Cleaner Capitals
As cities across the world grow larger, air pollution from cars has become a growing concern. The Nordic capitals have taken some steps to clear the air.
As their arteries clog up, the Nordic capital cities are refueling their cars with hydrogen, electricity, bio fuel and bio gas. (Photo: Hamed Saber / Flickr)
In Oslo everyone contributes
The city of Oslo has committed itself to reduce its climate gas emissions by 50 % by 2030. As a step towards achieving this goal the city has decided to produce bio gas from its own sewage. This bio gas is used to fuel buses and renovation cars in Oslo. If you are one of the commuters in Oslo you are met with a poster on the bus saying "Thanks for contributing", as the bio gas is made from the Bekkelaget sewage treatment plant treating sewage from 280 000 of Oslo’s inhabitants. The bio gas from the sewage treatment plant will replace 2 million tons of diesel and provide up to 80 buses with fuel for a whole year.
Hydrogen cars in Reykjavik
Iceland gets most of its electricity from hydro and geothermal combined heat and power plants. The large amounts of readily available clean electricity form a good basis for producing hydrogen fuel. The by product from a car fuelled by hydrogen is water. But pure hydrogen does not appear naturally and producing hydrogen requires lots of energy. So for hydrogen to be a non-pollutant it requires clean energy in its production. In 1999 Icelandic New Energy (INE) was founded to promote hydrogen as a fuel in the transportation sector in Iceland. From March 2001 to autumn 2005 INE managed the Ecological City Transport System, a fuel cell and hydrogen transportation system for public transportation in Reykjavik, and Shell has had a commercial refueling station for hydrogen in operation for the past six years. Plans for the future include the application of hydrogen as a fuel for passenger cars, as well as for Iceland’s fishing fleet. In December 2009 Iceland welcomed ten hydrogen powered cars, sent by Ford for testing in the arctic climate. These cars are leased out to companies in Reykjavik for general transportation of their employees.
Vattenfall and City of Stockholm want more people to chose electric cars (Photo: Vattenfall)
Bringing electric cars to Stockholm
Stockholm, European green capital 2010, and the energy company Vattenfall have started a survey to find out how interested the city's businesses and organizations are in electric and hybrid cars. Through this initiative the city and Vattenfall will make it easier for businesses and organizations to acquire electric cars at a reasonable price, and turn electric vehicles into a safe investment. Today electric cars are hard to come by, they cost more and consumers are generally skeptical to the technology. All these factors prevent electric vehicles from gaining marked shares from fossil fuelled cars. If this survey shows that there are many out there who wish to drive an electric car, the market will be informed of this, and the city will make sure that Stockholm is electric car-friendly.
Recharge in Copenhagen
Few things are more annoying than flat batteries. One thing is running out of batteries on you Ipod while jogging, something else is finding out that you forgot to charge your electric car. That could really ruin anyone’s day. The city of Copenhagen knows this and aims to install 500 cheaper parking spots with charge stations exclusively for electric vehicles. The city also supports the Scandinavian electric car sharing service Moveabout. Moveabout lets you hire an electric car for an hour, a day or a weekend. Moveabout hopes that by 2015 the citizens of Copenhagen will not have to walk further than 300 meters to find one of their rental cars. Moveabout can also be found in Oslo and Gothenburg. Additionally Danish energy giant DONG Energy has teamed up with California-based Project Better Place to work on the further development of a project to give Danish consumers access to buying environmentally friendly electric vehicles (EVs) at attractive prices. Within the next few years, Better Place Denmark is to introduce environmentally friendly, battery driven EVs to the streets of Denmark. Offering at least the same road-holding qualities as fuel-based cars, EVs produce zero emission of CO2 and other exhaust gases.
Cleaner air in Helsinki. Public transportation in Helsinki aims at being Europes cleanest (Photo: Wili Hybrid)
Europe's cleanest in Helsinki
Finnish energy company Fortum and the City of Espoo, a suburb of Helsinki, in 2008 launched a cooperation aiming to enable the wide-scale adoption of electric cars in the city. A key component of the project was to develop the infrastructure needed to recharge the electric cars in order to make the adoption of them as smooth as possible when car manufacturers introduce them to the markets in a few years. In 2009 Fortum unveiled six charging points in Espoo while the power company Helsingin Energia opened it’s charging point in Helsinki.
Electricty is not all the city of Helsinki is relying on to clear the air. Since 2007 the city has fuelled 700 of their buses and 75 of their waste trucks with Neste Oil's second generation biofuel. The aim is twofold: to reduce urban emissions and promote the use of biofuels on the road. This biofuel reduce the particulate and nitrogen oxide emissions released into the atmosphere by public transport. As much as 90% of the fine particles in the air in Greater Helsinki come from the diesel vehicles used in public transport and by distribution and haulage companies. The three-year trial which will continue through 2010 promises to result in Europe’s cleanest metropolitan public transport system.
