UN: 2015 record year for global renewables investment

Global investment in renewable energy hit a record US$285.9bn (£202.3bn) in 2015, beating the previous high of $278.5bn set in 2011, a study shows.

The solar and wind industries remain the driving force behind the growth in investment in the global renewable energy sector

The 10th Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment also showed that investment in developing nations exceeded that in developed countries.

In another first, more new renewables capacity than fossil-fuel generation came online during 2015.

But it warned that much more had to be done to avoid dangerous climate change.

The assessment, produced by the Frankfurt School-Unep Collaborating Centre for Climate and Sustainable Energy Finance and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, showed that the developing world committed a total of US$156bn (up 19% on 2014 levels) in renewables (excluding large hydro) while developed nations invested US$130bn (down 8% from 2014 levels).

"A large element in this turnaround was China, which lifted its investment by 17% to US$102.9bn, or 36% of the world total," the report observed.

However, other developing nations also contributed as six of the top 10 investors were developing nations.

In the foreword, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said the report's findings increased confidence that a low-carbon world was obtainable.

He wrote: "We have entered a new era of clean energy growth that can fuel a future of opportunity and greater prosperity for every person on the planet."

However, he warned that in order to avoid dangerous climate change required an "immediate shift away from fossil fuels".

At the Paris climate talks, nations agreed to decarbonise the global economy by the end of the 21st Century

UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative's Eric Usher, one of the assessment's co-authors, said the findings were, overall, positive and seemed to indicate that a shift was occurring.

"Renewables investment is at a new high, and investment is shifting geographically with developing countries investing more than developed countries for the first time (55%/45%)," he observed.

However, he did add that there were areas that caused concern when the focus shifted to regional or national levels.

"There is a still a lot of uncertainty, especially within Europe, with a degree of policy backtracking or the phasing down of support for the (renewables) industry," he told BBC News.

Fellow co-author Ulf Moslener, head of research at the Frankfurt School-Unep Centre, said the latest figures indicated that shifts in attitude, as well as structure, were occurring.

"This level of investment means... more than half of the capacity added to the global energy mix is renewables-based," he said.

Prof Moslener added that renewable generation was still dwarfed by fossil fuel-based sources, and only accounted for 10% of the global mix.

"That shows us that we are quite far from having a system that is based on renewables," he told BBC News.

Lead author Angus McCrone, chief editor at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said that although global oil prices had fallen sharply recently, the cost of generating electricity via renewables had also decreased significantly, adding that there were also other factors that made the industry attractive to investors.

"One advantage that renewables has is that it can be built very quickly," he explained.

"If you are a power-hungry emerging market in Africa or South America, for instance, you can put up a wind farm in six to nine months, or a solar plant in three to six months.

"However, if you want to put up a coal-fired power station, it is going to take three or four years. A nuclear power plant is going to take substantially longer than that."

From BBC News-Science / Environment

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The Moroccan city of Ouarzazate is powered by salt

A Moroccan city is being powered at night by solar energy, thanks to salt.

The newly-opened plant at Ouarzazate harnesses the Sun's warmth to melt salt to 500C. The salt holds its heat and powers a steam turbine in the evening.(BBC News)

The new site near the city of Ouarzazate -- famous as a filming location for Hollywood blockbusters like "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Gladiator" -- could produce enough energy to power over one million homes by 2018 and reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 760,000 tons per year, according to the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) finance group.

As His Majesty Mohammed VI of Morocco pressed a button on 4 February 2016, the first phase of the three-part project was set in motion.From CNN

Climate change: Obama unveils Clean Power Plan

US President Barack Obama has unveiled what he called "the biggest, most important step we have ever taken" in tackling climate change.

President Obama: "I believe there is such a thing as being too late"

The aim of the revised Clean Power Plan is to cut greenhouse gas emissions from US power stations by nearly a third within 15 years.

The measures will place significant emphasis on wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources.

However, opponents in the energy industry have vowed to fight the plan.

"I'm convinced no challenge provides a greater threat to the future of the planet," Mr Obama said. "There is such a thing as being too late."

Those opponents say Mr Obama has declared "a war on coal". Power plants fired by coal provide more than a third of the US electricity supply.

The revised plan will aim to cut carbon emissions from the power sector by 32% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.

"We are the first generation to feel the impacts of climate change, and the last generation to be able to do something about it," Mr Obama said. He likened the plan to taking 166 million cars off the road in terms of environmental impact. He called taking a stand against climate change a "moral obligation".

Mr Obama brushed off the notion that the plan is a "War on Coal" that will kill jobs and said he is reinvesting in areas of the US known as "coal country".

"Scaremonging" tactics will not work to stop the proposal, he said.

"If we don't do it nobody will. America leads the way forward... that's what this plan is about. This is our moment to get something right and get something right for our kids," he said.

US power stations are the country's largest source of greenhouse gases

In a video released by the White House, Mr Obama said the new limits were backed up by decades of data showing that without action the world faced more extreme weather and escalating health problems.

"Climate change is not a problem for another generation. Not any more," Mr Obama said.

"My administration will release the final version of America's Clean Power Plan, the biggest, most important step we have ever taken to combat climate change."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would defend the plan if she was elected to replace Mr Obama.

"It will need defending. Because Republican doubters and defeatists - including every Republican candidate for president - won't offer any credible solution," she said.

"The truth is, they don't want one."

One Republican presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, said the plan would be "catastrophic," while another, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, said the plan was "irresponsible and over-reaching".

"The Supreme Court ruled, it's very clear that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, so regulation is inevitable and I think it's very irresponsible for the Republican leadership to go out there and say we don't have any solutions, this is all wrong, we don't believe in the science, so let's throw up our hands and do nothing," Heather Zichal, a former climate and energy adviser to the president and a key architect of the plan told the BBC's Matt McGrath.

"This will be an issue in the 2016 election and because the Democrats have a far more responsible policy position, it will allow them to prevail."

Correspondents say the emphasis on renewable energy sources marks a significant shift from the earlier version of the plan that sought to speed up a transition from coal-fired power to natural gas plants, which emit less carbon dioxide.

It is believed the revised plan will aim to keep the share of natural gas in US power generation at current levels.

Power stations are the largest source of greenhouse gases in the US and account for about one third of all such US emissions.

From BBC News

Bioenergy can deliver cleaner future, says global report

A global bioenergy assessment has said biofuels could meet up to a third of the world's transportation fuel needs by the middle of the century.

Bioenergy crops, like willow, could play a key role in delivering a low carbon future, the report says

The report - involving experts from 24 nations - said bioenergy had the potential to be a key driver in delivering a low-carbon future.

It added that concerns that growth in the sector would increase food insecurities were misplaced.

The details were outlined in Brussels as part of EU Sustainable Energy Week.

The report, Bioenergy and Sustainability, was led by researchers from the Sao Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil.

The authors said: "Bioenergy derived from plants can play an essential role in satisfying the world's growing energy demand, mitigating climate change, sustainably feeding a growing population, improving socio-economic equity, minimising ecological disruption and preserving biodiversity."

Energy definitions

•Biomass - biological material that can be used as a fuel or for industrial production, such as wood, plant or animal products

•Bioenergy - energy generated by combusting solid, liquid or gas fuels made from biomass        feedstocks

(Source: UK Bioenergy Strategy)

The 779-page study considered the current bioenergy landscape, technologies and practices and considered their social, economic and environmental impacts.

The publication looked at liquid biofuels, bioelectricity and heat, and biogas. It also considered areas such as energy security, food security as well as climate and environmental security.

"The resources and technologies are within our reach but achieving the critical contributions needed from modern bioenergy call for political and individual will," the authors observed.

Close scrutiny

Although it was once hailed by politicians and environmentalists as the green alternative to fossil fuels, bioenergy - particularly biofuels - has come under close scrutiny in recent years.

Questions have been raised about the level of greenhouse gas savings it delivered, especially when rainforests were being felled to allow biofuel crops to be planted instead.

Concerns were also raised about food security as people asked whether it was more profitable to plant energy crops rather than food crops on arable land.

This was reflected at a policy-making level. In 2012, the EU changed its policy on biofuels, encouraging production from waste materials rather than from food crops. It imposed a 5% cap on food-based biofuel allowed to be used in transportation fuel.

In the same year, the UN called for a renewed debate on the merits and impacts of biofuels and the CEO of a global food producer said that the growth in the global biofuels sector was increasing food prices.

However, the assessment published on Wednesday in Brussels challenged this assertion by suggesting that modern bioenergy could "help improve food security by optimising land productivity and agricultural management".

It added: "About 70-80% of food insecurity problems occur in rural [areas] where energy insecurity or energy poverty are also concentrated."

"Bioenergy can be a driver to transform the way we use resources and land," it concluded.

"Inefficiently used land, extensive pastures, degraded lands and excess agricultural capacity and residues can be used for energy production and to bring added value and resilience into agricultural economies and human wellbeing."

From BBC Science / Environment

Global CO2 emissions 'stalled' in 2014

 The growth in global carbon emissions stalled last year, according to data from the International Energy Agency.

 

China is now by far the world's biggest investor in renewable energy, far outstripping the US

 

It marks the first time in 40 years that annual CO2 emissions growth has remained stable, in the absence of a major economic crisis, the agency said.

Annual global emissions remained at 32 gigatonnes in 2014, unchanged from the previous year.

But the IEA warned that while the results were "encouraging", this was "no time for complacency".

"This is both a very welcome surprise and a significant one," said IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol.

 

It provides much-needed momentum to negotiators preparing to forge a global climate deal in Paris in December: for the first time, greenhouse gas emissions are decoupling from economic growth."

And IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said while the data was "encouraging", this was "no time for complacency" and "certainly not the time to use this positive news as an excuse to stall further action".

Changing patterns

Analysts attribute the slowdown in emissions to changing patterns of energy consumption in China and OECD countries.

Prof Corinne Le Quere, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, said: "An important factor could be that China's coal consumption fell in 2014, driven by their efforts to fight pollution, use energy more efficiently and deploy renewables.

"Efforts to reduce emissions elsewhere will have played a role, but there are also more random factors such as the weather and the relative price of oil, coal and gas."

The IEA said changing patterns of energy use in China and in OECD countries, including the shift towards more renewable energy, was having the desired effect of decoupling economic growth from greenhouse emissions.

The Paris-based organisation said that in the 40 years it had been collecting data on carbon dioxide emissions, annual emissions had stalled or fallen only three other times, which were all associated with global downturns:

• after the US recession in the early 1980s
• in 1992 after the collapse of the former Soviet Union
• in 2009 during the global financial crisis

Greenhouse gas emissions may finally be decoupling from economic growth

Full details of the IEA report will be released in June, ahead of UN negotiations to sign a new international climate change agreement at talks in Paris in December.

Countries are aiming to reach agreement on a deal that will come into force from 2020.

The aim is to limit the increase of the average global surface temperature to no more than 2C (3.6F) compared with pre-industrial levels, to avoid "dangerous" climate change.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said the figures showed that green growth is achievable not just for Britain but for the world.

He added: "However we cannot be complacent - we need to dramatically cut emissions, not just stop their growth.

"Getting a new global climate deal is absolutely vital, and the year ahead is going to be of critical importance. " 

 

From BBC news 

 

 

Solar Impulse: Oman to India journey sets new record

Solar Impulse, the fuel-free aeroplane, has successfully completed the second leg of its historic attempt to fly around the world.

Project chairman, Bertrand Piccard, piloted the vehicle from Muscat in Oman to Ahmedabad in India, crossing the Arabian Sea in the process.

Tuesday's journey took just over 15 hours.

The distance covered - 1,468km - set a new world record for a flight in a piloted solar-powered plane.

The vehicle has another 10 legs ahead of it over the course of the next five months.

Included in that itinerary will be demanding stretches when the craft has to fly over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Piccard is sharing the flying duties with project partner and CEO, Andre Borschberg, who made Monday's inaugural trip from Abu Dhabi to Muscat.

Solar Impulse arrived in Ahmedabad in darkness, its wings illuminated by LEDs, and its propellers driven by the energy stored in its batteries.

The plane had left Muscat at 06.35 (02:35 GMT) and put its wheels down at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at 23.25 local time (17:55 GMT).

Preparations are already under way for the next leg to Varanasi in northeast India, although mission planners say that will not be for another four days, at least.

The time will be spent carrying a campaigning message on the topic ofclean technologies to the local Ahmedabad people, and the wider Indian population.

Solar Impulse heads out over the Arabian Sea

The Solar Impulse project has already set plenty of other world records for solar-powered flight, including making a high-profile transit of the US in 2013.

But the round-the-world venture is altogether more dramatic and daunting, and has required the construction of an even bigger plane than the prototype, Solar Impulse-1.

This new model has a wingspan of 72m, which is wider than a 747 jumbo jet. And yet, it weighs only 2.3 tonnes.Its light weight will be critical to its success.

So, too, will the performance of the 17,000 solar cells that line the top of the wings, and the energy-dense lithium-ion batteries it will use to sustain night-time flying.Operating through darkness will be particularly important when the men have to cross the Pacific and the Atlantic.

The slow speed of their prop-driven plane means these legs will take several days and nights of non-stop flying to complete.Piccard and Borschberg - they take it in turns to fly solo - will have to stay alert for nearly all of the time they are airborne.

They will be permitted only catnaps of up to 20 mins - in the same way a single-handed, round-the-world yachtsman would catch small periods of sleep.They will also have to endure the physical discomfort of being confined in a cockpit that measures just 3.8 cubic metres in volume - not a lot bigger than a public telephone box.

Bertrand Piccard looking fresh after more than 15 hours in the cockpit of Solar Impulse

The Solar Impulse venture recalls other great circumnavigation feats in aviation - albeit fuelled ones.In 1986, the Voyager aircraft became the first to fly around the world without stopping or refuelling.

Piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, the propeller-driven vehicle took nine days to complete its journey.Then, in 2005, this time was beaten by the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, which was solo-piloted by Steve Fossett. A jet-powered plane, GlobalFlyer completed its non-stop circumnavigation in just under three days.

From BBC Sci/ Environment

Watch some videos on this article

World's first lagoon power plants unveiled in UK

Plans to generate electricity from the world's first series of tidal lagoons have been unveiled in the UK.

The proposed Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay project would be the world's first man-made, energy-generating lagoon

The six lagoons - four in Wales and one each in Somerset and Cumbria - will capture incoming and outgoing tides behind giant sea walls, and use the weight of the water to power turbines.

A £1bn Swansea scheme, said to be able to produce energy for 155,000 homes, is already in the planning system.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey says he wants to back the project.

The cost of generating power from the Swansea project will be very high, but the firm behind the plan says subsequent lagoons will be able to produce electricity much more cheaply.

It says the series of six lagoons could generate 8% of the UK's electricity for an investment of £30bn.

As well as Swansea, the proposed lagoon sites are Cardiff, Newport, and Colwyn Bay in Wales; Bridgwater in Somerset; and West Cumbria.

Each will require engineering on a grand scale. In Swansea, the sea wall to contain the new lagoon will stretch more than five miles and reach more than two miles out to sea.

The Cardiff lagoon could include up to 90 turbines set in a 14-mile (22km) breakwater around Cardiff Bay and could generate power for about 14 hours each day.

A planning application for the project is expected in 2017.

If approved, it could be generating power by 2022.

Some anglers fears the lagoon might affect migrating fish, but planners say the new sea wall would act as a reef

The firm proposing the lagoon say they want it to become a venue for culture and sports

The cost would be funded by electricity bill-payers under the existing government scheme to promote home-grown, low-carbon energy.

Tidal Lagoon Power is in negotiations with the government over how much it can charge for its power.

It wants £168 per MWh for electricity in Swansea, reducing to £90-£95 per MWh from a second, more efficient lagoon in Cardiff.

'Energy dance'

The £90 figure compares favourably with the £92.50 price for power from the planned Hinkley nuclear station, especially as the lagoon is designed to last 120 years - at a much lower risk than nuclear.

Mr Davey told BBC News: "I can't make a decision on this yet because discussions are ongoing. But I'm very excited by the prospect of tidal power.

"We have got some of the biggest tidal ranges in the world and it would be really useful if we could harness some of that clean energy."

From BBC Sci/ Environment

Test driving the smart electric 'carbike'

Two students from the University of Toronto have developed a prototype electric vehicle for use within city areas.

The car/bike hybrid is connected to a smartphone and can reach speeds of up to 20mph (32km/h).

It’s a car! It’s a bike! No … it’s a plug-free electric hybrid prototype!

OK, so they need to work on the name, but it’s a smart concept: a team of PhD candidates from the University of Toronto has created an electric pedal-powered car-bike that could help beat the traffic snarls that plague our city’s streets.

“The project was inspired by my experiences commuting from Union Station,” co-creator Phil Lam says with a laugh. “But everybody’s experience is bad, right? Drivers get stuck in traffic. People who take public transit never get anywhere on time. Walking is pleasant, but it doesn’t take you very far ... Cycling, if not outright dangerous, is certainly uncomfortable for a lot of reasons. Everybody’s suffering in their own way. The answer is reinterpreting how we get around.”

Fitted with wires, bike parts and a few Tupperware containers, the prototype looks like a cross between a recumbent bicycle and a homemade sci-fi space pod. Within the lightweight aluminum chassis, however, are the seeds of a vision for healthier, happier, and more sustainable urban transport in increasingly dense cities.

You charge the vehicle’s battery by pedalling. The intensity of pedalling controls its 500-watt engine’s throttle. The engine itself is fully programmable, which means that you can easily adjust the pedal-to-engine-power ratio. Rushing to an important meeting? Let the engine do most of the work, so you don’t show up sweaty. In need of a little exercise? Pedal the roughly 45-kilogram vehicle until you feel the burn.

The three-wheeled vehicle is tall enough to be seen by other traffic, yet narrow enough to manoeuvre through congested streets. It even has a windshield to protect you from the elements and a small trunk for parcels and groceries.

Phil Lam, left, and Jonathan Lung have created a startup, Sojourn Labs, supported by U of T's Impact Centre. It took them 18 months to design and build the prototype of their electric pedal-powered car-bike.

READ MORE

From: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/10/13/is_this_electric_carbike_the_answer_to_our_transit_woes.html

Party leaders make joint climate commitment

The UK's political leaders have pledged to work together to combat climate change, whatever the election result.

The pledge includes an undertaking "to end the use of unabated coal power"

In a joint statement, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg said climate change was one of the most serious threats facing the world.

They said climate change threatens not just the environment but also security, prosperity and poverty eradication.

They have promised to end coal burning for power generation in the UK - unless it uses new clean-up technology.

Environmentalists say the pledge is significant because it quells some of their fears that the Conservatives might adopt a more climate-sceptic line, to mirror UKIP's position.

'Moment of unity'

The move will be noticed by the UK's European partners working towards a global agreement on climate change at the UN conference in Paris in December. Some of them had been nervous that the UK might soften its leadership position in the talks, given the level of climate scepticism expressed by some newspapers and Conservative backbenchers.

The statement will also please investors who have been deterred from sinking money into renewable energy systems because they feared a withdrawal from climate policies.

It has been brokered by Matthew Spencer of the think tank Green Alliance, who He told BBC News: "The purpose is to create space for the current and future PM to ensure that the UK can play a full role in securing a good outcome in Paris.

He added that another aim was "to reassure investors that agreement remains strong across current leaders on emissions reduction, and that we're unlikely to see a major change in direction whichever party forms the next government".

"It's very unusual to get a moment of unity in the midst of a general election, and it is generating lots of excitement. A non-partisan approach is the holy grail in the US. It is in our national interest to act and to ensure that others act with us."

'Unusual' joint commitment: Cameron, Clegg and Miliband

The leaders have gone so far as to promise to ban "unabated" coal-fired power generation - meaning that, if it is to continue, the emissions will need to be captured and stored in rock formations. This decision has been long debated and will send a strong signal of intent to the power industry.

The leaders state: "Acting on climate change is an opportunity for the UK to grow a stronger economy more efficient, and more resilient to risks ahead."

They pledge:

• to seek a fair, strong, legally binding, global climate deal which limits temperature rises to below 2C
• to work together, across party lines, to agree carbon budgets in accordance with the Climate Change Act
• to accelerate the transition to a competitive, energy efficient low carbon economy and to end the use of unabated coal for power generation

Critics fear that combating climate change will make energy unaffordable. UKIP says climate change fears are inflated and the party's UKIP's energy spokesman recently said his party wanted to repeal the Climate Change Act, which commits the UK to step-by-step reductions in CO2 until 2050. He said the relationship between CO2 levels and global temperatures is "hugely open to question".

Labour leader Ed Miliband recently restated that tackling climate change "goes to the heart of" his beliefs. A Liberal Democrat source said tackling climate change was in the party's DNA.

The Green Party says the UK should be making much more urgent progress towards getting the country powered by renewables.

The leaders say action on climate change is an opportunity to grow a stronger economy

Greenpeace welcomed the new statement. Its director John Sauven said:

"This pledge marks a turning point in the collective effort to take Britain's energy system out of the Victorian age and into the 21st century. Party leaders now need to set a clear expiry date on coal pollution, stop subsidies to coal plants, and start investing in the clean energy infrastructure this country really needs."

Industry leaders will need reassuring about how this can be done without pushing up energy prices and making the UK uncompetitive.

From BBC news

Poo-powered Bio-Bus hits road in Bath and Bristol

Check out this new form of poo-blic transport!

Britain's first bus powered entirely by poo and food waste has hit the road

The Bio-Bus is a shuttle service between Bath and Bristol Airport.

It runs on a gas called biomethane, which is generated through the treatment of sewage and food waste.

The bus has 40 seats, and can travel up to 186 miles on one tank of gas, which needs the annual waste of around five people to produce.

Engineers think the Bio-Bus could be a greener way of running public transport.

From CBBC newsround

Green phone boxes to charge mobile phones in London

Old phone boxes in London are being brought back to life with a new use - as solar-powered charging stations for mobile phones.

The first of six boxes was unveiled on Tottenham Court Road in the capital this week.

The service is free to use although users will be shown adverts as they wait for their phone to charge.

BBC technology reporter Dougal Shaw checked one out with Harold Craston, one of the team of newly-graduated students from London School of Economics who developed the new 'solarbox'.

From CBBC nEwsround

Potato battery

First Porsche revealed to be an electric car from 1898

Luxury automaker Porsche has revealed the first car designed by its founder was electric, in a show at its museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany.

Ferdinand Porsche's design was dubbed the Egger-Lohner electric vehicle C.2 Phaeton model, or the P1 for short.

The car, made in 1898, was recently unearthed in an Austrian garage, where it had been stored since 1902.

The 22-year-old Ferdinand Porsche, who would start Porsche in 1931, designed the P1 for carmaker Jacob Lohner.

After a trip to the US, Ludwig Lohner, the owner of that firm, became convinced that the age of the horse and carriage was ending, and he asked Ferdinand Porsche to come up with an electric drive train.

The first Porsche featured a rear-mounted electrical engine which could reach speeds of 21 miles per hour

Ferdinand Porsche designed an "octagonal electric motor" that was powered by electric batteries and suspended amidst shock absorbers in the rear of the vehicle.

Using a complicated series of gears, the car was driven using a 12-speed controller, which had six forward gears, two reverse gears and four gears with which to brake the car.

The P1 took to the streets of Vienna, Austria, on 26 June 1898.

The P1 could reach speeds of up to 21mph (34km/h) and travel up to 49 miles on a single charge.

The car could be styled as an open-air chassis or a coupe.

The first Porsche was the most energy-efficient car in an 1899 Berlin road race

The young Mr Porsche eventually entered the P1 in a Berlin road race, which took place on 28 September 1899.

Competitors had to travel a total of 24 miles with four passengers (including the driver).

The P1 beat out the other competitors handily, crossing the finish line a full 18 minutes before the next car.

In a detail that seems almost too good to be true, the P1 won another accolade: least amount of energy consumed.

The car is on display as part of an exhibition at the Porsche museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany.

Mr Porsche was working for car builder Jacob Lohner, who asked him to design an electric drive train

At the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany, the plastic placeholders show the original design

Ferdinand Porsche stamped each part of the vehicle with P1, to differentiate it from other models

From BBC News