David Teather
The Guardian,
Monday July 21, 2008
A "Green New Deal" to tackle the triple threats of the credit crunch, high oil prices and climate change has been proposed by a group of experts in finance, energy and the environment.
The proposals call for massive investment in renewable energy, creating thousands of jobs, while also seeking to rein in the "distorting power" of the banking industry. Among the more radical plans, they suggest large banking groups should be forcibly demerged, to lift the threat of the kind of systemic damage that has forced governments to use public money to prop up the likes of Northern Rock.
The group hopes to shift the balance of power by building a new alliance of environmentalists, industry, agriculture and unions to promote the interests of the wider economy, instead of what are described as "footloose" financiers in the City, while ensuring that more low-cost capital is available for pressing priorities.
It is pressing the government for large-scale legislative reform and calls for tighter regulation of the financial services sector, help to finance investment in renewable energy in poorer countries, a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies to create an oil legacy fund, and a clampdown on offshore tax havens.
The members of the Green New Deal group include Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation thinktank; Tony Juniper, former director of Friends of the Earth; Charles Secrett, an adviser on sustainable development; Caroline Lucas, a Green party MEP, and Larry Elliott, economics editor of the Guardian. "We need real leadership and vision to get through this, and right now we are not seeing it," said Juniper.
Monday, 21 July 2008
Municipal waste to produce ethanol by 2011
By Ed Crooks, Energy Editor
Published: July 20 2008 22:45
The world’s first commercially produced ethanol from municipal waste will be on sale by early 2011, according to Ineos, the privately-held chemicals group backing the technology.
Ethanol production from waste can avoid problems associated with today’s biofuels, such as competition for food crops and agricultural land. But the quantity of waste available is likely to mean that only a limited proportion of fuel demand can be met by this method.
Ineos hopes to have deals for the first commercial-scale plants producing ethanol from waste signed up “in the next three or four months”, according to Peter Williams, chief executive of its renewables business.
Cities are likely to be the first partners to sign up, although industries that produce high volumes of organic waste are interested.
Ineos has been working with Bioengineering Resources Inc, a biotech company based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which has been developing the process.
BRI has been running a very small demonstration plant, capable of producing about 150,000 litres of ethanol a year in Fayetteville. Ineos believes the process is ready to be scaled up to plants producing about 100,000-150,000 tonnes per year. A tonne of ethanol is roughly 1,250 litres.
The process works by taking organic waste, converting it into a gas and feeding the gases to bacteria that convert them to ethanol.
Several companies are pursuing similar technologies. General Motors is backing Coskata, an Illinois-based company seeking to produce ethanol from organic wastes.
But Ineos expects that its plants will be the first able to use municipal waste as a feedstock when they come on stream, it hopes, in late 2010 or early 2011.
The costs of the process “stack up very well, and are cost competitive against any other approach to producing ethanol,” Mr Williams said. Two studies have suggested it saves 90 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by conventional petrol.
The logistics of securing waste to produce large volumes of fuel are challenging. It takes one dry tonne of organic waste to produce 400 litres of ethanol, Ineos says.
The European Union creates about 65m tonnes of organic municipal waste a year; enough to produce about 12m tonnes of ethanol.
The EU’s target is to get to 10 per cent of its road fuel coming from biofuels by 2020. The market for petrol, which can be substituted by ethanol, is about 100m tonnes a year, suggesting a demand for ethanol of 10m tonnes per year, up from the 3m tonnes supplied today.
That implies that, relying on the Ineos process alone, more than half of all the EU’s organic municipal waste would have to be used for fuel to meet the target.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Published: July 20 2008 22:45
The world’s first commercially produced ethanol from municipal waste will be on sale by early 2011, according to Ineos, the privately-held chemicals group backing the technology.
Ethanol production from waste can avoid problems associated with today’s biofuels, such as competition for food crops and agricultural land. But the quantity of waste available is likely to mean that only a limited proportion of fuel demand can be met by this method.
Ineos hopes to have deals for the first commercial-scale plants producing ethanol from waste signed up “in the next three or four months”, according to Peter Williams, chief executive of its renewables business.
Cities are likely to be the first partners to sign up, although industries that produce high volumes of organic waste are interested.
Ineos has been working with Bioengineering Resources Inc, a biotech company based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which has been developing the process.
BRI has been running a very small demonstration plant, capable of producing about 150,000 litres of ethanol a year in Fayetteville. Ineos believes the process is ready to be scaled up to plants producing about 100,000-150,000 tonnes per year. A tonne of ethanol is roughly 1,250 litres.
The process works by taking organic waste, converting it into a gas and feeding the gases to bacteria that convert them to ethanol.
Several companies are pursuing similar technologies. General Motors is backing Coskata, an Illinois-based company seeking to produce ethanol from organic wastes.
But Ineos expects that its plants will be the first able to use municipal waste as a feedstock when they come on stream, it hopes, in late 2010 or early 2011.
The costs of the process “stack up very well, and are cost competitive against any other approach to producing ethanol,” Mr Williams said. Two studies have suggested it saves 90 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by conventional petrol.
The logistics of securing waste to produce large volumes of fuel are challenging. It takes one dry tonne of organic waste to produce 400 litres of ethanol, Ineos says.
The European Union creates about 65m tonnes of organic municipal waste a year; enough to produce about 12m tonnes of ethanol.
The EU’s target is to get to 10 per cent of its road fuel coming from biofuels by 2020. The market for petrol, which can be substituted by ethanol, is about 100m tonnes a year, suggesting a demand for ethanol of 10m tonnes per year, up from the 3m tonnes supplied today.
That implies that, relying on the Ineos process alone, more than half of all the EU’s organic municipal waste would have to be used for fuel to meet the target.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
GT Solar a Bellwether for 'Green' IPOs
Machine Producer Could Give a Boost To Eco-Offerings
By LYNN COWANJuly 21, 2008;
Investment bankers have been forecasting sunny skies for clean-energy IPOs for months, and this week their optimism will be tested out on the planned debut of GT Solar International Inc., a supplier of solar-cell equipment.
The New Hampshire-based company, which aims to sell $530 million in stock on Nasdaq for its private-equity owners, doesn't actually make solar cells; it makes machines that can create polysilicon, melt it and cast it for photovoltaic uses.
Demand for its equipment has skyrocketed in the last two years as solar-cell makers have ramped up production, with revenue quadrupling to $244 million in the fiscal year that ended March 31, and net income rising to $36 million compared with a net loss of $18 million in 2007.
"A hot solar market for them is like a gold rush: The miners might not know for sure whether there is gold in the hills, but it sure is good to be the company selling picks and shovels to them," said Rick Hanna, a stock analyst at Morningstar. "That's what GT Solar is: They sell the equipment that solar manufacturers need."
Although bankers and analysts are predicting that alternative energy and other "green" companies are ripe for initial public offerings, the stock market's recent poor performance is making it difficult to get deals done, and the alternative-energy sector is in rough shape.
The WilderHill Clean Energy Index is down 31% for the year, underperforming major market indexes. All four solar companies that went public in the U.S. last year have declined between 38% and 59% from their peaks, although three of the four remain above their IPO prices.
"Solar stocks went sky-high and for the most part, most all came way back," said Scott Sweet, managing director of research firm IPOBoutique.com, who expects strong demand for GT Solar's IPO because of its position as an equipment supplier. "There have been loads of solar stocks that have come public, but this is the first U.S. IPO for a company that makes the capital equipment that wafer- and solar-module makers need."
About 97% of GT Solar's fiscal 2008 revenue came from customers in China, which is a major growth area for solar manufacturing due to lower operating costs.
Write to Lynn Cowan at lynn.cowan@dowjones.com
By LYNN COWANJuly 21, 2008;
Investment bankers have been forecasting sunny skies for clean-energy IPOs for months, and this week their optimism will be tested out on the planned debut of GT Solar International Inc., a supplier of solar-cell equipment.
The New Hampshire-based company, which aims to sell $530 million in stock on Nasdaq for its private-equity owners, doesn't actually make solar cells; it makes machines that can create polysilicon, melt it and cast it for photovoltaic uses.
Demand for its equipment has skyrocketed in the last two years as solar-cell makers have ramped up production, with revenue quadrupling to $244 million in the fiscal year that ended March 31, and net income rising to $36 million compared with a net loss of $18 million in 2007.
"A hot solar market for them is like a gold rush: The miners might not know for sure whether there is gold in the hills, but it sure is good to be the company selling picks and shovels to them," said Rick Hanna, a stock analyst at Morningstar. "That's what GT Solar is: They sell the equipment that solar manufacturers need."
Although bankers and analysts are predicting that alternative energy and other "green" companies are ripe for initial public offerings, the stock market's recent poor performance is making it difficult to get deals done, and the alternative-energy sector is in rough shape.
The WilderHill Clean Energy Index is down 31% for the year, underperforming major market indexes. All four solar companies that went public in the U.S. last year have declined between 38% and 59% from their peaks, although three of the four remain above their IPO prices.
"Solar stocks went sky-high and for the most part, most all came way back," said Scott Sweet, managing director of research firm IPOBoutique.com, who expects strong demand for GT Solar's IPO because of its position as an equipment supplier. "There have been loads of solar stocks that have come public, but this is the first U.S. IPO for a company that makes the capital equipment that wafer- and solar-module makers need."
About 97% of GT Solar's fiscal 2008 revenue came from customers in China, which is a major growth area for solar manufacturing due to lower operating costs.
Write to Lynn Cowan at lynn.cowan@dowjones.com
Ministers embrace electric car revolution
A transport gear change could see vehicles given away free, with revenue made from selling motorists contracts to supply power
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment EditorSunday, 20 July 2008
Gordon Brown is to launch the biggest revolution in the way Britons drive since the development of the internal combustion engine. He will meet manufacturers this week to try to persuade them to mass-produce electric cars, and is considering a remarkable plan to sell the cars cheap, together with their fuel, that is modelled on mobile-phone contracts.
The scheme, which has already been taken up by Israel and Denmark, would sell heavily subsidised vehicles – or even give them away – in return for contracts to buy the electricity to charge them. Its inventor, a Silicon Valley software entrepreneur, believes it will at least halve the cost of motoring while dramatically reducing one of the main sources of the pollution that causes global warming.
The Prime Minister – who will reveal some of his thinking at the Motor Show this week – wants all new cars sold in Britain to be electric or hybrid vehicles by 2020, and is trying to enlist leaders of the motor industry because he wants "to see those cars manufactured in Britain".
He also wants to "incentivise" the rapid changeover to electric vehicles in Britain, and so is studying the mould-breaking scheme being promoted by the 38-year-old entrepreneur, Shai Agassi, backed by $200m (£100m) of venture capital. Under the scheme – the most advanced of several proposals the Government is considering – motorists would be provided with cars just as mobile-phone customers now get their handsets. In return, they would take out a contract for a maximum number of miles.
The contract would entitle them to receive the electricity, either by plugging into any one of hundreds of thousands of recharge points across the country, or by exchanging flat batteries for fully charged ones. At present, the cars' range is likely to be only about 100 miles between recharges, which would take about two hours, so, on longer journeys, motorists would pop into filling stations for a three-minute battery exchange.
However, the plan will only help to fight climate change if the electricity comes not from fossil fuels, but from nuclear or renewable energy.
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment EditorSunday, 20 July 2008
Gordon Brown is to launch the biggest revolution in the way Britons drive since the development of the internal combustion engine. He will meet manufacturers this week to try to persuade them to mass-produce electric cars, and is considering a remarkable plan to sell the cars cheap, together with their fuel, that is modelled on mobile-phone contracts.
The scheme, which has already been taken up by Israel and Denmark, would sell heavily subsidised vehicles – or even give them away – in return for contracts to buy the electricity to charge them. Its inventor, a Silicon Valley software entrepreneur, believes it will at least halve the cost of motoring while dramatically reducing one of the main sources of the pollution that causes global warming.
The Prime Minister – who will reveal some of his thinking at the Motor Show this week – wants all new cars sold in Britain to be electric or hybrid vehicles by 2020, and is trying to enlist leaders of the motor industry because he wants "to see those cars manufactured in Britain".
He also wants to "incentivise" the rapid changeover to electric vehicles in Britain, and so is studying the mould-breaking scheme being promoted by the 38-year-old entrepreneur, Shai Agassi, backed by $200m (£100m) of venture capital. Under the scheme – the most advanced of several proposals the Government is considering – motorists would be provided with cars just as mobile-phone customers now get their handsets. In return, they would take out a contract for a maximum number of miles.
The contract would entitle them to receive the electricity, either by plugging into any one of hundreds of thousands of recharge points across the country, or by exchanging flat batteries for fully charged ones. At present, the cars' range is likely to be only about 100 miles between recharges, which would take about two hours, so, on longer journeys, motorists would pop into filling stations for a three-minute battery exchange.
However, the plan will only help to fight climate change if the electricity comes not from fossil fuels, but from nuclear or renewable energy.
Cars to run on fuel from household waste in two years
CARS run on fuel made from household waste could be on the streets within two years, it was announced yesterday.
INEOS, the world's third largest chemical company, said it aimed to produce commercial quantities of bioethanol fuel from biodegradable municipal waste by 2011.Peter Williams, chief executive officer of INEOS Bio, the part of the firm which makes bioethanol fuel, said: "Our technology will make a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and the world's need for fossil fuels."This is a very robust and flexible process, and we have everything we need now to take it to a commercial level."This is very attractive from the perspective of the food versus fuel debate, as it takes fuel production away from corn."The process produces ethanol by mixing a biological catalyst with carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which are produced by burning the biodegradable waste.
Rubbish idea that could make driving cheaper
A British company may have the answer to soaring petrol prices after it claimed yesterday to have become the first to have found a way to make fuel from rubbish.
Ineos, the chemicals company, said that it had patented a method of producing fuel from municipal solid waste, agricultural waste and organic commercial waste.
The company claims that it can produce about 400 litres (90 gallons) of ethanol from one tonne of dry waste. The new process works by heating the waste to produce gases, then feeding the gases to bacteria, which produce ethanol that can be purified into a fuel.
Ineos plans to sell the environmental product in industrial quantities by the end of 2010. Peter Williams, the chief executive of Ineos Bio, said: “This should mean that, unlike with other biofuels, we won’t have to make the choice between food and fuel.”
The development of fuel from waste could be a relief for motorists who have watched pump prices soar in the past year to an average of 133.3p per litre of diesel.
The bioethanol that Ineos produces will have to be combined with a fossil fuel, however, because very few cars in Britain can run solely on bioethanol. Ineos has a large traditional refinery business. It owns the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland, where a strike resulted in petrol shortages this year.
Cars that run on bioethanol have been made in Brazil, where a comprehensive biofuels industry is based on sugar cane.
Biofuels have been backed by governments as one of the key ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The EU aims to get 10 per cent of its road transport fuel from renewable sources such as biofuels by 2020.
Present methods of producing biofuels from crops have been criticised for causing high food prices by taking up land that would have been used to grow food. Although bioethanol production releases a lower volume of greenhouse gases than petrol, critics say that it has encouraged deforestation.
The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said this month that it believed that current biofuel production in North America and the European Union did little to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Ineos is talking to authorities in the United States, Canada and Europe about selling the fuel when it is made on an industrial scale. The company began research into the biochemical process nearly 20 years ago in Arkansas, in the US. A pilot plant was built and researchers have been working with a variety of waste materials since 2003. Mr Williams said that the company would soon announce the location of its first commercial plant.
“We will aim to quickly roll out technology around the world. We plan to be producing commercial amounts of bioethanol fuel for cars from waste within about two years,” he said.
He added that he expected at least 10 per cent of North America and Europe’s petrol use to be replaced with bioethanol, adding that because it released up to 90 per cent less greenhouse gases than petrol, the company’s technology “will make a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and the world’s need for fossil fuels”.
The announcement was welcomed by the National Non Food Crops Centre in York, the UK’s home for the development of renewable fuels.
Geraint Evans, one of its managers, said: “This is a breakthrough in two areas. Technologically because we can use municipal solid waste. And commercially because we have the potential to produce large amounts of bioethanol viably across the world.”
The OECD estimates that as much as 14 per cent of the crop land in the EU, the US and Canada will be used to grow plants for biofuels by 2017, up from about 8 per cent last year. This could push the prices for some crops up by 19 per cent.
Ineos, the chemicals company, said that it had patented a method of producing fuel from municipal solid waste, agricultural waste and organic commercial waste.
The company claims that it can produce about 400 litres (90 gallons) of ethanol from one tonne of dry waste. The new process works by heating the waste to produce gases, then feeding the gases to bacteria, which produce ethanol that can be purified into a fuel.
Ineos plans to sell the environmental product in industrial quantities by the end of 2010. Peter Williams, the chief executive of Ineos Bio, said: “This should mean that, unlike with other biofuels, we won’t have to make the choice between food and fuel.”
The development of fuel from waste could be a relief for motorists who have watched pump prices soar in the past year to an average of 133.3p per litre of diesel.
The bioethanol that Ineos produces will have to be combined with a fossil fuel, however, because very few cars in Britain can run solely on bioethanol. Ineos has a large traditional refinery business. It owns the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland, where a strike resulted in petrol shortages this year.
Cars that run on bioethanol have been made in Brazil, where a comprehensive biofuels industry is based on sugar cane.
Biofuels have been backed by governments as one of the key ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The EU aims to get 10 per cent of its road transport fuel from renewable sources such as biofuels by 2020.
Present methods of producing biofuels from crops have been criticised for causing high food prices by taking up land that would have been used to grow food. Although bioethanol production releases a lower volume of greenhouse gases than petrol, critics say that it has encouraged deforestation.
The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said this month that it believed that current biofuel production in North America and the European Union did little to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Ineos is talking to authorities in the United States, Canada and Europe about selling the fuel when it is made on an industrial scale. The company began research into the biochemical process nearly 20 years ago in Arkansas, in the US. A pilot plant was built and researchers have been working with a variety of waste materials since 2003. Mr Williams said that the company would soon announce the location of its first commercial plant.
“We will aim to quickly roll out technology around the world. We plan to be producing commercial amounts of bioethanol fuel for cars from waste within about two years,” he said.
He added that he expected at least 10 per cent of North America and Europe’s petrol use to be replaced with bioethanol, adding that because it released up to 90 per cent less greenhouse gases than petrol, the company’s technology “will make a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and the world’s need for fossil fuels”.
The announcement was welcomed by the National Non Food Crops Centre in York, the UK’s home for the development of renewable fuels.
Geraint Evans, one of its managers, said: “This is a breakthrough in two areas. Technologically because we can use municipal solid waste. And commercially because we have the potential to produce large amounts of bioethanol viably across the world.”
The OECD estimates that as much as 14 per cent of the crop land in the EU, the US and Canada will be used to grow plants for biofuels by 2017, up from about 8 per cent last year. This could push the prices for some crops up by 19 per cent.
Former GM CEO Stempel On the Future of Electric Cars
Almost 20 Years After He Approved the EV1 The Same Major Snag Remains: Batteries
July 21, 2008
One of the Big Ideas that's gotten a boost from the recent oil price shock is the notion that the energy for transportation should come from the electric grid, not an oil well in the Middle East.
A number of big, established car makers have announced plans to produce cars that will pull from the electric grid all or part of the energy needed to make them go. They join a flock of upstart companies, such as Tesla Motors, trying to prosper by defining a new generation of mobility technology starting with a blank sheet of paper – or rather a blank video display screen.
Associated Press
Former General Motors Chairman Robert Stempel, 64, left, former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, 73, center, and Stanford Ovshinsky, president of Energy Conversion Devices pose in 1998 next to an electric bicycle the men were developing.
For everyone excited about electrifying the morning commute, Robert C. Stempel, the former chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors Corp., has a few sobering words.
Mr. Stempel believes in the idea of electric-drive cars – he uses the term "electric drive" to encompass both all-electric systems and plug-in hybrids. He gave the greenlight to development of GM's EV1, the first electric car to be offered by a mainstream car maker since the early years of the 20th Century. After he was pushed out of GM by a boardroom coup during the auto maker's last big financial crisis in 1992, Mr. Stempel continued to devote himself to the electric car idea. He spent more than a decade as chairman of U.S. battery maker Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. before leaving the company last year.
At both GM and at Energy Conversion Devices, Mr. Stempel's efforts to make a profitable business out of electric vehicles hit numerous potholes. GM has taken flak for killing the EV1. Mr. Stempel, who was long gone when the plug was pulled, says there was no subterfuge involved.
"The business side of the case wasn't there. The EV1 was too expensive…We were way off the cost target," he says.
Mr. Stempel, now a consultant with an office in suburban Detroit, says the obstacle to mass production of electric vehicles is the same issue as it was "when Mr. Edison told Mr. Ford that in a year he'd have a battery for his car. The weak link is the battery."
Nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries have proven reliable, he says. "It doesn't do anything naughty, like burn up," he says. But NiMH batteries don't have the range to be competitive with conventional cars.
Lithium-ion battery technology, similar to that used in laptop computers, offers better range from smaller, lighter packages. But lithium-ion batteries do have a propensity to be naughty. The Tesla Roadster uses lithium-ion batteries similar to those used in laptops. Tesla's important technology idea isn't the commodity batteries. It's the systems Tesla engineers designed to assure they stay cool and under control.
Associated Press
GM's EV1
Piling thousands of laptop batteries into a car creates "a control nightmare," Mr. Stempel worries.
Then there's the issue of cost.
"Look at what happened to the cost of nickel," says Mr. Stempel. "The price of nickel has gone off the charts." A lot of the commodities used in batteries have gotten expensive in the recent commodity price boom, he says.
None of this necessarily means the auto industry should once again give up on electric-drive cars. When it comes to reducing the economy's dependence on oil, the amount Americans burn up in cars isn't one issue. It is THE issue. But consumers need to take the latest flurry of press releases touting forthcoming electric-drive vehicle models with a few grains of salt.
The petroleum-fueled internal combustion engine has dominated automotive transportation for a century for a good reason: On the basis of power per dollar, it's more cost effective than the competition. Depending on how strictly one controls the emissions, Mr. Stempel says, a gasoline fueled car can be five to ten times more efficient on a dollars per horsepower basis than an electric car.
The challenges confronting the drive to electrify automobiles point to a big question underlying the current energy debate in America: How much faith should we have in technology to bail us out?
Forget Democrats vs. Republicans. When it comes to the future of cars, it's Technologists vs. Skeptics. Technologists believe that innovations in battery technology, hydrogen storage, cellulosic ethanol production, water-to-hydrogen systems, and lightweight vehicle design are right around the corner – thanks in part to the digital revolution of the late 20th Century.
Technologists acknowledge the cost hurdles confronting alternatives to oil, but insist they will be overcome just as they were for the personal computer.
Skeptics believe that the technology to substantially displace oil-fired mobility will take years, maybe decades to develop to commercial scale at reasonable costs.
They also question who will come up with the billions in research and development capital to make cars like the Chevrolet Volt or the next generation of Tesla cars vehicles that ordinary people can afford. That's particularly relevant when it comes to Detroit's Three struggling car makers – who inconveniently tend to run out of money in the middle of the oil price shocks that refocus their minds on alternatives to oil. GM last week announced it's slashing its capital spending budget to ride out the cash crisis caused by the collapse in sales of its fuel-thirstiest trucks.
The only thing worse than the current situation, would be a sudden collapse in the price of oil. In the absence of incentives to pay the price for new technology, consumers could strand expensive electric vehicles on dealer lots.
"I'm glad I am not an automotive CEO right now," says Mr. Stempel. "I thought I had problems."
• Send comments about Eyes on the Road to joseph.white@wsj.com.
July 21, 2008
One of the Big Ideas that's gotten a boost from the recent oil price shock is the notion that the energy for transportation should come from the electric grid, not an oil well in the Middle East.
A number of big, established car makers have announced plans to produce cars that will pull from the electric grid all or part of the energy needed to make them go. They join a flock of upstart companies, such as Tesla Motors, trying to prosper by defining a new generation of mobility technology starting with a blank sheet of paper – or rather a blank video display screen.
Associated Press
Former General Motors Chairman Robert Stempel, 64, left, former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, 73, center, and Stanford Ovshinsky, president of Energy Conversion Devices pose in 1998 next to an electric bicycle the men were developing.
For everyone excited about electrifying the morning commute, Robert C. Stempel, the former chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors Corp., has a few sobering words.
Mr. Stempel believes in the idea of electric-drive cars – he uses the term "electric drive" to encompass both all-electric systems and plug-in hybrids. He gave the greenlight to development of GM's EV1, the first electric car to be offered by a mainstream car maker since the early years of the 20th Century. After he was pushed out of GM by a boardroom coup during the auto maker's last big financial crisis in 1992, Mr. Stempel continued to devote himself to the electric car idea. He spent more than a decade as chairman of U.S. battery maker Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. before leaving the company last year.
At both GM and at Energy Conversion Devices, Mr. Stempel's efforts to make a profitable business out of electric vehicles hit numerous potholes. GM has taken flak for killing the EV1. Mr. Stempel, who was long gone when the plug was pulled, says there was no subterfuge involved.
"The business side of the case wasn't there. The EV1 was too expensive…We were way off the cost target," he says.
Mr. Stempel, now a consultant with an office in suburban Detroit, says the obstacle to mass production of electric vehicles is the same issue as it was "when Mr. Edison told Mr. Ford that in a year he'd have a battery for his car. The weak link is the battery."
Nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries have proven reliable, he says. "It doesn't do anything naughty, like burn up," he says. But NiMH batteries don't have the range to be competitive with conventional cars.
Lithium-ion battery technology, similar to that used in laptop computers, offers better range from smaller, lighter packages. But lithium-ion batteries do have a propensity to be naughty. The Tesla Roadster uses lithium-ion batteries similar to those used in laptops. Tesla's important technology idea isn't the commodity batteries. It's the systems Tesla engineers designed to assure they stay cool and under control.
Associated Press
GM's EV1
Piling thousands of laptop batteries into a car creates "a control nightmare," Mr. Stempel worries.
Then there's the issue of cost.
"Look at what happened to the cost of nickel," says Mr. Stempel. "The price of nickel has gone off the charts." A lot of the commodities used in batteries have gotten expensive in the recent commodity price boom, he says.
None of this necessarily means the auto industry should once again give up on electric-drive cars. When it comes to reducing the economy's dependence on oil, the amount Americans burn up in cars isn't one issue. It is THE issue. But consumers need to take the latest flurry of press releases touting forthcoming electric-drive vehicle models with a few grains of salt.
The petroleum-fueled internal combustion engine has dominated automotive transportation for a century for a good reason: On the basis of power per dollar, it's more cost effective than the competition. Depending on how strictly one controls the emissions, Mr. Stempel says, a gasoline fueled car can be five to ten times more efficient on a dollars per horsepower basis than an electric car.
The challenges confronting the drive to electrify automobiles point to a big question underlying the current energy debate in America: How much faith should we have in technology to bail us out?
Forget Democrats vs. Republicans. When it comes to the future of cars, it's Technologists vs. Skeptics. Technologists believe that innovations in battery technology, hydrogen storage, cellulosic ethanol production, water-to-hydrogen systems, and lightweight vehicle design are right around the corner – thanks in part to the digital revolution of the late 20th Century.
Technologists acknowledge the cost hurdles confronting alternatives to oil, but insist they will be overcome just as they were for the personal computer.
Skeptics believe that the technology to substantially displace oil-fired mobility will take years, maybe decades to develop to commercial scale at reasonable costs.
They also question who will come up with the billions in research and development capital to make cars like the Chevrolet Volt or the next generation of Tesla cars vehicles that ordinary people can afford. That's particularly relevant when it comes to Detroit's Three struggling car makers – who inconveniently tend to run out of money in the middle of the oil price shocks that refocus their minds on alternatives to oil. GM last week announced it's slashing its capital spending budget to ride out the cash crisis caused by the collapse in sales of its fuel-thirstiest trucks.
The only thing worse than the current situation, would be a sudden collapse in the price of oil. In the absence of incentives to pay the price for new technology, consumers could strand expensive electric vehicles on dealer lots.
"I'm glad I am not an automotive CEO right now," says Mr. Stempel. "I thought I had problems."
• Send comments about Eyes on the Road to joseph.white@wsj.com.
Wind, wave and tide can make country world giant in green energy
Published Date: 21 July 2008
By Jenny Haworth
Environment Correspondent
SCOTLAND has the potential to be to the renewable energy world what Saudi Arabia is to oil, an international conference will hear today.
Professor Ali Sayigh, chairman of the World Renewable Energy Congress, thinks Scotland could lead the world in the research and development of renewable energy sources.Alex Salmond, the First Minister, will tell the same conference that Scotland is on track not just to reach its renewable energy targets but to beat them.Speaking to The Scotsman ahead of the conference, which is taking place at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow all week, Dr Sayigh said: "The Scottish Government wants to be the Saudi Arabia equivalent of renewable energy in the world. They can be that. "With the wind and wave and solar in Scotland, they could be leading in Europe."He said Scotland's position globally in this field was one reason why Mr Salmond was invited to make one of the opening speeches at the congress.And he thinks it will be by harnessing the potential of wave, tidal and wind power that Scotland, and the rest of the UK, can "carve a niche" in the renewables sector. As well as ambitious plans for renewable energy, the Scottish Government has set itself tougher emissions targets than any other country in the world. At least 31 per cent of its electricity demand will be generated from renewable sources such as wind and wave power by 2011, and at least 50 per cent by 2020.In the Scottish Climate Change Bill later this year it will pledge to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.Mr Salmond is expected to tell delegates that the country is on course to go further than these targets.At one of the opening speeches at the conference, the First Minister will say: "I am delighted to tell you today that we are not only on course to reach these ambitious targets but to exceed them."There is almost three gigawatts of installed renewable energy capacity in Scotland, mainly in the form of hydropower and wind energy, and almost another gigawatt that has been approved but is yet to be built.This means Scotland is more than two-thirds of the way towards meeting the target of 31 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2011 – which would require an estimated five gigawatts. And with planning applications lodged, or expected to be lodged soon, for seven gigawatts more, Scotland is well on track to meet its ambitions.Mr Salmond thinks Scotland has about a quarter of Europe's tidal and offshore capacity, and 10 per cent of its potential in wave power, as well as opportunities in hydro-power, onshore wind, biomass and solar power."Scotland has vast potential in renewable energy, unrivalled in Europe," he will say."All in all, we have the potential to generate more than 60 gigawatts from renewables – enough to meet Scotland's peak electricity demand more than ten times over. "So it's fair to say that Scotland has won the natural lottery for a second time."My government is working in partnership with business and academia to develop and commercialise key technologies, to ensure that Scotland has a truly world-leading renewable energy sector."He said in order for the country to harness its renewable energy potential, it will need to have the necessary infrastructure in place. He hopes Scotland will be able to share its technology and expertise in renewables, to help the EU meet its targets of generating 20 per cent of energy from renewable energy by 2020. The tenth World Renewable Energy Congress, taking place at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow, is expected to attract hundreds of delegates from all over the world.Subjects scheduled to be covered at the week-long conference, include renewable energy technologies from small scale solar panels in Africa to wave machines in the North Sea, energy policy, low energy architecture, and the social and gender issues of investing in appropriate renewable technologies in developing economies.Climate at threat from 'carbon bomb' if wetlands are destroyedTHE world's wetlands – threatened by development, dehydration and climate change – could release a planet-warming "carbon bomb" if they are destroyed, ecological scientists said yesterday.Wetlands contain 771 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount as is now in the atmosphere, the scientists said before an international conference linking wetlands and global warming.If all the wetlands on the planet released the carbon they hold, it would contribute powerfully to the climate-warming greenhouse effect, said Paulo Teixeira, co-ordinator of the Pantanal Regional Environment Programme in Brazil."We could call it the carbon bomb," Mr Teixeira said. "It's a very tricky situation."Some 700 scientists from 28 nations are meeting this week at the International Wetlands Conference at the edge of Brazil's vast Pantanal wetland to look for ways to protect these endangered areas.Wetlands are not just swamps; they also include marshes, peat bogs, river deltas, mangroves, tundra, lagoons and river flood plains.Together they account for 6 per cent of the Earth's land surface and store 20 per cent of its carbon. They also produce 25 per cent of the world's food, purify water, recharge aquifers and act as buffers against violent coastal storms.Historically, wetlands have been regarded as an impediment to civilisation. About 60 per cent of wetlands worldwide have been destroyed in the past century, mostly due to draining for agriculture. Pollution, dams, canals, groundwater pumping, urban development and peat extraction add to the destruction."Too often in the past, people have unwittingly considered wetlands to be problems in need of a solution, yet wetlands are essential to the planet's health," said Konrad Osterwalder, UN Under Secretary-General and rector of United Nations University, one of the hosts of the meeting.
By Jenny Haworth
Environment Correspondent
SCOTLAND has the potential to be to the renewable energy world what Saudi Arabia is to oil, an international conference will hear today.
Professor Ali Sayigh, chairman of the World Renewable Energy Congress, thinks Scotland could lead the world in the research and development of renewable energy sources.Alex Salmond, the First Minister, will tell the same conference that Scotland is on track not just to reach its renewable energy targets but to beat them.Speaking to The Scotsman ahead of the conference, which is taking place at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow all week, Dr Sayigh said: "The Scottish Government wants to be the Saudi Arabia equivalent of renewable energy in the world. They can be that. "With the wind and wave and solar in Scotland, they could be leading in Europe."He said Scotland's position globally in this field was one reason why Mr Salmond was invited to make one of the opening speeches at the congress.And he thinks it will be by harnessing the potential of wave, tidal and wind power that Scotland, and the rest of the UK, can "carve a niche" in the renewables sector. As well as ambitious plans for renewable energy, the Scottish Government has set itself tougher emissions targets than any other country in the world. At least 31 per cent of its electricity demand will be generated from renewable sources such as wind and wave power by 2011, and at least 50 per cent by 2020.In the Scottish Climate Change Bill later this year it will pledge to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.Mr Salmond is expected to tell delegates that the country is on course to go further than these targets.At one of the opening speeches at the conference, the First Minister will say: "I am delighted to tell you today that we are not only on course to reach these ambitious targets but to exceed them."There is almost three gigawatts of installed renewable energy capacity in Scotland, mainly in the form of hydropower and wind energy, and almost another gigawatt that has been approved but is yet to be built.This means Scotland is more than two-thirds of the way towards meeting the target of 31 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2011 – which would require an estimated five gigawatts. And with planning applications lodged, or expected to be lodged soon, for seven gigawatts more, Scotland is well on track to meet its ambitions.Mr Salmond thinks Scotland has about a quarter of Europe's tidal and offshore capacity, and 10 per cent of its potential in wave power, as well as opportunities in hydro-power, onshore wind, biomass and solar power."Scotland has vast potential in renewable energy, unrivalled in Europe," he will say."All in all, we have the potential to generate more than 60 gigawatts from renewables – enough to meet Scotland's peak electricity demand more than ten times over. "So it's fair to say that Scotland has won the natural lottery for a second time."My government is working in partnership with business and academia to develop and commercialise key technologies, to ensure that Scotland has a truly world-leading renewable energy sector."He said in order for the country to harness its renewable energy potential, it will need to have the necessary infrastructure in place. He hopes Scotland will be able to share its technology and expertise in renewables, to help the EU meet its targets of generating 20 per cent of energy from renewable energy by 2020. The tenth World Renewable Energy Congress, taking place at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow, is expected to attract hundreds of delegates from all over the world.Subjects scheduled to be covered at the week-long conference, include renewable energy technologies from small scale solar panels in Africa to wave machines in the North Sea, energy policy, low energy architecture, and the social and gender issues of investing in appropriate renewable technologies in developing economies.Climate at threat from 'carbon bomb' if wetlands are destroyedTHE world's wetlands – threatened by development, dehydration and climate change – could release a planet-warming "carbon bomb" if they are destroyed, ecological scientists said yesterday.Wetlands contain 771 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount as is now in the atmosphere, the scientists said before an international conference linking wetlands and global warming.If all the wetlands on the planet released the carbon they hold, it would contribute powerfully to the climate-warming greenhouse effect, said Paulo Teixeira, co-ordinator of the Pantanal Regional Environment Programme in Brazil."We could call it the carbon bomb," Mr Teixeira said. "It's a very tricky situation."Some 700 scientists from 28 nations are meeting this week at the International Wetlands Conference at the edge of Brazil's vast Pantanal wetland to look for ways to protect these endangered areas.Wetlands are not just swamps; they also include marshes, peat bogs, river deltas, mangroves, tundra, lagoons and river flood plains.Together they account for 6 per cent of the Earth's land surface and store 20 per cent of its carbon. They also produce 25 per cent of the world's food, purify water, recharge aquifers and act as buffers against violent coastal storms.Historically, wetlands have been regarded as an impediment to civilisation. About 60 per cent of wetlands worldwide have been destroyed in the past century, mostly due to draining for agriculture. Pollution, dams, canals, groundwater pumping, urban development and peat extraction add to the destruction."Too often in the past, people have unwittingly considered wetlands to be problems in need of a solution, yet wetlands are essential to the planet's health," said Konrad Osterwalder, UN Under Secretary-General and rector of United Nations University, one of the hosts of the meeting.
Wind farms to power North-east manufacturing renaissance
By Sarah ArnottMonday, 21 July 2008
Expansion of the world's off-shore wind power industry could create up to 30,000 manufacturing jobs in the North-east and bring in £3bn of investment, the Government's Energy Minister will say today.
Malcolm Wicks is in Gates-head and Northumberland to open the site where the world's largest wind turbine – a mammoth 7.5 megawatt installation that will stand 10 times higher than the Angel of the North – is to be developed at the region's New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) by Clipper Wind, the Californian energy giant.
"The North-east already has a wealth of skills and experience in the manufacturing sector to diversify in to the green energy market," Mr Wicks said. "NaREC is setting a fantastic example and I hope many other manufacturing companies will recognise the opportunities a shift to a low-carbon economy will create."
The region has already been busy. The NaREC facilities at Blyth, built with more than £30m of regional and European development funding, opened in 2002 with an eye on the nascent global market for sustainable energy technologies. Clipper Wind is using the centre's engineering expertise and test facilities to support its $65m (£33m) "Britannia Project" scheme.
The potential in the renewable power industry is vast. The International Energy Agency estimates that, in order to meet scientists' current target for carbon emissions to be halved by 2050, some 17 per cent of all worldwide electricity generation will need to come from wind.
Last year, the market for turbines alone was worth some €25bn (£20bn) worldwide, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. Clipper Wind's UK investment, and the NaREC facility, hope to make the most of plans for 15 per cent of UK energy to come from renewables, in line with European targets. The Government estimates that another 3,000 turbines will be needed and last month launched the licensing round for coastal sites that could provide around a third of the country's electricity generation.
Margaret Fay, the chairman of One NorthEast, which helped fund NaREC, said: "We are well placed to spearhead the UK's development of off-shore wind farms. The region has the skills in the off-shore sector, the ready-made sites along the rivers for companies to utilise and public sector research and devel-opment support to turn the region into a European hub for the fabrication, assembly and delivery of off-shore windturbines."
But it is not all plain sailing. Royal Dutch Shell sold its stake in the proposed 1,000 megawatt London Array – which will be the world's largest off-shore farm – to consortium partners Dong Energy and Eon last week. The oil major's decision to pull out of the Thames Estuary scheme was blamed on the extra costs of building off-shore, which can add up to 50 per cent to construction costs.
Shell will instead concentrate on the US on-shore market, which grew by around $3bn in the first quarter of 2008 and has expanded it generating capacity by 45 per cent in the last year.
Expansion of the world's off-shore wind power industry could create up to 30,000 manufacturing jobs in the North-east and bring in £3bn of investment, the Government's Energy Minister will say today.
Malcolm Wicks is in Gates-head and Northumberland to open the site where the world's largest wind turbine – a mammoth 7.5 megawatt installation that will stand 10 times higher than the Angel of the North – is to be developed at the region's New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) by Clipper Wind, the Californian energy giant.
"The North-east already has a wealth of skills and experience in the manufacturing sector to diversify in to the green energy market," Mr Wicks said. "NaREC is setting a fantastic example and I hope many other manufacturing companies will recognise the opportunities a shift to a low-carbon economy will create."
The region has already been busy. The NaREC facilities at Blyth, built with more than £30m of regional and European development funding, opened in 2002 with an eye on the nascent global market for sustainable energy technologies. Clipper Wind is using the centre's engineering expertise and test facilities to support its $65m (£33m) "Britannia Project" scheme.
The potential in the renewable power industry is vast. The International Energy Agency estimates that, in order to meet scientists' current target for carbon emissions to be halved by 2050, some 17 per cent of all worldwide electricity generation will need to come from wind.
Last year, the market for turbines alone was worth some €25bn (£20bn) worldwide, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. Clipper Wind's UK investment, and the NaREC facility, hope to make the most of plans for 15 per cent of UK energy to come from renewables, in line with European targets. The Government estimates that another 3,000 turbines will be needed and last month launched the licensing round for coastal sites that could provide around a third of the country's electricity generation.
Margaret Fay, the chairman of One NorthEast, which helped fund NaREC, said: "We are well placed to spearhead the UK's development of off-shore wind farms. The region has the skills in the off-shore sector, the ready-made sites along the rivers for companies to utilise and public sector research and devel-opment support to turn the region into a European hub for the fabrication, assembly and delivery of off-shore windturbines."
But it is not all plain sailing. Royal Dutch Shell sold its stake in the proposed 1,000 megawatt London Array – which will be the world's largest off-shore farm – to consortium partners Dong Energy and Eon last week. The oil major's decision to pull out of the Thames Estuary scheme was blamed on the extra costs of building off-shore, which can add up to 50 per cent to construction costs.
Shell will instead concentrate on the US on-shore market, which grew by around $3bn in the first quarter of 2008 and has expanded it generating capacity by 45 per cent in the last year.
Texas approves a $4.93 billion wind-power project
By Kate Galbraith
Published: July 20, 2008
Texas regulators have approved a $4.93 billion wind-power transmission project, providing a major lift to the development of wind energy in the state.
The planned web of transmission lines will carry electricity from remote western parts of the state to major population centers like Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The lines can handle 18,500 megawatts of power, enough for 3.7 million homes on a hot day when air-conditioners are running.
The project will ease a bottleneck that has become a major obstacle to development of the wind-rich Texas Panhandle and other areas suitable for wind generation.
Texas is already the largest producer of wind power, with 5,300 installed megawatts — more than double the installed capacity of California, the next closest state. And Texas is fast expanding its capacity.
"This project will almost put Texas ahead of Germany in installed wind," said Greg Wortham, executive director of the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium.
Transmission companies will pay the upfront costs of the project. They will recoup the money from power users, at a rate of about $4 a month for residential customers.
Details of the plan will be completed by Aug. 15, according to Damon Withrow, director of government relations at the Public Utility Commission, which voted 2 to 1 to go ahead with the transmission plan. The lines will not be fully constructed until 2013.
Wind developers reacted favorably.
"The lack of transmission has been a fundamental issue in Texas, and it's becoming more and more of an issue elsewhere," said Vanessa Kellogg, the Southwest regional development director for Horizon Wind Energy, which operates the Lone Star Wind Farm in West Texas and has more wind generation under development. "This is a great step in the right direction."
Kellogg said that the project would be a boon for Texas power customers, whose electricity costs have risen in conjunction with soaring natural gas prices across the state. "There's nothing volatile about the wind in terms of the price, because it's free," she said.
The Texas office of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen also lauded the news.
"We think it's going to lower costs, lower pollution and create jobs. We think that for every $3 invested, we'll probably see about an $8 reduction in electric costs," said Tom Smith, the state director.
The transmission problem is so acute in Texas that turbines are sometimes shut off even when the wind is blowing.
"When the amount of generation exceeds the export capacity, you have to start turning off wind generators" to keep things in balance, said Hunter Armistead, head of the renewable energy division in North America at Babcock & Brown, a large wind developer and transmission provider. "We've reached that point in West Texas."
Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Boone Pickens, the legendary Texas oilman who plans to build what has been called the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, welcomed the announcement.
But because about a quarter of the Pickens project capacity will come online by 2011, two years before the Texas lines are fully ready, "we will move forward with plans to build our own transmission," he said.
Lack of transmission is a severe problem in a number of states that, like Texas, want to develop their wind resources. Wind now accounts for 1 percent of the nation's electricity generation but could rise to 20 percent by 2030, according to a recent Department of Energy report, if transmission lines are built and other challenges met.
But other states may find the Texas model difficult to emulate. The state is unique in having its own electricity grid. All other states fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, adding an extra layer of bureaucracy to any transmission proposals.
The exact route of the transmission lines has yet to be determined because the state has not yet acquired right-of-way, according to Withrow of the utility commission.
The project will almost certainly face concerns from landowners reluctant to have wires cutting across their property. "I would anticipate that some of these companies will have to use eminent domain," he said, speaking of the companies that will be building the transmission lines.
Published: July 20, 2008
Texas regulators have approved a $4.93 billion wind-power transmission project, providing a major lift to the development of wind energy in the state.
The planned web of transmission lines will carry electricity from remote western parts of the state to major population centers like Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The lines can handle 18,500 megawatts of power, enough for 3.7 million homes on a hot day when air-conditioners are running.
The project will ease a bottleneck that has become a major obstacle to development of the wind-rich Texas Panhandle and other areas suitable for wind generation.
Texas is already the largest producer of wind power, with 5,300 installed megawatts — more than double the installed capacity of California, the next closest state. And Texas is fast expanding its capacity.
"This project will almost put Texas ahead of Germany in installed wind," said Greg Wortham, executive director of the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium.
Transmission companies will pay the upfront costs of the project. They will recoup the money from power users, at a rate of about $4 a month for residential customers.
Details of the plan will be completed by Aug. 15, according to Damon Withrow, director of government relations at the Public Utility Commission, which voted 2 to 1 to go ahead with the transmission plan. The lines will not be fully constructed until 2013.
Wind developers reacted favorably.
"The lack of transmission has been a fundamental issue in Texas, and it's becoming more and more of an issue elsewhere," said Vanessa Kellogg, the Southwest regional development director for Horizon Wind Energy, which operates the Lone Star Wind Farm in West Texas and has more wind generation under development. "This is a great step in the right direction."
Kellogg said that the project would be a boon for Texas power customers, whose electricity costs have risen in conjunction with soaring natural gas prices across the state. "There's nothing volatile about the wind in terms of the price, because it's free," she said.
The Texas office of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen also lauded the news.
"We think it's going to lower costs, lower pollution and create jobs. We think that for every $3 invested, we'll probably see about an $8 reduction in electric costs," said Tom Smith, the state director.
The transmission problem is so acute in Texas that turbines are sometimes shut off even when the wind is blowing.
"When the amount of generation exceeds the export capacity, you have to start turning off wind generators" to keep things in balance, said Hunter Armistead, head of the renewable energy division in North America at Babcock & Brown, a large wind developer and transmission provider. "We've reached that point in West Texas."
Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Boone Pickens, the legendary Texas oilman who plans to build what has been called the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, welcomed the announcement.
But because about a quarter of the Pickens project capacity will come online by 2011, two years before the Texas lines are fully ready, "we will move forward with plans to build our own transmission," he said.
Lack of transmission is a severe problem in a number of states that, like Texas, want to develop their wind resources. Wind now accounts for 1 percent of the nation's electricity generation but could rise to 20 percent by 2030, according to a recent Department of Energy report, if transmission lines are built and other challenges met.
But other states may find the Texas model difficult to emulate. The state is unique in having its own electricity grid. All other states fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, adding an extra layer of bureaucracy to any transmission proposals.
The exact route of the transmission lines has yet to be determined because the state has not yet acquired right-of-way, according to Withrow of the utility commission.
The project will almost certainly face concerns from landowners reluctant to have wires cutting across their property. "I would anticipate that some of these companies will have to use eminent domain," he said, speaking of the companies that will be building the transmission lines.
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