AFP reports on the launch of Tata Motors' "Nano" - Tata rolls out world's cheapest car.

India's Tata Motors on Monday launched the world's cheapest car, the Nano, hoping to revolutionise travel for millions and buck a slump in auto sales caused by the global economic crisis.

Company boss Ratan Tata said the no-frills car, slated to cost just 100,000 rupees (2,000 dollars) for the basic model, will get India's middle-class urban population off motorcycles and into safer, affordable four-wheelers.

"I think we are at the gates of offering a new form of transport to the people of India and later, I hope, other markets elsewhere in the world," he said, describing the launch as a "milestone." "The present economic situation makes it somewhat... more attractive to the buying public," he told reporters in Mumbai. ...

Bookings for the tiny car -- just over three metres (10 feet) long -- start on April 9 and end on April 23, Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant said. ...

Even affluent Indians are eyeing up the Nano, which has a two-cylinder engine, four-speed manual transmission and a top speed of 105 kilometres (65 miles) per hour. It has no air conditioning, electric windows or power steering, but deluxe versions will be available.

Sify.com reports that objections to a flood of cheap, new cars continue to be voiced (though I'll note as usual that its pretty hypocritical for people in the West to complain about poor people in developing countries buying cars as long as we continue to consume oil at current rates and drive around in things like Hummers) - 'Nano will add to global pollution'.

An Australian motoring expert has slammed the world's least expensive car Nano, which was launched in Mumbai Monday, claiming it would increase global pollution and push up fuel prices.

"When India gets to the level of car ownership that we enjoy in the West, which is about 700 cars for every 1,000 people, it could double the number of cars on earth, presently 900 million, to 1.8 billion," Wheels magazine's features editor John Cadogan told ABC Radio. "That will have profound impact on carbon dioxide production, greenhouse (gases), the environment and health generally," Cadogan added. ...

But Cadogan was emphatic that the huge response would not translate into people stepping off giant gas-guzzlers and squeezing into the tiny 624-cc jellybean car with a 35-bhp engine. "It would be brilliant if that happened but what's going to happen in India is that the Tata Nano is going to put new car ownership on the shopping list for a bunch of people who just haven't been able to afford a car in the past," Cadogan said.

"So we're not going to be replacing gas-guzzling 4x4s with fuel-efficient cars, we already do that in the West. What's going to happen is a lot more cars are going to get on the road and that's going to happen in India and China and it will be a profound change."

The Australian also believed Nano would impact fuel prices. "Oil is running out and in fact we're at about peak oil production now. China and India are running to the party and the keg is half empty," he said.

The NYT has an editorial on the promise and risks of geothermal power - Geothermal Future.

To most people the word “geothermal” means hot springs and geysers — like parts of Iceland or Yellowstone National Park where water is heated by the presence of magma near the surface of the earth. But the earth’s heat lies below everywhere, and it offers a virtually untapped energy reserve of enormous potential with a very short list of drawbacks.

In 2006, a panel led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology surveyed the prospects for electricity production from enhanced geothermal systems. Its conclusions were conservative but very optimistic. The panel suggested that with modest federal support, geothermal power could play a critical role in America’s energy future, adding substantially to the nation’s store of renewable energy and more than making up for coal-burning power plants that would have to be retired.

Following up on the M.I.T. study and a separate survey of its own, the Bureau of Land Management issued a decision last month that would open up as many as 190 million acres to leases for geothermal exploration and development. These lands are mostly in the West, where hot rock lies closer to the surface than it generally does in the East.

There is a lot of research yet to be done about geothermal sources, new techniques for deep drilling and energy generation at the surface. But the basics are clear enough. Water is injected deep into the earth where it absorbs heat from the surrounding rock. As the fluid returns to the surface, that heat is used to generate electricity. The fluid is then re-injected. The system forms a closed loop. It creates almost no emissions and is entirely renewable. It also occupies a smaller surface area than either solar or wind power.

Still, large-scale commercial production is at least a decade away and will require improvements on currently available technology. Geothermal development also will mean still more competition for scarce water, more holes in the ground and more roads to service those holes.

The M.I.T. report’s statement that the success of geothermal production “would parallel the development of the U.S. coal-bed methane industry” is no doubt meant to be reassuring. Yet in parts of the West, coal-bed methane has been an environmental disaster, both for fragile landscapes and the wildlife that depend on them.

Geothermal development must not be allowed to foster another drilling free-for-all of the kind we’ve seen during the past decade. Done right, it could help free the country of the grievous environmental burden of coal-burning power plants. Done wrong, it could create grievous environmental problems of its own. Mindful of the dangers, the next administration should commit to developing this extraordinary resource.

Cleantech.com reports that Tata is planning a geothermal power plant in India - Tata Power plans geothermal, solar for Gujarat.

India's largest private power utility is exploring the possibility of building two 5-megawatt renewable energy power plants in Gujarat.

Mumbai-based Tata Power, part of the Tata Group, said it plans to strengthen its renewables portfolio with a power plants using geothermal or solar technology. The projects would come under a partnership with the government of Gujarat, a state in western India.

Tata Power has an installed generation capacity of 2,300 MW, but the company is aggressively adding renewables to its sources. It currently generates renewable energy from geothermal, hydro, solar and wind projects.

In September, Tata Power announced plans to buy a 10 percent stake in Australian enhanced geothermal systems firm Geodynamics for $37 million. As part of the deal, Tata planned to review the potential of geothermal prospects outside of Australia (see Tata Power buys stake in Australia's Geodynamics).

Wired reports that India's Tata motors plans to build electric cars for the Norwegian market within a year - Tata's Building EVs For Norway. It will be interesting to see how it competes with the "Think!" EV. This probably isn't good news for the air car though.

Tata Motors, which already produces the world's cheapest car, is building an electric version of its (slightly) more upscale Indica hatchback it says will be rolling around Norway within a year.

The Indian automaker joins what's becoming a crowded field racing to bring EVs and plug-in hybrids to market, and it reportedly is working on five prototypes based on the Indica (pictured). "This is one of the technologies we're looking at, as you know that electric cars are almost zero emissions," Ravi Kant, Tata's managing director, told Reuters.

Kant says the car will make its debut in Norway because that country has the infrastructure needed to support EVs in big numbers, but the car could be offered in India sometime next year. That's good, because auto ownership in India is set to explode.

India is among the fastest-growing automotive markets, and by 2030 could become the world's third-largest market -- behind China and the U.S. -- with sales of 20 million vehicles a year. That's up from about 1 million in 2004. The country already is grappling with terrible air pollution and crippling traffic congestion, so EVs make perfect sense as it goes car-crazy.

Tata says the Indica EV its developing with an unnamed Norwegian firm will use lithium-ion batteries and have a range of about 110 miles. It'll charge in about eight hours.