Month: January 2012

Lobbyists for cap and trade face daunting task

Posted on by Ben Debski

But intensive lobbying by these climate bill proponents – including heavyweights like Duke Energy, Shell Oil Co and General Electric Co – may not be enough to counter powerful opposition and get a bill passed before the US mid-term elections in November.

President Obama says he still backs a climate bill but many have written off the chances of passing legislation with the most controversial provision: a market that aims to cut pollution by letting companies buy and trade permits to emit greenhouse gases.

Nevertheless, some major US companies are pushing for a bill that would include this cap-and-trade system, saying it would create a modern energy economy and thousands of jobs.

Duke Energy Chief Executive Jim Rogers and Shell Oil Co President Marvin Odum met moderate lawmakers, seeking ways to push such a bill in the Senate that has made little progress.

One idea is to allow cap-and-trade to be implemented on power utilities first, with regulations on oil refineries and other industries coming later.

Proponents from industry are lobbying with environmentalists under the US Climate Action Partnership, who still want a bill regulating emissions of planet-warming gases across all sectors of the economy. They say cap-and-trade will create a lot of jobs and boost the economy.

But climate legislation has fierce opponents in the main US business lobby, the US Chamber of Commerce, and most Republican lawmakers, some of whom doubt the threat of global warming. Few climate bill proponents are confident there are enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill, especially with Democratic fortunes falling ahead of the mid-term elections.

A cap-and-trade system would reward companies for adopting clean energy technologies like nuclear plants and burying carbon emissions from coal generators underground. Rogers said this would give investors confidence to finance new power plants.

“We have to retire or replace every plant by 2050,” he said. “The sooner we get about the business of doing that, the better.”

He said wind and solar power markets would grow faster under a cap-and-trade system, which would help the United States compete with emerging powers like China.

Odum said an emissions market would create hundreds of thousands of jobs as companies race to begin building a new energy system. In such markets, governments limit pollution and let cleaner companies earn valuable credits to sell.

Lobbyists for cap-and-trade, who also include General Electric Co, must find ways to bring in other energy and industrial companies that have opposed the system, said Dan Weiss, an energy expert at the Centre for American Progress.

Otherwise, they will not be able to secure the 60 votes in the Senate needed to avoid a Republican filibuster and pass the bill.

Time runs short
Passage will be more difficult since Senate Democrats lost their 60-seat super majority with the election of Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. The Republican campaigned against a cap-and-trade bill, citing worries about higher energy costs.

With the midterm elections 39 weeks away, many lawmakers may avoid controversial climate legislation and turn their attention to campaigning.

“The bottom line is it will be hard to convince the fence sitters before the midterm elections that the new green jobs will replace jobs that will be lost in the traditional energy economy,” said Divya Reddy, an analyst at the Eurasia Group.

A compromise bill being hashed out by Senators John Kerry, a Democrat, Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and Joe Lieberman, an independent, is not expected to be out before March.

Lobbyists for companies that support a cap-and-trade system have taken heart in signals from the trio of senators, and in recent comments from President Obama, that a compromise could pick up votes.

Rogers at Duke said the lobbyists are targeting 15 to 17 Democratic and eight to 10 Republican Senators to win votes.

A “hybrid” bill, that would impose cap-and-trade on power plants and an emissions fee on other industrial sources of greenhouse gases, could break down resistance from lawmakers in states that produce oil and natural gas.

Shell’s Odum said such a bill could assure the petroleum industry that traditional fuels will be around for decades to come, freeing lawmakers in oil states to vote for a bill.

But time is growing short. “It’s a tough sell,” said Eurasia Reddy, who added they would also need to convince lawmakers the bill would not raise short-term energy bills.

Unpredictably US payrolls jump

Posted on by Ben Debski

Employers added 290,000 jobs in April, the Labour Department said on May 7, far more than analysts had expected. The department also revised figures for February and March to show 121,000 more jobs were added than previously estimated.

“I think we are moving into this very reassuring range of strong employment growth. It is consistent with the way the economy is going,” said Kurt Karl, chief US economist at Swiss Re in New York.

The unemployment rate, however, rose to 9.9 percent as discouraged workers started to look for work again.

Stubbornly high unemployment has been a political sore spot for President Obama, even though the job market is showing increased vigor.

Analysts had expected nonfarm payrolls to rise 200,000 in April and the jobless rate to remain unchanged at 9.7 percent. The median forecast from the 20 most accurate forecasters was for a 188,000 increase in payrolls.

The stronger-than-expected reading for the most widely watched US economic indicator did little to encourage investors worried about the eurozone’s debt crisis.

Private sector employment increased 231,000, the largest gain since March 2006, after rising 174,000 in March. Private payrolls have grown for four months.

Analysts had expected private employment to rise between 50,000 and 100,000 in April.

Census hiring contributed 66,000 jobs.

Data ranging from manufacturing to consumer spending have pointed to a pick-up in the recovery from the US economy’s longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

The jump in US jobs growth was mirrored in Canada, where a record number of workers found jobs in April, stunning markets and adding pressure on the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates in June, ahead of other major industrialised countries.

The US data was unlikely to put pressure on the Federal Reserve, with economists noting earnings for private sector workers were flat in April and would not put pressure on inflation.

Nonetheless, investors slightly increased expectations the Fed will raise its key target rate. Implied prospects that the Fed will raise the target by its September 21 meeting edged up to 50 percent from about 46 percent before the jobs figures.

Momentum
“The trend is improving,” said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities International in New York. “The economic recovery is gaining momentum.”

Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the jump in payrolls was the strongest sign yet that the labour market was healing but noted the high unemployment rate was still a cause for concern.

Public disenchantment over the economy, especially the labour market, is damaging Obama’s popularity. His fellow Democrats face a tough fight in congressional elections in November, with their majority status at stake.

Republicans say Obama’s policies – including a record economic stimulus package – have failed to deliver on their promise of reducing the jobless rate, which is expected to still be painfully high when elections roll around.

About 8.2 million jobs were lost during the recession and economists warn it is likely to take years to regain that lost employment.

US consumers have begun to participate in what has been a manufacturing-led recovery, but job growth is crucial to sustaining that trend.

In April, manufacturing payrolls increased 44,000 after rising 19,000 in March. Construction employment gained 14,000, rising for a second month and defying expectations of a fall.

Payrolls in the service sector increased 166,000, advancing for a third month. Temporary help hiring increased 26,200, strengthening the jobs recovery theme.

Temporary employment is seen as a precursor to full-time jobs. Government payrolls rose 59,000, adding to the prior month’s 56,000 increase.

The average workweek rose to 34.1 hours from 34 hours in March.

Corporate Citizen Awards 2012

Posted on by scott

Best Corporate Citizen, Slovenia
Siemens

Best Corporate Citizen, Czech Republic
IBM

Best Corporate Citizen, Russia
Rusan

Best Corporate Citizen, Turkey
Global Investment Holdings

Best Corporate Citizen, Serbia
EPS

Best Corporate Citizen, Croatia
Agrokor

Best Corporate Citizen, Brazil
Rede Energia

Best Corporate Citizen, South Africa
British American Tobacco South Africa

Best Corporate Citizen, Nigeria
Total Nigeria

Best Corporate Citizen, Kenya
Total Kenya

Best Corporate Citizen, Saudi Arabia
Dallah Albaraka

Best Corporate Citizen, Mexico
Villacero

Best Corporate Citizen, Portugal
REN

Best Corporate Citizen, Angola
Sonangol

Best Corporate Citizen, Thailand
Bangchak Petroleum

Best Corporate Citizen, China
CNOOC

Best Corporate Citizen, Malaysia
MMC Corporation

Best Corporate Citizen, Canada
Talisman Energy

Best Corporate Citizen, Indonesia
PT Indika Energy TBK

Best Corporate Citizen, USA
Novelis

Best Corporate Citizen, UK
Sodexo

Best Corporate Citizen, Spain
Acciona

Best Corporate Citizen, Colombia
Isagen

Best Corporate Citizen, Argentina
Acindar Grupo ArcelorMittal

Best Corporate Citizen, Peru
ConocoPhillips

Best Corporate Citizen, Chile
Sigdo Koppers

Best Corporate Citizen, Bolivia
Empresa Petrolera YPFB Chaco

Brian Sorensen and Martin Speiermann | PowerSense | Video

Posted on by The New Economy

There’s a lot of interest around the revolutionary potential of Smart Grids: but a true, ‘version two’ infrastructure model could take 40 years to implement. PowerSense can digitise and retrofit existing power infrastructure, and has worked for five years to develop exactly the right product for the industry.

Silicon Valley: The new contenders

Posted on by scott

   

Silicon Valley – the world famous bastion for technological innovation – might have passed its glory days. Facing increasing competition from emerging markets such as China and India, the tech haven is suffering a ‘brain drain’ at an extremely worrying rate.
   
Any ‘brain drain’ experienced, however, would simply rectify the large influx of immigrant entrepreneurs that have flooded the sun-drenched region for generations. Reports indicate that as much as 52 percent of Silicon Valley’s start-up companies were founded by immigrants, and that non-natives contribute almost 25 percent of WIPO PCT applications filed.

The immigrants that have flooded Silicon Valley form an inherent part of the very essence of the world-famous institution. However, a shift has occurred. Turning their back on the spot they once considered the world base for technological developments, these brainy individuals don’t necessarily rate Silicon Valley number∞one anymore.» Many entrepreneurs have decided to take their practises back to their native countries, or relocate to other attractive tech havens – be it in China, India, Germany, France or elsewhere. According to a study carried out by researchers at Duke University, UC Berkeley and Harvard universities, many immigrant students are now planning to return to domestic shores, rather than settle in Silicon Valley, as per the norm until only a few years ago. Hence, the brain drain that has hit Silicon Valley is only set to worsen.

So where will the world find its new technological nexus? Countries such as China and South Korea have a definite head-start through the vast amounts of capital being pumped into their respective technology sectors. Experts however agree that it’s difficult to determine if these destinations really have what it takes to develop environments to rival the expertise and infrastructure already situated at Silicon Valley.

Boasting practical benefits that China and India might be lacking, European countries such as the UK could well pose a threat to Silicon Valley. Russia too, is rising in tech circles. 

Not one to give up without a fight, Silicon Valley spokespeople claim that the allure of the original tech hub won’t subside anytime soon. After all, there’s no escaping the fact that about $10bn is invested in budding entrepreneurial companies every year.

Where it all began 
Despite the increasing competition, Silicon Valley is still highly regarded in the tech universe and its heritage alone adds to the credibility of the region. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California, the ‘valley’ is in fact a vast area, encompassing all of the Santa Clara Valley including the city of San Jose, the southern Peninsula and the southern East Bay. This area has served as the base for the electronic industry since its conception in the early twentieth century and has been behind practically every technological revolution since that time.

The area coined its famous moniker in the early 1970s by the entrepreneur Ralph Vaerst, who came up with the name in reference to the high number of silicon chip ventures that were based in the area at the time. These days, with the production of semi-conductors gradually moving overseas, the name has become associated with the high-tech businesses and software companies that swamp the area. So effective is the business culture that Silicon Valley has generated that it accounts for as much as a third of venture capital investment in the US, to the extent that the area has become the byword for the US’ entire technology industry. As such, this perennially sundrenched locale, the home to so many of the world’s largest technology corporations, has held the crown as the undisputed ruler of the tech world through the culture of high-tech innovation and development the area has nurtured. Now however, it is far from unique.

In a roundabout way
Silicon Valley is far from having the technological innovation field to itself. East London is rising as a tech location in its own right and could soon to morph into a bona fide silicon valley ≥ at least if Prime Minister David Cameron has his way.

The ongoing plan to transform the  area, which is also home to the Olympic Park for the 2012 games, into one of the world’s greatest technology centres, was unveiled by Cameron early last year. Speaking at a glitzy gathering targeting entrepreneurs and investors, the PM’s enthusiasm over London’s status as a ‘Valley in the making’ was palpable. “Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading place in the world for high-tech growth and innovation. But there’s no reason why it has to be so predominant. Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make East London one of the world’s great technology centres. I want to show you how we can get there,” said  an enthusiastic Cameron.

Cameron is not alone in his faith in the area as a new tech Mecca, as he reflected in his speech: “For the past few weeks and months, we have had dozens of meetings with technology companies and venture capital investors from across the world. We said to them: ‘Here’s our » vision for East London Tech City – a hub that stretches from Shoreditch and Old Street to the Olympic Park. This is what local businesses are saying they need. What part can you play in making it happen?’ I have to say: the response has been overwhelming.”

That response has come from the right people as well. Firms including Google, Facebook, Cisco, Intel and British Telecom are all lending their expertise to the East London Tech City, along with a crucial host of start-ups and SMEs who will help contribute fresh thinking and innovation into the area.

East London’s rising status as the UK’s tech centre has been assisted by some key developments. The area has been subject to a remarkable makeover in preparation for the Olympic Games, most notably in terms of transport links. Now one of the best connected areas in the country, by 2012 east London will boast a fully operational terminal providing high-speed rail travel to the Continent as well as trans-continental air travel courtesy of City Airport.

On the back of the Olympic developments, an influx of new businesses and retail outlets have also helped improve the status of Stratford city. The colossal Westfield shopping centre is one of a number of high-profile ventures in the area that have already immeasurably improved the status of a once undesirable area. This is only likely to improve as all the features of the area become fully operational as the Olympics draws near.

The final draw for the area is the benefits of East London’s peripheral. Tech City is sandwiched between the heartland of London’s creative industries and the City of London, one of the world’s great financial centres. Factor in the close proximity of several widely respected universities as well, and the area has every amenity and stimulus it could possibly need to succeed.

Crucially, in addition to the conception of Tech City, the government is actively attempting to try to improve the climate and culture for technology and entrepreneurialism, much as Silicon Valley has done par excellence. “We are already doing a lot to support this new economy, from making reams of city data freely available to London’s technical talent for transformation into apps, websites or mobile products, to piloting public Wi-Fi on London Underground,” enthused Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London.

Much like Silicon Valley, Tech City is also targeting overseas investors and developers. The launch of an Entrepreneur Visa was brought about to encourage individuals with good business ideas to set up companies with ease in the country. Another scheme, the Entrepreneur First programme, was unveiled earlier this year targeting elite graduates.

Based on the Teach First programme designed to assist young budding teachers, the format is a two year programme headed by McKinsey & Company, through which graduates with promising business ideas will receive mentoring, business training and networking opportunities. When the two year scheme is up, the participating candidates will be given the option to either continue building their own business, or to apply to graduate recruitment schemes within some of the companies that are associated with the scheme. The glittering array of companies that form part of the graduate boosting system are a whose who of successful business, including Microsoft, Tesco, BNP Paribas, BT, Cisco, Qualcomm, Intel, Civil Service Faststream, L’Oreal, Allen & Overy, Diageo, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Shell and RBS.

The UK is pulling out all the stops, it seems. But does it have a fighting chance to become the new Silicon Valley? Considering the UK set in motion the first industrial revolution about two centuries ago, a tech renaissance would simply reinstate its past glory as a leader in the field. Add in the strong educational framework and a forward-thinking and cosmopolitan population, and Tech City has a great deal going in its favour.

Rising in the east
In a bid to flaunt an innovation-based economy by 2020, China is advancing swiftly into the realm of technology, and is now considered one of the strongest contenders to seriously challenge Silicon Valley. Recognising the potential, foreign and native investors alike have raced to inject funds into the tech sector.

Although the Chinese tech environment is very much under development, its progress has passed the mere budding stage. Recognising the potential of the region, an increasing number of top-notch entrepreneurs and major technology companies descend on the country from across the globe, turning their back on the sun-drenched destination that previously held their attention. Indeed, if there is a country in the world revelling in brain gain, it’s China.  

Generous funding is not the only element that tempts the best in foreign minds to settle in China; the country’s culture of tech innovations is becoming a draw in its own right. China might be known as the copy cat above all others ≥ be it in the field of hand bag design, technology or otherwise – but there’s no doubt that the country has started to impress its surroundings with an environment that supports original ideas.

Already some native companies are rising to position themselves as world leaders in innovation. The Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent boasts a stock market value that hovers just below the names of leading lights such as Google and Amazon. Two other strong contenders are the leading e-commerce portal, Alibaba, and Huawei Technology, which has made its name pioneering next-generation mobile communication infrastructure. In the field of computer engineering as well, one of the fastest computers ever to be produced is the brainchild of Chinese engineers. Collectively, these forward-thinking companies and products have helped to boost China’s status to become viable forces in the tech sector.

As a way to flex its tech muscles to the world, China plays host to one of the world’s most important conferences on tech innovation and entrepreneurship. CHINICT is an annual event that has now been running for eight years and next set to take place in Beijing in May 2012. The conference attracts delegates from all over the world and the interest it generates is highly indicative of China’s growing status in the tech universe. As a result, the event has grown increasingly grandiose as the years have gone on.

However, what may ultimately hold China back in the zealous race to become the new Silicon Valley is its current indigenous lack of technical expertise, making it tough to rival the established culture of tech geniuses present in Silicon Valley, which has taken years to develop. Another disadvantage is presented by the somewhat rigid governmental regulations related to new business, coupled with the nation’s tricky and convoluted intellectual property rights. Furthermore, the country’s educational system is nowhere near as sophisticated and flexible as that of the US and Europe, although it’s under improvement. As an indication that China’s workforce is set to become more skilful, about four million pupils graduate every year in the country, and around 600,000 leave universities with a degree in engineering. Given time, China might well become a valley in its own right.

Russia reborn
Another country eyeing Silicon Valley’s throne is Russia. The country has significantly improved its credentials for business and intends to prove this with the completion of an awe-inspiring new technology park by 2014. Set to allow space for over 500 firms and costing in excess of $2bn, it’s hoped the investment will pay off in a new generation of entrepreneurs.

Serving as the inspiration behind the concept, the Zurich Technopark will provide the upcoming Skolkovo project with vital know-how. The two entities are said to be forming a collaborative alliance, with the CEO of the Zurich Technopark, Henning Grossmann, planning to conduct regular quality controls of the Russian site and assist in its business promotion. 

The park will be based in the Moscow suburb of Skolkovo, a sleepy and rural area about 20km west of central Moscow, where affluent Russians keep holiday homes. The man behind the initiative is the Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who will take charge of the project backed by the support of billions of dollars in government investment. To lure quality players ≥ individual entrepreneur and companies alike ≥ the Russian government will offer tax breaks as well as funding schemes for selected companies. Setting the bar high, the hope is that the tech park in Skolkovo will attract companies such as the international software firm Kaspersky Lab, along with other major names, both domestic and international.

Positive aspects that will help to boost the credibility of the project is that it will be largely autonomous, boasting its own water and power supplies to avoid problems companies can otherwise face when securing these types of amenities. 

It all sounds promising. Insiders fear though that with such large sums surrounding the tech park it may attract corruption, hiking up prices. Even if measures are taken to prevent this happening, the very perception of Russia as a less reputable location to do business will create hurdles for those trying to promote the Skolkovo park. As such whether Russia can create the next Silicon Valley remain’s to be seen.

Silicon Valley hasn’t lost its crown just yet. But neither is it still the definitive location for technology companies that it once was. As the world fully embraces the possibilities provided by the internet age, it’s conceivable that new developments could come from any corner of the globe. And any one of them could cause the sun to set on the illustrious valley.

Top 10 sovereign borrowers

Posted on by scott

Even the United States suffered a downgrade although it still ranks second on the least-risky list. The troubles of the eurozone pushed European nations such as Italy and Hungary into the high-risk zone for the first time, which means that EU nations now make up exactly half of the top ten riskiest sovereign borrowers. Latin America accounts for two places with Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East occupying the other spots.

The price countries pay to borrow money basically comes down to debt-worthiness. Some countries have low debt because they have difficulty in borrowing while others have high debt because they are good repayers, like the UK. Generally, the financial markets look closely at the ratio of total public debt to gross domestic product. But one main reason for the rising cost of sovereign debt is that nations’ debt levels have been on the rise for 60 years or more.

There are other factors in the cost of debt such as a country’s history of meeting its obligations. Spain cancelled its debt no less than six times in the 16th and 17th centuries. Argentina was either in default or nearly so for a quarter of the years between 1899 and 2001, the year of its last default. In 1917 Russia’s new revolutionaries repudiated all debt incurred under the czars.

No surprise, at year’s end the dubious honour of heading the league table of highest-risk sovereigns belonged to Greece. Rated by the five-year benchmark of cumulative probability of default among other factors, the latest CMA global sovereign debt credit risk report listed the ten riskiest sovereign bonds in the following order: Greece, Portugal, Venezuela, Argentina, Pakistan, Ukraine, Ireland, Italy, Hungary and Dubai.
At year’s end the most indebted countries relative to their GDP included:

1. Zimbabwe – 234.1% of GDP, pariah of debt markets
2. Japan – 197.5%, hard-hit by the tsunami
3. Greece – 142.8%, possibly heading for default
4. Lebanon – 133.8%, deceptively, has a strong banking sector
5. Iceland – 126%, hopelessly indebted banks
6. Italy – 119% of GDP, economy in need of reform, now paying over 7% for its debt
7. Singapore – 106%, a great borrower and repayer
8. Belgium – 101%, no government for most of 2011 didn’t help
9. Egypt – 90%, high but it’s recovering from a revolution
10. European Union – 82%, stronger countries like Germany are contaminated by the weakest

Finland’s nuclear reaction

Posted on by scott

Matti Pahkala braces from the chilly winds blowing in from the Gulf of Bothnia as he surveys a map of the Hanhikivi peninsula in northern Finland, an area he first visited as a child. As then, the shore is lined with rocky beaches and vegetation, much of it untouched for hundreds of years. Nearby, birch and aspen trees rustle, scattering yellow autumn leaves.

That landscape is about to change dramatically after Finnish nuclear consortium Fennovoima recently announced that it will build a reactor here, the first nuclear reactor site to be announced since the March nuclear plant disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

While environmentalists worry about damage to the area’s natural habitat, Pahkala, who is chairman of the local Pyhajoki municipal board, couldn’t be more excited. He expects Fennovoima’s investment of ¤4-6bn will bring more jobs and new business, meaning greater tax revenue to an area that sees a large majority of youngsters leave for bigger towns each year in search of better jobs and education.

Around 3,400 people live in Pyhajoki, with many working at steel maker Rautaruukki in Raahe some 30km away, and the rest working in small local business and farming. Local student Heini Mattila said the reactor could help Pyhajoki avoid merging with neighbouring towns as many small Finnish municipalities have been forced to do to cut costs.

“It will bring more jobs and life to this village. Otherwise we might have to soon consider joining the town of Raahe,” Mattila said. The unemployment rate in Pyhajoki is hovering around the six percent mark, not much different to the country’s average.

But local unemployment shot to around 15 percent as recently as early 2010 as a nationwide recession prompted lay-offs. Some fear this could happen again, with economists predicting Finland could tip into recession again as Europe’s debt crisis hits exports such as metals, paper and ships.

Cheap power
Finland sees nuclear energy as a means to cut greenhouse gas emissions while supplying a steady source of energy for industry. It is also trying to curb dependence on energy from Russia on fears that economic growth could push up prices and impact deliveries. Its four nuclear reactors produced 25 percent of electricity used in Finland last year, while 12 percent was imported, mainly from Russia.

Fennovoima was set up in 2007 to produce electricity for its consortium members consisting of Finish power and industrial companies. Members include steel makers Outokumpu and Rautaruukki, although its biggest single shareholder is German utility E.ON’s Finnish subsidiary.

In 2010, it and Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) won parliament’s approval to construct new nuclear reactors, which are expected to come on line by around 2020 and raise the number of reactors in Finland to seven. The forest businesses and steel makers depend on cheap electricity, and those sectors are vital to Finland’s economy, particularly now that Nokia is no longer the growth driver it once was.

While Finland launched a review of nuclear safety after the Fukushima disaster, authorities found no need for changes at the reactors in operation, although they asked TVO and Fortum for more information on back-up plans for extraordinary events. There was no talk of halting Fennovoima’s project.The position contrasts sharply with others in Europe. Following Fukushima, Germany  decided to phase out nuclear power for the forseeable future.

Protests by the anti-nuclear movement have gained little political traction in Finland. Although the Green’s party has been against nuclear energy and voted against allowing new reactors, it is part of a coalition government that includes nuclear advocates. Economy Affairs Minister Jyri Hakamies, who is responsible for energy issues, said Finland’s decision to stay on course with its nuclear plan reflected the “rational, pragmatic” nature of its people.

Bomb in the backyard
But critics say Finland may be underestimating the risks and overestimating the benefits of nuclear power. Many point to construction delays and ballooning costs at Olkiluoto 3, Finland’s fifth reactor, as proof that nuclear energy doesn’t always go well as planned. The promise of more jobs means little for pensioner Tuula Wallin, who has lived for 20 years just 5km from the planned site. “It is like a bomb in the backyard,” she said, her voice trembling.

“How come these people planning this have not come to their senses, despite Chernobyl and Fukushima? My child and grandchildren live here in Pyhajoki, and I’m scared thinking about their future.” Environmentalists say the nuclear plant will disrupt the area’s natural habitat. There are few signs of human activity on the peninsula – a road and some wooden cabins without electricity or modern plumbing and used only in the summer.

Local environmental association Pro Hanhikivi, which is cooperating with other conservation groups as well as Greenpeace to oppose the reactor, says the peninsula is home to a variety of threatened and protected wildlife and a resting and feeding place for migrating arctic birds.

There are some nature conservation sites near the planned plant, including some areas designated in an EU programme aimed at protecting threatened species and habitats. Some of the area’s streams, springs and rocks are part of Finnish biodiversity programmes. While the reactor will avoid most of these areas, critics say they are so close that the impact is unavoidable.

Excitement comes to town
Fennovoima will have to negotiate with some landowners over the 80 hectares of the 450-hectare site it does not already control, and some of those are residents of the neighbouring village of Parhalahti who are likely to put up a fight, said Pro Hanhikivi vice chairwoman Hanna Halmeenpaa.

Pro Hanhikivi has also complained to the European Commission and a European Parliament petition committee that Finland is not obeying directives on protecting threatened species and habitats. “The question is can this area of various threatened habitats be split up for industrial use, or should it be protected,” Halmeenpaa said. “We are prepared for a long battle.”

When news of the site selection broke it created a rare buzz in Pyhajoki’s normally sleepy village centre, bringing local politicians, business leaders and media to Fennovoima’s small office to hear Chief Executive Tapio Saarenpaa’s plans for construction work due to begin in 2015. “Our home has been announced and it is here,” Saarenpaa said.

Stigma of the Nobel Prize

Posted on by scott

They no longer fear the Spanish Inquisition. But four centuries after Galileo, charges of heresy from their peers and dread of being cast into a wilderness of ridicule still haunt those pioneers who strike out beyond the frontiers of established science to win Nobel prizes.

Dan Shechtman’s recent chemistry Nobel Prize for discovering quasicrystals was sweet vindication after years being branded a “quasi-scientist” by one of the greatest names in his field. New laureates in physics and medicine also told of fear after making revolutionary discoveries or of good ideas left long overlooked.

“In the forefront of science there is not much difference between religion and science,” Shechtman said earlier this year. “People harbour beliefs. That’s what happens when people believe something religiously.”

Galileo was grilled by the Inquisition in Rome in the 17th century and branded a heretic by the church for promoting Copernicus’s idea that the Earth moved round the Sun. Today it is loss of grants and public humiliation that gives sleepless nights to those whose studies force a rewrite of accepted laws, like the astronomers who found the universe’s expansion was speeding up, not slowing down.

“It seemed too crazy to be right, and I think we were a little scared,” said Brian Schmidt after winning the 2011 Nobel physics prize for a discovery which also revealed the likely existence of mysterious dark energy, or anti-gravity – an idea the Einstein once had and later dismissed as his “biggest blunder”.

The researchers who said last month that they appeared to have fired sub-atomic particles from the CERN centre at Geneva to Italy’s Gran Sasso laboratory at faster than the speed of light – in seeming defiance of Einstein – have similar anxiety about embarrassment as they ask others to check their findings.

While scientists generally defend and applaud a system of sceptical peer review, the neglect of apparently promising new discoveries – such as the potential germ and cancer-killing dendritic cells discovered in the 1970s by 2011 medicine Nobel winner Ralph Steinman – can surprise the public at large.

So too will Shechtman’s recollections of the humiliation he suffered on identifying what turned out to be an entirely new class of solid material, between amorphous matter like glass and regular, repeating patterned crystals. Speaking to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper in April, he remembered the leader of his research team in the United States approaching his desk in 1982. “He gave a sheepish smile, placed a textbook on my desk and said, ‘Please read what’s written here’,” Shechtman said. A day later, he was asked to leave the team for “bringing disgrace” on his fellow researchers.

Wilderness years
“The wilderness years are common in the history of science, especially when there’s a paradigm shift in the offing,” said Carole Reeves, a historian of medicine at University College London (UCL).

Copernicus, Newton, Lavoisier, Einstein, Darwin – all later hailed as revolutionaries – created new models that required the scientific community to reject an existing one. Reeves picks out Copernicus who, like Darwin with evolution, was loathe to publish his new theory because of the expected controversy, particularly in theological terms.

Martin Rees, Britain’s Astronomer Royal and professor of cosmology and astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, says things have got a little better recently, but there is still “a minority who are underappreciated and have a tough time”. Tragically, Ralph Steinman died three days before learning of his Nobel award, after a long period early on when his work on a new type of immune system cell was largely ignored. “He really had to pursue this…discovery in the face of a lot of scepticism,” said his son Adam.

While scientific advances don’t always involve disruptive and counter-intuitive ideas, very often the biggest ones do – and the task of the scientific community is to stress test these ideas to breaking-point.

Bassam Shakhashiri, president-elect of the American Chemical Society (ACS), says that’s the nature of the game. “That’s how we do science. We scrutinise, we contemplate, we look at evidence, we debate with each other about the consistency of the evidence and how it makes sense.”

The ACS lauded Shechtman’s “a great work of discovery” this week, when his Nobel prize was announced. Yet in the 1980s and early 1990s it was a one-time president of the ACS, the double Nobel laureate Linus Pauling, who was the fiercest critic of Shechtman’s research, saying: “There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists.” For those researchers whose work is at odds with the established dogma, life is not easy.

“Of course scientists, being people, need to be convinced about revolutionary advances more than incremental advances,” remarked Alan Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “That’s how science proceeds: Prove it to me. If you can’t prove it, it remains a bad idea.”

Shechtman said he was all too aware of the high stakes in the years before the world’s crystallography textbooks were rewritten in his favour: “I knew that if it turned out to be a flop, it would be a major flop,” he said. John Forrester, professor of history and philosophy of the sciences at the University of Cambridge, finds many echoes of historic controversies in the 2011 Nobel science prize winners.He points to the late Thomas Kuhn, who set out the idea that science undergoes periodic upheavals in his 1962 book ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’. It was Kuhn who first used the term “paradigm shift” for such cutting-edge research. “It’s a dangerous place to be because careers can be put on the line. But that is the Kuhnian story – you are going to have conflicts between groups,” Forrester said in an interview.

Spooking Einstein
Pauling, who died in 1994, was not alone among science’s big guns in questioning a new idea that turned out to be a winner. An exasperated Einstein famously dismissed quantum entanglement – the theory that particles can be connected in such a way that changing the state of one instantly affects the other, even when they’re miles apart – as “spooky action at a distance”.

Einstein may have been dissatisfied with the concept, but research in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s confirmed the effect. Scientists behind this work were actually tipped this year as potential winners of the Nobel prize in physics by numerous colleagues. So why does it have to be so lonely out there for those willing to take a risk?

Experts say the nature of scientific revolution is that new models are incompatible with the old, and they force the professional community to re-evaluate long familiar concepts which they may not be too eager to let go of.

Reeves and Rees point to the discovery by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren – who won the 2005 Nobel for medicine – of Helicobacter pylori as the bacteria responsible for around 80 percent of peptic ulcers as another illustration of scientists having to stand alone for many years.

“A whole industry had been built on seeing peptic ulcer disease simply as one of over-secretion of gastric acid,” Reeves explains, adding that in the 1980s this theory also supported GlaxoSmithKline’s then biggest∞selling drug Zantac, which reduced stomach acid.

“It was literally a billion-dollar product so you can see why powerful pharmaceutical companies, scientists funded by them who were working on gastric acid secretion, surgeons who had developed umpteen surgical procedures to resect the stomach and duodenum, might have challenged the findings,” she said. In the end, going down in history as a revolutionary scientist may come down to strength of character as much as strength of conviction.

Perhaps recalling the mortification of that fateful day when his research team leader brought him the crystallography textbook to read, Shechtman took to Twitter after his Nobel vindication to record succinctly: “A good scientist is a scientist that is not sure 100 percent in what he read in the textbooks.”

Emission impossible

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As the world’s shipyards launch ever greater ocean-going vessels from cruise ships to bulk carriers, there’s a commensurate effort in making them less pollutant. Take the Maersk group’s mighty Triple-E class container ships. Behemoths of 397m in length and nearly 171,000 gross tonnage, they are the largest active vessels afloat and, by 2014, there will be 20 of them.
A 20-strong fleet of such ships plying the world’s oceans may sound like an environmental nightmare – and it would be if one of them split its hull on a reef somewhere. But Triple-E stands for economies of scale, energy efficiency and environmental improvement.

Maersk is harnessing the latest pollution-reducing technology to reduce the size of the ocean footprint of these titanic vessels. Engine exhaust is recycled, hull design reduces resistance through the water and, for good measure, the hull’s surface is coated with silicon to reduce any hint of drag.

Although today’s fleet of container ships, bulk carriers and cruise ships may look exactly the same as they did a decade or more ago, a green revolution has in fact taken place below decks. The big boys of the oceans can now showcase a whole range of low-polluting technology such as fast oil recovery systems, the diesel-electric propulsion on Tembek’s latest fleet of LNG carriers boasting their own liquefaction plants, and low-cost gas containment systems on Aker Yard’s LNG carriers.

Today’s ever-bigger fleet of cruise ships has also adopted the green mantle. As well as more efficient propulsion systems, they feature a variety of energy-saving technologies. For instance, tinted windows on Cunard’s new Queen Elizabeth help to reduce the load on air-conditioning systems. Furthermore, the company has even replaced the ice used in its buffet displays with re-usable chilled river rocks. And some lines recycle cooking oil into biodiesel.

As Bud Darr, director of environmental and health programmes for the Cruise Lines International Association, explains: “The reality is that most of our shipboard energy needs are being met by way of consuming fossil fuels. Like most of society, this results in anthropogenic contribution to greenhouse gas loading in the atmosphere.”

The biggest battle is now in the engine room, particularly to reduce harmful sulphur emissions. This is a race against time, with engine-builders in the forefront. Globally, the sulphur content of fuel oil must be down to 3.5 percent by early 2012 and, to 0.5 percent by 2020.

Helsinki-based Wartsila, which has just secured a ¤150m loan from the European Investment Bank to pursue low-pollutant research, didn’t wait for the new standards. In the last ten years the engine-builder has cut nitrogen and sulphur oxide emissions by 25-30 percent over previous generations of engines with breakthroughs such as the scrubber – a system for cleaning exhausts of harmful oxides. Competing engine builders believe a 30-40 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions is possible, even on older engines.

Big shipping’s efforts to clean up its act may however be stymied by big oil. As Francesco Balbi, environmental coordinator for Mediterranean-based MSC Cruises told the magazine, nobody knows how much low-sulphur fuel will be available by 2020 – and at what price – because the refining industry is lagging way behind demand. “The costs involved in the desulphurisation process [are high]. In turn that means extra costs for shipping.” But then big oil has never exactly been in the forefront in the race for low emissions.

The electrical age

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When the Velib bike-hire scheme was launched in European cities four years ago, there were far more sceptics than believers. But now the concept is being adopted in cities across the world.

In December, the city of Paris officially opened a similar but even more ambitious scheme. Dubbed ‘Autolib’, it provides battery-powered cars for public hire, to be returned after use to Velib-type, plug-in parking stations.

But these aren’t the under-powered, short-running, much-mocked electric cars of previous years like the General Motors’ models of the nineties which were all recalled and crushed. These four-seater Bluecars have a top speed of 130kmh and can travel 250km on a single charge, quite enough to get around a city.

And at just ¤5 a half-hour after payment of a modest subscription fee, they’re much cheaper than taxis and not much more expensive than public transport. The venture is the ¤100m brainchild of the family-owned Bollore Group which aims to have 3,000 Bluecars on the roads in Paris by next summer.

After years of unfulfilled promises and technological failures, the era of the electric car may finally be nigh. That’s what a growing number of automobile bosses such as Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Renault-Nissan, are saying. “This will be the decade of the electric car,” he recently predicted.

According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ghosn may not be bullish enough. PwC estimates that “green” vehicles including hybrids could account for a third of all global sales by 2020. “The race for electric vehicles is heating up,” insists PwC’s Dr Martin Hoelz. Certainly, there’s a flood of models coming on the market. Renault-Nissan has started mass production of not one but two electric cars – the Leaf and the premium Fluence. Cost∞conscious municipal authorities in France have already booked entire fleets of them. Next year, two big-selling badges are released in electric versions – Ford’s Focus and Toyota’s Prius.

Hybrid-powered cars are proliferating too. Chastened by its experience in the nineties, GM made sure its $41,000 (£26,000) hybrid Volt is a high-performing saloon. Boosted by a petrol engine, the much-praised Volt will be able to run for 340 miles.

A line-up of hybrid supercars are also in their final stages of development. Jaguar’s electric-petrol model is due out as soon as 2013; roughly the same time as BMW’s $200,000 electric-diesel, Vision EfficientDynamics, capable of travelling 62.5 miles on a single gallon. Evidently a huge step from the battery-powered milk-delivery vans that wheezed around cities in the 1960s.

This silent revolution started in public transport. The city of Chattanooga in Tennessee started running electric buses around 20 years ago. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, visitors were transported in a 50-strong fleet of battery-driven buses. And America’s first fast-charge bus – the Proterra EcoRide in Pomona, California – has only been in operation since September 2010.

The breakthrough came with the development of the faster-charging, light-weight lithium-ion battery. Billionaire Vincent Bollore believes his company’s lithium metal polymer battery will store five times more energy than any other battery on the market.

The environmental benefits of electric vehicles are irrefutable. Because they do not produce any emissions – all electric cars don’t have an exhaust pipe, they would help to reduce carbon dioxide pollution in most cities by between 20–40 percent. This is why Washington has belatedly pledged $2.4bn in federal grants for the programme while China, having showcased its buses at the Olympics, has budgeted $15bn for electric transport.

And next up? Vehicles could be sun-powered. From next year, a California-based company will start selling solar panels made from multi-crystalline polysilicone that can be mounted on the car roof. Ford’s already offering a solar package.

Crossing the line

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The Karman Line isn’t, as the name suggests, a physical boundary of any kind. Indeed it’s not even a line. Yet it’s a boundary that 150 adventure-hungry individuals are prepared to pay $200,000 to cross because the Karman Line, named after Hungarian-American aeronautical engineer and physicist Theodore von Karman, marks the theoretical edge of space. It’s the point 100km above the earth’s surface where, by general consent, ordinary terrestrial flight ends and space flight begins. Putting it another way, you need rocket ships to get up there.

These early-birds have put down $40,000 deposit for a seat on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo when it makes the first commercial passenger flight above the Karman Line. And the day of that inaugural flight came a step closer in mid-October when Richard Branson’s highest-profile business venture opened the world’s first commercial Spaceport in southern New Mexico.

Named with a typical Branson flourish as Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space, the building will be the starting point for sub-orbital flights aboard SS2. At first derided as a wacky, publicity-seeking venture, the flights look like they will become a reality within the next two years or so, just as soon as the company has passed all the safety checks. “Safety is our North Star,” insists George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive and president.

Already though, SS2 has completed 30 full flights, while WhiteKnightTwo, the mother-ship that will launch the passengers beyond the edge of space has achieved no less than 75 accident-free take-offs and touch-downs.

For Branson, who predicts space travel will become “one of the most important industrial sectors of the 21st century”, the business case for Virgin Galactic is obvious. It’s not just about taking up six passengers at a time – SS2’s current maximum payload – at a ticket price of about $950 a minute for the 3 ½-hour sub-orbital flight. With a further 450 reservations already confirmed, passenger flights will continue to provide a steady revenue stream for the group.

The commercial return is also measured in research, and Virgin Galactic has just signed a $4.75m charter contract with NASA, the US space agency, to conduct experiments up there. The long-term strategy also calls for space science missions, satellite launches and eventually orbital flights in the thinnest of air. In time Branson plans to open similar Spaceports around the world. Other companies also see the potential and are working on rival projects, but Virgin Galactic has by common consent made a big head start.

However, the technical challenges remain considerable. The mother ship will take SS2 to a height of only 16km, albeit considerably higher than the flight path of trans-oceanic commercial passenger jets, before releasing it and its passengers. From there, SS2 will hurtle towards the Karman Line some 84km above at a speed of Mach 3, 1600kms an hour.

But the space ship won’t stop there. Its two pilots will take SS2 to about 110km for a sub-orbital period of six minutes before making a tricky re-entry. The pilots fold up the wings for a rocket-like descent below the Karman Line, then re-open them for a long unpowered glide back to the runway where SS2 lands under its own steam. Naturally, Branson and his family have booked themselves on the first flight.