I was watching the Super Bowl and of course, the advertisements are always a source of entertainment.  Some years, they are the only entertainment.  Not so this year, on the average, they were pretty average, but the game was good.  A couple of the ads did stand out, and one in particular, the Audi ad for their clean diesel car.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM For me, however, while the “point” of the advertisement may have been the Audi A3 TDI®,  the “message,” while tongue-in-cheek, was a little disturbing.  It has always been our assertion that “green intent is the right thing to do.”  The way to get people to “green-up” is to show that, while it is the right thing to do, by doing it there is a tangible benefit.  In most cases, that benefit is saving resources (money).  One of the benefits is not doing it because it is mandated and enforced by a bunch of armed thugs invading homes, and spotting “composting crimes” from a helicopter, and by doing it will keep us from getting arrested.  Yes, it may have been funny, and I may be a little over the top with this, but at least one other person in the room watching the Super Bowl with me expressed some concern over the message.  Whether you are a “treehugger”, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, there are good reasons, personal reasons for greening your life.  While the government can mandate clean water, clean air, each of us should take our own personal initiative to green because we want to!

See the photo below.

Are you looking at the future of automobiles – and the end of gas/petrol stations?

Nissan is betting on it, and 38,000 people are on a waiting list to buy into this future.

This is a fully-electric car.  No hybrid anything.  No gas.  And not a toy.  It has a top speed not of 40 mph, but of about 90 mph, and can run 100 miles on a charge.  Nissan is introducing it slowly and carefully into the US, making sure that there is infrastructure for charging the car available.  The car can charge on your home power, but will be able to charge much faster (30 minutes versus overnight) at special charging stations based on 440Volts DC.

A couple of odd facts about the Leaf: it has a solar panel for daytime trickle-charging, and – get this – you buy the car, but you lease the batteries from Nissan.  Yes, you do not own the batteries, Nissan does, which they claim is good for you because they will be working on new technology batteries and this will facilitate a changeout as these improve.

The most interesting environmental feature is the one that is NOT there.  There is no tailpipe.  No tailpipe, because there is no ignition of gasoline and therefore no need to pipe anything out of the tail.

Will people buy this car?   AT US$30-35K, the price won’t be an issue – that’s not too bad.  It’s our opinion that decision to buy this type of car is directly related to whether or not they think the manufacturer is serious.  Here’s a quote from a review in Popular Science that covers that point:

“With any electric-car project, the most important question is: Are they serious about this? Based on what we’ve seen we’d say yes, they’re definitely serious. The company has been working for months now with various countries and municipalities to get the zoning changes necessary for building charging stations and goading electrical utilities into building them. They recognize that there’s no way this will work unless the infrastructure is there to support the cars. With electric cars, you can’t just sell the car—you’ve got to construct an entire operating environment that makes the vehicles practical.”

So as project managers, our ears perk up again, with the electricity of opportunity.  Besides the development project itself  – and the introduction of the car – and the marketing projects, there are infrastructure projects as well that should be – ahem- sparked, as well.

Below we provide a treasure-trove of links to videos and reviews about this new vehicle.   Enjoy!

CNET video

Nissan Advertisement

KELLY BLUE BOOK video

Edmunds video

Review by WIRED magazine

Leaf wins green award

Just a light little note and a pointer to a video about an amazing machine.

Talk about recycling…

I will say no more.  A picture is worth a thousand words.  And a moving picture, well, figuring inflation, the ratio of the Euro to the Yen to the Yuan to the Dollar….that would be about 1.8 million words.

Click here to figure out exactly what you can do with that copy of a bad performance review (for example).

Not a long post – just a pointer, really, to a report called “Wind in Power” by the EWEA (European Wind Energy Association).

A thorough but not lengthy report, it provides data like that above, indicating the increase in wind power (but also covering other energy sources (natural gas and nuclear, as examples).

Even if you don’t look at the report, just this one example we provide here on the posting – which is not cumulative but actual annual wind power deployment, should give you an idea of the momentum that wind projects are gaining in Europe.

Enjoy.

In a recent Boston Globe story entitled, “China leads world in race to make clean energy“,  there are some astounding project facts and figures.  1.12 million jobs – yes, that’s 1.2 million jobs – in renewable energy, and about 100,000 jobs a year added to that total since 2008.  China’s plans call for 8% of its energy to be produced by wind, solar and biomass by 2020.  Compare that to 4% in the United States.  Behind this is a commitment from the government, about $45B was committed to upgrading the electrical grid in 2009 alone.

Companies which produce the turbines for wind power, such as Vestas of Denmark, are investing.  The world’s largest wind turbine manufacturing complex is being built by Vestas in China.

The Wall Street Journal has also covered the subject, casting some doubt on the numbers provided by the government.

Yes, says the Journal, there is an effort to have 35% of the power come from clean energy sources, but “what’s really telling is the other 65% of that energy mix: coal. By 2020, China will have between 900 and 1,000 gigawatts of coal-fired plants producing electricity. That’s roughly as much as the entire U.S. electricity system today—and the vast majority of those coal plants won’t be “clean.””.

Still, projects to accelerate the pace to green energy abound.  For example, the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (page mainly in Chinese)  focuses on three priority areas:

• To bring together regulatory agencies, research institutes and industry professionals to promote debate and advise on government policy;
• To bring together national and international project developers and investors and raise awareness of renewable investment opportunities through regional networking, training and online  forums; and
• To provide a platform for its members of the renewable energy business community to voice their collective concerns.

You can read more about some of the projects that all of this has launched in this article provided by GreenInc - an excellent resource for Green PMs.  While there may be debate about the numbers, and of course the politics of it all, the lesson for project managers is simple and straightforward.  The green wave is not a ripple.  It’s more of a tsunami*.

*We realize that tsunami is a Japanese term, however it is written with Kanji (original Chinese) characters 津波.