AES installs Grid Storage

By Tom Bartley (6/1/11). An analysis by Megawatt Storage Farms set the 2020 statewide need at 4,000 Megawatts of energy storage. This 4 GW didn’t take into account the projected extra 10% grid energy load caused by forecasted charging of electric cars. To put this in perspective, 4,000 MW is almost the SDG&E peak demand on a hot summer day where 2,000 MW is the import transmission capacity. As an example, Sempra already recognizes the need for energy storage by adding 12 MW of energy storage to the 21 MW wind farm it recently purchased on Maui, HI.   If you are reading carefully you will have noticed that these numbers are power not energy. Typical projects call for sustaining the power level for 15 minutes to 4 hours depending on the primary purpose of the storage; with pumped-hydro energy storage, the time could be longer.

The 2020 target for renewable energy in California is 33%. Cal ISO (the California Interconnect System Operator) along with the three dominant IOUs (Investor Owned Utilities); PG&E, Southern California Edison, and SDG&E, have been having heartburn caused by high anxiety over grid stability at that high a level of intermittent non-dispatchable power. Traditional solutions of adding spinning reserve and peaker plants requires long lead times and is expensive both in the purchase price and the operation. These traditional approaches still lack the needed instantaneous response.

Government subsidies and regulation is already involved in the business of energy storage.  Last year, September 29, 2010, the governor signed into law AB2514 that requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to have hearings and set procurement targets for any load-serving entity to procure viable and cost effective energy storage systems. The first target is by the end of 2015 and the second is by the end of 2020.  The federal Storage 2010 Act of requested $1.5Billion in tax credits for energy storage added to the US Electric Grid. California Energy Commission (CEC) is spending $30million in grant funding for demonstration projects of renewable energy and energy storage.

For anybody who would like to sort out this business I highly recommend attending STORAGE WEEK 2011 by Infocast, July 11 -14, 2011, Rancho Bernardo Inn, San Diego, CA. This is the fourth edition of this annual event and the previous three were sold out. I was fortunate to attend the last two years. “Market rules are changing… Global markets are heating up… Storage costs are dropping.”

Fleet operators will soon look at the payback of a short-range electric vehicle fleet powered by their own renewable energy and energy storage system. On the vehicle side, no oil or oil filter changes and brakes last up to 8 times as long. On the fuel side, imagine a wind and/or solar system at a fleet facility that grabs the energy when and where it’s available with an energy storage system that gives it to you when you want it and does not restrict your time of recharging or hit you for middle of the summer day “demand” charges. If the utility accesses 10% of a fleet’s energy storage system for voltage and frequency regulation, they could wind up paying you for the service. A good understanding of the products, applications, players, and rules of engagement will provide a competitive edge to future electric vehicle fleets.

CEC Energy Storage Presentations

4 Gigawatts of Electric Energy Storage in California by 2020 is a post from: Clean Fleet Report

By Tom Bartley.

The conference included tours of the Port of Long Beach, Republic Services in the City of Gardena, L.A. Unified School District, L.A. municipal fueling, and Ryder’s Natural Gas Truck Rental. Each tour highlighted a major fleet fueling facility for natural gas (CNG and LNG) or propane. There’s nothing like an increase in fuel prices to get people thinking about alternatives. And there’s nothing like public awareness to get manufacturers’ thinking.

Keynote speaker, Dr. Kathryn Clay, Executive Director of the Clean American Transportation  Alliance, set the theme for the breakout sessions. We need all the possible solutions because there is no golden spike or silver bullet that will do it all. Vehicles and fuel have to be:

• Available
  • Refueling infrastructure
  • Locations to match the vehicles that need it
• Affordable
  • Sustainable vehicles, fuel, and operations with cost models that do not hinder business activity and personal travel
  • Elimination of imports that threaten economic, energy, and national security
• Clean
  • Management of Fuel production hazards
  • Continuing air quality improvement to prevent premature deaths (currently estimated at 5600 per year in the Los Angeles basin)
  • Minimize green house gases that may be affecting climate change

Alternative fuels technologies have been pushing hard to deliver all these characteristics and have pressured traditional petroleum fuels to do likewise. Hybrid-electric cars and buses are now over 10 years old. Propane and natural gas engines have significantly improved. Hydrogen is starting anew.

Cleaner Hybrid Diesel Cars and Trucks

Diesel now offers more clean bangs. After being introduced in Paris in 1897, diesel vehicles have over 50% of the market in Europe. Led by GM, diesel cars and light-trucks had 10% of the US market in the 80’s, but they a reputation for poor reliability, high maintenance, and dirty fuel. I hated the smell of the exhaust and, as a mechanic; I hated the smell of the fuel and the dirty oily engines. Today is different. Diesel engines are robust at all levels; the exhaust is clean; engine and fuel seals have moved forward a few generations.

In the US, the sale of diesel passenger cars and light-duty trucks is increasing. Why? First, diesel is widely available and it’s efficient. Because of it’s volumetric and weight energy density, diesel fuel is the best we have for transportation. In his presentation during a ACT Friday breakout session, Alex Freitag, Director of Bosch Diesel Systems Engineering for North America, said that, for comparable vehicles and engines, diesel now holds a 30% fuel economy advantage over gasoline. 10% of that comes from the amount of energy per gallon. On one chart Alex compared a gasoline hybrid at 50 mpg with a diesel hybrid at 72 mpg. (It must be a Prius on steroids.) Because of the higher fuel economy diesel had lower CO₂ emissions per mile. Furthermore, Alex indicated that there are additional improvements that will widen the gap. For over 100 years the Bosch Group has been a leader in supplying technology and components to the automotive industry.

The diesel efficiency improvements are possible because the exhaust cleanup is left to the converters, filters and traps. All this comes at the cost of a higher purchase price, but results in a lower life cycle cost of ownership. The breakeven point for direct costs of operations can be measured in months rather than decades.

So, diesel is available, clean, and affordable. What about imports? Over 50% of the US transportation diesel is imported, but that leaves a little under 50% that is domestic and biodiesel already offers some price advantages while continuing to advance in availability. Using less diesel fuel per mile is another way to reduce those imports.

Natural Gas Vehicles

The EXPO had 27 natural gas vehicles in the hall and 6 more in the ride-n-drive. Through the development of horizontal drilling and fracking the US is now considered to have the largest reserves in the world. There is enough to replace imported transportation oil and still have enough for heating and power generation.

Fleet owners realize that the price of natural gas is now detached from oil and looks like it will be stable for a long time into the future. A 52 cent per gallon rebate (cash) sweetens the pot for both the non-profit and for-profit organizations. The biggest variable cost is the electrical energy cost of compression. But if the compressor engine burned CNG, hmmmmmmmmmm.

One notable CNG display vehicle on the EXPO floor was the world’s first CNG emergency reponse vehicle by HME. This a new approach to reduce the cost of fire protection.

What’s missing? Infrastructure – As a fleet operator, you need to be concerned about range and refueling. We could use more public stations across wider areas. This also means more regional and interstate pipelines. The Wednesday tours showed that the thinking of the big central fleets is already on board, but the smaller operators have a hard time covering the cost of a station.

The Honda Civic GX CNG passenger car, one of the cleanest in America, offers excellent fuel cost for a slight premium purchase price. PHILL offers the affordable home compressor/refueler option. The public could use some more choices in competition with the GX to excite the market.

Propane

15 million vehicles around the world burn propane for fuel, not just for the tailgate bar-b-ques. The US has the world’s largest storage and the good news is that 60% of it comes from natural gas, thus, offering price stability detached from gasoline and with the 52 cent per gallon IRS sweetener. The liquid injector technology was a significant clean improvement for the engine and storage tanks. There were 6 vehicles on the floor and 6 more in the ride-n-drive. Propane provides 25% less energy content per liquid gallon than gasoline at a 35% less price.

Electric Trucks and Buses

One Proterra bus, one heavy-duty Balqon truck, one Smith delivery truck, and two light-duty (FCCC and Ford Transit Connect) vans were displayed on the EXPO floor.  The bus, the delivery truck, and an ALTe pickup were at the ride-n-drive. Notable is the Proterra battery-electric transit bus in daily service for Foothill Transit in Pomona, California. The bus probably has the largest battery pack in mobile operation. Even at 28,000 lbs curb weight, it still manages on less than 2 kWh per mile and a 10 minute charge time. It’s an efficient operation, quiet, but not really sustainable in low quantities at over $1million per bus and probably more for the 1.2 MW charge station.  Unknown is what happens when they get hit for $1.00/kWh demand charges in the middle of the summer. They may need a rather large battery pack at the charge station.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

There was a Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen sedan on the EXPO floor; another Clarity, Chevy Equinox, and Kia Borrego SUV at the ride-n-drive. Noticeably absent was one of the 100 Toyota prototypes. These vehicles are being pushed by the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CAFCP) along with the hydrogen highway concept.  The concept is now one of local clustering connected by one or two stations in between. It’s actually working better than E85 stations in California.

No E85 Ethanol Presence

E85 didn’t have a presence at this EXPO. Outside of Iowa the biggest advantage is replacing imported oil with domestic ethanol. The energy balance of production leaves a lot to be desired, but we are replacing 10% of the gasoline with the E10 we buy at the pump today. Actually, it’s a bit less because of the lower energy content of ethanol.

The EXPO had over 1300 attendees, 300 more than expected as high petroleum prices have fleet managers eager to use cleaner and less expensive alternatives. The show producers Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (gna) did a great job hosting the event.

Electric Trucks, Hybrid Diesel Cars, Alt Fuel Vehicles is a post from: Clean Fleet Report

To put this in prospective, even a very expensive fast charger costing in the tens of thousands of dollars may only fill at a nominal 50 kW rate at a public station. A typical gasoline pump delivers fuel at a 10 MW rate and reducing it 80% because of the inefficiency of the engine is still 2 MW, 40 times the speed of a public fast charger, if you can find one.

The EV driver will have a lot more time to interact with other EV drivers at the charging station.  There could be a new form of a club to hang out and study alt fuel vehicles, or just hang out.  In any case waiting could be the name of the game and idle time seems to be the stimulus for new entrepreneurs.

What will you do if you have plugged into a public charger and a short time later your cell phone notifies you that your charging circuit has been disconnected?  You return to your car and find:

1. A celebrity of fame and fortune has just plugged your connection into their new PHEV or EV car. What do you do?
   1. Ask for their autograph;
   2. Smile politely and say go ahead because you will wait the hour or more for them to charge;
   3. Start a conversation and try to get a date;
   4. Call the police;
   5. Start a confrontation to get your name in the papers;
   6. Text a complaint to one or more of your elected representatives;
   7. Call your attorney and ask him to file a damages suit against everyone that remotely has anything to do with the chargers;
   8. Say “Whatever” and walk away;
   9. Say “Oh well” and drive your car to another charging location if you can find one in range or;
   10. Call your therapist and cry over the phone.
   11. How would your reaction change if it were an NFL defensive end, “Guido”, your neighbor, your sales competitor, another member of your family?

Remember the Corvette “wave” to other Corvette drivers? I think the EV wave has a chance of using only one finger on your hand.

How are public chargers going to be assigned and reserved? How is it enforced? What are the consequences? Innovators like Coulomb Technologies are addressing all these issues but they face a legal challenge.

In California it is legally questionable whether a charge station provider can charge for the kWh energy delivered.  Some electric utilities want charge station providers to be regulated like utilities, a move that is likely to kill innovative young companies.

Assemblywoman and Speaker pro Tempore, Fiona Ma introduced legislation to provide market certainty for the infrastructure that is needed to support California’s electric vehicle consumer fleet. The legislation, Assembly Bill 631, will place into law a decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to not regulate electric vehicle charging stations as utilities. Assemblywoman Ma bill is strongly supported by organizations including the Environmental Defense Fund, Plug in America, the San Francisco California Apartment Association and the California Business Properties Association.

“Electric vehicles are the next generation of fuel for California’s green economy,” said Assemblywoman Ma. “AB 631 will provide the infrastructure to support President Obama’s goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”

Even if AB 631 becomes law, what is the sustainable business proposition for the owner of the charger? How will if affect drivers’ behavior and the power grid operation?

Electric cars and plug-in hybrids are a great addition to alternative transportation choices, but dealing with the expectations of the availability of public chargers is going to be a bit dicey. Let’s all take a deep breath and figure out a way to make this work.

Electric Car Public Charging Stations – Range Solution or Battle Ground? is a post from: Clean Fleet Report

By Tom Bartley (52/11)

Do you have work trucks idling for power take offs? You don’t want to pay the price for a full hybrid truck? Add-on battery conversions for new and older work vehicles are available for a fraction of full hybrid cost. 4+ hours of work can be done without fear of killing your battery. The controls always maintain a minimum charge level and the engine can be run for short periods to charge the battery to finish the work.

At today’s clean vehicle add-on to SDG&E’s 6^th Annual Energy Showcase there was the new SDG&E Nissan Leaf and several energy efficient trucks ranging from a Silverado plug-in hybrid, a Boulder BEV delivery truck, an Azure E450 HEV cutaway shuttle bus, an Odyne/International hybrid bucket truck, to a 57,000 lb GVWR CNG hydraulic hybrid refuse truck. The HEVs and BEVs can double the cost of the vehicle.

Fleets may not be able to justify the cost of a new hybrid truck. How about a plug-in battery pack for doing the work that is now done by an idling engine? It’s easy for a utility bucket truck to spend 40% of its fuel to support the power take-offs while parked. By using a plug-in battery pack you pay utility electric rates while charging during off peak hours. An idling truck can easily cost over $8 / hour.  The cost of the kWh used over the same period will probably be less than $1.

The real advantage to an idle-off utility bucket truck is that it’s quiet and the work crew can talk to each other much easier.

Energy Xtreme has an easy conversion battery pack to fit police cars up to a heavy-duty Altec or Terex bucket truck. While most of the HEVs are going to Li ion batteries, Energy Xtreme uses a type of “hybrid battery” that has enough charge/discharge cycles to last the life of the truck. The price is significantly less than a full hybrid, thus, offering a much quicker pay back period.

Terex had a bucket truck at the event with about 12 kWh of lead acid AGM batteries and Energy Xtreme had a small 4 kWh supply for both 110 VAC and 12 VDC mounted on a utility paint truck.

Low Cost Idle-off Alternative to Hybrid Truck is a post from: Clean Fleet Report

By Tom Bartley (4/30/11)

In 2012, Toyota will start selling an SUV with 100-mile electric range – the RAV4 EV. In 2015, Toyota will start selling an SUV with an electric drive and 400-mile range – the FCHV.

Electrically driven cars could fast become part of our transportation landscape and hydrogen is still in the running as a candidate fuel. As part of the Toyota Sustainable Transportation Symposium April 4-7, 2011, three fuel cell hybrid vehicles (FCHV) were part of the ride and drive. I had driven the original Toyota FCHV some years ago at the hydrogen station in Chula Vista.  As I remember it was a Highlander model conversion.  While these new ones look similar to the Highlander they could easily be a heavy RAV4.

After years of fleet tests, public sales of the FCHV are planned for 2015 or earlier. Toyota wants to have a fuel cell that will last the life of the car. Life cycle cost of the fuel cell, it’s fueling system, car components, and hydrogen as a widely available fuel are all challenges. I have been an early and continuing skeptic that there was any path to an affordable sustainable fuel cell for vehicles. Toyota is changing that by focusing on the economies-of-scale mass production technology and costs to drop the price to a small fraction of 2001 prices for the fuel cell and hydrogen fueling system. For now, Toyota has built 100 prototype FCVHs to put into fleet customers’ hands for demonstration in the U.S. If you would like to have one, the biggest requirement is having a hydrogen fueling station available.

Test Drive of the Toyota FCHV

Driving the test vehicle was smooth and quiet. I didn’t hear any of the fuel cell throttle compressor sounds, but occasionally heard the cycling of a small vacuum pump. This is a well-engineered comfortable functional small SUV. The overall design for performance and functionality matches today’s standard production cars for city and highway driving. The 10,000-psi compressed H₂ fuel tank is well placed on the bottom rear of the car and does not cut into the storage space. To buffer the fuel cell power ramp rates to match the vehicle demands, Toyota uses a standard Prius battery that is also used to recycle the braking energy like a standard hybrid. There is masterful packaging of the fuel cell, electric drive and accessory components to neatly fit under the hood. The PRND selection lever had the extra “B” position like in the Plug-in Prius for getting more deceleration from the braking regen if desired. The passenger comfort controls, entertainment, navigation, and communication accessories are following the overall Toyota telematics evolution.

Looking at the range, efficiency, and operation side of this car, the numbers are impressive – 433 miles on one tank fill of 6.34 kg H_2. One kg of H₂ has energy content very close to 1 gallon of gasoline.  That is 68.3 miles per gasoline gallon equivalent, about the same I got with the Plug-in Prius At 4,100 pounds, the FCHV is a bit heavier than the RAV4 EV. Both use a 90 kW electric drive motor. The drag coefficient is about .33 compared to the .25 for the Prius. Drag and weight are the two biggest factors when looking at average vehicle fuel efficiency. Braking energy recycling through regeneration and energy storage batteries also helps.

Carbon Intensity Comparison of Hydrogen Fuel Cell and Battery electric cars

The gasoline hybrid Prius is hard to beat if wasn’t for all the consequences of using gasoline as a fuel. Electric cars look much better as the electric energy mix moves to renewable energy and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will depend heavily on the source of the hydrogen fuel. The FCHV is already in the competitive energy range. Whether or not the FCHV sells in 2015 will depend on whether or not the cost of the fuel cell comes down to the sustainable range, the hydrogen fueling infrastructure, the cost of other fuels, and the real or perceived penalty associated with GHG fuels. Here are some estimates:

Let’s assume that we want to look at the carbon intensity of using coal and petroleum carbon based fuels where: 34% is the carbon intensity of a coal burning power plant with 7% transmission and distribution losses, 36.6 kWh is the energy content of each a gallon of gasoline and a kg of hydrogen, a Prius gets about 285 Wh/mi, 13% of the plug-in Prius miles are on the battery, and the whole country will eventually go to 33% renewable energy with 7% transmission and distribution losses for our electricity. The 33% renewable added to the coal powered grid increases the carbon intensity to about 50%.  The 50% is even higher for the combined cycle natural gas power plants. The carbon intensity of making hydrogen is about 50% by either electrolysis or reformation, but new processes could increase this up to 70%.

1. Mitsubishi iMiev ~ 270 Wh/mi @ 27% of the power plant = 1000 Wh/mi; with 33% renewables @ 50% = 540 Wh/mi
2. Nissan Leaf ~ 320 Wh/mi @ 27% of the power plant = 1185 Wh/mi; with 33% renewables @ 50% = 640 Wh/mi
3. Toyota Prius ~ 50 mpg @ 36.6 kWh/gal = 732 Wh/mi, neglecting gasoline distribution costs
4. Toyota Plug-in Prius ~ 67 mpg + 13% elect miles = (732*.87) + ((285/.27)*.13) = 774 Wh/mi; with 33% renewables @ 50% = 711 Wh/mi
5. Toyota RAV4 EV ~ 370 Wh/mi @ 27% of the power plant = 1370 Wh/mi; with 33% renewable @ 50% = 740 Wh/mi
6. 6. Toyota FCHV ~ 68.3 mi/kgH₂ @ 36.6 kWh/kgH₂ = 536 Wh/mi, which has to be degraded by the carbon intensity of making H₂ @ 50% = 1072 Wh/mi; @ 70% = 765 Wh/mi. If the hydrogen is made from renewable energy on site the number goes to 0 Wh/mi, because no carbon fuels are used directly.

Toyota Hydrogen Fuel Cell Hybrid with 400-Mile Range is a post from: Clean Fleet Report

By Tom Bartley (3/24/11)

My two weeks were up yesterday and I had to pass the car to the next Clean Fuels Coalition board member. I liked the experience and it saved me money. This dual fuel (electricity and gasoline) Prius is all about having a nice ride and being energy efficient. The car I drove was a Toyota factory prototype that was essentially a 2010 basic Prius modified to accommodate a 5kW Lithium ion battery that could be charged through a power cord from an external 110 VAC standard 20 amp circuit.

I liked the car. If you are not a numbers person, skip to the Nice Ride section.

When I plugged the charging cable into my external 110 VAC house socket it tested out ok, but after 5 minutes of charging it tripped the GFI breaker and it wouldn’t reset without tripping.  I tried a different circuit and everything was fine. I have not yet diagnosed the problem. The current draw was 12 amps leading to 3 hours for a full charge (3.96 kWh). This is less than the full battery 5 kW capacity and is probably part of the battery management strategy that stays away from the top and bottom SoC (State of Charge) to assure a long battery life before replacement. The dash board display indicated 14 miles as an estimated average full usable charge EV range. (The 14 mile EV range estimate could vary significantly depending on elevation change, speed, and driver style.) This works out to 3.54 miles/kWh or 283 Wh/mile. The larger battery capacity in the Plug-in Prius makes the normal hybrid mode even more efficient by providing more storage to recycle deceleration energy while going down grades or slowing from high speed driving.

This compares to manufacturer estimates of 240 Wh/mile for the Nissan Leaf and 400 Wh/mile for the Chevy Volt. While the larger capacity battery packs in the Leaf and the Volt qualify for a $7500 federal tax credit, this Prius is projected to have a $3000 tax credit.  I estimate the price of the Plug-in to be somewhere in the $33,000 price range to compete nicely with the Volt.

Energy Efficiency

I managed to drive 423.1 miles on the 6.762 gallons of 87 octane E10 that I pumped into the gasoline tank. With the current high prices, I paid a total of $26.67. So, here are the petroleum numbers:

• 67.52 mpg
• 6.3 ¢/mile

The electric numbers will only show up integrated into my overall utility bill at a cost of 15.5 ¢/kWh. I estimate the efficiency of the car, including the battery losses, at an average 300 Wh/mile leading to an electric cost of 4.65 ¢/mile. How does this add to my total cost/mile? Most of my trips were less than 15 miles. I had one long roundtrip over 75 miles of mostly high speed freeway driving. I can only estimate that 20% of my miles were electric. The onboard display indicated that 12% of the previously driven 12,000 miles were driven in EV mode. Adding (20% of 423.1 miles) 84.62 miles @ 4.65 ¢/mile results in $3.93 for electricity yielding a total cost of $30.60 for 423.1 miles or 7.2 ¢/mile. In comparison, my Toyota Sequoia SUV at about 29 ¢/mile ($4.00/gal / 13.6 mpg). That makes for a whopping $92.00 fuel savings over two weeks! That’s some nice extra pocket money. True, this is not the whole picture and did not include purchase price and maintenance costs, like the cost of the batteries, but the immediate impact is significant. Also, knowing that my cost was less I drove more miles than I otherwise would have.

Side Note: I found the fuel economy displayed and calculated by the on-board computer for each car was optimistically overstated as 77.7 mpg for the Prius and 15.6 mpg for the Sequoia. One mitigating factor is that I may not have received a full tank of gas with the Prius. The odometer should be accurate because, according to the owner’s manual, the Prius automatically calibrates the odometer (using the GPS navigation system?) to compensate for tire wear.

Nice Ride

Overall, I liked the Plug-in Prius and didn’t want to give it back and I love the power of my 2004 Toyota Sequoia Limited and a 1970 classic big block Chevy Corvette, both with their high power V8s and plenty of “go-power” torque throughout the driving speed range. The Prius Plug-in compares favorably with my many ride-n-drives in electric vehicles, hybrids, and high priced hydrogen fuel cell hybrids.

For the driver’s pleasure the Prius has push button selection of three different driving modes, ECOnomy, normal, and PoWeR. At first these different settings seemed to be scaling the accelerator pedal movement to better match the drive style, i.e., more push to get smaller acceleration in ECO, and less push to get greater acceleration in PWR. However, the actual driving experience felt like the PWR mode actually allowed the drive system to put more torque into the drive wheels to the point of spinning the tires with engine and electric motor combined. Knowing that electric motors produce max torque right from the “get go”, I expected more performance of the line without much push on the accelerator, but, because I wanted to stay in EV mode without starting the engine, I didn’t ask for more start up acceleration by jamming the pedal to the floor.

The PWR mode was fun to drive in urban traffic congestion at all speeds. The normal mode was comfortable in almost all driving environments easily keeping pace with other standard 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder gasoline engine cars, especially in the 25 to 50 mph speed range.  I wouldn’t recommend the ECO mode in heavy traffic. The ECO mode was there to sooth my energy conservation conscience when I was sharing the road with only a few other drivers. Cruise control is available to make it even easier.

This car has a sports car feel and it’s easy to parallel park. The ride is smooth, the suspension is tight, and the steering is responsive.  Braking is very responsive.

The gear shift lever has a D for normal forward movement and a B to select more coasting drag. I think the B should be the default position because it felt like I was able to capture more of the deceleration and braking energy into the batteries for recycling. I also liked the B more positive control feel of the car before I had to use the brake pedal.

Rather than a “gear shift” lever it is really a joy stick that always returns to a fixed center position. The position of R and D was a safety problem for me. The position of R at the top or forward and D at the bottom or back is traditional for many transmissions’ gear selection. However, because the control lever is on a raised center console deck and almost horizontal it felt more like a joy stick where DRIVE would be forward and REVERSE would be back. Several times I selected the wrong direction while backing out or parking. Fortunately, it was at low speed and the annoying repetitive beep of reverse provided a helpful alert

Driver Displays and Steering Wheel Button Controls

The main display panel looks like it is digital and programmed for the subject matter information. It is sunk into the middle of the dash for, what looks like, the best viewing of all the vehicle occupants, not just the driver. I had two problems with that positioning. With everything offset to the right side of the driver’s view, the separation between the left and right turn signal indicators is too small to see clearly without taking my eyes of the road to look at the actual arrow. Also, one of the information displays gives immediate feedback to the driver about the torque demands and the EV and hybrid modes of charging and discharging the batteries. Again, the information was not easily seen, down and off to the right, without taking my eyes off the road. Placement in front of the driver would be a nice improvement and a heads up display would be superb.

The standard parts of the driver display included gasoline fuel level, digital speed (analog and digital would be even better), turn signal indicators, odometer, real time mpg, and various mode indicator lights. Being somewhat of a techie, I would have liked to see the engine rpm and temperature; and the electric motor rpm and some appropriate critical temperature. Battery SoC in addition to the estimated EV miles would have been nice too. The display has five selections stepped through by one of the steering wheel buttons:

1. Battery level and number of EV miles, and horizontal bar graph showing real time torque demanded by the accelerator pedal. This display was useful in raising my awareness of the energy effects of changing elevations up and down hils, and the effects of air drag at higher highway speeds.

2. A graphic of the car showing the real time energy flow between the engine, electric motor and battery.

3. Longer term averages of fuel economy

4. Percentage of miles driven in EV mode.

5. Settings that could be cycled through and changed with the same steering wheel display button.

Additionally, when I put my finger on one of the steering wheel buttons there are two cool looking pop up displays that illuminate the button functions. However, if I have to take my eyes off the road to see the pop ups, I can just as easily look at the steering wheel. The left hand steering wheel button was like my Sequoia, operating the radio modes, presets, and volume. The right hand steering wheel button operated the display selection, trip odometers and resets, temp up and down for heating and A/C, and recirculate control for ventilation. I found the temp and recirculation controls redundant to the other same controls close by on the dashboard.

Lights, Wipers, Mirrors, and Visibility

I am spoiled by the light sensing automatic turn-on head light control in the Sequoia. This basic Prius did not have them and several times I had to return to the car to turn off the lights. As in many other cars, these controls were located on the turn signal lever. The emergency 4-way flasher control was a nice big button on the console.

The interior lighting was superior with several different automatic modes that anticipated the entry and exit of the vehicle. It took a while to discover, but just pushing on the light lens is a nice switch feature. Also a nice touch is an indirect beam of light out of the ceiling that illuminates the console while driving at night.

One place that could use a light is the electric charging compartment to illuminate the socket and cover. It would have made it easier when I was trying to insert the charging plug at night in the dark.

I had one wiper and lights problem that turned out to be pilot error. California law requires the headlights to be on any time the windshield wipers are on. While driving in the rain one day I did this only to have the driver display go dim and unreadable. The automatic dimming control expects a reduced ambient light level if the head lights are turned on. The manual dimming control is a thumbwheel on the left side of the dash. If the thumbwheel is advanced into the maximum brightness détente, the display will stay bright even if the headlights are turned on.

The electric positioning left and right external mirrors are the same as my Sequoia, but the control was located on the left side lower dash panel next to the display brightness thumbwheel instead of the center console. From my best position setting of the outside rear view mirror without repositioning the mirror I couldn’t see the curb position when parallel parking. Ok, it is a little picky.

The visibility out the rear window from looking at the inside rear view mirror has an irritation shared by almost all Prius drivers. The rear spoiler required for that nice low aerodynamic drag coefficient puts a horizontal bar across the rear vision.  For the extra mileage at highway speeds it was acceptable, but I never got used to it. I heard that some late model Prius’ may be offered with a camera and a screen that I hope eliminates the bar in the view. My recent experience driving a Volt exposed a similar bar. Adding additional irritation to me was the manual lever for day/night viewing of the mirror. The automatic transitioning of my Sequoia mirror is another nice thing to have.

Driver visibility is good except for two blind spots at the rear corners. I solved this problem on the Sequoia with the addition of small round stick-on wide-angle mirrors to the standard outside mirrors. I elevated the driver’s seat to its highest level for my best outside viewing angle.

Navigation and Entertainment

Your children and grandchildren will love the screen and controls. I liked the large navigation screen, which automatically shifted from a light background to a dark background when the headlights were turned on. After reading the navigation manual for over an hour I decided that I was not going to become a proficient operator during the time I had the car. To prevent driver distraction, several of the functions were not available while the car was moving.

The angle of display has a cute little shift control to help minimize glare reflections. The whole display tilts forward to expose the CD insertion slot. It looked like only a single CD at a time. I prefer the 6-CD changer I have in the Sequoia. The sound system was great when using the radio.

Other Amenities and Comments

Keyless entry, locking, and start-up were new and enjoyable for me. I now look at my other keys as archaic. Three people could fit in the back seat with reasonable comfort, but only two could be there to have the cup holders that were in the center pull down armrest.

The center console cover had a latch that slid back to expose a cup holder in addition to the one with it’s own cover door in front of it. More pulling on the latch exposed a compartment with a tray and a 12 VDC 120 W power socket and an aux port for and iPod. What at first confused me was that the latch had to be depressed again to slide the cover forward for complete closure. I forgot and left my Bluetooth wireless phone earpiece in the tray because it was not completely visible.

In front of the console under the joystick platform is an open tray that has another 12 VDC socket along with switches for the heated seats.  I found the switch placement inconvenient for the driver but ok for the front passenger. The heated seats get hot fast! While more pleasing for the leather seats in the Sequoia, the seat heaters may not really be necessary for the soft cloth seats in the Prius.

Normally, the car was ready to go in total EV mode after putting my foot on the brake and pressing the START button. However, I found that leaving the front defroster selected from prior driving caused the engine to start after pushing the START button.

There are upper and lower glove boxes for added flexibility.

All four side windows have automatic up and down modes. I quickly closed the windows after trying them down during highway driving. The car body aerodynamic airflow is sensitive to window position and my ear drums were taking a beating.

The steering wheel has a “scope” adjustment in and out for comfortable arm positioning.

Fortunately, I had my Sequoia experience to understand the Toyota HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) control strategy. The only difference was that the Sequoia has a knob for setting the desired temperature rather than the up and down buttons of the Prius.

best electric car or hybrid car

In 2012 there will be several plug-in car models to choose from, each slightly different to match the driver’s needs and wallet. From the ones I have driven, going from low to high purchase cost:

• Mitsubishi iMiEV – All electric (no petroleum) short range no frills basic gets the job done, smallest, lowest weight and most efficient. Low cost because of credits and grants.
• Nissan Leaf – All electric (no petroleum) medium range, excellent feel and performance, virtually no service required, perfect for urban commutes and short trips, some longer trip options. Lower cost because of credits and grants.
• Toyota Prius – The standard with great mpg and long range, but doesn’t utilize grid energy
• Toyota Prius Plug-in – Better mpg and hybrid efficiency, long range and short EV range
• Chevrolet Volt – High end luxury quality feel, performance, and features, serial hybrid design has lower efficiency and mpg.

Top 10 electric cars including Plug-in Hybird

Toyota Prius Plug-in – Two Weeks of Test Driving is a post from: Clean Fleet Report

But what does this have to do with Chrysler?  It has taken A123 several years to sprint from MIT labs to one of the leaders in the advanced battery market, largely buoyed by the Black & Decker/DeWalt hand tool application.  In the advanced technology battery business several years is a sprint.  A123 has had to sprint to find affordable applications with their brand of battery technology.  They have yet to produce a profit, but if A123 can hang on with enough marathon endurance to reach projected economies of scale and Chrysler sustained production, the big energy batteries and high volume of the plug-in vehicle market represent the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  In the automobile mass production business it takes about 35,000 units per year to be sustainable.

Yet, it will be more like a marathon.  For example, the Toyota Prius with a cumulative million cars sold in the US and another million in the rest of the world, was first available in the year 2000 and it took until 2004 before Toyota reached sustainable annual sales.  The Chrysler vehicles won’t be available for at least a year and any volume will take years longer.  With 1600 employees A123’s estimated annual expenses burn rate is $160 million.  That’s above their annual sales and their current markets are not exactly secure.  However, I’m cheering for A123; I even bought some of the stock, but there are risks.
It seems somewhat hypocritical that GM chose Korean LG Chem over the US A123 for the Volt battery.  It seems that GM valued energy density and a large company over A123 battery safety and being a domestic.  The Volt may not sell well because of the $40,000 Volt price tag and competition well under way.

Chrysler looks somewhat more committed with both a battery electric and a plug-in hybrid to be released in 2010.  The Dodge Sport car is pure EV. The Jeep SUV and Town & Country are PHEV.  The battery life will be a challenge because the dynamic SOC (State of Charge) range is different for BEV and PHEV.

Looking at the whole market and publicly stated release points:
·    Nissan BEV with 100 mile range – Fall 2010 with 1000s of vehicles
·    Ford BEV with 100 mile range – 2011
·    Smart BEV with 100 mile range – 2010 (Europe)
·    Ford Plug-in Hybrid  – 2012
·    Toyota Plug-in Prius with 12 mile all electric – 2010
·    Toyota BEV with 40 mile range – 2012

Another little known A123 vehicle market is the Magna pack.  Designed and produced in Europe, it took Magna over 2 years and over $2 million to get their A123 pack into a 2000 units per year production line.  It currently is used in the Mercedes hybrid that Magna builds for Daimler.  There is rumored to be another large European customer.

With the IPO capitalization returning over $300 million, a stimulus award of over $130 million and sales approaching the break even point, A123 probably has enough to cover their burn rate for 3 to 5 years, but let’s take another look the publicly reported customers. The other A123 reported markets may not be as big as they are hyped.  Can A123 supply price competitive high quality products?
·    The cordless hand tool market is very competitive and will at least have a downward pressure on any profit margins.
·    The BAE Systems customer is using the A123 battery pack for hybrid-electric buses.  The estimated price range is $5,000 to $10,000/pack with an estimated maximum of 400 buses per year.
·    In the utilities energy storage application, AES bought a semi-trailer full of A123 batteries to supply over 1 MWh of energy at a 1 MW power level.  Used in a prototype experiment the trailer is performing well in a controlled environment for a power frequency and voltage regulation application.  AES has two other trailers full of Altairnano batteries that are also performing well.  In another similar experiment, hybrid batteries are performing well.  Energy storage will be a sizable part of the new “smart grid”, but there are many forms of energy storage and the choice may be somewhat price sensitive.  The utility companies and suppliers are not in any hurry to rush out buy any more trailers full of batteries until the transportation applications reach economies of scale to make the price come down.
·    Smart meters and time of use pricing may make home price arbitrage attractive, but that is a long shot market and will undoubtedly be competitive.

Hooray for A123 and Chrysler!

Tom Bartley

A123 and Chrysler – Sprint or Marathon? is a post from: Clean Fleet Report

Smart Charging Can Save

By Tom Bartley (9/21/09).

It’s not as simple as it first appears to know how much money it’ll take to feed a new plug-in. A modern efficient electric cars with braking regeneration will consume less than 300Wh/mile. The new all electric Nissan Leaf is claiming 100 mile range with a 24kWh battery. Taking into account the battery losses, that’s excellent performance at less than 240Wh/mile. In terms of miles-per-gallon (mpg), as calculated by the GM Volt people, the Nissan Leaf achieves infinite mpg because it doesn’t use one drop of gasoline.

But really, you say, how do I compare out of pocket costs and real energy consumption? There are other perspectives, but have faith and follow along for an analysis to impress your friends.

The heat energy of gasoline is 36.6kWh/gallon, but the efficiency of a gasoline engine reduces this to about 10kWh/gallon in terms of the mechanical energy coming out of the engine. For a reasonable non plug-in high fuel economy car of 30 mpg that’s 30 miles per 10kWh or 366Wh/mile, also pretty good performance. In terms of energy efficiency the power company does a bit better in delivering the kWh energy than does the gasoline engine of my car. The picture is even better when energy security and greenhouse gas reductions are considered.

Note: I’m describing my around town commuter needs here, not any long distance trips. Batteries and energy storage are still a long way from coming close to the energy density of liquid fuel. I’ll discuss range anxiety and battery life in a future post.

Now watch closely; this is the part that matters. How much of my spendable cash is going for fuel to move me and my car down the street?

For a non plug-in at $3.00/gallon and 30mpg, I’m spending 10¢/mile.

For a plug-in at 13¢/kWh base rate charging and 0.24kWh/mile, I’m spending 3.12¢/mile.

The plug-in wins hands down and the margin gets even wider if I happen to live in an area with cheaper electricity. For a frequently used national average number of about 8¢/kWh, I’m only spending 1.92¢/mile.

Before you plug-in fans start clapping and cheering, did you notice the slight of hand? Here is more of the story. What is “base rate charging”?

For most of the 138 million electric energy consumers in the country the electric utility company reads the meter once a month and sends out a bill. Everyone pays the same price, the base rate, for the first kWh after the meter reading.
However, if a lot of electricity is used during the month, such as for air conditioning in the summer or heating in the winter, the price of the last kWh before the meter reading could be 3 or 4 times higher than the first kWh. This is called tiered rate tariffs and is analogous to the graduated income tax rate. The more electricity used the more charged per kWh.

The cost to the utility of generating power varies during the day as extra assets are brought on line to meet the demand. To cover the extra cost the utility companies use the monthly tiered rate pricing structure as approved by the Public Utility Commission (PUC) in each state. The monthly tiered rate pricing doesn’t match up well with the daily cost variations.

Charging my plug-in vehicle would accelerate the higher rate tiered rate tariff and by the end of the month, using the numbers from above, I could be paying 6¢ to 13¢/mile for my plug-in.

The solution is Time-Of-Use (TOU) pricing. Smart meters provide the technology for TOU pricing to match the daily cost variations and the utilities love it!  8.3 million (6% of the meter population) of these meters are already installed nationwide and my utility, SDG&E, is planning for TOU pricing to start in 2011. In fact, a smart meter is integral to the new charging units being installed at home, work, and other locations. If I take delivery of a Nissan Leaf in 2010 I can probably get TOU pricing early.

So now I can have some real choices for how much I have to pay to fuel my electric car just like I have choices for which gas station to use to fill my tank. Ideally, I will do all my charging in the middle of the night for the lowest base rate. The computers in the car and the charging system can take care of that. Again the utilities love it because they don’t have to worry about adding assets to meet my demand.
I’m also thinking about doing a little arbitrage, using the battery in my car to store cheap energy and use it in my house when the grid energy is expensive. More about this in a future post. In the next post I’ll also discuss charging issues, maintenance, and intangibles.

You probably caught that I didn’t talk about the cost of replacing my battery.  I’ll cover that more in a future post, but here’s a hint – the battery will probably last at least 10 years for over 100,000 driving miles.  Present cost estimates are about $300/kWh or $7200 for the Nissan Leaf which adds 7.2¢/mile to the cost of operating my plug-in, but again, it “ain’t” that simple.  Stay tuned.

The Plug-in Energy Diet is a post from: Clean Fleet Report

Balqon Hostler

Balqon Corporation is now offering for sale a battery-electric tow tractor for moving semi trailers around port yards and distribution warehouse centers.  115 kWh in the lead acid battery pack is enough energy for 30 to 50 miles and one whole shift of yard operation under 25 mph.  The electric motor, controller, electric compressor, and hydraulic pump replace the diesel engine in the Capacity half cab glider delivered to Balqon.  The transmission and electric drive components are mounted on a cradle that drops into the frame rails and is installed in less than 4 hours.  Add the 330 volt battery packs on each side and you’re ready to go.
Eliminating the idling, diesel fuel and engine related maintenance costs results in considerable savings over the life of the vehicle.  A Li Ion battery pack with twice the energy storage will be offered in the near future to extend the operating time and range between battery charges.
Ottawa and Capacity are the major suppliers of the half cab hostlers (also known as yard tractors) used in trucking distribution centers through the country.  Port of Los Angeles has about 600 of these vehicles, the Port of Long Beach about 400 and the Port of San Diego 15.  CARB is continuing their efforts to clean up the emissions from these normally powered diesel tractors.

Balqon Offers BEV Hostler is a post from: Clean Fleet Report

AES installs Grid Storage

By Tom Bartley. The answer is Intelligent Energy Transfer!  It is smart to not waste energy and not waste money in power generation capacity, but it takes some intelligent technology and control to make it happen.  Electricity energy storage is one of those key technologies to minimize transmission losses and enhance grid stability while adding more renewable wind and solar power.
The Storage Week conference July 13-16, 2009 at the San Diego Marriott La Jolla will address the technologies, business models, and supporting policies for a modern smart power grid. The Event Summary lists the key featured speaker as R. James Woolsey, the former CIA director who has lectured widely about how our payments for foreign oil help fund our terrorist enemies.
This conference focuses on the sometime overlooked fact that power generation always matches power demand at any time on any power distribution network.  Renewable wind and solar power sources do not follow the demand, but rather force the grid to follow the source for maximum renewable energy and compensate elsewhere.  Major generation assets do not respond quickly and require other devices for intermediate and short term smoothing.  One common form of storage currently used is to have on line water pumps and generators that use gravity for energy storage by moving water in and out of elevated storage reservoirs.
Modern forms of energy storage offer other candidate devices. For example, AES has built a 1 MWh battery pack with A123 Lithium ion batteries to test the viability of smoothing power spikes.
The media coverage of the somewhat rare “blackout” has instilled a public phobia of reaching grid capacity and losing power.  What is missing in the media coverage is the reduction in transmission efficiency and wasted power that occurs at the upper end of the grid capacity without exceeding the capacity.  The higher the power level of a given distribution grid and the greater the distance from the source to the load, the more that energy is wasted in parasitic heating losses.
Distributed grid energy storage would go a long way toward minimizing energy losses and reducing the need for excess capacity.

Tom Bartley

What Makes a Smart Grid Smart? is a post from: Clean Fleet Report