We’re doomed. It seems the mainstream media believe that the most pressing issues of our times — climate change, environmental degradation, energy security, etc. – should be left to general assignment reporters or treated as political news covered by political reporters. Copenhagen, for the most part, was covered as a political event, yet the issues underlying this political conference were highly scientific in nature. Covering these issues properly requires a certain expertise, specifically when we’re dealing with a politically charged issue like climate change. Environmental reporters know when they’re being duped by faux experts; political or GA reporters don’t. Environmental reporters are better at explaining complex issues in a way that the average person can better understand; political or GA reporters can often make matters even more confusing to the reader or gloss over important details.

Sadly, the environmental reporter has become an endangered species. I heard yesterday that the Oregonian just disbanded its environmental reporting team and made them all into general assignment reporters. Also yesterday Keith Johnson announced that his Wall Street Journal blog Environmental Capital was “closing its virtual doors.” In October, the prestigious Columbia School of Journalism announced it had stopped accepting applications for its Earth and Environmental Science Journalism program because of “the current weakness in the job market for environmental journalists.” In a letter to its faculty, the school wrote “media organizations across the country are in dire financial straits and thousands of journalists’ jobs have been eliminated. Science and environment beats have been particularly vulnerable.”

Again, this is all happening at a time when we need this kind of experienced coverage most, and when governments and the business community both are giving environmental issues more attention than ever. My own newspaper, the Toronto Star, used to have two environmental reporters a year ago. Through newsroom attrition both positions are vacant, but given plans to downsize the newsroom there appears no desire to fill those spots. It’s discouraging to say the least.

But, hell, we can all take comfort that Sarah Palin is joining Fox News.

Quebec is an obvious place to introduce electric cars on a large scale. Its power mostly comes from hydroelectric facilities and, culturally, it’s more European than North American in many ways. It’s little surprise then that Mitsubishi has chosen to team up with Hydro-Quebec on a large electric-vehicle trial that will see 50 of its i-MiEVs tested in a variety of conditions, particularly cold and snowy winter conditions. The estimated cost of the project is $4.5 million, and the vehicles will be integrated into existing commercial fleets operating in the City of Boucherville. The project, to launch this fall, is “the first of its kind to include the participation of a car manufacturer, a public utility, a municipality and local businesses that will integrate the vehicles into their existing fleets,” Hydro-Quebec said in a statement, adding that the trial will help the utility plan for the charging infrastructure required in homes, offices and public spaces.

Would love to see a trial of this size announced in Ontario, though I’m guessing something is in the works. BTW: Just to get it on the record, Tesla Motors said today it has built its 1,000th vehicle, an impressive milestone. The company, meanwhile, has its new Model S on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Tesla will start producing the lower cost Model S (roughly $50,000 after government rebates) in 2012.

It’s like one of those pioneer land rushes that we’ve read about so much in history. Now that Ontario, through its new feed-in tariff program, is prepared to pay richly for the electricity that comes from commercial rootop PV systems, there’s a mad dash to lock up rooftop spaces around the province. Dozens of companies have flooded the market cold-calling property owners and asking them if they’d like to sign 20-year leases for access to their rooftops. Some offer to pay an annual rent based on a certain amount of dollars per square foot, while others are offering a percentage of annual electricity revenues that come from the government program. It’s a no-brainer for the property owner, so long as they make sure their rooftop can handle the weight of both the PV system and the winter snow loads typical in a Canadian climate. Property owners also need to be cautious about who they’re dealing with. Will the project be insured in case there’s damage to the roof? Leaks? And what if the roof needs repairs 10 years into the 20-year contract? Kind of hard to make the fix when there are solar panels layered over top.

For my recent article in the Toronto Star on this latest real-estate trend, click here. Greta Energy, Canadian Solar, CarbonFree Technology, Ozz Solar, Enfinity Canada, Rumble Energy and Helios Energy are among the companies now pushing this rooftop-lease approach.

Keep in mind that solar PV isn’t the only rooftop game in town. In fact, there are many in the solar-thermal business who are feeling the heat — so to speak — because of all the rooftop space being snatched up by the PV folks. It raises the question: What’s the best use for these rooftops, solar thermal or solar PV? Solar PV can work in any situation, but there may be some large rooftop spaces that are more ideal for solar thermal. For example, today the University of Toronto announced that its athletic centre has installed 100 solar thermal panels that will provide hot water for showers and laundry machines in the facility. That’s an ideal use for the roof, and it will reduce natural gas use during summer peak months by 25 per cent. Other ideal candidates for solar thermal include hospitals, schools, senior’s homes, and anywhere where there’s a high density of people who use a lot of hot water through the day and into the early evening. What would be interesting is the installation of dual thermal-PV systems, which companies like Conserval Engineering are working on.

I’ve had a few e-mails from readers wondering what the heck is going on at ZENN Motor Co., which apparently didn’t — contrary to its own expectations — receive its first commercial EESU demonstration unit from EEStor before the end of 2009.  The company has yet to put out a press release on this (as a publicly traded company, some say it should), so here’s the response I got directly from the company’s media-relations department:

The last remaining contractual milestone between ZMC and EEStor is the third party verification of delivery of a full production quality EESU that meets certain specifications outlined in the Technology Agreement between the companies. Achievement of this milestone will be announced by ZENN Motor Company via news release to all stakeholders.

Any interim sharing of information or technology between ZMC and EEStor is confidential in nature and will not be publicly disclosed. Any announcements related to EEStor’s technology that fall outside of the contractual milestone described above are strictly within EEStor’s purview to release to the public. ZMC will only comment on EEStor’s progress once the information is made available in the public domain by EEStor.

ZMC remains focused on the development of its ZENNergy drivetrain solutions in anticipation of the successful commercialization of EEStor’s technology. ZMC continues to work with EEStor on a regular basis.

So, that’s where things stand… As Chaucer wrote more than 600 years ago, “Patience is a high virtue.” Or not. I doubt you’ll hear ZENN making any more predictions of when it will receive its first EESU. Still, given the expectations it has built up over the last two years and given that ZENN’s future rests almost entirely on the success of EEStor, the company should probably be more communicative with shareholders. At the same, shareholders need to realize that with those updates ZENN isn’t making hard promises, but merely shedding light on a schedule that — as we’ve certainly learned — is difficult to nail down.

UPDATE: StephenB makes a good point in COMMENTS by parsing ZENN’s statement. It may have received an EESU, but hasn’t announced anything yet until “third party verification of delivery of a full production quality EESU that meets certain specifications.” So, technically, ZENN may — or may not — be on track. We just don’t know.

We hear a lot about ZigBee, Z-Wave and even Wi-Fi when it comes to standards for smart-grid appliances. But a dark horse in this race could be trusty old FM radio, which Toronto-based e-Radio Inc. is strongly pushing. The company has developed an FM receiver smaller than a postage stamp that would be embedded into appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines and dryers, electric water heaters and thermostats. On Friday, it announced a deal with Canada’s national radio broadcaster, CBC Radio/Radio-Canada, which would allow the use of its cross-country frequencies for smart grid control applications. (See my Toronto Star article here)

The CBC reaches 99 per cent of the Canadian population, so the bonus is that no new infrastructure need be developed. The idea of using FM signals for smart grid applications was promoted in October by the U.S. National Association of Broadcasters in a submission to the Federal Communications Commission. As Greentech Media’s Michael Kanellos wrote back in May, FM broadcasters could become giants of energy management. Apparently General Electric is working with FM frequencies and is a partner with e-Radio on at least one pilot project. It will be interesting to see how much traction the FM promoters get. It makes sense to use an existing and reliable low-power frequency as a standard — these are, after all, basic telemetry applications we’re talking about.

The question is whether down the line we’ll need to send more than just price signals, on/off commands and other basic information as part of home and business energy-management applications. In other words, should we be planning for two-way broadband? Also, this narrowband approach causes problems for large-scale deployment of demand-response, since FM signals are a one-way thing — the utility doesn’t get a message back that a dishwasher at someone’s house was actually turned off. It must assume that it was. If, for some reason, a demand-response call is ordered but it fails to deliver, then a system operator relying on that command being carried out could be blindly taking actions that put grid reliability at risk. These are issues to be sorted out.