The next electrification wave will be when passenger EVs take off. This will happen as people understand that with larger batteries and a built-out charging infrastructure, range anxiety isn’t really an issue.
Adding eMobility To Zero Carbon Living Honda has a view of the future that might include not only plugging your electric car into your house, … Read more
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.
Globally, over 70GW of solar power is installed and over 250GW of wind energy. In the past five years, the U.S. has added more renewable energy than coal and nuclear power. Grid energy storage is forecasted to grow from $3 billion to $160 billion annually in the next five years.
100 Electric Cars will use V2G in 2010 – advancing smart grid charging and storage. The University of Delaware has signed the first license for its vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology with AutoPort. The licensing agreement launches the first large-scale demonstration of the UD-developed V2G technology, which enables electric car owners to plug in their vehicles and send electricity back to electrical utilities. The system is designed to generate cash for the driver, while strengthening the nation’s power supply and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
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.
As nations around the world rethink their plans for nuclear energy, better alternatives are seen in energy efficiency, renewable energy, natural gas, smart grid, and intelligent energy management. Clean Edge research projects wind power to expand from $60.5 billion in 2010 to $122.9 billion by 2020, and solar to expand from $71.2 billion to $113.6 billion by 2020.
GE intends to be the leader in smart grid charging of electric vehicles. GE’s Watt Station EV Charger was personally unveiled today by CEO Jeff Immelt. Globally, GE already helps thousands of electric utilities be more efficient in generating power and in distributing power. With a growing family of smart grid solutions including smart charging of vehicles, GE will help utilities with Digital Energy. The GE Watt Station is the first product in a family of vehicle smart charging products and services from GE.
The smart grid charging of electric cars with renewable energy advances. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the Electric Power Research Institute and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Friday announced that they will deploy solar charging stations for electric vehicles across the state of Tennessee as part of one of the largest electric transportation projects in U.S. history. The solar-assisted stations will complement the standard home, commercial, public and fast-charging infrastructure needed to support the Nissan LEAF and more electric vehicles.
President Obama announced this January 8 the award of $2.3 billion in Recovery Act Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits for clean energy manufacturing projects across the United States. 183 electric car, smart grid, renewable energy projects in 43 states. “Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future,” said President Obama. “The Recovery Act awards I am announcing today will help close the clean energy gap that has grown between America and other nations while creating good jobs, reducing our carbon emissions and increasing our energy security.”