Thursday, July 15, 2010

Will these Two Companies Green Your Parking Lot and Fatten Your Wallet?

Making Our Oil Addiction a Thing of the Past
BP's catastrophic spill proved once again that our addiction to oil is downright dangerous.

With our need for new fuels comes a new frontier for investors of these cheaper and more reliable future fuels...
Alternative energy expert Nick Hodge has come across a company that he expects can hand you over 1,925% gains with the transportation technology that will lead the pack in clean, efficient energy.

You could see the heat haze swirling around the rows and rows of sedans, SUVs, hybrids, and convertibles. It looked like high-end special effects from a James Cameron film. And I definitely felt for all the poor souls who had to climb into those mobile solar ovens at quitting time.
But it also got me thinking about a solar-powered parking structure I saw in California a couple of years ago.
Envision Solar logoBuilt by a company called Envision Solar (OTCBB: EVSI), the structure provided shade for parked vehicles and turned parking lots into solar electric generating systems.
Take a look...
solar1     solar2
solar3     solar4
What a fantastic use of space — especially as we prepare to integrate electric vehicle charging stations into our parking lots and garages.
You know, often we think of parking lots of having no real value beyond providing a place to park our cars. It's almost as if building design ends at the curb, and the parking lot is a necessary afterthought.
But that's a lot of empty space that could be multi-functioning.
Envision has actually demonstrated this with 16 installed projects in the United States, most of which are in California. The company also has about 70 megawatts of projects in its pipeline right now.
Envision Solar has even developed a new solar tracking technology that can increase the output of these systems by 20% and reduce cost per watt by 15%.
The first prototype — which was funded by the state of Pennsylvania — will be completed this year.
Parking lots go green
Greenscape Capital Group Inc.There's also an interesting company called Greenscape Capital Group (TSX-V: GRN) which is currently building a 4,200-stall parking facility in Denver.
The company claims it will be the world's greenest parking facility — utilizing solar and wind power, natural landscaping, and alternatively-fueled shuttle vans. The facility even boasts building specifications based on the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Gold rating.
The appraised value upon completion of the project is about $31.7 million with projected net operating income of $5.1 million per year in years 2-10. The project has a 25-year life with the option to extend to 45 years.
Greening up parking lots and parking garages may not sound like the most exciting thing in the world — but there's some serious profit potential here.

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