Clean, green hypercars not so mean

By SIMON COLLINS science reporter

New Zealand is ideally placed to be one of the first countries to power its cars on hydrogen-powered fuel cells, says American energy guru Amory Lovins.

Making his 15th visit to New Zealand in 31 years, the co-author of Natural Capitalism and Small is Profitable said New Zealand had the huge benefits of hydro energy - and no old-style car makers.

"Not having an iron-age car industry is actually an advantage," he said, posing for the camera with a car running on plant materials that will take part in a rally of energy-efficient cars this week.

"You can actually produce a 'hypercar' in New Zealand using your boatbuilding and composite material skills and software."

Mr Lovins heads Colorado's Rocky Mountain Institute, which has designed a "hypercar" made of light but strong new materials.

The vehicle needs only a third as much energy as a conventional car.

He advocates powering the car with a "fuel cell", mixing hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the air to produce water plus energy.

"A fuel-cell car is two to three times as efficient as a normal petrol engine car in converting fuel into motion," he said.

The combination of a fuel cell and light materials would make the car at least six times as efficient as a conventional car - and "ultimately efficient enough to cross the US on one tank of fuel".

There's another benefit, too. When it is not on the road, the car could be kept running while parked at work or at home, feeding its energy into the office or household electricity system to reduce power charges.

During off-peak hours the vehicle could use cheaper electricity to break water up into hydrogen and oxygen, storing the hydrogen in its fuel tank.

In New Zealand, most off-peak electricity comes from the hydro stations, which run all the time, with more costly natural gas-fired power fed in at peak times.

"Iceland is going to an all-hydrogen economy based on hydro and geothermal energy, starting with buses, then cars and fishing vessels," Mr Lovins said.

"They intend to not use a drop of oil. Shell Hydrogen is very active in helping with that.

"There has been interest in doing the same thing in Tasmania.

"There is one [project] going on in Vanuatu, and there are a couple of islands off the west coast of North America where this is now a very active option.

"New Zealand is ideally set up for it."

Mr Lovins is receiving a hearing from both the Government and business.

He spent much of Saturday with The Warehouse chairman Stephen Tindall and executives from his discount stores.

In the US, he has worked with the world's biggest company, Wal-Mart. He found that the company was so big its suppliers would do anything for it.

"I rang up the vendors of certain building products and said, 'I require something that isn't in your catalogue.' They said, 'Sorry, sir, if it's not in the catalogue we can't supply it.'

"I said, 'And I have a very large customer that wants two per day forever.' And they said, 'Yes, sir, when do you want it?' That was for very energy-efficient skylights."

He recommended promoting the skylights because, he said, research showed that workers were 6 per cent to 16 per cent more productive in factories with natural light, students learned 20 per cent faster in schools with natural light, and consumers bought 40 per cent more in shops with natural light.

"The next one is energy-efficient point-of-sale equipment. When you have a customer that big, people will make things for you," he said.

"I think in the regional market The Warehouse's flow of goods is certainly big enough to be able to shop the world to get the best value."

Ironically, Mr Lovins' ideas could turn cars from environmental villains into part of the new "green economy", because hydrogen-powered vehicles do not give off any carbon dioxide.

"They would be at least as environmentally sound as trains in energy and materials flows.

"But they will still be less sound in congestion.

"When we have these wonderfully clean, efficient, safe cars that use no oil and produce no carbon dioxide and no smog, we will still have too many people driving too many times in too many cars, and therefore still have congestion and a lot of other land use problems.

"So instead of running out of air and oil and climate, we'll run out of land and time and patience.

"Therefore we have to pay attention to how we can encourage people to drive less by having fairer and more economic access to public transport for all, including for the one-third of the population who are too young, old, poor or infirm to drive."

* Amory Lovins gives a public lecture at 5.15pm today in lecture room WA220, ground floor, A Block, Auckland University of Technology, 55 Wellesley St.