Island Nations Need Renewable Energy, Low-speed Electric Vehicles
I’m often asked for my advice about bringing electric transportation to island nations. Readers may recall that I’ve spent a fair chunk of time investigating this subject on behalf of Bermuda. Here, I write back to a friend who’s working on a proposal for one of the Caribbean countries:
In my opinion, EV solutions for island nations are best delivered by low- or medium-speed electric vehicles, like this one from a company in Michigan, EcoVElectric. Freeway-speed products like the Nissan Leaf are inappropriate for places that have low speed limits, narrow roads, and short driving distances; they’re unnecessarily expensive, and they waste precious resources. Of course, renewable energy plays a vital role here, as additional load on the grid is met with more diesel, and no one (except the vested interests) wants that.
Note that I make a quick reference to the potential for political in-fighting. Of course, I’m not privy to the discussions that take place surrounding the replacement of diesel with clean energy in these far flung places, but it’s rumored that it makes what’s happening in the U.S. (with the oil companies and their lobbyists) pale in comparison.
Because I lived in Fiji from 1994 to 2004, I can comment intelligently on energy and transportation problems and needs there. Other island nations have similar needs and problems, though not totally identical.
Viti Levu, the largest Fiji island, gets well over half of its electrical power from a recently expanded hydroelectric system. However, the amount of hydro power on Viti Levu is not always adequate (it depends on the amount of rainfall), so it is supplemented with Diesel power and a limited amount of power generated by sugar mills by burning the waste from sugar cane. Also, other Fiji islands have little or no hydroelectric power available and have to depend on Diesel power. The cost of importing Diesel fuel is a serious drain on the economy.
The output of Diesel generators can quickly be changed. In fact, a large Diesel generator can, within a few minutes, be started and deliver maximum power. That, to a considerable degree, would mitigate the serious problem of the intermittent nature of wind and solar power. So, even though wind and solar power could not reliably provide power at all times and are expensive, they could greatly reduce the amount of Diesel fuel required. The country is too small for nuclear power to be a consideration at this time. Thus, the cost and unreliability of wind and solar power would, under the circumstances, be tolerable and the investment could be justified and PV solar power should be encouraged.
A problem with wind power in Fiji is hurricanes which would damage currently available wind generators. Fiji did, a number of years ago, instal moderate size tilt-up wind generators which can be lowered when necessary to prevent hurricane damage. However, for the power generated, they were much more expensive than large wind generators and were not installed in a location where maximum wind energy would be available. Therefore, their installation was probably a mistake and economically unjustifiable. Because of the hurricane problem, wind energy may not be practical in Fiji until or unless large wind generators which can withstand hurricane winds become available. That problem also exists on a number of other island nations.
Solar PV systems could be designed to minimize, though not totally eliminate, wind damage. Already there are some PV solar power systems installed in Fiji to provide limited power to remote villages; they seem to be a worthwhile investment.
Regarding transportation in Fiji, most car trips are short and electric vehicles limited to perhaps 60 kmph would be sufficient for most trips. However, traveling distances up to about 250 kilometers on roads with a speed limit of 80 kmph is sometimes required, so short distance low speed electric vehicles, while adequate for most trips, would not be adequate for all trips. Most people in Fiji will never own a car; they depend on busses. Although there has been little emphasis on electric busses, it may be easier to design highway-capable electric busses than highway-capable electric cars. Probably more effort should be put into doing so.
Again, although the energy and transportation needs of Fiji are similar to those of other small island nations, there are differences. Many island nations are much smaller than Fiji so travel distances are much shorter. Also, many small island nations have no hydroelectric power available and depend almost entirely on very costly Diesel power. They would benefit even more from renewable energy and electric vehicles.
Although small island nations will probably for the indefinite future have to depend on Diesel power to backup renewable energy systems, they are sufficiently small that their CO2 emissions are not significant on a global basis.
Although renewable energy systems would clearly benefit small island nations and should probably be installed as quickly as possible, renewable energy systems could not, at least with currently available technology, even begin to provide for the energy requirements of large developed nations. Instead, once it belatedly becomes inescapably clear that there is no acceptable alternative, and after CO2 emissions have already done serious damage, they will eventually rely mainly on nuclear power to meet their needs, preferably with less costly and safer nuclear technologies than those currently in use. More effort should be made to develop these better nuclear technologies.
Hi Frank,
There is one renewable source of energy that Fiji could tap which is not intermittent, and which is likely to be highly viable – and it is geothermal power. Drill down far enough and the rocks get hot enough to generate high pressure steam to turn conventional generators.
http://www.fijilive.com/news/2011/05/08/32854.Fijilive
For faster deployment, solar is very useful and is no longer excessively costly due to massive price reductions in the last 18 months. True, solar is intermittent in nature – but in a broadly predictable manner – often peaking just as demand for air conditioning and fans is at its highest! The remaining intermittency should not be too much of a problem given the presence of hydro-power which can ramp rapidly and adjust output to provide the balancing services needed by the grid.
Gary,
I’ve seen the hot springs at Savusavu. There may be potential there if drilling down would result in higher temperatures. However, Savusavu is on the island of Vanua Levu, which is much smaller than Viti Levu, and Savusavu is a very small town. Labasa isn’t too far away, but it also is small. So, the demand for power in that area is small compared with areas where it is more needed. On the other hand, if geothermal power turns out to be practical and cheap enough there, perhaps development would tend to occur where that power is available thereby limiting the demand for power in other areas. These things are very difficult to evaluate.
The temperature mentioned in the linked-to article was 100 C, which is high enough to generate power, but not very economically. The thermodynamic efficiency increases with temperature and at only 100 C, the equipment necessary to produce power would be extremely large. At least sea water is readily available for cooling. It might also require using some other working fluid than water because otherwise it would have to operate at less than atmospheric pressure. Perhaps they’d use butane as the working fluid. But again, perhaps higher temperatures could be reached by deeper drilling.
There has been speculation about how long geothermal wells will be productive. In some areas, they gradually reduce the available temperatures by removing heat faster than it can be replaced. Also, in some places, geothermal wells have resulted in small earthquakes.
Surely more work should be done on geothermal power in areas where high temperatures are available without excessively deep drilling, but we don’t really know what the potential is.
Nuclear power, at least now, would not be appropriate where only moderate amounts of power are required. So at this time, for countries like Fiji, renewables, backed up with Diesel if necessary, are probably the best option even if it is rather expensive.
You might take a look at a ULTRA’s solution to this issue. ULTRA is a UK company which produces a personal rapid transport system used at Heathrow terminal 5 to ferry passengers between the long stay car parks and the terminal (around 2 miles).
http://www.ultraglobalprt.com/
In a small island nation, who needs their own car when they can just get on their own private computer controlled cab?
Another place where they should be using electric vehicles is moving passengers around large airports.
In Fiji, many bus passengers travel less than two miles. Actually, I think that more emphasis should be placed on bicycles and safe bicycle routs should be established. When I lived in Fiji (1994 – 2004), I used my bicycle very little because I was afraid of the traffic.
Busses with a range of only a few miles could be very practical in urban areas if there were provision for exchanging discharged batteries. In urban areas, a top speed of 60 KMPH would be sufficient. When traveling from one urban area to another, distances can be up to perhaps 300 KM at somewhat higher speeds. However, that wouldn’t necessarily be a problem since batteries could be exchanged at the half way point.
Unless there have been changes that I don’t know about, the only energy efficiency regulations in Fiji are for domestic refrigerators, and those regulations are very recent. One often sees air conditioned rooms with jalousy (louvered) windows. For office buildings, the building owners and contractors are not concerned about energy efficiency since the tenants install their own air conditioning, if desired, and pay the power bill. Double glazed windows were unavailable when I lived there. What percentage of power us used for air conditioning I don’t know, but surely there should be some energy regulations.
Also, the better homes in Fiji have hot water and usually have solar water heaters. Rented apartments often use gas for water heating because, again, the building owners have no interest in energy efficiency. Sometimes even electricity is used for water heating. Obviously improvements in energy efficiency would be possible in Fiji.
Craig,
It’s diesel either way. The question is whether it’s more efficient to run the diesel through a massive generator, then accept the line losses, then the charge losses, then power an efficient vehicle… or run the diesel through an efficient vehicle engine.
The numbers on this are very clear, it’s FAR cleaner to use an efficient vehicle than use the big diesel generator to produce the electricity to run an EV. Going the EV route costs millions of additional dollars which could instead be used to set up alternative energy systems on the island.
Public transportation running short loops is probably the best option, with small efficient ICE commuter vehicles (motorcycles and very small cars) being next. I will say that an EV motorcycle is as clean as an ICE motorcycle if the electricity source is diesel… but EV cars are far dirtier by every method of evaluation.
I’m imagining an island nation that is charging its cars with solar or wind — or perhaps ocean current, OTEC, etc. Also, I would think that the watt-hours per mile of one of these little cars that weighs next to nothing would be pretty impressive. The EmCycle (to which I commonly refer) weighs 80 pounds.
Craig,
But then you have to compare like-to-like. If you’re talking about an 80-lb pedal-assisted bike for the EV, then you have to compare it to a 50-cc pedal-assisted moped (which gets ~150 miles/gallon).
😉
But I don’t mind the idea of an electric bike. It’s very plausible that such a vehicle could be more overall efficient than the moped class, and the moped style ICE’s are notorious for having poor catalytic converters/emission scrubbing.
But that only works if you get the islanders to agree to using 80-lb moped-style transport rather than cars. If one wants to get a car, an ICE will still beat the EV as long as the diesel power plant is up and running.
Right. The concept is whacking the diesel plant. And for a lot of these places, barring politics, it’s eminently achievable. And here’s yet another carrot: eco-tourism. I have to think that visitors to Bermuda, e.g., don’t really dig that thin layer of black particulate that coats the island when the wind blows the wrong way.
It’s not always clear which is more efficient, i.e., using large Diesel generators to recharge electric cars or using Diesel cars. However, in Fiji, there is an extremely serious problem with smoke from Diesel vehicles. There have been attempts to deal with the problem, but those attempts have not been successful. Diesel vehicle owners blame low fuel quality, but that is hard to verify. It is suspected that to save money, some Diesel busses and other Diesel vehicles are being run on fuel not intended for vehicles, but vehicle owners deny it. Poor maintenance has also been blamed. They also have not succeeded in getting bus drivers to shut off their engines while waiting for extended intervals for passengers. Some even repeatedly gun their engines to get passengers to board more quickly, thereby generating considerable smoke. Attempts to get drivers to stop doing that have not been successful. In areas where Diesel vehicles congregate, such at large bus stands, the Diesel smoke is surely enough to present a serious health hazard. That has been recognized and there are frequent complaints, but insufficient action.
Large Diesel engines, of the type used for power generation, are more efficient than Diesel engines in vehicles. Also, if the Diesel generating plants were located where the waste heat could be utilized (they are not), overall efficiency could be improved. For example, by using an absorption system, the waste heat could be used to produce cold water for air conditioning. In any case, Diesel pollution would be less if Diesel power plants were used to recharge electric vehicles. That is an important consideration.
The EcoVElectric will run 25-40 miles on 5kWh of electricity. That is equivalent to over 200 mpgge. A small solar panel in Fiji could easily charge EcoV for a full day. So add some batteries and you can power your house and store the energy into batteries which you use use at night to charge.
It’s unclear how practical solar would be for charging electric cars. During the day, electric cars are often not at the owners’ residences where they could be recharged using the owners’ PV equipment. Also, people change residence location from time to time thereby removing the incentive to instal PV equipment. Teachers and government employees are relocated from time to time, and even other employees sometimes have to move to a different town to stay employed.
It is possible that employers could provide power for charging electric cars. However, most vehicle mileage in Fiji is with commercial vehicles, not private vehicles. Most traveling is done via busses and taxies rather than by private cars. Most people in Fiji will never own a car.
Where PV systems are most practical in Fiji is small villages where little power is required, personal cars are almost non-existent, and people often live in the same house for their entire lives. Villages can have a central PV system to which most homes connect. The social system in villages makes that practical. Experience shows that it actually works.