RENAULT NISSAN ALLIANCE AND YOKOHAMA CITY TO PURSUE ZERO EMISSION MOBILITY

Renault Nissan Alliance and the city of Yokohama today announced a partnership to study sustainable mobility solutions for Yokohama. Under the Environment Model City* pilot, Yokohama aims to achieve significant CO2 reductions by experimenting with a range of methodologies across key sectors including transportation, housing and renewable energy development.

Nissan will introduce an all-electric vehicle in Yokohama by 2010, making the city one of the first in the world to offer the vehicle.

The scope of the Memorandum of Understanding will examine the following:
1. Measures to promote eco-driving
2. Study of route navigation systems to alleviate traffic congestion
3. Measures to promote mass acceptance of electric vehicles
3-1) Customer incentives
3-2) Development of electric-charging infrastructure

Nissan has been piloting its Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), combining telematics and vehicle navigation system, to offer real-time traffic solutions in Yokohama since September 2006. The University of Tokyo is also participating to monitor and evaluate the progress of the program.

"Through our Environment Model City pilot, we hope to define an innovative vision that leads to CO2 reduction, sustainability and improved quality of life for our citizens. We look forward to a mutually-beneficial partnership with Nissan," said Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakada.

"Nissan firmly believes the solution to sustainable mobility can be achieved with electric vehicles. We look forward to working with the city of Yokohama to make electric vehicles a sensible, attractive and eco-friendly choice for customers," said Carlos Tavares, executive vice president of Nissan.

The Renault Nissan Alliance aims to be a global leader in zero-emission vehicles. The Alliance has entered into partnerships worldwide including Israel, Denmark, Portugal, France and the State of Tennessee in the U.S.

* The City of Yokohama has been selected by the government in July 2008 as an Environment Model City and aims to achieve 30% or more reduction in CO2 emissions per capita (compared to the ratio in fiscal year 2004).

West Bengal turns to Jatropha farming to promote bio-diesel

The West Bengal government has taken up a programme to develop cultivation of Jatropha plant to popularise it as a major source of bio-diesel. A survey is also proposed to identify the various species of Jatropha available in the state with special emphasis on districts where the growth of the plant is rampant, Saumendra Nath Bera, chairman of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology and Bio-Technology in the state assembly, said.

The project will be taken under a Micro-Mission Project of Jatropha under the Union Bio-Technology department. Describing Jatropha oil as a "potential source of fuel," Bera said the survey would enable identification of the varieties and its required soil and climatic conditions for obtaining appropriate quality planting materials with maximum oil content.

Bera, who recently undertook a study visit along with other members of the Standing Committee to Garmandaran in Hooghly district, said field trials for large-scale cultivation of Jatropha had been undertaken at Hooghly and Bankura.

"Its cultivation is proposed to be extended to other districts depending on the total area of cultivation and total seed production," he said.

Quality planting materials to be produced by macro propagation would provide quality seeds for oil extraction, Bera said adding that in order to provide good planting material, saplings were being produced from seeds and cuttings.

The Centre's Micro-Mission Project of Jatropha was aimed at large-scale propagation of the plant for identifying species with maximum oil content and large-scale propagation of quality planting materials, Bera said. Describing both the seeds and cuttings as the source of planting materials for this demonstration project at Garmandaran, he said 15 hectares of land were covered there for three years, of which five hectares were completed in 2005-06 and the rest to be covered within the current year.

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Renault-Nissan & Project Better Place announce strategy of Zero-Emission Vehicles in Denmark

The Renault-Nissan Alliance actively supports the initiative of Project Better Place, which announced today its second deployment in Denmark.

Renault will provide Danish customers with 100% electric vehicles at European standards in 2011, providing zero emission mobility while at the same time offering driving performance similar to a gasoline engine.

Nissan, through its joint venture with NEC, has created an advanced lithium-ion battery pack that both meets the requirements of this electric vehicle and can be mass-produced.

In Denmark, the conditions necessary for electric vehicles to be successfully mass-marketed are being brought together. The Danish government will provide tax incentives on 100% electric vehicles, Renault will supply the electric vehicles and, Better Place Denmark will construct and operate an Electric Recharge Grid across the entire country.

This announcement follows the January 21st 2008 signature of an MOU in Jerusalem by Renault and Project Better Place for the first mass-marketed electric vehicles. This second deployment illustrates the major role played by the Renault-Nissan Alliance to bring to mass market zero-emission cars.

Biofuels Costing the Earth?

Increasing amounts of biofuels (substitutes for petrol or diesel made from crops such as sugar cane, beet, maize, wheat, oilseed rape and oil palm) are being produced to reduce the carbon dioxide impact of transport. But the World Land Trust argues this requires vast areas of land and is not the best way of using land to mitigate climate change. The WLT would like us all to consider the knock on effects of the increase in demand for Biofules which they feel are not currently being acknowledged. As we produce more and more rape seed here in the UK to cope with demand we leave the third world to produce our fruit and cereals which in turn forces them to clear more endangered habitat at the same time as significantly clocking up the UK's food miles. And let's not forget how the elephants of India or orangutans of Borneo who suffer in our race to find a so called 'green fuel'.

Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust and Dominick Spracklen of the University of Leeds show that much more carbon dioxide emissions can be avoided by protecting the remaining forest we have and restoring forest on arable land that is not needed for food production (Science, 17th August 2007). They argue that policy-makers would be better advised to focus on increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel use and developing carbon-free transport fuels to replace fossil hydrocarbons. Existing forests and savannahs should be conserved and natural forest and grassland habitats restored. In addition to reducing net carbon dioxide flux to the atmosphere, conversion of large areas of land back to secondary forest provides other environmental services (such as prevention of desertification, provision of forest products, maintenance of biological diversity and regional climate regulation), whereas conversion of large areas of land to make biofuels will place additional strains on the environment.

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U.S. House passes green energy bill

The House of Representatives just passed an energy bill, 241-172, that includes a renewable electricity standard (RES) of 15 percent by 2020, strong lighting efficiency standards, increased incentives for investment in renewable energy, and safeguards to protect sensitive public lands from oil and gas drilling. The House failed to vote on fuel economy improvements. The RES requires utilities to obtain at least 15 percent of their power from a combination of energy efficiency and renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass energy by 2020.

“By passing the renewable electricity standard the House of Representatives has taken a real step forward in enacting the clean energy policies we need to reduce global warming pollution. This shows the House is ready to take strong action on global warming in the fall,” said Karen Wayland, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “We need this same leadership in the conference committee. By combining a strong renewable energy standard with the Senate’s fuel economy improvements, this Congress can make a serious down payment on preventing the worst impacts of global warming.”

Measures that were not included in the House bill but must be addressed in the conference committee with the Senate to make meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment are:

• Matching the Senate’s fuel economy improvement provision of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
• Adequate safeguards to ensure that intensive biofuels production does not result in water pollution, habitat destruction, or loss of forests.
• A greenhouse gas standard that would require advance biofuels to emit 50 percent less global warming pollution than gasoline.

“America needs the president to sign an energy bill with a renewable electricity standard and fuel economy improvements, and strong incentives for energy efficiency. This will lead to meaningful reductions of global warming pollution and protect our natural resources,” said Wayland.

via NRDC