Today I wanted To Post About SeaGen – But I made the mistake of typing in skinny car

into a search engine. I WAS still looking for that gosh darn #$@%!&*(”_) beetle like car that I saw in San Francisco. I turned up the Tango and just loved it. We shall take up SeaGen on Monday. Have a Good Weekend and may God Bless.

 tango.jpg

 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2003/0727/cover.html

WRITTEN BY PAULA BOCK
PHOTOGRAPHED BY BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER

 Even though it’s Ferrari red, zooms from zero to 60 in four seconds, and has a sensuous black leather dash with the same Motech data display found in Grand Prix race cars, this is not your typical little red sports car.
 

For starters, it’s smaller. Or rather, smallest. At 39 inches wide and 8 feet 5 inches long, it’s skinnier than some motorcycles and shorter than many a living-room couch. It runs on batteries, not gas. And, if the thing ever makes it out of Spokane and into consumer production — a big if — this two-person, commuter concept car could very well alleviate air pollution, cruise past freeway congestion, shimmy through urban gridlock and actually find a parking spot.

At the moment, however, U.S. Patent No. 6,328,121 (Ultra-Narrow Automobile Stabilized with Ballast) is causing a jam in front of Spokane’s Northtown Mall. Traffic stops, drivers gawk.

“Cool,” declares a 20-year-old strawberry blonde, snapping a paparazzi shot. “Can I borrow it and drive to California?” A silvery couple in matching pink polo shirts inquires about the nearest dealership. A woman with toddlers wants to know about safety.

Remarkably, though trapped by the rubberneckers, everyone smiles at the little red car, including a mall-security guy who, instead of unblocking the lanes, gives a thumbs-up: “Awesome!” 
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It all started with a sailboat…

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 Rick and Brian Woodbury refurbished an ocean-going 35-foot junk-rigged schooner, Sea Witch, to sail Puget Sound. It was the sailboat, in a strange way, that launched the skinny car. “Mom hated it,” Bryan recalls. Alice Woodbury never acquired sea legs, feared her family would drown, and didn’t like her husband and son spending every weekend across state at Bainbridge Island’s Eagle Harbor, where Sea Witch moored for free. So Alice issued an ultimatum: The boat. Or her.

Kickstart. Father and son sold Sea Witch and started work on the Tango

Compared to that, creating the Tango was quick, cheap and clean. In 1998, Rick and Bryan took their $20,000 profit from selling the boat and haunted junkyards and used-car lots buying parts. In Seattle, they found a 1968 Fiat 850 Spyder that had been converted to electric, trailered it home to Spokane and tore it apart in their garage. Within two months, they’d built a new frame, mounted wheels, brakes and steering components and rolled the chassis down the street, neighbor kids chasing alongside. By winter they had a drivable car, and by fall, they were racing it on autocross tracks. Working from a photo-shopped picture of a 1998 Mercedes A-Class hatchback morphed to ultra-narrow dimensions, Bryan hand-sculpted a body for the car out of Urethane, fiberglass, epoxy and Bondo, sanding large areas with a cheese grater. They hired a pro to finish and paint the body, then took the car to California.

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Turns out they have their own page:

http://www.commutercars.com/

Meet the Tango

Introducing the world’s fastest urban car

The revolutionary commuter vehicle that combines the speed and agility of a motorcycle with the security and comfort of a high-performance sports car.

Beat Traffic:

The Tango’s ability to maneuver through traffic is second to none. Like a motorcycle, it can change lanes to gain advantage in traffic better than any car in history. Unlike a motorcycle, it is safe, dry, climate controlled, and can securely carry a reasonable amount of cargo. Where lane splitting is permitted (i.e., driving between lanes of stopped or slow-moving traffic), such as California, Europe, and Asia, the advantage can be staggering. In extremely heavy traffic, a Tango or motorcycle can travel in 20 seconds the distance that cars travel in 20 minutes.

Help forge a congestion-free future:

The Tango can fit in a 6-foot half-lane with more clearance than a truck has in a full 12-foot freeway lane. This virtual doubling of lane capacity can make the traffic jam a fading memory.

Parking:

A Tango can park perpendicular to the curb, in left-over spaces between cars or driveways, next to buildings, or in unused corners of parking lots–in thousands of heretofore-unusable parking spaces.

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For more than you ever cared:

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=17387

http://metrospokane.typepad.com/index/2008/06/tango-the-world.html

http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=16622

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuter_Cars_Tango

It really is a cute little car (:=}

Just Can’t Seem To Find That Cat – This is my third and maybe final try

Still no luck finding the car I saw in San Francisco. I even tried searching images to see if I could locate a picture. It was a Volkswagen like car but it was narrower in the body and had wheel wells that were not integrated into the body like this littles electric from India:

 http://www.revaindia.com/

http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2008/12/5/Business/15418

Sunny side up

PAAVAN MATHEMA

 It is a sad irony that Nepal, with its sunny winters and the highest hydropower potential of any country in the world, suffers from endless power cuts.

The country is better placed than most to take advantage of renewable energy sources, but successive governments have done almost nothing to make this happen. Private entrepreneurs, however, have stepped in and one of the pioneers in this field has been Lotus Energy.

“You see the dark houses, the power cuts, you see the pollution on the road and you feel that you have to do something,” says Adam Friedensohn who set up Lotus Energy when he moved to Nepal 15 years ago to promote solar and wind energy technologies.

With partner Jeevan Goff, Friedensohn has set up the company to provide Nepalis with affordable solar alternatives for lighting. Starting with just three staff in 1993, Lotus now employs 100 and has branches across Nepal.

Friedensohn started out with trying to light up rural areas of Nepal with solar power, but quickly got involved in trying to find a solution to the extremely polluting Vikram three wheelers. Lotus collaborated with other parters to start Electric Vehicle Company (EVCO). The project to replace the diesel powered smoke belchers with battery-powered three wheelers became a runaway success, and ‘Safe tempo’ has today become a household word.

 http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/05/reva-takes-2008.html

REVA Takes 2008 Frost & Sullivan European

Automotive Powertrain Company of the Year Award

30 May 2008

Frost & Sullivan presented its 2008 European Automotive Powertrain Company of the Year Award to Reva Electric Car Company (RECC) for demonstrating excellence in sales volumes, superior market penetration and high levels of customer satisfaction within the electric vehicle (EV) industry. In 2007, on average one REVA electric car was sold per day in the United Kingdom.

 RECC has successfully tested and evaluated lithium ion batteries for the REVA quadricycle. The newly developed lithium ion batteries provide a driving range of more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) compared to 60-80 km from the existing lead acid battery pack.

The company’s current REVAi has been designed to facilitate upgrades to li-ion packs when they are made available for sale this year. With the incorporation of the new AC electric motor, the REVAi increases the mid-range torque by 40% and offers a boost mode for short term acceleration.

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I Still Can’t Find MY IT Car – But I did find Innovative Transportation and got all excited

Cool as this site is, it’s not the car I saw in San Francisco. Drat!

http://www.itiselectric.com/

flash-2.jpg 

Sedan
  2008 IT Sedan

 The Sedan is a four-seat, four door multi-purpose vehicle. Performing duties on campus, around the job site or just around town. Standard with hatchback, halogen headlamps, self cancelling turn signals, three point anchored seatbelts, automotive safety windshield, dual zone automotive brakes, side and rear view mirrors, windshield wiper with two speeds and heater/de-mister system.

Specifications

Dimensions

 Length:  140 in (3566 mm)   See the Sedan Photo Gallery

 Width:  60 in (1524 mm)   Available Option

Height:  63 in (1600 mm)

 Dwonlod a Full Spacification Sheet

Wheelbase:  90 in (2286 mm) 

Curb Weight:  1450 lbs (653 kg)

(Sedan w/doors & glass)

ConstructionFrame Material:  Aluminum

Body Material:  Infusion Molded Fiberglass

Bumper Material:  Rotationally Molded Plastic

Windshield:  Laminated Safety Glass

See More Gallery  

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I Was Trying To Find An IT Or A TI Automobile – That I saw in San Francisco

The car looked like a Volkswagen on a Diet. It did not have the fulls curves of a modern Volkswagen and it appeared narrower. Still haven’t found it but I did find these folks and they are neat.

http://www.thegreencarco.com/about_us/contact_us.php

 

The Green Car Company
Sales Department

We Have Moved!!!!
Address: 345 – 106TH AVE NE, Bellevue, WA 98004
Telephone: 425-820-4549
Hours: Now Open 7 days a Week for your convenience!!!
Monday – Friday :  8am – 6pm
Saturday & Sunday – 9:30am – 6pm

Email: Sales@greencarco.com

The Green Car Company is located just off the NE 4th St. exit off of the I-405.  From the NE 4th exit, go west toward downtown Bellevue.  Turn Left at 106th Ave NE. We will be immediately on your right hand side.  The building has a funny round roofline and used to be Backstreet Frame and Art.  We are next door to Bellevue Auto House and two doors down from Taco Time.

The Green Car Clinic Service & Repair

We have Moved!!!!
Address: 345 106TH AVE NE, Bellevue, WA 98004
Telephone: 425-820-4549
Hours:
Monday – Friday :  8:00am – 4:00pm
Closed Saturday & Sunday

Email: Service@greencarco.com

“I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change… No longer than a decade at the most”

Xof1 Solar Car visits The Green Car Company 

———-

UPDATE:

The Xof1 Solar Car was on display here at The Green Car Company and the event was a blast. (Pictures and video to come!) 


The Solar Car will be on display again today! Come by and see it anytime this morning through early afternoon. Call: 425-820-4549 for more information.
—————-

Marcelo da Luz, who has been trekking across North America via solar car will be showing off his Xof1 Solar Car to the public here at the Green Car Company. Come by early Monday afternoon at 2:30pm to see this amazing car!

The Xof1 left Buffalo, NY in early June, traveled up through Northern Canada to the Arctic Circle and he is now on his way down the West Coast to California and beyond. His website www.Xof1.com is cataloging his journey and has a wealth of information about his car.

We apologize for the short notice. Come by early Monday afternoon if you can, otherwise watch this space for lots of photos/video of the event!

 xebra.jpg 

  

Xebra EV Electric Vehicle

XEBRAS do not attempt to behave like other vehicles. Unique, quite and surprisingly agile the Xebra is everything noisy internal combustion engines are not. The ZAP XEBRA electric vehicle is the offspring of more than three decades of thought and evolution. This vehicle was created as a breed by itself. Because the use and purpose of electric vehicles are different from gas cars, the wheel did indeed need to be reinvented.  

For 2008, The Green Car Company has taken the original Xebra and upgraded it to a new level. The Xebra EV has more power, speed, longer range and longer life!  This new level also includes a suspension upgrade with stiffer springs and shocks giving the Xebra  lower resistance and better handling! 

If You Want To Be Really Really Green – Here are 10 sites you must read daily

So I will just list them. Since you HAVE to read them EVERY day, nuff said right?

 http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-sites-to-keep-you-updated-of-green-news/

But not that one: it’s just the source…

I do the right thing:

http://www.dotherightthing.com/

 Care 2:

http://www.care2.com/causes-news/

Best Green Deals:

 http://greendealsdaily.com/

Environmental Graffiti:

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/

Tree Hugger:

(I borrow a lot from this one)

http://www.treehugger.com/

The Good Human:

http://thegoodhuman.com/

Green Options:

http://greenoptions.com/

Ecorazzi:

(rad man rad)

http://www.ecorazzi.com/

ViroPOP:

http://www.viropop.com/

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Of course if you just want to talk about the environment, while you puff your cigaret, eat your steak barely clothed in the winter with the thermostat set on 80 degree while scheming more uses for plastics, well then these sites are for you:

Lighter Footsteps:

 http://twitter.com/LighterFootstep

Greener Ideal:

http://twitter.com/greenerideal

Ecoprenuerist::

http://twitter.com/Ecopreneurist

Green News:

http://twitter.com/Ecopreneurist

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If you follow this regime everyday for a week you WILL be green. Good luck and may God Bless.

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So You Think I Hate Coal Companies – Well actually I do but apparently they have their uses

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/12/10/heerlen-minewater-project/

Old Coal Mines Adapted

to Generate Geothermal Energy

by Bridgette Steffen

December 10, 2008

 Recently the town of Heerlen in the Netherlands repurposed an old abandoned coal mine into a brilliant source of geothermal energy. The project takes advantage of flooded underground mine shafts, using their thermal energy to power a large-scale district heating system. Dubbed the Minewater Project, the new system recently went online and provides 350 homes and businesses in the town with hot water and heating in the winter and cool water in the summer.

 In the Netherlands, coal was one of the main sources of energy from the turn of the century up until around 1959, when large amounts of cheap natural gas were discovered in the north. The coal industry lost market share and mine after mine was closed down – in the city of Heerlen, for instance, the coal mine was closed and the shafts were flooded with water and have been unused for the last 30 years

Five new wells were drilled in various locations around town to access the underground mine shafts. Each well is 700 meters (2,300 ft) deep and can pump out nearly 80 cubic meters (2,800 cubic feet) of water per hour. The water temperature at the bottom of the well is 32 C (89 F) and gradually cools to 28 C at the surface. Warm water from the mine is brought to the surface where a heat pump extracts the heat in order to supply hot water to households in the area. Meanwhile the Minewater is pumped back down 450 meters to be reheated. In the summer, to provide cooling, water will be pumped from a much shallower depth of 250 meters, where it is not so warm.

 The area supplied by the Minewater is a relatively new development and includes a supermarket and a brand new cultural center and library as well as many homes and businesses. While the cost of the heating and cooling is not much different than before, customers can be assured of stable prices in the future compared to the cost they could incur by using fossil fuels.

minewat-lead01.jpg

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There Is More Happening in Louisiana Than Brad Pitt – Go BeauSoleil

No offense meant because Pitt, Branford Marsealus and Harry Connick Jr. are doing great things in New Orleans but this is amazing…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsuziBrNeO4&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

http://www.beausoleilhome.org/

solar-home.jpg

Welcome home

BeauSoleil, meaning “Beautiful Sun” in French or simply “Sunshine” in Cajun French has provided the inspiration and name for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette‘s Solar Decathlon Team. The BeauSoleil Louisiana Solar Home will serve as a culturally resonant, uniquely regional work of architecture and eventually a marketable prototype for the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition held on the Mall in Washington, DC. The competition will showcase the BeauSoleil Louisiana Solar home’s role as not only a cultural expression but a technological hybrid that advances the traditional homebuilding in our region.

The BeauSoleil Louisiana Solar Home team mission is to design and build a Solar Decathlon house that uses renewable energy sources in a culturally resonant form that also serve as a building model for other locations throughout the world facing similar climactic and natural challenges to those we face in Louisiana. Join us and our sponsors as we bring together the Cajun culture with the future of homebuilding, energy consumption and design. The Solar Decathlon is a worldwide competition between 20 colleges and universities to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home.

Around The World In 80 Days – Well not quite but

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7766249.stm

‘Solar taxi’ goes round the world

A solar-powered car has arrived at the UN climate change talks in the Polish city of Poznan after a round-the-world trip covering almost 40 countries.

At the wheel of the “solar taxi” was Swiss teacher Louis Palmer who made the 52,000km (32,000 mile) 17-month trip.

He said the feat proved solar power was a viable alternative to oil-based fuels and could help fight global warming.

But he said the prototype would need serious modification before it could be mass produced.

The small blue-and-white three-wheeler tows a trailer packed with batteries charged by the sun. It can travel for 300km on a single charge and reach speeds of 90km/h (55mph).

“People love this idea of a solar car,” Mr Palmer said outside the venue of the UN climate talks. “I hope that the car industry hears…and makes electric cars in future.”

Mr Palmer, 36, said the car ran “like a Swiss clock,” breaking down only twice during the gruelling trip through 38 nations starting in Lucerne in July 2007.

The California Academy Of Sciences Building Was Like A Dream Come True – replacement Post for 12/4/08

I have dreamed about a building like this for 30 years. In fact I have dreamed of every building in the United States being built like this. At least I lived to see this one. It was a real exciting 2 days. The first day we found it, walked around it and scoped out parking. The second day we went inside. I could get all teenagery about it, but I have to agree with my cyber friend Dan Piraro that the “experience” of the “purpose” of the building was moderate.

To quote Bizarro:

http://bizarrocomic.blogspot.com/

Saw the new multi-bazillion-dollar science museum in Golden Gate Park yesterday. In the humble, uneducated opinion of CHNW and I, the architecture of the museum is very cool, the content is pretty dull.

They have an indoor rainforest, but it isn’t as good as one I saw in Dallas built 8 or 10 years ago. They have an aquarium that’s pretty nice, but I’ve seen many better ones. I missed the planetarium, so I can’t comment. The roof is a cool idea with grass and plants all over it, but that is more about architecture than science. That’s about it. Unless you’re an architecture buff, it isn’t worth the $25 admission fee. San Francisco’s Exploratorium is better, in my opinion.

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It is true too. Having come from the Monterey Aquarium which knocks your socks off the minute you walk in the door , I can say that the experience was geared for kids and has many learning “moments” to it. But that is OK, I mean it is the California Academy of Sciences. Much like the Field Museum in Chicago they are about exposing science, and “doing” science, but also about getting kids INTO science. Dan doesn’t have any kids so it is kinda beyond him. But a building that generates most of its own power and uses geothermal to heat and cool. One that has a living roof, reuses water and has manditory recycling. O HOLY God.

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Here is what they have to say about it:

http://www.calacademy.org/sustainable_future/green_practices/

The total message of the building is a green message. It’s about life, how we got here, the marvelous diversity of life, it’s preciousness, and the choices we face in learning how to stay.

—Dr. Gregory C. Farrington, Ph.D., Executive Director
California Academy of Sciences

Below is the Academy’s official statement on sustainability recently approved by the Academy’s board of directors:

“Sustainability is often defined as meeting current human needs without endangering our descendants. There is a broad, scientific consensus that our current environmental demands are unsustainable, causing climate change, degradation of natural habitats, loss of species, and shortages of essential resources.

The California Academy of Sciences’ mission to explore, explain and protect the natural world compels the Academy to engage in scientific research relevant to sustainability, to raise public awareness about these urgent problems, and to minimize its own environmental impact.

The Academy’s green building signifies its commitment to sustainability. The culture and internal practices mirror that commitment in the areas of energy, water, waste management, transportation, purchasing and food. Academy programs highlight the living world and its connection to the changing global environment . Academy research focuses on the origins and maintenance of life’s diversity, and its expeditions roam the world, gathering scientific data to answer the questions, “How has life evolved, and how can it be sustained?

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Here is what other people had to say about it:

calroof2.jpg

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/28/MN0VT1MSO.DTL

The first thing that overwhelms the senses is the very entryway, which is essentially a huge wall of glass revealing the contents of the building as if it were presenting an intellectual feast. From the door, you can see two huge, exotic-looking domes, a glassed-in piazza with a roof so high it’s tough to see the top, and enough aquatic pools to fill an entire shoreline.

Taking possession of the building simply means the two-year-long construction job is virtually done, and the exhibits and collections must now be installed. But it’s easy to see what’s coming by looking at the structures that sit ready for stocking.

And what’s to come will essentially amount to a massive, working display case for the public. Newly renamed the Kimball Natural History Museum, the sprawling edifice takes the musty old, dark-halled concept of natural history museums and blows it wide open.

It is full of airy, glassily transparent galleries and research labs, and everything from the “living roof” of plants and birds and butterflies already at home there, to the heat-recycling systems, is aimed at making it one of the most environmentally friendly museums on the planet. The exhibits being readied push the old paradigm forward several expensive steps in many ways – from adding bubble-shaped observation windows for viewing coral reefs and sharks to presenting the nation’s largest planetarium, with digital film quality so precise it will make visitors feel like they’re flying through space.

acadslide1.jpg

http://www.wired.com/culture/design/magazine/15-08/st_greenmuseum

Nestled into the fog and forest of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the California Academy of Sciences aims to be the world’s largest eco-friendly public building when it reopens in 2008. (It’s bucking for a platinum LEED green-building certification.) Architect Renzo Piano used a textbook’s worth of enviro-engineering tricks for the seven-year effort, an almost total teardown and rebuild. At $484 million, it’s one of the most expensive museum projects in a century. But if it all works as planned, the city will boast a natural history museum that enhances nature instead of just stockpiling it.

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Ironic isn’t it that this is the last post I made before our server crashed and CES lost 9 posts. Well we are back in the game today Ladies and Gentlemen. We are here to stay. Renewed in our faith that homosapien can live here in peace and harmony.

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New City Hall In San Francisco – Why can’t Springfield do stuff like this? replacement post for 12/2/08

Clinton Global Initiative Money in Springfield? Interesting idea.

http://www.baycrossings.com/dispnews.asp?id=2100

S.F. Plans Historic Green Makeover for Civic Center

By Bill Picture

A green makeover is being planned for San Francisco’s historic Civic Center area, thanks to a partnership forged by the City with the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The brainchild of former President Bill Clinton, CGI brings together leaders from communities around the world to come up with solutions to global challenges.

The City and County of San Francisco, a CGI member, responded to the organization’s call for ideas to address global climate change with a three-year proposal to transform the area surrounding City Hall into the country’s first civic center sustainable resource district. The “Commitment to Action” calls for significant reductions in water use, energy use, wastewater discharge and carbon emissions, and specifies that 35 percent of the energy used during peak hours must come from renewable sources.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom believes that, by transforming the City’s municipal and cultural heart into a showcase for resource conservation, the City can inspire communities around the world to follow suit. “Civic Center sits at the core of one of the most visited cities in the world,” he told reporters at a September press conference.

Check, please!

 

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is footing the bill for most of the already-identified building retrofits, including the installation of the solar panels on the roofs of City Hall and the Main Library. The cost to retrofit the other city-owned buildings and public spaces will not be known until a list of projects for those properties is finalized. Once that list is completed and expenses tallied, the next step will be finding the money to cover those projects, some of which may extend beyond the initial three-year deadline.

The goals of the sustainable resource district are:

80% potable water use reduction

45% wastewater discharge reduction

35% peak power demand met by renewables

33% annual energy reduction

2,225-ton reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

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For the full details please see the rest of the excellent article by Mr. Picture

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