In addition, shareholder agreements have been signed in the past few months for the development of AP1000 plants at the Moorside site in the United Kingdom and the Kozloduy site in Bulgaria. Westinghouse Electric Company; China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC); and Electricity Generation Company (EÜA?), MORE

Bulgaria. sales of hybrid SUVs and other fuel efficient vehicles will prove interesting to watch this year, especially if fuel prices remain relatively low. Expert predictions about where oil and gas prices are headed vary widely. MORE

The project partners come from 14 countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Madagascar, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Work has begun on a new EU-funded project to improve the performance of Europe’s biorefineries. Dubbed EUROBIOREF (European multilevel integrated biorefinery design for sustainable biomass processing), the project aims to improve cost efficiency by 30%, cut energy use by 30% and reduce feedstock consumption by 10%. MORE

Bulgaria recorded the steepest downturn (-28.9%). The EU market for new passenger cars declined by 5.5% in 2010, with a total of 13,360,599 new units registered throughout the year, according to figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’s Association (ACEA). The 2010 results were marked by the ending of government fleet renewal schemes in many EU countries. Registrations in December amounted to 1,009,638 units, down 3.2% year-on-year. MORE

The emissions from countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Poland and the Czech Republic are then relatively more important with regard to the damage costs. Aggregated damage costs by pollutant. The EEA quantified the damage costs arising from CO 2 emissions based on estimated marginal abatement cost. Source: EEA. Click to enlarge. MORE

Switzerland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain will offer LPG-versions in addition to the regular gasoline and diesel range. In 2009, Chevrolet will further expand its LPG product range throughout Europe. Chevrolet’s strategy is to offer LPG versions for its entire product line-up. This will include the brand-new Chevrolet Cruze, which will hit the European dealer showrooms in May 2009. MORE

2008 emissions (excluding those of Bulgaria, Liechtenstein and Norway where 2007 data is incomplete or unavailable) were 3.06% lower than the 2007 level. Emissions of greenhouse gases from European businesses participating in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) (cap-and-trade) fell 3.06 % in 2008 compared with a year earlier, according to the information provided by Member State registries. With the 6.5% MORE

Within the EU28 the trends vary between countries with decreases of 6% for the UK and Bulgaria and of 3% for Greece and Spain, while increases of 5% in Ireland and Denmark and of 4% in Sweden and Finland occurred. The annual assessment of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the JRC and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) confirms that CO 2 emissions have stalled for the third year in a row. MORE

The Technobest 2010 prize was awarded by the international, independent Autobest jury made up of 15 specialist journalists from a number of countries including Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, Poland, [.]. Fiat has won the prestigious international Technobest prize for the second year running for its innovation TwinAir system after winning last year for its MultiAir technology. MORE

The 66 new partners come from 19 countries, six of which are new to the consortium: Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Israel. MORE

At the less efficient end of the spectrum, new cars registered in Estonia, Latvia and Bulgaria had more than 150g CO 2 /km on average. Average carbon dioxide emissions per kilometer continue to fall in Europe, according to preliminary figures released by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The data also show that car manufacturers are mostly on track to meeting European Union (EU) targets. There were 12.8 million new vehicles registered in the EU in 2011. MORE

The EU-27 comprises Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The European Community’s air pollutant emission inventory report released by the European Environment Agency finds that in 2007, sulphur oxides (SO x ) emissions were down by 72 % from 1990 levels. MORE

Fast-charging stations from ABB can now be found on key roads across Bulgaria with plans underway to further extend the network to include all major roads and highways by the end of Q1 2018. ABB’s Terra53 fast chargers now cover the international routes from Sofia to the Greek border, with installations in key locations including Sofia, Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Blagoevgrad, Sandanski, Rakov-ski, Stara Zagora, Liubumetz and Bourgas. MORE

The 24 countries which are covered in the route, in alphabetical order, are as follows: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. Honda aims to win a new Guinness World Records title for fuel efficiency in an 8,500-mile (13,679 km) drive across all 24 contiguous EU countries in a 1.6 MORE

Bulgaria. The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has published new data demonstrating the correlation between the market uptake of electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECVs) and both GDP and customer incentives. MORE

The steepest decline was noted in Bulgaria (-50.8%). New passenger car registrations in Europe fell by 7.4% in April compared to the same month last year, according to figures from the ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.Over the first four months of 2010 the market expanded by 4.8% compared to the same period a year ago, while shrinking by 11.6% in comparison to January-April 2008. new passenger car registrations in the EU, last 12 months. Source: ACEA. MORE

China-based BYD and Bulgaria-based Bulmineral Ltd signed an agreement to create a 50:50 joint venture company, named Auto Group Motors, to produce electric buses in Europe. BYD, the world’s largest electric bus manufacturer, will work together with Bulmineral Ltd, to manufacture pure electric buses in Breznik, Bulgaria. BYD says that this will enable BYD to break into local markets in Bulgaria and expand to other countries in Europe. MORE

Indexed European transport sector greenhouse gas emissions, 1990-2006. Source: EEA. Click to enlarge. MORE

The largest drop was noted in Bulgaria (-35.6%) and the biggest increase in Ireland (+53.2%). New car registrations in the EU27 (data for Cyprus and Malta unavailable) decreased to 1,027,036 units in October, marking a 16.6% contraction compared to October 2009. Ten months into the year, demand for new cars has decreased by 5.5%, totaling 11,279,542 new vehicles registered. In October, all major markets faced a double-digit downturn, ranging from -18.5% in France, to -20.0% MORE

Cyprus, Malta, Poland, Bulgaria and the UK were the countries most frequently featuring at the top end of the distributions, i.e. car users describing multiple numbers of reasons why they did not use public transport. Willingness to compromise on different characteristics. Click to enlarge. MORE

On average, the most efficient cars were bought in the Netherlands (109 g CO 2 /km), Greece (111g) and Portugal (112g) while the country selling the least efficient cars was Latvia (147g) followed by Estonia (147g) and Bulgaria (142g). 2015 target: 130 g CO 2 /km. 2020 target: 95 g CO 2 /km. AFV are alternative fuel vehicles: electric, LPG, NG-biomethane, E85, biodiesel, hybrid and plug-in vehicles. Source: EEA. Click to enlarge. MORE

EEA member countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom. None of the EEA scenarios considered delivered the targeted reduction in transport GHG emissions. MORE