Alternative Energy Supplies.
Note.
The following four mini articles follow the trend we set in our last newsletter. We hope you find them of general interest!
Ed.
No. 9. Alternative Diesel Supplies!
India is a leading world cultivator of Jatropha with over a million hectares of plants. Hindustan Petroleum and Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency are planning a partnership to extend the acreage by another 15 thousand hectares.
The Jatropha plant is a long-lived woody shrub, which produces seeds that are used to produce bio diesel. The land used for cultivation may be wastelands, which are not used for food production.
So there is food for thought! Ed.
No 10. Low Cost Ethanol.
A Massachusetts bio fuel and enzyme company Verenium as well as BP have formed a partnership which will hopefully see Verenuim using microbes called ethanologens to produce low cost ethanol from cellulose. This should prove more economical than using conventional yeasts to break down or ferment high cellulose materials such as so called energy grasses.
Now if we could convert Kikuyu Grass??!! Ed.
No 11. Electric Cars?!
Well just in case you think there are only a few, and they are pipe dreams, we list below some cars that are or were available in the past year and a few that are to be available soon.
The Sports Car Roadster by Tesla Motors in the USA.
The E6 Sedan by BVD Chinas' biggest battery maker.
XS 500 Miles Sedan by Miles.
IMiev passenger car by Mitsubishi.
R1e Two seater by Subaru.
Super Concept Car by Hybrid Technolgies.
Mini's by PML and BMW in California USA only.
Mercedes (by 2010)
Nissan (2010 -2012)
REVA in the UK (Probably running around London).
Tango Car (driven by Film Star George Clooney in the USA).
Tata of Mumbai, India (next few years)
Wrightspeed X!, which has faster acceleration than a Porsche!
The success of these depends on efficient battery technology and costs!
Watch out for the around South African Solar Powered Car Challenge in late September early October!
No 12. Efficient Passenger Transport.
Tokyo Metro has 195 Kms of track and operates 179 stations. The metropolitan government run Toei network has 109 Kms of track with 106 stations in addition to ordinary railroads.
Tokyo Metro opened a 13th line which links Shibuya with Ikeburo and Saitama to the north west of the capital.
This expensive exercise, which started in 2001, apparently cost 250 billion Yen. Posters at the stations state that CO2 and other green house gases are far less per person on the trains than driving in cars. Energy consumption per passenger Km by road transport in rush hour Tokyo is about 23 times that of the railway!
So maybe the Gautrain will be environmentally effective as well! Ed.
