Birds, cows and electric cars

There has been heavy traffic in the news about cars this week. For starters, the future for electric cars is looking bright. In Spain the government aims to have 1 million electric cars on the roads by 2014 as part of a plan to cut energy consumption and dependence on expensive imports. In the shorter term the Spanish also plan to cut speed limits around cities by up to 20 percent. Closer to home, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson has announced that the number of electric vehicle recharge points in London will be almost trebled. This is good news if you are thinking of splashing your cash on one the new high performance electric sports cars unveiled at London's International Motor Show.

Electric vehicles aren't the only ones benefiting from positive news this week. A new thermoelectric material has been developed that could convert the waste heat from internal combustion engines into electricity and boost efficiency by up to 10 percent. Elsewhere second generation biofuels have been receiving attention with breakthroughs announced in converting yard waste and sawdust into biofuels. The optimism regarding biofuels is not shared by EU leaders. Recent press regarding sustainability and food vs fuel issues has changed minds and they are considering reducing the EU biofuels target in favour of increased targets on saving energy.

Moving away from cars, a few stories have caught the eye this week. Firstly, Hewlett Packard are proposing to deploying trillions of sensors to measure and diagnose what ails the Earth and presumably to prescribe a treatment. Geologists are also in on the global act and have stripped the Earth naked to reveal a digital map of her geology. Fuel cells also made the headlines with the announcement that the new World Trade Centre will have a 4.8MW fuel cell capacity as well as other renewable energy generation technologies. Further good news on this subject was announced by Professor Daniel Nocera of MIT who has developed a new efficient catalytic system to produce hydrogen from water.

In animal related news, it seems that climate change is good news for the Dartford Warbler. The bird, which almost died out in the cold winter of 1962-1963, is now positively thriving in the milder Kent weather. Continuing a previous theme of burping cows, but focusing rather on the other end, it has been postulated that cow dung, via anaerobic digestion, could provide up to 3 percent of the power for North America.