greenswitch – climate change and cleantech solutions

According to the European Wind Energy Association in 2005 there has been 6183 MW installed in European wind farms.

The Top 5 of European wind energy markets are:
1. Germany Deutschland (1.808 MW)
2. Spain (1.760 MW)
3. Portugal (500 MW)
4. Italy (450 MW)
5. UK (450 MW)

IWR-News aus der Regenerative Energiewirtschaft: “Den neuesten Statistiken der EWEA (European Wind Energy Association) zufolge wurden im Jahr 2005 in der EU insgesamt 6.183 MW Windkraft-Leistung neu installiert. Mit der Rekordmarke von 40.504 MW installierter Leistung ist das von der Europäischen Kommission für 2010 angepeilte Ausbauziel bereits erreicht, so die EWEA. Aufgrund der Neuinstallation ist den Ergebnissen zufolge in der WEA-Produktion ein Umsatz in Höhe von rund 6 Mrd. Euro generiert worden.

In den Jahren 1995 bis 2005 ist nach EWEA-Angaben die kumulative Gesamtleistung in der EU jährlich um 32 Prozent gestiegen. Der europäische Markt hat im gleichen Zeitraum um durchschnittlich 22 Prozent jährlich bei den Neu-Installationen pro Jahr zugelegt. Die Top-5 europäischen Windkraftmärkte in 2005 waren Deutschland (1.808 MW), Spanien (knapp 1.760 MW), Portugal (500 MW), Italien (rd. 450 MW) und Großbritannien (rd. 450 MW)”

I wonder if you would be allowed to drive this on the Autobahn: Review of The Atom (ignore the cheap girls, watch the video below). Probably not the most fuel economical car but very cool. (picture: Edmunds)

General Motors is currently trying to promote their FlexFuel vehicles which can either run on gasoline or corn based ethanol E85. They have created a website (“Live green, go yellow”) to promote E85. It´s a nifty, flashy site which features the “cornulator” where you can calculate how much gasoline you would save and the “stalk car race” which looks little bit like a pac man for car mechanics.

Elsewhere, not nearly as playful but nevertheless interesting: Volkswagen has signed a letter of intent with Shell and the Canadian Iogen corp. to research and start German production sites for cellulose ethanol.

New in Germany: A new print magazine which is all about weather — the “WETTERmagazin“. English speaking visitors: no puns intended.

Green Car Congress reports that Robert Bosch corporation predicts that the US diesel market for diesel vehicles will reach 15 per cent over the next 10 years. In Europe the situation is quite different: PriceWaterhouseCoopers predicts that in Europe this year there will be sold more cars with a diesel engine than regular gasoline vehicles – for the first time ever.

Prognose: Diesel-Pkw überholen Benziner – Auto – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Nachrichten: “In Europa wird 2006 der Dieselmotor über den Benziner siegen. Zu dieser Einschätzung kommt die Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in einer am Montag in Hamburg veröffentlichten Studie über die Preis- und Marktentwicklung auf dem europäischen Automobilsektor. Im vergangenen Jahr habe der Diesel-Anteil noch bei 49 Prozent und der von Ottomotoren bei 51 Prozent gelegen.”

This is quite a stirr-up in the solar industry. German SolarWorld AG gobbles up the crystalline solar producing department of the Shell Group.
With this additional capacity, SolarWorld AG will rise to become the largest producer of solar power technology in the USA. This is quite an interesting move of SolarWorld: Especially California needs increasingly solar cells to satisfy Governeur Schwarzeneggers 1 million roof initiative which could make California the number one solar market in the world.

Ad hoc SolarWorld Aktiengesellschaft: Subject to the approval of the anti-trust-authorities, SolarWorld AG (ISIN: DE0005108401) will assume a 100% equity interest in the crystalline solar activities of the Shell Group. The sale and purchase agreement signed by both parties results in the transfer of the following Shell locations: Vancouver, Washington and Camarillo, California, which manufacture solar silicon crystals, wafers, cells and modules, Gelsenkirchen, Germany, which produces solar cells, as well as the sales companies in Munich, Germany, Singapore and South Africa and the research and development team focusing on silicon technology based in Munich, Germany. The production capacities that will be transferred to the SolarWorld Group under this agreement.

Germany has been known for a wealth of biodiesel gas stations and for a quite advanced use of biodiesel in cars. Biodiesel has been relatively cheap compared to regular diesel because it was untaxed (but to Americans still expensive, I guess: biodiesel currently costs 1,05 Euros per liter, about 3.30 dollars per gallon but hey, “super” regular gas costs almost 4 dollars a gallon!). Now the new German government plans to tax biodiesel beginning in August.

Planned is a tax of 10-15 Euro cents per liter. Right now, the price difference between diesel and biodiesel is exactly 10 cents per liter (for your info: while biodiesel is still untaxed, taxes for diesel are at 49 cents per liter). German automobile club ADAC warns that such a taxation will blow up biodiesel in Germany. Biodiesel engines need about 8 per cent more fuel than regular diesel cars. There would be no (cost) advantage for customers to switch to biodiesel anymore. The German biodiesel fuel station network is quite advanced: There are about 1.900 biodiesel fuel stations in Germany.

To me this a typical example of the current near-sightedness of our government (and somehow German society): It´s all about “saving money”. Instead of pushing alternative fuels, some members of the government are looking for quick tax income. I don´t think the biodiesel taxation will be executed in August. German car makers have been doing so much research and I think they will be quite influential when it comes to such issues. We´ll see and I´ll keep you posted.

The “Verband der Deutschen Biokraftstoffindustrie” (German biodiesel trade organisation) has an interesting market overview in english language. You don´t need to understand German to see that biodiesel production is growing in Germany and Europe.
Also interesting: this current market overview in PDF format (German, only).

What a powerful statement President Bush made at the State of the Union speech yesterday: Wean America from oil dependence … woah!

But how is he going to achieve this? By getting his oil and gas from Canada, Russia and Southern America/Africa? John Gartner, my friend over at Wired´s reports on this issue. In his Autopia Blog John gives some more information on Bush´s speech.

Basically, Bush called for increased funding of research into advanced battery technology that would enable hybrid vehicles to rely primarily on energy from the power grid. Interestingly enough, at the same time the White House issued a bold paper stating that the Department of Energy (DOE) invented hybrid vehicle batteries but as John explains here batteries have been developed most likely in Japan (yeah, and Gore invented the internet…). Efficient battery technologies are important in the clean energy equation but really, is this going to relieve America´s dependence on oil?

Maybe American consumers and companies should start saving (not storing) energy as a first important measure. Oil and gas prices are at a historic high in the US, so this will get Americans used to a “energy saving mode”.

Here´s the situation in Germany: Germany has to import 97 per cent of their demand for oil. While in the 70s they imported abou 90 per cent from OPEC states, nowadays only 20 per cent of their oil imports come from OPEC countries. See, it´s possible to shift imports. Most important oil producers for Germany are Russia (by far), Norway and the UK.

Never miss your airplane because of parking place limbo: The Munich Airport will feature the world´s largest parking guide system, engineered by Siemens. This parking guide system will control 15.000 parking spaces. It is already in place in the Terminal 1 parking garage and is expected to work at full capacity in 2009. More information over here.

Now all we need to do is to somehow link the Siemens navigation with the GPS navigation system inside our cars — maybe via TMC?. That´d be cool. (image: Siemens)

Adidas/Salomon, BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Fresenius, Henkel and SAP are among the 100 most sustainable companies in the world — at least according to benchmarks of research firms Corporate Knights Inc. and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Inc. Have a look at the Global 100 list – unfortunately without ranking.

Of course, more detailed reports can be purchased here. Interestingly enough, most of the companies are from the UK. I like the little grey subheadline above the list. It says: “Even the good guys have black underwear.” Probably a blurb a programmer left in the code.