Electric Way Forward

Only recently I picked up the latest issue of Forbes India magazine and with the cover page mentioning ‘The Biggest Questions of 2012’ I knew it would be worth a flip.

To me, the most eye catching article or answer to the future was an interview with Renault-Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn. My friend from the magazine, Ashish Mishra was in correspondence for the article.

Mr. Carlos Ghosn

As per my observation Asian economies are growing. This is backed by flowering Asian demand and a capability to fulfil these demands. The direction and nature of these demands must be wise and should act as a winner for everyone. The electric car perspective –

• By 2020 there would be 100 million cars produced a year
• In 2010, less than 20,000 were electric cars out of the 75 million fresh purchases
• In 2012 Renault-Nissan would introduce four new electric cars
• Same year over 20,000 Nissan LEAF would be produced
• By 2015 Renault-Nissan would have sold 1.5 million electric vehicles

The big question – how long before mass production of electric vehicles?

The answer lies in emerging economies says Mr. Ghosn. There would have to be creation in demand for renewable sources of energy. This is one of the reasons why governments are encouraging citizens to buy cars that can run on multiple fuel sources. This is best suited for electric cars, as today; they can run on nuclear, solar, wind and even geothermal energy.

Lighter is Greener

The world is amidst an economic meltdown. There is piercing inflation across continents. Economies are struggling to maintain their growth rates. In the middle of all this, who would really want to spend on automobiles?

A smart way to keep auto sales going is by proving that they are green, sustainable and cheap (or at least affordable), all at the same time. A way to accomplish all three at once is by reducing the unessential weight of the car off the car. Maruti Suzuki in India saved Rs 147 crore by one gram weight reduction on auto components.

Here are few examples to prove a different sort of auto industry in the future. 

The image is a scan from today's (18-18-2011) Economic Times

Mayor Arturas Zuokas shows no one greater than Law

Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, has a mayor no one would want to mess with. This is a video release by the mayor, showing the means in which law teaches a lesson to the ones breaking the law.

Towards the end, the car owner finds to his astonishment, he does not own a Mercedes no more. All of this for faulty parking in the bicycle lane. The humble mayor helps in cleaning up the glass pieces scattered.

Europe’s Action for Public Transport

While in Delhi last month I had a copy of The New York Times saved for me. It’s real amazing, the kind of initiatives Europe is taking to actually minimize CO2 emissions and improve conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, public transport networks and even local business.

The article titled, ‘Traffic Torments, By Design’ by Elisabeth Rosenthal is the article in reference. It gives a multi dimensional view on the happenings to make road conditions unbearable for private vehicle owners while at the same time, cites examples of infrastructure designed to boost public transport efforts.

·         Copenhagen, Munich and Vienna have closed significant road space for car traffic

·         Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes taken over by bike sharing programs

·         London and Stockholm seem to have created a toll for drivers entering heart of the city

·         German cities have bonded by creating ‘environmental zones’ where only low carbon emitting vehicles are permitted

·         Zurich has an increase in number of red light signals which are closely spaced

·         The city’s tram system can switch traffic lights to their favour to stop car traffic

·         91% of all Swiss Parliament delegates take the tram to work

Trams in Switzerland

Looking at the economics of man v/s automobile, nothing seems fair. An individual occupies three cubic meters of space whereas a car takes up 115 cubic meters of urban space in Zurich. Looking further, once road space is made unofficial for automobiles, the number of pedestrians naturally increase, this improves the business for stores.

In my understanding, it’s the attitude of the people towards one other and the environment which matters. Calculating changes in man built environments is practical in order to save the environment. Above mentioned initiatives should be taken as a deliberate push for change. We are worth more than luxury emissions.   

China's actions towards sustainability

Last week I came across a brilliant link. This link is about the various opportunities China is seizing to convert into a sustainable green economy.

The link - Clean Technology

The above also happens to culminate into strong reasons for anyone to learn Chinese.

Interview with Sandeep Gandhi on Delhi BRT

As part of the Center for Science and Environment, Agenda for Survival course we had to publish a magazine. My contribution to the magazine was an interview on Delhi's public transport system. I had interviewed Bus Raped Transit system expert Sandeep Gandhi.

 

Additional direct link to interview on C.S.E website - BRT Interview

Vehicular Pollution in Urban Areas

India’s established urban populations are busy spear heading our nation into the world’s third largest economy. This progress would carry forward even at the cost of the environment.

Our actions towards green transport must be heightened. Delhi has 4.5 million registered vehicles while Gurgaon in the last one year had 50,000 additional registered vehicles on roads. None of the following have any trace of absolute green technology.

There is a need for vehicular emissions to be controlled by proper inspection and monitoring systems. Also, fuel adulteration must be ceased. Source apportionment studies must be implemented to deal with transport related pollution in cities. While Bharat Stage III vehicles are enforced in all cities there must be right policies to enforce Bharat Stage IV fuel across India, at the earliest. The latest fuel emits only 1.8 grams of carbon monoxide per kilo meter.

 Swift BS IV

Eventually to realize change there must be effective environmental governance. There must be the correct knowledge amongst masses and the government to support clean fuels and technology. This would be sustained by development projects. Pressure groups, activists and strength of masses must work towards such change

Public Transport Perception

In India, roads are designed as per the needs of the private automobile user. This is clearly a one sided approach and partially the reason behind which there are maximum road transport hurdles.

The solution to clear road related transport issues is by simply looking at the number of people travelling in public transport versus number of individuals using private vehicles against the given utilized capacity of that vehicle at a given point of time. On average in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore 45% of the trips are less than 5 kilo meters. This proves threat to available land space for modes of public transport.

 Delhi BRT

In Kolkata 6% of land is under land network and in Delhi it is 21% of the land space. So for example, in Delhi, average speed of vehicles is 11 kilo meters an hour though for the Bus Rapid Transit system the average speed is 20 kilo meters an hour. This might not be a great comparison though with 75% vehicles being privately owned in Delhi, this only caters to 33% of the population and this is a reason to invest in the improvement of public transport infrastructure.

India's Energy-Transport Matrix

The entire month of June I was in New Delhi attending a month long fellowship on India's environmental concerns organized by the Center for Science and Environment titled Agenda for Survival. This post as well as various following posts are going to be about certain interesting leanings from the course.

The key message of the matrix is, to shift towards sustainable practices and simultaneously avoid future emissions.

India's Integrated Energy Policy, 2006 frames an analysis considering India's growth at 8-10% annually. Such growth calls for an increase in India's electricity supply six fold to meet Millennium Development Goals. This also means an increase in primary energy supply four fold. Now if coal is going to be the primary energy source in India till 2030, there is an urgent need to understand and shift to renewable sources of energy. India also happens to import nearly 75% of its crude oil energy. The transport part of the matrix comes in at this point.

The Matrix?

What do we do to make our cars more fuel efficient?

In India, the automobile industry is trying to buy itself time. This time would delay the switch from Bharat Stage IV to V and further improved standards, the equivalent to Euro auto emission standards. This is being done as auto car manufacturers have other better concerns.

The possibility of greening current fleet of vehicles on roads is very high. This is the understanding - All auto companies follow the law of the land. Thus, same car in two different countries would have separate fuel economies. Indian auto manufacturers do sell else where around the world. At this point they must follow the standards set on foreign land. Though the companies are not interested in being philanthropic.

Getting back directly to the point of coal manufacturing. Cars in India, are the second largest users of diesel. Even if there is an increase in large cars running on diesel by 10% in India, it would lead to disastrous irreversible effects. Solutions such as bio fuels from cellulose can reduce green house gasses by 50-80% . Yet bio fuels require large amounts of land, threat to agricultural production and create concerns of food security. Solar power costs Rs. 20 per kilo watt and hour of energy. Creating market for solar power would reduce prices and cost on the buyers end, this is a smart thing to do.

The facts are before us, life cycle assessment could prove resourceful in such a case. Though, we must realize that our dependency on coal power must be minimized and this is urgent.

Going Electric

The New York Times publishes selected articles in a concise supplement which we receive every Saturday, here in Mumbai, India.
I have come across two very interesting articles on energy efficiency in modern day vehicles.

The current blog entry is picked from the following article - 'To help car buyers think electric, a better battery'.

The question - what can be done to make electric vehicles the choice of future auto purchasers? The answer lies in, improved battery manufacturing technologies which would reduce cost, enhance battery life and increase per kilo meter of kilowatt vs gasoline range. This would culminate to a shift in consumer tastes and expansion of the alternative fuels market.

Lithium-ion batteries in vehicles with scope for further research and innovation would prove acceptable at a mass level in a decade's time. Lithium being blended with various materials could result into a higher voltage  and increased energy density. This would prove in releasing such batteries off their greatest drawback, the battery life.

Chevy Volt

As per cost, currently, an electric vehicle would cost $750-800 per kilowatt an hour. In order to facilitate a parity between gasoline powered vehicles the cost must come down to $200 per kilowatt-hour.

India, has shown the potential to launch electric vehicles. As per current electric vehicle standards globally, India must largely invest into research and development in this field and must understand the potential of such technology.

Such is the scope of going electric.

Delhi Metro - 100,000 tonnes at a time

Only yesterday I returned back to Mumbai from Delhi.
Here is a video of the DMRC project of the Delhi Metro.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation helps in preventing 100,000 tones of CO2 emissions from emitting into the air, annually. It runs across a distance of 190 kilo meters and connects areas very effectively.

It is a blessing for the 2 million daily commuters.

Sustainable Opportunities

ON 11^TH FEB, 2011, I had attended a round table discussion on the port infrastructure and city transport logistics in Rotterdam and its experience for Indian port cities.

The discussion was headed by presentations of two professors who were also transport experts. Amongst the presence of various government and shipping authorities was Satyagiri Shipping Co. Ltd, one of India’s leading sustainable conscious shipping companies.

The port of Rotterdam has had many difficulties as a docking station in Central Europe. Over the years the port has achieved efficiency in port infrastructure to allocate maximum number of ships at a particular given time. It has also engaged maximum transport facilities to the port by creating separate lanes. Due to major trade with Germany the route design from the Netherlands to Germany has been altered to make a direct and time saving passage.

Professor Bart Kupiers spoke about the port of Rotterdam and its hinterland network. He stressed on how road transport congestion is similar between Mumbai and Rotterdam, ‘with a lot of congestion the level of living of people in these areas are affected’. He mentioned that the road transport moving towards the port area (which are in large numbers) must make ‘use of clean modes of transport’. The ‘use of clean fuels’ will reduce avoidable health issues for the people in this region. Further more, Professor Kupiers discussed the most interesting part – solutions. He listed the future trends of the port of Rotterdam. This was characterized by paying attention to various segments –

Growth of network

Growth in city centre

Growth in knowledge intensive industry

Growth in sustainable trade

Growth of logistics (green port)

Growth of creative industry

Professor Harry Geerlings spoke about the challenges of sustainable mobility. He explained sustainability as a combination of profit, people and the planet. With depleting natural resources, industries should aim at using renewable forms of energy. There is ample scope to delve into future technologies for sustainable growth in the shipping industry of India. Although, as India is fed by coal power a possible black swan problem could take place. We must me careful not to commit an act on nature so grave that it has an irreversible impact on mankind, especially India.

The round table concluded with mixed reactions due to differences in the dynamics of Indian ports and port of Rotterdam. Although, attempts such as the current discussion, Indian companies such as Satyagiri Shipping Pvt. Ltd and interactions with experienced individuals in the specialized field, sustainable opportunities in the Indian context is not far away.


Photo link - http://www.portofrotterdam.com