Ottawa Gas Prices, Traffic and Transportation Blog

Ottawa Gas Prices, Traffic and Transportation Blog. News, Articles, Analysis, Statistics, Observations, Forecasts, Opinions, Comments and Data on the Gas Prices, Traffic and Transportation in Ottawa (Ontario, Canada).

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Hymotion Unveils Plug-in Hybrid Kits for Toyota and Ford Hybrids


Hymotion, a Canadian company, introduced plug-in hybrid (PHEV) upgrade kits for the Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape and Mariner Hybrids at the Canadian International AutoShow this week. The Hymotion PHEV kits are based on a supplementary lithium-ion battery system that can be recharged by plugging it into a regular household electrical outlet.

Other systems are under development for the Lexus RX400h, Toyota Highlander Hybrid and Toyota Camry Hybrid, according to the company.


Unlike the approach taken by EDrive with its plug-in Prius system (earlier post)—replacing the original OEM battery pack with an Li-ion pack—Hymotion is supplementing the original NiMH battery system with its own Li-ion system that serves as the plug-in energy store.

The PHEV system recharges from the engine and regenerative braking during operation and from the power grid when the vehicle is parked and plugged in. Once the PHEV battery is depleted, the vehicle resumes normal operation using the factory battery. While the PHEV battery is in use, the OEM battery fuel gage indicates its status.

The addition of the li-ion battery pack does not change the basic operating strategy of the vehicles—all electric-operation is still limited to low speeds (e.g., below 34 mph for the Prius).

Hymotion is initially offering the PHEV upgrade in two models: the 5kWh L5 for the Prius and the 12kWh L12 for the Ford hybrid SUVs. Hymotion is sourcing the Li-ion battery packs from an as-yet unnamed Asian manufacturer.

The company is targeting fleet buyers initially. In unit orders greater than 100, the L5 Prius kits will cost $9,500; orders of greater than 1,000 units would see the price drop to $6,500. Hymotion has not set pricing for the L12 for the Escape/Mariner, although the company notes that “since it’s 2.5 times the power of the Prius system, a very high price tag will be expected.”

Both systems are now available for fleet owners only because we still need more durability test miles before releasing it to the consumers.

Hymotion had earlier partnered in the development of a hydrogen fuel-cell powered ice resurfacing machine (the eP-Ice Bear). Hymotion has its headquarters and research and development lab in Toronto, Canada. The company also has offices in Boston, USA, and five subcontractor facilities across North America.

GreenCarCongress

U.S. Retail Gasoline Price Up, 1st Time in 4 Weeks

U.S. retail gasoline prices rose 1.4 cents to $2.25 a gallon in the latest week, the government said on Monday, as the first increase in motor fuel prices in four weeks followed a sharp jump in crude oil costs.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline was up 33 cents from a year ago, based on the federal Energy Information Administration's survey of service stations.

The jump in pump prices mirrored a huge rise in U.S. crude oil prices last Friday of $2.37 a barrel after a suicide bomb attack on the world's largest oil processing center in Saudi Arabia. On Monday, U.S. oil prices gave up most of those gains, falling $1.91, or 3 percent, to $61 a barrel.

The price of crude oil accounts for about the half the cost of making gasoline.

In the EIA's latest weekly survey, the West Coast had the most expensive regional gasoline, with the price down 2.7 cents at $2.38 a gallon. Los Angeles topped the survey of cities, with gasoline down 5.1 cents at $2.46 a gallon.

The Gulf Coast states had the cheapest gasoline at $2.15 a gallon, down 1.5 cents. Among major cities, Houston had the best pump price, down 4.4 cents at $2.11 a gallon.

The EIA report also showed prices, rounded to the nearest penny, down 4.7 cents at $2.36 in Miami, down 1.6 cents at $2.27 in New York City; up 2.4 cents at $2.27 in Chicago; up 10.9 cents at $2.22 in Cleveland; down 0.7 cent at $2.22 in Seattle and down 4.5 cents at $2.17 in Boston.

Separately, the average diesel fuel price paid by truckers rose 1.6 cents over the last week to $2.47 a gallon, up 35 cents from a year earlier, the EIA said.

Truckers on the West Coast paid the most for diesel at $2.62 a gallon, up 2.9 cents from last week. The Midwest states had the cheapest diesel at $2.42 a gallon, up 1.9 cents. - Reuters

Sun2Surf

Supreme Court Throws Out Lawsuit Over Gas Prices

The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit that accused two oil companies of inflating gas prices by at least $1 billion.

Justices unanimously said gas distributors did not prove that Chevron Corp. and Shell Oil Co., a U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, violated antitrust laws in the joint venture, which ended four years ago.

Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the court, said the companies had a legal partnership. "The pricing decisions of a legitimate joint venture do not fall within the narrow category of activity that is per se unlawful" under federal law, Thomas said.

At the time of the deal in 1998, Texaco was independent from Chevron. The company joined with Shell to form enterprises to handle refining and marketing of their gasoline.

Gas distributors filed a class-action lawsuit in California, alleging that Texaco and Shell had used the partnership to fix gas prices in violation of antitrust provisions of the Sherman Act.

A ruling in favor of the gas distributors would have had broad implications for business mergers beyond the oil industry.

Representatives of Chevron and Shell lauded the decision.

"As the Supreme Court noted, the joint venture, which no longer exists, was extensively reviewed and approved by the federal government's antitrust enforcement agency, the Federal Trade Commission," Chevron spokesman Donald Campbell said. "It was also reviewed by four state attorneys general, who similarly concluded that the venture was not anticompetitive."

A lawyer representing the plaintiffs did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The case was argued at the court last month, and justices signaled then that they were not concerned that the giant gas companies went too far. Chief Justice John Roberts said that joint ventures must price their products, and it shouldn't matter whether they are sold as a new brand or under the Shell and Texaco labels.

Gas price-fixing has been a sensitive subject over the past year for Americans who experienced surging prices that exceeded $3 a gallon in many parts of the country.

A trial court judge dismissed the lawsuit against the oil companies. But the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled there was evidence that the ventures had improperly restrained trade.

The high court erased that decision. Justice Samuel Alito did not participate in the case because he was not on the court when the appeal was argued.

The cases are Texaco v. Dagher, 04-805, and Shell Oil v. Dagher, 04-814.

Shares of Chevron fell 62 cents, or 1.1 percent, to close at $56.48 on the New York Stock Exchange, where those of Royal Dutch Shell declined by 43 cents to $60.48.

In the past year, Chevron has traded in a range of $49.50 to $65.98, and Royal Dutch Shell has traded between $57.79 and $68.45.

PE

Gasoline Price Dip May not Last Long

Motorists have been getting a break at the pump in recent weeks but experts say with the peak driving season around the corner, it probably won't be long before gas prices head higher again.

Gasoline has fallen by an average of 6 cents a gallon nationwide over the last month and by an even heftier 10 cents in the Ottawa region, according to the CAA motor club.

Locally, a gallon of regular unleaded was going for an average of 75.3 cents yesterday, down from 87.8 cents a month ago, CAA said. The national average was 88.8 cents, down from 93.1 a month earlier.

Spotters for www.GasPricesInOttawa.com found regular unleaded for as low as 71.3 yesterday afternoon.

Gas prices peaked at more than $1.2 a literin early September after Hurricane Katrina knocked out pipelines, refineries and shipments along the Gulf Coast. Prices quickly fell back, but generally rose from November through January.

Experts attributed the latest dip to falling crude oil prices and rising oil and gasoline stockpiles as U.S. refineries prepared to shut down operations for maintenance and switch to producing more costly summer blends, which is done to improve air quality during the summer months.

A milder-than-usual winter also helped build inventories.

Most U.S. refineries can produce only one type of fuel at a time.

With demand down for heating oil, they had more time for pumping out gasoline.

Traditionally, gasoline prices rise in the springtime as stockpiles wane and demand rises.

Despite the recent decline at the pump, motorists were enjoying even lower prices last year. One year ago this week, regular unleaded was going for an average of 68.1 cents a liter in the Ottawa region and 65 cents nationwide.

New Version of Ottawa Traffic Cameras Widget


New Version 1.3 of Ottawa Traffic Cameras Widget available since February 27. 2006

Now it contains real-time road conditions information in Ottawa.

It also displays the best gas price in Ottawa from www.GasPricesInOttawa.com, as well as weather information.

Monday, February 27, 2006

1000-Mile Range Vehicle


Ultra High Range Vehicle to be Developed Using Advanced Kokam Battery System, Hybrid Technologies to Open Facility in South Korea

Hybrid Technologies, Inc. www.hybridtechnologies.com, emerging leaders in the development and marketing of lithium powered products worldwide and Kokam Ltd. are pleased to jointly announce the development of an ultra high performance vehicle. The vehicle is anticipated to reach over 1000 miles on one charge.

Hybrid Technologies executives were in Asia February 23-27, 2006, to complete negotiations with Kokam South Korea. The meetings with Kokam Chairman JJ Hong established a stronger working relationship with Hybrid Technologies as well as several intensive automotive development projects.

Kokam will be developing an ultra long range system with testing in America with Kokam American and Hybrid Technologies.

The vehicle will have a (approx) 300 kilowatt hour system based on Kokam's current technology. This system is 10 times the capacity of current systems in use today. The developed unit will use 5 units of a 200 Ah 81S1P system, stated Kokam engineers.

Hybrid Technologies, in an effort to expand its global presence as well as to work more closely with Kokam Ltd., has approved the opening of an electronic development facility in Seoul, South Korea. The move is directly in response to a greater than anticipated number of orders from Government agencies as well as the number of current vehicle project demands.

Kokam Ltd has long been a leader in high performance lithium batteries as well as a developer of high capacity lithium cells. Kokam Chairman, JJ Hong, stated, "Kokam and Hybrid Technologies have been working successfully to date and we are pleased with the rapid advancements Hybrid Technologies has made. Clearly our vision is similar, therefore this expanded joint project will allow for further and closer collaboration and as well provides automotive platforms for Kokam to introduce the latest lithium technology."

Hybrid Technologies President, Holly Roseberry, stated, "Our team has completed negotiations with Kokam Ltd. thus creating a clear and solid manufacturing relationship with a leading supplier and developer. Our newest project, an ultra long range vehicle, is a joint project that will not only create a new line for Hybrid Technologies, but also change the industry standard in respect to performance and range. Our move to Asia will allow Hybrid technologies to gather the best technology in the world; therefore, we feel that we are finally providing what we believe will be the most advanced hybrid vehicle in the market.

Hybrid Technologies and Kokam Ltd. have approved a fast track for the ultra long range vehicle and will be co-developing a system in South Korea and Mooresville, NC. The Seoul, South Korea, development facility will be focused on electrical development and battery management systems, while also serving as a satellite office for Hybrid's Asian market.

AutoChannel

The Best Time to Buy Cars

It's still true that good deals can be found in late summer/early fall, when carmakers release new models and dealers want to get rid of last year's leftovers.

But a good price may also be wrangled at the end of every month. That's because dealers are under pressure to book sales. If they exceed monthly sales targets set by the manufacturer, they are rewarded by getting more of the hotter, better selling vehicles the next month.

"There's a benefit to [dealers] making their quotas," said Jack Nerad, editorial director at Kelley Blue Book and author of the "Complete Idiots Guide to Buying or Leasing a Car."

You can fine-tune your timing even more, said Nerad. He recommends shopping when the dealerships aren't crowded, like early mornings, midweek or the winter, to avoid "getting short shrifted" from the sales staff.

CNN

'New Car Smell' Includes Toxins

A Michigan environmental group is charging that at least part of the so-called "new car smell" is toxic, and that the interior of an automobile has dangerous levels of various chemicals.

The report, "Toxic at any speed," comes from The Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based group. It reports that PBDEs, used as fire retardants, and phthalates, used primarily to soften PVC plastics, are found in dangerous amounts in dust and windshield film samples.

It called for tougher regulations to phase out the use of the chemicals as well as voluntary moves by the auto manufacturers to stop using the products inside of new vehicles.

It also suggested that car owners take steps to reduce the release and breakdown of these chemicals by using solar reflectors, ventilating car interiors, and parking outside of sunlight whenever possible.

The group says that phthalates are partly responsible for the smell associated with new cars.

Drivers and passengers are exposed to these chemicals through inhalation and contact with dust, according to the group's report.

"These groups of chemicals have been linked to birth defects, impaired learning, liver toxicity, premature births and early puberty in laboratory animals, among other serious health problems," according to the report.

"We can no longer rely just on seatbelts and airbags to keep us safe in cars," said a statement from Jeff Gearhart, the Ecology Center's Clean Car Campaign Director who co-authored the report. "Our research shows that autos are chemical reactors, releasing toxins before we even turn on the ignition. There are safer alternatives to these chemicals, and innovative companies that develop them first will likely be rewarded by consumers."

The group found Volvo was found to have the lowest levels of phthalates and the second-lowest levels of PBDEs, which it said made the Ford Motor Co. (Research)-owned unit the industry leader in terms of indoor air quality. Volvo also has the toughest policies for phasing out these chemicals.

Other auto manufacturers had more mixed records on the two types of chemicals, according to the group's survey. For example, Korean auto manufacturer Hyundai had the lowest level of PBDEs, but the highest level of phthalates.

The group said it was told by Ford officials that the auto manufacturer has eliminated PBDEs from "interior components that customers may come into contact with." Ford had among the lowest level of PBDEs in its vehicles, and General Motors (Research) and BMW vehicles also had lower-than-average levels for all chemicals tested. But Mercedes, Chrysler, Toyota and Subaru had higher-than-average levels of both PBDEs and phthalates.

In response to the study, one industry group defended the use of PBDEs as an important contributor to vehicle safety.

The Bromine Science and Environmental Forum said in a statement that PBDEs known as Deca-BDE have been extensively studied in the U.S. and Europe -- including a 10-year-long risk assessment -- and found to be safe for continued use.

"If automobile manufacturers follow the guidance in the report, it could result in lowering fire safety for the public, as well as promoting the use of unidentified alternative substances about which very little may be known," said the group's statement. It said it is crucial that autos have the best possible flame retardants available in case of accidents.

"In 2004 alone, there were approximately 297,000 car fires in the United States, leading to 550 deaths. If effective flame retardants were not used, this number would certainly be higher," the group's statement said.

Auto manufacturers have already agreed to phase out two of the three flame-retardant chemicals cited in the report, Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the Detroit News. The remaining chemical has been studied by the European Union for 10 years and has been proven safe, Shosteck said.

The report was released Jan. 11 during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, but it received little attention outside of Michigan.

CNN

Sunday, February 26, 2006

OC Transpo Introduces New Community Pass to Benefit Disabled Residents

Starting March 1, a new discounted transit pass will be available to Ottawa residents who receive benefits under the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). The Community Pass is a one-year pilot project and replaces the previous policy of free fares for transit customers who use a mobility aid.

The project is designed to make transit more affordable and more inclusive for people with disabilities and a low income. Transit will be subsidized for a wider group of disabled customers – not just those using wheelchairs, scooters or walkers – whose income is below the poverty line. About 16,000 ODSP recipients will be eligible to buy the discounted pass and about 4,000 people are expected to take advantage of this offer.

At a cost of $28.25 a month, the same price as a discounted Senior’s pass, customers will save $58.75 a month. The Community Pass looks the same as an Adult Express pass and will allow customers to ride any bus route as well as the O-Train.

The previous policy of free fares for customers who use a mobility device was introduced as an incentive for Para Transpo customers to use OC Transpo low-floor accessible transit buses. The Community Pass is accepted on Para Transpo service but must be topped up to the full fare in an effort to encourage customers to take conventional transit. Registered Para Transpo customers who do not receive ODSP benefits are also eligible to buy the Community Pass.

This project has received widespread support across Ottawa’s disabled community and was unanimously accepted by the City of Ottawa’s Accessible Advisory Committee. Ottawa City Council approved the Community Pass Project on June 22, 2005.

For more information about the Community Pass, phone 613-741-4390 or the OC Transpo Access Hotline at 613-842-3625, or visit octranspo.com.

New Ottawa Light Rail Transit Web Site


The City of Ottawa today unveiled a new section on its Web site dedicated to Light Rail Transit (LRT). The site, ottawa.ca/lrt, is the place to go for anyone looking for information on Ottawa’s future public transportation system.

The new comprehensive site contains timelines for the construction project and links to other LRT Web sites around the world. As the LRT project moves forward, the site will grow to include project schedules, construction updates, information on Ottawa’s future LRT lines and more. Visit regularly to stay up to date on LRT progress.

Construction of the North-South LRT line is expected to begin this summer, with service scheduled to start in late 2009. The North-South line is being built with funding contributions from the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario. The North-South LRT project is also being undertaken as a Public Private Partnership (P3) to maximize benefits for taxpayers.

For more information, visit the web site at ottawa.ca/lrt.

USA. Gasoline Prices Dip 6 Cents to $2.24 / Gallon

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The average retail price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States fell over the past two weeks due to a temporary surplus as refiners built up stocks in anticipation of the usual spring surge in demand, according to an industry analyst.

The national average for self-serve, regular unleaded gasoline was $2.24 per gallon on February 24, a decline of 6.2 cents per gallon from two weeks earlier, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey of about 7,000 gas stations.

That is about 34 cents a gallon higher for self-serve, regular unleaded than a year ago. On February 18, 2005, the average was about $1.90 per gallon.

Despite the decline at the pumps in recent weeks, survey editor Trilby Lundberg cautioned that prices would likely rise substantially.

``A dramatic price surge is a strong possibility for this spring and summer even without higher crude oil prices,'' Lundberg warned.

She cited several reasons for an expected surge in gasoline prices, including new regulations this year calling for more expensive ethanol to replace a cheaper additive, and the need for more refining capacity to go off-line for pre-summer maintenance.

``Supply will tighten and costs will rise right when we need more supply,'' Lundberg said.

She added that concern in the market over potential international treats to the oil supply in nations such as Iran, Iraq and Nigeria could keep crude oil prices high.

``If crude does not correct downward, then that's the equivalent of another 5 cents per gallon rise,'' Lundberg said.

At $2.59 a gallon, Honolulu, Hawaii, had the nation's highest average price for self-serve, regular unleaded gas, according to the February 24, survey.

Portland, Oregon, had the survey's lowest price, dipping below the $2 per-gallon barrier to $1.99.

NY Times

New Honda Civic Type-R = Reloaded


Takeo Fukui, Honda's President and CEO, will be at the Geneva Motor Show to talk with the media on the 28th of February, culminating in him revealing the new Honda Civic Type R Concept, which strongly hints at what the production car will look like when it reaches the market in 2007.

Takeo Fukui will be joined by Honda Racing F1's Jenson Button. Jenson will be making a brief 'pit stop' from his busy pre-season testing schedule to help launch the concept model to the press.

The Honda Civic Type-R will be powered by the current cars 2.0 litre, 200bhp engine, with the power going through the front wheels.

SportNetwork

Battery Breakthrough

While President Bush spoke this week about a new kind of highly efficient hybrid vehicle, on a visit to battery-maker Johnson Controls in Milwaukee, WI, an article appeared in the current issue of Science describing the latest in a series of recent advances that could make hybrids, and even all-electric vehicles, practical.

Researchers have long known that a material based on lithium, nickel, and manganese could be used to make lithium-ion batteries that store large amounts of energy. The problem has been that batteries based on this material could be charged and discharged only slowly, otherwise the amount of energy they could store would drop dramatically.

In the Science paper, researchers at MIT and the State University of New York (SUNY) in Stony Brook described a way around the problem. The breakthrough came last summer, when Kisuk Kang, a materials science graduate student at MIT, created a computer model that showed that when it was under conditions of high power, disorder in the lithium-nickel-manganese material caused it to compress and trap the lithium ions that allow electricity to flow. The researchers then synthesized a version of this material without this disorder, freeing the ions to move quickly.

The newly structured material might be a candidate for replacing the batteries used in today's hybrids cars. But its real value could come in taking advantage of both its power and high energy storage capacity in a different kind of hybrid, known as a plug-in hybrid -- the potentially highly-efficient vehicle Bush spotlighted in his speech on Monday, saying these cars could eventually get 100 miles per gallon. The new technology could also help make all-electric vehicles practical.

President Bush came to Johnson Controls, which last fall announced a new center of excellence for developing lithium-ion batteries for hybrids, to talk up his Advanced Energy Initiative, first announced in this year's State of the Union address. The Bush administration's 2007 budget provides $31 million for battery technology research, compared with $150 million for research into deriving ethanol from biomass, and nearly twice that amount, $288 million, for hydrogen fuel-cell research.

Unlike today's hybrids, which ultimately depend on gasoline for power, but run efficiently by storing extra energy in batteries, a plug-in hybrid would use energy from the outlet in a garage, charging overnight, and would run completely on electricity for distances typical in a daily commute. The gasoline-powered engine would only kick in for long trips, after the batteries were depleted. This type of hybrid could save significant amounts of gasoline, since something like 75 percent of daily driving is for short trips, says Gerbrand Ceder, the materials science professor at MIT who led the effort to develop the new material.

Ceder says the new material could reduce the weight of battery packs for plug-in hybrids by four to five times. The higher rate capability should also make for speedier charging, allowing top-offs between trips that extend the distance a vehicle could go between overnight recharges.

Other attractive features of batteries based on the new material, according to Ceder, are improved safety over other lithium-ion batteries and lower cost. Lower cost, lighter weight, and faster charging might make the batteries attractive for electric vehicles as well.

The material still needs to go through extensive testing to find out if it will have the longevity and performance capability needed for demanding automotive applications, says Khalil Amine, group leader for battery research at Argonne National Laboratory.

The MIT-SUNY research joins other recent advances in battery materials. Amine's own work at Argonne has produced promising new lithium-ion electrodes, as has that of researchers at A123 Systems in Watertown, MA, and E-One Moli Energy in British Columbia. Meanwhile, Firefly Energy, Peoria, IL, is developing lighter lead-acid batteries that may work well for hybrids.

Developing battery packs using these new technologies and incorporating them into hybrids could take several years, as automakers perform further tests and integrate the technologies into their vehicle development cycles. Even then, the impact on fuel prices and energy consumption could take decades, as consumers gradually purchase the more efficient vehicles.

Because of this long time frame, some experts, including John Heywood at MIT, say that, to achieve shorter-term reductions in oil consumption and prices, people will have to buy cars available now that have better fuel economy. "The only things that work really fast are for people to change their buying and driving habits," Heywood says. To encourage these changes, advocates have called for higher fuel-economy standards and tax breaks for purchasing higher fuel-economy vehicles.

Meanwhile, the MIT-SUNY computer model could help the field generally. Stanley Whittingham, professor of chemistry at SUNY, whose work led to the first commercialized lithium-ion batteries (and who was not involved with the current project), says the computer model, by showing how disorder affects materials, will help other researchers to develop new high-performance batteries. As for the new material, "In the end, to really determine whether this is a critical material, what we need is some extended cycling," he says. "But the rate capability looks great. It looks really promising."

TechnologyReview

Hybrid Electric School Buses

The typical school bus stops and starts many times while picking up and letting offstudents. It often spends more time stopped and idling while loading and unloading than driving down the road. Hybrid electric vehicles love lots of starts and stops. That’s why there is so much interest in hybrid electric transit buses, delivery trucks, refuse pickup trucks and taxis. Features like regenerative braking and start-stop operation are key reasons why hybrids save fuel and reduce emissions. Indeed, because of this, hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape Hybrid have higher EPA city mpg ratings than highway ratings.

Reducing pollution, especially from diesel engines popularly used in school buses, is of vital importance. There is much evidence that diesel emissions are especially harmful to young children. Fuel saving are also important to schools since fuel costs are a major portion of manyschool district’s budget, and rising.

Hybrid school buses could be just around the corner. The Hybrid Electric School Bus (HESB) project managed by Advanced Energy in North Carolina recently received funding from The State Technologies Advancement Collaborative that could put hybrid electric school buses on U.S. highways in two years. The funding will be used to help purchase 20 hybrid electric school buses that will be put in operation in eleven states around the country to determine theirfeasibility under a variety of operating conditions.

IC Corporation, North America's largest school bus manufacturer, working with hybrid system manufacturer, Enova Systems, Inc., plans to introduce the nation's first hybrid school bus in regular service this spring. As a point of history, in the early 2000s, a consortium comprising of EVermont, NAVC, Solectria Corp. and Bluebird Corp. did convert a Bluebird school bus into a hybrid electric one. Testing showed substantial reduction in fuel usage and emissions compared to a comparable diesel-powered school bus.

School buses are an ideal application for a new type of hybrid, the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle or PHEV. Here the hybrid vehicle is plugged into the electrical grid to recharge the batteries. This reduces the amount of time the internal combustion engine has to run to recharge batteries, thus reducing fuel consumption and emissions. PHEVs can replace mobile emission sources, that is vehicles, with stationary central power plant sources that are already much cleaner and easier to control. School buses recharged overnight reduce ozone and smog because the electric power used is produced at night rather than during the day.

With the large number of school buses in operation in the U.S., there should be a very large market for hybrid school buses. Add the large number of miles driven by school buses, or really the number they are in service, hybrid buses could greatly reduce pollution and use of fossil fuels.

WomanMotorist

Honda Hydrogen Cars in Two to Three Years

Japanese car manufacturer Honda looks ready to steal a march on its rivals with the announcement that its hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicle could be ready for mass production in three to four years, somewhat ahead of the 10 year estimates proposed by the majority of its competitors.

Hydrogen powered vehicles produce no significant emissions, making them far more environmentally friendly than petrol cars. In the past the technology has been considered too bulky and inefficient for commercial use, problems Honda now claims to have overcome.

The company says a new hydrogen absorption material in the fuel tank will double storage capacity to 5kg of hydrogen at 5000 PSI, extending cruising range to 350 miles, equivalent to that of a gasoline-engine car without the need for a large storage unit.

Alongside development of the car, Honda also announced that it was developing a home energy station which will generate hydrogen from natural gas supplied for residential use, allowing drivers to refuel their vehicles from home.

According to the car maker, the station's fuel cells will be able to generate and supply electricity to the home, and the heat produced during power generation recycled for water heating. In addition to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by some 40%, Honda says its home energy station could lower the total running cost of household electricity, gas and vehicle fuel by 50%, something which could prove a significant lure to homeowners not even considering a new car.

Honda has said the car will resemble its FCX concept vehicle recently unveiled at the Detroit motor show. With environmental concerns and the escalating price of fuel increasingly affecting motorists, the hydrogen car may prove to be as successful for Honda as the Prius hybrid has been for Toyota.

Automotive Business Review

Ethanol in the Spotlight


With the nation seeking ways to clean up the environment and reduce dependence on foreign oil, ethanol is suddenly getting fresh buzz.

Ethanol, a fuel made out of crops like corn and sugar, shows promise because it produces fewer greenhouse gases than gasoline, can be made in the United States and, with new technologies, is becoming much cheaper to produce, supporters say.

The timing is right. With gasoline prices still lofty, mounting evidence of global warming, and enactment last year of a U.S. energy bill requiring increased use of renewable fuels, the rush to find an alternative to gasoline is on.

So now, a wide array of people in Silicon Valley -- including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists such as Vinod Khosla, and scientists at companies like Palo Alto-based Genencor -- are jumping into ethanol. In part, they hope to reap profits from research at places like Stanford University and University of California-Berkeley, where scientists are working on ways to ferment ethanol more efficiently, starting with enzymes derived from a cotton-eating fungus. Ethanol, in short, appeals to Silicon Valley's hankering to apply technology to solve big problems.

The local enthusiasts join a growing circle of ethanol supporters elsewhere -- including Microsoft's Bill Gates, British mogul Richard Branson and big oil companies -- who have recently committed big bucks to ethanol ventures.

``The science in this area is stunning,'' says Marty Lagod, a venture capitalist with Firelake Capital in Palo Alto, who is searching to invest. ``But it's still early,'' he says, referring to the high risk still surrounding ethanol start-ups.

From corn, for decades

Not that ethanol production is new. Large agribusinesses in the Midwest have been making it out of corn for decades as an additive in gasoline -- but at subsidized prices.

But now ethanol is getting fresh support in Congress and the White House. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 more than triples the amount of plant-based fuels -- much of it ethanol -- that must be used nationwide, to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012 from 2.5 billion gallons last year. And President Bush talked up ethanol in his State of the Union last month and in subsequent speeches.

There are several ways to produce ethanol, and yet each seems to have a catch holding it back from more widespread adoption.

The cheapest way is using sugar cane, which has helped Brazil make a major shift to ethanol. But geography and tariffs make it less feasible in the United States.

The next most attractive method is producing ethanol from corn, the main type of U.S.-made ethanol. While making corn ethanol is considerably cleaner than refining petroleum, it still costs significantly more to make than gasoline. And it's impractical in states like California, located far from Midwest corn fields.

Cellulosic ethanol

What has technologists in Silicon Valley and elsewhere buzzing is the emerging science of cellulosic ethanol. The process shreds switchgrass, wood chips or other plant byproducts such as corn stalks, and then adds special enzymes to break down the mass of cell walls of these plants, or cellulose, into sugars. These sugars can then be used to ferment ethanol.

By some estimates, cellulosic ethanol promises to reduce greenhouse emissions by 60 to 80 percent and, once in widespread commercial production, could cost about the same as corn ethanol to make.

But the real bonus, supporters say, is that cellulosic ethanol could radically improve energy output over gasoline and corn ethanol. With gasoline, you only get 0.8 units of energy output for every unit of fossil fuel used in production. With cellulosic ethanol, you get five units out for every unit of fossil fuel used. That's because the sun is doing all the work.

Problem is, most experts say commercial production of cellulosic ethanol is still three years away.

Meanwhile, venture capitalist Khosla is the most high-profile ethanol convert in the tech world. He's pushing policies to speed up the shift to ethanol, advocating a government mandate for car companies to produce so-called ``flex fuel'' cars, or vehicles that can run on fuel that's up to 85 percent ethanol. He's also funding a state ballot initiative to slap a tax on oil extracted in California.

Khosla, who previously funded telecom companies like Juniper Networks, Siara and Cerent, says he now has two investments in companies focused on cellulosic ethanol, including BC International of Dedham, Mass. He still has an office at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park but two years ago left the firm and formed his own, Khosla Ventures, to invest in new technologies, including ethanol.

At first, he assumed the sector wouldn't be profitable and was committed to ethanol projects out of concern for the environment, he said. But the more he dabbled, the more attractive it became: ``Now I think it makes sense because it's a great investment; that's not where I started.''

Ethanol has the best chance of replacing petroleum, he says: ``None of the other options, including hydrogen, are realistic,'' he says.

Genencor

Palo Alto's Genencor is working to produce better biological enzymes for the cellulosic process. Executives at Genencor, like those at competitors Iogen and another producer, Davis-based Novozymes, say they have come up with a reliable enzyme needed to break down plant fibers into sugar that can be distilled into ethanol. It's a complicated procedure which includes blasts of steam, vats, long sitting times and distilling, akin to wine-making.

Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Project, meanwhile, is funding research by Stanford biology professor Christopher Somerville and genetics professor, Gavin Sherlock.

Somerville started a company in Hayward, Mendel Biotechnology, developing an enzyme for switchgrass that will be ready, he says, in six or seven years, at the earliest. He has raised double-digit millions in venture backing, led by Biotechnology Value Fund in San Francisco.

Sherlock is developing a mixture of two yeasts -- similar to the hybrid yeast that makes lager beer -- that is intended to increase yields for cellulosic ethanol production.

And there are even more experimental projects in the pipeline. Craig Venter, the entrepreneurial scientist who mapped the human genome, has started a company where he intends to string together genes to create ethanol from scratch. He's backed with $30 million from Menlo Park's Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Major companies

It isn't just the Silicon Valley types taking a risk on ethanol; business heavyweights are looking for ways to invest, too.

Microsoft's Bill Gates last year committed to an $84 million investment in Pacific Ethanol of Fresno, the only publicly traded company focused on ethanol. The company plans to build five corn ethanol plants in California and intends to start producing cellulosic ethanol.

Richard Branson's Virgin Group has started a subsidiary, Virgin Fuels, to invest in alternative energy, including corn and cellulosic ethanol plants. In a recent interview with Fortune magazine, Branson said Virgin Group was prepared to invest $300 million to $400 million over the next two to three years.

The big oil companies also are jumping into the fray. Shell is backing Canada's Iogen, which has a test cellulosic plant in Ottawa that it hopes to expand into large-scale production. But the factory is only one-tenth of the size needed to be profitable, experts say.

Even so, transitioning from an oil-based economy will be like turning a giant oceanliner. After cellulosic ethanol becomes available, experts say it will take years, even decades, for a nation full of gasoline cars to make the conversion.

Of the more than 140 million cars in the United States, only 4 million now are ``flex fuel'' vehicles, equipped to run on ethanol. That gives gas station owners few incentives to supply more ethanol. Only 587 of 170,000 service stations nationwide sell E85, the mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline that is the most common mixture of ethanol-based fuel. The state has only four E85 pumps, two of which are in the Bay Area. Neither is open to the public.

``We have a huge chicken and egg problem here,'' said Somerville, the Stanford biology professor.

Moreover, few players are willing to risk being the first to sink $100 million or more into building a cellulosic ethanol plant.

The first mover is likely to make mistakes, says Jack Huttner, spokesman for Genencor.

``The pioneer is going to spend a whole lot more money figuring out systems that are complicated and challenging,'' Hutter says. ``There's not a very compelling business reason to be that pioneer.''

MercuryNews

2006 Ottawa-Gatineau International Auto Show


The 22nd edition of the Ottawa-Gatineau International Auto Show is the largest automotive show in the National Capital Region. It is sponsored by the Ottawa New Car Dealers Association and includes the latest offerings from 18 domestic and imported automotive manufacturers as well as selection of exotics, hybrid vehicles and aftermarket products.

March 23-26, 2006

Thursday - Saturday
10:00 AM - 10:00 PM

Sunday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Admissions

General Admission $10.00

Students & Seniors (weekdays only)
$8.00

Groups (minimum of 10)
$8.00

Children (6-12)
$5.00

Children (Under 6)
FREE

Family Package (2 Adults & 2 children 12 and under)
$25.00

Contact:
Lynne Dunlap (613) 825-9846 Cell (613) 889-7599 Fax (613) 825-9846 ldunlapottautoshow@yahoo.ca
Peter Ginsberg (613) 236-5200 Cell (613) 862-1500 Fax (613) 236-7160 p.ginsberg@rogers.com

www.ottawa-gatineauautoshow.com

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Bargain Price Hybrid in Works at Honda?


Honda Motor Co. plans to sell a low-cost hybrid car, a version of its popular Fit subcompact, a Japanese daily reported, signaling the auto maker's long-term commitment to the fuel-sipping powertrain.

Japan's third-biggest auto maker aims to sell the Fit hybrid as early as next year for around ¥1.4 million ($11,790), or about ¥200,000 more than the gasoline-only version, likely making it the world's first hybrid to cost less than ¥2 million ($16,840), the leading Japanese business daily said Wednesday.

The model could be launched in the business year starting April 2007 and would be sold globally, the paper said.

A spokesman denied Honda had made any decision on whether to hybridize the Fit, but added it had the technological wherewithal to mount its hybrid system, which twins an electric motor and a conventional engine to save fuel, on most of its vehicles.

Chief Executive Takeo Fukui has long said the price premium for a hybrid over a gasoline-only car needs to fall below ¥200,000 ($1,680) for the powertrain to go mainstream.

With hybrid systems still costing auto makers -- and customers -- thousands of dollars, Fukui has said Honda had not made a strategic decision yet to produce the gasoline-electric vehicles in big volumes, unlike rival Toyota Motor Corp., which has aggressively promoted their proliferation.

A decision to offer a hybrid version of the mass-volume Fit -- Honda's best-selling model in Japan and due to debut in the United States soon -- would suggest the auto maker is a step closer to committing to the powertrain longer-term.

Honda also sells hybrid versions of its two best-selling cars, the Accord and Civic, at a premium of around ¥300,000 ($2,525). Its hybrid-only Insight coupe was the first gasoline-electric car to be sold in the United States.

Honda is developing a smaller motor and battery to reduce the hybrid's cost and weight, the Nihon Keizai said. It will twin the hybrid unit with a one-liter engine for the Fit, the paper added.

Toyota also aims to halve the production and selling cost of a hybrid system. It currently sells many of its hybrid models at a premium of around ¥500,000 ($4,200).

Honda, Toyota and Ford Motor Co. are so far the world's sole mass-producers of hybrid passenger cars. Laggards like General Motors Corp. argue that hybrid systems are most suitable for large vehicles due to the added weight from the extra components.

Compact cars are also generally fuel-efficient to begin with, and the extra cost of a hybrid car may be more difficult to justify, depending on how much can be saved at the pump.

The newspaper said the Fit hybrid would have fuel economy comparable to that of the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, which the auto makers advertise in Japan as getting around 35-36 km to a liter, or about 82-84 miles per gallon.

The most fuel-efficient gasoline-only Fit, with a 1.3-liter engine and continuous variable transmission, gets 24 km to a liter, or 56 miles per gallon.

CNNAuto

How to Beat the High Cost of Gasoline. Forever!

You probably don't know it, but the answer to America's gasoline addiction could be under the hood of your car. More than five million Tauruses, Explorers, Stratuses, Suburbans, and other vehicles are already equipped with engines that can run on an energy source that costs less than gasoline, produces almost none of the emissions that cause global warming, and comes from the Midwest, not the Middle East.

These lucky drivers need never pay for gasoline again--if only they could find this elusive fuel, called ethanol. Chemically, ethanol is identical to the grain alcohol you may have spiked the punch with in college. It also went into gasohol, that 1970s concoction that brings back memories of Jimmy Carter in a cardigan and outrageous subsidies from Washington. But while the chemistry is the same, the economics, technology, and politics of ethanol are profoundly different.

Instead of coming exclusively from corn or sugar cane as it has up to now, thanks to biotech breakthroughs, the fuel can be made out of everything from prairie switchgrass and wood chips to corn husks and other agricultural waste. This biomass-derived fuel is known as cellulosic ethanol. Whatever the source, burning ethanol instead of gasoline reduces carbon emissions by more than 80% while eliminating entirely the release of acid-rain-causing sulfur dioxide. Even the cautious Department of Energy predicts that ethanol could put a 30% dent in America's gasoline consumption by 2030.

We may not have to wait that long. After decades of being merely an additive to gasoline, ethanol suddenly looks to be the stuff of a fuel revolution--and a pipe dream for futurists. An unlikely alliance of venture capitalists, Wall Streeters, automakers, environmentalists, farmers, and, yes, politicians is doing more than just talk about ethanol's potential. They're putting real money into biorefineries, car engines that switch effortlessly between gasoline and biofuels, and R&D to churn out ethanol more cheaply. (By the way, the reason motorists don't know about the five-million-plus ethanol-ready cars and trucks on the road is that until now Detroit never felt the need to tell them. Automakers quietly added the flex-fuel feature to get a break from fuel-economy standards.)

What's more, powerful political lobbies in Washington that never used to concern themselves with botanical affairs are suddenly focusing on ethanol. "Energy dependence is America's economic, environmental, and security Achilles' heel," says Nathanael Greene of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a mainstream environmental group. National- security hawks agree. Says former CIA chief James Woolsey: "We've got a coalition of tree huggers, do-gooders, sodbusters, hawks, and evangelicals." (Yes, he did say "evangelicals"--some have found common ground with greens in the notion of environmental stewardship.)

The next five years could see ethanol go from a mere sliver of the fuel pie to a major energy solution in a world where the cost of relying on a finite supply of oil is way too high. As that happens, says Vinod Khosla, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who has become one of the nation's most influential ethanol advocates, "I'm absolutely convinced that without putting any more land under agriculture and without changing our food production, we can introduce enough ethanol in the U.S. to replace the majority of our petroleum use in cars and light trucks."

Filling up on ethanol isn't new. Henry Ford's Model Ts ran on it. What's changing is the cost of distilling ethanol and the advantages it brings over rival fuels. Energy visionaries like to dream about hydrogen as the ultimate replacement for fossil fuels, but switching to it would mean a trillion-dollar upheaval--for new production and distribution systems, new fuel stations, and new cars. Not so with ethanol--today's gas stations can handle the most common mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, called E85, with minimal retrofitting. It takes about 30% more ethanol than gasoline to drive a mile, and the stuff is more corrosive, but building a car that's E85-ready adds only about $200 to the cost. Ethanol has already transformed one major economy: In Brazil nearly three-quarters of new cars can burn either ethanol or gasoline, whichever happens to be cheaper at the pump, and the nation has weaned itself off imported oil.

And have you heard about GM's yellow gas caps? In the next few weeks the auto giant is set to unveil an unlikely marketing campaign drawing attention to E85 and its E85-ready cars and trucks like the Chevy Avalanche. They will sport special yellow gas caps, and if you already own such a vehicle, GM will send you a gas cap free. California governor and Hummer owner Arnold Schwarzenegger is backing a ballot initiative that would encourage service stations to offer ethanol at the pump. Even big oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil are funding ethanol research. Says Beth Lowry, GM's vice president for energy and environment: "People's perception used to be 'The agricultural lobby is very interested in it.' Now people are waking up and saying, 'This isn't just about the Midwest. This is about the U.S. as a whole.' " Adds Daniel Yergin, one of the country's top energy experts: "I don't think I've seen so many kinds of renewable energy fermenting and bubbling as right now. The very definition of oil is broadening."

Not that ethanol will replace gasoline overnight. There are 170,000 service stations in the U.S.; only 587 (count 'em!) sell E85. To refine enough ethanol to replace the gas we burn (140 billion gallons a year) would require thousands of biorefineries and hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet one of capitalism's favorite visionaries is convinced that very soon filling up on weeds and cornhusks will be no more remarkable than tanking up on regular. Says Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group is starting an ethanol-inspired subsidiary called Virgin Fuels: "This is the win-win fuel of the future."

BARRELS FROM BUSHELS

In Decatur, Ill., nobody is waiting around for the future; demand for ethanol from corn is booming right now. This grain-elevator-dotted town is home to agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, which makes it the capital of the old-school heavily subsidized U.S. ethanol industry. On a blustery January day, the air is thick with fog, sleet, and condensation from the corn mills on the 600-acre complex next to ADM's corporate office. Outside the ethanol plant, the air smells like grape juice gone bad. Inside, with its giant vats and fermentation towers, the biorefinery resembles a winery, but it's much noisier.

ADM used to call itself "Supermarket to the World." Today, reflecting its emergence as an alternative-energy supplier, it boasts of being "Resourceful by Nature." The company created the corn-ethanol industry when Jimmy Carter asked it to in 1978--the oil-shocked President wanted a homegrown alternative to gasoline. ADM now pumps out more than a billion gallons of ethanol per year. While the fuel accounts for just 5% of the company's $36 billion in annual sales, analysts estimate that it generates 23% of ADM's operating profit. Says Allen Andreas, the courtly 62-year-old CEO: "We've always been feeding people and looking for better alternatives; now we're doing the same thing in energy."

ADM aims to be a big player in what Andreas calls the shift "from hydrocarbons to carbohydrates." But for now it's ignoring E85 and cellulosic ethanol in favor of keeping pace with demand that is already booming. Corn ethanol's main use is as an additive that helps gasoline burn more efficiently. ADM sells nearly its entire output to oil companies, which use ethanol as a substitute for MTBE, a petroleum-based additive that is toxic and is now banned in California and 24 other states. With two billion gallons of MTBE still in use annually and 25 states that have yet to ban it, the ethanol industry could grow 50% simply by replacing MTBE.

In September, ADM announced a nearly 50% expansion project, or 500 million new gallons of annual production capacity. Archrival Cargill is belatedly ramping up ethanol production, and new entrants are using private capital to build ethanol plants. The only publicly traded pure-play ethanol maker, Pacific Ethanol of Fresno, plans to build five plants in California and has raised a total of $111 million, including $84 million from Bill Gates. (For a guide to playing the ethanol boom, see Investing.) All told, the planned projects represent a nearly $2.6 billion investment and will increase U.S. ethanol capacity by 40%.

Other major players are making long-term ethanol bets. Ford is working with VeraSun, a startup in South Dakota, to promote E85 fueling stations. Shell is the primary backer of Canada's Iogen, which is attempting the first large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol--the kind made from cornstalks and grasses--at a pilot plant in Ottawa (see following story, "Biorefinery Breakthrough"). Exxon Mobil has pledged $100 million to Stanford University for research into alternative fuels. The oil giant's new CEO, Rex Tillerson, visited the campus last year to hear what researchers are cooking up. Biology professor Chris Sommerville says the change in the industry is palpable: "I went to six scientific conferences on biofuels last year; the previous 29 years I didn't go to any."

The biggest alternative-fuels player of all, of course, is Uncle Sam. Oil refiners receive a 51-cent tax credit for every gallon of ethanol they blend into their gasoline. That alone will cost taxpayers more than $7 billion over five years, estimates the Congressional Budget Office. The U.S. has also funded research into biodiesel, which uses deep-fryer grease and other nontoxic ingredients to replace regular diesel fuel. (See box at left.) But ethanol will never really take off unless consumers demand it, and while the U.S. industry still relies on taxpayer largesse, Brazil has leaped to the next step: a profitable free-market system in which the government has gotten out of the way.

HOW BRAZIL BEATS THE U.S.

Near the prosperous farm town of Sertãozinho, some 200 miles north of São Paulo, the fuel that will fill the tanks of nearly three million Brazilian cars in a few months is still waist-high. Lush sugar-cane fields stretch as far as the eye can see, interrupted only by the towering white mills where the stalks of the plants will be turned into ethanol when the harvest begins in March.

Brazil boasts the biggest economy south of Mexico, and with annual GDP growth of 2.6%, it is a powerhouse you might expect to consume growing amounts of oil, coal, and nuclear energy. But Brazil also happens to have the perfect geography for growing sugar cane, the most energy-rich ethanol feedstock known to science. And so, for Brazil's 16.5 million drivers, there is ready access to what's known in Portuguese as álcool at nearly all of the country's 34,000 gas stations. "Everyone talks about alternative fuels, but we're doing it," says Barry Engle, president of Ford Brazil. Ethanol accounts for more than 40% of the fuel Brazilians use in their cars.

While oil frequently has to be shipped halfway around the world before it's refined into gasoline, here the sugar cane grows right up to the gates of Sertãozinho's Santa Elisa mill, where it will be made into ethanol. There's very little waste--leftovers are burned to produce electricity for Santa Elisa and the local electrical grid. "The maximum distance from farm to mill is about 25 miles," says Fernando Ribeiro, secretary general of Unica, the trade association that represents Brazilian sugar-cane growers. "It's very, very efficient in terms of energy use."

Although Brazilians have driven some cars that run exclusively on ethanol since 1979, the introduction three years ago of new engines that let drivers switch between ethanol and gasoline has transformed what was once an economic niche into the planet's leading example of renewable fuels. Ford exhibited the first prototype of what came to be known as a flex-fuel engine in 2002; soon VW marketed a flex-fuel car. Ford's Engle says flex-fuel technology helps avoid problems that had plagued ethanol cars, such as balky starts on cold mornings, weak pickup, and corrosion.

Consumers loved flex-fuel because it meant not having to choose between ethanol and gas models--memories were still fresh of the 1990 sugar-cane shortage, when ethanol-car owners found themselves, well, out of gas. Today "nobody would buy an alcohol-only car, even with tax incentives," says sales manager Rogerio Beraldo of Green Automoveis, a sprawling dealership in São Paulo. "Brazilians are traumatized by our earlier experience, when supplies ran out. But with flex-fuel, there's no risk of that."

With Brazilian ethanol selling for 45% less per liter than gasoline in 2003 and 2004, flex-fuel cars caught on like iPods. In 2003, flex-fuel had 6% of the market for Brazilian-made cars, and automakers were expecting the technology's share to zoom to 30% in 2005. That proved wildly conservative: As of last December, 73% of cars sold in Brazil came with flex-fuel engines. There are now 1.3 million flex-fuel cars on the road. "I have never seen an automotive technology with that fast an adoption rate," says Engle.

Ethanol's rise has had far-reaching effects on the economy. Not only does Brazil no longer have to import oil but an estimated $69 billion that would have gone to the Middle East or elsewhere has stayed in the country and is revitalizing once-depressed rural areas. More than 250 mills have sprouted in southeastern Brazil, and another 50 are under construction, at a cost of about $100 million each. Driving to lunch at his local churrasco barbecue spot in Sertãozinho, the head of the local sugar-cane growers' association points to one new business after another, from farm-equipment sellers to builders of boilers and other gear for the nearby mills. "My family has been in this business for 30 years, and this is the best it's been," says Manoel Carlos Ortolan. "There's even nouveaux riches."

The key to Brazil's success is that consumers are choosing ethanol rather than being forced to buy it. Brazil's military dictators tried the latter approach in the 1970s and early 1980s, by offering tax breaks to build mills, ordering state-owned oil company Petrobras to sell ethanol at gas stations, and regulating prices at the pump. This bullying--and cheap oil in the 1990s--nearly killed the market for ethanol until flex-fuel came along. The regime wasn't good for much, says consultant Plinio Nastari, but it did create the distribution system that enables drivers to fill up on ethanol just about anywhere.

Even though the U.S. will never be a sugar-cane powerhouse like Brazil, investors now view Rio as the future of fuel. "I hate to see the U.S. ten years behind Brazil, but that's probably about where we are," says one shrewd American freethinker, Ted Turner.

ETHANOL FINDS A GODFATHER

There are venture capitalists, and then there's Vinod Khosla. A co-founder of Sun Microsystems and a partner at Kleiner Perkins, he was an early backer of Juniper Networks, whose technology helped end decades of dominance by traditional telecom manufacturers. A lean, 50-year-old native of India, Khosla says, without a hint of modesty, "I love the challenge of breaking monopolies."

Frustrated that Kleiner Perkins wasn't taking enough risks after the dot-com crash, Khosla opted out of Kleiner's most recent fund and started his own group, Khosla Ventures. He'd been dabbling in environmentalism but never expected to become an investor. Brazil's success, however, made him wonder about ethanol's U.S. potential. "I spent two years trying to convince myself that this was never going to be more than another minor alternative fuel," he says. "What I discovered was that ethanol might completely replace petroleum in this country. And a lot of countries. This was a great shock to me."

Pretty soon Khosla was surprising plenty of others. He put together a PowerPoint presentation, "Biofuels: Think Outside the Barrel," which he fires up on a moment's notice. He has made the pitch on ethanol to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and elsewhere in the White House. He is also behind California's upcoming ballot initiative to fund a subsidy for gasoline retailers that add E85 fuel pumps. "Getting distribution going is the real problem," says Khosla. "We need to increase blending and then introduce E85 pumps, and the possible will become the probable."

His conversion to energy investing is part of a Silicon Valley trend, as VCs seek the rapid growth and giant markets that computers once offered. VantagePoint Venture Partners in San Bruno, for instance, established a fund called New Energy Capital that invests in ethanol, wind power, and other energy projects. Nth Power, a San Francisco energy-investment firm, estimates that $700 million of the $21 billion flowing into venture funds last year were earmarked for "clean technology" startups.

CELLULOSE NIRVANA

No one, not even a professionally optimistic VC, thinks we're anywhere near getting rid of gasoline. The oil superstructure is simply too efficient and too entrenched to just go away. Nor could corn ethanol generate enough fuel to run America's cars, pickups, and SUVs. Already ethanol gobbles up 14% of the country's corn production. Converting a bigger share into fuel would pinch the world's food supply--a favorite objection of skeptics. Critics also contend that producing fuel from crops consumes more energy than it yields. On this topic of endless Internet bickering, the Energy Department recently reported, "In terms of key energy and environmental benefits, cornstarch ethanol comes out clearly ahead of petroleum-based fuels, and tomorrow's cellulosic-based ethanol would do even better."

Because cellulosic ethanol comes from cornstalks, grasses, tree bark--fibrous stuff that humans can't digest--it doesn't threaten the food supply at all. Cellulose is the carbohydrate that makes up the walls of plant cells. Researchers have figured out how to unlock the energy in such biomass by devising enzymes that convert cellulose into simpler sugars. Cellulose is abundant; ethanol from it is clean and can power an engine as effectively as gasoline. Plus, you don't have to reinvent cars. Ratcheting up production of cellulosic ethanol, however, is a gnarly engineering problem.

The onus now is on companies like Genencor, a Palo Alto biotech. Its biological enzymes are used to break down stains in Tide detergent and achieve just the right distressed look in blue jeans. But making underpants whiter and denim bluer is nothing compared with breaking America's longstanding addiction to gasoline. The best way to do this would be to bring down the cost of ethanol to the point where consumers clamor for it. Before flex-fuel engines came along, Brazilians would mix their own rabo de galo (cocktail) of ethanol and gasoline when filling up, simply because it was cheaper than straight gas. Genencor says its enzymes have cut the cost of making a gallon of cellulosic ethanol from $5 five years ago to 20 cents today. Now refiners have to learn how to scale up production. Canada's Iogen is the furthest along in commercialization; another hopeful is BC International, a Dedham, Mass., company that's building a cellulosic ethanol plant in Louisiana.

There's still a role for government--and we don't mean more handouts for corn growers or distillers. The recently enacted energy bill takes steps in the right direction, like mandating the use of 250 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year by 2013, but much more can be done. Easing the tariff of 54 cents per gallon on imports of ethanol from Brazil and other countries would certainly help. Because sugar cane generates far more ethanol per acre than corn, Brazil can produce ethanol more cheaply than the U.S. Not only would importing more of it broaden access to ethanol for U.S. buyers, but it would also make it cheaper for the ultimate consumers--us. That in turn would spur demand at the pump and encourage service station owners to offer ethanol more widely. What's also needed is for someone big--like Shell or BP, which tout themselves as green companies--to commit to cellulosic ethanol on a commercial scale. Shell's bet on Iogen is minuscule compared with the $20 billion it plans to spend on producing oil and gas off Russia's Sakhalin Island.

Of course, the timing of when ethanol goes from dream to reality isn't just a matter of an investment here or a subsidy there. It took decades of ferment in Brazil before serendipity in the form of high gas prices and flex-fuel engines made ethanol an everyday choice for consumers. But the sooner we start, the greater our ability to shape a future that's not centered on increasingly expensive oil and gas. It's not as if gasoline demand is going to go down: As long as the Chinese and the Indians want our lifestyle--and they do--you can forget about oil at $10 or even $20 a barrel. Whatever the technological challenges, a world of abundant, clean ethanol is suddenly looking a lot more realistic than a return to the days of cheap, inexhaustible oil.

FORTUNE Magazine

Loremo: The Ultra Efficient Car - 157MPG!


German Loremo AG will introduce their ultra Efficient Car at the Motor Show 2006 (site) in Geneva next week.

The car start-up developed a light-weight passenger car with outstanding aerodynamics. The Loremo LS is powered by a 2 cylinder Turbo Diesel engine with 20 hp and 160km/h top speed. The amazing thing is that the Loremo only needs 1.5l per 100km. This is approx. 157MPG!
The Toyota Prius hybrid has only 55MPG (combined city and highway).
With one tank (20l) you could drive 1,300km.

Loremo AG plans to sell the Loremo LS for less than 11,000 Euros (~$13,000).
One reason for the low consumption is the low weight of 450kg. The company designed the Loremo focusing on safety and efficiency and got rid of unnecessary functions. The car is small but still provides space for 4.
The design of the car is very futuristic and has for instance no conventional doors.

Loremo AG also plans to offer the Loremo GS with a bit stronger engine (50 hp, 2.7l/100km) that reaches top speeds of 220km/h (for the German Autobahn).
More details on the Loremo site.

I4U

Fueling the Addiction Cartoons




Cool cartoons from HybrydCars.com

New Flyer DE40LF Hybrid Bus in Southern Ontario



New Flyer DE40LF Hybrid Bus Demo. The unit is owned by GM/Allison and has been making the rounds of properties in Southern Ontario recently. The bus is shown here during a visit to Hamilton Street Railway's Mountain Garage, where it operated on the Redeemer University College route. Photo was taken at Ancaster Meadowlands on January 11th, 2006.

TTS

Proposed Gas Pipeline by Way of Canada

A conditional agreement between Alaska and three big energy companies may be, as Gov. Frank Murkowski put it, a milestone toward building a natural gas pipeline.

But significant political, environmental and regulatory hurdles must be overcome before a single section of pipe meets a welding torch.

After prolonged negotiations, Murkowski announced Tuesday that Alaska had reached an agreement in principle with BP, Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil on state tax terms if they build a $20 billion pipeline from the North Slope to the Lower 48 by way of Canada.

As envisioned, the pipeline would move 4.5 billion to 6 billion cubic feet of gas daily and begin operating sometime from 2012 to 2014. Alaska has an estimated 35 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.

The announcement came with news of a proposed significant change to the oil-tax system that provides much of Alaska's state budget revenue. Under the plan, the system will be shifted to one based on net profit rather than the volume of production.

Almost no one denies that changes to the oil-revenue system, which now provides about 83 percent of the state's revenue, will have a potentially significant effect. But some gas analysts cautioned that the pipeline's future would be shaped by forces well beyond the governor's control.

"This agreement is only one step on the part of one potential applicant to build a project," said Arlon Tussing, a research economist at the University of Alaska Anchorage, who specializes in gas projects. "The final decision about this is going to be made by the respective regulatory authorities in the United States and Canada, as well as their governments. And there's going to be tremendous opposition."

The plan will meet its most immediate tests in Alaska's Legislature, where Democrats have criticized the governor's decision to reduce proposed pipeline taxes to 20 percent of profit from an earlier plan of 25 percent. The broader overhaul of the oil-tax system is also expected to face criticism.

And there is substantial popular support for another proposal in Alaska that would build a smaller pipeline to the port of Valdez, and then ship the gas south by tanker.

Nonetheless, the political maneuvering at the state level may prove easier to resolve than other issues.

The idea of increasing U.S. gas supplies using U.S. sources has obvious political and national security appeal, particularly given that the fuel is increasingly used as a substitute for coal in electricity-generating stations.

Andre Plourde, an energy economist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, said that the world's largest known gas reserves were concentrated in countries not known for political stability, notably Iran and Russia.

"Given the Bush administration's focus on what it considers to be energy security," Plourde said, "Alaska is going to get a favorable hearing."

But if natural gas prices drop from their current levels, as many expect, economic concerns may outweigh the emphasis on security. If the forecasts of Tussing and others bear out, gas piped from Alaska will have a difficult time competing with gas shipped by tanker from low-cost producers overseas.

Tussing estimates that North American gas reserves are now about 9.5 times annual production. Reserves elsewhere, by contrast, are 88 times production.

"That means it is a lot easier to increase production almost anywhere other than North America," he said. "We have pretty much wrung out the continent."

A preview of some regulatory issues facing an Alaska pipeline might be found in more advanced efforts to build a gas pipeline from the Canadian Arctic. That project, with investors that also include Exxon, has been repeatedly delayed, in part because of issues surrounding land claims by Native groups along the route. The Alaska project will encounter similar issues over permission to dip into the Yukon Territory and parts of Alberta.

Climate change may also complicate environmental reviews. Antoni Lewkowicz, a geography professor at the University of Ottawa, worked on permafrost issues surrounding an Alaska pipeline plan more than 20 years ago. A pattern of warming weather in the Arctic today, he warned, will make engineering the current proposal difficult and costly.

"One of the things that killed the pipeline back in 1982 was the expense of the permafrost accommodations," Lewkowicz said. "Today, it's going to be very difficult to come up with a design that can deal with current conditions and the climate changes that will occur over the next 30 to 50 years. It's a significant and very costly engineering challenge."

ADN

Flexible Fuel Electric Toyota [Plug-In] Hybrids


Why No Plug Required Plug in my hybrid car? Why, you ask?

The reasons are simple and the technology doable today, but first let's make one thing clear. The current crop of hybrid cars from Toyota, Honda, Ford and Lexus do not need to be plugged in to recharge their batteries. In fact, they can't be plugged in. Anxious to not have their cars confused with pure electric cars, carmakers have gone to great pains and expense to reassure potential buyers that their products have none of the limitations associated with battery-only cars, including having to plug it in at all.

Instead, the batteries in today's gasoline-electric hybrids are kept recharged by an engine-driven generator. In addition, hybrids can also make use of the vehicle's own kinetic energy. Apply the brakes on your Prius or Insight or Escape and you actually engage the generator, which not only makes electricity, but actually helps slow down the car. You get back some of the energy (between 10-50% depending on how "mild" your hybrid is) you expended to move the car down the road and save wear-and-tear on your brakes at the same time.

Cool, huh?

Electric Hybrids -- An Idea Whose Time Has Come
What we call an "Electric Hybrid", also known as a plug-in hybrid, grid-connected hybrid, gasoline-optional hybrid or just PHEV, works pretty much the same as your conventional hybrid, but with one big exception: it has a bigger battery pack.

Take the much-in-demand Toyota Prius, for example. It has a 201 volt, 1.3kWh battery pack mounted under the rear passenger seat. It is a technological marvel all by itself. If the battery is fully charged and the engine warmed up, you can drive around the block without the gasoline engine turning on at speeds up to 42 mph. In effect, you're driving an electric car, and it's great for creeping along the congested 405 in Los Angeles. But wouldn't it be great if you could go further than a kilometer or two?

We could if we replaced that 1.3kWh, Panasonic NiMH battery pack with sometime a bit larger, say 9kWh? What would that -- and some nifty computer code hacking -- do for the Prius?

That's exactly what a California non-profit and small R&D company wanted to find out. The California Cars Initiative and EnergyCS have built prototype Electric Hybrids; CalCars building the first prototype, which they call "PRIUS+", with affordable, but heavier, low-energy density batteries, which will be replaced with NiMH; and Energy CS, using lighter Lithium-ion batteries.

In the case of Energy CS's Electric Hybrid Prius, the engineering teams estimates that the car, if carefully driven, can get between 120-to-180 mpg; while using only 115-150 Whr per mile. The last part, Watt hours per mile, is important. Here's why.

The 9kWh Lithium-ion pack provides enough energy to propel the car at freeway speeds for about 60 miles or so -- a really exciting improvement. At that point, the car returns to normal hybrid operation, running the gasoline engine for most of the time and getting about 50 mpg.

In effect, you didn't burn a little over one gallon of gasoline for the first 60 miles or so. Instead, you consumed something less than 9kWh of electricity. Why less than 9kWh? It's a safety and durability precaution so you won't fully discharge the battery and shorten its life. So, let's say you used 80% of the 9kWh. That's 7.2 kiloWatt hours.

Now comes the fun part. Let's say you live in a city where electricity costs you 10 cents a kilowatt hour. To travel that 60 miles, it cost you 72 cents compared to the current national average price of gasoline at about $2.20/gallon in the US (as of April 2, 2005). In effect, for the same $2.20, you could drive up to 180 miles -- on three successive days, of course -- giving you the equivalent of 180 miles per gallon.
Nifty, don't you think?

Better yet, you generated no smog-forming tailpipe emissions and used American-produced energy including renewables, nuclear, coal, and natural gas, and virtually no imported oil. Can you start to appreciate the economic, environmental and national security implications here?

To learn even more about the benefits of hybrids that you can power from your home, see All About Plug-In Hybrids on the CalCar's web site.

Do I Have to Plug It In?

Of course not. That's the point. You get to choose which energy source is right for you. If there's not enough energy in the battery pack, no problem, you can drive on gasoline... but at about three times the cost, remember.

Like a battery electric car or your cellphone, when you get home at night, you'd plug the Electric Hybrid into a standard 110 or 220 outlet; the latter allowing you to recharge the car a bit faster, in case you care. Unlike most fully-electric cars, a night's charge from a 110V outlet is sufficient, and if not, it's not a problem.

So, while you sleep, the power company uses cheaper, off-peak electricity to recharge your car, saving you even more money and helping them get more efficient use out of their investment. You'd wake up each morning with a "full tank" of "fuel".

And depending on how much you use the gasoline engine for longer trips, you might have to refuel at a gasoline station maybe once a month, if that.

Need to drive further than 60 miles in a day? Again, no sweat. The car will operate just like any other hybrid using a mixture of both internal combustion engine and electric motor(s) to wring out the most efficient performance from the car.

Now Add Flexible Fuels

Okay, now you've got a car that will cost pennies to operate on a day-in-day-out basis using locally generated electricity, maybe even from your own solar panels.

There will be times, of course, when you'll need to switch on the internal combustion engine, but even here there's a neat, environmentally sustainable way to do this by switching from gasoline to E85 ethanol, a blend of 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent ethanol made from plant matter, principly corn at the moment, but eventually from any plant waste. Using E85 instead of gasoline is also good for the environment because it generates 30% less carbon monoxide and 27% less CO2 than a comparable gallon of gasoline; and most of that CO2 is carbon-cycle neutral because it's derived from plants, which need CO2 to grow. (E85 generates 17.06 pounds of CO2 to create 15,500 BTUs compared to the 23.95 pounds for gasoline).

Carmakers have built and sold millions of vehicles in America that can use E85 without modification, but no hybrids, so far. A flexible fuel plug-in hybrid would use only 15% as much gasoline as a conventional vehicle when running on its IC engine; the remainder would be made of renewable, carbon-neutral biofuels grown and processed in America.

When Can I Buy One?

You can't... not yet, at least. The cost of the batteries is a stumbling block, though even at current prices the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has shown that the total lifetime cost of an Electric Hybrid is lower than that of a non-hybrid and not merely lower than that of a conventional hybrid. And as more hybrid cars are built, the cost of batteries should continue to come down. A bigger impediment may be the belief by many, especially auto industry leaders (who are now acknowledging they were wrong about hybrids) that there's no market for these vehicles.

The appearance of this new EV World section reflects a shift in perceptions about these cars. Institutions ranging from utilities to state governments to environmental, national security and other groups are starting to call for the production of these vehicles. Meanwhile, small groups like CalCars and Energy CS hope to offer installed "kits" until the car companies come around.

Eventually, EV World expects carmakers to offer an electric hybrid option that will let you choose which fuel you prefer to use: gasoline, biofuels or electric power.

That's when we'll have real choice.

EVWorld

Friday, February 24, 2006

Tories Prepare for Talks on Extending the Kyoto Protocol

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose is jetting to Bonn this weekend to prepare for talks on extending the Kyoto Protocol, and will soon unveil an ambitious new plan for cutting Canada's greenhouse emissions.

Although the Conservatives opposed ratification of the climate treaty while in opposition, they appear to have undergone a conversion, promising to do a better job of cutting emissions than the Liberals ever did.

"There's an action plan that we are going to move on very quickly,'' Ambrose said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday. "I'm very committed. The prime minister has given me a very strong mandate.''

She said the action plan will include an emissions-trading system for large polluters and will try to engage the public in a new way.

"I think we not only have the political will from the prime minister, and from myself and my colleagues, on this issue, we also have the public will on our side.''

An emissions-trading system would allow polluters to buy and sell emissions permits either domestically or internationally, so that cuts can be implemented at lower cost.

Canadians can also expect early tabling of a Clean Air Act, as promised during the election campaign, but it will be aimed at other types of air pollution, not greenhouse emissions, she said.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada is committed to cutting greenhouse emissions six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. Despite promises from the Liberal government, emissions rose 24 per cent since 1990.

"We're at a crucial turning point in Canada to address this issue,'' said Ambrose. "There hasn't been a lot of action on the file and for that reason we haven't seen the results.

"We feel very strongly that we need to engage the public both in terms of our strategy and outreach but also in creating incentives and programs that reach the individual level in Canada.''

She said she's looking forward to her role as president of the Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, a rotating position held by Canada this year.

In May, member countries will begin negotiations aimed at deeper cuts in emissions, beyond those in the current protocol, and extending further into the future. Ambrose will meet with key officials involved in those talks, and with one or two European environment ministers, when she goes to Bonn.

"It gives us an opportunity to talk about where Canada wants to go. There's a very strong openness now within this organization to start talking about greenhouse gas reduction and where were going to go globally.''

Kyoto signatories are required to submit reports in March showing they have made substantial progress toward their targets. Ambrose said Canada will submit a report. The new plan will likely be a major component in it.

"We're making a lot of progress. I can speak about it only in vague terms only out of respect for my colleagues in caucus and around the cabinet table.

"As well, I'm meeting with a lot of ministers of the environment at the provincial level and territorial level and a lot of these initiatives involve the provinces and the municipalities.''

Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute said he was delighted by the tone of Ambrose's remarks. He said it is not uncommon for opposition parties to change their views on entering government.

But he added a note of caution, saying that the real proof of the government's commitment will be in its policies.

OttawaCitizen

Man Dies in Hwy. 7 Icy Crash

Highway 7 just west of Carleton Place was closed for several hours today in the wake of a crash which killed a Mississauga man.

A 25-year-old male driver of one of the two vehicles involved was pronounced dead at the scene, and a woman who was driving the other vehicle was extricated from the car by Lanark County Rescue workers and airlifted to hospital. The woman, a 55-year-old from Drummond-North Elmsley Twp., sustained serious, but non-life threatening injuries. Names of those involved have not yet been released by police.

Police say the deceased was driving westbound at the time of the crash when his vehicle collided with the eastbound car in the eastbound lane.

The accident happened just west of Ramsay Concession 5A in Mississippi Mills township at about 8 a.m. Conditions at the time were treacherous, with gusting winds and snow creating whitouts.

Police closed the highway for several hours to conduct cleanup and their investigation. Traffic was rerouted east of the crash at Carleton Place and west of the scene at Ramsay Concession 4A.

OttawaSun

Gas, Oil Stoke Inflation

Higher prices at the pump and soaring natural gas costs drove the annual inflation rate up to 2.8% in January, Statistics Canada said yesterday.

That's a dramatic jump over the 2.2% inflation rate reported in December and a bit higher than analysts were expecting.

In Ottawa, the rate leaped from 2.3% to 3%.

Coming on the heels of other strong economic data, it all suggests the Bank of Canada will want to continue nudging up its trend-setting interest rate at a moderate pace to keep price pressures from rising much higher, analysts say.

Higher gas prices, as well more expensive natural gas, auto prices and homeowner replacement costs, were all major contributors to the rise in inflation last month.

Gasoline prices jumped by 19.2% in January, compared with one year earlier, while natural gas prices soared by 26% compared with January 2005, StatsCan said.

All provinces reported a rise in natural gas prices last month, ranging from an annualized increase of 27.3% in Ontario to a whopping 35.9% in Alberta, the agency said.

That doesn't seem to worry consumers too much, however. Robust retail sales figures showed Canadian shoppers continue to spend freely, encouraged by a healthy economy and strong job market.

Retail sales jumped 6.3% in 2005, including a 0.3% increase in December, StatsCan reported Tuesday.

Consumers feel confident they can afford higher energy prices and aren't curbing their spending, says David Watt, an economist with BMO Nesbitt Burns.

Overall strong economic data will encourage the central bank to gradually raise interest rates by another half a percentage point before summer, he said.

'LITTLE SLACK LEFT'

"The Bank of Canada is going to look at the data and say: 'We have little slack left in the economy, we still have relatively low interest rates, we still have a relatively strong job market, consumer spending shows absolutely no signs of weakness ... inflation not that far away from its target,' " he said. "That's consistent with modest rate increases, but nothing dramatic."

Although the inflation numbers contained no shocks for financial markets, the Canadian dollar still weakened a bit after the report. The loonie closed the day down 0.13 of a cent to trade at 87.05cents US.

The core inflation rate, which excludes many volatile food and energy costs, rose by only a small amount to 1.7% last month, from 1.6% in December.

That's the rate most closely watched by the Bank of Canada and while it's close to the central bank's 2% target, the overall figures suggest interest rates will continue to rise.

The Bank of Canada has been increasing its trend-setting overnight interest rate since last fall to keep inflation under control. The overnight rate is now 3.5% and analysOttawaSunts expect it to reach at least 4%.

The central bank's next scheduled opportunity to change interest rates comes March 7.

OttawaSun

Pond Pine - Homes For Sale By Owner in Ottawa