Clean Fleet Reporthybrid & electric cars smart charged with renewable energy
Vehicle-to-Grid: Utility Giant PG&E Gets Fast ROI from 190 Electric Trucks
At utility giant PG&E, 190 electric trucks are now used to keep things running. If a neighborhood has a power outage, a troubled truck rolls in. A technician is lifted high in the air to look at a transformer on a pole. Auxiliaries can be run for hours including test equipment into a communications. These plug-in trucks can be used twice as many hours per day as diesel trucks with legal noise restrictions. By switching from diesel to electric, PG&E pays for the electric trucks in 2.5 years according to Dave Meisel, Director Transportation for Services for PG&E.
Low Cost Idle-off Alternative to Hybrid Truck
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 [...]
2,000 CNG Vehicles in AT&T Fleet
AT&T added the 2,000th compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle in its corporate vehicle fleet – a Ford E250 van deployed in San Leandro, California. This milestone is part of a $565 million planned investment to replace approximately 15,000 fleet vehicles with alternative-fuel models through 2018.
Johnson Controls Plans Expansion for Lithium Car Batteries
AT&T, Xcel Energy, Johnson Controls, So Cal Edison, and New York Power Authority have ordered Ford Transit Connect Electric. These pure battery-electric vans have an electric charge range of 80 miles and are a great fit for many fleet, small business, and delivery applications. In the United States, fleets control some 14 million vehicles. Some fleets placed initial orders for 10 or 20 Transit Connect Electrics; bigger orders could follow in 2011. JCI has ordered 20 Transit Connect Electrics to be part of its global fleet of 19,000 vehicles.
Ford Transit Connect Electric Test Drive
Fleet managers of utilities, universities, and city delivery will be evaluating this new battery-electric truck. As I turn and accelerate on the busy city street, the vehicle is silent. I cannot even hear the electric motor. Zero to 60 in 11 seconds is nothing to brag about, but the acceleration was adequate on the level street. By partnering with Azure and JCS, Ford will be one of the first to delivery commercial freeway-speed electric vehicles in the United States.
$620 Million for Smart Grid and Energy Storage Projects will spur Renewables
DOE awards $620 million for projects around the country to demonstrate advanced Smart Grid technologies and integrated systems that will help build a smarter, more efficient, more resilient electrical grid. Electric cars will be smart charged and lithium batteries reused in grid demonstrations. These 32 projects include large-scale energy storage which will enable wind and solar power to be delivered when needed. Projects include most states and over 50 utilities serving over 100 million Americans.
PG&E to Smart Charge 219,000 Electric Cars
This year, Newsweek ranked PG&E the greenest utility in the country due to its strong commitment to customer energy efficiency programs and renewable energy (RE) programs. 219,000 and 845,000 electric cars will be charged by this one utility by 2020, as renewable energy starts to replace gasoline as the preferred fill-up. Although smart charging provides for two-way communication, electricity will only be delivered one-way from the grid to the vehicle.
