Here’s another Severn fact: in the future, the estuary could be used to provide five percent of UK energy needs. At least that’s what the government reckons.

So convinced is it of the energy-generating power of the Severn, it’s kicking off a feasibility study on putting a tidal energy generator in place in the estuary- potentially the largest of its kind in Europe.

This week, the government announced it’s enlisted the help of contractors to do the Strategic Environmental Assessment bit of the study.

The contractors in question are a consortium led by Parsons Brinckerhoff, and they’ll be studying that there feasibility for two years, to see how the estuary’s wildlife might be affected if the project went ahead.

In the next few days, the consortium is likely to put out a call for evidence, asking for these details:

* A call for proposals for tidal power schemes in the Severn Estuary using tidal range technology
* A request for any information (e.g. environmental, technical, commercial, social) that currently exists or is under development that could potentially contribute to the evidence base for the assessment of schemes and the subsequent Strategic Environmental Assessment

Meanwhile, PricewaterhouseCoopers have been picked to advise the government on how to finance the whole shebang.

In the meantime, it’s mitigating its affects on Greenbang’s environment through its corporate sustainability efforts, detailed in a report out this week.

Greenbang’s had a read through and this is what she found:

Long-term objectives for our products
We are working toward these long-term objectives for
our products:
. Achieve better than 90 percent recyclability
. Use more than 20 percent recycled material content
. Achieve high energy efficiency
. Use environmentally preferred materials
. Minimize the ratio of packaging material to product volume

Greenbang likes the bits with metrics attached, not so sure about the vague wording of the rest. And there’s more:

Motorola’s climate-change strategy
By 2010, we will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from our operations by 15 percent per million dollars of sales, compared with 2005. As a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange, we also have committed to a 6 percent reduction in our absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 2010, compared with 2000.
We will achieve these reductions by:
. Improving energy management at our operations
. Using more renewable energy
We also aim to increase the energy efficiency of our products and to develop more climate-friendly products.
In 2008, we will measure the environmental impact of employee business travel and will establish a Motorola-wide methodology for measuring the carbon footprint of our products.

Of all the green bits and bobs Greenbang read, she thinks she likes this one best:

In 2007, Motorola launched MOTOPOWER, a project to bring renewable energy and business opportunities to women in Uganda. We have established 55 solar-powered kiosks that are run by local women and that offer free mobile phone charging and sell operator SIM cards (portable memory chips that identify mobile subscribers). This effort is helping to increase mobile phone ownership in a country with one of the lowest levels of electricity supply in Africa. The kiosks also provide repair services and operate as a local “phone booth.”

And the bit she likes the least? Motorola claiming there’s something inherently green about having a device with a lot of features in it: the logic of “there’s a calculator function on your phone! So you don’t need a separate device!” doesn’t exactly seem like a major environmental commitment, really.

You want the report? You want it? You can have it! It’s here.

Today, it’s got its tongue down the throat of carbon capture - the technology which < href=”http://www.greenbang.com/3072/carbon-capture-as-much-use-a-chocolate-teapot-greenpeace/”>Greenpeace picked out as a fat lot of use in stopping global warming earlier this week.

Nevertheless, the DoE is pressing ahead with the tech and financing a handful of projects to the tune of $126 million to the West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (WESTCARB) and the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP).

Apparently, the idea is to store one million tonnes of carbon in Ohio and California.

Here’s the whole skinny from the DoE:

The new projects will demonstrate the entire CO2 injection process — pre-injection characterization, injection process monitoring, and post-injection monitoring — for large scale injections of one million tons or more to test the ability of different geologic settings to permanently store CO2. DOE plans to invest $126.6 million in the two projects over the next 10 years, while the industry partners will provide $56.6 million in cost-shared funds to make these projects a success.

In the first stages of the projects, researchers will characterize the selected sites. Over the first 24 months, researchers and industry partners will complete the modeling, monitoring, and infrastructure improvements needed before CO2 can be injected. These efforts will establish a baseline for future monitoring after CO2 injection begins. Each project will then inject one million tons or more of CO2 into a regionally significant storage formation. After injection, investigators will monitor and model the fate of the CO2 to determine the effectiveness of the storage reservoir.

The latest projects to be awarded are outlined below:

Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP) — The MRCSP, led by Battelle Memorial Laboratories, will demonstrate CO2 storage in the Mount Simon Sandstone. This geologic formation stretches from Kentucky through Ohio and has the potential to store more than 100 years of CO2 emissions from major point sources in the region. The MRCSP will inject approximately one million tons of CO2 from an ethanol production facility. In this area of Ohio, the Mount Simon formation is approximately 3,000 feet deep. The CO2 will be injected on the facility site, and MRCSP will be responsible for development of the infrastructure, operations, closure, and monitoring of the injected CO2. The MRCSP covers Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Michigan.
Total Project Cost: $92,846,271
DOE Share: $61,096,271
Partner Share: $31,750,000

West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (WESTCARB) — The WESTCARB Partnership, led by the California Energy Commission, will conduct a geologic CO2 storage project in the San Joaquin Basin in Central California. The project will inject 1 million tons of CO2 over 4 years into deep (7,000+ feet) geologic formations below a 50-megawatt, zero-emission power plant in Kimberlina, CA. The Clean Energy Systems plant uses natural or synthesis gas in an oxyfuel system and produces a relatively pure stream of CO2. This CO2 will be compressed and injected into one of a number of potential storage formations below the surface of the plant. WESTCARB will develop, operate, and close the injection site as well as monitor the fate of the injected CO2. The WESTCARB Partnership includes California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, and British Columbia.

Total Project Cost: $90,594,099
DOE Share: $65,606,584
Partner Share: $24,987,515

Yep, you heard Greenbang, a bit like crispy noodles.

Greenbang will let the university of Manchester explain:

A new material developed in Manchester, which has a structure that resembles crispy noodles, could help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being pumped out and drive the next generation of high-performance hydrogen cars.

After a nice bit of funding - to the tune of £150,000 - dished out to Dr Peter Budd, a materials chemist working in the Organic Materials Innovation Centre at the University, researchers are looking at a new polymer which looks like it can whip carbon out of emissions from the likes of power stations.
The polymers of intrinsic microporosity (let’s call them PIMs for short) will be used in special membranes for carbon removal and recovery and could even make storing hydrogen for cars a bit more safer and energy efficient.
Greenbang will hand over once again to the science people at Manchester:

Dr Budd said: “The PIMs act a bit like a sponge when hydrogen is around. It’s made up of long molecules that can trap hydrogen between them, providing a way of supplying hydrogen on demand.

“Imagine a plate of spaghetti - when it’s all coiled together there’s not much space between the strands. Now imagine a plate of crispy noodles - their rigid twisted shape means there are lots of holes.

“The polymer is designed to have a rigid backbone, and it has twists and bends built into it. Because of this, lots of gaps and holes are created between molecules - perfect for tucking the hydrogen into.

“The holes between the molecules give the polymer a very high surface area - each gram has a surface area equivalent to around three tennis courts. The molecules in the polymer act like sieves, catching smaller molecules like hydrogen in the gaps between them.

“The holes created in the polymer between molecules are a good fit for hydrogen. Hydrogen molecules stick in these holes and are kept there by weak forces - this means they can be released when they are needed.

“Hydrogen is most sticky when it is cooled down to low temperatures. When the hydrogen is needed to power the car, the system would just raise the temperature to free up the hydrogen molecules.”

PIMs were created at The University of Manchester several years ago by Dr Budd and colleagues.

Dr Budd says he is encouraged by the progress being made, but warns that a lot of work still needs to be done.

“In the context of climate change and dwindling oil reserves, hydrogen could be the perfect zero-carbon fuel for a car as it only gives water as a by-product,” he adds.

Still, she hopes that the joint open letter CBI and WWF to PM Gordon Brown has a better success rate. There’s no requests for flying unicorns in there, so that gives it a better chance of success, in Greenbang’s esteemed opinion.

The letter in question is asking Gordon Brown (texture like sun) to consider spending all that delicious cash he’s about to raise from emissions trading scheme - £1.6 billion - on stopping climate change with the likes of “green sectors and industries - including the full range of energy efficient, renewable energy, energy storage, carbon capture and storage, and low carbon transport technologies - without picking specific winners.”

Not an unreasonable request, you might say. Greenbang wouldn’t disagree.

Here’s a snippet from the letter:

we note that the UK government will accrue significant revenues from
he auctioning of allowances under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. All of us support the case for auctioning of carbon allowances to sectors where this does not threaten their international competiveness.

But this is still a substantial, additional transfer of funds from business and consumers to government (perhaps £300-£400m per year from 2008-12, and several times that in subsequent years). This represents a tremendous opportunity for the government to demonstrate its real commitment by announcing an equivalent scale investment in securing the transition to a low-carbon economy and in adaptation.

While we accept there may be some technical difficulties in ring-fencing the revenue, it should be perfectly possible to announce a similar investment in low carbon technologies and adaptation equivalent to the revenue raised by auctioning.

Greenbang hopes that Gordon is reading his correspondence.

Apparently, insurer AXA reckons small businesses are absolutely chucking out carbon - some 110 tonnes every year it reckons.

And they’re not daft about their climate consequences either - 55 percent of SMEs told AXA they’re contributing to global warming.

So what are they doing about it? Not overly much, you might be forgiven for thinking.

Six percent have green energy suppliers, 36 percent recycle, 25 percent use “environmentally friendly” products and a similar percentage have been prodding staff to cut energy use.

Apparently, that’s working about as well a solar powered torch, or a Kentish Job Centre employee.

Another SME survey, this time sponsored by E.ON (PR surveys are like crack to Greenbang at the moment), says two fifths of staff aren’t toeing the company line and following green policies.

A rather sweet little nugget from that self-same survey said that 58 percent of employees could be encouraged to make green changes to their office lifestyle with ‘financial incentives’.

Isn’t that called paying them?

The four investors in CCC, which specialises in investing in carbon offsetting and cutting ventures, are Alliance Trust, The Universities Superannuation Scheme, SNS REAAL, a Dutch based banking and insurance business and Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co Ltd.

Between them, the four will pay £56 million and will share 50 percent of the bank between them - the cash will be used to help fund CCC’s growth plans. The foursome has also promised to contribute £20 million for a “new fund of funds”.

Yep, a “new fund of funds”. No, Greenbang neither.

Here’s a little bit about Climate Change Capital and what they do, to keep you going:

CCC operates three transactional teams:

• Carbon Finance: develops and manages funds that invest in Green House Gas (”GHG”) reduction projects and their underlying assets, primarily in the developing world. The funds also invest in companies that provide technologies or services facilitating GHG reductions. The Climate Change Capital Carbon Funds have over €800 million under management.

• Fund Management: Develops and manages funds that invest in companies, projects and technologies that provide products or services facilitating climate change mitigation or adaptation. Through the Ventus group of listed Venture Capital Trusts and The Climate Change Capital Private Equity Fund, CCC has in excess of €250 million under management for investing in clean technology, clean fuels and renewable energy.

• Advisory: provides financial, strategic and policy advice to energy-intensive industries, financial institutions, clean technology companies and governments.

However, Greenbang’s going to make an exception today and bring you the story of a green tech fund that’s just closed. It’s a story with a happy ending too - it’s closed with more funds than expected.

The hero of this story is Israel Cleantech Ventures, which dropped us a line today to tell us it’s closed its first fund with $75M - $15 million more than it had originally planned on.

The company’s a mere two years old, but it’s already invested in this little lot:

Aqwise (waste water treatment), CellEra (fuel cells), Citrine Renewable Energy (landfill biogas treatment), Emefcy (energy production from wastewater), Metrolight (energy efficient lighting), Project Better Place (electric vehicle infrastructure), and Pythagoras Solar (solar energy).

Government owned power company Hydro-Québec has just announced $5.5 billion of spending ($1.1 billion will go on transmission infrastructure) on 15 wind farm projects. The projects will see 2,004 MW of energy capacity come online between 2011 and 2015.

Hydro-Québec says the energy will cost around 10.5 cents per kWh - that’s 8.7 cents for the wind energy, 1.3 cents for transmission, and an estimated 0.5 cents for balancing service provided by Hydro-Québec Production.

One of the big winners will be the St-Laurent Energies consortium, whose members include the likes of EDF Energies Nouvelles, Quebec-based electricity producer Hydroméga and Renewable Energy Systems. The group will build five wind farms wuith 954 MW of capacity, and the first turbines should be up and running from 2011.

But while the debate over biofuels rumbles away in the background, like an elderly relative after Christmas dinner, Finland’s Neste Oil has come up with a new diesel product called NExBTL: it’s like traditional diesel but with 10 percent added biofuel.

Greenbang doesn’t think she’s heard of any fuel manufacturer going for a higher percentage of biofuels added - if you have, drop us a line in talkback.

At the moment, NExBTL’s features palm oil, rapeseed oil, and animal fats. In future Neste Oil’s says it will only use inedible feedstocks, upping the inedible feedstocks proportion to 60 percent over 10 years.

Neste says the fuel will suit all diesel motors, and will go on sale around Helsinki soon, followed by distribution across Finland before too long.