The UN climate change negotiations, now getting under way in Delhi, have focused international attention once more on the problem of global warming.

Experts agree there is a need to switch to renewable forms of energy if production of greenhouse gases is to be curbed.

Now an Icelandic team has invented a radical device which can produce electricity from water.

The Thermator could play a major role in the non-polluting economies of the future.

It works by something called the thermo-electric effect, which scientists have known about for many years.

But while thermo-electric generators have mainly been used to power spacecraft, such as Voyager and Galileo using heat from radioactive materials, the Thermator is firmly rooted on Earth and works on nothing more than hot water.

Professor Thorstein Sigfusson, of the University of Iceland, says it works by translating the difference between the temperature of hot and cold water into energy.

He explains: "In between the hot and the cold side are crystals made of semi-conductors.

"As the heat is transferred through these crystals part of it is converted from heat energy into electric energy."

Professor Sigfusson said there was potential for using all sorts of excess heat to fuel Thermators and he added: "In car engines for example, only a fraction of the heat produced is turned into propelling energy."

BBC News Tuesday, 24 October, 2000, 11:06 GMT 12:06 UK

Urban transport could soon be revolutionised with the launching this week in South Africa of a prototype new car which designers say runs on air.

It is being predicted that the e.Volution will be able to travel up to 200km (120 miles) for only 30 US cents.

The e.Volution prototype will be unveiled at Auto Africa Expo 2000 in Johannesburg this week and is being touted as the first viable alternative to cars that run on conventional fuels.

Researchers have been working for many years to produce 'eco-friendly' cars, but so far these attempts have not been successful. Some models already in development use hydrogen as a fuel.

It is expected to sell in South Africa for about R74,000 ($10,000) which is on a par with a medium-sized car.

The body of the vehicle weighs only 700kg, and the engine itself is a mere 35kg.

This means that the vehicle can theoretically be driven for up to 10 hours in an urban environment at an average speed of 80km/h.

Filling up

The designers of e.Volution say it will be possible to merely plug the vehicle into any electrical power source to fill it up. That could take up to four hours.

But the manufacturers envisage that fleet owners could install their own air stations, where a fill up could take as little as three minutes.

If the e.Volution lives up to all the hype, it could offer a serious challenge to the current motor vehicle market.

There are currently two factories in France, with the first models expected on the streets later this year.

There are five factories planned for Mexico and Spain, with three in Australia.

Anti-globalisation idea

But South Africa will be the second country after France to open a factory and begin production.

Helen Brown says her company aims to set up a production line in the province of Gauteng by next year, with the first cars off the production line and onto the salesroom floor by early 2002.

" It's really an anti-globalisation production idea" she said.

"The aim of the project is to cut costs and create jobs locally, serving the consumer market directly."

With petrol and diesel prices going up, and the price of oil subject to fluctuations, the Middle East crisis and occasional shortfalls, motorists might be only too happy to "go green" if it means a lifetime saving on fuel costs.

Over the past decade, electric market regulation has attempted to respond to calls for dramatic change. We have moved from nearly universal acceptance of integrated resource planning to a patchwork of regulation, deregulation, and reregulation.

While the environmental criteria of electric generation have unquestionably risen in importance, no clear national consensus on how to properly incorporate these criteria has emerged.

The Policies: System benefit funds and renewable portfolio standards are tested models. System benefit funds have been successfully introduced in 23 states over the past 7 years most often in the context of an overall move to deregulate the electric market in the state. Renewable Portfolio Standards have been introduced in 12 states. These programs have provided great stimulus for both efficiency and renewable development.

While interest in them remains high among advocates, most of the programs were implemented as part of an overall negotiation covering market deregulation. With momentum to deregulation stopped, system benefit funds and renewable portfolio standards face greater challenges in gaining acceptance.

The Challenge: The strong connection between environmental mandates - such as the need to reduce NOx emissions - and the ability of efficiency and renewable development to play a role in the curtailment of these pollutants, can support the creation of new system benefit funds.

Many states face an urgent requirement to reduce NOx emissions from thermo-electric generation plants. Efficiency and renewables can be among the best methods for reducing NOx emissions and the societal cost of meeting these reductions.

System benefit funds can be prefunded efforts to put in place the programs that will allow states to aggressively pursue efficiency and renewable development. Once active, the efficiency and renewable developments can claim NOx reduction credits, and sell those credits to replace some part of the system benefit funding.

Tested policies that respond to major new challenges can cut through the crippling uncertainty, and lead to major renewable and energy efficiency development.

Eric Krieg offers $10,000 and $1000 referral rewards

ZPower is looking for zero-point energy inventions: