Feb 20 2009

The Green Seen

Posted by: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy caught our attention this week:

• McDonald's of Sweden may install hybrid-electric car charging posts at its highway restaurants beginning with a 230-volt, 16-amp pilot post in Stockholm. Sweden's Elforsk, a research and development company for utilities, is working on how long it would take to recharge a car after a stop for burgers. The company developing the charging posts says 30 to 45 minutes for a battery boost. Sweden has only a few hundred all-electric cars but an estimated 600,000 could be on Sweden's roads by 2020.
• More electric car news, closer to home: The City of San Francisco has set up three recharging stations for plug-in electric vehicles in the plaza in front of City Hall. The city's municipal fleet and plug-in hybrids from City CarShare and Zipcar will charge up in a two-year demonstration project by Coulomb Technologies. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed have outlined a plan to make the Bay Area the "EV Capital of the US."
• And still more car news: Volkswagen AG and Toshiba Corp. will jointly develop an electric version of its Up! subcompact concept car. "The objective is a cooperation for the development of electric drive units and the accompanying power electronics for Volkswagen's planned new small (car) family," the automaker said. The two companies also plan to develop advanced battery systems with a "high specific energy density."
  

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