All-electric in Central Park Video

All-electric in Central Park Video Transcript

[ Sound effects ] ^M00:00:02 [Mark:] Hey. I'm Mark Licea, and this week we take an all-electric moped through Central Park. You can track energy usage at the Olympic Games. And future iPods may be solar powered. The Green Show starts now. ^M00:00:15 [ Music ] ^M00:00:23 [Mark:] The Liberty Zero is an all-electric moped, and you don't even need a license to ride. Take a look.

>> The reason why Liberty Motors and the reason why we started in the first place was there's obviously a large need in the market for more green products in the automotive industry and in the travel industry. So what we do is we went kind of above and beyond in that, we're going to make a scooter that's lithium-ion powered so it can charge quickly. You don't need to service it; everything's all enclosed. No oil changes or gasoline or anything like that. It's perfect for living anywhere near a city. In the meantime, you don't need to find a gas station to run it, either. So the reasons behind that: it makes it much more of a friendly product for the environment than with a standard combustion engine of a motorcycle or even a car. This is a lithium-ion battery. Two of these batteries power a scooter. A standard vehicle uses a lead acid battery, which is much heavier than ours. Also it would take much longer to recharge. So our batteries can recharge very quickly, are quite lightweight and portable so you actually can bring them inside and charge them at home or at work. The cost to charge a battery is about six -- well, two batteries, about 60 cents to go 50 miles. We have an upgraded model. It's called the Zero R -- this being the Zero. Zero R can get 80 miles opposed to the 50 on this one, with that same hour and a half charge. On the Zero model also we have an option where it can charge in less than 30 minutes. You get that same 80 miles. Currently they're available right now. We have them in the United States. We have them in different stores, warehouses. But the best thing to do it is look online at our website: Libertymotors.com and find the dealer nearest you. [Mark:] Vancouver is gearing up for the Olympics this year. Green is a big theme at the 2010 Winter Games and a company called Post Energy wants to track the energy use at the games. I actually just got back from Whistler this week and they are really pushing energy efficiency. Most of Whistler Village runs off hydroelectricity, which is energy powered by running water. The government also invested in hydrogen-powered buses. I saw them all throughout the village. Post Energy software will give a real-time readout of how much energy is being used during the games at different venues in Vancouver. You can track energy usage of the Olympics yourself by going to venueenergytracker.com. ^*Apple's iPod can pretty much do anything you would need it to for a gadget of its size. It's not solar powered right now, but it could be. The site Patently Apple reports Apple applied for a patent to use solar cells on its gadgets. Apparently Apple's iPod engineers have been looking into this for some time, and the design of a future iPod could have solar cells built right into the face of the iPod. ^*Speaking of solar, Walmart just announced the completion of their largest solar farm. It's in Apple Valley, California. The farm covers about seven acres and generates enough energy to power 175 homes. The mega-retailer is one of the few chains to roll out solar energy in its stores, and the company says it's committed to being 100 percent supplied by renewable energy and creating zero waste. ^*In the market for an energy efficient appliance? There's a site that lets you take advantage of rebate deals in your area. It's called Eco Rebates, and it tells you information on deals in your particular state. You just click on the website's map and you see a list of criteria per state, and it will even tell you where to buy from and direct you to your state's rebate website. You can get paid for your energy efficient appliance by going to ecorebates.com. That's all for this week. You can write to us anytime: Green show at cnet.com. I'm Mark Licea. Thanks for watching. ^M00:03:55 [ Music ]