Answer: Plastic!

Plastic has incredible qualities and is applicable in many different aspects of modern life. You can find it in refrigerators and freezers to improve food conservation, building insulation to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions, clothing and footwear to ensure comfort whilst remaining fashionable, automotive applications for better fuel efficiency and passenger protection, coatings and adhesives for enhanced durability and furniture for desired comfort. As you see, the applications and uses of plastics are limitless in meeting the world’s needs.

For a great video on how plastics like polyurethane improve lives and protect the planet, check this out:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Seeing that the impact of plastic knows no boundaries, please find the video in العربية, 中国的, Hrvatski, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, 日本の, Magyar, Nederlands and Русский.

From 18 to 20 April, Energy and Environment Ministers held an informal meeting in Horsens to discuss, amongst others, the EED. In between jogging around the Danish countryside, the Ministers found time to agree that the foundation of future energy policy should include energy efficiency. The noble nature of this consensus, however, was somewhat insincere as the Council text released on 4 April (see our previous blog here) significantly weakened important energy efficiency targets (Articles 4 and 6), and even deemed deep building renovations (Article 3a) “unacceptable”. This “weak and confusing” mandate was (finally) addressed by the European Commission last week when it circulated to those in attendance a ‘non paper’ contrasting the Member State’s accepted provisions from 4 April and its initial proposal. The non paper is the first Commission document on the EED since its draft proposal more than a year ago.

According to the non paper, the EED has been watered down so much that only 38 per cent (!) of initial savings proposed could still be achieved; for those more number oriented, the Council version reduces primary energy consumption by 58.1 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) compared to 151.5 Mtoe proposed by the Commission in June 2011. The document, which includes a cost-benefit analysis, highlights that between 2011 and 2020 the Council version would result in EU Member States missing out on:

• Increased EU GDP of €34 billion.
• Increased net employment of 400,000.
• Reduced fuel expenditure of an average of €38 billion annually.
• Reduced energy spending of about €20 billion.

Today Denmark joined the Commission by hitting out at other Member States, and are calling for “ring-fencing a key article imposing an annual 1.5% energy savings target on power companies”. Not much of a demand in the big scheme of things, but ‘meget god’ to the Danes for making some sort of effort.

Don’t get us wrong, we appreciate these “damning assessment[s]”. Their late and unofficial nature, however, makes them toothless and unlikely to apply much needed pressure to the trilogue negotiations. The negotiations, which entered the final phase last week, remain plagued with divisive issues making the fine balance between EU and national interests so desperately sought by the Danish EU Presidency seemingly out of sight. Informal talks are likely to continue well into June (the next trilogue is scheduled for 8 May, with three to follow by 13 June), and a plenary vote should not be expected before September 2012, depending on progression of the negotiations.

Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, however, does not appear overly concerned, noting that “realistically a solution is possible under the Danish Presidency” for the EED to come together in upcoming months. Let’s hope there’s an ace up the Commission’s sleeve [new Danish text on Article 6?] rather than depend on these guys:

Click here to view the embedded video.

UTECH Europe is a unique happening; it allows thousands of attendees to update themselves on the latest technologies, materials and equipment used by industry in addition to showcasing the sheer breadth of applications polyurethanes provide. This year the show was completely sold out and included over 100 exhibitors! Of course, with our own very special project (the Polyurethanes Passive House), we decided to join the party:

The Passive House was very well received and enjoyed much attention at UTECH. Providing a living example to showcase the environmental and economic benefits of polyurethane applied to the most modern construction standard, passive housing, really was a great opportunity to not only tell but show the world that innovation lies at the heart of polyurethanes.

Besides featuring the Polyurethanes Passive House, another UTECH highlight was ISOPA Secretary General Dr Wolfram Frank opening the Conference session on ‘Safety, Health and Environmental Sustainability Issues’. His speech addressed ISOPA’s past and current achievements, and future opportunities and challenges for the polyurethanes industry.

“ISOPA promotes the highest standards of best practice in the distribution and use of diisocyanates and polyols through its ‘Walk the Talk’ programme.” “The programme”, Dr Frank stated, “focuses on the behavioural safety of everyone involved in the industry through an ongoing process of information exchange and dialogue. Its industry-leading ‘One Step Ahead’ programme has encouraged the safe use of TDI by flexible foam makers in Africa and the Middle East.”

Dr Frank concluded his speech highlighting the Polyurethanes ‘Vision’ campaign through which ISOPA has sought to communicate how polyurethanes improve our everyday lives through their versatility, sustainability and comfort today and tomorrow.

To check out the ISOPA UTECH Conference press release, click here!

The first passive house, built in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1991, has a maximum heat load of 7.4W/m² and is currently still in use. Leading to a wave of new passive housing developments in subsequent decades, these houses are kept ‘passive’ by using existing internal heat sources, solar energy and the minimal heating of incoming fresh air.

The Darmstadt-based Passivhaus Institut (PHI) continues to monitor buildings, ensuring that measured energy consumption for heating remains below 15kWh/m² per year and total primary energy consumption is below 120kWh/m² while not leaking more air than 0.6 times the house volume per hour, thus guaranteeing comfortable indoor temperature without a conventional heating system.

Over 15,000 passive houses have been built in Germany alone, while 17% of all new single-house projects in Austria are passive houses.

Widely diverse in architecture and design, passive houses have gained popularity due to their ability to save up to 85% more on energy bills than regular constructions and for their creative use of materials. The first polyurethane-insulated house in Belgium for example, is being constructed in Evere.

PHI standards officially arrived in the US in the late 2000s. However, the shaky alliance between PHI and its North American affiliate, the Passive House Institute US (PHIUS), was short-lived and came to an official end in August 2011.

New PHIUS standards will diverge from PHI by allowing additional annual peak load allowances, space conditioning requirements, source energy requirements as well as airtightness criteria based on climatic zones. PHIUS has also announced it will work closely with the HERS index (the Home Energy Rating Standard developed by the Residential Energy Services Network, RESNET), under which energy performance is rated on an index of zero to 100, i.e. from a house that requires zero energy on an annual basis to a home complying with current US building standards.

What will this mean for the future of passive houses in Europe and the US? Until the specifics of the PHIUS proposal are published, the only fact that remains clear is that all housing that has already received PHI certification in the US will remain certified. Let’s wait until the full PHIUS proposal is published before mid-2012 to see whether or not the transatlantic divide deepens even further. One can only hope that both sides’ commitments to improving energy efficiency in buildings will only seriously diverge over metric measurements rather than content.

Step 2: Type ‘Ouarzazate’.

Step 3: Enjoy.

If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve found yourself privy to ‘the door of the desert’: Ouarzazate. Located in Morocco, Ouarzazate is both a city and capital of the Ouarzazate Province. For a long time, the city acted as a crossing point for African traders en route to Europe; more recently the city has developed into a noted film-making location for cinema classics including ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and ‘Gladiator’.

What Wikipedia fails to highlight is that the city will be part of the Solar Impulse Mission 2012!

As you might remember from our previous blog, the Solar Impulse is a long-range solar powered plane project which uses high-tech polymer materials and energy-saving lightweight solutions, including carbon nano-technology, innovative polyurethane adhesives and lightweight polyurethane foams. In July 2010, the Solar Impulse HB-SIA made history by becoming the first solar-powered airplane to fly through a complete daylight cycle, thereby establishing three World Records.

This spring, the Solar Impulse will attempt to set another record by flying more than 2,500 km fueled exclusively by solar energy! Its destination? You guessed it: Ouarzazate. The city was chosen as it is set to construct the largest thermo-solar power plant EVER built; Morocco intends to build five solar-thermal/photovoltaic complexes by 2020, generating over 2,000 megawatts and preventing the emission of 3.7 million tons of CO₂.

The flight, set for May or June, will act as a dress rehearsal before the curtains rise for the Jules Verne-esque voyage in which the Solar Impulse aims to circumnavigate the world in 2014.

For now, please enjoy this video of the Solar Impulse in action.

For those who do not follow these things in much detail, this first paragraph may sound like overkill! Thus, we will summarise in clear terms:

1 – On 28 February, the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee adopted a report by a large majority. This report is the Parliament’s basis for negotiation with the other co-legislator: the European Council.

2 – By means of a separate vote, the European Parliament’s ITRE Committee also gave Greens/EFA MEP Claude Turmes (Luxembourg) a mandate to negotiate with the Council in what is called an “informal trialogue”.

3 – The informal trialogue is a procedure that basically aims at fastracking the European Union ordinary legislative procedure and pave the way for adoption of a text at first reading.

4 – The Council agreed on a preliminary position on 29 March 2012, which was made public today, as well as preparatory document for the first informal trialogue, set to take place just a week from today on 11 April 2012 in Brussels.

We will delve into the details in a later post on the respective positions of the Council and the Parliament, however this much can already be euphemistically said: negotiations will be tough and securing a deal by the June Plenary will require a lot of effort on the part of the Danish Presidency and MEP Claude Turmes.

For those who cannot wait for our next post to see what’s in the text, here is a little present:

And for those who, like us, are into Council/Parliament negotiations, the following should quench your thirst:

Spectacular overtaking manoeuvres and high-speed duels between virtuoso pilots are what the public yearns for. Unfortunately this is not a risk-free sport and accidents happen. Research on how to install higher security measures for drivers has long focused on the car’s cockpit; however, a new system was recently introduced that significantly improves driver safety on the racing track. Old tires are being gradually replaced by a new generation of safety blocks which make spinning off the track less hazardous.

Polyurethanes are used to allow drivers like Scott Speed to get out the car safely.

These safety blocks are made of polyurethane foam with impact absorption properties up to 40 per cent higher than tires. Each block weighs 120kg and measures 1.5 x 1.2m. In order to make them easily interlocked, they always have a convex and a concave end. The polyurethane block is shaped around a steel sheet, which is then filled with polyurethane rigid foam. Filling the block is the most complicated part of the production process because the manufacturer needs to avoid any deformation. The block must also be held together tight for another 15 minutes after the filling, to allow polymerisation.

In the wake of the safety blocks’ great success on the racing track, tests are being carried out on how to extend the use of this special foam beyond safety blocks and comfortable racing seats.

Make sure you keep your eyes peeled for the next race you can see these innovative safety blocks: the Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Santander, 11-13 May 2012.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This PlasticsEurope video shows how plastic helps reduce our energy footprint in ways we often take for granted. For example, did you know that:

• Over their lifetime wind turbine blades constructed from polyurethanes generate more than 140 times the amount of energy it took to produce them;
• Insulation panels recoup the energy used to create them in only four months;
• Modern cars and aeroplanes use polyurethanes not just in seats and furnishings, but also in body panels, floors and wings. The reduced weight means we can decrease fuel consumption without cutting comfort!

The polyurethane and plastics industries are busily continuing to develop better products to help us save money and support the environment in our daily lives. For more information on the energy efficiency contribution of polyurethanes, have a look at our wind turbines blog or visit our polyurethanes passive house website.

• “Achieve more flexibility for the implementation” of the directive;
• “Assuring the 20% target”;
• Alignment with EU’s carbon trading scheme (ETS).

It may not have any significance, but we couldn’t help but notice that the other main players on the directive, the Liberals, Greens and Social Democrats, have not reacted officially yet. Similarly, it’s odd that Markus Pieper, who was shadow rapporteur for the Christian Democrats -not Liese or Seeber - would let his colleagues take credit for the win…

It will all become much clearer once we actually read the compromise text. Is the compromise a real setback for energy efficiency enthusiasts like Turmes (MEP Greens), Hall (MEP Liberals) and Thomsen (MEP Social Democrats)? Will this compromise give enough leeway for the Parliament to negotiate with the Council?

At least, for Mr Liese, it seems to be celebration time! (Disclaimer: the photo below was NOT taken yesterday after the negotiations!)

Source: Peter Liese - Flickr Creative Commons

Today’s negotiations were supposed to last until lunch time between representatives of the main political groups. However, no news yet (at least officially) on whether a deal was struck; considering what EurActiv wrote on Tuesday, it did not seem like positions had changed very much from what we have described on this blog so far.

In a nutshell, there is a large consensus for an ambitious approach on the directive from the far left (GUE-NGL), the Liberals (ALDE) and the Social Democrats (S&D). This consensus extends to a significant share of the Conservatives (EPP), whom have immense difficulties finding a common voice behind the divisive Markus Pieper (shadow rapporteur for the EPP group).

At the same time, Claude Turmes still needs a large consensus with all major political groups on an ambitious Parliament position if he wants to stand a chance in negotiations with the European Council; a Council that stands firmly on its ground. Reading between the deceiving lines of diplomatic talk, the statement on Tuesday by the Council’s Danish Presidency was a warning to the Parliament. It seemed to say “if you want your first reading agreement by end of June you should better knock it down a notch”. But, perhaps this is overinterpreting?

In any case, it will be interesting to read reports in the EU press tomorrow (too bad for the European Voice which publishes on Wednesdays!). It would hardly be a surprise, however, if we learnt that negotiations had stalled and will need continue next week; with MEPs in their constituencies for “green week” (sic) then, one could arguably say that an agreement is “now or never”.

With this blog’s title, it would be horrible to leave our readers without at least the beginning of an answer; unfortunately, it won’t be much more than an educated guess: we do believe that MEPs did cut a deal on the Energy Efficiency Directive today.

For the real answer, we’ll see tomorrow!