Environmental benefits are not always so great

Biofuels have long been considered a "greener" alternative to fossil fuels. The environmental benefits, however, are not as great than originally expected.

"There are good biofuels and bad biofuels," warns Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the British government. Some result in savings in greenhouse gases, some do not. Unlike fossil fuels, which give off quantities of carbon dioxide when burnt, biofuels are carbon-neutral: the plants they are made of absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they grow, releasing it again when burnt.

Until recently, they were enthusiastically embraced by environmental groups. In 2004, for instance, a group including Friends of the Earth, WWF and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds urged the government to "encourage the use of biofuels".

Today, these groups want governments to abandon biofuels. The turnround reflects concerns over the effect on food prices and the realisation that many biofuels are much less green than they appear.

Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, argues: "No one could have predicted the coincidence [of high oil prices, poor harvests, rising food demand and high biofuel production] that has caused the food price rise."

How far a biofuel benefits the environment depends on what it is made from and how it is made, says Ralph Sims of the International Energy Agency. For instance, he says, the ethanol produced from maize in the US results in little carbon saving, partly because coal-fired power plants produce the electricity used for the distillation process.

Some biofuels are being grown in regions cleared of rainforest.

Another key consideration in determining the "greenness" of a biofuel is how much water it needs, as much of the world is getting drier.

Sir David King says Brazilian ethanol, distilled from sugar cane, is the greenest in the world. It grows on land that is far from the rainforest but where water is plentiful and the cane does not displace other crops. Over decades the producers have honed their techniques to be highly efficient - for instance, burning the waste cane for energy and recycling the steam produced by distillation.

These techniques, he believes, could be exported to other parts of the world where there are similar growing conditions, such as southern Africa, where biofuels could drastically cut oil import bills.

Greener biofuels could also be produced using "second generation" technologies that allow liquid fuel to be generated from waste products, such as straw or wood, using enzymes, algae or other processes.

A note of caution, however: Prof Sims recalls colleagues working on these in the early 1970s, and the promised commercial products are always "just a few years away".

to be alternative [ɔːl'tɜːnətɪv] to - быть альтернативой ч.-л.

to result in (smth) - закончиться

to give off - испускать, издавать

to embrace [ɪm'breɪs, em-] - охватить

to abandon [ə'bændən] - покинуть, отказаться от ч.-л.

to reflect concerns over smth - отражать озабоченность из-за ч.-л.

to predict - предсказывать

coincidence [kəu'ɪn(t)sɪd(ə)n(t)s] - совпадение

maize [meɪz] - кукуруза, маис

cane [keɪn] - тростник

to displace - замещать

B. Answer these questions:

1. What is the difference between good and bad biofuels?

2. Why are biofuels carbon neutral?

3. Why do environmental groups want to abandon biofuels?

4. What factors should be taken into consideration in determining the “greenness” of a biofuel?

Text 2

A. Read the article.

Ambitious Wind Farm

A scheme to build massive wind farms in Russia's Arctic northwest and sell the resulting electricity to Europe could kick-start the country's renewable energy industry.

The plan, dubbed RUSTEC, would see dozens of onshore wind farms built across the Murmansk region and plugged into a "power bridge" carrying the energy into the European grid via Norway or Finland.

It is the brainchild of the International Finance Organization, the branch of the World Bank Group that provides private sector financing for global development.

Supporters of the plan argue that low production costs and unusually high winds in the Russian Far North will produce efficiencies that actually make electricity generated there cheaper than renewable energy produced in Europe.

"I was inspired by DESERTEC — the plan to build solar stations in the Sahara desert in northwest Africa and transmit electricity to Southern Europe. I thought, why solar power from Africa, why not wind power in Russia?" said Patrick Willems, the project manager of the IFC's program to develop renewable energy in Russia.

Willems argued that onshore wind farms in places like the Murmansk region can generate more energy than expensive offshore plants in Europe. He added that, as Europe looks to meet its ambitious energy targets, it will pay handsomely for Russian wind power.

The EU is meant to reduce its greenhouse gases by 20 percent and bring renewable sources to 20 percent of its energy generation by 2020, while Germany has a target of going 80 percent renewable by 2050.

The Arctic wind power scheme is a bold vision but experts believe that, given Russia's current state of renewable energy, it is a long way from even making it off the drawing board.

Wind and other renewable investors remain "early Christians," as Igor Arkhipov, deputy head of the long-term development department at a the Federal Grid Company, dryly observed at last week's forum.

"If this was about oil and gas, we'd have to rent a stadium," he noted, looking around the 70 or so guests.

There are currently only a handful of operating wind farms in Russia. The largest, which has a capacity of 5.1 megawatts and is located in the Kaliningrad region, is operating only at 4.7 megawatts, said Anatoly Kopylov, vice president of the Russian Wind Energy Association, which represents both Russian and foreign wind energy firms. Of the others, they are generally either "not operating or not promising," he said.

The second largest, a 2 megawatt project in Chukotka, is currently out of operation though it did quite well — until it had to compete with the traditional gas-fired stations that also provide municipal heating.

"Heat is so important there that they tend to dominate the electricity market too," Kopylov said.

The Russian government has set a target of generating 4.5 percent of the country's energy from renewables by 2020. That is now widely believed to be impossible to achieve, and the target may be slashed to a more manageable 2.5 percent.

There are signs of progress, however. Deputy Energy Minister Anton Inyutsyn said draft decrees to clarify the legal status of renewables should be ready for publication by the end of the year. That should address a long-standing complaint amongst would-be wind entrepreneurs that the law simply ignored their technology and make it easier for them to hook up to the grid.

"I can say that — for want of a better word — a 'preliminary' agreement between government and business over the shape of the renewable market has already been agreed," said Kopylov, who has consulted on the draft decrees.

According to Kopylov, the law will not copy the European model of higher feed-in tariffs for renewable electricity to cover the higher costs of alternative energy generation. Instead the government will set a quota for renewable energy to be fed into the national grid each year. Alternative generators would then bid to supply a proportion of that quota and the government would sign contracts with the lowest bidders.

Given all this, RUSTEC seems impossibly ambitious — though Willems says he expects a feasibility study to be ready by the end of the year.

The Murmansk region, meant to be the epicenter of project, is currently devoid of wind energy — although Dutch firm Windlife is currently metering the wind at potential sites there.

low production cost - низкая стоимость производства

efficiency [ɪ'fɪʃ(ə)n(t)sɪ, ə-] - эффективность, производительность

to argue - спорить, дебатировать

to meet the target – достичь цели

to mean – иметь значение

handful - немного

capacity [kə'pæsətɪ] - мощность

to compete - конкурировать

to tend to do smth – склоняться к ч.-л.

to achieve - достичь

to complain - жаловаться

B. Answer the questions.