Car firm unveils green 4x4 with a unique celling point

This is the 4x4 of the future: fuelled by hydrogen and emitting just a few drops of water for every 300 miles travelled.

On the surface it looks much like an ordinary Nissan 4x4. But under the bonnet, engineers have installed one of the most advanced hydrogen fuel cells yet. A tank filled with hydrogen enables the vehicle to travel that far - and those water drops are said to be clean enough to drink.

The Japanese car giant unveiled the multi-million-pound research car at Imperial College, London, today and said it represents the way millions of motorists will travel by 2020. Work on the firm's Fuel Cell Vehicle programme began in 1996, reaching a pinnacle with this version of the X-Trail. Nissan says it is world's most advanced FCV.

Officials admit there is still "significant" development work to be done. But scientists expect to have cracked key challenges - such as the durability of the fuel-cell - by 2010. Then they must achieve "drastic" cost reductions and make breakthroughs in the storage of hydrogen before the car can go on sale, after 2015.

Already engineers have boosted fuel-cell performance so it is 40 per cent smaller than earlier prototypes. And they have developed a system to compress hydrogen that allows enough fuel to be stored for about 300 miles.
David Williams


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Will A Water Meter Save Money

The water watchdog suggests that the first thing customers can do is check whether they would save money by having a meter installed. People living alone or those who currently pay higher than average charges are most likely to benefit. Companies install meters for free and if customers see their bills rise they are able to switch back to their old charges within 12 months. A single person living alone in a property with an average rateable value could save around £100 by having a meter installed. A water meter calculator is available on the Consumer Council for Water’s website, where customers can work out if installing a meter could save them money.

Customers who already have a meter can cut their bill by taking simple steps to avoid wasting water they are paying for. Fixing dripping taps, installing a water saving device in toilets, taking showers rather than baths and collecting rainwater for use in the garden are all great ways to be water efficient. A household paying the average metered bill who reduce water waste by ten per cent could save around £25 per year on their water bill.

WaterSure is another money saving option for customers with a water meter and on income based benefits such as Income Support, Income based Jobseekers allowance, Pension Credit, Working Tax Credit, Housing or Council Tax benefits, and have either a large family (three or more children in full time education under the age of 19) or a medical condition which requires them to use more water. The programme caps a household’s water bill at the average rate for their area, allowing metered households to use the extra water they need without having to worry about a high bill. A low income household of five with a water meter could be spending as much as £600 to £700 per year on water. Customers who meet the criteria for WaterSure could end up saving hundreds of pounds over a year by signing up and having their bill capped.

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Green refurbishment could create a £3.5 billion market

Research from the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University indicates that refurbishing existing housing in the UK to make it more energy efficient could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 75% versus current levels, as well as creating a £3.5-6.5 billion market for builders.

Homes in the UK account for 27% of the country’s total carbon emissions and the Government has set ambitious targets to make all newly built homes in the country zero carbon by 2016 to help tackle climate change. However, the vast majority of the country’s existing housing stock is already built and will still be occupied in 2050.
“UK housing is among the worst in Europe when it comes to energy efficiency,” says Killip. “Bringing British homes up to standard is possible using existing technology but the skills and industry base to deliver the necessary change is underdeveloped.”

The recommendations include new policies from the Government that commit to and support the refurbishment of existing homes to improve energy efficiency, cutting VAT on refurbishing work from 17.5% to 5%, introducing Council Tax rebates on energy efficient homes and feed-in tariffs to stimulate use of microgeneration.

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The Great Biofuels Con

Rarely in political history can there have been such a rapid and dramatic reversal of a received wisdom as we have seen in the past 18 months over biofuels – the cropping of living plants, such as soya beans, wheat and sugar cane, to generate energy.
Two years ago biofuels were still being hailed as a dream solution to what was seen as one of the most urgent problems confronting mankind – our dependence on fossil fuels, which are not only finite but seemed to be threatening the world with the catastrophe of global warming.

In March 2007 the leaders of the European Union, in a package of measures designed to lead the world in the "fight against climate change", committed us by 2020 to deriving 10 per cent of all transport fuel from "renewables", above all biofuels, which theoretically gave off no more carbon dioxide than was absorbed in their growing.

Since then, however, the biofuels dream has been disintegrating with the speed of a collapsing card house. Environmentalists, formerly keen on this "green energy", expressed horror at the havoc it was inflicting on the world's eco-systems, not least the clearing of rainforests to grow fuel crops.

As the world suddenly faced its worst food shortage for decades, sending prices spiralling, experts pointed out that a major cause had been diverting millions of acres of farmland from food production to fuel. The damage this was inflicting on the world's poor led a United Nations official to describe the rush for biofuels as "a crime against humanity".

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