GEFCO has become Citroen’s logistics partner in Italy for its innovative AMI-100% electric vehicle.
Through the contract, GEFCO will manage transportation, post-production operations and warehousing, as well as door-to-door delivery and handover to consumers.
GEFCO will receive the Citroen AMI at its compound in Guasticce (Livorno), where all the post-production operations required are carried out.
In addition, the company will provide numerous storage facilities for Citroen AMI vehicles awaiting delivery across Italy.
The post-production phase includes washing, fluid checks, setup, installation of accessories, and fine-tuning of the MY AMI POP and MY AMI VIBEpack configurations.
Through the partnership, GEFCO will also provide home deliveries. All delivery drivers have been trained to distribute and explain the vehicle to enable customers to make immediate use of every feature.
Swiss-based energy company MET Group has acquired a 100% stake in a 60-megawatt wind park in Bulgaria, from Spanish Grupo Enhol.
The closing of the transaction for the 60MW Suvorovo Wind Park in Western Bulgaria, along the Black Sea coastline, is expected to take place in Q3 2021.
Suvorovo Wind Park, representing 8,5% of the total installed wind capacity in Bulgaria, consists of 30 units of Gamesa G90 wind turbines – 2 MW capacity each.
The wind farm, operating since 2012, produces approximately 120 GWh of electricity per year, supplying power equivalent to the consumption of around 38.000 households.
With this acquisition MET will expand its operating wind portfolio in Bulgaria to 102 MW.
In 2020, the European Union exported almost 1.3 million bicycles and other cycles, worth a total of €471 million, to countries outside of the EU, Eurostat reports.
Over the same period, the EU imported almost 5 million bicycles, worth €930 million, from countries outside its borders.
Compared with 2019, exports of bicycles and other cycles increased by 35% in 2020 in numbers, while imports declined by 3%.
273.900 electric bicycles worth €427 million were exported by the EU in 2020. Meanwhile, the EU imported 839 100 electric bicycles, worth €721 million, from other countries.
Compared with 2019, exports of electric bicycles increased by 43% in 2020 in numbers, while imports of electric bicycles increased by 19%.
In 2020,UK was the main destination for EU exports of bicycles (34% of total extra-EU bicycle exports), followed by Switzerland (13%), Brazil (9%), Turkey (5%) and Uzbekistan (4%).
Imports of bicycles from non-EU countries came mainly from Cambodia (24% of total extra-EU bicycle imports), China (17%), Taiwan (11%), Bangladesh (8 %), Turkey (7%), Philippines (6%) and Sri Lanka (5%).
Europeans have postponed their plans to buy a new car and their interest in engines with alternative propulsion systems is temporarily declining, Deloitte reports.
Among the European countries, Italy has the highest percentage of those who postponed the purchase of a new car due to the pandemic (32%), followed by Spain (29%), UK (20%) and France (17%).
Regarding the preferred type of engine, in Italy, a country leader in Europe last year in terms of interest in cars equipped with alternative powertrain technology (electric or hybrid), the percentage increased from 58% to 61% this year.
Spain is in a similar situation (62% prefer alternative systems and 34% the classic ones).
In contrast, in Germany, the interest in clean cars has fallen from 51% in 2020 to 41% in 2021.
In other European countries, too, consumers’ preference now leans more towards cars with conventional engines – Belgium (61%), Austria (58%), United Kingdom (54%).
When considering buying a new car, consumers put safety first
Thus, Belgians, Germans an Austrians are the first who want to be equipped with a blind spot alert system (71%, 65% and 66% respectively)
Meanwhile Spanish, Italians and French are more interested in the automatic emergency braking system (84%, 83%, and 76%, respectively).
Germany saw last year a boom in sales of electric and hybrid cars, which analysts say is partly due to subsidies of up to 9,000 euros granted by the government, DPA reports.
Sales of electric and hybrid cars in Germany increased by 264% annually, to 395,000 units.
China remains the largest market for electric and hybrid cars, with 1.25 million units registered in 2020, or a third of the 3.18 million units sold last year in the world.
But, last year, the Chinese electric car market grew by only 3% while the global market grew by 38%.
Europe, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, saw a 134% increase in electric and hybrid car registrations to 1.37 million units.
Restart Energy is to invest around 30 million dollars in developing a 45 MW solar project in Sărmășag village, Sălaj county.
The purchased project is in the ”ready to build” phase, and the money will be invested in construction works. The company estimates that the park will start to function in Q1 2022.
This 45 MW project is the company’s first step in developing and integrating its upstream segment with 500 MW renewable energy projects by the end of 2025.
Restart Energy aims to buy or develop 100 MW projects in each of the next five years.
The Sărmășag park will have an annual energy production of 55 million kWh – enough to supply about 30,000 households with green energy.
According to an Deloitte study, until November 2020, a landmark one million vehicle sold in Europe were either full electric or hybrid models, accounting for one in every 10 passenger cars sold on the continent.
In fact, in Europe, in the first nine months of 2020, EV sales surpassed those in China for the first time in at least five years.
In the UK, in September 2020, EV sales eclipsed diesel sales for the first time in history.
This is a significant turning point in moving toward achieving 30%–40% electric vehicle (EV) sales volume by 2030.
Of the 308 million motor vehicles on Europe’s roads today, just 3 million are electric. But the future potential is vast. EY analysis puts the estimated number of EVs at 40 million by 2030.
7.1 million motor vehicles were registered as of 31 December 2020 in Austria, 1.5% or 102,592 more than on the same date in the previous year.
As Statistics Austria further reports, passenger cars accounted for the largest share of the motor vehicle stock (71.7%) and increased by 1.0% to 5.09 million vehicles.
The number of diesel-powered passenger cars decreased by 0.4% to 2.76 million (2019: -0.1%).
Furthermore, those with petrol engines (incl. flex-fuel) increased by 0.7% to around 2.20 million (2019: +1.9%).
Electric passenger cars recorded an increase of 50.8% (2019: +41.7%) to 44 507 vehicles.
Passenger cars with combined drive systems (hybrid) increased (petrol/electric: +51.1%; diesel/electric: +133.0%).
In 2020, VW dominated the Austrian streets again with 1,033,770 passenger cars (share: 20.3% of all registered passenger cars).
German car makers complete top 3, as VW is followed by Audi with 385,372 passenger cars (share: 7.6%) and BMW with 317,582 passenger cars (share: 6.2%).
Fraport Greece has completed a major four-year, €440 million airport infrastructure development program at the 14 regional airports.
In January 2021, Fraport Greece concluded the last of the construction works for the 14 airports, well ahead of the April 2021 contractual deadline.
The company launched the airport development program in April 2017, in tandem with the start-up of its concession for managing eleven island and three mainland airports across Greece.
Construction works included five brand new terminals, expanded and modernized five existing terminals, and upgraded four other terminals.
Construction projects at airside operational areas of the regional airports included renovating 12 runways, improving ramp areas, and constructing and renovating 12 fire stations.
All of the airports have also been equipped with new state-of-the-art baggage handling and security detection systems.
14 Greek Regional Airports fully redeveloped and modernized
At Zakynthos, refurbishing and remodeling the terminal made it possible to increase the number of check-in counters and security checkpoints by 35% and 150%, respectively.
The terminal at Chania was completely modernized, while the number of gates increased by 25% and security checkpoints doubled.
On the Greek mainland, Kavala’s Megas Alexandros Airport received a similar refurbishment, as well as more than 1,900 square meter expansion.
Aktion Airport’s terminal had a complete overhaul and a 2,500 square meter expansion – providing extra space for twice as many security checkpoints, 14 check-in counters, and 7 departure gates.
On the island of Samos, the airport terminal was modernized and expanded by over 1,500 square meters – with plenty of room for more check-in counters, departure gates, security checkpoints, and other services.
At Skiathos Airport, the terminal has also been completely refurbished and enlarged by nearly 2,200 square meters.
Odysseas Elytis Airport in Mytilene features a new terminal with over 7,100 square meters of space.
Similarly, the new terminal at Kefalonia Anna Pollatou Airport offers some 10,700 square meter of space for passenger comfort, including more services, a 70% increase in the number of check-in counters, and twice as many security checkpoints and departure gates.
Mykonos Airport new terminal
On Mykonos, the redesigned terminal is now 50% bigger and combines traditional Cycladic architectural highlights with modern airport facilities. As a result, there is more space for check-in counters, departure gates, as well as a unique ambiance with attractive amenities.
On Rhodes, the airport has also been upgraded to offer world-class services. The terminal has a larger check-in area, plus more security checkpoints and baggage belts, a wider choice of shopping and dining.
Similarly, in the second quarter of 2020 Corfu Ioannis Kapodistrias Airport opened a new terminal with nearly 10,400 square meters of space: including 28 check-in counters, 8 security checkpoints, 12 departure gates, and .
At Kos Airport, the new passenger terminal now boasts more than 23,000 square meters of space and a new apron area.
Santorini Airport’s terminal underwent a major redevelopment resulting in a far larger facility total well over 15,000 square meters of space for an optimum passenger experience.
€100 million development for Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport
Final construction works were completed at Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport, the largest airport in Fraport Greece’s portfolio.
This €100 million development has created a new terminal complex to rival Europe’s most popular airports.
The new terminal is linked via skyway bridges to the redesigned existing terminal – thus doubling the amount of terminal space available.
More check-in space, twice as many departure gates, and a wide range of attractive restaurant and shopping facilities now shape a completely new environment at the international gateway to Greece’s second largest city.
In 2020, hybrid electric vehicles made up 11.9% of total passenger car sales across the EU, up from 5.7% in 2019, ACEA reports.
Electrically-chargeable vehicles saw a similar surge in demand last year, accounting for 10.5% of all new car registrations in the European Union, compared to a 3.0% market share the year before.
Even more, in the fourth quarter of 2020, nearly one in six passenger cars registered in the European Union was an electrically-chargeable vehicle (16.5%).
Stimulus packages introduced by governments to boost demand to stimulate alternatively-powered vehicles in particular, further driving demand for low and zero-emission cars.
Although the overall decline of 3 million units in car registrations as a result of COVID-19 hit diesel and petrol-powered vehicles the hardest, conventional fuel types still dominated EU car sales in terms of market share (75.5%) in 2020.
The Danish government has secured broad political support for the largest construction project ever launched in Denmark, an artificial island that will house wind turbines, Bloomberg reports.
In the first phase, the island will make enough electricity to supply three million households.
The 210 billion kroner ($ 34 billion) artificial island with an area of 120,000 square meters will be built at about 80 kilometers from the west coast of Denmark.
The project is projected to be completed by 2033 and will initially be able to supply 3 gigawatts of electricity. However, the plans aim to increase production capacity to 10 gigawatts.
In 2018, about 41% of Denmark’s electricity needs were covered by wind turbines made energy, the highest percentage in Europe.
Enel’s Spanish subsidiary Endesa has submitted a letter of interest to Spain’s Ministry of Ecological Transition to develop up to 23 green hydrogen projects in Spain.
The investments associated with these projects, including the investment in the renewable plants that will power the electrolyzers, amount to approximately 2.9 billion euros.
The projects cover different activities throughout the green hydrogen value chain, from production to consumption.
As Pontes (A Coruña) is the most underway advanced project to date and will have a 100 MW electrolyzer and six associated wind farms, with an overall capacity of 611 MW.
The project is expected to create some 1,600 jobs during the 18 months of construction.
The electrolyzer’s construction is due to take around 24 months, employing approximately 120 people.
Over some 20 years, the electrolyzer’s operation and maintenance is expected to require the work of around 100 people.
The total investment in the As Pontes project will reach 738.2 million euros.
The complex is expected to produce 10,000 tons of green hydrogen and employ some 130 professionals in operation and maintenance work (100 in the electrolyzer and another 30 in the wind farms).
