Katherine Sierra
(Credit: The World Bank)SAN FRANCISCO--How will a shift in carbon reduction play out with the world's poor? This is an issue The World Bank is grappling with as it prepares for the international climate change summit in Copenhagen this December.
Katherine Sierra, the vice president for sustainable development at The World Bank, and Awais Khan, the director of KPMG's Clean Tech Venture Capital Practice, spoke on this topic Tuesday here at the Commonwealth Club.
Along with higher temperatures, climate change is causing rising sea levels, shifts in rain/snow patterns, and an increase in weather-related natural disasters. Although the impact is worldwide, people in developing countries get the brunt of it with severe risk to their agriculture, food, and water, Sierra said.
"We took a major step a couple years ago because we felt we weren't doing as good a job as we should have in integrating environment into our programs," said Sierra. "We actually merged our infrastructure practice with the environmental and social practices."
On top of being more vulnerable to climate change, countries in the developing world have a shortage of infrastructure. According to The World Bank, 1.6 billion people in the developing world still do not have access to electricity, and those who do may have only intermittent service.
"There are areas in Pakistan that have 12 to 14 hours of blackouts per day," said Khan. If the shortest way to fix that problem is through burning coal, he explains, that's what governments will do.
However, being the ninth-largest coal deposit in the world--with 186 billion tons of coal, Pakistan's "government is very favorable to using cleaner coal technologies," Khan said. "Sometimes we don't give enough credit to governments of developing countries."
The event fell on the heels of an article Sierra wrote for The San Francisco Examiner last week, where she explained what The World Bank, an international financial institution that loans money to developing countries, intends to do regarding climate change and the world's poor. Last year, The World Bank gave almost $7.6 billion for energy financing, a third of which went to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Projects included putting in rapid bus transport in five major cities in Mexico and working on smart grids in Turkey.
But another third of the $7.6 billion put forth was given to fund traditional fossil fuels. This is what skeptics generally point to when criticizing The World Bank's initiatives and intentions. The nonprofit Bank Information Center, for example, released a study in February on how The World Bank's energy financing is being felt by developing countries
The organization found that although The World Bank increased funding for renewable energy (by 11 percent), it dramatically increased funding for fossil fuels (by 102 percent) last year. "The bank's continued lending focus on fossil fuels commits many developing countries to fossil-fuel based energy for the next 20 to 40 years," said Heike Mainhardt-Gibbs, a consultant with the Bank Information Center.
The Bank Information Center points out that when developing countries begin to work on greenhouse gas emission reductions, it will be more difficult and expensive because of their extended use of fossil fuels.
The World Bank says the fossil fuels they are funding are increasingly clean coal technology and natural gas, which is the cleanest fossil fuel. "We want hospitals with refrigerators, schools with light bulbs," Sierra said during her talk, "if you look at any projections, they tell us under any circumstance we still need fossil fuels."
This will all be hashed out come December when representatives from over 180 countries meet in Copenhagen to work on a new treaty that addresses global warming. Within this international agreement, countries will look at what is doable and possible to lower greenhouse gas emissions while still trying to get energy to the world's poor.
The first Scuderi Split-Cycle Engine prototype was revealed at the SAE 2009 Word Congress in Detroit.
(Credit: Scuderi Group)Hybrid engines aren't the only way to improve fuel efficiency. Scuderi Group unveiled a cutaway of its Scuderi Split-Cycle Engine prototype at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) 2009 World Congress in Detroit. The new design is the first major change in engine dynamics since its creation 130 years ago, says Bill Wren, representative for the family-run start-up.
Most conventional internal combustion engines operate using the Otto Cycle. The Otto Cycle uses four strokes of a piston--intake, compression, power, and exhaust--that fire in quick succession using two revolutions of the crank shaft to complete the cycle. This process is only 30 percent efficient, which means you get only 30 percent the energy contained in a gallon of gasoline.
In the Scuderi Split-Cycle Engine, the four strokes are divided over two paired cylinders--one intake/compression cylinder and one power/exhaust cylinder. On a conventional engine, the combustion occurs as the piston is going up. But in the Split-Cycle engine, the piston pair fires after top-dead center, and combustion occurs as the pistons comes down, producing more efficient, cleaner combustion with one cylinder pair and compressed air in the other.
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Eleanor, a solar-powered vehicle that MIT will compete with in the 2009 World Solar Challenge
(Credit: MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team)Calling any vehicle Eleanor is a bit cheeky, considering that it evokes the image of brawny Ford Mustangs made famous in the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds." In this case, it may even be ironic, since the car the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team is referring to is solar-powered, rides on three wheels, and tops out at 90 mph.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's latest competitor in the upcoming 10th World Solar Challenge couldn't be more different than its namesake. Its Eleanor is low slung, highly aerodynamic, and covered by 6 square meters of silicon solar cells that generate 1,200 watts of electricity. Onboard the car is a 6kWh lithium ion battery pack that stores enough power to travel from New York to Boston without the sun, or about 250 miles at around 55 mph.
But on a sunny day, the solar car can run nonstop at a cruising speed of 55 mph, and calculations show that it can reach 90 mph.
... Read moreThe World Economic Forum calculates that $515 billion in yearly investment is required between now and 2030 to transition the world to cleaner sources of energy production.
At its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum released a report (click for PDF) on Thursday urging policy makers to make clean-technology incentives and investments part of government stimulus plans to revive flagging economies.
Economists who authored the report said alternative-energy technologies have the potential to address two pressing global problems--energy security and climate change--while generating good financial returns.
"It is essential that this stimulus also build our capacity to solve the longer-term climate crisis. Well-meaning but short-sighted economic stimulus programs could lock us into a predominately fossil fuel-based world economy for decades," according to the report.
A number of initiatives related to clean-energy, such as retrofitting government buildings to be energy-efficient, can create jobs and lay the foundation for longer-term economic growth, according to the World Economic Forum.
The report identified eight "large-scale clean-energy sectors" that government policies should seek to promote. They include: onshore wind, offshore wind, solar-photovoltaic energy, solar-thermal electricity generation, municipal solar energy, waste-to-energy generation, sugar-based ethanol, cellulosic and next-generation biofuels, and geothermal power.
In the United States, the Obama administration has made clear that it trying to tie economic development to clean technology. There are a number of provisions related to clean energy in a stimulus plan, which just passed the House of Representatives and could be voted on by the Senate next week.
The World Economic Forum's call for massive investments in clean energy echoes the International Energy Agency's 2008 annual report. Because of growing energy demand and climate change, the IEA said the world's energy consumption is "patently unsustainable. Its report concluded that trillions of dollars are needed to "decarbonize" the energy infrastructure and curb greenhouse gas emissions growth.
SolarWord's first race car was developed for an Australian solar-powered car race by student engineers from the German university Hochschule Bochum.
(Credit: SolarWorld)SolarWorld's offer to General Motors is no joke. The German-based solar-power company is serious about wanting to purchase GM's Opel division, SolarWorld CEO Frank H. Asbeck said Thursday morning on German radio.
SolarWorld announced on Wednesday that it's in the process of making an offer to General Motors for its Adam Opel (aka Opel) division for about 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion).
The initial announcement sparked a flurry of market, analyst, and media skepticism on Wednesday. Asbeck took to the airwaves to clarify his company's position on Thursday. (A transcript of the interview in German is posted on the radio station's Web site.)
Opel, which is part of GM Europe, includes four German factories and a development center in Russelsheim, Germany. SolarWorld is prepared to offer 250 million euros in cash for them, according to Asbeck, and has bank credit lines worth 750 million euros, if the German government provides a guarantee. But the company would also request additional state funds to compensate Opel's 25,000 German workers at about 40,00 euros per job, an estimated 1 billion euros.
GM, which is currently seeking a multibillion-dollar bailout from the U.S. government, publicly dismissed SolarWorld's offer on Wednesday.
"This is pure speculation. We are not going to comment on that. Opel is not for sale," Karin Kirchner, a GM Europe representative told Reuters.
But Asbeck told Deutschlandfunk radio on Thursday that he's getting contradicting signals from others inside GM.
When questioned about SolarWorld's lack of experience in automechanics, Asbeck responded that that auto know-how will come from the existing Opel employees. SolarWorld would supply solar modules.
Asbeck went on to say that the auto industry needs fertilization from another industry, and that vehicles of the future, like those with electric drives and hybrid drives, should not only be reserved for Japanese manufacturers.
SolarWorld is not entirely without automotive experience. The company sponsored and co-developed a high-performance solar sports car with a group of engineers from Hochschule Bochum, a German university that participated in the World Solar Challenge solar-powered car race in Australia in October 2007.
SolarWorld wants to develop Opel into "the first 'green' European automotive group" and "produce a new generation of vehicles with energy-efficient, low-emission drives," according to a company statement. It would specifically use the existing Opel model line, modifying it to include electric drive and hybrid electric vehicles.
Changing World Technologies will find out whether there's money in those hills of garbage.
The company, which converts animal and food wastes into diesel fuel and fertilizer, filed paperwork on Tuesday for an initial public offering. It hopes to raise as much as $100 million, according to the filing.
(Credit:
Changing World Technologies)
It's the second company in the alternative energy, or clean tech, area to announce plans to go public in a week. On Friday, battery maker A123 Systems filed for an IPO.
Investors and entrepreneurs are betting that energy-related start-ups can successfully raise funds and deliver solid returns for investors in a relatively poor IPO environment.
Changing World, which is based in West Hempstead, N.Y., operates a plant in Carthage, Mo. The plant turns animal wastes and grease into renewable diesel, a fuel that qualifies for a federal $1-per-gallon subsidy.
The plant is capable of taking in 78,000 tons of animal and food processing waste per year and turning out between 4 million to 9 million gallons of diesel, depending on the feedstock.
With the proceeds from the IPO, it hopes to build facilities that can process 500 tons to 2,000 tons of animal and food processing waste per day to make 13 million to 54 million gallons of diesel per year.
Changing World sells the diesel, which its says is competitive on price with heating oil, for use in industrial boilers.
The company said its thermal conversion process is environmentally friendly because it creates a product out of wastes that would otherwise go to landfills, potentially releasing pathogens into the environment. In addition to diesel, the technology also produces organic fertilizers.
Wastes are heated and pressurized and then treated with water to separate materials into gases, diesel, and solids.
The process can be converted for several other materials, including shredded tires, municipal garbage, and even electronic waste. The company is now developing a second facility with auto manufacturers in Philadelphia to process tires.
Like many young companies, Changing World is not profitable, and the company spells out a number of risks in its S-1 document, including availability of feedstock and competition from alternative waste-treatment technologies.
The success of the company's planned IPO could help send a signal about the public market's appetite for investing in relatively young energy-technology outfits.
It could also bring more attention to the waste-to-energy field, where several technologies are being developed to generate liquid fuels or electricity from industrial and municipal wastes.
Demand for biofuels in Europe and the United States has forced up food prices 75 percent around the world, according to a World Bank report that was leaked and published in The Guardian newspaper on Friday.
The number stands in sharp contrast to the 3 percent contribution to higher food pricing estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Meanwhile, a study commissioned by food manufacturers pegs the contribution of biofuels on food prices at between 25 percent and 35 percent. (Click here for PDF).
The reports will surely heat up the debate on biofuels policy one week before the scheduled G8 meeting in Japan. Both the U.S. and Europe have biofuels mandates to lessen dependence on imported fossil fuels.
The World Bank argues that these policies have distorted the market for grains in three ways, according to The Guardian. First, crops that would have been sold for food have been diverted for biofuels production. Second, land is now being used for fuels rather than food. And third, the mandates have set off speculation in financial markets
"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," The Guardian quoted the report as saying.
The World Bank earlier this year issued a warning on biofuels and blamed them, in part, for food crises in developing countries. The Guardian said that the food impact report was delayed for political reasons, specifically not to discredit the Bush Administration's strong support for biofuels, particularly corn-based ethanol.
The wide disparity in analysis among the different parties is hard to decipher.
At the very least, it demonstrates the public relations and political battles we can expect over the coming years between supporters and detractors of biofuels.
Grist.org parses the political angles of the report in its post on Saturday.
A non-political research organization, New Energy Finance, published an analysis early this year that found a relatively small impact on price from biofuels policy.
Overall, it found grain prices went up about 8 percent because of biofuels, with corn affected more heavily because of U.S. policy. From the report:
In grains, during the period from 2004 to April 2008, global dollar prices increased by an average of 168 percent. The rising price of oil accounts for an increase of 32.5 percent and other inputs--such as land and labor costs--contributed 7.4 percent. Dollar depreciation accounts for a further 17.9 percent. Supply and demand imbalances account for the remaining 57.7 percent, with biofuels responsible for up to an 8.1 percent increase in global average grain prices (the impact on U.S. corn was clearly above average). The biggest issues were the failure to improve yields to compensate for global population growth, along with the failure of the Australian harvest.
Biofuels Digest has more background on the food versus fuel debate.
Update at 8:00 a.m. PT on July 8: The Wall Street Journal found that the supposedly secret report was actually a position paper from April. A final paper to be published later this week will likely conclude that the contribution of biofuels on food prices will be lower than 75 percent. See here.
Correction June 30 11:30 a.m. PDT: See below for details.
A sampling of green-tech news with quick commentary.
High fuel costs threaten suburban lifestyles - The Boston Globe
Does America need a redesign? Rising gas prices could drive an exodus from suburbs into city centers.Novomer launching plastic made from CO2 - Greentech Media
Plastic made from carbon could be used in electronics and solar equipment.Google Earth maps California fires - Google Earth Blog
Tagged maps and NASA satellite imagery help to pinpoint some 1,400 fires raging in California.Number of flights to plummet by summer's end - The New York Times
The number of flights by American carriers could plummet to post-9/11 levels as airlines struggle with rising fuel prices.Canadian carbon tax kicks in - Canadian Press
A new tax has British Columbians paying an additional 8 cents per gallon for gasoline. Are similar taxes bound for the United States?Pacific 'Ring of Fire' nations mull geothermal power - Reuters
Rich in volcanoes, Indonesia and the Philippines consider tapping deep into the earth for energy.Molten salt provides highly efficient thermal storage - Renewable Energy World
Molten salt could be key for solar "towers of power" to work smoothly despite volatile weather conditions.Will shoppers become hip to square milk jugs? - The New York Times
Square milk jugs meant to save fuel and water are bound for more bulk discount stores.EcoRAM could save power in server farms - GreenTech Pastures/ZDNet
Spansion says its new flash memory would be 10 times more reliable and consume one-eighth the energy of DRAM.Military resists superfund cleanup - The Washington Post
The Pentagon and Environmental Protection Agency battle toxic waste cleanup.Report: World to use 50 percent more energy by 2030 - Red, Green, and Blue
This is a good explanation of last week's report that projects a 51 percent rise in carbon dioxide emissions in the coming decades.VW testing 94 MPG plug-in hybrid electric Golf - Carscoop
Volkswagen is testing a plug-in hybrid that can run 30 miles on a charged lithium-ion battery.
Digital maps show the scope of California wildfires.
(Credit: Google Earth)Correction: This story initially misstated the comparison between Spansion's new flash memory and DRAM. The new memory would consume approximately one-eighth the energy DRAM does.
The push for energy-efficient lighting in the developed world focuses on replacing wasteful incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents and LEDs. In developing regions, however, kerosene lanterns still bring dim nighttime light to an estimated 1.6 billion people.
Click on the image above for a photo gallery of off-grid lights being developed by start-ups for developing regions.
(Credit: SunNight Solar)Off-grid lighting is a growing area of focus for social entrepreneurs eyeing opportunities for "green" technologies in developing markets.
Engineers, start-ups, nonprofit groups, and venture capitalists involved are working on portable flashlights and fixtures powered by solar panels and even bicycle-like pedaling contraptions.
Safe and affordable lighting can be key to development efforts in poor communities. With better light, people have more time to work and study. Hazards of fire from kerosene accidents diminish. And in war zones, potential attackers may be better recognized or deterred.
Lighting innovations created for emerging markets are also bouncing back to the developed world. For a photo gallery of the products being built, click here.
d.light is selling solar-charged LED household lights for $30 and less.
(Credit: d.light design)Billions of people continue to burn dangerous and costly kerosene in lamps to see at night.
Start-up d.light design, which aims for no less than to eliminate kerosene around the world within a decade, is launching three off-grid lighting products for developing regions.
"We believe that 1.6 billion people without regular access to electricity deserve high-quality, safe and dependable light that they can afford," said Sam Goldman, CEO of New Delhi, India-based d.light design, in a Monday statement.
Three lights from d.light will cost $30 or less and are designed to be cheaper for people in rural areas than continuing to buy flammable, fume-emitting kerosene.
The annual market for kerosene in Africa alone amounts to $17 billion, according to the World Bank.
The Nova light, whose prototype was called the Forever-Bright, will run between $15 and $30. Its solar or AC-chargeable battery is built to last two years. If charged all day in the sun, the solar panel is supposed to provide up to eight hours of light.
The portable, compact fluorescent Vega model costs $10 to $16 and is supposed to take up to eight hours to charge, providing an hour of light for each hour of charging. Both the Nova and Vega include handles, from which they also could be hung from a wall.
d.light is selling the Comet model as the cheapest solar lamp available.
(Credit: d.light design)The company touts the Comet desk lamp, which costs between $8 and $15, as the world's most affordable solar light.
The products include LEDs from South Korean Seoul Semiconductor, which are supposed to be up to 50 percent more efficient than fluorescent bulbs.
Goldman described how the idea for d.light came to him while serving in the Peace Corps in Benin, West Africa, where a friend's son was badly burned by fire from a kerosene lantern.
Goldman and co-founder Ned Tozun developed their business during a spring 2006 Stanford University graduate class about entrepreneurial product design for emerging markets. They won $250,000 in the 2007 Draper Fisher Jurvetson Venture Challenge.
Other start-ups also seek to provide safer lighting to the billions of people who live on about a dollar a day.
With better lighting can come better education, as people can read in the evening without the risks and costs of kerosene.
(Credit: d.light design)Houston-based SunNight Solar sells the $25 solar-powered Super BoGo LED flashlight with NiMH batteries. For each light purchased, the company pledges to donate one $25 "buy one, give one" light to someone in a developing region. The company's production line of 1,000 lights hit snags in June.
Cosmos Ignite Innovations of London produces the $45 MightyLight, a solar-powered LED built to last three decades of average use of eight hours each day.
Barefoot Power from Melbourne, Australia, is working on solar-charged LED and compact fluorescent lights.
In San Francisco, Potenco is developing a yo-yo-like device for charging batteries, small lanterns, and cell phones. It aims to launch its pull-cord generator in 2009 following field tests in South America, Africa, and Asia.
Other companies are exploring hand-cranked or fuel cell-powered lighting, which d.light has called more costly and less durable than what it has developed.
This post was updated to correct the spelling of Ned Tozun's name.
