The European Investment Bank, backed by European Union member states, approved 866 million euros ($1.2 billion) more in loan money to the auto industry on Tuesday.
The loans are specifically directed to "help design and build cleaner cars with lower carbon dioxide emissions," according to an EIB statement.
The package includes 400 million euros ($531 million) to Nissan's European division for the purpose of developing and building more fuel-efficient vehicles in Britain and Spain. Jaguar Land Rover was approved for a loan of 340 million pounds ($499 million) from the EIB to "to help cut vehicle emissions."
"A loan was also approved for a Volkswagen plant in India, which will produce small cars that meet tougher emissions requirements ahead of their introduction in major Indian cities from 2010," according to the EIB.
In December, the European public bank approved of 3.6 billion euros ($4.76 billion) in loans to European truck and car manufacturers. In March, the bank also approved loans to BMW, Renault, and Volvo Trucks.
The EIB on Tuesday said it plans to approve more loans in May and June to other types of companies involved in the auto industry, such as component suppliers.
It's worth noting that Jaguar Land Rover, a subsidiary of Tata Motors, was given a grant worth 27 million pounds--more than $37 million--from the British government in March to mass-produce a "green" crossover vehicle.
When it comes to European Union efforts toward a climate action plan, the devil, it turns out, is in the details.
All of the member states of the EU are willing to commit their countries to draw 20 percent of their energy from renewable resources, reduce CO2 emissions by 20 percent, and become 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020. That overall goal was agreed upon in March 2007.
In January 2008, the agreement was refined with more details including action plans in different categories for countries to follow. One of these demanded that 10 percent of all road transport fuel come from renewable resources by 2020. According to that January proposal, the majority of renewables would be allowed to be from biofuels.
Concerns were raised over the global impact of biofuels, and the entire package became deadlocked over the issue.
You can read the drama of this on the blog of Andris Piebalgs, the EU energy commissioner who's also repeatedly addressed the fierce European debate over biofuels.
As anyone who's read anything about biofuels in the last few years knows, it's a controversial topic not just in Europe but everywhere.
Some see biofuels as a permanent addition to the go-to list of energy sources and deny they're responsible for any food shortages. Others see it as a reasonable midterm solution until better technology can be implemented. Many countries with a heavy agricultural base covet the lucrative market and money it can bring their people.
Others raise concerns that biofuels are responsible for soaring food prices and shortages, since food producers are forced to compete against energy companies for grain supplies. Arguably, the growing world demand for those crops are also responsible for indirect land-use change--the destruction of wetlands and rain forests to make room for more farmland.
Taking these views into consideration, EU members finally settled on a tentative deal over the biofuels issue on Thursday.
A third of the 10 percent of road transport fuel required to come from renewables must be from electric cars and trains.
But Italy still blocked the deal from passing. (The European Parliament and all 27 EU nations have to approve the deal in order for it to become a law.)
Italy wants a clause included in the final agreement that would allow countries to review the policy again in 2014.
Both environmentalists and EU member countries against the clause argued it would hold up investment in alternative energies. With an escape clause, they say, alternative energy investors will take a wait-and-see approach until 2014 in case parts of the EU energy plan are dumped.
French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also the current president of the EU, announced that the proposal will be revisited on December 11 and 12 at the European Council meeting in Brussels.
Rising materials costs, engineering challenges, and installation snags threaten European goals to dramatically expand wind power, according to a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
The European Union aims to get 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020. But wind power won't meet a significant portion of that unless more government subsidies help companies offset increased costs, the firm warned Wednesday.
The world market for wind power will grow by 155 percent by 2012, according to a March report by the Global Wind Energy Council.
But a global backlog of turbines has sent wind park builders scrambling to keep projects on track. Expanding prices for steel and copper are a culprit. Engineers are also finding it tricky to build more powerful turbines.
Installation hold-ups loom in addition to rising costs, according to the Cambridge Energy Research report. Modified barges are used to set up offshore turbines, but only one such vessel is available that can install a five-megawatt turbine, and it can take a year to prepare more of them.
In addition, capital costs could rise by 20 percent from $3,555 to $4,342 per kilowatt in the next several years, based on current exchange rates from the Euro.
Prices spiked by 74 percent for land-bound wind turbines and by 48 percent for offshore turbines in the last three years, according to research by BTM Consult APS of Denmark, as reported by Treehugger. That amounts to $3.5 million per megawatt for turbines on land and $2 million per megawatt for offshore turbines.
Sweden approved Tuesday what would become its largest wind farm and one of Europe's largest, capable of producing 860 megawatts.
Norway's Oil and Energy Minister told Reuters Monday that the nation could become "Europe's battery" by pumping $44 billion into oceanic wind farms by 2025.
Cambridge Energy Research recommends that offshore wind developers secure long-term contracts with turbine makers and charter vessels to install turbines at sea far in advance.
And it called for more government help. Subsidies in Europe vary by nation and take the form of either clean-energy certificate trading programs or feed-in tariffs, through which utilities can buy renewables in advance at a set price.
Clean energy companies in the United States often cite stronger government support in Europe for hastening progress there. U.S. renewable energy tax credits are set to expire at the end of this year, sending some start-ups here to look abroad to build wind and solar farms.
Solar power businesses, meanwhile, anticipate relief in the coming year. Prices for polysilicon needed for photovoltaics are expected to drop as more suppliers come on board.
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