Malama Composites, manufacturers of high performance polyurethane foams made from bio-based renewable resources, announced today that it has joined Spain’s Green Comm Racing Team at the America’s Cup, the world’s most prestigious sailing competition, in order to promote environmental innovation and technology within the sailing industry. 

“Our materials enable manufacturers to produce products that are stronger, lighter, faster and far more environmentally responsible than alternative core materials.  Our partnership with the Green Comm Racing Team provides a fantastic venue to premier the next generation of sustainable materials, and we are honored to be a part of it,” said David Saltman, Chairman and CEO of Malama Composites.

Francesco De Leo, Executive Chairman of Green Comm Racing, stated, “This is a unique opportunity to rally some of the best minds in the world behind a very exciting goal: designing and manufacturing the ultimate renewable energy machine – a winning America’s Cup boat.  Our goal is to promote a green agenda by leveraging the media impact of one of pinnacle sport events in the world.”

Malama Composites develops and produces rigid polyurethane foams made from soy polyols and other renewable resources.  The resulting panels serve as a light-weight structural core material in the manufacturing of everything from boat hulls to wind turbine blades, movie sets to surfboards.  While cost and performance competitive with alternative, petroleum-based foams, Malama’s products contain no toxic resins or additives, and can be easily reused or recycled.

Francesco De Leo is a thought leader in the field of communication technology with a particular focus on green IT.  He was the former Managing Director of Telecom Italia and Head of Strategy and International operations at Wind.  The Green Comm Racing Team is made of a group of young sailors and executives who see the America’s Cup as an opportunity to advance green innovation in the sailing industry by leveraging the media impact of one of the most high profile sporting events in the world.

Click here for some amazing photos and here for video. 

Live from San Diego – America’s Cup Webcam

How to follow the America’s Cup World Series in San Diego

car2go (Electric Car Share Program in San Diego) is opening up memberships today for free (usually $35).  Sign up now and also receive 30 minutes of free drive time with the promotional code PLUGIN.  Click for offer.

car2go is a groundbreaking mobility program redefining transportation in urban areas. German auto giant Daimler has selected San Diego to launch the first all-electric carsharing program in North American. 

car2go provides a fleet of free-floating, self-service Smart fortwo cars distributed all over the city.  The operating area ranges as far north as Pacific Beach and west to I-15.  You may roam up to 200 miles from San Diego, but your usage must begin and end anywhere within the operating area.  The car2go all-electric vehicles can be accessed “on-demand” or reserved for up to 24 hours in advance.  For on-demand access, members simply swipe their membership card against the vehicle’s windshield.

Unlike traditional carsharing programs, car2go allows its members to use the vehicle for as long as they like, without committing to a specific return time or location. They can have one-way rentals and finish the trip in any authorized parking space within the car2go operating area.  Attractive “by-the-minute” rates include costs for insurance, parking and maintenance.  Click here to complete details.  And here for a 3 minute training  video.  And here for a video of the Smart fortwo zippin’ around San Diego.

San Diego was selected to be the base for the first North American car-sharing fleet of 300 all-electrics for a variety of reasons.  As early-adapters San Diegans have made our region #1 in the U.S. for EVs with hundreds of Nissan Leafs and Chevy Volts humming around town.  Charging stations are sprouting in anticipation of thousands of new users. 

You will have to wait until November 18th to pilot one of these two-person-mobiles.  You can starting thinking now about all the ways car2go will change the way you roll.  As a member a 10 minute trip from Little Italy to Petco Park will cost $3.50 plus tax.   You finish the trip by parking in any legal parking space on the street or in specially designated car2go areas.  The transaction is done.  You do not feed the parking meter (a special deal with the city) and you don’t fork over $20 to ACE Parking.  Of course if you are rolling with your posse a two-seater is going to limit your entourage.

If you are considering purchasing a smart car you can kick the tires at smart center San Diego at 4750 Kearny Mesa Road.  It’s like the cute little brother of Mercedes-Benz of San Diego at the same address.  Don’t kick the tires too hard.

El Cajon-based Nuvve Corporation has chosen Denmark to launch a new technology allowing electric cars to sell energy from batteries back to the grid. A solution which helps solve peak hour demand, uses excess wind energy and financially compensates the car owner.

An Electric Vehicle (EV) is typically parked 95 percent of the time. The most expensive component in the car is the battery, so why not put it to work making EVs not just environmentally but also financially appealing? That’s the idea behind Nuvve’s new V2G (Vehicle to Grid) technology; a solution having gone through 10 years of development in the US and now ready to be commercially launched in Europe with Denmark as the first test market.

Electrical car batteries as energy storage solution
An increasing amount of EVs today come with bidirectional drive trains able to both charge and discharge power into the grid. Nuvve’s innovation is a server connecting the EVs to the grid operator, a technology unmatched in the market.

The EV owner makes the battery available to Nuvve during a given period and, depending on supply and demand in the grid, the company uses the car as a short time energy storage solution in order to help regulate the power frequency of the grid. The value of providing these regulation services is very high.
Nuvve’s calculations show their business model compensating each individual EV owner $10,000 over the life of a vehicle depending on market price and owner commitment.

Danish smart grid perfect for new technology
The US company is in the process of opening a head quarter in Denmark. Nuvve will start out by hiring eight Danish employees for departments in Horsens and Copenhagen, but is planning to quickly scale up both staffing and the scope of the pilot project targeted to start in September depending on project financing.
CEO of Nuvve, Gregory Poilasne, says that one of the reasons the company chose Denmark is due to the large amount of renewable energy in the Danish grid resulting in significant power fluctuations from sources such as wind.

“As opposed to countries like Sweden and France where the power supply is fairly constant as a result of large nuclear and hydropower production, the dynamic Danish grid is an optimal choice for our technology. We offer the most economic and ecologic solution to (more…)

This morning I participated in the latest CleanTECH San Diego SCRUB session.  SCRUB is an opportunity for early stage clean tech companies to present their business story to a group of CleanTECH San Diego members.  Three local emerging clean tech ventures made their case this morning to a panel of 28 CleanTECH San Diego members representing a mix of venture capitalists, engineers, marketing specialists, intellectual property attorneys as well as local leaders from industry, research and government.  The objective of SCRUB is to provide immediate feedback and assistance to take each company to the next stage. 

Today’s SCRUB showcased three distinctly different clean tech businesses.  Marine Power Partners has developed a patent pending waterwheel that generates continuous base-load electricity from flowing water at lower capital and operating costs than either solar or wind systems.  A Smart Grid innovator, On-Ramp Wireless, is a systems provider for low-power wide-area scalable sensor networking and location tracking.  New Leaf Biofuel collects waste cooking oil (more…)