Google's 70 charging stations for employees

Some companies are born to lead.  Google seems to be one such company.

Being in CA helps, of course, as EV's are sold there as one of the early states to get electric cars.  However, Google has made it very easy for their employee's 100 EV's to plug in and charge at work.

We have always felt that a big part of the success of the transformation to EV's will depend on buy in from companies. Not only would they make charging stations viisble, readily available and extremely useable, but they would make consumers very comfortable, very quickly with charging their cars.

Here's the link to the story:  http://www.cleantechblog.com/2011/07/googles-70-charging-stations-for-employees-100-evs.html.

Here's part of the story: 

"Google, Inc. has deployed more than 70 Coulomb Technologies charging stations at its worldwide headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Over 100 employees who own electric cars use the charging stations. The stations (EVSE) are also used by the company’s growing car sharing program for Googlers (GFleet), which includes Chevrolet Volts, Nissan LEAFs and Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrids.

Many employees bought their own electric cars after using LEAFs and Volts in the GFleet. Employees who use transit get GFleet priority.

With plans for 250 more charging stations on its campus, and a goal to make 5 percent of its campus parking EV-ready, Google’s installation is the largest workplace charging installation for electric vehicles in the country. Much of the charging is done with renewable energy, including Google’s solar covered parking. No coal power is used in charging vehicles. Google has invested over one billion dollars in renewable energy, accelerating development of 1.7 GW of RE."

Electric cars will soon be shipped and sold to many states.  Now is the time for companies to evaluate switching their fleets to EV's (reduced energy costs, carbon credits, statement to employees and customers), and installing charging facilities.  Arpin Renewable Energy company can help with this.  Contact us.

Keep in mind as the grids get smarter, we will be selling back excess KW's from those cars to the grid at a profit.  How sweet would it be to look out and see a parking lot full of EV's plugged in making your company money while helping reduce our use of fossil fuel, 70% imported, and provide clean energy back to our community.

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Milwaukee solar panel maker lands deal with U.S. military, adds 2nd shift

From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Solar panels produced by Helios Solar Works of Milwaukee will be used by the U.S. Army, the FBI and other government customers under a strategic partnership announced Tuesday by Arista Power Inc.

Arista is a manufacturer of wind turbines and renewable energy storage systems based in Rochester, N.Y.

Financial terms of the partnership weren't disclosed.

Helios will supply Arista with panels and will refer solar business opportunities to Arista. Arista has agreed to distribute Helios products to the military.

"One of the major benefits of our high-performance modules is their flexibility, which makes it possible to design systems that satisfy a variety of needs, from residential, commercial and governmental applications," said Steve Ostrenga, Helios chief executive. "We view this as a perfect fit with Arista Power's products, which are scalable and can be adapted to serve a variety of markets."

The announcement comes as Helios is seeing demand for made-in-Milwaukee solar panels from the military, Ostrenga said in an interview. Helios is making panels for military bases in Arkansas, New York and Virginia.

"We're getting a lot of movement in the military because the military has made a stance that, because of energy security, they want to be energy independent," he said.

A large order for a military base in San Diego began production this week.

As a result of the demand, the company recently added a second shift, and employment is now at about 30 people, Ostrenga said. Plans are in the works for a third shift.

The Department of Defense released an energy strategy last month that incorporates greener technologies as a way to protect soldiers. Thousands of U.S. servicemen have lost their lives in attacks on fuel and other supply convoys in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"As long as U.S. forces rely on large volumes of energy, particularly petroleum-based fuels, the vulnerability and volatility of supplies will continue to raise risks and costs for the armed forces," the Pentagon said in a report to Congress.

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Cape Air premiereing on ReNewable Now, July 6, 10:00 AM Est.

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Funding Hiatus Darkens Outlook for In-State Renewables

Immediate release
July 5, 2011

More information
Michael Vickerman
Executive Director
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org

Funding Hiatus Darkens Outlook for In-State Renewables

For the first time in its 11-year history, Focus on Energy is no longer accepting applications from Wisconsin businesses and nonprofit entities seeking to install renewable energy systems. This new policy took effect July 1.

According to Focus on Energy officials, this suspension of financial incentives is necessary to balance demand for renewable energy systems with available funds. In 2009, Focus on Energy allocated approximately $10 million to support customer-sited renewable energy systems. More than half of that allocation went to businesses, farmers, local governments, schools, and nonprofit organizations throughout the state.

“We recognize that Focus on Energy officials have a responsibility to ensure that outflows don’t exceed revenues. However, this suspension could not have occurred at a worse time for Wisconsin’s renewable energy contractors,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin.

“Unfortunately, this move coincides with Milwaukee-based We Energies’ decision to walk away from an agreement with RENEW Wisconsin to commit $60 million over a 10-year period to develop renewable energy within its territory,” Vickerman said. ‘We Energies disclosed its unilateral action in May, barely more than halfway into honoring its commitment.”

“Given the adverse environment for renewable energy right now in Wisconsin, we hope that the interruption amounts to nothing more than a brief timeout,” said Vickerman.

“Unless funding is restored quickly, 2012 will turn out to be a very lean year for contractors and installers,” Vickerman warned.

As of this moment, the renewable energy marketplace is bristling with new installations. Installations to be completed this summer with incentives from Focus on Energy include:
• Two small wind turbines serving a Monroe County cranberry grower;
• A solar hot water system serving a new apartment building next to the Hilldale shopping complex in Madison;
• Side-by-side solar hot water and electric installations atop a new classroom building at the UW-Oshkosh;
• An engine generator fed with biogas derived from the City of Appleton’s wastewater treatment plant.

However, without a fresh supply of Focus-funded projects, Wisconsin’s renewable energy development pipeline will slow to a trickle, forcing contractors and installers to either seek work in other states or lay off employees.

Wisconsin has more than 2,500 customer-sited renewable energy installations, the vast majority of which received either financial incentives or facilitation services from Focus on Energy. In total, these installations have a generating capacity of about 20 megawatts.

END

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Good news from Johnson Industries

SC Johnson Introduces Windex(R) Mini, Hopes to Revolutionize Use of Cleaning Concentrates:

Here's the link:  http://3blmedia.com/theCSRfeed/SC-Johnson-Introduces-WindexR-Mini-Hopes-Revolutionize-Use-Cleaning-Concentrates.

Some of the article:  "

Company Invites Consumers to Make Greener Choices, Help Lead the Change

PRESS RELEASE / MEDIA ADVISORY:

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) RACINE, WI - July 1, 2011 –With today’s launch of Windex® Mini, a concentrated refill pouch that uses 90 percent less plastic packaging than a traditional 26 fluid ounce trigger bottle, global environmental leader SC Johnson is taking another bold step to help consumers make greener choices.

Concentrates use less packaging, decrease shipping impacts and reduce waste that ends up in our nation’s landfills. Yet sales data shows U.S. consumers prefer not to refill their household cleaning bottles. This means stores won't stock concentrates and companies hesitate to create them. With this test, SC Johnson wants to understand how to motivate consumers and retailers to consider trading up from traditional cleaning methods to a greener choice. 

“By conservative estimates, a flexible pouch saves six times as much plastic waste that goes into a landfill compared to a traditional bottle,” said Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson. “Refilling with a concentrate is an example of a very small behavior change that could make a real difference in minimizing waste. But many people don't want the inconvenience. We want to crack the code and figure out what it would take to make concentrated refills an accepted – even demanded – choice.”

 Take a look when you can.  Also, please try buying Windex and Mini and see what you think.  Report back to us when you can.  Let us know if you are motivated to buy this product on a consistent basis.

Sometimes we don't realize how much waste we create with packaging of everything we buy.  Kudos to Johnson who, most likely, is reducing costs with this change, for repackaging a popular product for better distribution and use.

PS:  (Since we posted this earlier today) Thank you to Orlando at International Travel for the kind words on our blog, and note of international travel's influence on our environment.  We'd be interested in more comments and a possible show looking at planned improvements for reducing travel's footprint, including less use of energy and resources.

Take a look at their comment on this weekend's show blog.  We appreciate everyone who helps us with this effort.

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Voice of America/Going Green/Happy 4th

On Friday I was lucky enough to do an interview with Jose Espinosa of Green Stories, who produces video segments for Voice of America.  He was in RI finding the best green stories in the State, and Arpin was lucky to be included for installing the first auto recharging unit in State, and our many other green initiatives.

It gave me reason to look again at the VOA site and, specifically, their Going Green channel.  It is excellent, very worthy of a daily link.  Here's the address: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/going-green/ .

Some of their stories:: 


"Lake Chad was once one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. Now it's only a fraction of what it used to be. The lake is an important resource for several countries in Africa and now the communiti...


U.S. lawmakers recently voted to end subsidies on ethanol. Though the legislation is still pending, it has re-started the conversation on whether or not ethanol is effective as a way to curb greenhouse gases...


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists more 1100 mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and other living creatures as endangered. Some of those are on the brink of extinction. That's why the work of organizations like t...


In 1992, more than 100 heads of state met for what was then an unprecedented global event on the environment. The international earth summit was the start of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Chang...


Enjoy the channel.  They have some great programming beaming around the world.  Some really interesting content.  We'll let you know when we'll be profiled on there.

Also, on this weekend, regardless of where you live in the world, celebrating or not, it is a good time to think about how you can reduce your impact on our one-world environment:  turn off a light, drive less, think efficient, less energy used, less waste and how, long-term, you can reshape your world to help create a cleaner Mother Earth.

All makes good personal and business sense.  Less energy used, less waste, means you save money and have more to invest in those assets that bring success and happiness.

We are proud of our network, show, guests, employees, readers, viewers and you are part of a new, cleaner, smarter world.

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Green wash

The flip side to the positive energy that comes out of investing time and money into greening a company is the possibility, and the reality of some companies that talk more than act, of being accused of green washing.  Here is an interesting piece from Treehugger: 

On Friday we reported that 98% of Green Labeled Products are Actually Greenwashed, Accused Dell of Green Bait and Switch, and wondered if the word "sustainable" was over. Really, can we trust business when it comes to their statements about sustainability and green?

Do You Trust Corporations When They Talk Green and Sustainable?

No, they have shown again and again that it is just another marketing gimmick.Yes, the "invisible hand" will smite them if they lie to the customer.Maybe, if you study it carefully and there is valid third party verification.Other (in comments)

View Results
Polldaddy.com

Here's the link if you want to go vote and see some results:  ttp://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/survey-trust-corporations.php.

We'd like your comments.  We'd also like to do a show exploring the issue.  Contact us if you are an expert, have strong opinions or can suggest the best way to cover this interesting subject.

From a business side of green, it is easy to imagine all the good will, and possible new business, draining away if you lose credibility on your claims of sustainability and eco improvements.  A positive can turn negative very quickly, more quickly than ever with consumer skepticism growing.  All of a sudden, an asset erodes into a liability.  Dicey business.

Let us know what you think. 

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