Forget biofuel, try a car that runs on air

Rhys Blakely in Bombay, The Times 20 Feb 08;

A car that runs on air and releases no pollutants into the atmosphere at low speeds could be on sale in India as soon as this year.

The three-seat fibreglass OneCAT weighs only 350kg (770lb) and is expected to be priced at about £2,500. The engine technology is backed by Tata, the Indian conglomerate that last month unveiled the world’s cheapest car, the £1,250 Nano.

Refuelling involves topping up on compressed air, which is used to power the OneCAT’s piston engine. In a couple of minutes - and at a cost of as little as £1 - the vehicle is ready to travel another 200 to 300 kilometres (125 to 185 miles), its inventors said.

The vehicle, which burns small amounts of conventional fuels at higher speeds, has been developed by Moteur Development International (MDI), a French-based, family owned group that has been working on an “air car” for the past decade. “The engine is efficient, cost-effective, scalable and capable of other applications, like power generation,” a spokesman said.

Vivek Chattopadhyaya, of the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, said: “What counts is how much energy all the processes involved require - from manufacturing the car to compressing the air.”

Mass production moved a step closer last year when MDI agreed a partnership with Tata, under which the companies pledged to refine the technology. The Indian group said that the system may represent “the ultimate environ-ment-friendly engine” and is studying its commercial feasibility.

MDI, whose engine is competing with rival technologies that range from electric vehicles and biofuels to hybrid engines and hydrogen-based fuel cells, has said that its first mass-market model could go on sale this year.

Worldwide sales of “zero emission” cars are languishing in the thousands, but with oil prices running at record levels, energy efficiency has become a watchword across the car industry.

According to MDI, its fleet includes cars that could cover 100 kilometres for about 60p. A full tank of compressed air would last for up to ten hours. A top speed of about 70 miles an hour has been claimed. An oil change should be necessary only every 30,000 miles or more and the air expelled from the engine will be clean and cold and can be used in the air conditioning unit.

Vital statistics

Fuel: Compressed air (some conventional fuel at higher speeds)

Cost of refuelling: about £1

Range: 200km to 300km (a full tank should last up to ten hours)

Servicing: OIl change about every 30,000 miles

Seats: Three

Weight: 350kg

Price: about £2,500

Read more!

First biofuel flight touches down

BBC News 24 Feb 08;

The first flight by a commercial airline to be powered partly by biofuel has landed in Amsterdam.

Billed by Virgin Atlantic as a green fuel breakthrough, the firm's flight from Heathrow did not carry passengers.

Earlier this month, Airbus used the world's largest passenger jet, the A380 to flight test another alternative fuel - a synthetic mix of gas-to-liquid.

Many environmentalists argue that cultivating biofuel is not sustainable and will lead to reduced land for food.

Virgin's Boeing 747 had one of its four engines connected to an independent biofuel tank that it said would provide 20% of the engine's power.

This reduced risk to the flight because the three other engines were capable of powering the plane on conventional fuel had there been a problem.

The three-hour Airbus flight from Filton near Bristol to Toulouse on 1 February was part of an ongoing research programme.

'Gimmick'

Virgin's flight used a biofuel derived from a mixture of babassu nuts and coconuts.

The company said the babassu tree, native to Brazil, and the coconuts do not compete with staple food sources and come from existing mature plantations.

Both products are commonly used in cosmetics and household paper products.

One problem with flying planes using biofuel is that it is more likely to freeze at high altitude.

The technology is still being manufactured by companies GE and Boeing, but Virgin believes within 10 years airlines could routinely be flying on plant power.

Kenneth Richter, of Friends of the Earth, said the flight was a "gimmick", distracting from real solutions to climate change.



"If you look at the latest scientific research it clearly shows biofuels do very little to reduce emissions. At the same time we are very concerned about the impact of the large scale increase in biofuel production on the environment and food prices worldwide," he said.

"What we need to do is stop this mad expansion of aviation at the moment it is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in the UK and we need to stop subsidising the industry."

But Virgin Atlantic president Sir Richard Branson said the flight was an early step towards greener aviation.

"This pioneering flight will enable those of us who are serious about reducing our carbon emissions to go on developing the fuels of the future, fuels which will power our aircraft in the years ahead through sustainable next-generation oils, such as algae."

Will biofuels power tomorrow's planes?
BBC News 24 Feb 08;

On Sunday, a Virgin Airlines Boeing 747 took off from London's Heathrow Airport en route to Amsterdam. This short flight may prove to be a giant leap forward for the aviation industry.

The aircraft did not carry passengers - but it was the first commercial aircraft to fly partly under the power of biofuels.

One of the aircraft's four engines ran on fuel comprising a 20% biofuel mix of coconut and babassu oil and 80% of the normal Jet A aviation fuel.

Biofuels - principally ethanol and diesel made from plants - are one of the few viable options for replacing the liquid fuels derived from petroleum used in transport, the source of about one quarter of the human race's greenhouse gas emissions.

Existing engines

The airline industry is being increasingly criticised for its perceived part in global warming, as more and more people take advantage of cheap tickets on aircraft powered by kerosene. Environmentalists claim it is a major carbon producer, fuelling rising world temperatures.

Airlines and aircraft designers have been feeling the heat. Plane-makers Boeing and aircraft engine manufacturers General Electric have been working with Virgin to cut down their flights' carbon footprints.

What is exciting the aviation industry is the fact the aircraft is completely unchanged, using the same engines as any scheduled, passenger-carrying flight. Only the fuel is different.

The flight follows a journey made by an Airbus A380 earlier this month using another alternative fuel - a synthetic mix of gas-to-liquid - in one of its four engines.

It flew from Filton in the UK to Toulouse in France, a journey of some 900km (560 miles), and was in partnership with Rolls-Royce and Shell.

Air New Zealand is also working with Boeing and Rolls-Royce to mount a test flight powered partly by biofuels later this year.

These are the first tentative steps in breaking the aviation industry's reliance on kerosene. But it is likely to be decades before aircraft are able to take to the skies powered entirely by something other than fossil fuels.

One industry analyst told the BBC News website there were several problems to overcome.

Jet A fuel, one of the standard aviation fuels, has a stable energy content and a low freeze point - meaning it is suited to the very low temperatures encountered by high-flying aircraft.

Biofuels cannot be relied upon to operate as reliably in the same temperatures.

Jet A fuel also burns consistently, which means it provides a reliable and safe fuel source for long flights.

Environmental drawbacks

Airlines also want a biofuel which can be burnt in existing engines - rather than having to replace every engine in their fleets.

There are other issues surrounding biofuels. There are concerns widespread planting and use of biofuel crops could threaten natural ecosystems and raise food prices. It could also mean the deforestation of rainforests, which absorb massive amounts of carbon.

Virgin remained tight-lipped about where its biofuel comes from until the day of the flight but said it would be a "truly sustainable type of biofuel that doesn't compete with food and fresh water resources".

Some environmentalists are sceptical. They believe the secret to cutting down aviation's share of the carbon is cutting the amount of flights we take.

Kenneth Richter, Friends of the Earth aviation campaigner, said: "Biofuels are a major distraction in the fight against climate change. There is mounting evidence that the carbon savings from biofuels are negligible.



"If Virgin was really serious about reducing the aviation industry's impact on the environment it would support calls for aircraft emissions to be included in the Climate Change Bill."

Green Party councillor and former chemist Andrew Boswell said: "Richard Branson is making a huge mistake backing biofuels.

"It means a huge amount of fuel we've got to produce."

Mr Boswell, who campaigns for the lobby group Biofuel Watch, said it was unsustainable to try and replace transport's share of fossil fuel consumption with biofuels - there is simply not enough arable land to grow fuel crops and food.

Sunday's flight may herald a new direction in aviation. But any massive change in the way we power our planes is unlikely, analysts say, to be just around the corner.

Amazon nuts help fuel first biofuel flight
Nigel Hunt, Reuters 24 Feb 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - Nuts picked from Amazon rainforests helped fuel the world's first commercial airline flight partly powered by renewable energy on Sunday.

A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew from London to Amsterdam with one of its fuel tanks filled with a bio-jet blend including babassu oil and coconut oil. A Virgin Atlantic statement said the biofuel mix provided 25 percent of the fuel for the test flight.

The biofuels blend on the Virgin flight contained 20 percent neat biofuel and 80 percent conventional jet fuel. Virgin founder Richard Branson said tests had shown it was possible to fly with a 40 percent blend.

"Today marks a vital breakthrough for the whole airline industry," Branson told reporters in a hangar at Heathrow airport prior to the flight's departure.

Environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth said biofuels were a distraction in the fight to cut carbon dioxide emissions, and that related carbon savings would be negated by increased airline travel.

British billionaire Branson said it was unlikely the nut of the wild growing babassu palm would play a key role as airlines turn to renewable fuel sources to cut the industry's greenhouse gas emissions.

"We did not want to use biofuels such as corn oil which were competing with staple food sources," he said, adding he believed algae produced in places like sewage treatment farms were the most likely future source of renewable fuel for the airline industry.

Biofuels, which are currently mainly produced from crops such as grain, vegetable oils and sugar, are seen by advocates as a way to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

There has been concern, however, that an expansion in the area of crops grown for energy has helped drive up food prices, and some scientists have questioned the environmental benefits of so-called first generation biofuels.

Friends of the Earth said in a statement: "There is mounting evidence the carbon savings from these crop-based fuels will be small at best."

"Even if every plane leaving the UK was able to run on biofuels from tomorrow, any carbon savings would be wiped out in less than 10 years by the rapid growth of the aviation industry."

Many scientists believe so-called second generation biofuels, which could be made from products such as municipal waste, will provide more substantial environmental benefits without competing with food crops for land.

Branson, whose Virgin Group business spans an airline, a rail service, drinks, hotels and leisure, has committed to spending all the profits from his airline and rail business to combat global warming by cutting carbon emissions.

Last year, Virgin started to power some of its trains using a fuel containing 20 percent biodiesel produced mainly using British rapeseed oil blended with U.S. soybean oil and palm oil from the Far East.

(Additional reporting by John Joseph; Editing by Caroline Drees)

Read more!

More snow, blizzards to hit central China

Reuters 24 Feb 08;

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has forecast heavy snow and blizzards across its industrial and agricultural heartland over the next three days, even as the country struggles to recover from its worst winter weather in 50 years.

Unseasonably cold weather and ice storms across central and southern China in January and earlier this month killed at least 129 people, caused transport chaos and cut off power and water for millions.

Authorities are still battling to repair power lines and ensure food supplies after severe weather damaged millions of hectares of crops and killed more than 70 million animals.

Snow and sleet would hit six provinces spanning China's central, eastern and northern regions, including Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu, the National Meteorological Centre said on its Web site (www.nmc.gov.cn) on Sunday.

Blizzards were also expected in the northwestern part of central Hubei province, already plagued by winter storms earlier this month.

The Centre advised local governments and power, transport and communication authorities to prepare emergency relief work.

"Strengthen inspections and checks on roads, railway lines and power lines," the notice said.

The forecasts come as more than 1.66 million people displaced by the winter freeze remain in temporary shelters, Xinhua news agency reported.

The cold, which has driven up food prices and contributed further to a surge in annual inflation to an 11-year high of 7.1 percent in January, had caused 151 billion yuan ($21 billion) in economic losses, Xinhua said, citing China's Ministry of Civil Affairs.

In northern China, however, largely unaffected by winter snows, a prolonged drought has damaged about 11 million hectares of arable land, including 317,000 hectares of cropland, Xinhua said.

Winter rainfall in parts of central north, northeast and northwest China was between 20 to 70 percent of average falls, affecting drinking supplies for 2.43 million people and 1.89 million head of livestock, the agency said, citing the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

($1=7.141 yuan)

(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Jerry Norton)

Read more!

Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean

Martin Redfern, Rothera Research Station, Antarctica, BBC News 24 Feb 08;

UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica.

If the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant rise in global sea level.

The new evidence comes from a group of glaciers covering an area the size of Texas, in a remote and seldom visited part of West Antarctica.

The "rivers of ice" have surged sharply in speed towards the ocean.

David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey, explained: "It has been called the weak underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and the reason for that is that this is the area where the bed beneath the ice sheet dips down steepest towards the interior.

"If there is a feedback mechanism to make the ice sheet unstable, it will be most unstable in this region."

There is good reason to be concerned.

Satellite measurements have shown that three huge glaciers here have been speeding up for more than a decade.

The biggest of the glaciers, the Pine Island Glacier, is causing the most concern.

Inhospitable conditions

Julian Scott has just returned from there. He told the BBC: "This is a very important glacier; it's putting more ice into the sea than any other glacier in Antarctica.

"It's a couple of kilometres thick, its 30km wide and it's moving at 3.5km per year, so it's putting a lot of ice into the ocean."

It is a very remote and inhospitable region. It was visited briefly in 1961 by American scientists but no one had returned until this season when Julian Scott and Rob Bingham and colleagues from the British Antarctic survey spent 97 days camping on the flat, white ice.

At times, the temperature got down to minus 30C and strong winds made work impossible.

At one point, the scientists were confined to their tent continuously for eight days.

"The wind really makes the way you feel incredibly colder, so just motivating yourself to go out in the wind is a really big deal," Rob Bingham told BBC News.

When the weather improved, the researchers spent most of their time driving skidoos across the flat, featureless ice.

"We drove skidoos over it for something like 2,500km each and we didn't see a single piece of topography."

Long drag

Rob Bingham was towing a radar on a 100m-long line and detecting reflections from within the ice using a receiver another 100m behind that.

The signals are revealing ancient flow lines in the ice. The hope is to reconstruct how it moved in the past.

Julian Scott was performing seismic studies, using pressurised hot water to drill holes 20m or so into the ice and place explosive charges in them. He used arrays of geophones strung out across the ice to detect reflections, looking, among other things, for signs of soft sediments beneath the ice that might be lubricating its flow.

He also placed recorders linked to the global positioning system (GPS) satellites on the ice to track the glacier's motion, recording its position every 10 seconds.

Throughout the 1990s, according to satellite measurements, the glacier was accelerating by around 1% a year. Julian Scott's sensational finding this season is that it now seems to have accelerated by 7% in a single season, sending more and more ice into the ocean.

"The measurements from last season seem to show an incredible acceleration, a rate of up to 7%. That is far greater than the accelerations they were getting excited about in the 1990s."

The reason does not seem to be warming in the surrounding air.

One possible culprit could be a deep ocean current that is channelled onto the continental shelf close to the mouth of the glacier. There is not much sea ice to protect it from the warm water, which seems to be undercutting the ice and lubricating its flow.

Ongoing monitoring

Julian Scott, however, thinks there may be other forces at work as well.

Much higher up the course of the glacier there is evidence of a volcano that erupted through the ice about 2,000 years ago and the whole region could be volcanically active, releasing geothermal heat to melt the base of the ice and help its slide towards the sea.

David Vaughan believes that the risk of a major collapse of this section of the West Antarctic ice sheet should be taken seriously.

"There has been the expectation that this could be a vulnerable area," he said.

"Now we have the data to show that this is the area that is changing. So the two things coinciding are actually quite worrying."

The big question now is whether what has been recorded is an exceptional surge or whether it heralds a major collapse of the ice. Julian Scott hopes to find out.

"It is extraordinary and we've left a GPS there over winter to see if it is going to continue this trend."

If the glacier does continue to surge and discharge most of it ice into the sea, say the researchers, the Pine Island Glacier alone could raise global sea level by 25cm.

That might take decades or a century, but neighbouring glaciers are accelerating too and if the entire region were to lose its ice, the sea would rise by 1.5m worldwide.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 24 Feb 08

Dusky Leaf Monkey spotted
on the wonderful creations blog

Fish in Troubled Waters
The Labrador Angels are back on the beach, and on Mr Lim's case on the labrador blog

Training for Semakau walks
guides have a fun training session on the wonderful creations blog and discovery blog and tidechaser blog

Flower picking
by a heron! on the urban forest blog

Nesting of Spotted Dove
on the bird ecology blog

Coastal Erosion Management: Ubin style
don't try this at home, on the pulau ubin stories blog

IYOR talk at NIE: Getting Wild about Singapore's shores
on the NIE Green Club blog

Read more!

Riau fires may bring back haze to Singapore

Salim Osman, Straits Times 24 Feb 08;

JAKARTA - PARTS of Riau province in Sumatra were blanketed with choking smoke from land-clearing fires yesterday, and officials here warned that the haze could be headed for Singapore.

In some parts of the province, visibility was reduced to just 20m yesterday.

Thousands of face masks were distributed to residents in Dumai and Pekanbaru, the provincial capital.

Riau Governor Rusli Zainal said yesterday that the fires, which started about four days ago, were raging furiously in areas near Dumai and Bengkalis.

'Our firefighting teams just can't cope with the kind of equipment they have,' he told the Riau Pos daily.

Yesterday, fires in the village of Pelintung near Dumai forced villagers to flee for safety.

Earlier, a team of firefighters had to retreat in the face of an inferno, also near Dumai.

In addition to firemen, two helicopters have been dispatched to Riau to help douse the flames by using water bombs.

The authorities are also turning to cloud-seeding to induce rain over the parched areas.

Officials and environmentalists here agreed that unless the fires were put out soon, the haze could spread farther, to Malaysia and Singapore.

Forestry Ministry spokesman Fauzi Masyhud told The Sunday Times that the fires and the resulting smoke were the result of people taking advantage of the early onset of the dry season to clear their land.

'This is not yet the dry season, which usually occurs in July,' he said.

Environmentalist Rully Syumanda of Walhi Indonesia estimated that some 2,000ha - almost the size of 2,000 football fields - were up in smoke in Riau province.

He blamed the fires on farmers and plantation owners who go for the easy method of land-clearing by setting fire to vegetation.

'The government has said it has implemented a plan to encourage local farmers to use other methods of land-clearing instead of the destructive slash-

and-burn techniques, but we don't see this being carried out on the ground,' he told The Sunday Times.

He added that although nine suspected fire-starters were arrested last week, 'law enforcement is still lacking because the authorities are not taking action against the plantation owners for fear of scaring away investors'.

'If no rain falls in the next few days and, depending on the wind direction, Malaysia and Singapore should brace themselves for the haze,' he said.

Singapore's National Environment Agency said yesterday that drier weather conditions in the past two weeks have resulted in more dust particles in the air, leading to slightly elevated Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) levels of 51 to 54 in recent days. A reading of 51 to 100 is considered moderate.

The 24-hour PSI at 4pm yesterday was 52.

Although some hot spots have been detected in Riau - 100 last Thursday and 50 last Friday - the prevailing north-easterly monsoon winds have kept the haze away from Singapore.

The north-east monsoon season is expected to last till late next month. Even so, there would be occasions during this period when wind directions could change.

WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY TAN DAWN WEI

Related articles

Fires raze tens of hectares of forest, peat land in Jambi
Antara 22 Feb 08;

Singapore not affected by forest fires in Sumatra
Channel NewsAsia 21 Feb 08;

Read more!

Green buildings in Singapore: If they could, they'd throw out the air-con

Tan Hui Yee, Straits Times 24 Feb 08;

In this new series on leaders in building design, the founding directors of award-winning Woha Architects reveal their passion - designing energy-efficient buildings suited to the climate - as well as peeve, the demolition of buildings worth conserving

LAST year, Woha picked up the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture for its residential tower, 1 Moulmein Rise. A key feature of the project was its 'monsoon windows' - bay windows with a special horizontal opening that lets the breeze in but keeps the rain out.

Recently, Woha won a silver award from global skyscraper database provider Emporis for its private residential project Newton Suites. This 36-storey tower, which is playfully described as a 'furry caterpillar', features overhanging meshes that shelter every window from the tropical sun, and side walls covered with foliage.

Q What sets you apart from other firms?

A Mr Richard Hassell, 41: We study a client's requirements, the economy, the construction industry and other factors, and come up with a strategy that incorporates all these.

We manage to make everyone happy rather than be very single-minded about pushing something. We think we can do very good design without being a prima donna.

Mr Wong Mun Summ, 45: We also tend to give our clients something more than what they envisage.

Q The one innovation that you are most known for is the monsoon window. Was that something you offered to your client over and above his requirements?

A Hassell: Yes. We knew developers wanted bay windows but bay windows are terribly unsuitable for this climate. Rather than being nicely shaded and under an overhang, bay windows stick out so they gather lots of heat.

Wong: Bay windows are floor areas that developers can sell but which they are not charged for, so they welcome them. We embraced the idea of maximising the saleable area for the developer but in a way that would make the facade interesting.

Hassell: Also, we turned something that's a bit of an environmental disaster into an environmental asset.

Q If there is one thing you could take away from high-rise apartments in Singapore as they are now, what would that be?

A Hassell: The aspect that they are not being designed for the climate. There are a lot of glassy boxes with no overhangs, and apartments that rely totally on air-conditioning for comfort.

I think Housing Board flats are at least designed with the idea that they can be used without air-conditioning. But that is not the case for the private-sector ones.

Wong: Even HDB flats are not really designed to maximise natural ventilation.

Flats built by the HDB's predecessor, the Singapore Improvement Trust, had timber louvre windows that went all the way to the floor. That actually helps with natural ventilation. We don't see that anymore.

Hassell: But I think it's something that will change because there's now such interest in sustainable design. It means that an apartment in Singapore should be designed very differently from one in Australia, for instance, because the two countries have completely different climates.

This refocusing on climate and low energy usage actually means the world should become a more differentiated place, that a tropical city would look completely different from a temperate city. And that's actually a good thing.

Q What would you like to see more of?

A Hassell: I'm a bit wary of saying that things should go in a certain direction. It's healthiest that things are going in many different directions and you're always surprised and delighted to find something different.

Wong: We would like to see buildings last longer. Recently, there have been many collective sales that led to buildings being torn down. We personally think it is very wasteful. Buildings were designed to last 100 to 200 years.

Hassell: The buildings being torn down are actually some of the best buildings in their generation. There are many bad buildings in Singapore you could pull down if you needed more space.

Q How do you decide what is good or bad?

A Wong: Most good buildings have won some award along the way. The Golden Mile Complex is one building I hope I will never see torn down. It's unique in the world. The People's Park Complex was a really innovative shopping centre in its heyday. It was designed to be naturally ventilated - it's such a pity it's now air-conditioned.

Hassell: Conservation is a sensitive issue because people tend to make a lot of money from collective sales.

Wong: There's such a thing as transferring plot ratio. This is used as a device for conservation in other countries. Maybe that's something we should think about.

Hassell: In return for conserving your building and freezing your development at one level, you can sell your excess development potential to your next-door neighbour, so the average density of built-up space in the area would remain the same.

And once you take that financial sting out of conservation and you conserve, say, a place like Golden Mile, you will find that all sorts of people who love design will move into it.

But it does need public support. If you want to attract people to this city, you need excellent buildings from all eras - from the 1970s and 1980s.

Q Are there any global trends in architecture that you are exploring?

A Sustainability has been a hot topic in architecture for quite a long time. What's interesting now that a lot of countries are legislating for sustainability, is that there are a lot more products and equipment allowing you to create much more energy-efficient buildings.

A building, really, is the interface between you and the climate. The availability of cheap energy since the 1970s fuel crisis put people to sleep on the whole issue of trying to design for the climate.

In design school, we learnt about overhangs, cross-ventilation and insulation, but it was as if people suddenly got amnesia because you could just crank up your air-conditioner.

It was exciting that you could do amazing glass boxes - very exaggerated solutions to problems - but the iconic buildings that have no regard for the climate have had their day. It's no longer acceptable to just make an interesting lump and stuff real estate inside it.

Q What's next for Woha?

A Hassell: We hope we are in a virtuous circle where, as we do projects well, we get offered more interesting and exciting projects and more chances to be creative and innovative.

Wong: I'm personally very excited about the direction in which Singapore is moving, and I think Singapore has the potential to become one of the best cities in the world.

We still have a long way to go but we are quite happy to be a part of it. Maybe 100 and 200 years from now, Singapore will be talked about in the same way people talk about Paris and New York...as long as we don't tear the good buildings down.

Read more!

Singapore taps international experts to achieve sustainable development

Channel NewsAsia 23 Feb 08;

SINGAPORE : Singapore will draw ideas from a panel of international experts on sustainable development.

And more incentives could be offered to get the building industry to go green.

Speaking at the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) 's first "Breakfast Talk for CEOs", National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said this is also a good time for the industry to look at alternative materials and methods in view of rising costs."

The BCA has roped in experts to help spur the green movement in Singapore.

Kevin Hydes, Chairman, World Green Building Council, said: "There's almost no cost to going green. In fact there's significant increase in asset value, increase in brand identity for green development. Once the industry learns the new methods and the technologies are purchased in greater volumes, the price comes down."

During the event, industry players heard what European countries and the US are doing to encourage the adoption of green building techniques.

These include tax reliefs, utilities rebates and changes to the legislation.

In Singapore, close to 100 environmentally-friendly buildings have been certified, with another 200 projects awaiting assessment.

Liew Mun Leong, CEO, CapitaLand Group, said: "Even now investors are asking you if you are a green building developer. In fact my institutional investors often ask me, how good are you in green buildings? And this has to cascade down to the types of contractors we use, we also now use green contractors."

But industry players say there are still challenges ahead.

Chia Ngiang Hong, Group General Manager, City Developments Limited, said: "It's the change of mindset at the moment, the acceptance level in Singapore is not very high yet, and the buy-in process is important."

One suggestion is to offer more incentives but that is not the only way to go.

Mr Mah said: "We need to educate consumers, we need to bring households on board. And we need to see whether there's need for legislation. By the next budget we hope to have in place a whole series of different measures, which may or may not include incentives."

Currently, the BCA also gives out the Green Mark Awards to building projects which are environmentally friendly.

And going forward, more new awards will be presented to developers, consultants and contractors who are supportive of the green building movement.

Mr Mah also commented on other issues.

On the rising construction costs, he said there are ways to manage the surge in demand.

For instance, the government, on its part, will postpone S$3 billion worth of projects.

This will help reduce manpower requirements by over 10 percent, including foreign workers, technical and supervisory staff.

And to address the crunch in office space, the government has announced that some of its agencies will be relocating outside the city by early 2009.

Mr Mah said the National Development Ministry, which is situated at Maxwell Road, will also be moving out over time.

Responding to HDB's recent Build-To-Order exercise which saw over 9,000 applications for 278 flats, Mr Mah assured young couples that there are enough flats to go around.

He also advised home buyers to be prudent with their purchase and not spend beyond their means. - CNA/ch

More carrots likely to build green buildings
Panel looking into further measures. Spiralling costs a challenge and opportunity for builders to go greener
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 24 Feb 08;

THE Government is looking into further incentives and legislation to 'green' more buildings here.

This is integral to Singapore's sustainable development strategy, which remains a key priority, Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said yesterday.

Meanwhile, spiralling construction costs present both a challenge and an opportunity for the building sector to go greener, with alternative methods of construction which are energy- and resource-efficient.

Mr Mah was speaking at an inaugural talk, attended by building sector bigwigs, on green building and corporate social responsibility.

The talk was organised by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA). Its preliminary estimates show that a basic Green Mark building costs about 0.3 per cent to 1 per cent more, with a payback of two to five years.

But the benefits go beyond the savings, over the whole lifespan of the building, Mr Mah said.

Green buildings are generally designed, built and maintained for energy efficiency and are better for human health and the environment.

The BCA Green Mark rates buildings for their environmental performance.

Some Green Mark buildings include the National Library and City Developments' Oceanfront@Sentosa Cove, both of which have features such as energy-efficient air-conditioners, efficient lighting and extensive greenery to keep the buildings cool.

Mr Mah called on the 'private, people and public sectors' to work together.

Several incentives are already in place, and a new inter-ministerial committee - co-chaired by Mr Mah and Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim - is looking into further measures.

Mr Mah said incentives alone will not solve the problem. 'There is a need for us to take stock and spend some time on this. By the next Budget, I hope to have in place a whole road map.'

Property chiefs such as CapitaLand's Mr Liew Mun Leong and City Developments' group general manager Chia Ngiang Hong affirmed yesterday that going into green projects not only saved them money but has also improved their brand names.

Mr Liew called for more incentives, such as granting additional gross floor area for a green building.

Meanwhile, Mr Mah said the postponement of up to $3 billion in public projects is expected to ease the industry's manpower crunch by at least 10 per cent.

A BCA spokesman told The Sunday Times yesterday the projects to be deferred to after next year included student hostels, school upgrading, hawker centres and some minor projects.

Related articles

Singapore should mull carbon tax: World Green Building Council
Uma Shankari, Business Times 23 Feb 08;

Read more!

Prices of some vegetables have doubled in the past weeks

Channel NewsAsia 23 Feb 08;

SINGAPORE : Prices of some vegetables have almost doubled in recent weeks.

Importers say this is due to the extreme weather in southern China, which had affected supply of the greens.

The problem is further compounded by the surge in demand for vegetables over the Chinese New Year period.

This saw a reduction in exports to Singapore, and importers had difficulties having their orders fulfilled.

Over the past weeks, only three out of an order of ten containers have been delivered and this shortage has driven up prices.

For instance, a kilogramme of kai lan and chye sim went up by about two dollars to five dollars.

But importers expect prices to soften once more supplies start arriving from southern China next week.

And it will complement stocks from Malaysia and northern China, which remain unaffected. - CNA/ch

Read more!

Jakarta hit by scheduled blackouts to save power

Adhityani Arga, Reuters 23 Feb 08;

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Jakarta's commercial and residential districts were hit by scheduled power cuts for several hours on Saturday as part of a desperate attempt by Indonesia's state electricity firm to save dwindling supplies.

Java, Indonesia's most heavily populated island, and Bali, the neighboring resort island, were hit by serious outages last week as bad weather hampered coal deliveries and left two big power plants on Java with only enough coal stocks to last a day or so.

Officials warned further outages were likely over the next week if the power plants could not obtain supplies.

PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), the state electricity company, said commercial districts in central and southern Jakarta and some residential suburbs were scheduled for four-hour power cuts.

Certain areas were switched off in the morning, while others were hit in the afternoon.

"This has been announced before and is done to save power," Lia Dahlia, an official at PLN's Jakarta information centre, told Reuters.

A PLN spokesman told Reuters the electricity company had enough power to supply the Java-Bali grid over the weekend provided there were scheduled cuts, but the main concern was whether enough coal could be delivered next week to prevent further outages.

"There is enough power for the weekend, but we'll need to get coal shipments to arrive this weekend to secure next week's supply," PLN's Mulyo Adji told Reuters.

"Let's hope the weather improves over the weekend," he added, as that would enable ships to unload the coal safely.

Indonesia's power sector has been beset by problems because of its ageing plants, high costs and low funds as most tariffs are highly subsidized and still among the lowest in the world.

Officials say electricity demand is growing around 10 percent a year, outstripping power supply in a country of 226 million, while investment in generating plants and transmission lines has been inadequate. (Editing by Sara Webb and Jerry Norton)

Read more!

Law to get rid of ‘ghost traps’ paying off

Marty Schladen, The Daily News, Galveston County 23 Feb 08;

State officials are reporting excellent results six years into a program to cut down on marine life needlessly killed in abandoned crab traps.

That’s demonstrated by a radical drop in the number of rogue traps that volunteers and state workers are finding these days as they go out and collect them.

Through today, the Texas crab fishery is closed. For the past week, workers and volunteers have been removing traps left in the water during the closure.

Anybody with a fishing license can go to Academy, buy a crab trap, bait it and drop it in Galveston Bay. But if you don’t regularly check it, it can cause serious environmental harm.

Called “ghost traps” they attract crabs and other animals. As they die, the first to be trapped attract still more animals. The cycle repeats.

“It’s not just crabs that die,” said John Embesi, a marine biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Artificial Reef program.

River otter, diamondback terrapin, musk turtle and black drum have all been found in abandoned traps.

As marine animals die in the traps, they lose their ability to create offspring.

A single trap found in 2004 in Corpus Christi Bay contained nine sheepshead, seven Gulf toadfish, six gray snapper, four black drum and three Atlantic spadefish.

And while that trap came out of Corpus Christi Bay, the biggest source of the abandoned traps has been Galveston Bay. Through last year, 42 percent of all the abandoned crab traps found in Texas came from there, according to state figures.

The number of traps collected each year has declined since the program was created by a state law that was passed in 2002.

That year, 8,070 traps were collected. That number had fallen to 1,922 by 2006, the last year for which numbers were available.

But as they worked underneath the Tiki Island causeway last week, loading more than 50 abandoned traps into state trucks, Parks and Wildlife technicians Brad Grimmett and Brian Witt said the numbers have continued to drop. They said the law required that the traps they were hauling off be destroyed.

Read more!

Be the Singapore delegate to the UN Commission of Sustainable Development

email from Wilson Ang of Eco-Singapore

Invitation to Participate in Essay Contest: Delegation Selection for United Nation Commission of Sustainable Development(CSD)

Dear All,

ECO Singapore & UNYAS will be sending an official team for the coming United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) -16 at Manhattan, New York from 5th – 16th May 2008.

Interested youth, aged 17 to 25, are invited to write an original essay based on the topics given as the first phase of the selection process. Two selected candidates will each receive up to 85% subsidies for their air fare and accommodations.

more detail on eco-singapore facebook

Read more!