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Archive for the 'Driving green' Category

O.C. firm behind Super Bowl ‘green police’

February 9th, 2010, 2:48 pm by

The electric, stand-up police scooters that seem to be popping up everywhere — including in a recent Super Bowl commercial — are the creation of a Costa Mesa company. t32

The “green police” were featured prominently in the ad for Audi during the Super Bowl, but the vehicles and their growing use by law enforcement are quite real.

Both the standup scooter — called T3 Series Electric Standup Vehicle — and its lithium-ion batteries have been distributed worldwide by T3 Motion, Inc.

The company says it recently hit a landmark: 5,000 of the batteries shipped to a variety of agencies around the globe. The batteries, with a range of 25 t0 50 miles, can be swapped out in minutes, so their range is limited only by the number of backup batteries on hand.

T3 Motion also has shipped out 2,000 of the vehicles themselves.

Marketing manager Jeff Simpson said the company tailored the vehicle for use by agencies. They are not available to consumers.

“We have a vehicle that the market helped design,” he said.

Some 500 law enforcement, government and security agencies use the devices, which can hit 20 mph and are ideal for tight, crowded spaces, indoors or out. Their turning radius is zero degrees.

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‘Eco-friendly’ trailers go on sale in Irvine

January 19th, 2010, 4:17 pm by

Some of those lumbering RVs that crowd into parks for summer vacations might now place a lighter load on the environment. greenrvgoc

An Irvine recreational vehicle dealer is offering the “EverGreen Ever-Lite” travel trailer, billed as an “environmentally conscious RV.” Conscious or not, the vehicles are made from composite materials, are recyclable and greatly reduce the use of a hardwood veneer that depletes old-growth tropical forests.

“They use recyclable plastic bottles to make the mattresses,” said Jerry Baird, owner of Family RV in Irvine and Ontario. “It’s kind of interesting. We’ve only had them for about 45 days and we’ve sold three of them already.”

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Hybrid car is fit for a prince

December 15th, 2009, 11:34 am by

Register staff writer Matt Degen reports that Denmark’s crown prince will be the first person outside an Irvine-based company, Fisker Automotive, to drive their new plug-in hybrid car. Read Degen’s story in the Register’s Auto Motion blog.

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Solar co-ops: new frontier for homeowners?

December 15th, 2009, 10:40 am by

Getting groups of buyers together to cut costs has been tried with everything from health insurance to organic foods. sunwizeinstall

Now, a San Francisco company is taking a similar approach to solar power. They say that by gathering homeowners to buy solar power systems as a group, they can bring each a savings in the neighborhood of 23 percent — on top of the large discounts and credits offered by state and federal governments.

The company, called One Block Off the Grid, is offering their service around the country. In Orange County, it’s part of their “Los Angeles campaign.” The first step: go to the company’s online estimate tool, plug in the kind of system you want, and find out how much it costs.

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From fiery crash, a green alliance is born

November 30th, 2009, 12:39 pm by

The scene sounds worthy of prime-time drama:  a man trapped inside a burning car is pulled out by passers-by — just before the car is completely engulfed in flame. burningcargoc

It really happened two years ago on Interstate 5 in south O.C. And now the man in the car, Timothy Nelligan, has formed a green business alliance with the man who helped save his life.

Nelligan, 34, will hold a grand opening Wednesday for a compressed natural gas refilling dispenser at a Shell Gas Station in San Juan Capistrano. He is president of Go Natural Gas, a company founded by Joshua Radwan — one of several men who helped pull Nelligan from the car.

“He gathered three or four guys together,” Nelligan said of Radwan. “They ended up using the butt end of a fire extinguisher to break the glass.”

They pulled Nelligan through his car window so hard that it tore both his rotator cuffs, he said, although he has no memory of the incident.

“The back seat hit me in the back of the head,” he said, after he was struck from behind by a driver who might have been doing 70 mph or more. “It knocked me out and split my head open. And then the car was immediately on fire.”

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California goes electric, with facilities near O.C.

October 29th, 2009, 7:19 am by

A recent deal struck by the state’s  Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority with Tesla Motors will add new electric car manufacturing to the state.

And the places that will benefit include potential locations in Long Beach and Downey.

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