Obama's call hits home, writes Geoffrey Lean
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Leaders attending the G20 meeting in London plan to gather again in the summer for a special summit on tackling climate change, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.
The new summit – which is being called on the initiative of President Barack Obama as part of a US drive to get a new international agreement on tackling global warming – is to take place alongside the annual G8 gathering of world leaders on the island of La Maddalena off Sardinia.
Scientists and environmentalists will hope that it will make up for a failure by the leaders at this week's meeting to do more than agree warm words about the need for a "green new deal" and the importance of building low-carbon economies. Every nation attending has flatly refused to discuss any commitment to devote an agreed percentage of its financial stimulus package to green measures, insisting instead on focusing on relatively short-term measures to tackle the immediate financial crisis.
News of the summit comes as governments gather in Bonn today to start eight months of negotiations on an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which are to climax at a conference in Copenhagen in December. The conference is widely seen as the world's last chance of getting global warming under control before it precipitates disastrous climate change.
This month President Obama wrote to Gordon Brown and the leaders of France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Japan, Canada, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, South Korea, Australia and Indonesia to propose the summit, and the plan has gelled over the past week. Ironically, it will take place under the auspices of a mechanism – the "major economies" meetings – started by the former US president, George W Bush, to detract from the international attempt to get a new treaty, rather than galvanise it.
The initiative is one of the clearest signs to date of the unexpectedly high priority the new President is giving to combating climate change.
Gordon Brown has repeatedly pledged that the G20 London summit would launch a "global green new deal". Many, will be disappointed, however, at the failure of the G20 talks to commit nations to take the opportunity offered by the huge spending on stimulus packages to allocate a high proportion of the money to recession-beating environmental measures.
Countries have earmarked widely varying percentages (see graphic). South Korea leads with 81 per cent, while Britain is one of the worst performers at 7 per cent. China has earmarked more than 110 times as much money as the UK for the purpose.
Lord Stern, the author of a seminal government report on climate change, says that 20 per cent of the stimulus should go on green measures, which have been shown to employ more people and spark more innovation than conventional economic ones. When the UK government put the proposal on the table for the G20 meeting, not a single country supported it.
But late last week, secret pre-summit negotiations were making progress on agreeing measures to help developing countries, including maintaining aid and increasing finance for the International Monetary Fund.
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Earth Hour: Landmarks plunged into darkness in support of climate change action
Buildings around the world are being plunged into darkness as millions support Earth Hour 2009, aimed at raising awareness of climate change.
Last Updated: 9:16AM BST 29 Mar 2009
At 8.30pm local time WWF is encouraging people to switch off their lights for one hour in a bid to raise awareness of environmental issues.
In Australia lights went out at Sydney's normally brightly-lit Opera House and Harbour Bridge
In Asia, lights at landmarks in China, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines also dimmed as people celebrated with candle-lit picnics and concerts.
In London landmarks including the London Eye, The Gherkin, and the BT Tower are expected to take part.
Hundreds of other landmarks around the world are expected to take part, including the Empire State Building and the Las Vegas Strip.
Earth Hour is aimed at showing global leaders the strong support for action to tackle climate change.
Activists have warned companies in the financial sector they will shut down electricity supplies themselves unless the lights go out.
Earth Hour comes on the same same day as police feared demonstrations across London ahead of next week's G20 summit could turn violent.
Activists had initially gathered along Victoria Embankment to stage a protest for "jobs, justice and climate". Just after noon, they began their four-mile march to Hyde Park, with most marchers arriving at about 2pm.
Some protesters chanted: "What do we want? Jobs not bombs". Many carried banners bearing slogans including "People before profit'', "Money for need not greed'' and "Climate emergency".
Demonstrators whistled and booed as they made their way past 10 Downing Street along Whitehall.
Glen Tarman, who has helped organise the march, said he had no evidence that anyone intended to break the law or commit acts of violence.
Murray Benham, head of campaigns at the World Development Movement, said: "The cost of the summit is clearly incredibly high.
"The only possible justification for this expenditure will be if the G20 leaders make the bold moves necessary to make the global economy work for people in the developing world, who are being hit the hardest by the credit crunch and climate change."
Further direct action is feared next week with police leave in the capital cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday, when campaigners are planning disruptions around the City's Square Mile.
Last Updated: 9:16AM BST 29 Mar 2009
At 8.30pm local time WWF is encouraging people to switch off their lights for one hour in a bid to raise awareness of environmental issues.
In Australia lights went out at Sydney's normally brightly-lit Opera House and Harbour Bridge
In Asia, lights at landmarks in China, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines also dimmed as people celebrated with candle-lit picnics and concerts.
In London landmarks including the London Eye, The Gherkin, and the BT Tower are expected to take part.
Hundreds of other landmarks around the world are expected to take part, including the Empire State Building and the Las Vegas Strip.
Earth Hour is aimed at showing global leaders the strong support for action to tackle climate change.
Activists have warned companies in the financial sector they will shut down electricity supplies themselves unless the lights go out.
Earth Hour comes on the same same day as police feared demonstrations across London ahead of next week's G20 summit could turn violent.
Activists had initially gathered along Victoria Embankment to stage a protest for "jobs, justice and climate". Just after noon, they began their four-mile march to Hyde Park, with most marchers arriving at about 2pm.
Some protesters chanted: "What do we want? Jobs not bombs". Many carried banners bearing slogans including "People before profit'', "Money for need not greed'' and "Climate emergency".
Demonstrators whistled and booed as they made their way past 10 Downing Street along Whitehall.
Glen Tarman, who has helped organise the march, said he had no evidence that anyone intended to break the law or commit acts of violence.
Murray Benham, head of campaigns at the World Development Movement, said: "The cost of the summit is clearly incredibly high.
"The only possible justification for this expenditure will be if the G20 leaders make the bold moves necessary to make the global economy work for people in the developing world, who are being hit the hardest by the credit crunch and climate change."
Further direct action is feared next week with police leave in the capital cancelled on Wednesday and Thursday, when campaigners are planning disruptions around the City's Square Mile.
British eco-migrants flee to New Zealand
The Sunday Times
March 29, 2009
Jonathan Leake and Anna Rushworth
NEW ZEALAND is seeing its first influx of British eco-migrants, environmental refugees who have quit the UK because they fear the long-term impacts of climate change.
The country’s islands, renowned for their temperate climate, clean environment and low population, have often been put forward by greens as potential “lifeboats” for a world suffering serious warming.
Recently, James Lovelock, the scientist and creator of the Gaia theory, said in his new book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia, that New Zealand could be one of the world’s last havens as climate change fundamentally changes the planet.
Such effects are expected to take years or decades to happen but some families are already trying to anticipate them.
Among them are Lizzy and Mike Larmer-Cottle who have moved their family from London to Albany, half an hour north of Auckland on North Island, surrounded by rolling hills and beaches.
Britain’s recent climate of summer droughts and warm, wet winters was becoming alarming, said Lizzy. She added: “England was just having more and more flooding — if that continues, half of it is going to be underwater.”
The couple stress there were other factors too, such as lower traffic, less pollution and cheaper property. Before moving to New Zealand their sons Milo, 10, and Theo, 12, had, for example, never been able to ride their bikes on local roads.
They are, however, part of a rising tide of Britons heading for the New Zealand. Statistics NZ, which collects data for the country’s government, said more than 18,000 British residents moved there last year alone.
Among recent arrivals was John Zamick who also believes climate change will tip Britain into long-term environmental decline.
The businessman, who now co-directs a biodiesel company in Nelson, a town on South Island, points to East Anglia, where rainfall is now so low it is classed as semi-arid, while its coasts are threatened by rising sea levels.
What such eco-migrants have in common is not so much a fear of Britain becoming warmer but that climate change could destabilise the global economy, causing shortages of food.
At the Copenhagen climate science conference earlier this month, scientists set out the latest research on how climate change could affect crops.
This showed that, as heat and water shortages took hold, many equatorial regions in Africa and Asia would become unable to grow enough food, creating global shortages of staples like wheat and rice.
Zamick said New Zealand's low population density, agricultural independence and availability of farmland were all prime attractions, along with its English-speaking population.
Americans have also spotted New Zealand’s potential. Adam Fier and his wife Misbah Sadat moved their family from Maryland in the United States to New Zealand late last month.
Fier, a computer security expert who used to work at Nasa, told the Washington Post the decision was made because of his two girls.
“I am not going to predict how the climate might change and how it might affect New Zealand,” Fier said. “But quite honestly, I feel in 100 years, one of my daughters is still going to be alive and this planet is going to be a mess.”
Scientists agree that New Zealand is likely to be more resilient to any global warming than many other countries — but that could lead to problems with immigration. Dr Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at Britain’s Met Office, said: “A lot of countries in temperate zones could come under pressure to take eco-migrants.”
Immigration specialists say climate is an increasingly important issue for Britons trying to emigrate. Liam Clifford, a director of the British-based GlobalVisas, described how clients increasingly wanted to move to “a temperate country that will escape extreme climate.”
James Hardy shared such views. He used to live in lush Buckinghamshire but became increasingly concerned at how he and his family might cope on such a crowded island if the global climate underwent sharp changes.
Three years ago he moved to New Zealand with his wife and their three children.
“New Zealand has land, New Zealand has wind, New Zealand has a far more sustainable climate,” he said.
March 29, 2009
Jonathan Leake and Anna Rushworth
NEW ZEALAND is seeing its first influx of British eco-migrants, environmental refugees who have quit the UK because they fear the long-term impacts of climate change.
The country’s islands, renowned for their temperate climate, clean environment and low population, have often been put forward by greens as potential “lifeboats” for a world suffering serious warming.
Recently, James Lovelock, the scientist and creator of the Gaia theory, said in his new book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia, that New Zealand could be one of the world’s last havens as climate change fundamentally changes the planet.
Such effects are expected to take years or decades to happen but some families are already trying to anticipate them.
Among them are Lizzy and Mike Larmer-Cottle who have moved their family from London to Albany, half an hour north of Auckland on North Island, surrounded by rolling hills and beaches.
Britain’s recent climate of summer droughts and warm, wet winters was becoming alarming, said Lizzy. She added: “England was just having more and more flooding — if that continues, half of it is going to be underwater.”
The couple stress there were other factors too, such as lower traffic, less pollution and cheaper property. Before moving to New Zealand their sons Milo, 10, and Theo, 12, had, for example, never been able to ride their bikes on local roads.
They are, however, part of a rising tide of Britons heading for the New Zealand. Statistics NZ, which collects data for the country’s government, said more than 18,000 British residents moved there last year alone.
Among recent arrivals was John Zamick who also believes climate change will tip Britain into long-term environmental decline.
The businessman, who now co-directs a biodiesel company in Nelson, a town on South Island, points to East Anglia, where rainfall is now so low it is classed as semi-arid, while its coasts are threatened by rising sea levels.
What such eco-migrants have in common is not so much a fear of Britain becoming warmer but that climate change could destabilise the global economy, causing shortages of food.
At the Copenhagen climate science conference earlier this month, scientists set out the latest research on how climate change could affect crops.
This showed that, as heat and water shortages took hold, many equatorial regions in Africa and Asia would become unable to grow enough food, creating global shortages of staples like wheat and rice.
Zamick said New Zealand's low population density, agricultural independence and availability of farmland were all prime attractions, along with its English-speaking population.
Americans have also spotted New Zealand’s potential. Adam Fier and his wife Misbah Sadat moved their family from Maryland in the United States to New Zealand late last month.
Fier, a computer security expert who used to work at Nasa, told the Washington Post the decision was made because of his two girls.
“I am not going to predict how the climate might change and how it might affect New Zealand,” Fier said. “But quite honestly, I feel in 100 years, one of my daughters is still going to be alive and this planet is going to be a mess.”
Scientists agree that New Zealand is likely to be more resilient to any global warming than many other countries — but that could lead to problems with immigration. Dr Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at Britain’s Met Office, said: “A lot of countries in temperate zones could come under pressure to take eco-migrants.”
Immigration specialists say climate is an increasingly important issue for Britons trying to emigrate. Liam Clifford, a director of the British-based GlobalVisas, described how clients increasingly wanted to move to “a temperate country that will escape extreme climate.”
James Hardy shared such views. He used to live in lush Buckinghamshire but became increasingly concerned at how he and his family might cope on such a crowded island if the global climate underwent sharp changes.
Three years ago he moved to New Zealand with his wife and their three children.
“New Zealand has land, New Zealand has wind, New Zealand has a far more sustainable climate,” he said.
Battery-powered cars take over the roads
The oil giants could be taken by surprise at how quickly battery-powered cars take over the roads. David Strahan reports on a world-changing market
Sunday, 29 March 2009
'The future has not been cancelled," quipped BP chief executive Tony Hayward in a bullish presentation about the company's prospects recently. But one thing the company has been forced to cancel, or at least postpone, is a reception to celebrate its centenary at the British Museum this week – shelved because BP feared disruption by climate campaigners gathering for the G20 summit.
A century on from the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, this may be the least of BP's worries. Because along with the recession, the collapse of the oil price and the struggle to maintain output in the face of global oil depletion, BP and its peers face the rapid resurgence of an ancient rival: the electric car.
Invented in the 1830s, the electric car predated the internal combustion engine and the oil industry by decades, and dominated the car market into the early 20th century. It was only in the second decade that electric cars were overtaken by petrol and diesel models with superior range. But today a combination of factors – climate change, oil-price volatility and improving battery technology – are coalescing to make a powerful case for the electric vehicle once again. Mass-market models will be launched from later this year, the charging infrastructure is being rolled out, and electricity companies around the world are manoeuvring to claim a slice of the new automotive energy market.
Since about half the world's oil production is turned into petrol and diesel, any shift to electric vehicles could ultimately cost the oil industry a vast chunk of its earnings. According to Dale Vince, chief executive of the wind generator Ecotricity, Britain's cars could be powered by fewer than 5,000 wind turbines, and we are on the verge of a rapid shift to transport powered by renewable electricity. "The oil companies are dinosaurs," he says, "and the comet is coming."
It is a dra- matic turnaround, according to Chris Paine, the director of the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?, which told the story of GM's withdrawal of its EV1 model in the 1990s amid allegations of oil-industry lobbying and corporate chicanery. Today most major car manufacturers are developing battery-powered vehicles, GM is preparing to launch its Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, and Paine is making a sequel: The Revenge of the Electric Car. "It's totally different now we've had the shock of $150 oil, and the automakers are staring out at thousands of unsold gas-guzzlers. I am convinced the electric car will have its revenge."
Until recently the only models available have been niche vehicles such as the tiny G-Wiz commuter car or the Tesla Roadster, but a slew of mass- market models will start to appear this year. The first to arrive in Britain will be Mitsubishi's iMiEV, a four-door with a range of 100 miles on a single charge from a three-pin domestic socket. The cars will be relatively expensive to start with, at about £20,000, but the company says the price will come down as sales grow, and will be offset by min-uscule running costs. Lance Bradley, the new managing director of Mitsubishi UK, points out that the petrol needed to drive 10,000 miles per year costs about £1,000, whereas the electricity to drive the iMiEV the same distance would cost just £40, and electric motors require virtually no maintenance.
The iMiEV will be the first of many. In 2010 Vauxhall will launch the Voltera, the British version of the Chevy Volt, and Think will unveil an all-electric four-seater. In 2011 Renault will launch three electric cars including a large saloon and a van. New models are also due from Smart, Toyota, Nissan and Subaru. Thierry Koskas, director of Renault's electric-vehicle programme, predicts that within five years electric cars could take 10 per cent of global car sales, even on current battery technology. With further improvements in range, he says that number "could easily double or triple". The consultancy AT Kearney predicts battery and hybrid technology will take 50 per cent market share by 2020, assuming oil rises to $200 per barrel.
As climate-change forecasts become ever more alarming, the renaissance of the electric car is supported by a growing consensus that it is the only technology remotely capable of delivering zero-carbon private transport. According to Gary Kendall, director of climate change at SustainAbility, a London-based consultancy, and author of a report called Plugged In: The End of the Oil Age, biofuels will continue to rely on fossil fuel and fertiliser and so will not cut emissions enough, while producing hydrogen cleanly is far too energy-intensive. However, electric motors are so efficient, they would roughly halve car emissions, even if run on UK grid electricity that is heavily reliant on coal and natural gas. "Electric vehicles are the best way to cut car emissions quickly," Kendall concludes, "and combined with zero-carbon electricity generation, they are the only realistic way to eliminate car emissions altogether."
For that to happen would require a network of charging points, which is already starting to be rolled out in Europe and Japan. The Brighton-based company Elektromotive has developed a recharger that looks like a futuristic parking meter, and the firm is working with local authorities, such as Westminster City Council, and power companies, such as EDF Energy, to install them at on-street parking bays and shopping centres. London has 40 such "Elektrobays", with another 60 being installed in the next two months. The company expects to have installed 300 around Britain by the end of the year, and managing director Calvey Taylor-Haw predicts that in 10 years "every street will have one". Elektromotive has also installed rechargers in Germany and Sweden, where it is working with power firms to integrate billing systems, so that wherever the customer recharges a car, the cost will appear on their domestic electricity bill.
A range of 100 miles would more than cover most people's daily travel needs, but would be awkward for longer trips. Better Place, a $200m (£140m) start-up founded in 2007 by a former software executive, Shai Agassi, plans to solve this problem by building a network of battery exchange stations powered by renewable electricity. Motorists would drive in and have depleted batteries replaced with freshly charged ones in an automatic process. In a business model adapted from the mobile phone industry, the batteries would be owned by the network, and motorists would be billed for the number of kilometres they drive. The company plans to launch its network in Israel in 2011, followed by Denmark, Australia, Can-ada, Hawaii and California, and is in talks with a dozen other countries.
The Better Place mission statement is extraordinarily ambitious, promising "a world living free from oil", but business development executive Josh Steinmann says it could all happen much faster than people think. "I don't think we are that far from it because all the technologies exist. The challenge is to persuade people there is another way. Within 10 years we can make a tremendous impact."
The Better Place model relies on a series of deals with renewable generators around the world, and a similar alliance was forged in France last October between Renault and EDF, which plan to create "a large scale zero emission individual transport and travel system". EDF generates almost all its power from low-carbon nuclear and hydro, and already runs a fleet of 1,500 electric vehicles. Renault and EDF are working with the French government, local authorities and Peugeot to develop a recharging infrastructure for Paris, and aim to produce a strategic plan by June. "This is a massive opportunity for electricity firms," says Steinmann. "They stand to address an entirely new market."
Another reason power companies will increasingly want to supply electricity for vehicles is that it could help solve the problem of balancing supply and demand as the proportion of wind generation grows. In Denmark, where wind penetration has reached 20 per cent, the country sometimes has to export power to its neighbours for next to nothing because the wind is blowing but domestic demand is too low, usually at night. Electric vehicles recharging overnight would create a new market for that power, which is why DONG Energy, Denmark's biggest electricity generator, decided to invest in a €€103m (£96m) joint venture with Better Place. According to Torben Holm, who devised the DONG strategy, other power companies round the world will face similar pressures as wind penetration rises, and are likely to follow suit. Meanwhile, the firm hopes a fifth of Denmark's passenger cars will be electric by 2020. "It's very ambitious", says Holm, "but achievable."
While new players circle the transport energy market, the oil companies seem determined to stick overwhelmingly to oil and gas. ExxonMobil has never had any truck with renewables, and Shell recently outraged climate campaigners by announcing it will invest no more in wind and solar following the slump in the oil price. Meanwhile BP, which the company claims stands for "Beyond Petroleum", invested just $1.4bn in its Alternative Energy business last year, against total investment of almost $31bn.
A BP spokesman pointed out that the company is the largest wind generator in the US, and will have invested $8bn in renewables by 2015. He said the shift to electric cars would be "a decade-long process – if it goes that way". And if it did, BP would still be involved in supplying the energy through gas-fired generation using carbon capture and storage (CCS). BP is currently considering two CCS projects overseas, but has abandoned its original project at Peterhead in Scotland, and pulled out of a government-funded competition to build a pilot plant.
Some analysts argue the problem for the oil industry is not so much that it is investing too little in renewables but too much in oil and gas. BP recently made much of the fact that it added reserves equivalent to 121 per cent of its production in 2008. But Gary Kendall of SustainAbility, which counts the world's three biggest listed oil companies among its clients, says the industry's resource base of hundreds of billions of barrels risks becoming a vast stranded asset. "Climate change means we can't afford to burn all of this stuff, so at some point they will have to walk away from it with massive write-downs." And the electric car could precipitate that crisis surprisingly quickly, he adds: "Twenty years ago nobody had a mobile phone, but nowadays, who doesn't?"
The future may not have been cancelled for BP and its peers, but if they don't reinvent themselves soon, it could be very much smaller.
Power play: The fall and rise of electric vehicles
1830s: The electric car was invented by Robert Anderson in Scotland.
1899: Camille Jenatzy breaks the 100 km/h barrier.
1907: First electric bus in London.
1912: Electric car production reaches a peak.
1930s: Mass production collapses.
1966: Scottish Aviation's Scamp and the Enfield 8000 concept cars introduced.
1990s: GM abandoned its EV1, despite public support.
2009: Mitsubishi iMiEV launched.
Sunday, 29 March 2009
'The future has not been cancelled," quipped BP chief executive Tony Hayward in a bullish presentation about the company's prospects recently. But one thing the company has been forced to cancel, or at least postpone, is a reception to celebrate its centenary at the British Museum this week – shelved because BP feared disruption by climate campaigners gathering for the G20 summit.
A century on from the founding of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, this may be the least of BP's worries. Because along with the recession, the collapse of the oil price and the struggle to maintain output in the face of global oil depletion, BP and its peers face the rapid resurgence of an ancient rival: the electric car.
Invented in the 1830s, the electric car predated the internal combustion engine and the oil industry by decades, and dominated the car market into the early 20th century. It was only in the second decade that electric cars were overtaken by petrol and diesel models with superior range. But today a combination of factors – climate change, oil-price volatility and improving battery technology – are coalescing to make a powerful case for the electric vehicle once again. Mass-market models will be launched from later this year, the charging infrastructure is being rolled out, and electricity companies around the world are manoeuvring to claim a slice of the new automotive energy market.
Since about half the world's oil production is turned into petrol and diesel, any shift to electric vehicles could ultimately cost the oil industry a vast chunk of its earnings. According to Dale Vince, chief executive of the wind generator Ecotricity, Britain's cars could be powered by fewer than 5,000 wind turbines, and we are on the verge of a rapid shift to transport powered by renewable electricity. "The oil companies are dinosaurs," he says, "and the comet is coming."
It is a dra- matic turnaround, according to Chris Paine, the director of the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?, which told the story of GM's withdrawal of its EV1 model in the 1990s amid allegations of oil-industry lobbying and corporate chicanery. Today most major car manufacturers are developing battery-powered vehicles, GM is preparing to launch its Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, and Paine is making a sequel: The Revenge of the Electric Car. "It's totally different now we've had the shock of $150 oil, and the automakers are staring out at thousands of unsold gas-guzzlers. I am convinced the electric car will have its revenge."
Until recently the only models available have been niche vehicles such as the tiny G-Wiz commuter car or the Tesla Roadster, but a slew of mass- market models will start to appear this year. The first to arrive in Britain will be Mitsubishi's iMiEV, a four-door with a range of 100 miles on a single charge from a three-pin domestic socket. The cars will be relatively expensive to start with, at about £20,000, but the company says the price will come down as sales grow, and will be offset by min-uscule running costs. Lance Bradley, the new managing director of Mitsubishi UK, points out that the petrol needed to drive 10,000 miles per year costs about £1,000, whereas the electricity to drive the iMiEV the same distance would cost just £40, and electric motors require virtually no maintenance.
The iMiEV will be the first of many. In 2010 Vauxhall will launch the Voltera, the British version of the Chevy Volt, and Think will unveil an all-electric four-seater. In 2011 Renault will launch three electric cars including a large saloon and a van. New models are also due from Smart, Toyota, Nissan and Subaru. Thierry Koskas, director of Renault's electric-vehicle programme, predicts that within five years electric cars could take 10 per cent of global car sales, even on current battery technology. With further improvements in range, he says that number "could easily double or triple". The consultancy AT Kearney predicts battery and hybrid technology will take 50 per cent market share by 2020, assuming oil rises to $200 per barrel.
As climate-change forecasts become ever more alarming, the renaissance of the electric car is supported by a growing consensus that it is the only technology remotely capable of delivering zero-carbon private transport. According to Gary Kendall, director of climate change at SustainAbility, a London-based consultancy, and author of a report called Plugged In: The End of the Oil Age, biofuels will continue to rely on fossil fuel and fertiliser and so will not cut emissions enough, while producing hydrogen cleanly is far too energy-intensive. However, electric motors are so efficient, they would roughly halve car emissions, even if run on UK grid electricity that is heavily reliant on coal and natural gas. "Electric vehicles are the best way to cut car emissions quickly," Kendall concludes, "and combined with zero-carbon electricity generation, they are the only realistic way to eliminate car emissions altogether."
For that to happen would require a network of charging points, which is already starting to be rolled out in Europe and Japan. The Brighton-based company Elektromotive has developed a recharger that looks like a futuristic parking meter, and the firm is working with local authorities, such as Westminster City Council, and power companies, such as EDF Energy, to install them at on-street parking bays and shopping centres. London has 40 such "Elektrobays", with another 60 being installed in the next two months. The company expects to have installed 300 around Britain by the end of the year, and managing director Calvey Taylor-Haw predicts that in 10 years "every street will have one". Elektromotive has also installed rechargers in Germany and Sweden, where it is working with power firms to integrate billing systems, so that wherever the customer recharges a car, the cost will appear on their domestic electricity bill.
A range of 100 miles would more than cover most people's daily travel needs, but would be awkward for longer trips. Better Place, a $200m (£140m) start-up founded in 2007 by a former software executive, Shai Agassi, plans to solve this problem by building a network of battery exchange stations powered by renewable electricity. Motorists would drive in and have depleted batteries replaced with freshly charged ones in an automatic process. In a business model adapted from the mobile phone industry, the batteries would be owned by the network, and motorists would be billed for the number of kilometres they drive. The company plans to launch its network in Israel in 2011, followed by Denmark, Australia, Can-ada, Hawaii and California, and is in talks with a dozen other countries.
The Better Place mission statement is extraordinarily ambitious, promising "a world living free from oil", but business development executive Josh Steinmann says it could all happen much faster than people think. "I don't think we are that far from it because all the technologies exist. The challenge is to persuade people there is another way. Within 10 years we can make a tremendous impact."
The Better Place model relies on a series of deals with renewable generators around the world, and a similar alliance was forged in France last October between Renault and EDF, which plan to create "a large scale zero emission individual transport and travel system". EDF generates almost all its power from low-carbon nuclear and hydro, and already runs a fleet of 1,500 electric vehicles. Renault and EDF are working with the French government, local authorities and Peugeot to develop a recharging infrastructure for Paris, and aim to produce a strategic plan by June. "This is a massive opportunity for electricity firms," says Steinmann. "They stand to address an entirely new market."
Another reason power companies will increasingly want to supply electricity for vehicles is that it could help solve the problem of balancing supply and demand as the proportion of wind generation grows. In Denmark, where wind penetration has reached 20 per cent, the country sometimes has to export power to its neighbours for next to nothing because the wind is blowing but domestic demand is too low, usually at night. Electric vehicles recharging overnight would create a new market for that power, which is why DONG Energy, Denmark's biggest electricity generator, decided to invest in a €€103m (£96m) joint venture with Better Place. According to Torben Holm, who devised the DONG strategy, other power companies round the world will face similar pressures as wind penetration rises, and are likely to follow suit. Meanwhile, the firm hopes a fifth of Denmark's passenger cars will be electric by 2020. "It's very ambitious", says Holm, "but achievable."
While new players circle the transport energy market, the oil companies seem determined to stick overwhelmingly to oil and gas. ExxonMobil has never had any truck with renewables, and Shell recently outraged climate campaigners by announcing it will invest no more in wind and solar following the slump in the oil price. Meanwhile BP, which the company claims stands for "Beyond Petroleum", invested just $1.4bn in its Alternative Energy business last year, against total investment of almost $31bn.
A BP spokesman pointed out that the company is the largest wind generator in the US, and will have invested $8bn in renewables by 2015. He said the shift to electric cars would be "a decade-long process – if it goes that way". And if it did, BP would still be involved in supplying the energy through gas-fired generation using carbon capture and storage (CCS). BP is currently considering two CCS projects overseas, but has abandoned its original project at Peterhead in Scotland, and pulled out of a government-funded competition to build a pilot plant.
Some analysts argue the problem for the oil industry is not so much that it is investing too little in renewables but too much in oil and gas. BP recently made much of the fact that it added reserves equivalent to 121 per cent of its production in 2008. But Gary Kendall of SustainAbility, which counts the world's three biggest listed oil companies among its clients, says the industry's resource base of hundreds of billions of barrels risks becoming a vast stranded asset. "Climate change means we can't afford to burn all of this stuff, so at some point they will have to walk away from it with massive write-downs." And the electric car could precipitate that crisis surprisingly quickly, he adds: "Twenty years ago nobody had a mobile phone, but nowadays, who doesn't?"
The future may not have been cancelled for BP and its peers, but if they don't reinvent themselves soon, it could be very much smaller.
Power play: The fall and rise of electric vehicles
1830s: The electric car was invented by Robert Anderson in Scotland.
1899: Camille Jenatzy breaks the 100 km/h barrier.
1907: First electric bus in London.
1912: Electric car production reaches a peak.
1930s: Mass production collapses.
1966: Scottish Aviation's Scamp and the Enfield 8000 concept cars introduced.
1990s: GM abandoned its EV1, despite public support.
2009: Mitsubishi iMiEV launched.
Boost for huge Scots tide-power plan
Tim Webb
The Observer, Sunday 29 March 2009
Scotland plan's to host the world's largest tidal energy project have moved a step closer after Norwegian renewables giant Statkraft joined the consortium backing the £250m scheme.
The project, which will create over 700 jobs, is to build a large data centre powered by tidal energy, in a remote area on the north Scotland coast dubbed the "Saudi Arabia of tidal energy".
Data centres - warehouses containing powerful computers - consume vast amounts of energy. Because they require constant cooling, it makes sense to locate them in cold regions, although often remote locations do not have access to sufficient electricity to power them.
Tim Cornelius, chief executive of Atlantis Resources Corporation, the firm behind the 150MW project in the Pentland Firth, said tidal power for new data centres was the perfect solution.
Experts believe that the strong currents in the firth, between the Scottish mainland and the Orkneys, could generate over 1GW of renewable energy - as much as a large coal-fired plant.
Tomorrow, Atlantis will announce that it has raised $14m from existing investors, which include Morgan Stanley as well as new backer Statkraft.
Cornelius added: "Statkraft is a real player in the renewables market and will encourage other utilities to come on board. To get their validation is a big step forward for the renewable energy industry in the UK."
It is a rare piece of good news for the UK's renewables industry. Investment has ground to a halt, despite Gordon Brown's rhetoric about the "Green New Deal" to help the UK out of recession.
The Observer has learnt that a £1bn public-private funding body, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), is allowing several multinationals to secure exclusive licences to British renewable developers' innovations in return for providing funding. The firms in question include BP, Shell, E.ON and French government-controlled EDF.
Martin Wright, managing director of Marine Current Turbines, said: "The danger is that organisations like the ETI will only hasten the development overseas of technologies which originated in the UK. The UK is in danger of losing an opportunity to develop a world-leading domestic marine energy industry if the only way developers can get funding is by giving up their intellectual property to multinationals."
An ETI spokesman said: "The ETI puts in place mutually acceptable IP arrangements as part of commercial contract negotiations," adding that this was similar to other such initiatives.
The Observer, Sunday 29 March 2009
Scotland plan's to host the world's largest tidal energy project have moved a step closer after Norwegian renewables giant Statkraft joined the consortium backing the £250m scheme.
The project, which will create over 700 jobs, is to build a large data centre powered by tidal energy, in a remote area on the north Scotland coast dubbed the "Saudi Arabia of tidal energy".
Data centres - warehouses containing powerful computers - consume vast amounts of energy. Because they require constant cooling, it makes sense to locate them in cold regions, although often remote locations do not have access to sufficient electricity to power them.
Tim Cornelius, chief executive of Atlantis Resources Corporation, the firm behind the 150MW project in the Pentland Firth, said tidal power for new data centres was the perfect solution.
Experts believe that the strong currents in the firth, between the Scottish mainland and the Orkneys, could generate over 1GW of renewable energy - as much as a large coal-fired plant.
Tomorrow, Atlantis will announce that it has raised $14m from existing investors, which include Morgan Stanley as well as new backer Statkraft.
Cornelius added: "Statkraft is a real player in the renewables market and will encourage other utilities to come on board. To get their validation is a big step forward for the renewable energy industry in the UK."
It is a rare piece of good news for the UK's renewables industry. Investment has ground to a halt, despite Gordon Brown's rhetoric about the "Green New Deal" to help the UK out of recession.
The Observer has learnt that a £1bn public-private funding body, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), is allowing several multinationals to secure exclusive licences to British renewable developers' innovations in return for providing funding. The firms in question include BP, Shell, E.ON and French government-controlled EDF.
Martin Wright, managing director of Marine Current Turbines, said: "The danger is that organisations like the ETI will only hasten the development overseas of technologies which originated in the UK. The UK is in danger of losing an opportunity to develop a world-leading domestic marine energy industry if the only way developers can get funding is by giving up their intellectual property to multinationals."
An ETI spokesman said: "The ETI puts in place mutually acceptable IP arrangements as part of commercial contract negotiations," adding that this was similar to other such initiatives.
Cave ‘batteries’ will store wind power
The Sunday Times
March 29, 2009
Special caverns will be used to store energy for when it is needed most
Dominic O’Connell
Promoters of wind-power projects tout them as the feel-good alternative to burning fossil fuels. Energy secretary Ed Miliband seems to agree, saying last week that it should become “socially unacceptable” to oppose new wind-farm developments in your area.
Wind power has an Achilles Heel, however. It is fickle — as fickle as the wind. Energy planners who have to make sure the lights don’t go out cannot guarantee power will arrive, no matter how many turbines are built. Conventional power plants, probably run on coal or gas, have to be ready to pick up the slack if the wind doesn’t blow.
Now two British companies are putting money into a technology that could overcome this problem. Electricity from wind farms will be used to compress air, which will be stored in caverns below ground. When power is needed, the compressed air will be released, driving turbines to generate electricity.
If the technology works, energy planners will be able to rely on power from wind farms when it comes to planning the next day’s output — and the plants that burn fossil fuel can be stood down. Such a development could be critical to Britain, which wants to increase wind power tenfold by 2020 as part of the government’s plan to have 35% of electricity generated from renewable sources.
The compressed-air technique may sound far-fetched, but it is already in operation. At Huntdorf in Germany, a 290MW plant — powerful enough to run 290,000 homes — has been running for 25 years. A 110MW facility at McIntosh, Alabama, opened in 1991. Neither stores wind power, but excess production from conventional stations. They were built to store electricity generated at periods of low demand, with it being sold to the local grid whenever demand surged.
Sirius Exploration, a group quoted on the Alternative Investment Market, London’s junior stock market, has a controlling stake in an ambitious power-storage project in North Dakota. The state is America’s windiest, and President Barack Obama has made the construction of wind farms there one of the planks of his administration’s alternative-energy policy. Power from the turbines is destined for mid-western cities, including Chicago.
Sirius has invested in an American company, Dakota Salts, which has a lease on 5,000 acres of salt pan. It plans to mine potash found in deposits beneath the surface, leaving behind caverns that have the ideal geology to store compressed air.
Richard Poulden, Sirius chairman, said he was attracted to the idea because of his knowledge of cars that ran on compressed air. “I had a misspent youth taking cars apart and putting them back together, so I knew there was this alternative power source that actually worked very well for storing energy, better than batteries,” he said.
Sirius had also been watching the Dakota project because the caverns could be used to store gas or other hydrocarbons — and gas pipes from Alaska and Canada to American markets run straight across Dakota.
Walter Doyle, boss of Dakota Salts, said the technology had the potential to transform the economics of wind farms. “In the midwest, the local grid will buy off-peak power at 6-8 cents per kilowatt-hour. Peak prices are more like 26 cents an hour. With the storage option, you can guarantee your availability for the peak.”
The ultimate size of the Dakota plant is still to be decided. Potash mining has to take place first, a task that will probably be given to a joint venture with a mining group.
The resulting caverns will be about 16m in diameter and 160m tall, and capable of generating some 100MW of electricity. Sirius and Dakota plan up to eight caverns in the project’s first phase, with the units coming on line in about five years. Doyle said that he was look- ing at similar projects in China and Australia.
Closer to home, the Irish power group Gaelectric has begun investigating a storage facility near Larne in County Antrim. Subject to further geological investigation and planning permission, Gaelectric plans
to spend £200m on a cavern with a minimum 136MW capacity — and possibly 300MW.
“We have been looking at this since we started the company in 2004,” said Keith McGrane, the firm’s head of energy storage. “It’s not a new idea, but with the increasing proportion of wind power across Europe it is an idea whose time has come.”
McGrane said the technique allowed wind farms to take on the characteristics of conventional power plants.
“The problem with wind is that it is not reliable. Even if you have a large number of turbines spread across a number of locations, forecasting wind patterns is not particularly accurate — and wind can often blow more strongly at night, meaning you are generating power when there is no demand.
“Storage means that wind power can be reliable, and grid planners won’t need the back-up fossil-fuel capacity. There is a big social benefit in avoiding that pollution.”
The Larne plant is unlikely to be an eyesore. McGrane said the project needed only four acres of land, with a few buildings on the surface and the business end of the plant hidden deep underground. It will store air at up to 68 times atmospheric pressure.
A modern compression plant should be able to have an overall efficiency of about 75%. A crucial part of the process is capturing the heat generated when air is compressed. If that heat is not harnessed, the efficiency can fall to 65% or less.
The caverns are created by “solution” mining — where the substance being extracted is dissolved and pumped out in solution rather than dug out.
McGrane said it would not be necessary to build wind farms alongside the storage plant. “We don’t care where the electrons come from. We just need a connection to a power supply.” McGrane said the plant could be up and running by 2015.
Energy experts say that the biggest obstacle to the storage projects is the cheapness of conventional generation.
“The storage technology is a good technology, but it will be expensive to build and wind-generated power is more expensive than fossil-fuel power,” said Bikash Pal, reader in power systems at Imperial College, London.
“If there was a way of capturing the wider socio-economic benefits from the avoidance of fossil-fuel stations, it would make a big difference to the economics of the schemes,” he added.
March 29, 2009
Special caverns will be used to store energy for when it is needed most
Dominic O’Connell
Promoters of wind-power projects tout them as the feel-good alternative to burning fossil fuels. Energy secretary Ed Miliband seems to agree, saying last week that it should become “socially unacceptable” to oppose new wind-farm developments in your area.
Wind power has an Achilles Heel, however. It is fickle — as fickle as the wind. Energy planners who have to make sure the lights don’t go out cannot guarantee power will arrive, no matter how many turbines are built. Conventional power plants, probably run on coal or gas, have to be ready to pick up the slack if the wind doesn’t blow.
Now two British companies are putting money into a technology that could overcome this problem. Electricity from wind farms will be used to compress air, which will be stored in caverns below ground. When power is needed, the compressed air will be released, driving turbines to generate electricity.
If the technology works, energy planners will be able to rely on power from wind farms when it comes to planning the next day’s output — and the plants that burn fossil fuel can be stood down. Such a development could be critical to Britain, which wants to increase wind power tenfold by 2020 as part of the government’s plan to have 35% of electricity generated from renewable sources.
The compressed-air technique may sound far-fetched, but it is already in operation. At Huntdorf in Germany, a 290MW plant — powerful enough to run 290,000 homes — has been running for 25 years. A 110MW facility at McIntosh, Alabama, opened in 1991. Neither stores wind power, but excess production from conventional stations. They were built to store electricity generated at periods of low demand, with it being sold to the local grid whenever demand surged.
Sirius Exploration, a group quoted on the Alternative Investment Market, London’s junior stock market, has a controlling stake in an ambitious power-storage project in North Dakota. The state is America’s windiest, and President Barack Obama has made the construction of wind farms there one of the planks of his administration’s alternative-energy policy. Power from the turbines is destined for mid-western cities, including Chicago.
Sirius has invested in an American company, Dakota Salts, which has a lease on 5,000 acres of salt pan. It plans to mine potash found in deposits beneath the surface, leaving behind caverns that have the ideal geology to store compressed air.
Richard Poulden, Sirius chairman, said he was attracted to the idea because of his knowledge of cars that ran on compressed air. “I had a misspent youth taking cars apart and putting them back together, so I knew there was this alternative power source that actually worked very well for storing energy, better than batteries,” he said.
Sirius had also been watching the Dakota project because the caverns could be used to store gas or other hydrocarbons — and gas pipes from Alaska and Canada to American markets run straight across Dakota.
Walter Doyle, boss of Dakota Salts, said the technology had the potential to transform the economics of wind farms. “In the midwest, the local grid will buy off-peak power at 6-8 cents per kilowatt-hour. Peak prices are more like 26 cents an hour. With the storage option, you can guarantee your availability for the peak.”
The ultimate size of the Dakota plant is still to be decided. Potash mining has to take place first, a task that will probably be given to a joint venture with a mining group.
The resulting caverns will be about 16m in diameter and 160m tall, and capable of generating some 100MW of electricity. Sirius and Dakota plan up to eight caverns in the project’s first phase, with the units coming on line in about five years. Doyle said that he was look- ing at similar projects in China and Australia.
Closer to home, the Irish power group Gaelectric has begun investigating a storage facility near Larne in County Antrim. Subject to further geological investigation and planning permission, Gaelectric plans
to spend £200m on a cavern with a minimum 136MW capacity — and possibly 300MW.
“We have been looking at this since we started the company in 2004,” said Keith McGrane, the firm’s head of energy storage. “It’s not a new idea, but with the increasing proportion of wind power across Europe it is an idea whose time has come.”
McGrane said the technique allowed wind farms to take on the characteristics of conventional power plants.
“The problem with wind is that it is not reliable. Even if you have a large number of turbines spread across a number of locations, forecasting wind patterns is not particularly accurate — and wind can often blow more strongly at night, meaning you are generating power when there is no demand.
“Storage means that wind power can be reliable, and grid planners won’t need the back-up fossil-fuel capacity. There is a big social benefit in avoiding that pollution.”
The Larne plant is unlikely to be an eyesore. McGrane said the project needed only four acres of land, with a few buildings on the surface and the business end of the plant hidden deep underground. It will store air at up to 68 times atmospheric pressure.
A modern compression plant should be able to have an overall efficiency of about 75%. A crucial part of the process is capturing the heat generated when air is compressed. If that heat is not harnessed, the efficiency can fall to 65% or less.
The caverns are created by “solution” mining — where the substance being extracted is dissolved and pumped out in solution rather than dug out.
McGrane said it would not be necessary to build wind farms alongside the storage plant. “We don’t care where the electrons come from. We just need a connection to a power supply.” McGrane said the plant could be up and running by 2015.
Energy experts say that the biggest obstacle to the storage projects is the cheapness of conventional generation.
“The storage technology is a good technology, but it will be expensive to build and wind-generated power is more expensive than fossil-fuel power,” said Bikash Pal, reader in power systems at Imperial College, London.
“If there was a way of capturing the wider socio-economic benefits from the avoidance of fossil-fuel stations, it would make a big difference to the economics of the schemes,” he added.
Consumers beware the costly spin of wind turbines
The Sunday Times
March 29, 2009
Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor
The view from the top could not be clearer: Ed Miliband, the minister for energy and climate change, said last week that opposing the onward march of wind turbines – on which the government is pinning its hopes of meeting its targets on renewable energy – should be as “socially unacceptable” as not wearing a seatbelt or failing to stop at a zebra crossing.
Hmm. Tell that to the people who believe the view over Britain’s last remaining wildernesses is about to be destroyed for ever – and for a very dubious set of returns. Will wind farms turn out to be a truly revolutionary source of energy for the future or an expensive folly?
Whatever the final answer, there’s no doubt about the expense. Over the past decade developers have grown rich on lavish – and, critics would say, misdirected – government subsidies. Wind farming is the new gold rush.
So far, renewable power companies have erected 2,390 wind turbines at 200 onshore sites. Another 4,800 are planned, with many more to follow. The power generated will be carried away by lines of pylons crossing Snowdonia national park and areas of outstanding natural beauty in Anglesey, Kent, Lincolnshire and Somerset. For enthusiasts such as Miliband, this destruction is the price Britain must pay.
Alas, it’s not the only price. A quick calculation shows just how lucrative wind farms can be for the lucky few: take the output of a 3-megawatt (MW) turbine, standing about 550ft high. In a good wind it can generate enough power to meet the annual needs of about 1,600 households.
The owner of such a machine could expect to sell the 9,200MW hours of power generated in a year for about £331,000 at today’s prices. Not bad, but the real profit lies elsewhere, in the form of little bits of paper known as renewable obligation certificates (Rocs). Under a government scheme, the wind farmer is allowed to “create” one Roc for each megawatt hour of electricity generated – and to charge the consumer for doing so.
Currently each Roc is worth £48, so our 3MW turbine is generating an additional £441,600 each year, simply from the sale of Rocs. Add this all together and that one machine will earn £772,600 a year, or just under £20m over a typical 25-year lifetime – assuming the subsidies continue at the same rate. And it will have cost only around £3m£4m to build.
In other European Union countries the payback can be even more astonishing. Germany subsidises renewable power generation through the so-called “feed-in tariff” (Fit). Anyone generating solar, wind-powered or hydro electricity gets a guaranteed payment of four times the market rate – about 35p a unit – for 20 years.
The cost is spread among users so that only €1.50 (£1.40) is added to the average bill a month. The German system is deemed so successful that Fits have been adopted in 19 countries and the recent Climate Change Act allows for their introduction here.
In Britain, however, while the government has thrown money at renewable energy generators, it seems not to have anticipated the huge additional costs that wind brings with it.
The problem is this: wind does not blow all the time, so if Britain is to keep the lights on when the breeze slackens, wind power needs support from other forms of power. This means that for every wind farm we build, there must be a coal or gas-fired power station waiting in the wings to take over.
Right now Britain has about 76 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity, mostly nuclear, coal and gas. The government has said it wants 30GW of our power to come from wind by 2030, but to achieve that it will also have to build or maintain an extra 30GW of back-up power stations. So by 2030 Britain will have to sustain power stations capable of generating 100GW of electricity to provide the power we now get from 76GW.
Then there are the new European Union regulations, which stipulate that Britain must get 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. To meet this target overall will mean producing some 30% of our electricity from renewables – and wind is the only mature technology able to deliver it.
Dieter Helm, professor of energy policy at Oxford University, believes this is too ambitious. “We could build and install the thousands of turbines and back-up power stations needed, but only at great cost,” he says. “It is bound to fail but no one dares talk about that – or not yet.”
The other thing government does not like to talk about is the cost to consumers. At the moment, subsidising wind turbines adds £12 to the typical annual domestic power bill of £474. This is small now but will surge as more turbines are built.
Will it be worth it? The renewables obligation, by the way, is just one of the charges for dealing with climate change already being added to our energy bills. The average power and gas consumer is already paying an annual extra £31 for carbon permits, under the EU emissions trading scheme, and another £38 for the UK government’s carbon emission reductions programme, which subsidises home energy efficiency programmes.
Many wonder if such mounting charges are politically sustainable. A couple of years ago Ofgem, the energy regulator, warned the government that the renewables obligation system was handing wind farm operators windfall profits that could provoke a consumer backlash – perhaps one as angry as the fuel tax protests of 2000. What price then for Miliband’s bleats about the “social unacceptability” of opposing wind power?
March 29, 2009
Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor
The view from the top could not be clearer: Ed Miliband, the minister for energy and climate change, said last week that opposing the onward march of wind turbines – on which the government is pinning its hopes of meeting its targets on renewable energy – should be as “socially unacceptable” as not wearing a seatbelt or failing to stop at a zebra crossing.
Hmm. Tell that to the people who believe the view over Britain’s last remaining wildernesses is about to be destroyed for ever – and for a very dubious set of returns. Will wind farms turn out to be a truly revolutionary source of energy for the future or an expensive folly?
Whatever the final answer, there’s no doubt about the expense. Over the past decade developers have grown rich on lavish – and, critics would say, misdirected – government subsidies. Wind farming is the new gold rush.
So far, renewable power companies have erected 2,390 wind turbines at 200 onshore sites. Another 4,800 are planned, with many more to follow. The power generated will be carried away by lines of pylons crossing Snowdonia national park and areas of outstanding natural beauty in Anglesey, Kent, Lincolnshire and Somerset. For enthusiasts such as Miliband, this destruction is the price Britain must pay.
Alas, it’s not the only price. A quick calculation shows just how lucrative wind farms can be for the lucky few: take the output of a 3-megawatt (MW) turbine, standing about 550ft high. In a good wind it can generate enough power to meet the annual needs of about 1,600 households.
The owner of such a machine could expect to sell the 9,200MW hours of power generated in a year for about £331,000 at today’s prices. Not bad, but the real profit lies elsewhere, in the form of little bits of paper known as renewable obligation certificates (Rocs). Under a government scheme, the wind farmer is allowed to “create” one Roc for each megawatt hour of electricity generated – and to charge the consumer for doing so.
Currently each Roc is worth £48, so our 3MW turbine is generating an additional £441,600 each year, simply from the sale of Rocs. Add this all together and that one machine will earn £772,600 a year, or just under £20m over a typical 25-year lifetime – assuming the subsidies continue at the same rate. And it will have cost only around £3m£4m to build.
In other European Union countries the payback can be even more astonishing. Germany subsidises renewable power generation through the so-called “feed-in tariff” (Fit). Anyone generating solar, wind-powered or hydro electricity gets a guaranteed payment of four times the market rate – about 35p a unit – for 20 years.
The cost is spread among users so that only €1.50 (£1.40) is added to the average bill a month. The German system is deemed so successful that Fits have been adopted in 19 countries and the recent Climate Change Act allows for their introduction here.
In Britain, however, while the government has thrown money at renewable energy generators, it seems not to have anticipated the huge additional costs that wind brings with it.
The problem is this: wind does not blow all the time, so if Britain is to keep the lights on when the breeze slackens, wind power needs support from other forms of power. This means that for every wind farm we build, there must be a coal or gas-fired power station waiting in the wings to take over.
Right now Britain has about 76 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity, mostly nuclear, coal and gas. The government has said it wants 30GW of our power to come from wind by 2030, but to achieve that it will also have to build or maintain an extra 30GW of back-up power stations. So by 2030 Britain will have to sustain power stations capable of generating 100GW of electricity to provide the power we now get from 76GW.
Then there are the new European Union regulations, which stipulate that Britain must get 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. To meet this target overall will mean producing some 30% of our electricity from renewables – and wind is the only mature technology able to deliver it.
Dieter Helm, professor of energy policy at Oxford University, believes this is too ambitious. “We could build and install the thousands of turbines and back-up power stations needed, but only at great cost,” he says. “It is bound to fail but no one dares talk about that – or not yet.”
The other thing government does not like to talk about is the cost to consumers. At the moment, subsidising wind turbines adds £12 to the typical annual domestic power bill of £474. This is small now but will surge as more turbines are built.
Will it be worth it? The renewables obligation, by the way, is just one of the charges for dealing with climate change already being added to our energy bills. The average power and gas consumer is already paying an annual extra £31 for carbon permits, under the EU emissions trading scheme, and another £38 for the UK government’s carbon emission reductions programme, which subsidises home energy efficiency programmes.
Many wonder if such mounting charges are politically sustainable. A couple of years ago Ofgem, the energy regulator, warned the government that the renewables obligation system was handing wind farm operators windfall profits that could provoke a consumer backlash – perhaps one as angry as the fuel tax protests of 2000. What price then for Miliband’s bleats about the “social unacceptability” of opposing wind power?
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Charge! Rise of the electric car
As car makers everywhere plan for a low-carbon future, Vauxhall hopes to build its green hybrid at Ellesmere Port, says Sarah Arnott
Saturday, 28 March 2009
GM IS applying for loan guarantees under the Government's £2.3bn car industry rescue package to help ready its Ellesmere Port factory to produce Ampera hybrid electric vehicles.
The application, which is understood to be for up to £750,000, is part of the plan to establish GM Europe as a separate entity from its beleaguered US parent.
While GM in the US is expecting a decision on its recovery strategy from the Obama government next week, discussions in Europe focus on loan guarantees from Germany, which is home to three of the subsidiary's main manufacturing operations. But the UK, and the Ellesmere Port factory, is also crucial. GM in the UK contributes a quarter of the European company's business, and low-carbon developments are central to future plans. "If the German plan goes through, it is the first big step towards electric production in the UK," an industry source said.
Assuming it survives, Vauxhall is already committed to produce the new Astra at Ellesmere Port in September. The Ampera – which can be charged from a household socket and combines a lithium-ion battery with an on-board petrol engine-generator – is based on the same mould as the Astra, and has a range of up to 300 miles. The US import is scheduled to go on sale from 2011.
Although there are barely more than a few thousand wholly electric cars on UK roads today, and only a few tens of thousand hybrids such as the Ampera, GM's electric dreams are shared by all the major car makers. The Government is also trying to nudge things along. The loan guarantee package Vauxhall hopes to tap for the Ampera was launched in January in response to the crisis bedevilling the industry. Notwithstanding the flak the scheme has drawn for tying assistance to long-term, low-carbon programmes, rather than focusing on the acute short-term problems cutting a swathe through production and jobs, green cars are the future. Matthew Alabaster, the manufacturing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: "Electrification is a great long-term opportunity. It is not going to yield massive business in the short term, but it is where the industry should be pushing."
Battery technology is the key. The only entirely electric vehicles currently available are small, urban runabouts like the G-Wiz. Models that are capable of longer journeys – such as the Ampera or the well-established Toyota Prius – are hybrids combining battery power with either bursts of speed from a standard internal combustion engine or electricity generated by it. Existing batteries simply cannot last long enough or provide enough power without being too heavy. But while there is research on the subject, it is not co-ordinated. "We are nowhere near leading on battery development, but it is still unclaimed ground," Mr Alabaster said. "There is a fantastic opportunity for the UK, but at the moment research is so disparate and disconnected across industry and academia that there is no commercial alignment."
In the meantime, the big manufacturers have big plans, all at different stages of development with different technologies. Honda's new hybrid will go on sale in dealerships next week, imported from Japan. The Insight is a five-door, family car priced at around £3,000 less than its nearest rival. "We are trying to bring hybrids more into the mainstream," a spokesman said. "Honda builds cars as near to the market as possible, so if demand takes off then we could build them here. But there are no plans to do that as yet."
Nissan has just launched a four-month programme with OneNorthEast – the regional development agency local to its Sunderland plant – looking at how to bolster the use of electric vehicles and considering the feasibility of both sale and manufacture in the region. Jaguar Land Rover recently won a £27m government grant to build the LRX all-new Range Rover diesel hybrid at its Halewood plant, and is also applying to the loan guarantee scheme to help with parts of its £400m annual research and development spend.
Toyota's FT-EV, an all-electric "urban commuter vehicle" like the G-Wiz, was showcased at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month, and is scheduled to go on sale in 2012. The Japanese giant is also starting trials of the next-generation Prius in Strasbourg later this year. Scheduled for a 2012 release date, the Prius will be rechargeable from a normal household socket.
Tiny electric cars may have a limited consumer market, but they could be a good answer to companies running city delivery networks. Modec, which builds battery-run commercial vehicles, went into production in 2007. Although the numbers are small so far, it already counts Tesco, Fedex and Marks & Spencer among its customers.
Both limited-range battery-powered cars and the bigger hybrid models are only an interim technology. Professor Baback Yazdani, the dean of Nottingham Business School, said: "Hybridisation will be for the next five or 10 years, the next generation technologies like hydrogen fuel cells will come after."
A vital issue, both for electric cars (see box) and whatever supersedes them, is the support infrastructure. Honda has a leasing programme for its FCX Clarity hydrogen car in the US and Japan, but the UK is not even on the radar. "The big question in the UK is there is no hydrogen infrastructure," a spokesman said.
On the road: How to fill up an EV
*There is little point in having an all-electric vehicle (EV) if it is impossible to keep the battery charged.
*So far, London is the most EV-friendly location in Britain. The capital's 2,000-odd EV owners register, receive a radio frequency-controlled access card not unlike a door pass, and draw power from any of 40 charging stations. There are also 40 charging points outside London.
*Within two months, there will be 100 bays, and by the end of the year more than double that, said Calvey Taylor-Haw, the managing director of Elektromotive, which supplies the bays.
*For EVs to take off, cities will be need to be crammed with charging points – outside cinemas, shopping centres, offices. "Instead of filling up the car once a week and running it to empty, you plug in whenever you stop," Mr Taylor-Haw said.
Saturday, 28 March 2009
GM IS applying for loan guarantees under the Government's £2.3bn car industry rescue package to help ready its Ellesmere Port factory to produce Ampera hybrid electric vehicles.
The application, which is understood to be for up to £750,000, is part of the plan to establish GM Europe as a separate entity from its beleaguered US parent.
While GM in the US is expecting a decision on its recovery strategy from the Obama government next week, discussions in Europe focus on loan guarantees from Germany, which is home to three of the subsidiary's main manufacturing operations. But the UK, and the Ellesmere Port factory, is also crucial. GM in the UK contributes a quarter of the European company's business, and low-carbon developments are central to future plans. "If the German plan goes through, it is the first big step towards electric production in the UK," an industry source said.
Assuming it survives, Vauxhall is already committed to produce the new Astra at Ellesmere Port in September. The Ampera – which can be charged from a household socket and combines a lithium-ion battery with an on-board petrol engine-generator – is based on the same mould as the Astra, and has a range of up to 300 miles. The US import is scheduled to go on sale from 2011.
Although there are barely more than a few thousand wholly electric cars on UK roads today, and only a few tens of thousand hybrids such as the Ampera, GM's electric dreams are shared by all the major car makers. The Government is also trying to nudge things along. The loan guarantee package Vauxhall hopes to tap for the Ampera was launched in January in response to the crisis bedevilling the industry. Notwithstanding the flak the scheme has drawn for tying assistance to long-term, low-carbon programmes, rather than focusing on the acute short-term problems cutting a swathe through production and jobs, green cars are the future. Matthew Alabaster, the manufacturing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: "Electrification is a great long-term opportunity. It is not going to yield massive business in the short term, but it is where the industry should be pushing."
Battery technology is the key. The only entirely electric vehicles currently available are small, urban runabouts like the G-Wiz. Models that are capable of longer journeys – such as the Ampera or the well-established Toyota Prius – are hybrids combining battery power with either bursts of speed from a standard internal combustion engine or electricity generated by it. Existing batteries simply cannot last long enough or provide enough power without being too heavy. But while there is research on the subject, it is not co-ordinated. "We are nowhere near leading on battery development, but it is still unclaimed ground," Mr Alabaster said. "There is a fantastic opportunity for the UK, but at the moment research is so disparate and disconnected across industry and academia that there is no commercial alignment."
In the meantime, the big manufacturers have big plans, all at different stages of development with different technologies. Honda's new hybrid will go on sale in dealerships next week, imported from Japan. The Insight is a five-door, family car priced at around £3,000 less than its nearest rival. "We are trying to bring hybrids more into the mainstream," a spokesman said. "Honda builds cars as near to the market as possible, so if demand takes off then we could build them here. But there are no plans to do that as yet."
Nissan has just launched a four-month programme with OneNorthEast – the regional development agency local to its Sunderland plant – looking at how to bolster the use of electric vehicles and considering the feasibility of both sale and manufacture in the region. Jaguar Land Rover recently won a £27m government grant to build the LRX all-new Range Rover diesel hybrid at its Halewood plant, and is also applying to the loan guarantee scheme to help with parts of its £400m annual research and development spend.
Toyota's FT-EV, an all-electric "urban commuter vehicle" like the G-Wiz, was showcased at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month, and is scheduled to go on sale in 2012. The Japanese giant is also starting trials of the next-generation Prius in Strasbourg later this year. Scheduled for a 2012 release date, the Prius will be rechargeable from a normal household socket.
Tiny electric cars may have a limited consumer market, but they could be a good answer to companies running city delivery networks. Modec, which builds battery-run commercial vehicles, went into production in 2007. Although the numbers are small so far, it already counts Tesco, Fedex and Marks & Spencer among its customers.
Both limited-range battery-powered cars and the bigger hybrid models are only an interim technology. Professor Baback Yazdani, the dean of Nottingham Business School, said: "Hybridisation will be for the next five or 10 years, the next generation technologies like hydrogen fuel cells will come after."
A vital issue, both for electric cars (see box) and whatever supersedes them, is the support infrastructure. Honda has a leasing programme for its FCX Clarity hydrogen car in the US and Japan, but the UK is not even on the radar. "The big question in the UK is there is no hydrogen infrastructure," a spokesman said.
On the road: How to fill up an EV
*There is little point in having an all-electric vehicle (EV) if it is impossible to keep the battery charged.
*So far, London is the most EV-friendly location in Britain. The capital's 2,000-odd EV owners register, receive a radio frequency-controlled access card not unlike a door pass, and draw power from any of 40 charging stations. There are also 40 charging points outside London.
*Within two months, there will be 100 bays, and by the end of the year more than double that, said Calvey Taylor-Haw, the managing director of Elektromotive, which supplies the bays.
*For EVs to take off, cities will be need to be crammed with charging points – outside cinemas, shopping centres, offices. "Instead of filling up the car once a week and running it to empty, you plug in whenever you stop," Mr Taylor-Haw said.
An all-electric sedan, awaiting U.S. government aid
By Claire Cain Miller
Published: March 27, 2009
LOS ANGELES: Tesla Motors on Thursday unveiled its Model S, an all-electric sedan it hails as the beginning of a generation of fossil-fuel-free cars and a profitable company.
But before that happens, the company must find the money to build the vehicle. Tesla is pinning its hopes on Washington and a $450 million government loan. The company expects to hear from the Energy Department this year.
"We are highly confident that Tesla will be selected, and it will occur this year," said Elon Musk, the company's chief executive, after displaying the car to customers, analysts and reporters in a gigantic hangar set up to look like a lounge at SpaceX, Mr. Musk's rocket factory. His other venture is to build a spacecraft.
Tesla, which was founded in 2003, was heralded as Silicon Valley's solution to the nation's energy problem. If a struggling Detroit could not make an electric vehicle, then a Silicon Valley start-up would.
Today, Tesla is facing the same plight as many green-energy start-ups. These huge, capital-intensive projects have been paralyzed by the credit crisis, and their survival depends on federal loans that have only just started to flow.
"Silicon Valley has mocked the government for decades and is now completely dependent on it," said Michael Kanellos, a senior analyst at Greentech Media. "They can't get a project off the ground without these loans."
The Model S is Tesla's second car. Its first is the $109,000 Roadster sports car. An elite group of 300 own the car and the waiting list is 1,000 names long.
The Model S, which Tesla says would be the first mass-manufactured all-electric car, will cost $57,400, or $49,900 after tax credits. Mr. Musk said that, when gas savings are taken into account, buying a Model S will be comparable to buying a $35,000 Ford sedan. "Would you rather have this car or a Ford Taurus?" he asked, pointing to the sporty silver prototype.
The car will travel 300 miles on one battery charge, he said, and the battery can be recharged in 45 minutes. The car is big enough to carry five adults and fit two children in rear-facing seats in the trunk. There is a touch screen in the console connected to the Internet and storage under the hood.
The Model S is supposed to be ready in mid-2011, but that will depend on securing the government loan and finding a site for the auto plant. Mr. Musk said Thursday that Tesla was close to signing a deal to build a plant in Southern California.
Tesla has spent $50 million developing the Model S and needs $250 million to $300 million more, he said. Once Tesla finds a site and gets the money, it will take 24 to 30 months to begin production, he said.
Tesla has raised $186 million from investors, $55 million of it from Mr. Musk, who made his fortune when PayPal, which he helped found, was sold to eBay. Other investors include Google's billionaire co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the venture capital firm.
Mr. Musk has said that he underestimated the money, time and effort needed to build a car company.
Tesla hopes to receive one of two government loans it is seeking. One, a $250 million loan, would come from money Congress authorized in 2005 for clean energy projects. The first loan guarantee under the program was made to solar company Solyndra last week.
The second loan Tesla is seeking, $450 million, would come from $25 billion Congress authorized in 2007 for electric vehicle technologies.
The Energy Department has not granted any loans under that program and has been criticized for moving slowly. But the energy secretary, Steven Chu, has said he plans to distribute some of the money in coming weeks.
Tesla is also financing the development of the Model S with deposits from people on the waiting list, who can pay $40,000 to reserve one of the first 2,000 cars or $5,000 for later cars.
For those who are worried about what will happen to their deposits if the car is never produced, since the money will be spent on development and not held in escrow, Mr. Musk said: "The worst-case scenario is they would lose their money. They are at risk."
Still, he said: "This car will be manufactured, it will come to market. You should have zero doubt about that."
Published: March 27, 2009
LOS ANGELES: Tesla Motors on Thursday unveiled its Model S, an all-electric sedan it hails as the beginning of a generation of fossil-fuel-free cars and a profitable company.
But before that happens, the company must find the money to build the vehicle. Tesla is pinning its hopes on Washington and a $450 million government loan. The company expects to hear from the Energy Department this year.
"We are highly confident that Tesla will be selected, and it will occur this year," said Elon Musk, the company's chief executive, after displaying the car to customers, analysts and reporters in a gigantic hangar set up to look like a lounge at SpaceX, Mr. Musk's rocket factory. His other venture is to build a spacecraft.
Tesla, which was founded in 2003, was heralded as Silicon Valley's solution to the nation's energy problem. If a struggling Detroit could not make an electric vehicle, then a Silicon Valley start-up would.
Today, Tesla is facing the same plight as many green-energy start-ups. These huge, capital-intensive projects have been paralyzed by the credit crisis, and their survival depends on federal loans that have only just started to flow.
"Silicon Valley has mocked the government for decades and is now completely dependent on it," said Michael Kanellos, a senior analyst at Greentech Media. "They can't get a project off the ground without these loans."
The Model S is Tesla's second car. Its first is the $109,000 Roadster sports car. An elite group of 300 own the car and the waiting list is 1,000 names long.
The Model S, which Tesla says would be the first mass-manufactured all-electric car, will cost $57,400, or $49,900 after tax credits. Mr. Musk said that, when gas savings are taken into account, buying a Model S will be comparable to buying a $35,000 Ford sedan. "Would you rather have this car or a Ford Taurus?" he asked, pointing to the sporty silver prototype.
The car will travel 300 miles on one battery charge, he said, and the battery can be recharged in 45 minutes. The car is big enough to carry five adults and fit two children in rear-facing seats in the trunk. There is a touch screen in the console connected to the Internet and storage under the hood.
The Model S is supposed to be ready in mid-2011, but that will depend on securing the government loan and finding a site for the auto plant. Mr. Musk said Thursday that Tesla was close to signing a deal to build a plant in Southern California.
Tesla has spent $50 million developing the Model S and needs $250 million to $300 million more, he said. Once Tesla finds a site and gets the money, it will take 24 to 30 months to begin production, he said.
Tesla has raised $186 million from investors, $55 million of it from Mr. Musk, who made his fortune when PayPal, which he helped found, was sold to eBay. Other investors include Google's billionaire co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the venture capital firm.
Mr. Musk has said that he underestimated the money, time and effort needed to build a car company.
Tesla hopes to receive one of two government loans it is seeking. One, a $250 million loan, would come from money Congress authorized in 2005 for clean energy projects. The first loan guarantee under the program was made to solar company Solyndra last week.
The second loan Tesla is seeking, $450 million, would come from $25 billion Congress authorized in 2007 for electric vehicle technologies.
The Energy Department has not granted any loans under that program and has been criticized for moving slowly. But the energy secretary, Steven Chu, has said he plans to distribute some of the money in coming weeks.
Tesla is also financing the development of the Model S with deposits from people on the waiting list, who can pay $40,000 to reserve one of the first 2,000 cars or $5,000 for later cars.
For those who are worried about what will happen to their deposits if the car is never produced, since the money will be spent on development and not held in escrow, Mr. Musk said: "The worst-case scenario is they would lose their money. They are at risk."
Still, he said: "This car will be manufactured, it will come to market. You should have zero doubt about that."
Tesla unveils electric saloon that it says will be 'luxury green car of choice'
Times Online
March 27, 2009
Tesla Motors has finally unveiled its Model S, an electric saloon car which, it says, will become the environmentally friendly luxury car of choice and help the American car industry to wean itself off foreign oil.
The Model S, billed as the world's first mass-produced, motorway-capable electric car, can travel up to 300 miles on one charge. Prices will start at about $57,000 (£39,000) in the US.
At the launch in Los Angeles, Elon Musk, Tesla's founder and chief executive, said that he aimed to have the car rolling off assembly lines by 2011. The company plans to produce 20,000 cars a year.
However, Tesla has yet to secure finance for the project. It says it is confident of negotiating a $350 million US government loan from the $25 billion bailout package approved by the Department of Energy last year. The government fund is intended primarily to help struggling carmakers to make more fuel-efficient cars.
Mr Musk said that Tesla was also close to signing a deal to build a manufacturing plant in Southern California.
Last year, after delays and price rises, the company released its breakthrough two-seat Roadster model, which is based on the Lotus Elise and is manufactured in Britain. The $109,000 electric sports car won plaudits for its stylish design but so far only 300 cars have been released. There are more than 1,000 people are on the waiting list.
The Model S, which seats five but can fit two children in backward-facing seats in the trunk, is powered by lithium-ion battery packs.
These can take a quick charge in 45 minutes or a full charge in four hours. The car's dashboard has a huge touch screen connected to the 3G network and goes from nought to 60mph in six seconds. Tesla said that although the price tag was high compared to other mass-market saloons, tax incentives, relatively inexpensive maintenance and the lack of fueling costs would make the car competitive.
Tesla said that the new model would become the "car of choice for environmentally conscious and discriminating drivers throughout North America and Europe". It expects to split initial sales between the two continents before expanding into Asia in 2012.
After Tesla has finalised a production site, it will take 24 to 30 months to begin production, Mr Musk said. The company has raised $186 million from investors, $55 million of it from Mr Musk, who made his fortune when PayPal, which he helped to found, was sold to eBay. Other investors include Google's billionaire co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Mr Musk said that he hoped the car would lead a new generation of vehicles that would reduce dependency on foreign oil.
"What we really wanted to show the car industry is that it is possible to create a compelling electric car at a compelling price. We hope the industry will follow our lead," he said.
General Motors is developing its own electric saloon, the Chevrolet Volt, which it expects to start selling in 2011 with a price tag of about $40,000. Toyota, Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Daimler's Smart brand all plan to begin selling plug-in cars by 2011. President Obama has said that his administration wants to see a million electric cars on the road by 2015.
The unveiling of the Model S comes as American car makers suffer catastrophic sales but industry analysts are unconvinced that all-electric vehicles are the future of the US auto industry. They said that hybrid vehicles and low fuel prices could stymie the growth of the sector.
Jim Hossack, of the California-based company AutoPacific Consulting, said that Tesla's latest prototype was "something of a technical marvel" but questioned whether it could revolutionise the US auto industry. "The problem is our fuel price. If you're going to launch an electric vehicle you probably want to do it in a market where fuel prices are high," Mr Hossack said.
March 27, 2009
Tesla Motors has finally unveiled its Model S, an electric saloon car which, it says, will become the environmentally friendly luxury car of choice and help the American car industry to wean itself off foreign oil.
The Model S, billed as the world's first mass-produced, motorway-capable electric car, can travel up to 300 miles on one charge. Prices will start at about $57,000 (£39,000) in the US.
At the launch in Los Angeles, Elon Musk, Tesla's founder and chief executive, said that he aimed to have the car rolling off assembly lines by 2011. The company plans to produce 20,000 cars a year.
However, Tesla has yet to secure finance for the project. It says it is confident of negotiating a $350 million US government loan from the $25 billion bailout package approved by the Department of Energy last year. The government fund is intended primarily to help struggling carmakers to make more fuel-efficient cars.
Mr Musk said that Tesla was also close to signing a deal to build a manufacturing plant in Southern California.
Last year, after delays and price rises, the company released its breakthrough two-seat Roadster model, which is based on the Lotus Elise and is manufactured in Britain. The $109,000 electric sports car won plaudits for its stylish design but so far only 300 cars have been released. There are more than 1,000 people are on the waiting list.
The Model S, which seats five but can fit two children in backward-facing seats in the trunk, is powered by lithium-ion battery packs.
These can take a quick charge in 45 minutes or a full charge in four hours. The car's dashboard has a huge touch screen connected to the 3G network and goes from nought to 60mph in six seconds. Tesla said that although the price tag was high compared to other mass-market saloons, tax incentives, relatively inexpensive maintenance and the lack of fueling costs would make the car competitive.
Tesla said that the new model would become the "car of choice for environmentally conscious and discriminating drivers throughout North America and Europe". It expects to split initial sales between the two continents before expanding into Asia in 2012.
After Tesla has finalised a production site, it will take 24 to 30 months to begin production, Mr Musk said. The company has raised $186 million from investors, $55 million of it from Mr Musk, who made his fortune when PayPal, which he helped to found, was sold to eBay. Other investors include Google's billionaire co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Mr Musk said that he hoped the car would lead a new generation of vehicles that would reduce dependency on foreign oil.
"What we really wanted to show the car industry is that it is possible to create a compelling electric car at a compelling price. We hope the industry will follow our lead," he said.
General Motors is developing its own electric saloon, the Chevrolet Volt, which it expects to start selling in 2011 with a price tag of about $40,000. Toyota, Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Daimler's Smart brand all plan to begin selling plug-in cars by 2011. President Obama has said that his administration wants to see a million electric cars on the road by 2015.
The unveiling of the Model S comes as American car makers suffer catastrophic sales but industry analysts are unconvinced that all-electric vehicles are the future of the US auto industry. They said that hybrid vehicles and low fuel prices could stymie the growth of the sector.
Jim Hossack, of the California-based company AutoPacific Consulting, said that Tesla's latest prototype was "something of a technical marvel" but questioned whether it could revolutionise the US auto industry. "The problem is our fuel price. If you're going to launch an electric vehicle you probably want to do it in a market where fuel prices are high," Mr Hossack said.
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