energi

Green Car Journal dubbed the Ford C-MAX Energi winner of the 2012 Green Car Vision Award yesterday at the Washington Auto Show. This is the second consecutive year Ford has won top honors; the Ford Focus Electric garnered the award last year.

The Ford C-MAX Energi, which will be available in late 2012, is built on the same global C-car platform as the Ford Focus and future Ford models, the automaker said.

The C-MAX Energi bested four other finalists, including the BMW i3, the Cadillac ELR, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-Cell, and the Tesla Model S.

"The C-MAX Energi delivers … Read more

U.S. government-backed battery supplier Ener1 has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the third U.S.-backed energy company to file in as many months.

Ener1 posted a notice today stating that it "has reached agreement with its primary investors and lenders on a restructuring plan that will significantly reduce its debt." This action will pave the way for up to $81 million for recapitalization, the company said.

A "pre-packaged" Chapter 11 case was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. Ener1 is planning to complete the restructuring process within … Read more

Everyone with a live mind who happens not to work for an oil company knows that we must harness our energy.

The possibilities are vast. Consider, for example, Heather Patron of Studio City, Calif., and her Prius. Everything plastic on it began to melt. The side-view mirrors, for example.

This seemed a little odd. She took it to Toyota. The company said there was nothing wrong with the car.

And then she noticed her neighbor's energy-efficient windows that seemed to be directing a concentrated beam of energy-efficient light towards her energy-efficient vehicle.

Patron told CBS Los Angeles: "I'… Read more

Apple earnings reach record highs, Xbox rumors ramp up, and Obama tackles energy and tech industry concerns in his State of the Union address.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Armed with little more than data sets, APIs, pizza, and beer, a group of software developers this weekend set out to demonstrate the power of information technology to help the environment.

The Cleanweb Hackathon attracted about 100 developers in New York City as well as a panel of judges that included New York City's chief digital officer and the U.S. chief technology officer. The first hackathon took place last September in San Francisco.

Yesterday afternoon, 15 teams, including one from Columbia University, showed off their "hacks" and received awards. The Web and mobile applications touched on … Read more

You may think you know how much electricity you're using, but there's a whole lot more you could--and should--know.

Despite living in the information age, most of us are basically in the dark when it comes to electricity bills, with just a rough idea of how much we consume every month and what it will cost.

Over the last few weeks, I've been testing a whole-house energy monitor from startup Wattvision, which actually answers basic questions, such as how much and when you consume electricity and how it trends over time. I also hooked up my home's real-time electricity feed to another startup's analytics Web service called PlotWatt to get more detail on what's consuming energy.

A couple of hardware gadgets made it all possible, but using the services showed me that a lot of the action in home energy is moving to software and up into the cloud. In the case of energy monitors, back-end analytics can provide insights and recommendations a simple metering device can't. And if you have a smart thermostat or home automation system, you can remotely control your heating, cooling, lights, and appliances from a smart phone or PC.

But before getting into the gadgetry, one has to ask: why bother with energy monitoring? Is it green? Does it help me lower my bills? Is there a good payback? … Read more

We've all been there, right? Your flight's delayed, your entertainment gadget of choice is running low on juice, and all the outlets are taken. So what's a weary, tech-deprived traveler to do? Go drum up some power with your rolling suitcase, of course!

Designer Jung Inyoung has come up with a pretty cool concept of a rolling suitcase that provides power to your devices using kinetic energy. … Read more

For many, the ballyhooed smart home of connected devices will start with the lowly thermostat.

Startup EnergyHub today is releasing data from a study of customers who bought a Wi-Fi enabled thermostats tied to EnergyHub's Web service. It found that letting consumers operate the thermostat from a familiar PC or smartphone application, rather than on the thermostat itself, makes a dramatic difference in how often the programmable features are used.

An Internet-connected thermostat also allows people to remotely control home heating and cooling. Being able to adjust home temperature from the office or commute, for example, appears to be … Read more

Perhaps you'd be more willing to buy an electric car if you knew that you could sell those pricey batteries down the road.

Nissan and electric power company ABB yesterday announced a partnership to test the technical and commercial feasibility of repurposing used EV batteries for energy storage on the grid and in homes. ABB will work with a joint venture called 4R Energy (for reuse, refabricate, resell, recycle) created by Nissan North America and industrial conglomerate Suminoto to research secondary uses of EV batteries.

The partnership intends to make a prototype stationary lithium ion battery system with at … Read more