Researchers in California are developing a new scheme which would enable electric car owners to sell electricity back to power companies.
They say that the scheme would greatly reduce the running costs of electric cars.
Pallab Ghosh reports from California.
It’s understatement to say that battery and plug-in hybrid cars are not straining the electric grid today. Tesla has sold 700 cars, and there are a few thousand homemade conversions and stranded corporate leftovers (Solectria, U.S. Electricar, Taylor-Dunn, Toyota RAV4) scattered around the country.
But with more than 30 companies poised to produce cars with plugs attached in the next few years, that picture will change rapidly. To their credit, the automakers recognize that their success or failure in the marketplace depends on a grid ready to supply them with electricity.
via Aligning EVs and the Smart Grid: Synergy and Progress | BNET Auto Blog | BNET.
New information technologies make it possible to put in place a “smart grid” capable of two-way communication and many more functions to control supply and demand.
A smart grid can help prevent black-outs, give consumers up-to-the-minute information on electricity usage and prepare the way for increased use of clean, renewable energy from sources such as wind and solar power. “Even as our economy has been transformed by new forms of technology, our electric grid looks largely the same as it did half a century ago,” said President Barack Obama during a March 19, 2009 visit to an electric car factory in Orange County, California.
Today’s power grid in America is a relic of the 20th Century. The idea behind smart grid is to inject a two-way information layer into the electricity distribution process. Smart grid components include advanced home meters, new grid management techniques and software. At the home or business, smart grid can aid conservation by showing customers their power usage and offering real-time choices about when they use electricity. Scaling up, smart grids allow utility managers to constrain peak load requirements through a combination of consumer incentives and accurate diagnosis of demand. Ultimately, smart grid technologies can open the door for more plug-in electric cars and vehicles. Added together, the impact of smart grid may help craft an environmentally-sustainable way of the life for the 21st Century.
Go to website to download PDF.
I have to chuckle over Ford’s announcement yesterday that its plug-in hybrids promise to allow vehicles to recharge during off-peak hours of cheap electricity.
The Ford vehicles that will do this won’t be out until 2012. Ok, Ford, we’ll wait. By the way, why would we buy a new gas-powered vehicle now or even your new Fusion hybrid? Why are you telling us about technology that we can’t use for three years?
Whatever happened to “show me, don’t tell me?”
Journalists are trained to look at pre-announcements with great skepticism and so should consumers. For now, smart grid Fords are nothing more than hype. The longer the time between the PR hoopla and the public availability of the technology y in your hands, the more skeptical you should be.
Ford is billing the technology as unique vehicle-to-grid communication, but what was described yesterday is how any smart appliance would work. The appliance – in this case a Ford vehicle – can turn off charging during peak periods of electricity consumption when rates are highest. Conversely, it will start recharging during off-peak hours when rates and consumption are lowest.
The vehicle communicates with the grid via a wireless smart meter so, presto, the vehicle’s owner can program the recharging particulars on a LCD in the dash. From a process standpoint, It will work little differently than a smart washing machine or any smart appliance for that matter.
It’s good that Ford’s vehicles will be smart and the company can be proud that it was the only one of three American automakers this year not to accept public funds to stay afloat. Maybe the company wanted to trumpet its research, partnerships with battery makers and utilities or the results of federal grants.
But ponder this: Toyota started conceptualizing the Prius in early 1992 when Ford was ramping up to sell gas- guzzling SUVs and pickups. Five years later, Toyota delivered the Prius in Japan and in 2000 brought them here to cement the perception that it (Honda, too) had the right vision for the future.
via Ford’s smart grid tease: where’s the beef? – SmartPlanet.
As the nation moves toward electric cars and trucks, Ford Motor Co. today unveiled new touch-screen technology that will allow consumers to program when, how long and at what rate they wish to recharge their vehicles.
Ford, which showed the technology with several partners, including DTE Energy, Southern California Edison and Progress Energy of Raleigh, N.C., said that widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles is unlikely until vehicles can easily communicate with the electric grid — as they can with the new Ford technology.
Ford and several of its electric utility partners demonstrated a touch screen system that allows consumers to program when, how long and at what rate they wish to recharge their car.
“This has to be easy for our customer,” said Bill Ford Jr., Ford’s executive chairman. “This can’t be an interesting science experiment.”
Ford, in contrast to General Motors Co., has approached plug-in vehicles as one of many possible strategies to bring fuel-efficient vehicles to market.
Last week GM announced that its extended range electric Chevrolet Volt, scheduled to go on sale late next year, will be rated for 230 miles per gallon in city driving.
Ford acknowledged that the Dearborn automaker’s plan is more cautious than that of some automakers, but the Dearborn automaker seems to be taking a practical approach.
Next year, Ford will introduce an all-electric version of its Ford Transit Connect commercial van. That will be followed by an electric Ford Focus compact car in 2011, as well as a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and a next-generation hybrid electric vehicle in 2012.
Ford will introduce an electric version of its Ford Transit Connect commercial van next year. Transit Connect will be followed in 2011 by an electric Ford Focus compact car in 2011, and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and a next-generation hybrid electric vehicle in 2012.
via Ford shows off recharging technology of future | Detroit Free Press | Freep.com.
GridPoint, Inc., an established leader in smart grid software, and Coulomb Technologies today unveiled the first ever smart grid enabled smart charging stations for electric vehicles. The integrated solution using Coulomb’s ChargePoint™ Networked Charging Stations for plug-in electric vehicles and GridPoint’s smart charging software application extends municipalities and utilities ability to manage vehicle-charging load. Utilities and municipalities will now have a networked infrastructure solution that easily and rapidly adapts to critical grid events while prioritizing the need to provide fuel for electric vehicles. In times of peak demand or during critical grid events, utilities are able to utilize public charging infrastructure to manage the electricity load. Demand response events can be dispatched system-wide or targeted to specific locations within the distribution system. The first integrated solution of smart grid charging stations are now on display for demonstration at the Plug-in 2009 conference in Long Beach, California in booths 215 (Coulomb) and 409 (GridPoint).
“This announcement brings significant benefits and advances the EV infrastructure,” said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. “Coulomb’s charging stations are first to market with a smart grid integration that is effortless for drivers and responsive to the needs of the grid. GridPoint is extending the proven smart charging capabilities of the ChargePointSM Network and this integrated solution now provides a single solution to adaptively manage the flow of energy to vehicles and charging stations.”
At the Plug-in 2009 show, Coulomb and GridPoint are demonstrating real-time smart charging activity enabled via GridPoint’s smart grid software for electric vehicles and Coulomb’s ChargePoint Network. This flexible, centralized integration allows easy implementation of smart charging strategies. The solution also provides utilities and municipalities with a charging infrastructure solution that easily adapts to the still developing electric vehicle ecosystem.
via Coulomb and GridPoint Unveil First Smart Grid Enabled Smart Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles.
Ameren’s Missouri and Illinois utilities applied this week for $185 million in stimulus money for infrastructure upgrades, smart grid projects and electric vehicles.
AmerenUE applied for $140 million in stimulus funding, and Ameren Illinois Utilities applied for $45 million.
AmerenUE’s application includes the following funding requests for a 50 percent federal match:
Of the total $787 billion federal stimulus package, about $43 billion is targeted for energy projects and energy efficiency. About $4.5 billion of that is targeted to support research and development of the nation’s smart grid, which delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology.
Ameren Illinois Utilities seeks $45 million in stimulus to fund smart grid projects to improve electric service reliability. Its smart grid project will cost $83 million, of which $75 million is eligible for a 50 percent federal match of $37.5 million, the utility said.
via Ameren seeks $185 million in stimulus – St. Louis Business Journal:.
Britain will create up to four “smart grid cities” after the energy regulator set aside £500m from customers’ utility bills to start rewiring the nation’s electricity system.
Ofgem wants companies to choose several towns or cities where it will pay for households to have smart energy technologies installed to monitor how it works on a large scale.
The idea is to start an overhaul of the ageing electricity grid, which is centralised and depends on large fossil fuel powered plants, and make it more localised using more renewable forms of generation.
Mini “smart grids” will be built that will be able to handle more unpredictable large volumes of power from intermittent wind farms. The grids will also make it easier for households that have their own micro-generation – such as solar panels on their roofs – to supply electricity back to the grid. Smart meters will be fitted in homes, which are better able to manage demand unpredictable supply peaks from renewable forms of generation, such as wind and solar power.
Steve Smith, Ofgem’s managing director of markets, told the Guardian that the model would be the US town of Boulder, Colorado, dubbed the world’s first “smart grid city”.
Companies could combine with other government schemes, such as those trialling electric cars, he said. Electric cars are helping to drive the roll-out of smart grids as they are generally charged at night. This means electric car batteries act as storage for otherwise unused renewable generation because wind farms continue to generate at night, when most other forms of demand is low.
via Ofgem plans ’smart grid cities’ as it gears up to go green | Business | The Guardian.
Imagine harnessing the power of vehicles traversing the country’s highways and roads, and plugging it into a renewable energy grid used to light up communities and electrify the sedans of tomorrow.
Local environmental advocate Kelly Meyer has teamed with inventors Gene Fein and Ed Merritt to do just that. Their Green Roadway Project envisions a vast green plan deployed along the country’s roadways that would employ solar, wind and geothermal stations to capture clean, renewable energy for supplying electricity grids to neighboring cites. And they are banking on its viability to attract investors in this month’s auction of the project’s licensing portfolio.
“Imagine filling up your tank at an electric recharging station along Route 66,” Meyer said at a recent press conference that unveiled examples of the roadway solar panel units. “Then imagine our children traveling our nation’s highways, generating kilowatts of energy with each passing mile. This is how we can meet our responsibility to leave the world better than how we found it.”
Meyer, who is on the Leadership Council for the National Resources Defense Council and was a partner in building the first LEED Platinum home in California, met Fein at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School, where their children attend classes together. They were instrumental in helping the public school become the first in California to install solar panels to generate its own energy.
Fein and Merritt have more than 150 patents filed on digital technologies, for everything from water distribution plans to methods of handling new data more efficiently. About five years ago, they started working on a portfolio of inventions designed to innovate clean energy gathering and distribution.
via Malibu Times > Archives > News > Creating a ‘Green Roadway’.
The Department of Energy has released the first third of its $25 billion advanced technology loan fund for automakers to “create thousands of green jobs while helping reduce the nation’s dangerous dependence on foreign oil.”
The agency released about $8 billion, with Ford the largest beneficiary, receiving $5.9 billion. Nissan received $1.6 billion and Tesla Motors got $465 million. Sue Cischke, an environmental vice president at Ford, said “this is not related to our financial viability — it’s very different, and it’s what governments do — assisting the best green technology.”
Ms. Cischke said the financing would be applied to improving the fuel efficiency of more than a dozen Ford cars and trucks, including the Focus, Escape, Mustang, Taurus and F-150 pickup.
Nissan’s $1.6 billion will be applied to retrofitting its Smyrna, Tenn., plant to build the company’s forthcoming (and as yet unnamed) electric sedan. Construction is expected to start in late 2012.
via U.S. Technology Loans for Ford, Nissan and Tesla – Wheels Blog – NYTimes.com.
Cars could be the solution to the intermittent nature of wind power if a multimillion European project beginning on a Danish island proves successful.
The project on the holiday island of Bornholm will use the batteries of parked electric cars to store excess energy when the wind blows hard, and then feed electricity back into the grid when the weather is calm.
The concept, known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is widely cited among greens as a key step towards a low-carbon future, but has never been demonstrated. Now, the 40,000 inhabitants of Bornholm are being recruited into the experiment. Denmark is already a world leader in wind energy and has schemes to replace 10% of all its vehicles with electric cars, but the goal on the island is to replace all petrol cars.
Currently 20% of the island’s electricity comes from wind, even though it has enough turbines installed to meet 40% of its needs. The reason it cannot use the entire capacity is the intermittency of the wind: many turbines are needed to harness sufficient power in breezes, but when gales blow the grid would overload, so some turbines are disconnected.
So the aim of the awkwardly named Electric Vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated Market using Sustainable Energy and Open Networks Project – Edison for short – is to use V2G to allow more turbines to be built and provide up to 50% of the island’s supply without making the grid crash.
via Denmark to power electric cars by wind in vehicle-to-grid experiment | Environment | guardian.co.uk.
Smart has confirmed that an electric version of the Fortwo will go on sale in the UK from 2012, to coincide with the start of a £250m government initiative to promote low-carbon transport.
The Mercedes-owned carmaker has also announced that the Smart ED (electric drive) will go into limited series production and be available in the UK from 2010. It will be available to lease from £150 per month.
A Smart ED has been undergoing trials in the UK since 2007. It has been evaluated by bodies such as police forces, universities, local authorities and electricity generating companies, the cars being made available to them on four-year leases at a cost of £375 per month.
However, a new car will be fitted with lithium ion batteries, as opposed to the nickel hydride versions in the cars used for the trials. These new power sources will require a shorter charging time and improve performance. Smart hasn’t revealed what it expects the range to be, however.
London will be one of the first cities in the world to see the Smart ED on its streets: it will be joined by Rome, Milan and Paris.
Nissan electric cars will provide zero-emission mobility while delivering 100 miles on a single battery charge.
Everyone has probably seen the Nissan EV prototype that will be used to develop new electric cars in 2010. The automaker has recently formed a partnership with Progress Energy, a nonprofit agency in Raleign, N.C., to further study and help develop electric vehicles. The automobiles will have a range of 100 miles on a single charge.
“Our partners in Raleigh share our goals of working together towards making the region plug-in ready for the introduction of electric vehicles next year. This partnership is an important step in making zero-emissions mobility a reality,” Nissan North America Senior vice president Dominique Thormann said in a statement.
Nissan has been quiet in recent years in its effort to provide cars with electric alternatives. Critics have claimed that the automaker is back peddling on its new EV prototype. However, this isn’t true, since there are signs that progress is being made and that the vehicle will be released in 2010.
The Nissan prototype is using lithium-ion batteries with a zero-emission electric motor. The body and type design does not represent future vehicles made by the automaker. However, the electric technology that will power the automobile will be included in the new post-production model next year.
The partnership also supports the City of Raleigh’s mission and environmental goals. Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker said they are delighted to be working with Nissan and Progress Energy on the project. “We take a great deal of pride in being a leader in the region in preparing for the plug-in electric car era. The City of Raleigh is a founding member of the Triangle Clean Cities Coalition. By providing the infrastructure and encouragement for the use of alternative- fuel vehicles, we’re in complete concert with both the mission statement of the City and our goal of reducing emissions for a cleaner environment,” Meeker said.
Nissan and its partners will develop plans to promote a charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, as well as the deployment, operation and maintenance of a charging network. The partners also will work to coordinate the establishment of policies and help streamline the deployment of an EV infrastructure. Nissan also has agreed to make available a supply a number of EVs to Progress Energy.
Advanced Energy plans to facilitate working teams. The teams will be made up of governmental and non-governmental agencies as well as private partners. They will work towards achieving the common goals as well as provide testing and validation of related charging infrastructure and charge management technologies.
The Nissan electric car will compete against GM’s Chevy Volt. Toyota and Honda also have plans to release new electric vehicles next year. These automobiles will soon achieve 100 miles on a single battery charge.
Mitsubishi “i MiEV” electric cars are based on the gasoline 660cc “i” minicar and can offer up to 100 miles per gallon.
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is doing something remarkable with its new plug-in electric cars. The new cars are called the “i MiEV” which is based on the gasoline 660cc “i” minicar, and can drive up to 100 miles on a single battery charge. Electric vehicles are coming fast from various automakers.
The Mitsubishi electric car produces zero-emissions and approximately 30 percent of the Co2 of a gasoline mini car. In a nutshell, the “i MiEV” replaces the conventional engine, transmission and fuel tank with a lithium-ion battery system, motor, inverter and other EV components. The installation of the batteries is located under the floor which makes the automobile’s center of gravity low in an effort to provide more stability during drives. It also enables the motor and inverter to be installed in the space that used to house the conventional engine and transmission.
The “i MiEV” electric minicar has a long wheelbase and seats up to four passengers. There is also a reasonable cargo space for luggage in the rear. While this minicar appears small on the outside, it does provide plenty of cabin space.
Electric vehicles are rapidly advancing and this Mitsubishi EV is no exception. The car will be available in April 2010 with a price tag of $45,000. Critics and most auto reviewers claim the price is too high. However, we feel that its reasonable since the vehicle can offset the price as a gas-free solution.
New cars that run on electricity also have a cost per kilometer to drive. The i MiEV is one third that of a comparable gasoline car. Depending on the cost of electricity, cost per kilometer can drop as low as one ninth that of gasoline. For example, you can save more money on electricity by charging the EV during off-peak or night-time hours.
Drivers will notice that this car has good acceleration and runs very quiet. Stronger acceleration is achieved through a compact and highly efficient permanent magnet synchronous motor that generates high torque from a low speed. The Mitsubishi car uses an electric motor free of the vertical vibration associated with gasoline engines, it runs extremely quiet.
Using the on-board charger, the vehicle can be charged with a 100V or 200V power source in the home. In addition, if quick-chargers currently being developed by power companies are used, it will be possible to charge the vehicle in a short time. The battery can be charged from household outlets in about 12-14 hours, while a quick-charger will only take 30 minutes.
In addition to the standard Drive range, i MiEV electric car features an Eco (Economy) range, which limits excessive power going to the motor, and a Brake range which applies the regenerative brake more aggressively during incline descents. The regenerative brake is a mechanism that reduces automobile speed by converting the kinetic energy into battery energy. New cars which are EV are perfect for city travel and can bypass traffic congestion to get you from point A to point B while reducing carbon emissions.
Via Mitsubishi Plug-in Electric Cars Replace Conventional With EV Components
AROUND the world billions of dollars are being invested in clean-energy technologies of one sort or another, from solar arrays and wind turbines to electric cars. But there is a problem lurking in the power grid that links them together. Green sources of power tend to be distributed and intermittent, which makes them difficult to integrate into the existing grid. And when it comes to electric cars, a study by America’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) found that there is already enough generating capacity to replace as much as 73% of America’s conventional fleet with electric vehicles—but only if the charging of those vehicles is carefully managed. In order to accommodate the flow of energy between new sources of supply and new forms of demand, the world’s electrical grids are going to have to become a lot smarter.
Even though the demands being placed on national electricity grids are changing rapidly, the grids themselves have changed very little since they were first developed more than a century ago. The first grids were built as one-way streets, consisting of power stations at one end supplying power when needed to customers at the other end. That approach worked well for many years, and helped drive the growth of industrial nations by making electricity ubiquitous, but it is now showing its age.
One problem is a lack of transparency on the distribution side of the system, which is particularly apparent to consumers. Most people have little idea how much electricity they are using until they are presented with a bill. Nor do most people know what proportion of their power was generated by nuclear, coal, gas or some form of renewable energy, or what emissions were produced in the process. In the event of a power cut, it is the customer who alerts the utility, which then sends out crews to track down the problem and fix it manually. “I can’t think of another industry that still has that lack of visibility over its networks,” says Heather Daniell of New Energy Finance, a research firm in London.
According to projections from America’s Energy Information Administration, electricity generation around the world will nearly double from about 17.3 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2005 to 33.3 trillion kWh in 2030. Poor countries will show the strongest growth in electricity generation, increasing by an average of 4% per year from 2005 to 2030, compared with 1.3% per year for their richer counterparts. In some countries, including America, the grid has not kept up with the growth in demand for power. The deregulation of America’s utilities in the 1990s encouraged companies to transfer power over long distances. At the same time, regulatory uncertainty and increased competition led to reduced investment in new transmission lines. As a result, some parts of the system have become increasingly congested. Black-outs cost America an estimated $80 billion a year, according to a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
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