Driving Sustainability 2009
01.09.2009/AS - HB13.09.09
Ladies and Gentlemen
A warm welcome to you all at this interesting event which has been organised by Framtiðarorka now for the third time.
This year the conference is organised among others, with the funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers, and I´m proud to mention that participation in the conference now is part of the Icelandic chairmanship of the Nordic Council of Ministers this year and we put have put energy and transport high on the agenda. Yesterday you heard of the possibilities the Nordic countries have on working together on Sustainable transport and hopefully it will be the case in the next years that the Nordic countries can stand strong together on sustainable transportation.
Transport accounts for almost a quarter of the world’s energy related carbondioxide emissions, and over half of the global consumption of oil. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy uses for transport purposes will more than double before 2050. Finding a way of making transport more sustainable will be crucial for attaining our goals in climate and energy. The large share of global oil consumption dedicated to transport also makes sustainable transportation a pressing concern from an energy security perspective. The main emphasis of the previous two Driving Sustainability conferences has been to introduce solution regarding alternative fuels in the driving sector, to combat greenhouse gas emission and it´s influence on the climate.
Now in September 2009 we are facing new problems on top of the other - the consequences of the World economic crisis, which has brought the international automobile industry on the verge of collapse. How that situation will affect the deployment of new sustainable technology in transport remains to be seen. One thing seems to be clear though. The recovery of the industry will, - due to the customer driven sustainability demand -, not be on the basis of the traditional heavy weight carbon-fuelled engines, but on small energy saving vehicles and increased emphasis on pollution free transport. Looking at the bright side the chance for driving sustainability may be hidden in the challenge ahead of us to restore the automobile industry.
There will be a number of solutions. Here in Iceland we are already exploring various possibilities.
The electric car is an obvious choice for Iceland. Some two thousand GigaWatt hours per year are required to provide electricity for all private cars in the country. Iceland is probably the only country in the world which can power its entire fleet of automobiles with clean and renewable energy from hydro and geothermal resources without having to build new power plants. If most of the batteries were charged at home over night at a time of low electricity demand the current power installations could serve the need without large investments in new power plants or the distribution facilities
And electricity provided to electric cars even at today´s household prices is substantially cheaper than gasoline burned in conventional, internal combustion engine.
Unfortunately electric cars are still rather expensive and scarce on the market. But progress is being made all the time and last year we had the pleasure to introduce a new prototype of a fully electric vehicle from Mitsubishi Motor Corporation, called iMiEV (æmí-íví) Two cars were displayed at the Driving Sustainability conference last year for the first time outside Japan. Following that event Mitsubishi selected Iceland together with three other European countries as a test ground for demonstration purposes.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Minister of Industry, Mitsubishi Motor Corporation, Hekla, their sales agency in Iceland, and the National Energy Authority of Iceland which gives Iceland the privilege to acquire a limited number of this unique automobile for test driving at conditions perfectly suited for this purpose. The cars will arrive before the end of this year. I especially welcome Mr Ichiro Fukue, Executive Vice President of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, who will later at this conference disclose further details of this project.
We have other possibilities regarding the production of domestic fuel and I will just mention four examples:
You know our leading project regarding hydrogen as fuel for transport called the SMART H2 project (Sustainable Marine and Road Transport , Hydrogen in Iceland).
Hydrogen can also be used as part of design fuel and the possibility is currently being explored to combine hydrogen with CO2 from the geothermal power plants and power intensive industries in Iceland to produce methanol or DiMethylEther. Methanol can be used for converted gasoline engines and DME for diesel engines.
Methane gas is a highly competitive alternative to gasoline, produced from organic waste. Using algae to produce biomass could enable us to increase production beyond the limit organic waste imposes.
Biomass and organic waste can also be used to produce biodiesel. The main emphasis is on recycling domestically instead of importing another type of diesel.
The government is committed to encourage the transition from imported fossil fuel to domestic and sustainable fuels.
We have experienced such a transition before when district heating systems using geothermal water replaced oil boilers as the main form of space heating. That happened following the oil crisis after the middle of last century. Maybe the current crisis will be the catalysator for our next giant step and help us replace the remaining 20% of our energy demand that is now being met with fossil fuels.
The Ministry of Industry, together with key players in the energy market, is currently preparing to introduce a comprehensive plan to facilitate the conversion. The strategy includes the creation of a common brand or logo for the conversion project. This identification as being part of the project is also a certificate giving the right to the incentives and support offered. The project will be based on three main pillars:
- Incentives to buy and use vehicles utilising sustainable energy or domestic fuels.
- Incentives and support to research and develop sustainable energy or domestic fuels.
- Support to construct multi-purpose fuelling stations on strategic location around the country to ensure that cars using alternative sources of energy can be used for travel.
This project will e.g. rely on tax incentives, customs, tariffs and emission cost to make sustainable driving a competitive choice for the consumer. It is also important that the government, municipalities and official institutions show an example by replacing their own fossil fuelled fleet with alternative cars. We aim to achieve this in measured steps.
A common Nordic approach to tax and incentive policy to encourage sustainable driving could be a powerful tool. I hope we can soon compare our current national plans and discuss ways to converge them into one common policy in the Nordic Council of Minister.
Iceland has a unique chance to become the world´s first nation with a zero emission energy sector, independent from fossil fuel energy consumption at least on land. The transition of the fishing fleet will take more time but the time will come. To reach this goal we need a clear objective and a strong, consistent government policy and the necessary funds to make it come true.
We have a clear vision in this respect and the matter will remain at the top of our list of priorities for the coming years until we have seen results of the transition from hydrocarbon fuels towards using indigenous, sustainable energy resources in the entire energy sector.
But while we work on a longer term strategy we must not forget all that can be achieved right now. We have entrepreneurs fully committed to this transition right now and must find ways to support and encourage them.
It is my pleasure to end this address by asking representatives from the company Gámafélagið to step forward to receive an acknowledgement from The Energy Agency and Driving Sustainability for their enthusiasm and innovation in converting traditional cars to be powered by alternative fuel.
Gámafélagið has not only changed the cars, it also runs them as part of their own operations. The fleet of Gámafélagið contains 33 methane-driven cars and 20 cars driven by bio-disel, and they promise there are more to come.
Congratulations and thank you all.