I’ll write more as details emerged, but it appears that Toronto-based Feel Good Cars is making headway with its low-speed electric vehicle known as ZENN — which stands for Zero Emission, No Noise.

On top of upgrading the design of the ZENN, they’re aggressively signing up U.S. dealerships, are meeting with potential investors and even have plans to go public in early 2006 on the Toronto Stock Exchange — Venture Exchange.

I wrote about the ZENN in April, at which time Feel Good Cars founder and CEO Ian Clifford was trying to raise enough money to transition from prototype to commercial manufacturing. It appears this took a little longer than he expected, as initial delivery of the ZENN to dealerships was supposed to start in September. But alas, momentum and confidence seems to be building again. They’ve even hired a PR agency, signalling that the days of operating in stealth are over and that they’re ready to aggressively promote the product.

Too bad Ontarians won’t be able to enjoy the ZENN, no thanks to outdated legislation that forbids low-speed vehicles on even the slowest of roads. I’m hearing that the province may be open to doing some LSV pilots, but so far the government’s approach to the issue has been pathetic. Ontarians should be outraged at the closed-mindedness at the Ministry of Transportation.

The BIOCAP Canada Foundation and the government of British Columbia will unveil a report today detailing the feasibility of building a 300-megawatt biomass power plant that would operate on dead and rotted trees. No thanks to the dreaded Mountain Pine Beetle, it’s estimated that B.C. has enough infested trees to supply such a biomass plant for the next 20 years or more.

The power plant itself — a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) steam cycle plant — would be carbon-neutral and would harvest dead trees to make room for reforestation of healthy species. It would also create jobs in a forestry industry that has been hurt by the beetle infestation.

In researching this report, BIOCAP sent a team to Finland to study what’s recognized as the world’s largest biomass plant. (Click here for details of that visit)

“Note that if a suitable host can be found for low quality heat, the plant could be developed as a cogeneration facility, with improved economics,” the report states.

“In summary, MPB killed wood provides a unique opportunity to convert otherwise wasted biomass in B.C. to useful electrical power at reasonable cost, a project that would sustain jobs, contribute to a clean environment, potentially help Canada meet its obligations under the Kyoto accord, and put Canada at the forefront of biomass utilization.”

An intriguing idea.