United States
White House unveils $2.4 bn in grants
The US government will buy thousands of electric and hybrid vehicles. Government grants also would subsidize installation of electric-vehicle charging stations. The move reflects the belief that current lower oil prices won’t last: In its models for the future, as part of the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies, the president’s auto task force assumed that gas prices would rise above $4 a gallon by 2015.
Is there a potential for deploying car batteries as a “behind-the-meter” electricity storage source for utility grids
Any discussion of utility-scale energy storage inevitably must touch on the development of electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) and the potential to deploy car batteries as a “behind-the-meter” electricity storage source for utility grids. Folks in the electricity storage technology business who spoke with CCBJ tended to fall into two camps on the questionof how realistic this vision is. Those backing it sometimes act as if it’s just around the corner while those selling competing stationary battery technologies generally disparage it as not viable. “People talk enthusiastically about PHEVs as a way of doing storage, but the major utilities I see say that’s not the case,” said an executive with one firm. “”They want to provide energy to PHEVs, not buy it.”
Stephan Dolezalek, who runs the cleantech practice for VantagePoint Venture Partners, offered a more measured view. “First, we need to recognize that increasing our supply of renewable energy will require both utility-scale solutions like flow batteries and taking advantage of an increasingly electrified transport fleet. We will begin to see individual U.S.-based state and city programs over the next several years, but it is likely to take 10 years to implement a national vehicle-to-grid infrastructure in this country. On the other hand, I think we’ll see it much sooner than that in Europe and probably in China as well.” He noted that Better Place, a VantagePoint-backed company that positions itself as a “mobility operator” and aims to deploy a unique battery charging and battery-swapping model to alleviate the “range anxiety” associated with EVs, has secured commitments for projects in California, Israel, Australia, Denmark and most recently Hawaii.
Better Place’s project in Israel is the furthest ahead, with Denmark following closely behind. Danish utility Dong—looking for storage to deal with the highest wind energy penetration in the world—carmarker Renault-Nissan, lithium-ion battery maker NEC and Better Place plan to get 100,000 EVs on the road and hooked up to utility grids with bidirectional power controls for charging and discharging by 2011. “In Denmark there’s a huge tax on gasoline vehicles so any EV has a significant total cost of ownership preferential,” said Dolezalek.
Tax policies combined with high gasoline prices are driving interest in Better Place’s other developing markets, but in the United States, Dolezalek suggested that “either gasoline or carbon prices will need to rise and/or battery costs will have to further decline before it becomes abundantly clear to the American public that gasoline is not the way to go with regard to vehicle power. But interest among U.S. utilities is rising. “ey see it as a very attractive market opportunity and a number of them are ready to begin studying and piloting vehicle-to-grid programs.”
CCBJ will examine the emerging vehicle-to-grid technologies and markets in more depth in its upcoming edition on the Transport segment of the Climate Change Industry. Growth within the next year to 18 months will certainly be constrained by the recession. “We fully expect that the cleantech industry as a whole will see a slowdown and capital crunch through 2009 and into 2010,” said Dolezalek. “However, the Obama Administration and increasing numbers of political figures and pundits see cleantech as a significant part of how to grow this country out of the economic crisis. In the near term, that may mean energy retrofits, efficiency and wind projects, but within a year or two the focus will shift to solar, smart-grid, enhanced transmission and V-to-G implementations.”
“”This is a transitional time for electric energy storage,” concluded EPRI’s Rastler in his recent article. “A number of cost-effective systems and solutions exist while others will soon emerge. NAS and flow batteries are being adopted by electric utilities as a grid support asset. Advanced CAES system designs look attractive for bulk power energy storage, supporting renewable generation and reducing the sector’s carbon footprint.” “Li-ion batteries applied in PHEV and utility distributed energy storage systems could enable a transformation to more distributed power systems and a convergence of electric power and transportation. Developments in flow batteries, advanced batteries, and ultra-capacitors also continue. The ability to store electricity will become increasingly important, but much remains to be done for the cause. Current technology and products need to be integrated within the activities leading to advanced ‘smart grids.’”
“Additional R&D, including research in basic materials science, is needed, especially in advanced batteries. Current technology and that in the R&D pipeline will give a big boost to improving the efficiency of the electric enterprise in the years to come.”
Article courtesy of the Climate Business Journal.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6b9b0b2f-f6e6-4beb-bced-8e70bb470e5c)
Nissan’s new Leaf: An EV and charging stations too
Recognizing that consumers won’t go for battery-powered vehicles if supplying them with juice isn’t cheap and convenient, the company is working with electric utilities, private organizations and all levels of government to set up networks of charging stations. The Leaf is expected to go on sale in the U.S., Europe and Japan late next year.
China overtaking the US in an EV?
While US carmakers are going bust everyday, China is, according to the Chinese Association of Auto Manufacturers, aiming for 11 million car sales this year, 17% more than the 9.3 million last year. The US sales, in the meantime should not even amount to 10 million this year.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d01520cf-1b57-4421-afaf-4db615de3a10)
EV stations coming soon to Miami beach
Continuing its focus on green technologies, Miami Beach is making moves to become an EV hub of South Florida.
UC Berkeley study sees mass-market adoption of EV’s
This result holds only if itis assumed that the ownership of the battery is separated from the vehicle.
Dr. Patrick Tam, General Partner, Tsing Capital
Dr. Patrick Tam, has many years of experience in starting and growing technology companies in cleantech, IT and manufacturing in the US. He headed a boutique investment bank focusing on China-US transactions in technology sectors. He also headed a Washington State economic development agency, at which he obtained funding for commercial development in fuel cell, biodiesel, and waste treatment as a focus for Washington State.
He served on the board of the Northwest Energy Collaborative that links emerging companies in the energy sector with large utilities and other potential customers. He was listed in the Who’s Who in Technology, Who’s Who in Business, and Who’s Who in Science. He obtained BS and MS degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
|
|
 |
|
|
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
ASSOCIATE SPONSOR
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Produced By:  |
|
PARTNERS: |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
MEDIA PARTNERS: |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
