By Andrew C. Revkin
Published: July 22, 2008
NEW YORK: The World Bank and its partners need to do a far better job of considering the environmental effects of projects they finance in poor countries, its internal review group concludes in a new report.
The review, released on Tuesday, examined some of the $400 billion in investments in nearly 7,000 projects from 1990 to 2007. It found that recent commitments to environmental sustainability by the bank and sister institutions, including the International Finance Corporation, were often not matched by changes within the lenders' bureaucracies or on the ground where dollars were turned into dams, pipelines, palm plantations and the like.
Authors of the 181-page environmental report, the first by the bank's Independent Evaluation Group since 2002, said it was vital for the bank and its partners to intensify their focus on measurable environmental protection, given rising vulnerability to environmental risks and the increasing flow of financing for projects related to climate change. The report is on the Web at www.worldbank.org/oed.
"They need to begin to see the inextricable link between sustaining environment and reducing poverty," Vinod Thomas, the director-general of the evaluation group, said in an interview. "It is clear now from the Amazon to India that if environmental sustainability is not raised as a priority then all bets are off."
The report by the internal group included a response from the bank's management that acknowledged some of the gaps while asserting that in many areas it was already moving to improve its environmental accounting and find ways to make sure that beneficiaries - both developing countries and private banks and businesses - changed practices as well.
Cheryl Gray, the director of the review group for the World Bank, said the lack of consistent internal tracking of the environmental facets of projects was an indicator of how much work needs to be done.
The World Bank Group approved its first set of common environmental standards in 2001, for the first time making environmental stewardship part of its core mission of reducing poverty.
But the new evaluation found a persistent lack of environmental focus in each step along the lending chain - from the priorities that shape development projects to the environmental standards and monitoring required in the field.
Environmental campaigners largely agreed with the findings of the internal group.
Korinna Horta, an economist at the Environmental Defense Fund, described how the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank's private-sector arm, can promote the expansion of livestock herds, soy bean field and palm oil plantations, all of which tend to propel deforestation in the tropics, even as the World Bank simultaneously warns about the problems of forest loss and has created a fund to support avoided deforestation.
"Even now, the Bank does not have an appropriate accountability structure in place to ensure that its well-meaning environmental and social policies are actually implemented on the ground," Horta said.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Brazilian ethanol plants to get $260m loan
By Richard Lapper in São Paulo
Published: July 22 2008 22:16
Latin America’s biggest development institution is prepared to defy growing environmental concern about biofuels by lending money to a $1bn-plus Brazilian ethanol project.
The board of the Inter-American Development Bank is set on Wednesday to approve proposals to provide a 15-year loan of $260m (€164m, £130m) to three new ethanol plants being built by Santa Elisa Vale do Rosario, a Brazilian company, and US private equity groups.
The facility – which will sit alongside a $360m commercial bank credit – would be the biggest ever by a multilateral institution for a green fuel initiative. But it may not be popular among the IADB’s European minority shareholders. “It is a hard project for the IADB,” said Sylvia Larrea, the executive managing the project at the bank. “There are heated debates in the market.”
Steady rises in the international oil price have spurred interest in green fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, but initiatives have become increasingly controversial in recent months as a result of steep rises in the prices of grains and other basic foods.
Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations secretary-general, last week warned about the impact of growing crops for biofuels, suggesting that it was contributing to increased food prices.
Latin American supporters of biofuels such as Ms Larrea, however, argue that Brazil produces its ethanol from sugar cane rather than edible grains such as maize, a process widely regarded as being more energy-efficient.
They also reject accusations from environmental critics that Brazilian ethanol-related sugar production is contributing to deforestation of the Amazon, saying sugar is grown largely in the south and centre of the country, thousands of miles from the rainforest.
“The choice isn’t really between food and fuel,” said Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the IADB. “The choice is between sustainable and unsustainable biofuels. We’re convinced that certain Latin American countries have ideal conditions for producing biofuels in a sustainable way.”
Ms Larrea noted that interest in the new fuels was growing in Colombia, and sugar growers in Central America and the Caribbean had also invested in alternative fuels.
She justified the bank’s support for the project by arguing that offering longer-term finance on more flexible terms would allow the project’s managers to invest more in rapidly evolving new technologies.
The plant will include a facility to convert into energy the waste material produced after sugar cane is crushed, helping to increase overall efficiency.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Published: July 22 2008 22:16
Latin America’s biggest development institution is prepared to defy growing environmental concern about biofuels by lending money to a $1bn-plus Brazilian ethanol project.
The board of the Inter-American Development Bank is set on Wednesday to approve proposals to provide a 15-year loan of $260m (€164m, £130m) to three new ethanol plants being built by Santa Elisa Vale do Rosario, a Brazilian company, and US private equity groups.
The facility – which will sit alongside a $360m commercial bank credit – would be the biggest ever by a multilateral institution for a green fuel initiative. But it may not be popular among the IADB’s European minority shareholders. “It is a hard project for the IADB,” said Sylvia Larrea, the executive managing the project at the bank. “There are heated debates in the market.”
Steady rises in the international oil price have spurred interest in green fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, but initiatives have become increasingly controversial in recent months as a result of steep rises in the prices of grains and other basic foods.
Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations secretary-general, last week warned about the impact of growing crops for biofuels, suggesting that it was contributing to increased food prices.
Latin American supporters of biofuels such as Ms Larrea, however, argue that Brazil produces its ethanol from sugar cane rather than edible grains such as maize, a process widely regarded as being more energy-efficient.
They also reject accusations from environmental critics that Brazilian ethanol-related sugar production is contributing to deforestation of the Amazon, saying sugar is grown largely in the south and centre of the country, thousands of miles from the rainforest.
“The choice isn’t really between food and fuel,” said Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the IADB. “The choice is between sustainable and unsustainable biofuels. We’re convinced that certain Latin American countries have ideal conditions for producing biofuels in a sustainable way.”
Ms Larrea noted that interest in the new fuels was growing in Colombia, and sugar growers in Central America and the Caribbean had also invested in alternative fuels.
She justified the bank’s support for the project by arguing that offering longer-term finance on more flexible terms would allow the project’s managers to invest more in rapidly evolving new technologies.
The plant will include a facility to convert into energy the waste material produced after sugar cane is crushed, helping to increase overall efficiency.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Venezuelan, Russian Firms in Energy Pact
By ALEXANDER KOLYANDRJuly 23, 2008;
LONDON -- Three Russian energy companies signed deals Tuesday with Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez visited Moscow.
Mr. Chávez has been holding talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and several top managers of Russian corporations. The leaders also sketched plans for military, aviation, transport and space cooperation.
The agreements, which set no production or sales targets, focus on exploration of Venezuela's Orinoco basin, with one of the richest oil deposits in the world. Last year, Mr. Chávez nationalized four multibillion-dollar projects in the region that had begun in the 1990s.
OAO Gazprom will jointly conduct an evaluation of the Ayacucho-3 block with PdVSA, Gazprom said. It also said it is interested in developing a liquefied-natural-gas project in Venezuela.
Lukoil Overseas, a subsidiary of OAO Lukoil, signed a two-year agreement on joint study of the Junin-3 block. Lukoil Overseas signed an agreement with PdVSA in 2005 on the quantitative assessment and certification of heavy-oil reserves at the block and started exploration drilling in December 2006.
Anglo-Russian joint venture TNK-BP Ltd., embroiled in shareholder conflicts, signed a joint-study agreement on the Ayacucho-2 block.
Analysts say there is more politics than business in the agreements. "It's rather difficult to underestimate the significance of the agreements, judging by Lukoil's rather modest progress in Venezuela," said Pavel Kushnir of Deutsche Bank in Moscow. He said Lukoil signed its first agreement with PdVSA almost three years ago but still has yet to nail down a final deal.
"It looks like a political decision to show that there is genuine energy cooperation between the two countries, but the economic effect of the deals looks rather minor at the moment," he said.
Write to Alexander Kolyandr at Alexander.Kolyandr@dowjones.com
LONDON -- Three Russian energy companies signed deals Tuesday with Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PdVSA, as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez visited Moscow.
Mr. Chávez has been holding talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and several top managers of Russian corporations. The leaders also sketched plans for military, aviation, transport and space cooperation.
The agreements, which set no production or sales targets, focus on exploration of Venezuela's Orinoco basin, with one of the richest oil deposits in the world. Last year, Mr. Chávez nationalized four multibillion-dollar projects in the region that had begun in the 1990s.
OAO Gazprom will jointly conduct an evaluation of the Ayacucho-3 block with PdVSA, Gazprom said. It also said it is interested in developing a liquefied-natural-gas project in Venezuela.
Lukoil Overseas, a subsidiary of OAO Lukoil, signed a two-year agreement on joint study of the Junin-3 block. Lukoil Overseas signed an agreement with PdVSA in 2005 on the quantitative assessment and certification of heavy-oil reserves at the block and started exploration drilling in December 2006.
Anglo-Russian joint venture TNK-BP Ltd., embroiled in shareholder conflicts, signed a joint-study agreement on the Ayacucho-2 block.
Analysts say there is more politics than business in the agreements. "It's rather difficult to underestimate the significance of the agreements, judging by Lukoil's rather modest progress in Venezuela," said Pavel Kushnir of Deutsche Bank in Moscow. He said Lukoil signed its first agreement with PdVSA almost three years ago but still has yet to nail down a final deal.
"It looks like a political decision to show that there is genuine energy cooperation between the two countries, but the economic effect of the deals looks rather minor at the moment," he said.
Write to Alexander Kolyandr at Alexander.Kolyandr@dowjones.com
Shipping: The greening of the ocean waves
Last Updated: 4:01pm BST 22/07/2008
Although not included in the Kyoto Protocol, the maritime industry's CO2 emissions rival those of aviation. But new initiatives from port authorities look set to make shipping more eco-friendly. Jimmy Lee Shreeve reports "Commercial shipping emissions have been one of the least studied areas of all combustion emissions," says Daniel Lack, a scientist at the Washington DC-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
He's right. But it isn't just formal studies that are lacking. Shipping, like aviation, plays a major role in the global economy and is also a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet it has never been included in progammes like the Kyoto Protocol. As a result, its impact on the environment goes largely unreported.Daniel Lack and his team, however, have uncovered damning evidence showing that emissions from shipping are worse than previously thought.
Large cargo ships, for example, merrily emit more than twice as much black carbon (otherwise known as soot, which is thought to be the second largest contributor to global warming, after CO2) than was estimated in earlier studies.
Even the humble tugboat pumps out more black carbon for the amount of fuel it burns compared to other vessels.
"The two previous studies of soot emissions examined a total of three ships, [but] we reviewed plumes from 96 different vessels," explains Lack, whose department's findings were published in the July issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Lack and his colleagues measured emissions from commercial vessels in open sea, channels and ports along the southeast coast of America during the summer of 2006.
They estimate that commercial shipping releases around 130,000 metric tons of black carbon a year, or 1.7 per cent of the global total - with much of it pumped out near highly populated coastlines.
Include the whole gamut of greenhouse gases and the picture is even bleaker.
The commercial or merchant shipping industry shifts about 90 per cent of the world's goods and commodities. These are carried on huge ships that burn low-grade fuel.
According to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), these vessels belch out 3.5 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (some estimates give an even higher figure). Currently, the organisation is drafting new rules to limit sulphur emissions from ship exhausts and is generally trying to get shipping firms to burn cleaner fuels.
But it isn't just the merchant marine that is eco-unfriendly; cruise liners are too. In its annual report, Carnival Cruise Lines admitted that its operations pump out 401 grams of CO2 per passenger. This is 36 times more than the per-passenger emissions of Eurostar, and more than three times that of a passenger on a Boeing 747.
According to Justin Francis of ResponsibleTravel.com, which provides eco-friendly travel information, this is only the half of it. "Some cruises involve a flight to the departure destination, something of a double-carbon whammy."
On top of this, statistics from the United Nation's OurPlanet magazine reveal that a cruise ship passenger produces on average 3.5kg of rubbish every day, compared to the 0.8kg generated by local people on shore.
Despite this, cruise liner companies insist they are working hard to reduce their environmental impact. Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, for example, says it is installing smokeless gas-turbine engines on up to six of its vessels and burns biofuel when it is available.
But it's ports authorities that are at the forefront of the race to make shipping cleaner. During mid-July, representatives from ports around the world met in Rotterdam (the world's third busiest port) to draw up plans to cut emissions from shipping.
The World Ports Climate Conference was organised by the Rotterdam ports authority and the Clinton Climate Change Initiative. Although delegates were divided on the exact contribution of shipping to global warming (studies put it at anything from 1.4 per cent to 4.5 per cent), they did agree that the shipping sector is set to grow in "leaps and bounds" and that it is imperative that measures are taken to help save the planet.
"The climate is changing every minute as we sit here," said Ogunlade Davidson, co-chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"Human beings have to solve it [global warming] because we created it. The marine environment has to take its own responsibility as do all of us."
He said the best solutions lay in technologies like the use of hydrodynamics in propellers, which could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 30 per cent on new ships and by 20 per cent on older ones. He added that renewable fuels, speed reduction and fleet maintenance also had a role to play.
Davidson went on to say that the potential is there to cut the global fleet's CO2 emissions by 17.6 per cent by 2010, and by 28.2 per cent by 2020.
"But this will not be enough to offset the projected fleet growth," he concluded.
Just about all the targets put forward at the conference had issues associated with them. The International Maritime Organisation, for example, is pushing hard to put emission targets in place that would come into effect by February 2010.
The problem is, these targets are unlikely to be met unless developing countries sign up to be part of the initiative. This is because the developed world accounts for only 25 per cent of the world's merchant fleet.
"In my view, if reduction in CO2 emissions from ships are to benefit the environment as a whole, they must apply globally to all ships in the world fleet regardless of their flag," said Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary-general of the IMO.
"It seems completely incongruous that two ships carrying similar cargo, loaded at the same port, sailing at the same speed and having the same destination, should be treated differently because they are registered under two different flags."
Although China (which has one of the world's largest ports in Shanghai) didn't attend the conference, the country is onboard for the proposed cleanup plan.
"They're behind us all the way," said conference chair and former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers. He added that China's representatives "couldn't come for budget reasons."
Various measures were put forward at the July conference for dealing with emissions from shipping, including:
Increasing the number of power points for providing ships with electricity when they're in harbour. Currently, the majority of ships burn fuel when idle to generate electricity.
Limiting the amount of containers that can be moved by trucks within a port - and moving more goods to and from ports by cleaner transport such as trains and barges.
Replacing the trucks used to move containers in ports with hybrid vehicles.
Working with "clean coal" organisations to pipe carbon dioxide emissions from port power plants into empty underground gas fields. (Rotterdam and Royal Dutch Shell are to open a test reservoir in 2010).
In a taped message, Bill Clinton told conference delegates that, "If widely implemented, these ideas can have a significant impact."
The conference concluded with the adoption of the World Port Climate Change Declaration, in which delegates from over 50 ports from 35 countries committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality - all of which could mark the beginning of the ocean waves becoming greener.
A follow-up conference is scheduled for November in Los Angeles.
Although not included in the Kyoto Protocol, the maritime industry's CO2 emissions rival those of aviation. But new initiatives from port authorities look set to make shipping more eco-friendly. Jimmy Lee Shreeve reports "Commercial shipping emissions have been one of the least studied areas of all combustion emissions," says Daniel Lack, a scientist at the Washington DC-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
He's right. But it isn't just formal studies that are lacking. Shipping, like aviation, plays a major role in the global economy and is also a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet it has never been included in progammes like the Kyoto Protocol. As a result, its impact on the environment goes largely unreported.Daniel Lack and his team, however, have uncovered damning evidence showing that emissions from shipping are worse than previously thought.
Large cargo ships, for example, merrily emit more than twice as much black carbon (otherwise known as soot, which is thought to be the second largest contributor to global warming, after CO2) than was estimated in earlier studies.
Even the humble tugboat pumps out more black carbon for the amount of fuel it burns compared to other vessels.
"The two previous studies of soot emissions examined a total of three ships, [but] we reviewed plumes from 96 different vessels," explains Lack, whose department's findings were published in the July issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Lack and his colleagues measured emissions from commercial vessels in open sea, channels and ports along the southeast coast of America during the summer of 2006.
They estimate that commercial shipping releases around 130,000 metric tons of black carbon a year, or 1.7 per cent of the global total - with much of it pumped out near highly populated coastlines.
Include the whole gamut of greenhouse gases and the picture is even bleaker.
The commercial or merchant shipping industry shifts about 90 per cent of the world's goods and commodities. These are carried on huge ships that burn low-grade fuel.
According to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), these vessels belch out 3.5 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (some estimates give an even higher figure). Currently, the organisation is drafting new rules to limit sulphur emissions from ship exhausts and is generally trying to get shipping firms to burn cleaner fuels.
But it isn't just the merchant marine that is eco-unfriendly; cruise liners are too. In its annual report, Carnival Cruise Lines admitted that its operations pump out 401 grams of CO2 per passenger. This is 36 times more than the per-passenger emissions of Eurostar, and more than three times that of a passenger on a Boeing 747.
According to Justin Francis of ResponsibleTravel.com, which provides eco-friendly travel information, this is only the half of it. "Some cruises involve a flight to the departure destination, something of a double-carbon whammy."
On top of this, statistics from the United Nation's OurPlanet magazine reveal that a cruise ship passenger produces on average 3.5kg of rubbish every day, compared to the 0.8kg generated by local people on shore.
Despite this, cruise liner companies insist they are working hard to reduce their environmental impact. Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, for example, says it is installing smokeless gas-turbine engines on up to six of its vessels and burns biofuel when it is available.
But it's ports authorities that are at the forefront of the race to make shipping cleaner. During mid-July, representatives from ports around the world met in Rotterdam (the world's third busiest port) to draw up plans to cut emissions from shipping.
The World Ports Climate Conference was organised by the Rotterdam ports authority and the Clinton Climate Change Initiative. Although delegates were divided on the exact contribution of shipping to global warming (studies put it at anything from 1.4 per cent to 4.5 per cent), they did agree that the shipping sector is set to grow in "leaps and bounds" and that it is imperative that measures are taken to help save the planet.
"The climate is changing every minute as we sit here," said Ogunlade Davidson, co-chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"Human beings have to solve it [global warming] because we created it. The marine environment has to take its own responsibility as do all of us."
He said the best solutions lay in technologies like the use of hydrodynamics in propellers, which could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 30 per cent on new ships and by 20 per cent on older ones. He added that renewable fuels, speed reduction and fleet maintenance also had a role to play.
Davidson went on to say that the potential is there to cut the global fleet's CO2 emissions by 17.6 per cent by 2010, and by 28.2 per cent by 2020.
"But this will not be enough to offset the projected fleet growth," he concluded.
Just about all the targets put forward at the conference had issues associated with them. The International Maritime Organisation, for example, is pushing hard to put emission targets in place that would come into effect by February 2010.
The problem is, these targets are unlikely to be met unless developing countries sign up to be part of the initiative. This is because the developed world accounts for only 25 per cent of the world's merchant fleet.
"In my view, if reduction in CO2 emissions from ships are to benefit the environment as a whole, they must apply globally to all ships in the world fleet regardless of their flag," said Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary-general of the IMO.
"It seems completely incongruous that two ships carrying similar cargo, loaded at the same port, sailing at the same speed and having the same destination, should be treated differently because they are registered under two different flags."
Although China (which has one of the world's largest ports in Shanghai) didn't attend the conference, the country is onboard for the proposed cleanup plan.
"They're behind us all the way," said conference chair and former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers. He added that China's representatives "couldn't come for budget reasons."
Various measures were put forward at the July conference for dealing with emissions from shipping, including:
Increasing the number of power points for providing ships with electricity when they're in harbour. Currently, the majority of ships burn fuel when idle to generate electricity.
Limiting the amount of containers that can be moved by trucks within a port - and moving more goods to and from ports by cleaner transport such as trains and barges.
Replacing the trucks used to move containers in ports with hybrid vehicles.
Working with "clean coal" organisations to pipe carbon dioxide emissions from port power plants into empty underground gas fields. (Rotterdam and Royal Dutch Shell are to open a test reservoir in 2010).
In a taped message, Bill Clinton told conference delegates that, "If widely implemented, these ideas can have a significant impact."
The conference concluded with the adoption of the World Port Climate Change Declaration, in which delegates from over 50 ports from 35 countries committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality - all of which could mark the beginning of the ocean waves becoming greener.
A follow-up conference is scheduled for November in Los Angeles.
Weather Eye: a complicated climate
Paul Simons
Climate change is a complicated subject. To predict the future, we need to understand what happened in the past, but several myths have grown up.
Since the end of the last ice age, the climate has gone and up down quite naturally. But some of the stories are not quite what they seem. Much has been made of a warm period in medieval times that became a golden age for growing vines in England. But vines were not that widespread and, in any case, vine-growing carried on for the next millennium, even when the climate turned cooler. As Phil Jones, of the University of East Anglia, pointed out recently in Weather: “Past vine-growing in England reflects little, if any, on the relative climate changes in the region since medieval times.” When the Romans invaded England, the climate was supposed to be very warm. But in The Winelands of Britain Richard Selley describes how vineyards flourished largely in southern England, whereas today’s vineyards grow further north.
Critics say that the warm Roman and medieval periods prove how today’s high temperatures are simply another natural bout of warm climate. But today’s climate is the warmest in history, and the temperatures are rising unlike anything we have seen before.
Climate change is a complicated subject. To predict the future, we need to understand what happened in the past, but several myths have grown up.
Since the end of the last ice age, the climate has gone and up down quite naturally. But some of the stories are not quite what they seem. Much has been made of a warm period in medieval times that became a golden age for growing vines in England. But vines were not that widespread and, in any case, vine-growing carried on for the next millennium, even when the climate turned cooler. As Phil Jones, of the University of East Anglia, pointed out recently in Weather: “Past vine-growing in England reflects little, if any, on the relative climate changes in the region since medieval times.” When the Romans invaded England, the climate was supposed to be very warm. But in The Winelands of Britain Richard Selley describes how vineyards flourished largely in southern England, whereas today’s vineyards grow further north.
Critics say that the warm Roman and medieval periods prove how today’s high temperatures are simply another natural bout of warm climate. But today’s climate is the warmest in history, and the temperatures are rising unlike anything we have seen before.
Nissan says electric cars will be quickly profitable
By Nick Bunkley
Published: July 23, 2008
FRANKLIN, Tennessee: The electric cars that Nissan Motor plans to start selling by 2010 will have varying capabilities depending on a given country's driving patterns, but all will be priced competitively and will generate profits, company executives said Tuesday.
Nissan's chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, said that any electric car the company sold in the United States would need a range of at least 100 miles between charges to be practical, but that European drivers could make do with about half that range. Tolerance for the time it takes to recharge such a car may vary widely as well, he said.
One aspect that Ghosn said would remain constant, however, is that the cars would produce zero tailpipe emissions, unlike some vehicles being developed by rivals that have range-extending gasoline engines to power the car after its battery is depleted. Building cars powered by alternative fuels but that still use oil is "unsustainable," he said.
"I want a pure electric car. I don't want a range extender. I don't want another hybrid," Ghosn told reporters after a ceremony to dedicate Nissan's new North American headquarters in Franklin, an affluent suburb in the hills south of Nashville. "It's not going to be zero emissions in certain conditions. It's going to be zero emissions."
In May, Ghosn asserted that Nissan would, within two years, become the first automaker to sell a mass-market, zero-emission vehicle in the United States. The company plans to sell such cars globally by 2012.
But Nissan does not intend to reach those milestones merely for show, said Dominique Thormann, its senior vice president for finance in North America. In an interview, Thormann said Nissan would not sell the cars unless it could make a profit immediately, at an affordable price.
"Everything that we develop, we develop for profits," he said. "We make money on all our cars. We do not have loss leaders."
To help in its development of electric cars, Nissan said Tuesday that it would work with the state of Tennessee and its largest electric utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority, to study and perhaps install infrastructure like charging stations. The automaker has begun similar efforts in Denmark, Israel and Portugal, but the United States presents a far greater opportunity for Nissan to market electric cars.
Separately, General Motors said Tuesday that it was working with the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute, which represents more than 30 large electric utilities in North America, to encourage development of electric vehicles. GM is developing the Chevrolet Volt, also for introduction in 2010, which can go 40 miles on battery power before switching to its gas-powered engine.
Nissan is opening its 450,000-square-foot headquarters here in Franklin two years after it pulled up stakes in Southern California for temporary quarters in downtown Nashville. And overseas automakers in the South, particularly in Tennessee, are growing rapidly. Last week, Volkswagen of Germany selected Chattanooga as the site of its first United States car plant.
Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai also have factories in the region. Meanwhile, the Detroit automakers have been laying off thousands of workers and closing plants across the Midwest and other parts of the country.
"The arrival of the auto industry in Tennessee has transformed our lives," Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican, told Nissan employees during the dedication ceremony, which was followed by country music, tours of the energy-efficient building and a pie-baking contest. "You put the South on a path to become the new center of the American auto industry."
Published: July 23, 2008
FRANKLIN, Tennessee: The electric cars that Nissan Motor plans to start selling by 2010 will have varying capabilities depending on a given country's driving patterns, but all will be priced competitively and will generate profits, company executives said Tuesday.
Nissan's chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, said that any electric car the company sold in the United States would need a range of at least 100 miles between charges to be practical, but that European drivers could make do with about half that range. Tolerance for the time it takes to recharge such a car may vary widely as well, he said.
One aspect that Ghosn said would remain constant, however, is that the cars would produce zero tailpipe emissions, unlike some vehicles being developed by rivals that have range-extending gasoline engines to power the car after its battery is depleted. Building cars powered by alternative fuels but that still use oil is "unsustainable," he said.
"I want a pure electric car. I don't want a range extender. I don't want another hybrid," Ghosn told reporters after a ceremony to dedicate Nissan's new North American headquarters in Franklin, an affluent suburb in the hills south of Nashville. "It's not going to be zero emissions in certain conditions. It's going to be zero emissions."
In May, Ghosn asserted that Nissan would, within two years, become the first automaker to sell a mass-market, zero-emission vehicle in the United States. The company plans to sell such cars globally by 2012.
But Nissan does not intend to reach those milestones merely for show, said Dominique Thormann, its senior vice president for finance in North America. In an interview, Thormann said Nissan would not sell the cars unless it could make a profit immediately, at an affordable price.
"Everything that we develop, we develop for profits," he said. "We make money on all our cars. We do not have loss leaders."
To help in its development of electric cars, Nissan said Tuesday that it would work with the state of Tennessee and its largest electric utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority, to study and perhaps install infrastructure like charging stations. The automaker has begun similar efforts in Denmark, Israel and Portugal, but the United States presents a far greater opportunity for Nissan to market electric cars.
Separately, General Motors said Tuesday that it was working with the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute, which represents more than 30 large electric utilities in North America, to encourage development of electric vehicles. GM is developing the Chevrolet Volt, also for introduction in 2010, which can go 40 miles on battery power before switching to its gas-powered engine.
Nissan is opening its 450,000-square-foot headquarters here in Franklin two years after it pulled up stakes in Southern California for temporary quarters in downtown Nashville. And overseas automakers in the South, particularly in Tennessee, are growing rapidly. Last week, Volkswagen of Germany selected Chattanooga as the site of its first United States car plant.
Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai also have factories in the region. Meanwhile, the Detroit automakers have been laying off thousands of workers and closing plants across the Midwest and other parts of the country.
"The arrival of the auto industry in Tennessee has transformed our lives," Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican, told Nissan employees during the dedication ceremony, which was followed by country music, tours of the energy-efficient building and a pie-baking contest. "You put the South on a path to become the new center of the American auto industry."
Ghosn says Nissan going electric as company dedicates new North America HQ
The Associated Press
Published: July 23, 2008
FRANKLIN, Tennessee: Twenty-five years after Nissan Motor Co. became the first foreign automaker in the South, its chief executive dedicated a new $100 million North America headquarters and said the company's future on the road will be "electric."
Speaking to reporters after a ceremony Tuesday attended by Gov. Phil Bredesen, Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and Nissan employees wearing commemorative T-shirts, Carlos Ghosn said the company working with its partner Renault is focused on making zero-emission, electric vehicles.
Nissan has said the first electric models will arrive in the U.S. in 2010 and will be selling internationally in 2012.
Ghosn said Nissan wants to "also be in the battery business" and that hybrids and other alternative fuel technologies are at risk of becoming outdated.
Ghosn predicted Nissan's 2009 auto sales will not increase from this year's level. Nissan NA sold 106,921 vehicles in the fiscal year that ended in March — a 6.7 percent share of the market.
"We are not working on one way of making electric cars. We are working on different ways," he said. "It's going to take some time before we decide how we are going to do it."
The design of the electric car has not been selected, but Ghosn said Nissan is "not proposing a boring car."
Nissan, however, must determine if the current appetite for small cars is possibly due only to the high cost of gasoline, Ghosn said.
Ghosn also announced a regional "zero-emission vehicle partnership" with the state of Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Authority to promote the vehicles.
Nissan executives leading a tour of the new Nissan headquarters said it was primarily designed to provide maximum employee and energy efficiency.
Rob Traynham, the Nissan executive who oversaw the construction of the building 20 miles south of Nashville, says planners didn't start by saying, "Let's make a building that looks cool."
The glassy, sleek, S-shaped structure just turned out that way.
The 10-story building has sunshades with computer-designed blades to reduce glare and summer heat, an interior light harvesting system and employee discussion areas at open stairways connecting 460,000 square feet (42,735 square meters) of offices. The goal is to save energy and foster collaboration.
"When you do all that and the building looks great too, that's a wonderful thing," Traynham said.
Nissan employees are moving from leased office space in downtown Nashville into the headquarters 25 years after the company became the first foreign automaker to build cars in the South by opening an assembly plant in Smyrna. Since then Nissan has added an engine plant in Decherd, and another assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi.
Nissan's own facilities engineers, working with Gresham Smith & Partners of Nashville and contractor Skanska USA, developed the headquarters.
"We really understand our employees and the way they work and how people interact with each other," said Traynham.
The building came in below budget and is expected to consume about 35 percent less energy than a traditionally designed building. Traynham said it's too early to put a dollar figure on the projected energy savings.
"The building is absolutely performing the way we expected," he said.
The employees aren't the first to occupy the new site. A restored wetland on the 50-acre campus already has attracted new wildlife to move in, Nissan officials said.
The Nissan headquarters is being dedicated while Tennessee officials are still celebrating Volkswagen's announcement last week that it plans to build an assembly plant in Chattanooga.
"We don't look at it as sharing the stage," Traynham said of Volkswagen's announcement. "If it's a great thing for Tennessee, it's a great thing for us."
Published: July 23, 2008
FRANKLIN, Tennessee: Twenty-five years after Nissan Motor Co. became the first foreign automaker in the South, its chief executive dedicated a new $100 million North America headquarters and said the company's future on the road will be "electric."
Speaking to reporters after a ceremony Tuesday attended by Gov. Phil Bredesen, Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and Nissan employees wearing commemorative T-shirts, Carlos Ghosn said the company working with its partner Renault is focused on making zero-emission, electric vehicles.
Nissan has said the first electric models will arrive in the U.S. in 2010 and will be selling internationally in 2012.
Ghosn said Nissan wants to "also be in the battery business" and that hybrids and other alternative fuel technologies are at risk of becoming outdated.
Ghosn predicted Nissan's 2009 auto sales will not increase from this year's level. Nissan NA sold 106,921 vehicles in the fiscal year that ended in March — a 6.7 percent share of the market.
"We are not working on one way of making electric cars. We are working on different ways," he said. "It's going to take some time before we decide how we are going to do it."
The design of the electric car has not been selected, but Ghosn said Nissan is "not proposing a boring car."
Nissan, however, must determine if the current appetite for small cars is possibly due only to the high cost of gasoline, Ghosn said.
Ghosn also announced a regional "zero-emission vehicle partnership" with the state of Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Authority to promote the vehicles.
Nissan executives leading a tour of the new Nissan headquarters said it was primarily designed to provide maximum employee and energy efficiency.
Rob Traynham, the Nissan executive who oversaw the construction of the building 20 miles south of Nashville, says planners didn't start by saying, "Let's make a building that looks cool."
The glassy, sleek, S-shaped structure just turned out that way.
The 10-story building has sunshades with computer-designed blades to reduce glare and summer heat, an interior light harvesting system and employee discussion areas at open stairways connecting 460,000 square feet (42,735 square meters) of offices. The goal is to save energy and foster collaboration.
"When you do all that and the building looks great too, that's a wonderful thing," Traynham said.
Nissan employees are moving from leased office space in downtown Nashville into the headquarters 25 years after the company became the first foreign automaker to build cars in the South by opening an assembly plant in Smyrna. Since then Nissan has added an engine plant in Decherd, and another assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi.
Nissan's own facilities engineers, working with Gresham Smith & Partners of Nashville and contractor Skanska USA, developed the headquarters.
"We really understand our employees and the way they work and how people interact with each other," said Traynham.
The building came in below budget and is expected to consume about 35 percent less energy than a traditionally designed building. Traynham said it's too early to put a dollar figure on the projected energy savings.
"The building is absolutely performing the way we expected," he said.
The employees aren't the first to occupy the new site. A restored wetland on the 50-acre campus already has attracted new wildlife to move in, Nissan officials said.
The Nissan headquarters is being dedicated while Tennessee officials are still celebrating Volkswagen's announcement last week that it plans to build an assembly plant in Chattanooga.
"We don't look at it as sharing the stage," Traynham said of Volkswagen's announcement. "If it's a great thing for Tennessee, it's a great thing for us."
Texas oilman tells Congress: Either build wind-power lines or get out of private sector's way
The Associated Press
Published: July 22, 2008
WASHINGTON: Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens asked Congress on Tuesday to "clear the path" for his plan to boost use of wind and natural gas for U.S. energy needs.
Pickens has been on a $58 million publicity tour to promote his plan to erect wind turbines in the Midwest to generate electricity, replacing the 22 percent of U.S. power produced from natural gas. The freed up natural gas then could be used for transportation.
Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Pickens said the government should begin building transmission lines for wind-generated power or provide the right of way on private land and extend tax credits so the private sector can build the lines.
"If the government wanted to build a grid, I mean, do it," he said. "But if they don't want to do it, I think the money is there to do it private, and so it's kind of like either do it or get out of the way, but give us the corridors to put it in and it'll be done. You could do this on a very, very fast track if you wanted."
Pickens suggested that Congress follow the lead of former President Dwight Eisenhower, who declared an emergency to build the interstate highway system in the 1950s and 1960s.
He warned that oil could cost $300 a barrel in 10 years as supplies drop, if the nation continues to "drift" on energy policy.
Pickens has leased hundreds of thousands of acres (hectares) for a giant wind farm in West Texas, where he plans to erect 2,700 turbines and produce energy for urban areas such as Dallas and Fort Worth. He has run into some opposition from West Texas landowners who are unhappy with his efforts to obtain rights of way to build the wind farm and a pipeline for a separate water project.
Specifically, Pickens asked Congress to extend a 2005 law intended to speed up the creation of energy corridors, and to give him control over any transmission lines he builds for wind-generated power. All electric transmission lines are now regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Pickens also called for a 10-year extension of a tax credit for energy producers. He estimated it would cost taxpayers $15 billion a year in production tax credits for 200,000 megawatts of wind power.
"When you look at $700 billion dollars going out of country every year for purchase of oil, $15 billion is somewhat insignificant," he said.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman called Pickens' plan bold and said he hoped Pickens' testimony would "infect people in a position in Washington to do something about it."
But the oilman's plan raised questions with Sen. George Voinovich, who asked if it would hurt the chemical industry, which relies on natural gas as raw material. He said the industry probably won't like seeing natural gas costs increase.
Pickens estimated it would cost about $500 billion to increase wind energy production from the 4,000 megawatts to be generated at his Texas wind farm to 200,000 megawatts, the amount needed to power 20 percent of U.S. energy needs. Transmission lines and the tax credit would add another $15 billion.
At that level, he said, "You're approaching about one year's supply of oil that you're buying. But don't get the idea that replaces that oil, it doesn't. It will only replace 38 percent."
In addition to the hearing, Pickens also met privately Tuesday with Democratic and Republican members of Congress as well as Texas senators.
Published: July 22, 2008
WASHINGTON: Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens asked Congress on Tuesday to "clear the path" for his plan to boost use of wind and natural gas for U.S. energy needs.
Pickens has been on a $58 million publicity tour to promote his plan to erect wind turbines in the Midwest to generate electricity, replacing the 22 percent of U.S. power produced from natural gas. The freed up natural gas then could be used for transportation.
Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, Pickens said the government should begin building transmission lines for wind-generated power or provide the right of way on private land and extend tax credits so the private sector can build the lines.
"If the government wanted to build a grid, I mean, do it," he said. "But if they don't want to do it, I think the money is there to do it private, and so it's kind of like either do it or get out of the way, but give us the corridors to put it in and it'll be done. You could do this on a very, very fast track if you wanted."
Pickens suggested that Congress follow the lead of former President Dwight Eisenhower, who declared an emergency to build the interstate highway system in the 1950s and 1960s.
He warned that oil could cost $300 a barrel in 10 years as supplies drop, if the nation continues to "drift" on energy policy.
Pickens has leased hundreds of thousands of acres (hectares) for a giant wind farm in West Texas, where he plans to erect 2,700 turbines and produce energy for urban areas such as Dallas and Fort Worth. He has run into some opposition from West Texas landowners who are unhappy with his efforts to obtain rights of way to build the wind farm and a pipeline for a separate water project.
Specifically, Pickens asked Congress to extend a 2005 law intended to speed up the creation of energy corridors, and to give him control over any transmission lines he builds for wind-generated power. All electric transmission lines are now regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Pickens also called for a 10-year extension of a tax credit for energy producers. He estimated it would cost taxpayers $15 billion a year in production tax credits for 200,000 megawatts of wind power.
"When you look at $700 billion dollars going out of country every year for purchase of oil, $15 billion is somewhat insignificant," he said.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman called Pickens' plan bold and said he hoped Pickens' testimony would "infect people in a position in Washington to do something about it."
But the oilman's plan raised questions with Sen. George Voinovich, who asked if it would hurt the chemical industry, which relies on natural gas as raw material. He said the industry probably won't like seeing natural gas costs increase.
Pickens estimated it would cost about $500 billion to increase wind energy production from the 4,000 megawatts to be generated at his Texas wind farm to 200,000 megawatts, the amount needed to power 20 percent of U.S. energy needs. Transmission lines and the tax credit would add another $15 billion.
At that level, he said, "You're approaching about one year's supply of oil that you're buying. But don't get the idea that replaces that oil, it doesn't. It will only replace 38 percent."
In addition to the hearing, Pickens also met privately Tuesday with Democratic and Republican members of Congress as well as Texas senators.
Green light for big Scottish wind farm
By Sanjay Odedra and Andrew Bolger
Published: July 22 2008 03:20
Europe’s largest onshore wind farm has been given the go-ahead in Scotland – just as plans to erect the UK’s biggest individual onshore wind turbine in Northumberland were approved by ministers.
The £600m ($1.2bn) Clyde wind farm will have 152 turbines and total capacity of 456MW, enough to power more than 250,000 homes.
The turbine to be built at Blyth will reach 163m, almost 30m taller than the London Eye, and will have generation capacity of up to 7.5MW.
Alex Salmond, first minister, hailed the Clyde wind farm decision as another step towards making Scotland the green energy capital of Europe. His devolved Holyrood government aims to generate 31 per cent of Scotland’s required electricity from renewable sources by 2011, and half by 2020.
Mr Salmond said the announcement meant it was now virtually certain the 2011 target would be met early – a significant milestone on the way to achieving the 2020 target.
The wind farm will be built on either side of the M74 motorway near Abington in south Lanarkshire by Scottish and Southern Energy. It became part of the utility’s development portfolio when SSE bought Airtricity, the Irish wind farm operator, earlier this year for €1.45bn (£1.2bn).
At present, the largest wind farm in Scotland for which planning consent has been granted is Whitelee, on Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow. It is under construction and will have a total capacity of 322MW. Currently the biggest operational wind farm in Europe is the 208MW Maranchon development in Guadalajara, Spain.
At Blyth, six smaller 2.5MW machines will also be built nearby as the Northumberland town strives to rejuvenate its outdated wind infrastructure.
Charles Rose, director of Hainsford Energy, which is behind the project, claimed it would transform the site into an “iconic landmark” and help create hundreds of jobs in the former shipbuilding centre.
However, Paul Crossland, chairman of the North Blyth Residents Association, criticised Wansbeck district council and the government for “totally ignoring” concerns over the development’s visible and audible impact on his village.
This view was supported by the Renewable Energy Foundation, a charity that calls for balanced and sustainable energy policy, which labelled the current legislation governing noise emissions from wind farms a “disgrace”.
Newcastle international airport had also objected to the giant structures on the grounds that they could interfere with its radar, but was overruled.
Wansbeck Blyth Harbour Wind Farm will achieve a tenfold increase in generation output by replacing nine existing turbines, installed at East Pier in 1993.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Published: July 22 2008 03:20
Europe’s largest onshore wind farm has been given the go-ahead in Scotland – just as plans to erect the UK’s biggest individual onshore wind turbine in Northumberland were approved by ministers.
The £600m ($1.2bn) Clyde wind farm will have 152 turbines and total capacity of 456MW, enough to power more than 250,000 homes.
The turbine to be built at Blyth will reach 163m, almost 30m taller than the London Eye, and will have generation capacity of up to 7.5MW.
Alex Salmond, first minister, hailed the Clyde wind farm decision as another step towards making Scotland the green energy capital of Europe. His devolved Holyrood government aims to generate 31 per cent of Scotland’s required electricity from renewable sources by 2011, and half by 2020.
Mr Salmond said the announcement meant it was now virtually certain the 2011 target would be met early – a significant milestone on the way to achieving the 2020 target.
The wind farm will be built on either side of the M74 motorway near Abington in south Lanarkshire by Scottish and Southern Energy. It became part of the utility’s development portfolio when SSE bought Airtricity, the Irish wind farm operator, earlier this year for €1.45bn (£1.2bn).
At present, the largest wind farm in Scotland for which planning consent has been granted is Whitelee, on Eaglesham Moor, south of Glasgow. It is under construction and will have a total capacity of 322MW. Currently the biggest operational wind farm in Europe is the 208MW Maranchon development in Guadalajara, Spain.
At Blyth, six smaller 2.5MW machines will also be built nearby as the Northumberland town strives to rejuvenate its outdated wind infrastructure.
Charles Rose, director of Hainsford Energy, which is behind the project, claimed it would transform the site into an “iconic landmark” and help create hundreds of jobs in the former shipbuilding centre.
However, Paul Crossland, chairman of the North Blyth Residents Association, criticised Wansbeck district council and the government for “totally ignoring” concerns over the development’s visible and audible impact on his village.
This view was supported by the Renewable Energy Foundation, a charity that calls for balanced and sustainable energy policy, which labelled the current legislation governing noise emissions from wind farms a “disgrace”.
Newcastle international airport had also objected to the giant structures on the grounds that they could interfere with its radar, but was overruled.
Wansbeck Blyth Harbour Wind Farm will achieve a tenfold increase in generation output by replacing nine existing turbines, installed at East Pier in 1993.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Brazil vows tough environmental conditions for construction of 3rd nuclear plant
The Associated Press
Published: July 23, 2008
BRASILIA, Brazil: The Brazilian government says it is setting what it calls tough environmental terms for the construction of the country's third nuclear power plant.
Environment Minister Carlos Minc says his agency will issue a preliminary license Wednesday for construction of the Angra 3 plant.
But Minc said Tuesday that the license will include "brutal demands" on waste treatment, independent monitoring of radiation levels and investments in environmental protection.
Brazil currently has two operating nuclear plants with an installed capacity of about 2,000 megawatts.
Construction on Angra 3 has been held up since the 1980s because of financing problems and environmental concerns. It will require an investment of US$3.7 billion (€2.3 billion).
Published: July 23, 2008
BRASILIA, Brazil: The Brazilian government says it is setting what it calls tough environmental terms for the construction of the country's third nuclear power plant.
Environment Minister Carlos Minc says his agency will issue a preliminary license Wednesday for construction of the Angra 3 plant.
But Minc said Tuesday that the license will include "brutal demands" on waste treatment, independent monitoring of radiation levels and investments in environmental protection.
Brazil currently has two operating nuclear plants with an installed capacity of about 2,000 megawatts.
Construction on Angra 3 has been held up since the 1980s because of financing problems and environmental concerns. It will require an investment of US$3.7 billion (€2.3 billion).
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