More of these automotive/electronics partnerships will arrive as electrification becomes one of the largest growth industries on the planet. EVs are pushing the two sectors together into a hybrid business model that utilizes the strengths of both consumer electronics and automotive manufacturers. After all, plugging in your EV is little different than plugging in your iPhone overnight. And Texans love to be in the big-anything business.

Agreed SJC. This is good news for electrification in general. The problem with your tax is it raises the cost of fuel just when the economy is hurting. So the reaction and likelihood of passage is poor. If the tax was legislated to rest solely at the wellhead - it might fly. Better might be to charge big oils the cost of military operations that protect wellheads in hostile territories. Many oilcos benefit from the courage of young men and women stationed overseas. Were they to PAY for these services into an energy independence fund - it could help finance the transition to domestic energy resources.

EP - what did Toppa say here to deserve your rancor? All this is backwards technology. The idea of generating power and then having to transmit it great distances is primitive and will feed energy monopolies political power far more dangerous than electrical. The simple elegant fact there is energy all around us at all times appears to be lost on these big energy engineers. And while these massive projects do make work for restless workers - big electrical arteries in big electrical grids are high security risks.

Presumably someone thought about the implication of this technology before making this award. Alain, IF your reactor works with photosynthetic organisms producing certain wavelengths, it can also work with direct sunlight properly filtered to the wavelength desired. Solar by day, synth by night. Alcohols play a major role in the transition to electrification of transport and energy independence.

In sun belts cars with small PV panels and a cooling fan could circulate enough cool air to dissipate the solar heating. The Chevrolet Volt will have a PV roof panel option for this purpose.

One of the most progressive Counties in the US. Congratulations on making some smart choices and further prompting the electrification of transport.

Interesting progress in the use of non-noble metal catalysts. But still a hard path to generate large volumes of the most abundant element in the universe. There are far more sound methods of obtaining H2 from earth's vast resources. Combined with low cost, high efficient FCs, the hydrogen energy carrier will free us from the century old "grid" concept.

Most of these chemical processes seem to have a poor energy balance. IF they can reuse heat and cheap electric at nuke plants this MAY be a modest added revenue stream for nuke operators.

Is this a surprise to anyone? And just to get pedantic for a moment, cellulosic alcohol is a key to energy independence. Each gallon of domestic produced ethanol means less $$$ sent to oil cartels holding us hostage to petroleum. It also means the money is spent paying salaries of domestic employees thus circulating cash. And the less we rely on foreign oil the less (logical) expenditure on defense of those resources.

Even though this is just one test, it bodes well for the greening of jet fuel. "The renewable jet process uses a selective cracking step which reduces the natural oil C16-C18 carbon chain lengths to carbon chain lengths in the C10 to C14 range for jet fuel. UOP has shown the process using C18 oils like soy, palm and canola oils; C12 oils like coconut oil; inedible oils like jatropha and camelina and a variety of algal oils, to produce SPK fuel." It would be interesting to know a bit more about the algal process. While soy palm canola are a renewable source they may not be sustainable. Algae can be grown in abundance in seashore farms. If Honeywell has a feasible process it would hasten the transition to green jet fuels for many applications.

Sustainable Oils big brass ring is in jet fuel. They have already provided biofuel for the Air Force's 50% all engine test flight. While biofuels may never fully replace JP-series fuels, they may supply a blended portion. And each gallon of jet fuel not imported from foreign oil cartels is money spent on domestic sustainable fuels. Circulating the money at home and achieving energy independence.

"high pollution vehicle fleets such as trash trucks, transit buses, semi-trucks, school buses, urban delivery and distribution vehicles, and shuttle buses." All of which are owned by municipalities. Does this incentive apply to city and state governments?? It is a good idea to promote conversion of these fleets to anything other than petro diesel and gasoline. The US (not just T Boone) has plenty of natural gas. Canada has even more. NG is the best fuel for distributed energy Residential Power Units. By installing RPUs in single and lulti-family dwellings we can reduce need to build new coal or nuclear power plants and dramatically improve energy security. Not to mention the opportunity to remove old grid towers and wiring.

Products like these are a positive step in making the waste to non-fossil fuel process attractive. We are running a program of attraction here.

Toppa applies the old paradigm to the present day vehicle buyer - it must have long range (3-400 mi.) But as EP points out the ER-EV Volt and like provide 40 mi AER which meets the needs of 85+ percent of daily commutes. Extended range EVs like volt will provide the range anxiety bridge until batteries achieve a higher energy density. What we may discover is that once an EV owner feels comfortable with short range AER - provided an small extender is onboard - they may not want an expensive, long range battery. Bottom line is if Volvo does not move a bit faster, they may get left in the electric dust.

Harvey, not sure the utils will want to buy V2G power at $.30 /kWh they just sold for $.10. But they could be mandated to buy it at some net profit to the seller. If however, the electrification of North America is to be successful we will have to implement residential distributed energy. This means huge opportunities for domestic manufacturing as portions of municipal grids are retired and replaced by Residential Power Units functioning as combined heat, power and cooling systems. Initially this shifts fuel consumption away from aging coal fired plants to much cleaner and lower emission GHG, methane/NG. Minimizing the need to build new power plants, maintain aging grid hardware, and removal of old power lines.

Forest products companies are finally getting the idea they have a valuable second source revenue from their waste. By investing in digesters and gasifiers, these companies will earn big points with greens and escalating revenue from energy products. Locally we have a new development utilizing a wood chip gasifier to heat hot water for all residents.

Toyota is wisely understanding that in the field of EV design things are moving VERY fast. Far faster than stodgy old Toyota and its conservative culture can accommodate. This move is a purchase of the superior innovation power found in entrepreneurial companies like Tesla. Without this JV Toyota would still be worrying about battery pack safety issue - pushing their first BEV off to 2015.

The Idaho geothermal project claims to have supercritical water coming up... Reform steam to H2. But then you gotto compress and ship the stuff. In situ on demand seems a whole lot better.

This is worthwhile investment of taxpayer loan guarantees. While it may not produce a large power output - it also does not consume fuel to generate power. Nor generate waste. That's a damned good accomplishment if it works. I'd like to know how much waste heat is lost in this design - and if they are utilizing it in some way. And this is a loan guarantee. No taxpayer money goes out unless the thing goes bust. Let's hope "supercritical binary geothermal cycle" can deliver.

Volvo owners are huge environmentalists. And family safety people. Volvo could do very well to cater to their prime customers and offer a family 4 door EV. But the C30 looks pretty sexy for the young couple/single set and they could grab share from Volt and Leaf if they brought this out sooner than later. Best indication is how brand loyal Volvo owners are. These people would rather walk than buy a different brand. Bodes well for Volvo EVs. http://www.plugincars.com/volvo-c30-electric

"The selections announced today are expected to capture and store 6.5 million tons of CO2 per year and increase domestic production of oil by more than 10 million barrels per year by the end of the demonstration period in September 2015." What they are saying is this is a $$Billion subsidy for domestic oil producers. Not that it's bad in pursuit of the energy independence goal. But let's not pretend this is a "green" project.

One must consider that the very first (and lowest power density) batteries are all built to a 10 year minimum life cycle. So, ten years from now a few thousand used car batteries MIGHT be available for sale. Provided the cost of disassembling the EV is minimal. Long before then, an enterprising entrepreneur will have groked the idea for electronics to allow V2H-ome UPS services. Solar packagers will be vying for ways to build PV storage systems from EV batteries. It has yet to be seen if these used batteries are better applied to storage solutions or recycled into new batteries with 100% capacity. IF the used EV units can be obtained cheap enough there may be a viable application "time shifting" grid energy in high cost utility areas. Charge overnight, discharge into local loads during peak - save on e-billing.

It's nice to recycle stuff like tires and get useable energy carrier out of the deal. But at 5-15% tops this will never be a H2 production solution. There are far better albeit disruptive methods of producing massive volumes of H2 and O via water electrolizing. The more restrictions placed on this research - the faster it will come to surface. Lift restrictions of kind - desired order will prevail.

EP - progress is accomplished by transition. The goal is sustainable energy independence. With literally zero EVs on the road right now any such plan MUST include a broad portfolio of resources to meet the goal. Sure cellulosic is still in R&D. Does not mean we quit on it. And with the first generation of alcohols growing toward 15 billion gallons annually - there is a real business there. Transitioning from corn to cellulosic will take 10-15 years. So what? With each new FFV and alcohol pump installed we move closer to the goal. At the same time we are introducing EVs - which further lowers demand on foreign oil. Saving billions in exported dollars and defense costs. The plan is multi-layered/dimensional utilizing EVERY independent energy resource that is viable. Not only is this better than all eggs in one basket (EVs) - we grow more jobs and expand the economic base further. Cellulosic and algal alcohols are in their infancy - we will give them time and support to grow batter. Oh yeah. Developing a bunch of different solutions to a problem is just plain more fun than a single game. FUN is the sub-textual goal. http://cleantech.com/news/5787/total-biofuel-investment-cleantech-coskata

10 cars = PR stunt. 110 cars, they might be serious. Get serious Volvo! You are another company with a customer base that is invariably "green." Meaning prime adopters of a Volvo EV.