TMCnet GreenTech Week in Review

In news this week, everything’s going clean and green (especially cars and cell phones) – except the Earth’s atmosphere.  There also has been a mystery solved, an industry innovator recognized, and a major move away from nuclear power that is provoking both consternation and cheers from leaders worldwide.

Quantum (News - Alert) Fuel Systems announced on May 25 that it will fill an order for more than 100 plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) pickup truck fleet vehicles from The Dow Chemical Company. The Te Ford F-150 PHEV pickup trucks have a 35-mile electric-only range – shifting to hybrid electric mode thereafter, for a total range of over 400 miles. Providing the energy and power balance required for demanding fleet applications, the 20 kWh Dow Kokam battery reaches speeds of up to 85 miles per hour and accelerates from 0 to60 miles per hour in less than 12 seconds. The purchased vehicles will represent about 5 percent of Dow’s current fleet and will be delivered by the end of 2012.

Also in the alternative vehicle sector, luxury automaker Daimler and hydrogen supplier The Linde Group said they plan to construct 20 filling stations for hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles throughout Germany – placing that nation at the forefront of hydrogen infrastructure development. Munich-based Linde and Stuttgart-based Daimler will spend tens of millions of dollars to more than triple the number of public hydrogen refueling points in Germany. The new stations will be located in Stuttgart, Berlin, and Hamburg as well as along two new continuous north-south and east-west axes.

To conserve some of that fuel along the way, computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a Green GPS (global positioning system that can calculate the most fuel-efficient routes for a road trip – saving as much as 13 percent over other routes in initial tests. The Green GPS runs on a regular cell phone, which links to a car’s computer using an inexpensive, off-the-shelf wireless adapter. The car’s onboard diagnostics system uploads information about engine performance and fuel efficiency to the phone, which uses the data to compute the greenest route.

While you’ve got your cell phone out, we’ve got an App for you—actually, five of them – recommended by Samuel Axon, Senior Editor at Tecca, a site that claims to “inspire confidence in your personal technology decisions.”  The new apps will do everything from teaching you how to decrease your carbon Bigfoot; to calculating what sort of solar panel you need; to showing you how to raise honey bees.

And speaking of new ways to use your phone, Etón Corporation, a Palo Alto (News - Alert), California-based inventor of green-powered electronics has introduced a solar-powered sound system for the iPhone and iPod.

Do you know a student age 13 to 19 who likes to send and receive mobile texts? (Do you know one who doesn’t?) He or she might want to sign up for next year’s Green Your School Challenge – and get a chance to win a $5,000 environmental grant, a smart phone, or one of five HP Pavilion DMI notebook computers. ChaCha, the real-time answers service, HP, and DoSomething.org, a not-for-profit that helps young people get involved with causes, have all come together to delivered more than 700,000 mobile texts and 500,000 mobile video ads to users, offering eco-friendly tips for those who sign up, and encouraging them to respond with ideas. A panel of experts and celebrities selected this year’s Grand Prize Winner, Millburn Senior High School in Millburn, New Jersey. Other winners included Durand Middle School, Durand, Michigan. City Academy, Salt Lake City, Utah; Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.

 In other phone-related news, TMCnet reported that Samsung Electronics Co. has introduced a new version of its flagship smart phone Galaxy S in South Korea.

And let’s not forget cell phone bills, that little nuisance we all receive at the end of the month. Consumer Cellular has announced a partnership with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) by launching a paperless cell phone billing campaign. Consumer Cellular is a national provider of wireless phones and services. As part of the campaign, Consumer Cellular will be donating $5 to the NPCA when a new or existing customer enrolls in its paperless billing program. The amount is expected to add up, enabling Consumer Cellular to donate up to $150,000 to the NPCA.

If your cell phone bill makes you hot under the collar, you might find it hard to cool off in the not-too-distant future. After a dip in 2009, which has been attributed to the global financial crisis, experts say that emissions have rocketed to a record 30.6 Gigatonnes (Gt) – a 5 percent jump from the previous record year, in 2008, when levels reached 29.3 Gt. In addition, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that 80 percent of projected emissions from the power sector in 2020 are irreversible, since they will come from power plants that are currently in place or already under construction.”This significant increase in CO2 emissions and the locking in of future emissions due to infrastructure investments represent a serious setback to our hopes of limiting the global rise in temperature to no more than 2�C,” said Dr. Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA.

And while we’re looking at global conditions, let’s consider the case of the disappearing Apple green data center, which has now reappeared on Google Maps. Back in 2009, Apple Inc. told the world that it had plans to build an enormous – 500,000-square-foot – data center to “green” standards in the middle of farmland in Maiden, North Carolina. In the autumn of 2010, curious news organizations and private citizens with helicopters investigated the property, finding an enormous, partially finished building — but it never appeared on any satellite maps. Mashable has published the answer: Google recently updated aerial imagery in Lenoir, NC. While a photo dated 4/10/2010 with no data center in it appears in the image timeline for the address in question, only half of that photo was actually taken then. The other half, which would contain the data center had it been taken on 4/10/2010, was actually taken on 5/30/09.

It didn’t take a satellite view to see the spotlight on Mahmoud Elkenaney at the meeting of the  Alliance for Technology Industry Solutions (ATIS) recently in Indianapolis, Indiana. Elkenaney a senior director of Physical Design and Environmental Sustainability at Huawei (News - Alert), was presented with the ATIS Award for Leadership in Standards in honor of his  impeccable leadership, commitment, and dedication to developing programs as well as technical plans according to ATIS’ (News - Alert) standards.

Finally, on May 30, Germany’s coalition government announced plans to abandon nuclear power by 2022 – outlining an ambitious strategy to ramp up renewable energy sources, in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster. The decision came in the wake of German Chancellor Angel Merkel’s decision on March 16 to postpone – at least for three months – the nation’s plans to extend the lifespan of its 17 atomic reactors, and to review all safety systems. Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “The events in Japan have shown us that even things that seem all but impossible scientifically can in fact happen.”  Merkel hopes that Germany’s transformation to more solar, wind, and hydroelectric power serves as a model for other countries. European neighbors France and Sweden were skeptical about Germany’s decision; GreenPeace lauded the move.