African Grass as Renewable Energy Source

Added by David Sandercock on January 11, 2011

While Europe is enduring one of the harshest winters in history, and among concerns about the sufficiency of existing energy reserves to cope with the extreme temperatures, Honda is taking steps to secure its future energy supplies.

The Japanese automotive giant is pioneering a unique project to counter power shortages, which have predicted by UK electricity generator Ofgem to hit the country in some 30 years.

Jeremy Edwards, manager at Honda Trading Europe, said “We want to take ownership of the problem [of power shortage], ask how we can find at least part of the solution and get our own hands dirty.”

And as result Honda is planning to build an on-site power station that will be powered by a very unconventional method; by using an African grass that is said to potentially revolutionise the company’s power supply.

The target is for the grass, the miscanthus, to provide between five and 30MW by 2015, making it the biggest such plant to be built by an industrial manufacturer in the UK.

Other manufacturers are also showing a commitment to innovative energy solutions; one of Ford’s plants in East London will be powered entirely by wind power by the end of 2011; and Sainsbury has signed a deal that will see them purchasing electricity directly from a small wind farm in Scotland.