Running for health

Göteborgsvarvet is a yearly event in the home town of Volvo. This year 44 090 persons completed the 21 km race through the city of Göteborg. I and all my Volvo colleagues were challenged by our CEO Olof Persson. Running, dancing, swimming, skiing or whichever physical activity you prefer, they all strengthen the health and quality of life. And, as it turns out in recent cognitive research, also strengthen the mind.

I have been participating in Göteborgsvarvet about ten times, distributed over the years. This year I had prepared better than most years. Our dog is now a bit more than 3 years and overactive. She drags me out every morning for a run. Dogs also have very little respect for Sunday mornings. On the contrary, she expects at least 15 km in the forest, before breakfast.

Unfortunately, I got asthma from the blooming of the trees a few days before the race and had to cancel. Still I went to the start as a spectator. A friend who is a doctor and a health freak said that this is really ideal – do all the training but refrain from the race. His theory was that the extreme exertion experienced during competition causes damage.

Surely physical exercise, races like Göteborgsvarvet and challenges from the management keeps me motivated. Next year I will be back.

Latin America for the environment

Some say that Europe need to become fore runners in public transports. However, many cities in the world are moving rapidly now.

In February the Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, proclaimed the four commandments for future cities.
And yes, you probably guessed it – commandment #1 is to make the city environmentally friendly and green. Here is the condensed list.

A city of the future has to:
1. become environmentally friendly; green, green and green.
2. deal with transportation and mobility of the people
3. be socially integrated providing essential and public services to all parts of the city
4. use modern technology to control and govern the city, regarding traffic control, social welfare, power supply, adaptation to weather, etc.

Latin America is in many ways leading the way in the area of public transports in big cities. Spend some 20 minutes to watch Eduardo’s presentation at TED.
Recently Volvo Hybrid buses were taken into service by Metrobùs in line 4 in Mexico City. Attractiveness, accessibility and environment are the leading principles. Volvo is very proud to be a part of this success in one of the most challenging transport assignments in the world. Here is an updated excise in Español that I just got from Jorge Suarez, my colleague in Mexico.

European Energy Conference (E2C)

A few days ago, I caught the photo below through the train window when traveling over the rainy landscape between Maastricht and the Zaventem airport of Brussels.
The scene is typical for the development where wind and solar panels are growing rapidly in Europe. Investments are made both in governmental projects and by citizens that want to get less dependent.

Voltaic Solar panels are becoming increasingly frequent on roofs in Belgium

At the European Energy Conference, some said that the cost for the new technologies need to decrease further to become competitive with the traditional energy sources, without subsidies. Others said that the cost increase is marginal in a holistic perspective and that it is well justified, from a trade balance standpoint, for governments and other public bodies to invest in both energy efficiency and supply.

As the cost for energy increases further, new technologies becomes feasible. I learned that wind power now supply 7% of the electricity in Germany and that by 2020 some 20% should be covered by wind mills.

Javier Solana stressed the geopolitical factors and in particular the relation of economic growth and the energy use. The challenge is to meet the seemingly constantly increasing energy need from the citizens without sacrificing economy and environment. Or as Javier Solana expressed it:
“Successful commercial organizations always have a plan B when meeting a risk scenario, just in case the plan A does not work out.
Politicians of today don’t have a planet B to fall back on in case we would waste the only planet we have.”

Steven Koonin (Science and Technology Institute, USA) gave an excellent overview of US perspective on Energy politics. And, to some extent also questioned the established truths. Is it possible to decouple the energy use from economic growth? Some frustration was expressed of the fact that lots of research and inventions (such as Lithium ion batteries) are realized in the US while the fruits are harvested in other parts of the world.

Transport capacity of buses

Recently I got a mail where I was asked a question about the transport capacity for buses. Which capacity can you get with modern buses?
So, I asked my colleague in Mexico, Jorge Suarez for advice. It did not take him long to come back with a reference to Movidad Amable, a bilanguage magasine in English and Spanish. You will find the pages 90 to 98 dealing with the transport capacity of BRT lines.

I also found a recent update in Wikipedia, which was very useful. Read it here.

Some examples of transport capacity is found below:
* Designated Lane: Ankara, Istanbul, Abidjan 7,300 – 19,500 persons per direction and hour
* Designated Lanes with Feeders: Curitiba, Brazil 13,900 – 24,100
* Designated Lanes with Bus Ordering (Travelling in Clusters): Porto Alegre, Brazil 17,500 – 18,300
* Designated Lanes with Overlapping Routes, Passing at Stations and Express Routes: Belo Horizonte , São Paulo 15,800 – 20,300
* Designated Double-Lanes with Trans Milenio: Bogotá, Colombia 35,000 – 40,000

It can be concluded that bus lines can be set up to deliver transport capacity from zero to more than 40 000 persons per direction and hour.

Volvo Sustainability Report

… is out now.

Read it here.

Internally we have been collecting environmental data for decades. Inge Horkeby, Director Environmental Affairs, has coordinated the Volvo Group reports and has built broad experience. Year by year we report energy use, and emissions to water, emissions to air and wastes. We learn from each other and best practice is applied round the world.

One bus = 50 cars

Last week I visited Montreal. The week before a $73 million project on electro mobility was announced by Quebec Government and Nova Bus is one of the partners.  (read about it here)

This legendary Nova LFS bus announces that a load of proud bus riders are equal to 50 cars in environmental load!

It is very encouraging to see how authorities around the world takes increasing responsibility for the development of the emerging electric bus technology.

In spring time when I go jogging over the weekend I often take a detour to check the status of the blue Anemone that mostly is one of the first flowers that appear where I live in Sweden. And now, the time has come. The very first flower was observed already the 11th of March but the real burst out was last weekend.

Life cycle swamp

I have been warned by experienced colleagues not to get caught in the life cycle swamp. Still, analyzing well-to-wheel efficiency is very useful in order to understand how different energy sources are used most efficiently.
It works in both directions.

For example: For an energy user it is possible to calculate which energy provider gives the lowest environmental impact.
For an energy provider it is possible to find how the energy is best used.

Most often, it is found in the first round that we all should use hydro power. But the limited availability of the most environmentally friendly energy sources makes the task more complex. This means that we need to find different energy sources for different users.

This is when I mostly get stuck. However, we know that decreasing the energy use should always be right, independently of which energy source we use.

We know that the energy use of an average European city bus is:
Diesel: 5.00 kWh/km
Gas: 6.55 kWh/km
We calculate the electric bus energy use to be: 1.4 kWh/km.
No doubt, it is better to run a bus on sustainable electricity than on diesel or gas. But, this is no surprise.

Now lets turn the question around. If we start from biomass, which route gives the highest efficiency?
Biomass -> Gasification -> Biogas -> Gas Bus
Biomass -> Gasification -> Biogas -> Electricity -> Electric bus

According to my calculations the detour via electricity turns out to be more favorable.

But there are many uncertainties. I would therefore like to challenge anyone reading this blog to provide data or references for the well-to-wheel calculation for gas buses running on biogas from generic biomass, and for the corresponding electric bus running on electricity generated from generic biomass (preferably via gasification).

Biogas route
Well-to-tank efficiency is: 54%
Tank-to-wheel efficiency is: 17%

Biogas-electric route
Well-to-tank efficiency is: 39%
Tank-to-wheel efficiency is: 75%

Hybrids to Hamburg

Hamburg and affiliates have recently bought Volvo hybrid buses. When I visited the area recently there were by coincidence eight of the buses standing in the court of the Volvo workshop in Hamburg.

The transport authority, Hamburger Hochbahn, is probably the most reputed transport authority in Europe. The track record is impressive with increased attractiveness, an increasing share of public transport users and at the same time with enormous efficiency. A bit more than 50% of the daily users choose public transports. The cost coverage in 2011 was 88.7%.

No doubt both cost efficiency and attractiveness were important factors in the decision to purchase Volvo hybrid buses.

Four of the Volvo Hybrids on their way to be delivered to Hamburger Hochbahn.

A week in the Alps

I spent last week down-hill skiing in the alps. As we do most years we chose to go by coach; 20 hours from Gothenburg to the Rauris valley in the middle of Austria. I kind of like the time we get to slow down in speed and the concept of meeting our fellow travelers before the fun starts with the skiing safari. The concept includes taking the bus every morning to different resorts, and the modern coaches are really comfortable, silent and pleasant to ride.

This year the Austrian alps showed its best side with plenty of snow. One day it was too much wind and massive snow fall, which closed the road to our valley for some 16 hours. But, who cares when all sloops present fluffy powder wherever you look! My new all mountain skies, of a brand that my sponsor contract prevents me from revealing , were really extremely user friendly and uncomplicated. Now I understand how those offpiste films are made – with the right gears it’s all so much easier.

In Vagrain our bus stopped next to a brand new Volvo 9900 with the Euro V/EEV D13 engine (see picture below). I had a chat with the driver and it turned out that it was on its first trip. The D13 provides a torque and that has made it a winner in the Alps. The I-shift gear box presents a fuel consumption of stunningly low values. Last year was a record year for Volvo coaches in Austria. The rumor of excellent performance has spread rapidly and now the new Volvo coach range has become a winner for small as well as big operators.

Volvo 9900 with D13 engine in Austria

Helsinki Environmental Seminars

In Finland the VTT institute performs environmental test of new and old buses. They have built a valuable database and can nowadays draw very detailed conclusions concerning emissions of nitrogen oxides, particulates, greenhouse gases and fuel consumption. Lots of myths can be terminated by the VTT environmental studies.

Today VTT, with presentations by Kimmo Erkkilä and Nils-Olof Nylund, hosted a seminar where both projects from the present and the past were summarized. It can for example be seen that the fuel consumption from Euro I to today has not improved dramatically. Only for Euro IV, the introduction of AdBlue enabled some reduction. It is also seen that gas buses have historically had much lower emissions than diesel buses. However, as the absolute emissions decrease the difference in absolute terms also decrease.

It was said that VTT is about to publish one of the most detailed reports on environmental performance of buses for public transports ever and I expect it to become a reference book for environmental impact of buses. It is expected to bring important information to public transport authorities as well as operators and bus manufacturers. I will look out for this publication when released in the beginning of the summer.

I got the task to review future trends with focus on electro mobility. The Volvo hybrid has now been on sale for more than a year and the sales have escalated gradually. Volvo Buses is very proud and honored by the warm reception all over the world. We have now sold about 450 Volvo hybrid buses with the in-house ISAM technology. Apart from the radical fuel saving, the electric start function that allows silent and emission free take-off from bus stops has brought most appreciation lately. The reliability, better than diesel, is now taken for granted.