photo by philippe leroyer (Flickr CC)

Since the earthquake and tsunami-induced meltdowns in Japan last year, nuclear power has experienced a significant dip in global popularity. In parts of the globe, anyway. Japan itself is currently nuclear-free in terms of energy production, with an ambitious plan to clean up its air and water as well as increase the development of renewable power sources. The East Asian economic powerhouse is home to 54 nuclear reactors, not one of which is online.

Public outcry in Germany following the events at Fukushima immediately resulted in 8 plant closures, with all remaining nuclear facilities to be closed by 2022. This phase-out was already a plan passed by the German Social Democratic-Green Party coalition back in 2002, but Chancellor Angela Merkel decided in 2010, despite large public opposition, to delay the plans by 10-15 years. After Fukushima Merkel announced a moratorium on that decision, most likely because her party was losing votes to the Greens.

So what have been the environmental and economic results of Germany’s move from nuclear? More coal (meaning more CO2 emissions)? More renewables? Economic downturn?

Here’s some statistics on what’s happened in 2011 (source – the Guardian):

• Germany’s energy exports have dropped from 70TWh to 7TWh, still making them a net exporter of power

• Energy consumption dropped by 5.3% due to increased efficiency measures and a mild winter

• All this happened while Germany’s economy grew by 3%

• 60% of lost nuclear capacity was replaced by renewables, which now make up 20% of the total electricity supply

• Emissions fell by 2%

• Though energy prices went up by 10-15% following Fukushima, they are now 10-15% below pre Fukushima levels

And the future?

Check out this excerpt from a press release by the German Center for Research and Innovation:

By 2050, Germany plans to be 80-95% below 1990 CO2 emission levels and to derive 80% of the nation’s electricity from renewables. In research and technology, the government’s High-Tech Strategy has identified climate and resource protection in power generation as one of its five key areas of focus. Several government-funded projects and initiatives, for example, aim to improve the effectiveness of organic solar cells, develop new energy storage technologies, and CO2 reduction concepts to achieve the High-Tech Strategy’s objectives by 2020.

The UK on the other hand, has reacted to Fukushima by planning to build more nuclear reactors (or at least extending the life of old ones), rather than shutting them down. Other nations planning on constructing new nuclear power facilities include Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. But according to the Financial Times, it is China who will be bringing out the big guns with 14 reactors currently operating, 25 under construction and ‘dozens more in advanced planning’

Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

photo by Andre Radke (spicynoodles on Flickr CC)

A French bulldog in Berlin, Germany has stepped up to the plate and adopted 6 wild boar piglets after their mother was killed by a hunter.

The bulldog, named Baby, has previously been a surrogate mother for rabbits, kittens and a raccoon.

The piglets were found alone in a forest. Berlin has ample woodland and is home to an estimated 10,000 wild boar, whose population has made a resurgence in recent years.

From the Guardian:

The piglets were brought into the Lehnitz animal sanctuary outside Berlin on Saturday, three days old and shivering from cold. Baby ran over and snuggled up to them, keeping them warm, even though they were almost her size, said a sanctuary worker, Norbert Damm.

See the following ITN News video report for more:

Source: sxc.hu

The practice of having sex with animals is becoming an epidemic in Germany.

“There are even animal brothels. The abuse seems to be increasing rapidly and the internet offers an additional distribution platform”, said Madeleine Martin, the animal protection official for Hessian state government.

The law needs to be changed to make it possible to prosecute and punish these animal abusers.

“It is punishable to distribute animal pornography, but the act itself is not”, Madeleine Martin told the ‘Frankfurter Rundschau’.

Sex with animals was illegal until 1969 and according to animal rights activists, this kind of animal abuse is no longer single cases, they are talking about a new fashion and lifestyle.

There is already an obscene amount of animal abuse and cruel treatment in the world, without this happening.

Source:Frankfurter Rundschau

photo by LuxTonnerre (Flickr CC)

A solar powered tourist boat, energy efficient office buildings, solar and wind power projects; and greener transport plans are just some of the reasons that Hamburg, Germany has won the title for European Green Capital of 2011.

But does this industrial European port city have what it takes to live up to the eco-city image it promotes?

Hamburg has scooped up the title European green capital for 2011. The northern German port city convinced the jury by presenting itself not as a green oasis but rather as a thriving industrial metropolis which has risen to the challenge of adapting to climate change. Hamburg has ambitious targets[:] it plans to expand its network of bicycle paths, push an inner city train system and promote electric cars. The city aims to cut carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020.

–Deutsche Welle

Several websites promote Hamburg’s green ambitions and credentials, such as the official site for the city of Hamburg, the Hamburg European Green Capital website and the European Commission’s European Green Capital site, which highlights several European cities including Stockholm, Nantes and Vitoria-Gasteiz.

For more on ‘eco-city’ Hamburg, Germany, check out the following video report from Deutsche Welle’s Global Ideas series:

photo by Green Prophet1 (Flickr CC)

According to Yale University’s 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) Canada ranked as the 46^th greenest country in the world, a shameful and sudden drop from #12 in 2008. Why? Mostly due to Canadian ‘tar sands’ or ‘oil sands’ in the province of Alberta, where huge petroleum reserves lie in the form of bitumen, a heavy black form of crude that is energy intensive, highly polluting and more greenhouse gas intensive than conventional oil extraction.

And now Canada has pulled out of the Kyoto Treaty, citing that it would be too expensive. Canadian environment minister Peter Kent claims that it would cost the taxpayers too much money to meet Canada’s emissions targets under Kyoto. Bit of populist rhetoric that is only music to the ears of oil companies, methinks.

So long, ex green country. Any other solutions out there? How about all that sun in North Africa? Should we turn the deserts into giant green energy farms?

In 1986 a German physicist named Gerhard Knies calculated that the world’s deserts receive more solar energy in 6 hours than humans use in a year.

The culmination of his efforts is “Desertec”, a largely German-led initiative that aims to provide 15% of Europe’s electricity by 2050 through a vast network of solar and wind farms stretching right across the Mena region and connecting to continental Europe via special high voltage, direct current transmission cables, which lose only around 3% of the electricity they carry per 1,000km. The tentative total cost of building the project has been estimated at €400bn (£342bn).

The German public’s anti-nuclear sentiments – spurred on by Japan’s Fukushima disaster – have lent fire to the solar energy rush in North Africa.

Read more on that story in the Guardian.

Sustainable energy projects are also on their way across the entire continent of Africa. From wind energy in Kenya, Morocco and South Africa to hydro power in the Democratic Republic of Congo to geothermal in Ethiopia, Kenya and Mozambique, plus the aforementioned Sahara solar projects.

Read more about Africa’s sustainable energy prospects in the Wall Street Journal.

photo by Leigh Wolf (46137 on Flickr CC)

Can a world with a growing, increasingly industrialized population be fed by organic farming?

As the world population approaches 7 billion, there are rising uncertainties about the Earth’s capacity to sustain this unprecedented amount of humanity. Conventional approaches on international and national governmental levels have been along the lines of the Green Revolution, which increased food production in some developing countries like Mexico, India and the Philippines, with the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers and other technological advances in agriculture. Criticisms of the Green Revolution include concerns about pollution caused by pesticides and industrial fertilizers, as well as a belief that it can cause populations to grow to even more unsustainable levels.

In short – industrialized, monoculture farming both yields more and damages the environment more. Financially, since it is more industrial than subsistence-based, its potential gains and risks are both more pronounced than traditional agriculture or organic farming.

A new book by Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, head of head of Germany’s Association for Organic Food (BÖLW) argues for the advantages of organic farming over industrialized agriculture, especially in African countries where the Green Revolution has met with less success.

The book cites a study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to back up its argument. During a development project in Ethiopia, the group found that farms using natural fertilizers had 40 percent higher yields than those using chemical fertilizers.

–Deutsche Welle

For arguments both for and against the ideas of organic, sustainable farming practices dealt with in Löwenstein’s book, see this article in Deutsche Welle.

Is the answer organic, industrial/technological or somewhere in between?

In related news, a new report by the Organic Farming Research Foundation, based in Santa Cruz, California has also bolstered the effectiveness of organic farming in the United States. The study is a review of scientific literature from and concerning the US.

Read more in the Santa Cruz Sentinal.

photo by edibleoffice (Flickr CC)

In San Francisco, California and Berlin, Germany, urban farms and gardens are popping up like weeds.

In the San Francisco Bay area, which includes cities such as Oakland and Berkley, farming regulations are being modernized to include legal provisions for urban agriculture.

Rooftops, derelict plots and median strips are being transformed into gardens by progressive new local government directives.

Berkeley soon will take up a measure to allow residents to sell raw agricultural products from home without a costly permit. And Oakland has pledged to one-up its neighbors by tackling the raising of backyard animals as a personal food source.

–LA Times

Benefits for growing food at home are manifold. Urban farms can provide a healthy, inexpensive and climate-friendly alternative to what one Oakland resident terms “corporate food systems”.

A similar idea has taken root in the German capital of Berlin.

The city’s multicultural district of Kreuzberg is home to an exciting urban gardening project, inspired by the urban agriculture of Havana, witnessed by Berlin resident Robert Shaw on a trip to Cuba.

Shaw, a documentary filmmaker, and professional photographer Marco Clausen started up the garden in 2009 by clearing a 6,000-square-meter vacant lot of community land located next to Moritzplatz, which had been a wasteland for decades.

Read more about San Francisco’s urban farms in the Los Angeles Times and Berlin’s urban gardening project in a Tierramérica piece for IPS News.

photo by Toni Kaarttinen (Flickr CC)

Luxury pet products are a huge growth industry. Many of us have seen “accessory” dogs wearing jeweled collars and being carried in designer Louis Vuitton bags by members of the botox set.

Often the idea with high-end food and gear for pets is just to show off. No dog worth its canines cares if the diamonds around its neck are real or cubic zirconia. Likewise – as with human food – nutritional value doesn’t always correspond with price.

Nevertheless, a lot of people like to “pamper” their pets and it’s not just vacuous Americans. In Germany the trend is taking off.

From an article in Deutsche Welle:

Koko von Knebel is a chain of stores specializing in luxury products for dogs. It currently has seven branches around Germany including two in Berlin. One is in the capital city’s opulent KaDeWe department store. Its other Berlin branch is situated near the city’s designer shopping mile, the KuDamm, and sits neatly alongside the Gucci and Prada flagship stores.

Meanwhile in reality, the large amount of stray dogs around the world is posing problems, especially in developing countries.

Attacks by strays are a serious human health issue, spreading disease in countries like India, Romania, China and Ecuador.

Another Deutsche Welle piece explains:

Rabies – which is spread mostly through dog bites – threatens about half the world’s population and kills more than 55,000 people a year, half of them children. The WHO says 99 percent of these people live in developing countries. And many cases go unreported.

Solutions range from adoption schemes to trapping and sterilizing the feral dogs or even euthanizing them. Many so-called strays are in fact owned, but neglected; therefore the problem is connected to irresponsible concepts of dog ownership.

In other dog news, in Australia the first canine victim of Hendra, a virus found in fruit bats (flying foxes), was recently euthanized.

Horses were already known to be at risk from Hendra, but now cats, dogs, pigs and guinea pigs are being tested in Queensland, Australia.

Read more on that story in the Sydney Morning Herald.

photo by Thore Siebrands (Siebbi on Flickr CC)

Climate change is back in the news and on the global political agenda. Sort of. It isn’t trumping nuclear power, but these two issues are related.

Germany is planning to phase out its nuclear plants and ramp up its already strong renewable energy sector, though this has much more to do with the disaster in Fukushima than with climate change.

Across the Atlantic, however, German support is crucial to a fund that seeks to preserve Ecuadoran rainforest land rather than exploiting the area for oil and pushing off indigenous peoples.

From Deutsche Welle:

Chief negotiator Yvonne Baki and a delegation of experts are in Germany to push the initiative, which if successful would keep more than 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the earth’s atmosphere.

Meanwhile, global carbon emissions from energy production reached an all time high in 2010, despite the economic downturn the previous year, according to the International Energy Agency.

And over in Australia a TV commercial advocating a carbon tax and featuring Cate Blanchette has been stirring up a bit of controversy. Australian opposition leader, conservative and climate skeptic Tony Abbott is quoted in the Guardian:

People who are worth $53m have a right to be heard – but their voice should not be heard ahead of the ordinary working people of this country.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds a little socialist to me. I thought conservatives liked letting rich big shots buy influence and throw their weight around. Check out the ad here.

Australia’s minority Labor government, lead by Julia Gillard, plans on instituting a temporary carbon tax followed by an emissions trading scheme.

Read more about the global rise in greenhouse gases and Europe’s “exporting” of emissions in the following Guardian piece:

World must face ‘inconvenient truth’ of emissions rise, says UN climate chief

photo by dymidziuk.janusz (Flickr CC)

Four major power companies warned that the post-Fukujima backlash against nuclear power in Germany country could result in future winter blackouts. These blackouts would ostensibly occur if Germany decides to decommission all its nuclear power stations.

The companies claim that solar and wind power could not meet demand in the case of insufficiently windy or sunny weather.

Chancellor Angela Merkel recently signaled she would support closing all of Germany’s 17 nuclear power stations by 2022.

Seven nuclear power stations have been off-grid ever since Merkel announced in the immediate aftermath of the Fukushima disaster a “three-month moratorium” on her controversial decision last year to extend the lives of the plants.

–Guardian

So far the German grid has coped with the loss of these 7 plants. Germany notably still relies on coal for the largest share of its energy (42%) with nuclear supplying 22.3%, followed by renewables at 16.5% and natural gas at 13.6%.

Read more on that story in the Guardian.

Merkel may simply be trying to win back votes that are being lost to the Green Party, which historically beat her governing CDU coalition in local elections for the city-state of Bremen.

Meanwhile in Japan– the country most affecting German nuclear policy despite its being located across the globe – utility company Tepco confirmed meltdowns of two more reactors at Fukushima Daiichi power plant following the earthquake and resultant tsunami that rocked the north-east of the country on March 11^th.

Tepco claims the melted fuel rods in these reactors were covered with water and did not reach dangerous temperatures.

Both the energy company and the Japanese government are receiving criticism over keeping this information from the public. Like Germany, Japan has backed away from nuclear power since the disaster and is looking more towards renewables, though not to the extent of its European counterpart.

From another article in the Guardian:

The prime minister, Naoto Kan, will unveil plans at the G8 summit in Deauville, France, to require all new buildings to be fitted with solar panels by 2030, the Nikkei business newspaper said.

According to the US Government Energy Information Administration, Japan is the 3^rd larges consumer of nuclear energy. Data from 2008 details Japan’s energy use as follows: Oil 46%, coal 21%, natural gas 17%, nuclear 11%, hydro 3%, other renewables 1%.

photo by Claudius Prößer (Flickr CC)

The Bombodrom is an area of heath in the former East Germany which was used by the Soviets as a testing ground for explosives during the old days of the Eastern Bloc.

Though some 1.5 million munitions are planted in the grounds of the Bombodrom, the fields now lie fallow and have become home to more gentle activities, like the grazing of endangered moorland sheep. Luckily none have trod on any landmines, but there are some other threats on the wiley, windy moors.

At night, they are herded into an enclosure to protect them from a burgeoning wolf population and white-tailed eagles, cranes, short-eared owls and woodlarks have also migrated here.

–Deutsche Welle

Germany’s government wants the Bombodrom to be a nature reserve, while the local environment minister wants it to be used for wind and solar power. The German military wanted to use it as a bombing range, but protests put a stop to that. Still others would like to see the land become a tourist destination.

Before that is to happen, however, the huge amount of unexploded bombs and grenades must be dealt with. Tourists are notoriously heavier and therefore more likely to explode than wolves, birds and wild sheep. Har har har.

Read more on the Deutsche Welle website.

photo by Dan Zelazo (1yen on Flickr CC)

In an election many consider to be a referendum on the German government’s nuclear energy policy, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union experienced a significant loss over the weekend.

The CDU was defeated in the traditionally conservative state of Baden-Württemberg by the Green-Social Democratic Party (SPD) coalition, making way for a likely Green state premier. This would be the first time in Germany for a state to have a premier from the Green Party.

From Deutsche Welle:

The Social Democrats (SPD) polled 23.1 percent, and gives a “green-red” coalition of the Greens and the SPD a majority. As predicted, the CDU took a severe drubbing, coming in with only 39 percent, a drop of 5.2 points. It was the party’s second-worst showing in the state.

The Greens also gained ground in the smaller state of Rhineland-Palatinate, though they are already in a ruling coalition there with the SPD, also the party that they gained the most votes from.

The Green Party’s gains are attributed to the recent nuclear incident in Fukushima, Japan, following the earthquake and tsunami there. Always a hot-button issue in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel attempted damage control by freezing plans to extend the lives of several of the European country’s nuclear plants as well as shutting down several older reactors.

Merkel is quoted by the Associated Press:

A major party like the CDU … is well advised to draw new conclusions from new events. Most of us of course advocate the peaceful use of nuclear energy. I was one of them, but for me Japan is a far-reaching event.

The strategy seems to have backfired in Baden-Württemberg.

See this video report from Times of India online:

In May a government safety review of nuclear plants in the UK will be released, taking account of the events at Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. For more on this story see this article from BBC News.

photo by Windgeist (Flickr CC)

In Germany, where nuclear power is always especially controversial, the issue has sparked political action of late.

From Deutsche Welle:

The governing CDU/FDP coalition has now put a hold on plans to extend the lifespan of Germanys’ reactors. Particularly aging reactors like the one in Neckarwestheim in the state of Baden-Württemberg will probably shut down earlier than previously expected.

Check out this video report from Deutsche Welle for more:

Also see the Guardian’s data blog for comprehensive list of nuclear incidents and accidents around the world.

Image by mark gallagher (source: Flickr)

A CASTOR (cask for storage and transport of radioactive material) train transport of nuclear waste entering Germany from France caused massive protests and riots between German police and activists earlier today. The train is on its way to a nuclear waste plant in the northern part of Germany.

The police reported that activists where trying to stop the train by blocking the station and train rails, and that it had to intervene, removing the activists by force.

According to the police, at least 10.000 activists had gathered together in the town of Gorleben, in North Germany, where the train would cross the French border and enter Germany. Earlier in France, the activists where able to stop the train for two hours in La Haye.

The train is transporting 123 tons of nuclear waste from German nuclear power plants. Germany has to take the waste back, now that it has been processed for storage. The radioactivity of the transported nuclear waste is said to be twice that of the Tsjernobyl disaster.

Germany is getting ready for demonstrations against nuclear energy and nuclear castor transports. 40.000 protesters are expected to hit the streets later today, making the demonstration the biggest in German history.

photo by jaime.silva (Flickr CC)

According to a recent survey by food and grocery analyst IGD, 18% of consumers in Germany expect to buy more organic groceries in the future. FreshPlaza reports that despite the economic downturn of 2009, organic farming grew in the country:

Taking into account the total agricultural area, the organic agriculture has a percentage of 5.6%. 5.6% of all farming companies are also organic farmers.

–Freshplaza.com

Since Germany’s reunification, most organic farmers – hitherto unheard of in the DDR – have moved to the former East and consumers in German cities are especially keen on buying organic.

See the following Deutsche Welle video report for more:

Additional resources:

Organic-Europe – Organic Agriculture in Germany

image credit: Bente Stachowske/Greenpeace

Germany’s cabinet has voted to extend nuclear power use in the country by an average of 12 years.

According to legislation passed in 2002 by the Social Democratic-Green Party coalition, all nuclear power stations in Germany were to be decommissioned by 2022.

Not any more.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic Party, which rules as part of a center right coalition, sees the extension as a way to generate tax income, while meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and transitioning to renewable energy sources.

But nuclear energy is not popular in Germany and the decision to extend the use of nuclear power plants is highly controversial. It has been met by protests and added to the Green Party’s power base.

Some polls put the Greens on a par in popularity with the Social Democrats at around 20% — that’s unprecedented in German history. Older, experienced activists from the 1970s and ’80s have joined younger protesters and grassroots networks. There’s a tough and united opposition to nuclear power and Chancellor Merkel may pay a high political price.

–Dieter Rucht, professor of sociology, Social Science Research Centre, Berlin (via Time Magazine)

On Tuesday several hundred protesters demonstrated outside of Chancellor Merkel’s office, including activists from Greenpeace. According to the Telegraph, Greenpeace also projected anti nuclear power slogans onto 12 atomic energy reactors in the country.

For more on the story, see the following piece in Time Magazine:

Germany: Greens See Red Over Nuclear Power Extension

photo by GRÜNE Baden-Württemberg

Stuttgart, Germany is a prosperous European industrial city, home to Daimler-Benz and Porsche, among others. It is also the center of a political conflict over the partial demolition of the city’s old railway system in favor of an underground rails and the construction of ‘carbon neutral’ neighborhoods.

Sounds like something the Green Party would support, right?

It isn’t, though Germany’s other principle political parties do back the project, as well as business groups. A large majority of Stuttgart’s population, however, does not.

The project, dubbed Stuttgart 21, is not as environmentally friendly as it might sound. According to campaigners opposing Stuttgart 21, it will require the destruction of old – and beloved – forestland and disturb the city’s underground water springs. They also believe the new expensive tunnel system won’t even discourage road traffic.

Last week an anti Stuttgart 21 protest drew thousands of participants.

From a report by Euronews:

It was largely peaceful but late in the evening 27 demonstrators were arrested, accused of blocking a road.

According to an article entitled ‘Green shooters’ in the The Economist, this kind of disconnect between Germany’s people and its two large traditional political parties – the CDU and Social Democrats – could provide inroads for the Greens in the coming elections. The Green Party has already seen its popularity rise significantly over the past year and their support of popular positions like the opposition of the railway project in Stuttgart may increasingly cast them as Germany’s ‘people’s party’.

image public domain

Nuclear power is a hot issue in Germany. Only last month German chancellor Angela Merkel decided to delay the nuclear phase out legislation passed by the preceding Social Democratic-Green coalition government, extending the deadline by another 10-15 years. Merkel cited the country’s energy needs while undergoing a transition to renewable power sources and reducing greenhouse gases.

But what about nuclear weapons? Old arguments of nukes as a deterrent are still alive and well in some German defense circles, though anti nuke sentiments run strong amongst Germany’s public.

From Deutsche Welle:

Almost a year ago, US President Barack Obama pledged to rid the world of nuclear weapons. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also supports the drive for nuclear disarmament. Together with Japan and Australia, Germany is looking to promote that cause on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly meeting this month. Those who live near nuclear storage facilities, like residents of the small community of Büchel in Germany’s Eifel region, have welcomed the news. But some defense experts are opposed to nuclear disarmament.

See the following Deutsche Welle video report for more:

A World Without Nuclear Weapons

photo by Susan Kambalu (skambalu on Flickr CC)

In Germany, fair trade cafés and fair trade boutiques, known as ‘world shops’ are growing in popularity. There are over 30 world shops in the Berlin-Brandenburg area alone.

Fair trade doesn’t just mean coffee or chocolate. There are around 1,000 fair trade products available in the country.

Germany’s ‘Fair Trade Week’ highlights the benefits of socially responsible goods, including better wages for producers in poor countries, which in turn means that consumers and businesses must be willing to pay higher prices. FA!R 2010 (September 23-25), a fair trade expo, took place in Dortmund during Fair Trade Week and included some 80 exhibitions.

However, a recent survey of consumers in Germany, France, the UK and Spain by food and grocery analyst IGD, showed that German consumers lagged significantly behind those in France in and the UK. Only 10% of Germans surveyed plan to buy fair trade goods in the future, as opposed to 24% in France and 31% in the UK.

See more results from the survey in the Farmers Guardian.

For more on fair trade in Germany, check out the following video report from Deutsche Welle:

Additional resources:

Fair World Project

World Fair Trade Organization

photo by Timo Derstappen (teemow on Flickr CC)

In Stuttgart, Germany, electric motorbike company ELMOTO manufactures zippy E-Bikes that are designed for getting around in cities, much like their combustible-engined cousins.

E-Bikes are high-tech scooters, but some models physically resemble smallish dirt bikes. They are lightweight and run almost silently. I can only hope they catch on for this reason alone, as I live next to a busy road often used by teenagers on noisy mopeds. Alas, their high price tag at the moment – around €4,000 ($5,000) – will prohibit most teenage mopedists from going electric.

ELMOTO’s E-Bikes can reach speeds of 45 km per hour (30 mph) and can travel up to 70 km (43 miles) on a full charge. If the electric scooters could be charged from renewable energy sources, they would offer a truly green solution to city travel.

Of course the E-Bike won’t help keep you fit like the far cheaper, good old-fashioned bicycle will. Nevertheless, they’re a welcome addition to the burgeoning field of green(er) private urban transport.

See this video report from Deutsche Welle for more:

E-Bikes – Electric mobility on two wheels