Windstalks: Wind Power without the Wind Turbine

Posted by Robert MacReady On October - 20 - 2010
What if you could have wind power without the need for dozens of pesky four hundred foot turbines and all the noise, low-frequency vibrations and strobing light associated with them? Instead, imagine something like a field of very tall reeds blowing in the wind, a forest of windstalks quietly generating power with kinetic energy.

Windstalks are a new concept from the green design firm Atelier DNA, for use in Masdar City, a new sustainable community being built just outside Abu Dhabi in Dubai.

“The idea came from trying to find kinetic models in nature that could be tapped to produce energy,” said Darío Núñez-Ameni of Atelier DNA.

The design calls for 1203 carbon fiber windstalks attached to torque generators at their base, which would generate kinetic energy as they move in the wind. Each windstalk would be approximately 55 metres high and 30 centimetres wide at the base and only 5 centimetres wide at the top. The windstalks would be tipped with LED lights that would brighten and dim depending on the wind speed, creating an ethereal glowing forest that would be spectacular to behold. Instead of being an eyesore on the horizon and a blight on a community, the designers hope that people will enjoy living in proximity to a windstalk farm for its aesthetic beauty.

The windstalks are a very simple construction, with fewer moving parts than conventional wind turbines. In desert climates like Dubai there is no shortage of strong winds, but traditional wind turbines are rendered nearly useless by frequent sandstorms. If the technology proves viable, windstalks could easily become a viable renewable alternative for areas prone to sandstorms.

Atelier DNA are confident that a windstalk farm of a given size would be able to produce as much electricity as a wind turbine farm of the same size. They have even taken into account the fact that the wind won’t always be blowing, engineering a backup hydroelectric pump system that would store power and release it.

The designers believe that the windstalk design could even be applied to underwater environments. For now the technology remains just a concept. More research and development must be done before working models can be constructed, but the technology is an exciting new prospect in the field of renewable energy.

Source: Discovery Channel, Reuters, Atelier DNA

Banker tips $10bn green bond market, but urges framework clarity

21 October 2010
The value of environmental bond issuance could reach $10 billion by the end of next year, a developer of green financial products said, but warned a clear and transparent framework is necessary to foster the growth of the asset class.


Christopher Flensborg, head of sustainable products development at Sweden’s SEB Merchant Bank – which has acted as lead manager for around $1.5 billion of the total $4 billion green bonds issued to date – said many potential investors have a “strong commitment” to environmental bonds but lack the tools to implement their investment.

Environmental bonds (also know as green or climate bonds) direct revenues raised towards ‘green’ investments, or link their coupon payments to an environmental index. For example, the Asian Development Bank issued its first clean energy bond last month, following the success of a water bond issue in February.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done to make allocations possible for investment managers,” Flensborg told an Environmental Finance webinar on Friday.

“Either the tools have to be created inside the existing framework – alternatively, the framework has to be changed.”

While most environmental bonds are issued in exactly the same way as conventional bonds, they require additional due diligence around their environmental aspects.

Flensborg said while the market has yet to reach critical mass, he is buoyed by growing interest and expects the issuance will hit $10 billion by the end of 2011.

While interest in environmental bonds is growing, he said many fund managers currently lack a mandate from clients to invest.

A number of factors will be important in boosting the attractiveness of green bonds, he said, including standardisation and transparency in how their proceeds are used, in order that investors can demonstrate a clear environmental benefit to stakeholders.

Due to a lack of the expertise required to assess green bonds’ environmental credentials in many institutions, he said it is preferable for environmental bonds to come ‘pre-packaged’, with a third party performing the environmental screening, monitoring and reporting.

And simply being green is not enough, he said, arguing that environmental bonds must provide a comparable or higher return than conventional bonds.

Also speaking on the webinar, Sean Kidney, chairman of the Climate Bonds Initiative, emphasised the role of public and private sector engagement to foster the growth of green bonds. He said there is “an enormous gulf” in understanding between institutional investors and governments about how they can successfully work together.

Kidney said there is “clearly not enough product at scale” with no environmental bond issuances in the $500 million-$1 billion range that is attractive to many issuers.

“We need, from a policy perspective, to be growing that kind of investment option for institutional investors very quickly,” he said.

While there is an investor bias toward green-themed products, Kidney said investors are not prepared to pay a premium. He also warned that product developers must be sure of the credibility of any instruments offered.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency are the two key areas for investment in environmental bonds, he said, noting their potential in agriculture and land use.

Charlotte Dudley

Enel begins marketing $3bn green energy IPO

21 October 2010
Italian utility Enel has begun marketing shares in its renewable energy unit, in Europe’s largest initial public offering (IPO) since 2007 – and a key test of sentiment for the embattled clean energy sector.


The price target for shares in Enel Green Power (EGL) is €1.8-2.1 ($2.5-2.9), lower than a preliminary range of €1.9-2.4, but this still would value the unit at between €9 billion and €10.5 billion.

Enel aims to raise at least €3 billion from the sale, which it plans to use to pay down debt. The spun-off company is set to float on the Madrid and Milan stock exchanges on 4 November.

According to Bloomberg News, Enel management resisted advice from some of the investment banks advising it on the sale to reduce its target price even further.

The sale comes at a difficult time for the renewable energy sector. Earlier spin-offs of renewable energy units from European utilities have underperformed, while renewable energy indexes are lagging the wider market.

For example, Spanish utility Iberdrola’s renewable energy spin-off has halved in value since its December 2007 float, while Portugal’s EDP Renovaveis has fared no better – declining 47% since its initial public offering in July 2008.

And broader renewables indexes have also lagged the wider market. Year-to-date, the NEX WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index is down 15.6%.

Bank of America, Banca IMI, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Mediobanca, Morgan Stanley, UniCredit and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria are managing the EGL IPO.

EGL has more than 5.7GW in installed wind, solar, bi omass, geothermal and hydropower capacity, with more than 600 plants in operation or under construction, with hydroelectricity accounting for 2.5GW.

Mark Nicholls

Figures show massive slump in UK sales of new electric cars

Campaigners say 90% drop in 2009 could be due to recession and premium prices – but government subsidy could reverse decline
Adam Vaughan guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 October 2010 16.45 BST
Sales of new electric cars in the UK plummeted by nearly 90% in 2009 compared with their peak in 2007, according to motoring trade association figures released this week.

Just 55 of the green cars – whose fans include Boris Johnson, Jonathan Ross and Jade Jagger – were registered in 2009, in contrast to 397 in 2007, says the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

The huge fall is a blow to UK efforts to meet tough carbon emission cut targets in a decade, and comes just months before the government introduces a subsidy of up to £5,000 off new electric cars.

Nearly half of the electric vehicles sold last year were the tiny G-Wiz car. The latest model has a top speed of 50mph and a range of 48 miles between charges.

Rudi Schogger, managing director of Goingreen, which distributes the G-Wiz in the UK, said: "Some people might be waiting for the government grants to arrive before purchasing an EV." He added that, even with a grant, most of the new vehicles on the market will be more expensive than a G-Wiz.

Although sales of all new cars fell sharply in 2009 due to the recession, the drop in new registrations for electric cars was around eight times higher. Overall, 2m new cars were registered in 2009, the lowest level since 1995.

Richard Dyer, transport campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: "The number of electric car sales are certainly disappointing. It could well be down to the recession, and the fact that they are priced at a premium over normal cars. But the government grant in January should mean a change in the fortunes of electric cars."

In January, the coalition will begin offering up to £5,000 towards the price of a series of newly launched electric cars, as part of a subsidy announced by the former Labour government. The Department for Transport (DfT) anticipates around 8,600 of the cars will be sold in the first year of the scheme. The government has so far committed £43m for the scheme to run until March 2012, with a review taking place in January 2012, but in yesterday's spending review it talked of "supporting consumer incentives for electric and other low-emission cars throughout the life of this parliament," suggesting the subsidy would continue after March 2012 though possibly at a lower rate.

New electric models coming next year include the £28,900 four-seater Mitsubishi iMiEV, a right-hand drive version of the unpriced Norwegian-made Th!nk City and the £28,350 Nissan Leaf, which Nissan claims is "the first mass-market electric car" and will be built in Sunderland from 2013. The G-Wiz's low speed and range means it is not eligible for the grant scheme.

A DfT spokesperson said: "We want to see as many as possible of this next generation of cars on our roads – but we know that there will be limited numbers of eligible cars available in the early months, and we will have to see how the market reacts."

The rollout of electric cars in the UK is also dependent on a network of charging points to power them – most of the cars have a battery range of no more than 100 miles. A government plan to build 13,500 such charging points has yet to be confirmed, although the spending review yesterday said the government was committed to "supporting electric car charging infrastructure."

Several cities are vying to be the most friendly for electric cars. London is in the lead with several hundred charging points. Brighton & Hove plans to install 16 charging points before the end of this year, but there are reportedly only three electric cars in the city so far.

Separately this week, London mayor, Boris Johnson, confirmed new rules for the city's congestion charge that will allow cars a 100% discount based on low CO2 emissions, rather than simply using hybrid or electric technology. Johnson said cars will be exempt if they emit less than 100g/km of carbon dioxide and meet the highest air quality standard, "Euro 5". Such a move will mean more than 60,000 owners of hybrid cars – such as the first generations of the Toyota Prius – will soon have to pay the £8 charge (set to rise to £10 in January), from which they were previously exempt.

The switch means the many low-carbon diesel cars on the market will be eligible for the discount. There are at least 19 models currently available below 100g/km CO2, from manufacturers including Volvo, Citroen, Volkswagen, Seat and Ford. But environmental campaigners have warned that while the mayor's Euro 5 criteria tackles the problem of harmful particulates (PM10s) from diesel cars, the level of nitrous oxide is three times that of petrol equivalents.

UK set to sell stake in Urenco to fund green investment bank

Chris Huhne says sale could help fund the bank, which is being set up to invest in low-carbon technology
Juliette Jowit guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 October 2010 18.19 BST The government wants to sell its stake in a company that makes enriched uranium for nuclear power, to help fund the new green investment bank, which is being set up to invest in low-carbon technology.

The chancellor, George Osborne, announced in the spending review this week that the government would put £1bn into the bank and hoped to find extra funds from asset sales, although he did not say what would be sold.

Chris Huhne, the climate secretary, today told the Guardian that he was looking at selling the UK's one third share in Urenco, a company it jointly owns with the Dutch government and two German power companies, RWE and E.ON.

Urenco, which has a quarter of the growing global market for enriched uranium, was recently valued by the Adam Smith Institute thinktank at £3bn. However, the relinquishing of government control of such a politically and technologically sensitive company could prove controversial with anti-nuclear campaigners, including many in Huhne's own Liberal Democrat party.

A previous attempt by the Labour government to sell its share in Urenco, in 2006, failed because it was blocked by the other shareholders. This may raise concerns about how long any fund-raising will take.

Malcolm Grimston, associate fellow and nuclear expert at international affairs thinktank Chatham House, said a private sale of Urenco should not raise concerns about nuclear security, because of tight regulation. Uranium enriched for power has a very much lower content of fissile material, Uranium 235, than that used for weapons.

"The safeguards around materials are pretty strong and robust, and therefore I think the general feeling is the ownership is not a particular issue," said Grimston.

Huhne's success in getting the Treasury to agree the £1bn was seen as a qualified success, being considerably less than the £2bn-6bn that City and environment experts had called for, and half what Nick Clegg told Lib Dem MPs on the morning of the spending review.

"The exact shape of the remit of the institution is still to be decided ... but the key thing is to have found a contribution to the capital from public spending, and we're continuing to work hard to find asset sales which will fund it," Huhne said.

The chancellor's description of the new institution as a "Green Investment Bank" – using capital letters – was also seen as something of a victory after the Treasury apparently wanted to downgrade the coalition and manifesto promise to a "fund".

Huhne suggested there was concern about liabilities the government could take on, saying: "The Treasury has a lot of experience of banks over the last couple of years [and] the problem with our banks happened when money they lent wasn't paid back and money they borrowed had to be paid back."

However he added: "We found the capital for what the chancellor called a bank ... If we were to announce that we were going ahead with a bank which was not a bank a lot of people in the City would spot that very rapidly."