered an automobile.

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As usual, Google is at the forefront of, well, everything. But this one is a little surprising: their philanthropic branch, Google.org, is putting $10 million into plug-in electric hybrid research and real-world testing. If you’ve been reading Gas 2.0 lately, you already know that’s as much as will be rewarded to the winners of the 2010 Automotive X Prize for revolutionary green car technology.

Last September, Google offered up the $10 million in a formal Request For Proposals (RFP), saying they wanted to invest in any company that would “accelerate the commercialization of alternative transportation that reduces vehicle fossil fuel use and climate emissions.” In other words, getting plug-in hybrids, fully electric vehicles, vehicle-to-grid capabilities, and batteries and other storage technologies on the market.

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