Filling Tennessee’s green job openings
Posted on November 19, 2009 at 8:34 am
The Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development, the State Workforce Investment Board and MTSU’s Business and Economic Research Center have received a $765,340 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to improve the matching of the state’s green jobs with workers.
The survey will focus on public and private interest in renewable transportation, sustainable agriculture, and Federal funding focused on the State’s burgeoning green economy. This survey will expand on prior green studies (Growing Green: the Potential for Green Job Growth in Tennessee 2008) by providing current estimates for the number of green jobs and green job vacancies within the 13 labor and workforce investment areas of Tennessee. A focus of the grant is to help workers affected by significant automotive-related restructurings connect to career pathways in green industries. Additionally, the grant will develop an enhanced online self-service labor exchange module to match green job seekers with respective employers.
All the DOL grants are here.
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Nissan co-founds electric car consortium
Posted on November 17, 2009 at 7:44 am
A baker’s dozen of big names have come together to launch the Electrification Coalition, a vehicle that will bundle their power to shape government energy policy. Nissan is in the mix, as is FedEx.
But the group also digs deeper into the EV ecosystem, arguing that in order to support a rapid scale-up in production of advanced batteries, the feds should provide tax credits for installation of automotive-grade batteries in stationary applications. To help convince consumers that plug-in vehicles will perform as well or better, at lower cost, than conventional vehicles, the coalition urges regulators to review vehicle warranties and establish a minimum residual value for large-format automotive batteries (potentially smoothing the way for battery leasing and recycling).
SEE ALSO: Electric Avenue: Or, How to Rev Up the Electric-Car Revolution from the Journal.
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Big utility joins Nissan’s electric car push
Posted on November 13, 2009 at 2:52 pm
In Los Angeles for the U.S. unveiling of his LEAF electric car, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn announced his company has enlisted Houston-based electric utility Reliant Energy to help flesh out the infrastruture that will be needed to charge electric vehicles.
Ghosn: Electric cars need regulatory help
Posted on October 29, 2009 at 8:12 am
Speaking at UPenn’s Wharton School of Business, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said that — between public perception and emerging-market growth — the auto industry has no choice but to dive headlong into the production of cars that don’t need fossil fuels. That said, he does say car makers need a good bit of government help to build a mass market.
The equipment isn’t cheap: A quick-charge device, Ghosn said, costs $30,000 — an investment that might make sense once there is a critical mass of electric-car drivers already on the road, but something that could seem expensive for service station owners in a market where electric cars remain rare. He called for governments to step in and spur the market via regulation. One idea: Make quick-charge facilities mandatory for anyone operating a gas station starting in 2012.
Ensworth takes 40 cars off the road
Posted on October 27, 2009 at 12:31 pm
…by buying enough green power from the TVA to land on the EPA’s top 20 list of K-12 schools nationally.
Nissan puts fuel cells on the floor
Posted on August 25, 2009 at 10:26 am
The auto manufacturer is replacing the batteries in its Smyrna factory-floor tugs with methanol fuel cells, a move it says will save it hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
Oorja’s OorjaPac fuel cell sits on the fork lift and funnels electrons to the battery pack, charging it as the day progresses. Filling up the fuel cell at the beginning of a shift, ideally, provides enough power for the day. The charging infrastructure – otherwise known as a pump – costs less than a tenth of what a battery bay will run, claims Oorja.
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230 mpg
Posted on August 11, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Nice headline number, huh? GM says its Volt electric car will get monstrous mileage, but ZDNet’s Larry Dignan’s eye landed on the fine print instead.
What happens when it’s summer, 90 degrees and humid and you have a car pool going? When the battery hits a minimum level, the Volt will switch to extended-range mode. In this mode, the Volt’s fuel engine produces electricity.
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Investors charged up by Nissan’s e-car
Posted on August 3, 2009 at 6:42 am
Shares of Nissan jumped more than 6 percent in Tokyo Monday after the company unveiled its first electric car over the weekend.
“Investors are jumping to Nissan after it actually unveiled the much-awaited car,” said Koichi Nishi, an equity strategist at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. “Products that fulfill the promise of environmental-friendliness are encouraging.”
SEE ALSO: More pics of the car, which will be made in Japan.
New buses to boost MTA’s green efforts
Posted on July 30, 2009 at 11:51 amThe Metro Transit Authority is looking forward to acquire three buses from stimulus money for its green Bus Rapid Transit route on Gallatin Pike. The BRT program will consist of these additional buses along with the new hybrid ones already in service on the Gallatin route, the upgraded stations with real-time bus arrival information, ticket vending machines and the already-installed Transit Signal Priority equipment.
“Providing separate lanes may be something we’re able to do in the future but that requires a much more significant investment,” said Jim McAteer, director of planning at MTA.
According to Federal Transit Administration, a BRT corridor aims to improve speed and reliability of bus transit with the implementation of dedicated transitways/busways, limited-stop and express services, and exclusive bus lanes.
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A few details on Nissan’s electric car
Posted on June 26, 2009 at 12:56 am
We may see the electric car that Nissan workers in Smyrna will build as soon as early August, says one industry pub. For now, the vehicle (that’s a prototype at left) looks like it will be a midsized, five-door hatchback.
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More than 200 green factory jobs set to move here from China
Posted on June 23, 2009 at 8:10 am
Venture Nashville reports on a promising alliance between a Vancouver company and Murfreesboro-based entrepreneur Jimmy Davis that looks set to bring to the region 250 jobs making energy-efficient street lighting.
He added that Middle Tennessee’s slumping automotive related companies “are all looking for another industry” and have exactly the capabilities needed by the green industries he’s targeted. “We think we let the [economic emphasis] on the auto industry run way too long,” he added.
Nissan CEO confirms Smyrna electric plans
Posted on at 12:56 am
Speaking to reporters after his company shareholders’ meeting in Tokyo, Carlos Ghosn said Nissan will build electric cars and the batteries that will power them in Tennessee. The initial production capacity of 100,000 suggests the auto maker’s investment could reach $1 billion based on numbers Nikkei first reported a few days ago.
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Report: Smyrna to build electric Nissans
Posted on June 20, 2009 at 12:05 pm
A Japanese paper says Nissan plans to invest at least $500 million into electric-car production lines at its Smyrna plant. The company, which is on track to begin building electric cars in Japan in the fall of 2010, early this year applied for a Department of Energy loan to help it make more energy-efficient cars.
Study: Green investments would create 10,000 Nashville jobs
Posted on June 18, 2009 at 1:37 pm
A report from UMass researchers, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Green for All says that ramping up Middle Tennessee clean-energy investments of $815 million a year — a figure based on what a think tank sees being generated by stimulus, subsidies and the like — will generate more than 10,000 jobs in the region, more than half of them for people with high-school degrees or less.
The $815 million number is based on a $150 billion national number that amounts to 1.1 percent of GDP. For some perspective, that amount equates to the construction of five Pinnacle at Symphony Place office towers every year.
New Yazoo beer is green
Posted on June 12, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Popular hometown brewery Yazoo has launched a summer ale brewed entirely with clean energy generated by the Green Power Switch program run by TVA and NES. The beer’s first tapping will take place Saturday at the Sounds’ game with the Memphis Redbirds.
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