Nissan Leaf - Emission and Petrol station free!

Helping with All-Energy Australia 2010, I was delighted that 3,000 industry and business people came to see the show in Melbourne on Oct 6&7, and the exhibition space included over 180 exhibitors of clean energy production and associated services, in the areas of solar, wind, bio-energy, geothermal, marine, energy efficiency, storage and measurement.

This year, All-Energy Australia was fortunate to have a Nissan Leaf electric car on display, and this attracted significant attention from businesses and local government. The Nissan Leaf is a 100% electric vehicle, which should go about 160 km on a single charge, certainly more than sufficient to cover my average 150km per week of city driving. And for the once a year, out of town drive, I would happily borrow, rent, or travel by bus. Of course, that will in the future be remedied by fast charge outlets, hopefully located close by a good coffee shop. And I am unlikely to ever need to drive at the top speed of 140km/hr.

I would like be off fossil fuels, but I do enjoy and need a vehicle, and the Nissan Leaf is definitely on my short-list! In my mind's eye, it ranks as a very stylish and electronically cool car. My only gripe is that it will be 2012 before Australia sees the first available Nissan Leaf vehicles, so, in the meantime, I will have to wait and plan where to put my fully wind offset charging outlet.

No more trips to the Service Station for fuel - priceless !


Pic by Mary at All-Energy Australia 2010

Zero Emission Street Sweeper

At Enviro 2010 in Melbourne this week, I was quite fascinated by the Tennant Green Machines (TM) 500ZE Electric Street Sweeper, which was on display.

We are moving towards a world where the rising cost of energy, and especially conventional transport fuels, will play an increasing part of our overall cost of doing everyday tasks, such as cleaning our streets. This innovative little unit, so I am told, will run for 8 hours on one charge, and with zero emissions during the operation of the vehicle. With a bonus of being almost silent, I guess the downside is you just won't hear it coming - so watch out behind you, there well may be a 500ZE cleaning up the footpath behind you.

My Pic 500ZE, July 22 at Enviro 2010.

Charge Up in Sydney

Leading the way, with support from the Sydney City Council, my home town Sydney, now has its first commercial electric charging point. And while this particular pole, managed by ChargePoint, is for the exclusive use of GoGet car share group, it is hoped that over time, more of these will appear in Australian cities for the use of electric car owners and car share groups.

And with green power being supplied to the charging posts, that means driving is powered by wind and sun.

Organisations such as the Alternative Technology Association, now have some members actively seeking to convert their cars to electric. Many others like myself are awaiting the manufactured fully electric cars which are expected to start arriving in Australia in 2011.

As a typical Sydney driver, 95% of my driving is for trips less than 50 km, and living centrally, I use a car only three times a week. So bring on the electric cars, electric charging posts, and car sharing which are all definitely part of my low carbon future!!

Pic of CarCharging in Glebe by Mary in Glebe 25 May 2010

Driving to A Better Place

Shai Agassi, a former software entrepreneur from Israel, is the founder and CEO of A Better Place, which is committed to building global transport infrastructure to support the widespread use of electric cars. Shai was inspired to take on this role by the Prime Minister of Israel, who pointed out that “saving the planet” was somewhat more important than running a large IT corporation. His first project is a partnership with Renault and the government of Israel and the challenge is “breaking the world’s fossil-fuel habit ”. Other areas that are targeted for his renewable charging and battery swap networks are Denmark, Eastern Australia and two areas of the USA, California and Hawaii.

Shai Agassi ranks as one of my green business heroes because he taking leadership and risk. No-one knows whether his approach will ultimately be the right one – but he moves forward and takes action because he understands we have no time for more debate - it’s time for action. Check out Shai’s vision on TED TALKS.

pic of Shai Agassi ex Flickr by jdlasica.

iMiEV for green business owners

Mitsubishi now has a plug-in electric car, the iMiEV, fully approved for Australian roads, and we may see these on Australian roads next year, according to an ABC News article. The initial comments from those interested reflected the concern about the energy use - mainly because our energy in Australia primarily comes from coal fired power stations. My point is that having a fully electric available to purchase at a dealer is something many of us want. We need transport in our businesses, but we want to move away from fossil fuels in our lifestyles.

Maybe the answer is simple - ensure that all charging of electric cars is done by renewable energy, then there is no problem, just a need for more power generated by truly renewable sources. So bring on the iMiEV's and where's my solar wind or wave power charging station?