Germany is committed to phasing out its 17 nuclear plants. (Dw-world.de Photo)

One of Germany’s leading energy companies wants to extend the lifetime of one of its nuclear plants in a move that anti-nuclear campaigners describe as an attack on plans to phase out nuclear energy in Germany.
German energy giant EnBW presented a rather unwelcome Christmas gift to the government end of last week when it sought to transfer part of the life span of one of its more modern nuclear reactors to an older one which was due to shut down in 2009 under a six-year-old phase-out plan.
EnBW’s request provoked strong reactions over Christmas, including a stern rebuff from environment minister Sigmar Gabriel. But the Social Democrat minister’s word may not have been the last on the issue as conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel is a staunch advocate of nuclear energy and now hopes for political tailwind from the European Commission, Dw-world.de reported.

Greens Expect Backpedaling on Nuclear Phase-Out
Germany’s nuclear phase-out plan was adopted by the previous red-green government, and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s current government of Social Democrats and Conservatives have decided to leave it untouched for now.
But senior members of the opposition environmentalist Greens such as Fritz Kuhn believe that EnBW’s move is a thinly veiled attempt to salvage its old reactor beyond 2009. They hope, Kuhn argues, that Merkel’s CDU would then be stronger after general elections and could finally ditch the nuclear withdrawal plan.
“It’s an absurd idea to transfer part of the remaining lifetime of a modern reactor to an older one,“ Kuhn said. “Quite obviously German energy companies want to undo the accord they signed in 2000. This must not be tolerated by politics.“
Chancellor Angela Merkel is indeed increasingly unhappy with the plan to shut down all 17 nuclear plants in Germany by 2021. In the light of rising energy prices and Germany’s huge dependency on foreign energy, mainly from Russia, she wants a broader energy mix. She believes Germany should use the edge in nuclear technology it has acquired over the years.
But anti-nuclear campaigners say nuclear plants are primarily money machines for the energy industry. EnBW’s CEO Utz Claasen defends his company’s move saying it’s perfectly in line with legal provisions.
“We abide by common international standards regarding the lifetime of nuclear reactors,“ Claasen said. “And what’s more important we do not violate the stipulations laid out in the nuclear accord between government and industry.“

EU May Urge Rethink on Nuclear Energy
Social Democrat environment minister Sigmar Gabriel is an opponent of nuclear energy. But he has grudgingly admitted that he cannot throw out the application so easily.
He is likely to come under added pressure from a European Union review of nuclear energy which is due to be published in early January. Parts of the report have already been leaked to the press and stress that nuclear power is important if the EU is to meet its ambitious climate protection policy goals.
Volker Hoff, a liberal member of the European parliament from Germany also argues that stopping nuclear power makes no sense anymore.
“It’s foolish to adhere to our national phase-out plan and at the same time promote an EU energy strategy that includes nuclear power,“ Hoff said. “In that way we are forcing our neighbors to increase their nuclear energy production for the entire EU to be able to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets.“
Germany generates one third of its energy needs from nuclear power. Germans still overwhelmingly back a nuclear-free energy policy with a strong emphasis on renewable energies. But in view of skyrocketing electricity and heating bills that have angered Germans this year, the tide appears to be slowly turning.

Wind energy in the UK has broken all records in 2006 according to BWEA. The campaigning body claim that 2006 has been the most productive and successful year for the sector since the country’s first commercial wind farm started generating 15 years ago.
A record breaking 630 new megawatts (MW) of wind energy have been commissioned in 2006: an increase of 50% on performance of 2005, which in turn saw a 100% increase on capacity commissioned in 2004.
The countdown has now begun to the UK’s second gigawatt of installed capacity--only 18 months after commissioning its first--firmly positioning the wind industry as a key player in the UK energy market and the UK wind industry in the top ten players globally, Newbuilder.co.uk said.
And in a move which is likely to arouse the suspicions of environmentalists, BP is to join the BWEA early in the new year. Shell has been a member for some years and other big power producers, such as Centrica, owner of British Gas, E.ON of Germany and Scottish Power, have also joined.
Britain’s biggest oil company is going to make sure it has influence inside the BWEA by becoming a “sponsor member“, which means it will have a seat on the board. BP’s close links with the government have made it an especially desirable ally in the eyes of the wind energy movement.
Green campaigners are suspicious of the global giant which talks about green issues but invests little. According to the Guardian, neither BWEA nor BP was willing to comment. BP has no wind farms in Britain and very few such assets outside, apart from a couple of experimental plants in the Netherlands. But it established an alternative energy division last year and has set itself ambitious targets to develop solar and other operations.
Wind energy is officially the fastest growing energy source worldwide, with an average annual growth rate of 23% over the last 15 years. And in the UK, with some of the best winds in the world, this trend is very evident. According to BWEA a record number of homes will be powered by the wind this winter, with turbines in the UK generating sufficient electricity to meet the needs of over a million households--or to boil enough water for two billion cups of tea.

Tom Brown didn’t exactly have a Eureka! moment when he was first shown in 1998 how a Calgary-based company planned to use water to help the world.
But like Archimedes--the ancient mathematician who is said to have discovered the principle of buoyancy and leapt from his bath shouting the Greek word for “I have found it!“--Brown knew he was on to something big. The former management consultant was so impressed with Hy-Drive Technologies Ltd. that he went from being an investor to becoming the president and CEO.
Since moving from Calgary to Mississauga in 2003, Hy-Drive has quietly developed its revolutionary technology into a product slowly being adopted around the world. And Brown’s convinced it’s only a matter of time before the Hy-Drive unit becomes as common as the water that runs it, Thestar.com said.
The technology is used with any internal combustion engine, creating hydrogen gas from water and then injecting it into the engine to drastically improve fuel efficiency and reduce harmful pollutants that damage air quality.
Trucks, cars, generators, buses, trains and anything else that uses a traditional engine can easily be fitted with one of the compact units that only require a couple liters of distilled water to run. HreinOrka, an Icelandic company, just signed a contract with Hy-Drive to help that country reach its goal of becoming a hydrogen-based economy by 2050.
Distribution agreements for India, China, Japan and Hong Kong have been signed and existing contracts have already helped Hy-Drive sell its units in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Up to now the company has focussed on units for long-haul trucks, but a partnership with Vaughan-based auto-parts manufacturer Martinrea International Inc. has been established to get the Hy-Drive technology into cars.
Sitting behind the desk of his spartan office, Brown explains that while fuel and hydrogen -cell technology might one day replace the need for oil completely, it probably won’t happen in his lifetime.
“It may be the future, but we’re the bridge to that future.“
Brown’s philosophy is that until the infrastructure evolves to help the world make the transition from a fuel-based economy, the best approach is to work with what we have.
“There are over 480 million cars on the road today (world-wide). Instead of waiting years and years and years for completely new technology and infrastructure, we can make a big impact right now.“
Hy-Drive says its units increase fuel efficiency by at least 9 percent and by as much as 40 percent. A California study of the Hy-Drive unit showed emission reductions of 74 per cent in hydrocarbons and 80 per cent in particulate matter.
“It’s a no-brainer for me,“ says Glenn Windrem of Peterborough-based Windrem Trucking, which has a fleet of 19 trucks.
“Seven of them have the Hy-Drive units. We’ve been using them for almost four years. We’ve seen fuel efficiency improve by at least 10 percent and up to 20, depending on the load, weather conditions, the route.
“You make your money back just on that, and then there’s the added bonus of having lower emissions.“ Windrem says his engines with the Hy-Drive units get almost no carbon build-up and burn “way cleaner than ever before. And you get better horsepower too.“
And that’s why Brown feels his decision to take over the company was the right one.
“I knew the technology would work,“ he says. “I was quite happy to see the company start making an impact on the world, to help make a cleaner Earth.“

Thailand is expected to slash imports of low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) for power generation by over 90 percent next year after two new natural gas fields come onstream in the first quarter, industry sources said.
Weaker demand is expected to bring down Asian LSFO premiums, which have been riding high in recent months on strong demand from South Korea and Taiwan, where utilities fear liquefied natural gas (LNG) shortages and see good value in burning oil.
Top Thai oil firm PTT plans to limit its purchases to two 80,000-to-100,000-ton cargoes for the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) during the March-April peak season, a Bangkok-based trading source told Reuters.
PTT bought about 1.0-1.2 million tons of 85-175-centistoke (cst) fuel oil with a 1.5 percent sulfur content this year, mostly during the March-June summer period when electricity demand peaks and before the rainy season boosts hydro output.
“The expectation is that the natural gas supplies will come onstream in time for the peak-demand season by the end of the first quarter,“ the trading source said.
PTT’s third domestic pipeline will run from the vast Erawan field in the Gulf of Thailand to a gas separation plant in eastern Rayong. Its capacity will increase by 700 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), or about 20 percent, to 4,220 mmcfd next year under phase 1 of its expansion by the first quarter, according to Yahoo.com.
The pipeline will be expanded into the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (JDA) under phase 2 when its capacity increases by another 1,200 mmcfd in 2008 after it takes supplies from the Arthit field.
The field, which has capacity of 450-480 mmcfd, is set to begin producing by February 2008, further curbing fuel demand.
Additional supplies will come from the Hess Corp. -operated Phu Horm field in northeast Thailand, which began production in late November and should reach 100 mmcfd next year with the completion of two additional wells.
The supplies are being sold to a power plant in Nam Phong over 15 years.
Further delays to the pipeline--originally slated to launch in the third quarter of this year--could increase fuel oil demand, the source said.
Electricity demand next year is expected to rise 5.5 percent to 149,471 million kilowatt hours (Kwh) compared with an estimated increase of 4.9 percent to 126,600 million Kwh in 2006, said Viraphol Jirapaditkul, the country’s head of the Office of Policy and Planning.
Demand for natural gas would rise 7 percent to 3.46 billion cubic feet per day in 2007 as domestic and Myanmar producers provide more supplies, he added.
PTT has not bought LSFO since September and inventories are high at about 100,000 tons. The firm is not buying any for the rest of the year and is unlikely to look for imports till March.
LSFO premiums have strengthened over the past month on firming demand from South Korea and Taiwan and steady usage in Japan, the product’s largest consumer in Asia.
Taiwan refiner Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC) [CHIP.UL] has bought at least one cargo a month for Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) since August. The island’s largest utility has increased its LSFO consumption by half to 3.9 million kilolitres (67,000 barrels per day) due to shortfalls in LNG-fuelled power.
South Korean utilities, mainly Korea Electric East-West Power Corp. (KEWPCO) and Korea Electric West Power Corp. (KOWEPO), also bought heavy volumes following concerns over insufficient LNG supplies during winter.
Demand is stable in Japan as only three of the country’s 17 nuclear units are on planned maintenance. LSFO inventories stand about 16 percent higher than a year ago, industry data showed.

Ethanol-propelled cars would help reduce harmful emissions. (Google.com Photo)

A Malawi project investigating ethanol-based fuels is conducting road tests on an ethanol-propelled vehicle.
Supporters of the project argue that a switch to ethanol fuel would not only benefit the environment but also increase employment in the country’s sugarcane industry and save on foreign exchange spent on fuel imports.
According to Freeman Kalirani, a lead researcher on the project--based at Lilongwe Technical College and conducted jointly with the department of science and technology--a modified Mitsubishi Pajero will be tested over a 350 kilometer route from Lilongwe to Mzuzu.
The five-year, US$1 million project, backed by the Malawi government, is investigating the practicability of flex-fuel vehicles that use either 100 per cent locally manufactured ethanol, or a combination of ethanol and petrol, Scidey.net said.
Until February 2006, all cars in Malawi used leaded petrol blended with 20 per cent ethanol. Since then, the country has switched to unleaded petrol blended with 10 per cent ethanol. Proponents of ethanol use argue that continued over-dependence on fossil fuels has economic, social, climate and biodiversity impacts for humans and the entire ecosystem.
Kendron Chisale, Malawi’s deputy director of science and technology, said a switch to ethanol would allow Malawi to comply with procedures aimed at emission reduction, as agreed by parties at the 2006 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi in November. “This will eventually mitigate climate change related disasters,“ he says.
Charles Mtonga, an economic analyst, told SciDev.Net that one advantage of using ethanol as a renewable energy source is that it can increase employment in the sugarcane industry. “It can also save on foreign exchange lost through importation of petroleum products,“ he said.
But Mtonga cautioned against over-enthusiasm, calling for continued research on how vehicles previously propelled by petrol can best be modified to use ethanol.
He also warned that huge investments in production and installation of additional pumps would be required to make ethanol fuel available throughout the country.
Malawi produces ethanol from sugar molasses in bulk amounts at Dwangwa, in the central region lakeshore district of Nkhota-kota.