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The idea that pesticides may be to blame has now received a boost from the first large-scale, prospective study to examine this possible link. Alberto Ascherio of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, US, and colleagues looked at data from roughly 143,000 people involved in a cancer and diet study, of whom 413 were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the 1990s.

Toxin exposure

In 1982 these volunteers each completed an initial questionnaire, providing information about their occupation and levels of exposure to various toxins.

Ascherio and colleagues found that those who reported exposure to pesticides had a 70% greater risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those who said they had no such exposure. But exposure to other toxic compounds – such as asbestos and formaldehyde – did not increase their chances of acquiring the illness.

Ascherio stresses that the absolute risk of developing Parkinson’s is low. So while about 2% of the population as a whole may be at risk of developing the disease, exposure to pesticides might increase this risk to little more than 3%.

Of the 413 patients with Parkinson’s disease, 43 reported exposure to pesticides. But surprisingly the study found that farmers – many of whom presumably had high levels of exposure – and non-farmers shared a similarly increased risk. This contradicts a previous, smaller study reporting that risk rises with exposure levels (see Exposure to pesticides can cause Parkinson’s).

Garden pesticides

Ascherio suggests that non-farmers may have encountered pesticides while gardening. “Maybe the pesticides used in agriculture are not the most harmful,” he speculates. He regrets that the initial questionnaire did not include more details about the type, duration and intensity of pesticide exposure.

Experts stress that many people unknowingly consume pesticides on a daily basis. “If you analyse the fruit and vegetables we eat, they’re full of chemicals,” says Serge Przedborski of Columbia University in New York, US. He adds that traces found in such foods can accumulate over a lifetime to potentially harmful levels.

Przedborski describes the new study as “excellent” because researchers collected data about pesticide exposure years before participants developed Parkinson’s disease, ruling out potential bias. But he notes that it does not prove that pesticides are the main cause of Parkinson’s disease.

Moreover, Przedborski explains that because the initial questionnaire did not ask about specific pesticides, we are no closer to knowing which particular chemicals are the culprits. “In reality, we have no idea,” he says.

Journal reference: Annals of Neurology (DOI:10.1002/ana.20904)

Since changing course in 1994 Tanti has become Asia’s foremost wind man and one among India’s growing crop of new billionaires. Suzlon Energy makes wind turbines, industry jargon for modern windmills, to generate electricity. The 70 per cent stake that Tanti and his three brothers own in their Bombay Stock Exchange-listed company is worth $4.3 billion. The stock has risen 60 per cent since Suzlon’s first daily close last October, giving Tanti an entrée into the billionaire ranks.

Now situated in Pune, a city known for its engineering skills, Suzlon is a prime example of India’s emerging story in manufacturing, less told than the technology- services tale. A fellow Pune billionaire, Baba Kalyani, has built Bharat Forge, which makes auto chassis, into a world beater. Tanti wants a similar status for Suzlon.

At home, where it still makes 90 per cent of its sales, Suzlon has 35 per cent of the market. The country is among the top five wind power users, which collectively account for 70 per cent of global capacity. With its mission to provide "Power for all by 2012" India’s federal government has introduced legislation making it compulsory for electricity distributors to get a specified quantum from renewable energy sources.

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There is a separate ministry for nonconventional energy, which has estimated the country’s capacity to generate wind power at 45,000 megawatts, more than ten times current installed capacity.

Wind power has its critics, one beef being the noise that neighbors of turbines have to endure. But densely populated India in fact has large tracts of open land, mostly in remote rural areas. About 15 to 20 acres are needed for a 1-megawatt installation.

Suzlon has built Asia’s largest wind farm, with an installed capacity of 500 megawatts, near Kanyakumari, on India’s southernmost tip, where trade winds of 15mph are common. The ministry of nonconventional energy has created a "wind atlas" for picking the best sites.

Suzlon started selling in the U.S. in 2003 when it landed a contract with DanMar & Associates, a Minnesota development firm, to supply 24 turbines in southwestern Minnesota. Suzlon clinched the deal not only because it could supply at prices 10 per cent cheaper than its European rivals.

"Their design and technology was better suited for our wind resources in the US Midwest and 10 per cent more efficient than that of competing providers," says DanMar’s founder Dan Juhl, who has followed up with repeat orders. Turns out that Suzlon’s robust turbines could best withstand extreme weather conditions.

With orders worth $600 million in hand from US, Chinese and Australian customers, Suzlon has invested in a service support facility and a workshop in Pipestone, Minnesota to manufacture rotor blades. At 140 feet these are longer than the wing of a 747 plane, so they are too expensive to transport across continents. Building them closer to the customer location obviates the logistical issues of transporting them from India."We’re an Indian company that’s creating 300 jobs in the US," boasts Tanti.

Expansion isn’t expected to require a dilutive follow-on equity offering anytime soon. Banks are now chasing such projects, so getting bank loans is no problem for Suzlon. Besides, it generates cash profits that are put back in the business.

The same kind of venturesome spirit that drives Tanti now was what set the Suzlon train in motion. Spurning their father’s construction business in Gujarat, Tanti and his three siblings moved into textiles in the late 1980s. They started processing polyester yarn, then graduated to making furnishing fabrics.

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The decision to shift again, into wind energy, was a brave one. The industry was in the dumps, as it had been given a bad name by unscrupulous companies that lured customers with the bait of tax breaks. But projects were ill conceived, often left incomplete with no maintenance or service support to speak of. Banks wised up and stopped lending for wind power projects.

The brothers saw the opportunity for a producer not only to build the wind turbine but to provide maintenance and service support–even operation–as well.

Selling some family property, the Tantis put together $600,000 as seed capital to start Suzlon. They shopped around for technology in Europe, but no one was willing to give it without having an equity stake in the venture.

Finally, Sudwind, a small German company agreed, provided Suzlon bought ten turbines. Tanti convinced IPCL, a petrochemicals company that had been supplying raw materials for his yarn business, to sign up as Suzlon’s first customer. Suzlon completed IPCL’s 3.5-megawatt project using Sudwind’s turbines within the three-month deadline. Tanti claims that ten years on, this first wind farm continues to run at 97 per cent efficiency.

WIND POWER MARKET SHARE LEADERS
Suzlon is growing fastest among the world’s biggest turbine makers.
COMPANY/COUNTRY	TOTAL INSTALLED MW	% GROWTH 2004-2005 MW
Vestas/Denmark	20,766	15%
Enercon/Germany	8,550	18%
Gamesa/Spain	7,912	23%
GE Wind/US	7,370	14%
Siemens¹/Denmark	4,502	13%
Nordex/Germany	2,704	7%
Repower/Germany	1,522	22%
Suzlon/India	1,485	28%
Mistubishi/Japan	1,252	21%
¹Wind Unit. Source: BTM Consult ApS.

But the brothers, all four engineers, wanted to prove their technical prowess by crafting their own turbine. Their research efforts got a boost when Sudwind went bust in 1997. They hired Sudwind’s engineers and created an R&D center in Germany. The subsequent acquisition of a manufacturer of rotor blades in the Netherlands gave them access to technology for a key component.

Electricity-Generating Capacity by Type (2003)
Fossil fuels remained dominant sources of power in the latest available year.
	MW (THOU)
Combustible Fuels
Coal and Coal Products	488
Natural Gas	376
Other Combustibles	710
Hydro	421
Nuclear	313
Wind	35
Geothermal	6
Solar	1
Other	1
Source: International Energy Agency Note: Numbers are for OECD countries only. Emerging countries such as India, China not inlcuded.

By 1999 Suzlon had introduced its partly homegrown turbine into the market. Today the company has three research sites, in Germany, the Netherlands and India, which are linked together. One important mission: to find ways of increasing output so cost per kilowatt of energy-generated decreases.

At the same time, Tulsi Tanti is shrewdly consolidating his hold on component supplies, a critical success factor in this business. In March Suzlon acquired Hansen Transmissions Intl., a Belgian maker of wind turbine gearboxes, for $565 million, thereby securing supplies of another key component. (Suzlon now makes two-thirds of its turbines in India; the remaining third are imported.)

However, Indian investors in wind power can claim an accelerated depreciation of 80 per cent starting from the first year. "Wind energy projects tend to be viewed as tax-saving devices, but they make business sense as firms can reduce their power costs," says Karthik Ranganathan, an investment manager at Baring Private Equity Partners.

As often, the breaks create suspicion. Suzlon, along with other firms, is being investigated by the Indian income tax authorities for creating fictitious projects as a tax dodge.

By the Numbers

• 200,000 megawatts: Estimated production (installed capacity) of electricity in India by 2012, up by 60%. 0.69% The share of wind power in total global electricity generation.

  $10 trillion: Investments required to meet global electricity demand in 2030.

Sources: Company reports; IEA.

Hydrogen as a fuel is not pie in the sky, it is a known technology, reported New Scientist (24 June 2006, p.26). BMW and other German car makers have already made prototypes that run on hydrogen They are involved in constructing a net of filling stations and expect to see the start of the hydrogen economy within 10 years.

CO2 not an essential by-product: The common and cheapest method of production is a process called steam reformation. This also produces CO2, but if electricity produced by renewables were used to split water, hydrogen could be produced without any CO2.

Versatile: You can use hydrogen on-site to produce heat and power or you can send the gas down a pipeline (there is already one in the UK). You can cool it and store it as a liquid in caverns similar to those used for liquid petroleum gas, or you can adsorb it onto solid metal hydrides – this is still an expensive option, but improving, the article says.

New Scientist, 24/6/2006, p. 26

Source: Erisk Net

Aboriginal groups have given divergent responses to the moratorium announcement on Wild Rivers legislation, reported Queensland Country Life (22 June 2006 p3).

Pearson takes a firm stand: Indigenous leader Noel Pearson told a meeting in Cape York that the struggle against Wild Rivers was about the future viability of indigenous and non-indigenous communities in the region. "If we are serious about underwriting a future for indigenous people, we have to fight resolutely against this process," he said. Pearson was also reported as saying it was important the different groups worked together to counter the influence of environmentalists.

"The way this policy will work out, Indigenous people will die on welfare. No prospect for development, no prospect for jobs, no prospect for developing the lands that they already have," he said.

Fine tuning not the answer: "The Government can fiddle with the Code and even remove the ‘big axe’ from the legislation, but this Code will kill industrial development with a death of a thousand cuts," Mr Pearson said.

Legislation needs to be thrown out: "We have to deliver a full-frontal attack on this legislation and try to connect with the people in Brisbane and South East Queensland, so that they hear what we are say – that it is absolutely unfair that our rights and our children’s rights should be ignored like this."

Carpentaria LC pro-legislation: Meanwhile Gulf regional chairman of the Carpentaria Land Council, Barry Walden, said traditional owners supported the declaration of the Wild Rivers that fell within his group’s traditional country.

Cultural significance before economic development: Mr Walden said the Settlement, Staaten, Morning Inlet and Gregory Rivers were an important cultural resource to indigenous people. "Many people don’t understand that the river systems and floodplains contain our dreaming tracks and stories. A focus on short-term economic gain means that our spiritual and cultural customs are overlooked," he said.

Queensland Country Life, 22/6/2006, p. 3

Source: Erisk Net  

The chief executive of Australia’s largest renewable fuel company Australian Renewable Fuels, Daryl Butcher, said the government had reneged on a pledge by scrapping the tax-free status of biodiesel, and this could push $60 million in planned investment offshore, reported The Australian Financial Review (26/6/2006, p.9).

ARF loses $4.5m contract: Butcher said the decision, which passed the Senate last week and becomes effective next month, had already cost his sharemarket-listed Australian Renewable Fuels (ARF) a $4.5 million contract.

No rebate for biodiesel: The legislation means commercial vehicles using biodiesel will not get the 38c-a-litre rebate available to users of regular diesel.

CEO angry with feds: "This is disgraceful," Butcher said. "We were given an undertaking by the Federal Government that nothing it did would disadvantage the biodiesel industry."

$150m in biofuels investment: In the past two years, $150 million has been invested around the country in biodiesel plants that convert animal fat and used cooking oils into fuel. Queensland Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce, who voted against the legislation, said the abrupt change in policy would make biodiesel uncompetitive and "chop the industry off at its knees". He said the change came after lobbying from the big oil companies.

Rural plants not likely: ANZ Banking Group said the legislation would prevent its infrastructure funds building any further plants in rural Australia. The head of ANZ infrastructure services, John Clarke, said Australia was the only country in the world with a discriminatory tax on biodiesel.

$60m plans at stake: ARF has two plants in Australia and had planned to build a further three at a cost of $60 million, but Butcher said those investments were now in doubt. One mining company had planned to convert its entire fleet to biodiesel, a contract worth $4.5 million a year, but had cancelled.

The Australian Financial Review, 26/6/2006, p. 9

Source: Erisk Net