In an effort to both save some euros off the electricity bill and some CO2 from hitting the environment, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd, will install 606 solar panels at its Barcelona (Spain) vehicle plant by the end of this summer. which will cover a surface of 3,000 square-metres and generate 308,000 kWh of electricity per year, which helps them reduce CO2 emissions by 110 tons.
Nissan is also installed a similar layout on its other plant in Spain, in Ávila this summer, 732 solar panels resulting in savings of 267 tons of CO2 emissions every year. But not only Spain is getting renewable energy to power the plants, Nissan is also using renewable energy at its Sunderland vehicle plant in the UK, where it has erected six wind turbines good for 5 percent of the plant's electricity which cuts CO2 emissions by 3,300 tons a year.
These interventions are being held under Nissan's Green Program 2010, which expectations are to lower CO2 emissions 7 percent from 2005 levels.
Rio de Janeiro state government announced a new environmental program that makes compulsory the use of B5 (5 percent biodiesel blended with regular diesel) for all buses in the state. The official goal is to have 18,300 buses running with B5 by the end of 2008. A pilot test during 4 months will be performed on 3,000 vehicles. Current national standards are of B2. The authorities are also discussing with bus makers to raise the biodiesel standard up to 15 or 20 percent in three year's time.
This resolution comes as an agreement between the state government and the implied parties: BR (which belongs to Petrobras), vehicle makers such as Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen and the Fetransport (the federal association of transport companies).
The federal Brazilian government announced recently that B5 will be mandatory at all pumps no later than 2013. Brazil currently obtains biodiesel from vegetables such as soya and castor-oil plant.
Beijing and Vancouver are the cities of the next Summer and Winter Olympic games, respectively. They have joined forces with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to call car owners in the two cities to drive one day less in 2007 to mark the World Environment Day.
In Beijing the Construction and Environment Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) asked the staff to do their part in creating conditions for one more "blue sky" in the Chinese capital. 283 staff members kept their cars at home and took either the bike or the bus. 78 took the shuttle bus to work. The rest of the staff committed to drive one day less in the rest of the year.
The BOCOG and Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau launched similar initiatives a couple of times last year
According to a survey conducted for the Civil Society Institute (CSI) and 40mpg.org more than three out of four Americans (76 percent) -- including 78 percent of 2008 voters -- want Congress to raise the mile-per-gallon (MPG) requirement sharply now to 40 mpg by 2010 rather than waiting to reach a more modest MPG goal by 2018
The survey also offers some interesting findings of the CSI/40MPG.org. One is the very little difference between Democrats, Independents or Republicans. Another interesting finding is that 53 percent said they would be more likely to support a candidate who advocated a 40 mpg fuel-efficiency standard as a way to lower global warming and reduce U.S. reliance on Middle Eastern oil. Over a quarter of Americans (28 percent) say that a 40 mpg stance would make them likely to support a candidate, and only 15 percent say it would make them less likely to back such a candidate.
This survey was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation among a sample of 1,013 adults (504 men and 509 women) aged 18 and over living in private households in the Continental United States during April 19-22, 2007.
We have mentioned a few times on how good it would be to have such cars overnight. But are Americans really willing to trade V8s and or SUVs for hybrids, smaller cars or other alternatives?
ISE Corporation and Altair Nanotechnologies have agreed to jointly develop and supply Lithium rechargeable battery packs for use in hybrid electric and all electric heavy duty vehicles such as heavy duty buses, trucks, military vehicles and airport ground support equipment.
Altairnano will provide NanoSafeTM cells and batteries for battery packs based on their proprietary lithium titanate electrode materials, and data on the proper care and management of their cells and batteries. ISE will design the system utilizing its data on operating environments, vehicle shock and vibration criteria, vehicle duty cycles, software and control electronics. Other cooperative areas will include cell equalization and packaging of the commercial product.
In a statement, Dr. Alan J. Gotcher, president and CEO of Altairnano, said, "We believe that Altair's NanoSafe power storage products combined with ISE's control electronics and heavy duty vehicle packaging experience will enable our partnership to provide excellent product solutions to the heavy vehicle industry, a new market for Altairnano."
David Mazaika, president and CEO of ISE Corporation, was just as confident. ""ISE intends to continue to be a leader in the development of energy storage solutions for heavy duty electric and hybrid electric vehicles. We are excited to have partnered with Altairnano and feel that Altairnano's unique nano technology yields power storage solutions with high power and extremely long life that are ideally suited to maximize the performance of heavy duty hybrid vehicles," he said.
San Sebastian's (Spain) City Hall has announced that the local police will replace four of their patrol cars with hybrid vehicles. The only requirement for the cars is to have at least 110HP available, regardless of acceleration (before you question how will they be able to catch the bad guys, the police also have powerful motorbikes).
It's yet to be decided which model, although only the Honda Civic and Toyota Prius are available in the Spanish market. The Council wants to continue an eco-friendly policy which has already pushed all buses in the city to run on biodiesel. The plans also include renewing the rest of the fleet with environment-friendly vehicles.
Similar plans have been announced by other Spanish institutions, like the Junta de Andalucíam where only hybrids are to be purchased from 2010, or Barcelona, where electrical vehicles are used for cleaning in the old city center.
The Indian government, via the National Hydrogen Energy Board (NHEB), has announced plans for the introduction of hydrogen-fueled vehicles in the country and also suggest steps to develop hydrogen energy infrastructure in the country. The measure was announced by Vilas Muttemwar, Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy.
The National Hydrogen Road Map is being prepared by the Steering Group of the NHEB, headed by Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group. Under this initiative about one million vehicles plying Indian roads will use hydrogen as fuel. About 75 per cent of them are likely to be two and three wheelers. Power plants with a generating capacity of 1000 megawatt (MW) of hydrogen power would be set up by 2020, he added. He also pointed that the target of meeting at least 10 per cent of the country's power needs from renewable power by 2012 was achievable.
Ratan Tata, also announced that "Hydrogen fuel will become an alternative to fossil fuel on which we can build the national economy." He cautioned, however: "Hydrogen based energy may remain elusive for some time because there are major challenges in generating, storing and delivering it. But I am confident that even if we do not, our future generations will definitely have clear fuel."
The Hale Group, Ltd. and its affiliates have announced the Ethanol 2012 Study. This report is designed to define the forces that will impact the U.S. ethanol industry during the next five years and to develop appropriate competitive strategies. The study will have as collaborators experts in petroleum, agricultural, technology and policy.
Some of the questions that will be addressed during this study are the prediction on oil prices for the next 5 years and the factors that affect it, the components of the US energy, agriculture, and trade policy during the next few years, the role corn ethanol plays in that policy, possible changes in US biofuels policy, the impact of imports and when cellulosic ethanol will be available.
The conclusions of the study will be sold as a course aimed at current ethanol producers, companies that are considering entry into the industry, financial firms that have an investment in the ethanol industry, service providers to the ethanol industry, and governmental agencies.
Good news for the blue oval. The newest engine production line at Ford Dagenham's (East of London) plant has won a green award within two months of starting up. The award was given by judges from Business Commitment to the Environment (BCE). This plant currently produces a 1.6 liter diesel engine and is starting the 1.4 liter production this month (this engine, when powering the Fiesta, emits less 120 CO2 g/km).
What are the measures Ford has implemented in this plant? Fluids used during the machining of new engines are blended from vegetable oil rather than mineral oil. Metal filings and other waste from the machining process are squeezed dry of lubricants and sold on as briquettes for recycling. They have also implemented measures for fluid recycling, designing high efficiency coolant, extraction and chiller plant systems and installing two 3MW wind turbines. Dagenham is Ford's only wind-powered plant worldwide.
As our colleagues from Autoblog have published, the new Renault Laguna is not going to be officially shown off until the upcoming Frankfurt Auto Show in October. Renault did, however, release some photos (before someone posted videos of the model, without the permission of Renault) and some engine information. Let's discuss here the base diesel model which has a lot of good ecological implications.
First, the 1.5L 110 HP diesel that get over 46 MPG and has 136g/km of CO2. This engine currently powers the sportier versions of the Clio and the middle Megane. With such an engine, the Laguna becomes a direct competitor of the VW Passat Blue Motion. This diesel Laguna also is labeled with Renault's ECO2 label, and it contains more than 35kg of recycled plastic and also more than 15kg of renewable materials.
It might sound surprising that such a small engine is used for a relatively large car. There is a similar trend at VW with their TSI engines. It's all related to motor taxing in Europe. In places such as France or the Germany United Kingdom, cars are taxed depending on displacement. That translates roughly to this simple rule: the bigger the engine, the higher the tax you pay for owning the car (usually on a yearly basis). However, it's also benefits everybody, since the smaller an engine is, the less it pollutes.
Correction: Thanks to our readers for the tips on the different taxing systems. In the UK cars are taxed not by displacement but rather by CO2 emissions. For example, this car will attract 115 GBP (roughly 230 USD) road tax per year. Compare it to 140GBP/year for current Laguna 1.9 dCi or 205GBP for Laguna 2.2 dCi.
We had missed this one, but one of our readers helped us to find that Air Canada is also offering the purchase of carbon offsets at their website. The website even includes a calculator that helps determining the CO2 their trip will generate, the cost to offset it and a way to pay the cost of offsetting this trip, together with their ticket purchase or at another time.
For example, based on the specifications of Air Canada's current aircraft, it will cost 19.20 CAD for a customer to offset their share of carbon emissions on a return flight from Toronto to London and 12.80 CAD for a return flight from Vancouver to Montreal.
Air Canada's partner in this program is Zerofootprint. According to a statement by Deborah Kaplan, Executive Director of Zerofootprint, "Carbon offsetting balances out climate-changing carbon dioxide that is put into the atmosphere by our activities, it highlights the environmental cost of goods and services we buy, and, when you offset with trees, it restores ecosystems, habitats, watersheds, greens communities and creates jobs."
Hybrids are on the rise and every day they look more like they have come to stay. Not only more and more models are coming for the market, but consumers are very interested into them.
For instance, three hybrid models -- the Toyota Camry Hybrid, Ford Escape Hybrid and Toyota Prius -- all top the list of new cars experiencing the greatest increases in search activity on Cars.com, with each vehicle's search numbers increasing by at least a 52 percent over April. The Prius itself is in the list of the top 10 searched cars and ranks second among the cars generating the most email enquiries to dealers. "The more that gas prices rise, the more consumers start doing their homework on fuel-efficient cars available on the market," said Patrick Olsen, managing editor of Cars.com, in a statement.
At the same time, of the models experiencing the largest decreases, seven of the top 10 are trucks or SUVs.
Find four top ten lists detailing last months searches after the jump.
The European Biomass Industries Association (EUBIA) has awarded Ford a prize for the range and the promotion of Flexifuel cars, able to run either with standard gasoline or E85. The prize was given during the 15th Conference on Biomass, held in Berlin this week.
The Director of Ford Europe's strategy on biofuels, Jan Brentebraten, thanked the prize board by affirming that "Flexifuel technology is already available and is good both for the environment and for the consumer. [...] It's also the simplest way to reduce CO2 emissions, as long as the necessary infrastructures for E85 are developed."
Currently, most of the Flexifuel cars in Europe are sold in Sweden, where Ford offers the Focus (Euro-spec) and the C-MAX (a compact MPV based on the Focus). Plans are to install E85 compatibility on the new Mondeo, the Galaxy MPV and the S-MAX, becoming the largest offering in Europe.
Ford is also promoting this technology in 12 additional European countries. One of the most remarkable campaigns is being held in Spain, where a Ford Focus Flexifuel 1.8 is offered as an additional prize for a lottery game called "El Combo", which benefits ONCE, Spain's Blind Organisation (However, no gas stations in Spain sell E85, according to the Ministry of Industry, so what's the point?).
The fact that lots of politicians are interested in promoting ethanol is not new for us. Besides the funding of research in biofuels, a new bill is coming to promote ethanol and educate citizens about their goodnesses. US. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Barack Obama, (D-IL), Kit Bond (R-MO), George Voinovich (R-OH), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation to expand consumer access to E85. Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and John Kerry (D-MA) are also co-sponsors of the legislation.
The ethanol promotion would be achieved by providing grants through the USDA to farmer-owned ethanol producers to install additional E85 pumps at rural gas stations as well as the equipment needed to sell E85 directly to gas stations, bypassing oil companies. They consider that home-grown renewable fuels mean jobs for the country, cheaper fuel for cars and less dependence on foreign oil.
According to Sen. Klobuchar, less than 1 percent of US gas stations serve E85 (1,200 out of 170,000). She will work to include the legislation in the 2007 Farm Bill, which the Senate is expected to take up in the coming months. The bill sets the amount of federal grant assistance at 20 percent of the total project cost, providing enough funding to complete 1,000-2,000 new E85 pumps over the five-year life of the Farm Bill.
During the sixth edition of World Biofuels meeting being held in Seville (Spain) this week, a panel of experts rejected the debate against the shortcomings of this type of fuels saying the their use is currently so reduced (just 2 percent) that their impact is still too low.
Nevertheless, the 150 experts called for establishing a set of regulations in order to achieve both standard levels of quality and criteria to guarantee the sustainability of the crops. They also considered biofuels a key to reduce the consequences of climate change, since a good amount of it is helped along by the use of fossil fuels in transport.
Another important conclusion is a call for governments to support the use of these biofuels, as the USA, Brazil or the EU are currently doing. According to them, the fact that Canada, Japan, Australia, India and China are also working on this makes international standarisation absolutely mandatory over national regulations.
Biofuels are currently facing a complex set of challenges in order to succeed: cost reduction, CO2 tailpipe emissions reduction and better quality through quality and higher burning grades. Cellulosic ethanol was also mentioned as the most promising technology in this field, although it won't surpass cereal and sugarcane ethanol in the near future.
Beijing and Vancouver are the cities of the next Summer and Winter Olympic games, respectively. They have joined forces with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to call car owners in the two cities to drive one day less in 2007 to mark the World Environment Day.
According to a survey conducted for the Civil Society Institute (
Hybrids are on the rise and every day they look more like they have come to stay. Not only more and more models are coming for the market, but consumers are very interested into them.
