Archive for July, 2010
In Search of a Better Place
A world that powers cars by electricity can be discovered in San Jose next week at Plug-In 2010.
And if you’re in the neighborhood, it’s worth it to swing by the San Jose Convention Center Tuesday night, the 27th, when the show opens to the public.
Among the sponsors are Better Place, whose visitors center in Israel I had the privilege to explore a couple of weeks ago. When I say explore, I mean you literally get to drive the electric cars on a sandy track and let me tell you something, the car just glides.
Here are some photos of yours truly at Better Place.
And here I am driving:
The fact that I veered slightly off the road has to do with my driving, not the engineering. Hey, at least I admit it.
And here you can see how the battery recharging works — a process that takes only a few minutes for the depleted battery to pop out and a charged one to take its place:
The facility is a very cool sci-fi experience that spans from the virtual to the real thing, as you can see.
The virtual experience is showcased in a film watched from sporty car seats designed for Better Place’s newest model. And Shai Agassi, the company CEO, materializes in 3D form through a thin screen to welcome us into this brave, new world.
I wish him the best of luck in this worthy endeavor. EVs are certainly a key element in the solution to move off oil and use our resources wisely.
GE’s corporate green challenge
From today’s NYTimes’ Green blog:
GE has announced a $200 million competition known as the Ecomagination Challenge in search of bright ideas for the smartgrid.
Now there’s a reality contest worth watching.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/200-million-for-smart-grid-ideas/#more-61363
The Gospel of Clean Energy
Christian leader Brian McLaren calls on the country and its political leadership to summon the faith to quit our dependence on oil.
I agree with McLaren. But I sure hope he’s preaching to his own choir as well. This is a country steeped in faith and where faith leaders wield tremendous power for influence and mobilization. In fact, I’d argue that President Obama’s oratory appeal hails directly from the cadence of the pulpit.
Let’s remember that the struggle for civil rights started in the faith communities. And the current call for environmental stewardship is finding champions in these same quarters. But we must galvanize these armies.
Let McLaren and religious leadership across all faith communities help to inspire political action to do the right thing for our health, environment and security through the power of religious constituenties.
That’s what I’d call spreading the gospel.
http://tinyurl.com/272gg3k
