BMW: Drive towards the future is called hydrogen.

Carmakers presented new-age automobiles at the Paris car show on Thursday that could give much-hyped fuel cells a run for their money in the coming market for vehicles that do less damage to the environment.
German luxury brand BMW unveiled the world's fastest hydrogen-powered car, dubbed the H2R, which can hit a top speed above 300 kilometers per hour (185 mph) by burning hydrogen in a modified internal combustion engine.
"Our drive towards the future is called hydrogen," but in a way that gives a green twist to existing engine technology, said BMW management board member Burkhard Goeschel.
Renault Executive Vice President Pierre-Alain De Smedt told Reuters that the French brand planned to offer the fuel-saving Stop & Start system made by France's Valeo on its Clio, Modus and Megane range, Reuters reported.
The system, designed for urban driving, switches the engine to stand-by when a car stops at a red light or in a traffic jam and kickstarts it when motorists step on the gas.
Renault's rival PSA Peugeot Citroen has already launched the system on its Citroen C2 and C3 models.
Fritz Henderson, the head of General Motors' European arm, said the key was to keep working on all kinds of engines.
"Our bet is that the way to take the automobile out of the environmental equation is the hydrogen economy and hydrogen-based fuel cells," he said, but he added that fuel-cell cars would not become huge sellers quickly. "We are spending a lot of time, money and effort to get there, but you can't focus on only one (technology). You have to keep your feet in various different camps."
Cars that run on hydrogen or hydrogen-based fuel cells emit little but steam themselves, but they do not entirely solve the problem of finding a non-polluting fuel source.
The hydrogen is obtained either from fossil fuels such as natural gas or by applying electrical power to water molecules.

Cost Hold-Up
Juergen Hubbert, head of DaimlerChrysler's luxury Mercedes Car Group, had a stock answer when asked when fuel-cell car would really become popular.
"This question comes up every year and ... I always have to say it will take 10 years," he said, noting Daimler was making good progress with fuel cells but still faced bumps in the road.
"We have reduced volume (of fuel cells). We have reduced weight. What we couldn't reduce so far is costs. Costs are still by far too high," he said.
He cited a chicken-and-egg situation in which volumes had to go up to bring prices down, while high prices were keeping a lid on the size of the potential market. Fuel cells add thousands of dollars to the price of a standard car.
Nevertheless, fuel-cell cars are on the way, he said.
"I think we will have a significant market share, like you see actually with the hybrids, between 2010 and 2012," he added.
He was referring to technology that yokes an electric motor to a standard internal combustion engine so that cars run on battery power at slower speeds. The batteries recharge automatically from the electric motor and by capturing energy from braking.
Toyota's Prius model has emerged at the most popular hybrid, quickly selling out in the key US market.
The world's second-biggest carmaker is also hoping to boost sales of its gasoline-electric hybrid cars in Europe as an alternative to fuel-efficient, diesel-powered cars popular here.
It forecasts a near-doubling in sales of the Prius to 15,000 units in 2005 from a target of 8,200 this year.
The auto maker will also add more hybrid-powered models to its European line-up, starting with the Lexus RX400h luxury sport utility vehicle next spring.

Some say batteries can't keep up with the heavy power demands of new technology and they are looking for ways to tame the drain.

In this week's Cybershake, we take a look at what could be providing power to tomorrow's high-tech portables. Plus, we note a new game that will have Star Wars fans itching for a fight.
Cell phones, digital music players, laptops, handheld computers, camcorders, portable DVD players and digital cameras are just some of the portable wonders many people can't seem to do without now. But the one thing all those-- and future--mobile devices can't live without Power, abcnews.go.com reported.
And unfortunately, current battery technology seems unable to keep up with the growing demands of new electronic gear.
"Battery life just isn't really going up at the same rate that our rate of innovation on the electronic side is going up," says Eric Hagerman, senior editor at Popular Science magazine.
The power factor has really put a cramp on how electronic consumer goods are designed by product makers now.
"The engineers have to figure out [power loads] first," says Hagerman. "[They] get a number and then they can work backwards from that and figure out how [many features] they can pack into a device."
And the power factor sometimes means that certain cool gizmos just don't get invented.
"We have the technology to make a handheld satellite radio device," says Hagerman. "But it would only get one hour of battery life."
But many companies and university researchers are looking into new ways to provide juice for power hungry portables. The most popular ideas involve so-called micro fuel cells.
Much like larger systems developed for space craft and "green cars," fuel cells create energy by chemically combining hydrogen and oxygen. The only byproducts are carbon dioxide and water.
While such tiny power sources would be environmentally friendly, there are still a few problems the power industry needs to work out.
"You have to refill a fuel cell some how and they haven't quite figured out what's the best way to do that," says Hagerman.
The US military and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are looking into other innovative alternatives so soldiers won't have to carry so many batteries for all their high-tech combat gear. One MIT research project involves investigating how tiny vibrations might be converted into useable electricity.
Whether or not such research will actually yield a portable power source better than batteries, Hagerman says one thing is certain, "We've essentially squeezed as much blood out of the battery stone as we can."

A Gamesa wind energy tower undergoes the final stage of construction.

In the same week that Congress passed an extension of the wind energy production tax credit (PTC) Spanish wind energy company Gamesa has agreed to base its new US headquarters and East Coast development offices in Philadelphia, and to open a manufacturing facility for wind turbine blades in the state.
Gamesa also has worked out 400 MW worth of power purchase agreements and letters of intent to sell wind-generated power to Pennsylvania utilities, raising the amount of clean electricity available in the grid for Pennsylvania consumers. The 400 MW are enough to provide clean electricity to almost 135,000 homes.
The announcement comes after several months of negotiations with the administration of Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, which is eager to enact a statewide renewable portfolio standard (RPS) sometime in the future, solaraccess.com reported.
"As I have made clear, energy is a top priority for my administration and is a strategic economic sector for Pennsylvania," Rendell said. "America's energy past is grounded right here in Pennsylvania, where we led the world in coal and oil. The nation's energy future is right here, too. We are leaders in wind-energy production and are gaining fast in the development of fuel cells and other advanced energy technologies."
Pennsylvania is already a leader on the East Coast with wind-farm production capacity at 129 MW, which is enough to power almost 45,000 homes. Another 49 MW is scheduled to come on line within the next year.
Gamesa, a publicly traded company on Spain's stock exchange, is headquartered in Vitoria, Spain. The company is the second-largest wind-energy manufacturer and the only vertically integrated wind-energy company in the world, meaning the company manufactures the parts for wind-energy units and then develops the wind farms itself.
"Similar to our achieving industry-leader status in the wind-energy business in Spain, the world's second-largest wind energy marketplace in terms of installed capacity, our intention is to advance to all corners of the North American marketplace from our Pennsylvania base," said Inaki Lopez Gandasegui, Chief Executive Officer of Gamesa.
The site for Gamesa's manufacturing facility, which should employ as many as 400 workers, has not been determined. The company expects to make that announcement within the next month. Both the US headquarters and East Coast development office will be located in Philadelphia. Together with the construction, operation and maintenance of its wind farms, Gamesa's two offices and factory are expected to create as many as 1,000 jobs in the Commonwealth over the next five years.
Rendell recently launched some major initiatives to build a clean, indigenous, diversified energy industry in the state, including re- establishing the dormant Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority. Together with a broader fund at the Department of Community and Economic Development, PEDA can provide nearly $1 billion in tax-free bond financing for clean energy projects.
The administration also is leading by example by developing a plan to ensure that in 10 years, 10 percent of all of the energy generated in the Commonwealth comes from clean, efficient sources. Governor Rendell directed the state to purchase 10 percent of its electricity from clean, advanced energy sources.
Helping to spur the market share for renewable energy is the $5 million Pennsylvania Energy Harvest grant program administered by the Department of Environmental Protection. The grant program provides the last increment of financing for clean and renewable energy projects that use energy sources such as biomass, wind, solar, small-scale hydroelectric, landfill methane, coal-bed methane and waste-coal.

If temperatures drop below normal during South Korea's peak demand, spot LNG cargoes would be bought from Japan.

Demand for natural gas in Japan and South Korea in the peak winter season will be healthy as the weather is forecast normal or colder than normal in the world's biggest and second-biggest importers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), analysts and industry officials say.
Japan's Meteorological Agency said last week that the weather this winter, the three months from December to February, is likely to be normal. The normal temperature in Japan's capital Tokyo in the winter season, or the average temperature in 30 years to 2000, is 6.7 Celsius (44F).
"The normally cold weather is a good indicator for healthy gas sales on good gas use for heating," said an official at Japan's biggest gas distributor, Tokyo Gas Co Ltd.
Tokyo Gas revised up its gas sales outlook in July for the year to next March by 3.2 percent to 11.637 billion cubic meters from the earlier estimate of 11.271 billion cubic meters due to stronger than expected demand from industry customers, asianews.yahoo.com reported.
Tokyo Gas will stick to the revised outlook, the official said.
In the year to March 2004 it sold 10.903 billion cubic meters of gas and imported 8.513 million tons of LNG from such suppliers as Malaysia and Australia.
Japan's LNG imports totaled 58.472 million tons in the year to March 2004, figures from the Ministry of Finance showed.
LNG is natural gas that is chilled and liquefied for transport, then gassified again for distribution to retail customers.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said temperatures in November would drop to 2 C to 4 C (35.6F to 39.2F), lower than the 30-year average for the month.
Winter starts in November and ends in February in South Korea. Gas demand typically peaks in December and January.
KMA plans to announce more detailed weather forecasts for this winter in late November.
Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS), the biggest corporate LNG buyer in the world, declined to unveil its forecast for winter LNG demand, citing sensitivity of the information.
If temperatures drop below normal during South Korea's peak demand, spot LNG cargoes would be bought from Japan.
"It is quite possible that a large number of spot LNG cargoes will flow to South Korea from Japan," said an LNG analyst at a Western energy firm who asked not to be named.
During the winter of 2002, Kogas bought over 40 spot LNG cargoes to meet unexpectedly high demand due to a cold snap, coupled with an absence of any new term supplies, squeezing the East Asian market.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), Japan's biggest electricity producer, said it could supply spot LNG cargoes to South Korea.
"If it wants to buy spot from us and if we have adequate stocks, we can supply spot LNG," a TEPCO spokesman said.
In July, when electricity demand typically peaks in Japan, TEPCO bought about 60,000 tons of Malaysian LNG that had been meant for Kogas, to meet strong electricity demand due to a heatwave in Japan's capital.
TEPCO plans to send the same volume of LNG to Kogas in December.
The energy market is expecting colder than normal weather.
"More traders are taking positions for colder than normal weather," an official at a Tokyo-based energy company said.

Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy will continue to meet only a tiny portion of world energy demand, despite their impressive growth.
That's the bleak assessment of leading energy expert Dr Brian Flannery, of Exxon Mobil.
Speaking at a combined American Chamber of Commerce and Exxon Mobil lunch in Melbourne yesterday, Dr Flannery said many of the "solutions" being proposed to meet the world's energy demand did not stand up to scrutiny.
Carbon trading, the Kyoto protocol, increased energy efficiency and the rapid increase in renewable energy would all unfortunately not stop greatly increased worldwide production of greenhouse gases.
That was because fossil fuels would continue to satisfy the vast bulk of world energy demand, finance.news.com reported.
"India and China, that is where the action is," Dr Flannery said, referring to rapidly increasing energy use.
In contrast, he forecast that wind and solar power together would meet only 1 per cent of the world's energy needs by 2020 - and that assumed continued rapid growth and subsidies for both.
Flannery said he had serious doubts about whether carbon trading would provide the right market signals or that the Kyoto protocol would do much more than slow down by 10 years the projected two degrees of global warning some people predicted for the next 100 years.
Kyoto would also entrench competitive issues by increasing costs in some countries. That would effectively bring massive wealth transfers between countries as they imported goods from other countries with lower effective energy costs.
Instead, what was needed was a massive, long-term investment splurge to manage long-term greenhouse gas emissions, he said.
Flannery said any solutions had to address emissions growth in developing countries as they required access to energy to alleviate poverty and develop their economies.
That meant the development of innovative, affordable and low greenhouse gas emitting technologies for electric power and transport fuels.