By Tom Mcghie
Last updated at 10:30 PM on 26th June 2010
The Government is expected to give funds and financial assurances to General Motors that could see Britain become its centre for electric car production in Europe, creating thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions of pounds of investment.
Nick Reilly, chief of the company's Vauxhall Opel division, will meet Business Secretary Vince Cable in an effort to secure £30 million of funding to start production of the Ampera long-range electric car at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, within the next four years.
Though the previous government is understood to have offered £275 million in loan guarantees on condition that the 170mpg Ampera was built in the North-West, Vauxhall is now seeking only a small proportion of that to kick-start the massive project.
And Financial Mail understands that at the crunch meeting within the next two weeks, Reilly is likely to be given the assurances he is seeking to bring the Ampera to Britain, rather than building it in Spain or Germany.
The funding is expected to go ahead despite the huge cuts being imposed across all Whitehall departments.
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The Government will also emphasise to Reilly that it remains committed to helping bring electric cars to Britain by boosting the infrastructure and helping to fund thousands of charging points across the country. It will also stick to the commitment to provide up to £5,000 per vehicle to help subsidise the production of all electric cars.
The Government believes it is vital to bring down the level of greenhouse gases by limiting emissions from cars. It has already given Nissan £20 million to help the Japanese car maker bring the Leaf electric car to its factory in Sunderland and could be accused of acting unfairly if it did not make a similar offer to Vauxhall.
Reilly, who used to head Vauxhall, believes that Ellesmere Port 'ticks most of the boxes' as a site to make the Ampera. Industrial relations and productivity at the vast factory are excellent.
If the Ampera was to be brought to Ellesmere Port the company would have to put in another production line and recruit a further 2,000 workers to meet demand for the £25,000 car.
Meanwhile, one in eight Britons plan to bring forward their car purchase to avoid the Chancellor's VAT tax increase, signalling an upbeat picture for the British car industry, according to a new survey.
Research among 2,000 people by GfK NOP market research in the wake of the Budget reveals that the 2.5 percentage point increase in VAT in January will drive people to the forecourts earlier, particularly middle- to high-income owners.
The rise in insurance tax is making a quarter of car owners consider scaling down to smaller vehicles.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1289772/Vauxhall-wins-cash-new-electric-car.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0s3HvcNAb
Sunday, 27 June 2010
UT to add $1M facility for algae biofuel work
University of Toledo and Ohio University are partnering for algae biofuel research.
By early next year, the University of Toledo's Scott Park Campus for Energy and Innovation will be home to a nearly $1 million facility to research and develop algae biofuels in hopes of accelerating the alternative fuel's commercialization.
Ohio University, which plans to increase analysis at its algae research facility, and UT are leading a three-year project with a dozen partners, including some Ohio businesses involved in energy. Among partners are Recombinant Innovation of Toledo, Red Lion Bio-Energy of Maumee, and Midwest Biorenewables of Toledo.
The project, called the Center for Algal Engineering Research and Commercialization, recently was awarded a nearly $3 million grant through the Ohio Third Frontier Wright Projects Program.
At UT's Scott Park, the half-acre facility will have open ponds to grow algae, as well as ponds in a greenhouse. It also will be equipped with enclosed photobioreactors to test the efficiency of a variety of growth systems.
University and company researchers also will be able to convert algae materials into fuel, said Sridhar Viamajala, UT assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering.
"Our goal is to be able to grow our own fuel stocks and to go through the whole process of making fuel," said Mr. Viamajala, an investigator for the project. "We'll have a complete system."
Traditional laboratories typically are not able to produce enough materials to do meaningful testing, such as using algae biofuels in engines, he said.
Oil from algae can be used to make fuel, and it doesn't need clean water or high-quality land to grow. It is a simple, single-celled organism that grows quickly.
By early next year, the University of Toledo's Scott Park Campus for Energy and Innovation will be home to a nearly $1 million facility to research and develop algae biofuels in hopes of accelerating the alternative fuel's commercialization.
Ohio University, which plans to increase analysis at its algae research facility, and UT are leading a three-year project with a dozen partners, including some Ohio businesses involved in energy. Among partners are Recombinant Innovation of Toledo, Red Lion Bio-Energy of Maumee, and Midwest Biorenewables of Toledo.
The project, called the Center for Algal Engineering Research and Commercialization, recently was awarded a nearly $3 million grant through the Ohio Third Frontier Wright Projects Program.
At UT's Scott Park, the half-acre facility will have open ponds to grow algae, as well as ponds in a greenhouse. It also will be equipped with enclosed photobioreactors to test the efficiency of a variety of growth systems.
University and company researchers also will be able to convert algae materials into fuel, said Sridhar Viamajala, UT assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering.
"Our goal is to be able to grow our own fuel stocks and to go through the whole process of making fuel," said Mr. Viamajala, an investigator for the project. "We'll have a complete system."
Traditional laboratories typically are not able to produce enough materials to do meaningful testing, such as using algae biofuels in engines, he said.
Oil from algae can be used to make fuel, and it doesn't need clean water or high-quality land to grow. It is a simple, single-celled organism that grows quickly.
Europe to switch on Saharan solar power by 2015
The race to harness the sun of the Sahara and Middle East deserts is one initiative in a far-ranging European energy consensus
Alok Jha The Observer, Sunday 27 June 2010
There are probably easier ways to meet Europe's thirst for clean energy than importing it from vast solar farms in the Sahara. But it is very tempting. According to the European commission's Institute for Energy, it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle Eastern deserts (an area around the size of Wales) to meet all of Europe's energy needs.
Several groups have come up with plans to harness the sun in Africa to make electricity, which could then be exported to Europe, or use it to turn desert into forests by using the power to desalinate sea water. And how far is this from a reality? In a recent interview, European energy commissioner Günther Oettinger said that Europe will be importing hundreds of megawatts of solar-generated electricity from north Africa within five years. The EU is committed to sourcing 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Most advanced in the planning is the German-led Desertec Industrial Initiative, which aims to provide 15% of Europe's electricity by 2050 or earlier, via power lines stretching across the desert and the Mediterranean. Its $400bn plan is supported by some of Germany's biggest companies, including Siemens, E.On and Deutsche Bank.
And there is a precedent. Nine EU governments – including the UK – are already planning to build an advanced high-voltage, direct current network within the next decade. Europe's first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power took a step forward earlier this year when nine countries began to formalise plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea. These could join up the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany's vast array of solar panels and Norway's hydro-electric dams.
As well as providing more power, a transnational renewable electricity grid would help sort out the intermittencies associated with natural energy sources. With such a grid, electricity can be supplied across the continent from wherever the wind is blowing, the sun is shining or the waves are crashing.
Alok Jha The Observer, Sunday 27 June 2010
There are probably easier ways to meet Europe's thirst for clean energy than importing it from vast solar farms in the Sahara. But it is very tempting. According to the European commission's Institute for Energy, it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle Eastern deserts (an area around the size of Wales) to meet all of Europe's energy needs.
Several groups have come up with plans to harness the sun in Africa to make electricity, which could then be exported to Europe, or use it to turn desert into forests by using the power to desalinate sea water. And how far is this from a reality? In a recent interview, European energy commissioner Günther Oettinger said that Europe will be importing hundreds of megawatts of solar-generated electricity from north Africa within five years. The EU is committed to sourcing 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Most advanced in the planning is the German-led Desertec Industrial Initiative, which aims to provide 15% of Europe's electricity by 2050 or earlier, via power lines stretching across the desert and the Mediterranean. Its $400bn plan is supported by some of Germany's biggest companies, including Siemens, E.On and Deutsche Bank.
And there is a precedent. Nine EU governments – including the UK – are already planning to build an advanced high-voltage, direct current network within the next decade. Europe's first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power took a step forward earlier this year when nine countries began to formalise plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea. These could join up the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany's vast array of solar panels and Norway's hydro-electric dams.
As well as providing more power, a transnational renewable electricity grid would help sort out the intermittencies associated with natural energy sources. With such a grid, electricity can be supplied across the continent from wherever the wind is blowing, the sun is shining or the waves are crashing.
Matthew Lloyd's innovation: the zero-energy liftThe 47-year-old inventor introduces his water and solar-powered wheelchair lift
Lucy Siegle The Observer, Sunday 27 June 2010
"All the signs are good. We think it's going to work!" says ebullient architect Matthew Lloyd, putting together the final stages on the extraordinary Perspex lift that you can find operating during the London Festival of Architecture (lfa2010.org) on the Duke of York Steps behind Pall Mall. The steps' steep rake up to the monument to the Grand Old Duke of York takes many a tourist by surprise – and if you're in a wheelchair, forget it. Previously you would have needed to divert via Trafalgar Square. When Lloyd's father was ill and confined to a wheelchair, it brought home to the architect just how inaccessible many places are.
Creating a lift on the Grade I-listed steps was "remarkably difficult", not least because the structure had to be entirely freestanding. The breakthrough came when the architect called in the Royal Engineers – historically connected to this quarter of London and experts in developing site-specific solutions. On one seminal train journey, he and Major David Blow sketched a water-based solution.
This is the world's first zero-energy lift. Water weights counterbalance the lift cart and the drive is powered entirely by energy harnessed from two large solar panels. All the mechanical innards are laid bare through the Perspex. Lloyd describes this design as "genuine sustainability – as distinct from cosmetic sustainability". Using renewable energy not only addresses the need to unlink our lives from fossil fuel but also allows the lift to be used away from mains electricity. And incredibly, thanks to the goodwill and enthusiasm of some lift specialists and renewable energy providers, it cost just £10,000 to produce.
"All the signs are good. We think it's going to work!" says ebullient architect Matthew Lloyd, putting together the final stages on the extraordinary Perspex lift that you can find operating during the London Festival of Architecture (lfa2010.org) on the Duke of York Steps behind Pall Mall. The steps' steep rake up to the monument to the Grand Old Duke of York takes many a tourist by surprise – and if you're in a wheelchair, forget it. Previously you would have needed to divert via Trafalgar Square. When Lloyd's father was ill and confined to a wheelchair, it brought home to the architect just how inaccessible many places are.
Creating a lift on the Grade I-listed steps was "remarkably difficult", not least because the structure had to be entirely freestanding. The breakthrough came when the architect called in the Royal Engineers – historically connected to this quarter of London and experts in developing site-specific solutions. On one seminal train journey, he and Major David Blow sketched a water-based solution.
This is the world's first zero-energy lift. Water weights counterbalance the lift cart and the drive is powered entirely by energy harnessed from two large solar panels. All the mechanical innards are laid bare through the Perspex. Lloyd describes this design as "genuine sustainability – as distinct from cosmetic sustainability". Using renewable energy not only addresses the need to unlink our lives from fossil fuel but also allows the lift to be used away from mains electricity. And incredibly, thanks to the goodwill and enthusiasm of some lift specialists and renewable energy providers, it cost just £10,000 to produce.
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