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For a certain segment of technotopians, hydrogen looms large in our transportation future. It’s the ultimate clean fuel — nothing but water left behind after combustion! It’s everywhere — just pull the H2 out of our vast oceans of H2O! And it’s coming tomorrow! The problem, though, is that the hydrogen car economy is always coming tomorrow. The first hydrogen fuel cell was designed in 1839 and, despite some truly astounding advances since then, we’re still nowhere near a widespread hydrogen highway. Which makes announcements like this one from London problematic: the London Hydrogen Partnership today unveiled plans to build a hydrogen network in the city by 2012 (the year London plays host to the Summer Olympic Games). By that year, the plan aims to have in place at least six hydrogen refueling stations across the greater London area, along with at least 150 hydrogen-powered vehicles — from motorbikes to buses and vans — on the road. In a city that sees 24 million vehicle trips a day and 33 billion kilometres of road travel a year, those hydrogen vehicles are going to be hard to spot … even if they do all make it onto the road. And that’s a big “if.†Consider the experience of California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003 envisioned a statewide network of 150 to 200 hydrogen fueling stations by 2010 (pdf), to be built at an estimated cost of between $75 million and $200 million. With less than a year to go before that deadline, California in fact had managed to build just 24 fueling stations , with most of them clustered around the Los Angeles area. So where’s the disconnect between hydrogen-car dreams and reality? A few things come to mind: Fuel-cell cars remain outrageously expensive compared to hybrid and plug-in vehicles. The hydrogen-powered Honda FCX Clarity that was rolled out with such great fanfare last year, for example, was described by Los Angeles Times writer Dan Neil as the “the most expensive, advanced and impractical car ever built.†For that and other reasons, widespread adoption of hydrogen-powered cars remains unlikely over the next couple of decades. US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu acknowledged as much last year when he announced the Obama administration was dropping funding for hydrogen-based transportation in favour of research on stationary fuel-cell technologies. (The kind of fuel cell, for example, that recently began providing energy for two London-based agencies .) The fact is, hydrogen is an energy carrier, not an energy source . Because hydrogen must first be produced using some form of energy, why not just use that energy directly for transport? As writer Curt Suplee of The Washington Post put it, “(W)hy would you want to store energy in the form of hydrogen and then use that hydrogen to produce electricity for a motor, when electrical energy is already waiting to be sucked out of sockets all over America and stored in auto batteries — all without a middleman?†Why indeed? Share this on del.icio.us Digg this! Share this on Reddit Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Share this on Technorati Post this to MySpace Share this on Facebook Tweet This! Subscribe to the comments for this post? Share this on Linkedin Related posts:
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The hydrogen transport future? Let’s consider pros and cons
Find out about the green tax deductions you may be able to take with the Green Tax Saver Got your taxes done yet? Yep, it’s that time of year… the weather’s getting warmer, the flowers are starting to bloom, and the tax forms are staring at you from your desk. April 15th isn’t far off, so its time to get your financial situation organized, and figure out if you owe the government this year, or if you’ll be seeing a refund. Fortunately, if you’ve done any green upgrades at home or to your place of business — installed energy efficient appliances, doors or windows, added insulation, or even bought an eligible alternative fuel or hybrid vehicle — you may have good reason to expect a refund… most of these purchases qualify you for state and federal tax incentives. Like most deductions and credits, though, the incentives available for these purchases require they meet specific standards… and those standards can change from year to year. You’ll want to make sure you have the most up-to-date information available on these incentives, and know exactly what you need to do to claim them. Need information on green tax deductions? Check out the Green Tax Saver guide. Green policy and advocacy group the Green Research Council has published a number of guides related to the green economy, including e-books on green jobs and a green guide to the 2009 stimulus package. The second edition of its Green Tax Saver guide provides straightforward information on the expenditures you can deduct, and where to do so in your tax forms. GRC sent me a free review copy of the guide, and I was impressed with its no-nonsense approach. Need to know if the storm doors you installed qualify for a deduction? Or a new water heater? Or a biomass stove? The guide provides the exact specifications these purchases must meet to qualify for incentives. It also lets you know which forms you need to request and fill out in order to qualify for the deduction or credit. The guide provides information for both federal and state incentives. Granted, the state information isn’t as thorough (that could take volumes), but you can easily find out if your state offers a particular incentive, and then take advantage of resources to which the points you in order to find out the details. It’s good to see that the government is supporting the transition to a green economy by supporting individual, family, and business investments in energy efficiency, green building, and renewable energy. This little book could be just one more investment that lets you take full advantage of this government action. We are selling this guide through an affiliate arrangement with GRC… I think you’ll find it helpful as you buckle down with those tax forms. If you didn’t make any improvements last year, this may be a great product to pick up to figure out how you can lower you environmental footprint while also keeping your tax bill in check next year. Click here to view more details (and, yes, that’s an affiliate link). Know of other good resources on green tax incentives? Let us know about them…
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Are You Taking Advantage of the Green Tax Incentives Available to You?
You may have heard the news, but last week we got word that the nations meeting at the Convention on International Trade Endangered Species (CITES) rejected an United States proposal, supported and encouraged by NRDC, that would have ended the international commercial trade in polar bears and strengthened the regulation of polar bear sports hunting. My colleague Zak Smith is in Doha, Qatar, and has been blogging about our fight for polar bears (you can read his posts here , here , and here ). There’s no doubt about it, the vote was a big loss. Canada alone takes about 300 polar …
GM to unveil prototype of Segway-powered electric vehicle General Motors Co. will unveil a prototype pod-shaped electric vehicle at May’s World Expo in Shanghai that it says will combat urban congestion, traffic accidents and pollution. The Electric Networked Vehicle, or EN-V, is an upright, two-wheeled pod powered by a Segway Personal Transporter. The vehicles are designed to be small and clean enough to solve growing problems of congestion, parking availability, air quality and affordability. There will be an estimated 1.2 billion vehicles in 2030, up from 844 million three years ago, according to the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association. At the same time, 60 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, according to GM, making commuting more difficult. Currently, the association says, 30 percent of fuel is wasted while drivers look for parking spots, a problem GM hopes to combat with the smaller EN-V. The EN-Vs will have a top speed of 25 miles per hour and a range of 25 miles. They are powered by lithium-ion batteries. GM hopes to outfit them with sensors, cameras and GPS devices so they can communicate with each other, avoid crashes and be operated autonomously. The communication would also let drivers talk to each other while driving, hypothetically creating a situation where two vehicles could hold a video conference while commuting to work. There is no price available, but GM estimates they would coast one-sixth to one-fifth the cost of a conventional motor vehicle. Glad to see something potentially useful may come out of the Segway (aka electrifyied walking). Mitsubishi to triple electric car production Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will more than triple the annual production of its electric car over the next three years to meet higher global demand. The company will produce 9,000 of its zero-emission i-MiEVs in the coming fiscal year, 18,000 the next year and 30,000 the following year, according to spokesman Yuki Murata. Mitsubishi sold 1,400 of the cars in Japan and another 250 abroad in 2009, the car’s first year of production. The i-MiEV will enter the U.S. market in the fiscal year starting in April 2011. The i-MiEV can be recharged from a regular home socket and can go 100 miles on just seven hours of charge. But it is twice as expensive as the Prius hybrid, a problem Murata said the company is hoping to combat in the coming years. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi’s rival Nissan Motor Co. unveiled its electric car, the Leaf, which will go into mass production in 2012. The Leaf can go 100 miles on a single charge. Don’t Risk ‘Clean Energy’ Future to Save Coal Jobs, Says BP’s CEO The United States isn’t going to get “beyond petroleum†anytime soon, but the chief executive of oil giant BP says it’s time for the nation to start thinking beyond coal. The nation should not be trying to save coal jobs at the expense of cleaner fuel industries, Tony Hayward, head of BP PLC, told a Washington think tank audience yesterday, adding that there is no reason to keep building coal-burning power plants here. “We’ve got to find a better way to create jobs than preserving coal jobs,†Hayward told his audience at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Hayward’s comments reflect an increasingly bitter political rift between two of the largest elements of the country’s energy industry — coal and natural gas. Gas executives are irritated that authors of the House climate bill last year built significant protections into the legislation to protect coal industry jobs and coal-state lawmakers. If lawmakers want to cut carbon emissions, they say, they should look more to natural gas, which emits about half as much carbon as coal. They say gas should be the “bridge fuel†to a low-carbon future or, even better, a permanent fixture of a diverse approach to lowering emissions. “The coal sector was disproportionately favored in the first go at this,†Hayward said. “It’s about creating jobs.†BP is one of the world’s largest producers and refiners of oil and gas. But it has little or no stake in coal, a fact that the coal industry highlights in challenging Hayward’s assertions. ‘Smart growth’ taking hold in U.S. cities Redevelopment of urban centers has continued to outpace construction in the outskirts of suburbia, according to a recent U.S. EPA study, suggesting a “fundamental shift†has begun in the real estate market as the Obama administration pushes denser development through its “livability†initiative. Though the nation’s urban centers emptied for decades as suburbs sprawled outward, developers in many large cities are increasingly looking inward for building opportunities, according to the study , titled “Residential Construction Trends in America’s Metropolitan Regions.†In 26 of the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, the share of residential construction taking place in central cities more than doubled since 2000. As expected, the effect was strongest in the metropolitan areas with the strictest regional land-use policies, such as Portland, Ore. But many metropolitan areas known for sprawl, including Chicago and Los Angeles, saw similar increases in redevelopment at the urban core. “This acceleration of residential construction in urban neighborhoods reflects a fundamental shift in the real estate market,†the report concludes. “The market fundamentals are shifting toward redevelopment even in the absence of formal policies and programs at the regional level.†Environmentalists have long embraced the idea of urban redevelopment, which conserves untouched land while reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. So, too, have they supported the dense, transit-oriented housing typically built in urban centers. Those ideas have found support from the Obama administration’s Partnership for Sustainable Communities, run jointly by EPA, the Transportation Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This year’s budget includes $100 million for the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program, which offers funding for the development of state, regional and municipal policies on sustainable development. Decades of federal housing and transportation policy have worked at cross-purposes, “precluding smart, integrated problem solving,†Ron Sims, deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, told a House panel last month. The livability initiative will be a step toward “improving building-level energy efficiency, cutting greenhouse gas emissions through transit-oriented development, and taking advantage of other locational efficiencies,†he said. Critics of the “livability†program have painted it as an effort to tell Americans where to live, but data in the recent study suggest consumers might be one step ahead of the administration. “The livability initiative is in sync with where the marketplace was going anyway,†said Ed McMahon, senior resident fellow for environmental policy at the Urban Land Institute. “There’s been a pent-up demand for urban living, and that demand is evident in housing prices.†Development continued moving toward the city center in 2008, the most recent year for which data were available, even as the housing market collapsed. The buildings started that year were less often single-family homes and more often large, multi-family developments such as apartment complexes and blocks of condominiums, according to the study. Construction of single-family homes fell to about 600,000 units in 2008, down from 1.7 million three years earlier. High-density residential construction remained flat at about 200,000 units, the same number of units built before the housing bubble burst. Those developments made up 23 percent of all housing projects started in 2008, up from 10 percent in 2005. Much of the shift appears to be demographic, said Kaid Benfield, director of the Smart Growth Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Aging baby boomers and young people today are drawn to urban areas, he said, but that tendency is inextricably tied to environmental issues. “There has been a lot of thought given at all levels of government and among the consuming public to what our environmental footprint is, and what the shape of our communities ought to be,†Benfield said. “The experience with sprawl over the last few decades has produced a reaction.†U.K. to Create Clean Energy Bank, Boost Port Funding The U.K. plans to create a 2 billion-pound ($3 billion) “green investment bank†to promote low-carbon energy as the nation seeks to cut emissions. “We need to renew and modernize our energy supplies,†Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said in his annual budget in Parliament in London today. “China is building a new power station every week to meet its growing energy needs.†Asset sales and private investments will be used to fund the bank, Darling said. The proposal comes three months after opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron suggested a green bank to consolidate government funding for clean energy. Prime Minister Gordon Brown must call an election by June. Britain, chasing a target to get 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, is planning $120 billion of offshore wind projects as well as gas and nuclear plants to replace aging generators. As much as 30 percent of the country’s power capacity is set to be shut down over the next decade. Darling said the government will sell assets including the Channel Tunnel rail link to raise 1 billion pounds for the fund, which would be matched by private investments. The Chancellor also pledged about 60 million pounds to develop ports in support of offshore wind turbine makers. While the green bank will help kick-start important projects, it “doesn’t fit with the urgency of the task at hand,†Ben Caldecott, head of U.K. energy policy at Climate Change Capital in London said in an e-mailed statement. ‘Difficult Market’ “As the cash for it is dependent on selling off strategic assets in difficult market conditions, it will take many months or even years before the fund is able to make a meaningful difference,†Caldecott said. The structure of the bank will be developed by the government in consultation with investors and could be functioning by the second half of 2011, according to the Treasury. The money will help finance companies aiming to provide clean energy and reduce pollution, Darling said. The U.K. has two to three years of “very comfortable†electricity supplies before aging capacity is phased out, Ofgem Chief Executive Officer Alistair Buchanan said in February. The country will need to spend as much as 200 billion pounds to replace infrastructure and curb emissions within the next 10 years, according to the regulator. Last week, the Conservatives said they would adopt measures including a carbon floor price and feed-in tariffs if they win the election. The party also suggested speeding up the roll-out of smart meters and providing consumers with as much as 6,500 pounds of energy efficiency improvements. Browner: Fuel economy, tailpipe emissions rules to go final next week The Obama administration plans to finalize tougher auto efficiency regulations next week, White House climate and energy czar Carol Browner said Wednesday. The joint Transportation Department-EPA rules will boost car and light truck mileage standards to reach an average of 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016. They include first-time greenhouse gas requirements. The standards represent a deal struck last year between the administration, automakers, and states that were planning to implement their own tailpipe greenhouse gas rules. The states, led by California, agreed to shelve their rules while the joint national program is in effect. The White House has frequently cited the new federal rules in opposing Capitol Hill proposals that would overturn EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases. The White House argues that nullifying EPA power would hurt automakers by opening the door to a patchwork of state requirements.
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The Energy and Global Warming News for March 25: GM to unveil Segway-powered electric vehicle; Mitsubishi to triple electric car production; Don’t…
Colorado sets 30% target for 2020 Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) signed into law yesterday a revision to the state’s renewable energy standard, requiring that 30 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2020. The state currently requires 20 percent of its electricity to come from renewable sources. Ritter said at a signing ceremony that Colorado’s efforts to create a friendly business climate for renewable energy has attracted pioneering companies such as wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems A/S. “This is a commitment to clean energy that is unparalleled in the country,†Ritter said. “There is no place in the world that compares to Colorado in research and technological innovation around renewable energy.†The bill emphasizes home electricity production using devices such as solar panels and small wind turbines. State officials have predicted that 100,000 Colorado homes could begin producing energy because of state programs. Solar-panel installers must be certified, according to the bill. The addition was criticized by Republicans, who described it as an effort to drive business to organized labor. Chrysler, Fiat will produce electric minicar Chrysler Group LLC and Fiat SpA will produce a plug-in electric version of the Fiat 500 minicar as the first electric vehicle marketed under the automakers’ new alliance. The car will feature a lithium-ion battery connected to an electric vehicle control unit to manage the flow of power to the engine. There are no other details about the car’s range or how far it can be driven between each recharge. Every part of the vehicle except for the powertrain will be assembled in Toluca, Mexico. The battery is being developed by A123 Systems Inc. of Watertown, Mass. Neither would say where the battery will be produced, but signs point to Michigan, where the battery company recently got $100 million in tax credits. Chrysler separately restated plans to produce a test fleet of plug-in electric versions of the Dodge Ram pickup with a $48 million Department of Energy grant. The Ram EV will have a lithium-ion battery from Electrovaya Inc. and is expected to get 65 percent better fuel economy than the gas-powered version. The automaker canceled plans for a gas-electric hybrid version of the Ram. Toshiba in talks with TerraPower on reactors Toshiba Corp., owner of the U.S. nuclear firm Westinghouse, is in preliminary talks with a startup backed by Bill Gates on jointly developing advanced nuclear reactors, the Japanese electronics giant said. Toshiba is discussing with TerraPower the possibility of manufacturing traveling-wave reactors, which are designed to use depleted uranium or other unconventional nuclear fuels and could run for as long as a century without refueling. Such reactors, which would be smaller in scale than current nuclear plants, would be suitable for emerging markets, said Takeo Miyamoto, an analyst for Deutsche Securities. “If you put a regular reactor like the one used in Japan in some emerging nations, that could sometimes create overcapacity and make it difficult to back that reactor up when you take the unit off line for maintenance,†Miyamoto said. Toshiba said the talks are in an early stage, and nothing has yet been decided. The firm is also developing its own mini reactors, and it anticipates some 80 percent of the technology developed for these reactors could be applicable for traveling-wave reactors. Take a global view of climate change The Senate is due to unveil a bipartisan climate and energy package soon. As lawmakers consider it, they must not lose sight of the vital connection between people and nature. Numerous studies — including last month’s Quadrennial Defense Review by the Penatgon — have detailed how the changing climate could affect people around the world, wreaking havoc on developing nations and punishing the poorest communities. But why should Americans care about these far-off communities and the climate threats they face? The fact is, their plight is our plight. Already, more frequent droughts, floods and other climate-related disasters in the most vulnerable countries are forcing entire communities to flee their homes. Military experts predict that conflicts over shrinking food and water supplies will destabilize already shaky governments and economies around the world. In an age of globalization, these seemingly remote challenges directly affect Americans, from the prices we pay for coffee or cotton clothing to the families who send sons and daughters overseas to serve in war-torn nations. Our two organizations have different missions — one aimed at supporting communities, the other at protecting nature. But as we increasingly see the effect climate change is having on our work around the world, we share the goal of protecting the communities, both natural and human, we have pledged to help. In the South American Andes, for example, decreased rainfall is threatening local communities and their greatest source of income — alpaca wool production. “There is no snow, so there is no water,†Cayetano Huanca, a farmer in Peru, told us. “The springs, wetlands, are not the same as they were.†We hear similar stories elsewhere. In western Zambia, the rainy season now arrives much earlier, causing floods that leave villagers homeless, hungry and vulnerable to disease. In Cambodia, droughts kill rice fields, pressing thousands of farmers and their families to migrate to already crowded cities. Tackling climate change is not just about lowering carbon dioxide emissions. It is also about helping people and nature survive its inevitable effects. The reality is that even if we stopped greenhouse gas pollution today, the fallout from 200 years of industrialization would be felt for generations to come. Japan Proposes Wind, Geothermal Power Feed-in Tariff A Japanese trade ministry panel today proposed expanding the feed-in tariff to require utilities to buy electricity at a premium from hydropower stations, wind turbine and geothermal operators. Utilities may have to buy renewable power at between 15 yen (17 cents) and 20 yen a kilowatt hour, according to a report released in Tokyo today. The incentive program would run for between 10 and 20 years, it said. The government wants to supply 10 percent of the country’s primary energy from renewable sources by 2020, compared with about 3 percent in 2007, according to the International Energy Agency. The proposed tariff compares with 5 to 7 yen a kilowatt hour utilities pay for nuclear power and about 8 yen for oil- fired generation, said Tomohiro Jikihara, an analyst at Deutsche Securities Inc. in Tokyo. “The rate for renewable power, except for solar, should be as high as 20 yen if Japan really wants to boost the use of alternative fuels,†Jikihara said by phone. Japan introduced a feed-in tariff in November, requiring utilities to buy surplus solar power supplied to the grid by homes and businesses, and pay as much as 48 yen a kilowatt hour. Japan Wind Development Co. and Japan Power Development Co., known as J-Power, are among companies operating wind farms and geothermal plants. Tokyo Electric Power Co. and nine other regional utilities supply almost all the country’s power. Without Affordable, Clean Alternatives, South Africa Turns to Coal South Africa’s finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, has an op ed in the Washington Post that illustrates the challenges facing developing nations as they struggle to provide the affordable access to modern energy needed to pull citizens out of poverty. The piece highlights the tension between such objectives and simultaneous concerns about the environmental and climate impacts of energy development. With South Africa’s economy growing rapidly — it’s expanded by two-thirds since 1994, when Nelson Mandela first took office — the nation’s demand for energy has grown apace. As Gordhan notes, “Millions of previously marginalized South Africans are now on the grid.†And that’s a very good thing. Consider that not having access to affordable, modern energy sources, particularly electricity, means no access to potable, running water; it means having to burn dung and wood and other primitive biofuels to provide cooking and indoor heating; and it means sputtering kerosene lamps as the only source of light after the sun goes down. The human toll of such energy poverty is incredible. According to the World Health Organization, solid fuel use causes 1.6 million excess deaths per year globally, especially among women and children, while waterborne disease is one of the leading global killers, ending the lives of over 3 million annually — again, many of them young children — who lack access to clean and safe water supplies. Ranking Cities on Building Efficiency Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. took the top spots in the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s ranking of cities with the most energy efficient buildings. Los Angeles was the star of the Energy Star rankings, with 293 buildings achieving the E.P.A. designation, according to the Top 25 list released Tuesday. The agency awards the Energy Star label to commercial buildings that rank among the top 25 percent in energy efficiency compared to similar structures. Washington took second place with 204 Energy Star buildings while San Francisco, which has about 20 percent of the population of Los Angeles, came in third with 173 buildings. Denver and Chicago rounded out the top five. With 90 Energy Star buildings, New York City ranked 10th, behind Houston, Lakeland, Fla., the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Atlanta. Detroit came in 15th, just behind Seattle and ahead of cities with decidedly greener reputations like Austin, Tex. The number of buildings qualifying for the Energy Star award jumped 40 percent from 2008, when the E.P.A. first issued the ranking. Collectively, the 3,900 buildings that won Energy Star ratings in 2009 cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 4.7 million metric tons, saving some $900 million in energy costs, according to the E.P.A. The agency said commercial buildings’ energy consumption accounts for 17 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
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Energy and Global Warming News for March 24: Colorado sets 30% renewables target for 2020; Chrysler, Fiat will produce electric minicar