An incentive package prompts the electric car maker to build its plant and offices there.

Tesla Motors Inc., aiming to be the first high-volume maker of electric cars, plans to build a $250-million plant to produce sedans in San Jose and move its headquarters to the same facility.

The factory initially will employ about 1,000 people and be able to produce 15,000 cars a year when it opens in late 2010, Chief Executive Ze'ev Drori said Wednesday.

Construction costs will be more than $100 million. As part of an incentive package from the state, California will buy and lease to Tesla assembly machinery valued at about the same amount, he said.

Full article: latimes.com 

Labels: California, car, electric, Tesla

Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, is investing $10.25 million in two companies working on a new way to tap into the heat beneath the earth’s surface.

The companies are AltaRock Energy, which gets $6.25 million, and Porter Drilling, which gets $4 million. Additionally, the Geothermal Laboratory at Southern Methodist University, which is working on locating geothermal sources in North America, will receive a grant of about $490,000.

The money comes from Google’s RE C initiative, which seeks to develop renewable energy sources that are cheaper than electricity produced from coal.

Full article: csmonitor.com 

Labels: coal, electric, geothermal, technology

RechargeIT is a Google.org initiative that aims to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid technology.

By demonstrating the technology using our own fleet and supporting others through grants and investments, together we will drive toward a plug-in revolution.

Learn more: RechargeIT.org 

Labels: car, CO2, electric, hybrid, technology

Google’s ‘RechargeIT’ initiative transforms hybrid cars into mostly electrically powered vehicles that barely use the fuel tank to double the fuel economy of regular hybrids, pump energy back into the grid and reduce emissions while providing US $10m to speed up progress.

With Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, already an investor in Silicon Valley’s ‘Tesla Motors’ electric car company, along with Google’s recent moves to work on energy efficient technology with Intel, Google is positioning itself to make as big a difference to the world of renewable energies as it has in search and online advertising.

Full article: ITWire.com.au/ 

Labels: electric, power, Sergey Brin, solar, Tesla