Who says car factories have to be dirty? Volkswagen built a car factory in the middle of the city of Dresden called the Transparent Factory. The factory actually replaced a convention center and attracts tourists and people wanting to buy a car. The factory workers wear white, there is no pollution and the car production process is visible with glass everywhere.

As you can see in the video above, the car plant uses the city's street car networks to deliver the car parts. McLaren has another very clean building that you would be surprised actually made cars. There is a video of that plant below the fold.

Can you imagine a future where American's rust belt is a clean, modern, tourist attraction?

Related:

• Cool videos: air propelled train, personal street car

[Source: YouTube, Google Video]

Building a new car, especially one that is advanced and sellable enough to carve its own niche in today's car world is very difficult. However, Thailand could be the place where it's easiest. Certain restrictions apply. See Thailand for details.

Oh, what the hey, I'll just give them to you. To be eligible for the tax incentives, a company must first of all be building vehicles that get better than 56.5 mpg, and produce less than 192 grams of carbon emissions per mile. The company must also invest at least 5 billion baht in the project - if you think that immediately rules you out, you're in luck, because that's only $147 million ... chump change. Said company must also produce at least 100,000 vehicles per year by the fifth year of the start of the project, else the incentives be revoked. If all of these qualifications are met, you're free and clear for up to eight years for sales tax exemption. They just this month lowered their excise tax to 17 percent, which doesn't sound too spectacular, but seems to be enough to kick off the new policy.

Note to Phoenix, Tesla, Palumbo, Loremo and all those others out there trying to make a green car: maybe you should invest in Mavis Beacon to learn a little Thai.

Thanks for the tip, Linton!

[Source: Monsters and Critics]

It seems like no matter what kind of fuel it is, it always comes from the Middle East or Texas. The latter is the case here, as Greenline Industries (no relation to Saturn) and Valco Bioenergy have just started up a new 3 million gallon per year biodiesel plant in Harlingen, TX. In Greenline's pursuit of alternative fuel happiness, they have won EPA awards for their designs in biodiesel production facilities.

At the new plant they will be making their biodiesel from cotton seeds and other vegetable oils locally available. The remarkable thing about this new facility is that it started up literally without a hitch. According to Hollis Sullivan, Valco Bioenergy's CEO, it was "one of the most trouble-free start ups I have ever witnessed." Because of their extensive testing and planning, they are able to build their facilities quickly, and bring them up to full production capacity even faster. Of course, 3 million gallons per year in the grand scheme of things is really not a lot. However, if they can start more plants as quickly, they could be well on their way to being a biodiesel leader in the U.S.

[Source: Greenline Industries]

Nanosolar, a well funded startup in Palo Alto, CA, announced a production facility for solar cells with sufficient capacity to produce enough solar cells to generate 430 megawatts. This production capacity is about a quarter of the total worldwide solar cell production capacity. The company developed a new method to mass produce solar cells based on a thin film technology which could eventually be cost competitive with grid electricity, as opposed to the traditional crystalline silicon approach, which is about three to five times too costly to compete with grid technology. Ramping up to full production will take some time, and demand for solar cells worldwide will keep initial prices high, but in several years prices should make solar-power electricity competitive with grid power. The production process is based on printing technology similar to that used to print newspapers, as opposed to the expensive vacuum-based methods.

[Source: MIT Technology Review]