Hacking the Car: Cyber Security Risks Hit the Road: Imagine seeing the damage caused by Internet viruses and worms unleashed on a fleet of vehicles. The results could include vehicle location data used with malicious intent, the prevention of a plug-in vehicle battery from recharging, remote starting of a car, or even — as a disgruntled young former car salesman in Texas has demonstrated this week — stranding drivers with a car that won’t start and a horn that won’t quit.

California’s Smart Meter Battle: Google vs. Utilities: There’s a battle looming in California over smart meters and energy prices. Google says the state should require its big utilities to give near real-time pricing information to every smart meter-enabled customer by the end of next year. California’s big three utilities — Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric — have raised plenty of objections to that deadline.

Tendril to Launch Digital Clock Inspired Home Energy Gadget: Make it familiar and compelling — that’s the idea behind the design of energy management startup Tendril’s new gadget dubbed the Vision, which the company plans to unveil next week. The dashboard, designed by design firm IDEO, and based on the form of a digital clock, is intended to help consumers really engage with managing their energy consumption by using captivating design elements.

It’s Come to This: Citizens Against Smart Meters: The backlash against the smart meters installed in Texas by utility Oncor doesn’t seem to be dying down. Actually the protesters are getting more organized and turning to social media. A group called Smart UR Citizens has a new web site, an online petition, an intro video and an online survey, and is inviting community members to submit videos and comments about their experiences.

Get Your Open Source Home Energy Developer Kit, Courtesy of People Power: There’s a growing number of options out there for aspiring home energy app makers — wireless energy management startup People Power released its software developer’s kit called SuRF (Sensor Ultra Radio Frequency) for OSHAN (Open Source Home Area Network).

Obama Signs $18B Jobs Bill: “President Obama signed an $18 billion jobs bill into law in a Rose Garden ceremony this morning, providing tax breaks for businesses that hire previously unemployed workers and extending funding for infrastructure and transportation projects.” — Washington Post’s 44

EDRs on the Way for Prius Investigation: Toyota currently has only one prototype electronic data recovery (EDR) reader “in use within the entire U.S., making assessment of problematic vehicles both time consuming and difficult.” The automaker plans to have 100-150 EDR readers here by the end of next month, and 400 more “as soon as they become available.” — Autoblog Green

Wrong Kind of Carbon Recycling: “The BlueNext carbon exchange on Wednesday had suspended CER [certified emissions reductions] trading after it found that ‘used’ permits had traded on its exchange, and said on Thursday that it would resume such trade on March 22, having made it ‘impossible to trade recycled CERs.’” — Reuters

Beginning of the End of the Incandescent: After 120 years in the incandescent lightbulb business, Toshiba announced this week that, “it has produced its last major run of…the electricity-guzzling light source.” — CNET’s Green Tech

Four Obstacles for Electric Bikes: Obstacles that have kept electric bikes from taking hold in North America (and in particular the Pacific Northwest) like they have in China include immature technology, bike culture (hardcore cyclists say going electric is “cheating”), closed distribution channels and safety. – Grist

BYD Backs Off Electric Car Goals: The South China Morning Post reports that Warren Buffett-backed BYD Co. has given up on plans to mass produce its all-electric vehicle in China by the middle of this year. “The company will make 100 E6 electric cars,” for use in the Shenzhen taxi fleet, but “[f]urther development of the vehicles will depend on the success of the taxis.” — Bloomberg

Progress for Lake Turkana Wind Project: “Kenya’s Lake Turkana Wind Power project – set to become Africa’s largest wind farm – looks to be back on track after securing financing through a new shareholding structure.” — NYT’s Green Inc.

Electric Amsterdam: With the goal of having 200,000 electric cars on its roads by 2040, the city of Amsterdam has announced a €3 million ($4.1 million) plan “aimed at promoting electric vehicle development. On the schedule: subsidies towards vehicle purchase, financial assistance for companies and incentive measures.” – Sustainable-Mobility.org via Green Car Congress

Gaps in U.S. Climate Coping Policy: “The federal government has ’significant gaps’ in its strategy to cope with the increasing effects of climate change on the country, according to a White House report scheduled to be released Tuesday.” According to a draft, the “report will call for better risk assessments, more thorough scientific research and improved coordination of federal and local governments.” — LA Times

Testing, Testing, Smart Meters: “Oncor is conducting about three dozen side-by-side tests of mechanical and digital meters around North and Central Texas in response to consumer complaints that the new meters cause bills to rise. The first results show that they do measure the same way and that they are accurate, said Oncor spokesman Chris Schein.” — Dallas Morning News.

Toyota Takes on “Runaway” Prius Driver’s Claims: “Toyota Motor Sales on Monday challenged the contention of the driver of a Prius who said his car accelerated unintentionally March 8 while traveling on a freeway near San Diego,” saying it found in a preliminary analysis that the accelerator pedal, front brakes, power switch and other systems and components worked normally. — MarketWatch

Risks of Sector-by-Sector Climate Policy: Senators John Kerry and Lindsey Graham’s approach to crafting a compromise climate bill by, “applying different types of carbon limits to different sectors of the industry doesn’t just downplay the urgency of reducing emissions. Some economists say the sector-specific approach would be costlier to society and less efficient than an economy-wide approach.” — Solve Climate via The Hill

More Megawatts for First Solar: Thin-film solar giant First Solar has “struck a deal to sell a 30 megawatt power project to utility owner Southern Co and Ted Turner’s Turner Renewable Energy,” in New Mexico. — Reuters

SemaConnect Jumps Into EV Services Ring: Bootstrapped smart-charging SemaConnect has installed some of its first devices at the Loews Annapolis Hotel. “Users of the SemaConnect service will get a key fob that identifies their vehicle and authorizes access to a power outlet controlled by one of the firm’s devices; a wave of the device in front of a gray box logs a user on and keeps track of power usage. SemaConnect sends the owner a bill.” — Washington Post

Community Solar: “A new solution is springing up in pockets of the country” for renters who want to invest in solar installations. In community solar arrays, “the idea is that utilities build the arrays, and customers…can buy a share.” But some solar companies fear the scheme,”might compete for public subsidies with rooftop solar panel.” — NYT’s Green Inc.

Smart Meter Backlash, Again: This Time in Texas: Uh-oh, another local backlash against the installation of smart meters — and this time it’s not in Bakersfield, Calif., the home of the original smart meter lawsuit that rattled utilities nationwide late last year. The Dallas Morning News (hat tip Green Inc) reports that “hundreds” of Texans who received smart meters in Oncor’s service territory are complaining about the accuracy of the meters after receiving unusually high energy bills after the meters were installed.

Utilities Not Ready for Coming Customer Engagement from Smart Grid: A report from research firm IDC Energy Insights, and sponsored by telecom firm Telus, finds that utilities “have not thought through the implications of new technology and products on customer relationships or the business process.” In other words utilities are not at all prepared for the increased amount of communication, education and interactivity that will be required from installing new smart grid technology.

How Toyota’s Prius Troubles Will Shape the Green Car Market: Not too long ago, Toyota reigned as the seemingly untouchable hybrid leader. That dominance — in terms of both market share (50 percent of hybrids sold in the U.S.) and mindshare (no alt-fuel vehicle on the market is better known or more widely recognized than the Toyota Prius) — means that as the Prius image takes a beating, other models across the spectrum of green cars will also get bruised.

Bloom Energy, Fuel Cells, Not A Good Match For Utilities — Yet: An administrative judge with the California Public Utilities Commission made a preliminary decision to reject requests from utilities Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison to buy $43 million in fuel cells from FuelCell Energy and Bloom Energy for 6 MW of electricity. The CPUC can either accept or reject that judge’s recommendation, but still, it’s not a good sign for the pairing of fuel cells with the power grid anytime soon — fuel cells are just too expensive right now.

7 Startups Building Green Car Tech for a Pre-Electric World: There are a raft of startups working on technology that could help boost the fuel efficiency and reduce the emissions of the world’s vehicle fleet long before electric cars go mainstream. Here’s 7 of them.

4 Lessons For Fuel Cell Makers, Amidst the Bloom Boom: Fuel cell maker Bloom Energy faces a long road that’s already been littered with a variety of lessons from fuel cell pioneers including UTC Power, Ballard Power Systems:, Plug Power, FuelCell Energy, and many, many others. Here are some of the key lessons to be learned from the experience of fuel cell makers, past, present and future.

Feed-in Tariff on the Way on SoCal: The country’s largest municipal utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, “is poised to pass a roughly 5 percent rate increase on electricity use,” with proceeds earmarked for renewable energy programs including a feed-in tariff for solar power. — New York Times

Meet the Gribble Worm: “Most cellulosic ethanol companies that are using bio-chemical methods require the use of expensive enzymes to breakdown the polysaccharides into simple sugars that can be further fermented into ethanol.” But new research suggests a crustacean called the Gribble worm, “is an idiot savant when it comes to transforming wood into sugars.” — Greentech Media

Shift in the Energy Balance: “The path of demand in [natural] gas’s new age is hard to predict, but abundant new sources could bring about profound change in patterns of energy consumption.” — The Economist

Americans on Climate Change: Meh: “Americans are less concerned about the threat of climate change than they were two years ago and almost half say the seriousness of global warming is overblown, a Gallup Organization Inc. poll shows.” — Bloomberg via BusinessWeek

Aurica Motors Angles for NUMMI: “Who the heck is Aurica Motors? An under-the-radar electric car company with big dreams, that’s who. A company that, if it gets its way, will turn the soon-to-be-closed NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA into a huge production facility for electric vehicles.” — Autoblog Green

Google Maps Adds Bike Directions (Finally): Google added biking directions and information about bike trails, lanes and recommended roads today to Google Maps for the U.S. — Google Blog

Smith Electric Vehicles Offers $55M for UK Partner: Kansas City-based Smith Electric Vehicles has offered to buy its British partner, the Tanfield Group’s Smith Electric Vehicles UK, for 37 million pounds ($55.2 million) in cash and a portion of any future public offering. — Kansas City Business Journal

Solazyme Expands Deal with Unilever: Algae fuel and products startup Solazyme “has signed a research and development agreement with Unilever to develop oil derived from algae for use in soaps and other personal care products. Solazyme says the deal “follows the culmination of a yearlong collaboration between Solazyme and Unilever, in which Solazyme’s renewable algal oils were tested successfully in Unilever product formulations.” — release.

Valeo to Go Big for Hybrid and Electric Powertrains: “Valeo SA, France’s second-largest car-parts maker, said today that two-thirds of the research budget will be spent on hybrid and electric powertrains, as well as on cutting carbon-dioxide emissions from conventional engines.” — Edmunds Green Car Advisor

Climate Change Skepticism in China’s Diplomatic Ranks: “In yet another unnerving sign that China may not be on the same page as other major countries combating climate change, its top climate negotiator said there was still uncertainty about the causes of global warming.” — The Atlantic

$154M in Fed Funds for NRG’s Clean Coal Project: “Secretary Chu Announces Up To $154 Million for NRG Energys Carbon Capture and Storage Project in Texas,” which is the third round of the Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI). — release.

Senator Dick Lugar’s Energy Plan: “U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar said today that he is drafting a practical energy plan that would meet many climate improving goals, without cap and trade, by conserving energy and saving people, businesses and government money. — Lugar’s site.

Markey and Hundt on How to Recreate the Telecom Boom for Energy: “Creating the right framework for our communications networks led investors to commit about $850 billion to rebuild those networks. With the right set of policies, it is reasonable expect a similar explosion of private sector investment in the energy sector.” — Talking Points Memo.

Batter Maker PowerGenix Links With U.S. Army: PowerGenix says its Nickel-Zinc rechargeable batteries will be tested by the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) “as a possible replacement for the lead-acid “6T” batteries currently in use.” — release.

KB Home Pre-Wiring for EVs: Home builder KB Home announced today “that it will begin offering an option to pre-wire its new Built to Order homes to accommodate charging stations for homeowners’ electric vehicles.” — release.

Friends of the Supergrid: Dubbed the “Friends of the Supergrid,” a new group of 10 companies “pushing to build a pan-European offshore power network,” joins firms “that want to build the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) infrastructure together with those that hope to develop, install, own and operate it.” — Reuters

Renault’s Biggest EV Fear: “Far from a looming bubble and bear market for electric cars and their batteries, Renault fears the opposite: a global competitive rush to develop them.” Renault chief operating officer Patrick Pelata told reporter in Geneva that, “The biggest strategic fear is that the Chinese or Indian auto industry will take a shortcut.” — Financial Times

Yingli Green Energy Earnings: “Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. on Monday said its fourth-quarter results slid to a loss driven by one-time charges, but the solar cell maker predicted 2010 module shipments to nearly double from 2009 levels.” — Associated Press via Los Angeles Times

On the Ground at MIT: “The MIT Energy Conference on Saturday covered a little bit of everything–’China speed,’ climate change, financing gaps, government policy, nuclear and natural gas, and, of course, science experiments–as entrepreneurs, business people, and academics tried to get their arms around big-picture energy challenges.” — CNET’s Green Tech

Energy Storage: Product or Service?: “To overcome some of the economic realities of the energy market and to better highlight some of the advantages of storage systems, makers of large-scale batteries, flywheels and other types of equipment may start to position themselves as power providers or service providers instead of manufacturers.” — Greentech Media

April 29: Save the date. That’s when we’re holding our second annual Green:Net conference in San Francisco — the only event focused on how software, computing and networks will fight climate change. And we just wanted to let you know that tomorrow, Friday, is the last day to buy the Super Saver Ticket special, which will save you $100 off the full price ticket (buy tickets here). Why wait to buy?

I am very excited about this year’s speaker line up. Here’s some speakers you have to look forward to:

• Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, was a web pioneer backing companies like Hotmail and has emerged as a leading greentech investor backing companies like Tesla and Synthetic Genomics. What’s his vision for a greentech future with his IT past?
• I’ll be interviewing the executives in charge of Google and Microsoft’s Internet-based energy initiatives — Microsoft’s Product Unit Manager of Hohm Troy Batterberry and Google’s Program Manager in Advanced Projects and PowerMeter Ed Lu.
• On our smart grid panel we’ll discuss the future of the digital power grid with Silver Spring Networks EVP Eric Dresselhuys, and Cisco’s SVP and GM, Smart Grid, Laura Ipsen.
• We’ll hear how a Texas utility plans to get ready for the coming onslaught of electric vehicles, from Jason Few, President of Reliant Energy.
• Google’s got one of the most innovative energy efficient data center and server strategies around. Learn about Google Green Energy Czar Bil Weihl’s strategies.
• Bill Gross, the founder and Chairman of incubator Idealab, will teach us how smart algorithms and computing power will deliver low cost solar.

And much, much more, including carbon software, how the web leads to dematerialization (exchanging atoms for bits), investing in the intersection of greentech and IT, and how policy will make all of this happen.