Toyota will invest fifty million dollars in electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla. With this win-win partnership, Toyota will gain access to Tesla’s technology expertise, and Tesla will produce and sell their cars in the mass market.

Tesla is a Californian company founded in 2003 and managed by Elon Musk (co-founder of PayPal). This startup launched the first pure electric vehicle in 2006: the Tesla Roadster. Going from 0 to 60 MPH in 4 seconds, this high performance electric sports car is able to compete with famous sports brands such as Lamborghini or Ferrari. That’s why Tesla is recognized as the first startup to legitimize the electric engine in automotive world. This technology also delivers 100 miles per gallon.

It seems that all of these innovative solutions interested Toyota. After being the first manufacturer of a hybrid vehicle, the Japanese brand wants to focus its strategy on electric vehicles. Akio Toyoda, Toyota President, said he was very “impressed by Tesla’s technology.” Indeed, Tesla is currently the only company which produces and sells only electric vehicles able to drive highway speeds.

Thanks to this alliance, these companies will produce EVs on a large scale. The first will be the Model S, a family car which is scheduled to go on sale in 2012. The Model S is designed to travel as far as 300 miles with about a three to five hour charge. Production will occur in a California factory, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Built in 1960, the NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc) was GM’s property. But because of the economic crisis, the giant Detroit brand sold it two years ago to Toyota.

By joining forces with Tesla, Toyota highlights two different ideas. First of all, hybrid technology is not enough to solve problems caused by automobiles. The next step will be electric vehicles, even if methods of general implementation are not clearly obvious. Secondly, it is proactive to control technology within a competitive market. With Tesla, Toyota hopes to be back in the EV market.

Tomorrow is Earth2Tech’s GreenNet 2010 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. Here are the presentations we’re most excited about:

Greentech and the California Economy

Gubernatorial candidate and former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown has been a longtime supporter of clean power and energy efficiency since his first stint as California’s Governor. Now the lifetime politician will continue to support the greentech industry not just as a way to nurture new technologies and help the environment, but also for the future of the state’s economy.

Progressive Utilities and Grid-Connected Cars.

Utilities are getting ready for the coming influx of electric vehicles that will reshape the power grid and the relationship with customers. Meanwhile entrepreneurs, startups and investors are building the next-generation of technology for electric vehicle charging. Come hear what opportunities excite NRG Energy’s VP of Electric Vehicle Services, Michael Harrigan and Southern California Edison’s EVP of Power Operations, Pedro Pizarro and how these utility leaders are getting ready for the electric vehicle boom.

The Future of Greentech From the Viewpoint of an IT Pioneer

From the investor that brought you Hotmail, Interwoven and Kana during the dotcom boom, Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is now leading DFJ to become one of the most active – and aggressive – investors in cleantech with foreward-thinking investments in electric vehicle firm Tesla and genetics and biofuel designer Synthetic Genomics.

The New Networked Car

Our cars will power up with electricity and connect via networks. IT tools are landing in the unlikeliest of places – even your vehicle. The next generation of electric cars, from Nissan’s LEAF to GM’s Volt to Tesla’s Model S, will fuel up from the power grid, and the charge will be controlled by software and a utility data center. Startups are building the systems now; are the big automakers ready? Is the next major mobile technology platform your car?

Developing countries will be producing twice the amount of e-waste in the next 6 to 8 years as developed countries, according to the American Chemical Society (ACS).

There are overlapping reasons for this: dramatic increases in PC ownership in developed and developing countries and the decreased lifespan of consumer electronics devices.

Many recycled consumer electronics end up in developing countries. In North America, the typical lifespan of a consumer device is 3.8 years; in Central and South America, the lifespan is 5.35 years, and in Africa it is 5.75 years. Basically, towards the end of an electronic device’s lifespan, there’s a good chance that it will be in a developing country when it finally reaches the point where it can no longer be used.

The ACS propose several solutions in their conclusion. The first is a reconsideration of global e-waste bans, which would cut down on e-waste but would have a negative effect on electronics ownership among low-income populations and would eliminate refurbishing jobs in developing countries.

The researchers also encourage the implementation of official recycling regulations, which would stop ad hoc recycling. They also encourage the use of economic instruments to promote the use of official recycling channels.

“Our central assertion is that the new structure of global e-waste generation discovered here combined with economic and social considerations, call for a serious rethinking of e-waste policy,” concludes the report. “We believe there are unexplored opportunities to mitigate informal recycling while enhancing economic and social benefits. Researchers and policy-makers need to work to develop and realize new solutions.”

How to get rid of your old device? On Earth Day, it’s a question we have to ask. In fact, geek or not, high tech fan or simple user, everyone has more and more devices at home, in pockets, in bags… Not you? Check your bag: you’ve probably got one or two cell phones, an iPod, a digital camera, a laptop, external drivers, and maybe some space for your future iPad!

All of these gadgets enhance our daily lives but become a problem when no longer unusable; people don’t know how to recycle them. That’s why they end their lives in a drawer. YouRenew.com has the solution and proposes selling or recycling your electronics. The startup was founded in 2009 by two friends at Yale University: Bob Casey and Rich Littlehale. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 130 million cell phones are turned over each year in the U.S., and only 10 percent of them are recycled. That’s why Casey and Littlefield decided to launch this company.

“Everyone has an old electronic device they’d like to recycle. Why not get paid for it and help the environment in the meantime?” asked the founders. Indeed, the concept, called “reCommerce,” is to turn old electronic devices into cash.

Users put the name, brand and model of their device into a search box, and the website then asks a few questions about it in order to determine how much the user will be paid, which is done by check or PayPal. But if the item doesn’t have value, YouRenew will still provide free shipping and recycle it. Moreover, users choose how they will help the environment: by planting a tree or by domestic renewable energy.

What happens to old devices? Thanks to partnerships (like with recellular), the startup sends old gadgets back into the market by sending it to partners who refurbish and resell the devices. If device no longer functions, the company recycles it thanks to a partnership with WeRecycle, Inc.

The business model is simple too. The startup resells devices that still function and, with old devices, an electronics-recycling partner pays YouRenew by the pound for the devices.

By using the basics of sustainable development, YouRenew.com is a really interesting concept. In fact, by offering to recycle old devices before they turn into trash, the concept is eco friendly. On the other hand, by offering remuneration for recycling, the startups make the act more pleasant. Now, recycling isn’t a constraint but a way to make money!

A recent merger draws attention to the nascent trend of cooperation between consumer electronics and electricity-monitoring devices: Consumer and business electronics company Belkin acquired academically-powered startup Zensi. California-based Belkin is best known for its networking products and accessories for mobile devices, laptops and Apple gadgets, while Zelsi’s system identifies what types of appliances are being used based on voltage noise, and processes the noise using algorithms to determine what is used when. The Zelsi tech was originally to be implemented in an “itemized electricity bill.”

Energy management is a keystone in the contemporary technology conversation, as it connects itself to green, Internet, mobile and wireless concerns. As former Zensi CEO Kevin Ashton explained to Earth2Tech’s Katie Fehrenbacher today, “Everybody is looking at this space right now. There is a lot of interest among larger companies about this emerging market.” Fehrenbacher continues to clarify: “There has been a lot of talk about broadband service providers moving into the market of selling energy management services to consumers (…) including Verizon, and Comcast. Recently startups have been developing applications for the iPad that can control home energy consumption, hoping the iPad could be next breakout home energy device.”

Ashton is now the General Manager of Belkin’s Conserve line of energy efficient products, which the company plans to expand later this year. But E2T quotes Ashton that the Belkin-Zensi union is still in the research and development phase, and applications may not surface for a while, either way, Zensi’s former plans may carry through at the new venue: ideas to “sell a service bundled with a smart meter, sell a product directly to customers (like Belkin does now), or use the technology to add features onto existing Belkin products.” Ashton is not ruling any of these options out, but the primary goal is to help give consumers more information about their energy usage.

The U.S. will account for 54 percent of worldwide electric-charging stations by 2015, according to ABI Research. ABI predicts that global revenue from chargers will reach $11.75 billion for the installation of 3 billion stations by 2015.

In 2010, there will be only 20,000 charging stations worldwide, but ABI expects 2011 to be the breakout year. Following the U.S. will be China, which will account for 23 percent of the world’s charging stations by 2015. The rest of the world will make up the other 23 percent.

“Infrastructure supporting electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles is on the cusp of a rapid and sustained growth curve,” says ABI research director Larry Fisher. “The charging infrastructure technology is here. We’re just waiting for the release of these vehicles into the market. Given the limited range per charge, however, early adopters will need to keep their journeys relatively short.”

San Francisco has been one of the most active cities in promoting vehicle-charging stations. This February, the city revised its building codes so that all new homes and offices will be wired for chargers. The city also announced a “sustainable financing program,” which offers citizens low-interest loans for the purchase of electric cars.

In a rather old-school show of civic symbolism, the city has installed chargers outside of city hall. San Francisco is currently looking at 22 garages where additional stations can be set up.

A business’s ownership of a charging stating is doubly beneficial. First, there’s the social cachet that comes with being one of the first to offer such a cutting edge and sustainable service. It’s good for PR. Secondly, charging electric cars takes time, anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours, so retail, dining or entertainment venues can benefit from extra customers while cars are charging.

"Please consider the environment before printing this email."

This quote is familiar to e-mail users of a pervasive environmental awareness. Bills and bank statements now come with paper-less options, and newspapers are being eschewed for Web site visits. But how effective for saving resources are these measures? Don Carli of PBS.org collected numbers from various sources to answer this question.

As Carli notes, consumers are given the choice between digital media or traditional paper, aimed to "confront consumers with a false dilemma and present a forced choice that may have unintended consequences. The false dilemma is: ‘By using paper to print your email or by receiving paper bills you are knowingly degrading the environment, destroying forests and/or killing trees.’The forced choice is: ‘Eliminate your use of paper or feel like a guilty hypocrite.’"

But does the tradeoff actually help the environment? Carli suggests that digital media can be more destructive to the environment, including "trees, bees, rivers and forests in the United States than paper-making or printing(…)"

Digital media technology sources energy from coal power plants which add to global warming. Greenpeace projects that data centers will demand more electricity than France, Brazil, Canada, and Germany combined by 2020. Additionally, the coal mining process contributes to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and headwater stream pollution in the US.

The deforestation of over 600 square miles of US forest has been connected to the current framework for computers, cellular networks and data centers. The push for cloud computing has intensified this workload as more energy is needed for an always-on global network.

Electricity used by data centers doubled from 2000 to 2006 to 60 billion kilowatt hours per year, according to the US Department of Energy. This amount equals that used by 559,608 homes in one year, and could double again by 2011. Carli presents more data on coal-power and other unseen impacts of digital media in his article.

Cleantech investments were up 83 percent year-over-year in Q1 2010, and were 29 percent higher than Q4 2009, according to initial figures from the Cleantech Group.

$1.9 billion was invested, according to preliminary Q1 results.

It was another record-setting quarter for number of deals, beating last quarter’s previous record of 165 deals.

“The first quarter’s bounce back in terms of venture capital investment compared to 2009’s early lows bodes well for what we think is in store for the remainder of the year,” said the Cleantech Group’s President Sheeraz Haji.

Eighty-one percent of this quarter’s cleantech investment activity took place in North America. “North America was particularly dominant this quarter,” said Haji.

It was the highest percentage for North America in three years.

Transportation and energy efficiency are the top sectors to watch, said Haji, who noted that electric-battery swapping company BetterPlace secured the second largest deal that the Cleantech Group has ever seen, receiving $350 million in Series B this January.

There were 13 IPOs in the quarter totaling $1.5 billion. This is less than Q4 2009, which saw 18 IPOs totaling $2.9 billion. Haji believes that most possible IPOs are holding off until the second or third quarter of this year.

The three major clean energy sectors – solar photovoltaics (PV), wind energy and biofuels – are expected to reach $325.9 billion by 2019, according to Clean Edge’s Clean Energy Trends 2010 (PDF – Free registration required).

Clean Edge predicts that solar PV will grow from $30.7 billion in 2009 to $98.9 billion in 2019. Wind power will grow from $63.5 billion in 2009 to $114.5 billion in 2019, and ethanol and biodiesel will grow from 2009’s $44 billion to $112.5 billion in 2019.

Clean energy will also continue to drive the creation of new jobs.

“From the smart grid and energy efficiency to renewable energy generation and advanced battery storage, clean tech continues to be a major driver of regional job growth, economic recovery, and technological competitiveness,” said Ron Pernick, Clean Edge co-founder and managing director.

Clean Edge projects that wind and solar alone will create 3.3 million global jobs in the next decade.

Clean-energy investments have grown from just .09 percent of total U.S. VC funding in 2001 to 12.5 percent in 2009, totaling $2.2 billion in U.S. investments in 2009.

Some believe that clean energy will be Silicon Valley’s third era of innovation, following the region’s innovation leadership in the personal computers and the internet.

“Energy is the biggest opportunity Silicon Valley has ever seen,” T.J. Rodgers, the founder of Cypress Semiconductor and chairman of SunPower, which makes PV panels, told the San Jose Mercury News. According to Deloitte, California companies received 40 percent of global cleantech VC funding in 2009.

Clean Energy Trends 2010 is a required read for anyone interested in the clean energy sector. The highlight is the report’s five top trends, which are beyond the scope of this article but are worth pointing out (and exploring further):

1. Carbon as a Feedstock: Win-Win or Pipe Dream?
2. Steep Drop in Photovaltaic-technology Price Drives Solar
3. Biomass Fires up Utilities and District Heating
4. Clean-Tech Megaprojects See Big Advances - and Big Challenges
5. High Speed Rail Surges Ahead – But at What Cost?

(Image: Wikipedia)

The number of smart grids will grow to 212 million in 2012, up from 2009’s total of 76 million, according to ABI.

Driving this growth in the U.S. is the recently granted stimulus funds that are going towards smart-grid projects.

“In the US, $3.4 billion in federal economic stimulus funding was directed to smart grid development in November 2009,” said ABI practice director Sam Lucero.

“The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) directly encourages smart grid technology adoption by the states, and funds NIST’s efforts to develop a standards-based technology framework to facilitate smart grid adoption,” Lucero said.

The U.S. stimulus program will create 18 million new smart meters, bringing the total up to 40 million, which will cover 31 percent of the nation’s housing units. When complete, this project is expected to reduce energy demand by 1,400 megawatts and increase the use of renewable resources by 20 percent in 2020.

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