I was just interviewed by CBS for a possible story on plug-in hybrids on Monday. You should tune in to CBS evening news Saturday for the first coverage of what I believe is a major advance in plug ins — a car I test drove a few weeks back and will be free to write about here Monday.

The New York Times will probably be doing a print story on the car Sunday, which I’ll link to. Then CBS may do another story, which is where I would come in. This hybrid technology will be rolled out in a retrofitted car at the Detroit auto show.

I think this is a big deal. Basically the company figured out how to design a practical, affordable plug-in hybrid without a breakthrough in battery technology!! Stay tuned.

Financial Times Deutschland has a report on Th!nk Global. Putting a little flesh on the bones of previous reporting. 10,000 Think City electric cars in 2009. Parts manufacturing in Thailand and Turkey. The plan is to sell the car (‚¬25,000) and lease the battery. Zebra batteries first. Online marketing and sales.

Think says it has battery supply contracts with three companies, and is moving into production. It plans to begin selling its cars in Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and the UK next year, with projected sales of 10,000 cars in 2009 and double that by 2011.

One question raised in the story is how Th!nk will fare as established carmakers bring electric cars to market.

With its modest volumes, it also remains unclear how Think will cope when bigger competitors such as Renault/Nissan and Daimler come to market with their own electric cars.

If Think can begin making thousands of cars per year in 2009, I suspect there won’t be much competition for years. Subaru’s snail’s pace production plans are far from ambitious. GM’s Vue and Volt plug-ins have no firm date to appear in showrooms. If Nissan or Mercedes are to make a serious electric offering in the same time frame, we’ll have to hear something soon.

– Marc G. Plugs and Cars Blog

Another excerpt from Hell and High Water paperback edition (now available on Amazon):

I don’t see any reason why the power of hurricanes wouldn’t continue to increase over the next 100 to 200 years.
– Kerry Emanuel, MIT atmospheric scientist, 2006

On our current warming trend, four superhurricanes — category 4 or stronger — a year in the North Atlantic is likely to become the norm 20 years from now.
– Judith Curry, Georgia Tech atmospheric scientist, 2006

Only a quarter of Atlantic hurricanes make U.S. landfall, and while there is no question that the frequency of intense Atlantic hurricanes is rising, where they will actually go any given year is somewhat random.

That said, the Gulf of Mexico is going to get warmer and warmer, as is the Atlantic Ocean, and so hurricanes that enter the Gulf are likely to start out and end up far more destructive than usual. I would not bet that the Mississippi Gulf Coast will get hit by a super- hurricane in any particular year, but I would certainly plan on it being hit again sometime over the next ten years; I wouldn’t be surprised if it were hit by more than one.

Coastal dwellers from Houston to Miami are now playing Russian roulette with maybe two bullets in the gun chamber each year. In a couple of decades, it may be three bullets.

Some argue that the recent jump in severe hurricanes was caused by a rise in sea- surface temperatures that is just part of a natural cycle. That position is scientifically untenable, which is why most of the people who advance it are not global- warming researchers. We’ll see why the natural- cycles argument will no doubt prove to be “largely false,” as MIT’s Kerry Emanuel said in 2006. Hurricane seasons with four or more super- hurricanes–those with sustained wind speeds of 131 mph or more–will soon become the norm….

CNNmoney.com just released a summary outlook on the solar, wind, biofuel (mainly ethanol), and efficiency industry financial sectors. The two looking most optimistic are wind and efficiency, and thus both sectors are overflowing with opportunity.

According to one investment portfolio manager, efficiency investments are reliable and essentially fundamental. In his words, investing in efficiency is like putting your money on the arms dealer in a war or conflict – no matter which side wins (or which sector), the arms dealer simply can’t lose.

Of the “riskier” sectors, analysts are most optimistic about wind power. But they lament that there is no US manufacturing company in which to invest – the two main options are European. In this one fact, there are several implications and opportunities.

The U.S. is trailing the world in terms of renewable energy technology and manufacturing. The is hard to come to terms with because it’s not natural for us to be lagging where there are so many exciting possibilities.

But there is an opportunity here: we need to be investing more of our future into this industry – into research, development, and deployment, into capital, into manufacturing plants, and into these ‘green collar’ jobs. Wind farm installation cannot be exported abroad, nor should turbine manufacturing or investment in those companies be shipped elsewhere.

It could not be more clear the sort of major investment that needs to be made into wind energy (and other renewable energy sectors). The Center for American Progress has framed our energy and climate crises as looming economic opportunities (in their “Capturing the Energy Opportunity” report), and CNNmoney’s report reiterates just that point. Without moving into these blatant spaces, we’re leaving gaping holes in our economic prosperity, global competitiveness, and energy future.

– Kari M.