Utilities Prepare to Serve Electric Cars

Many utilities, particularly on the West Coast, are preparing for a big increase in the number of electric cars set to hit U.S. showrooms in 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported. California regulators expect to have about 33,000 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles by 2011, and rise to 1.6 million by 2020, the Journal reported. PG&E, based in San Francisco, expects to see 33 new electric vehicle models in the next two years.

The task of providing electric-vehicle charging equipment is falling to the electric utility companies that will provide the fuel. Most utility companies are partnering with auto companies to help figure out where and how to install vehicle charging equipment and how to handle the increased power demand, according the Journal.

The hope is that the utility companies resolve installation of the charging equipment at convenient locations at the same time auto makers resolve technology issues that have emerged with the batteries they use.
Green growth stocks are leading the trend toward environmentally friendly ends, be they new sources of clean energy, products that mitigate the environmental impact and energy cost of existing technologies or those that profit from the increasing move by consumers to organic and efficient products.

As a sector, Green investments offer the most profit potential since the Internet boom of the mid-1990s.

Source : Cabot, by Maura Lockwood, December 23rd, 2009