Three U.S. senators — two Democrats, one Republican — introduced a bill today that would create a national incentive program for the voluntary retirement of inefficient vehicles. The four-year program would apply to anyone who had a driveable vehicle registered for four months or longer that got no more than 18 miles per gallon. The vehicle owner would have the option of turning in the car, truck or SUV to be scrapped in exchange for a credit of $2,500 to $4,500. The credit could be applied toward the purchase of a new fuel-efficient vehicle or, in the form of a voucher, could be redeemed for transit fares.

If passed, the bill would aim to encourage the early retirement of up to one million vehicles each year — four million in total. “If enacted, this bill would be an important part of helping getting America’s struggling automobile industry back on its feet — and help consumers who are concerned about covering the cost of buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle,” said Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California.

What’s good about this bill is that it would create economic stimulus and help achieve the goals of emission reductions and energy security. (more…)

Since I first wrote about Toronto-based WhalePower nearly two years ago, the company has been working away in the background trying to improve its design and document its improved efficiency. The blades are designed to mimic the bumps or tubercles that line the leading edge of humpback whale flippers. The bumps allow the blades to capture more energy from the wind, and to capture that energy at lower wind speeds. (Click here for background story on the design’s benefits).

Stephen Dewar, co-founder and vice-president of business affairs at WhalePower, says the industrial fan blades are currently being showcased for the first time at the PROMAT trade show in Chicago this week. Envira-North Systems Ltd. of Seaforth, Ontario, has licensed the design for their industrial fans. “These are the first tubercle technology products to come to market,” said Dewar in an e-mail. He said the fans — which use 5 tubercle blades to move the same amount of air as a standard 10-blade unit — are at least 25 per cent more energy efficient. “They produce one fifth the noise of previous state-of-the-art fans (and) require 25 per cent less power.”

WhalePower is still working away on wind-turbine blades, and tests from the Wind Energy Institute of Canada should be completed shortly. Dewar has had an early peek at the results. “They’re terrific,” he teased.

Who knows what the next quarter will bring, but so far Montreal-based solar materials supplier 5N Plus Inc. is weathering the economic storm quite well. The company, a major supplier to First Solar, announced its second-quarter ended Nov. 30 results today and the record growth continues. 5N reported a net income of $5.8 million for the period, a 377 per cent increase compared to the previous year. Revenues jumped 167 per cent to $18.14 million. More than that, the 12-month order backlog sits at $54.7 million,  a record level.

Nice to see some positive news for a change. The stock jumped 8 per cent today and is up 71 per cent since reaching its low in the fall. Still, it’s off by more than 50 per cent since July so there could be some good upside. No wonder the company has cleared the way to repurchase its own shares.

I just had to point this out to my readers because I think it’s a clever, well-targeted campaign.

A group called The Reality Coalition is running ads on buses and other public transit points that attempt to debunk industry claims that clean coal will be a cost-effective reality anytime soon. The ads show bigfoot, an alien and a mermaid holding a piece of coal, accompanied by the words: “The coal industry is spending millions advertising clean coal, but not a single clean coal power plant exists in the U.S. today.”

The ads are reportedly running in Washington, D.C., just in time for the flood of people heading to the capital for Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Here’s a TV ad released in early December the coalition has also produced. Pretty funny.

Montreal-based Enerkem Inc. says it is entering the start-up phase for its first commercial-scale plant, which in this case is designed to convert old utility poles into five million litres of cellulosic ethanol every year. The plant, based in Westbury, Quebec, began construction in October 2007 and its core — the “conditioned synthesis gas island” — was completed in December. The plant is now in its advanced commissioning stage and production of conditioned syngas will soon begin. The gas will be used as a chemical feedstock initially to make methanol, which will be converted into ethanol using a separate module. “Once these gas-to-liquid modules are bolted to the syngas island, Enerkem will become the first producer of liquid fuels and green chemicals to commercially use renewable, non-food, negative-cost feedstock,” the company said. “The Enerkem thermo-chemical process uses one tonne of waste to produce 360 litres (95 gallons) of ethanol,” the company said. That’s enough fuel for a car to travel 2,500 kilometres.

Last June, you’ll recall that Enerkem, in partnership with Greenfield Ethanol, announced it is building a plant in Edmonton that will convert municipal solid waste into cellulosic ethanol. This is a company to watch.