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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

A reader takes issue with my comment that, if driven a certain way, PHEV owners would experience “near infinite MPG,” referring to it as “dishonest and disingenuous.” He goes on, “Energy is still being consumed, that must be produced somewhere and has a cost. In all cases the energy should be taken into account. Perhaps we will need a new metric in future, but for the time being documents such as yours should talk about mpg-e, or miles per gallon-equivalent.”

There are two issues here.  One is the actual MPG (in terms of gasoline) that drivers experience, and this itself is a hot topic.  I’ve had numerous conversations with Tony Posawatz, the Vehicle Line Director for the Chevrolet Volt, about his frustrating dialog with the EPA over the difficulty of assigning a fair MPG number to the Volt. 

This reader’s point, however, concerns the carbon associated with the electrical powerer being used. And of course he’s right that even a pure EV has a carbon footprint that includes the cost of generating the electricity. As I’m sure readers are aware, even with the dirtiest power generation technology (coal) with no modification to sequester the carbon, EVs still represent a significant boon to the environment. And, of course, as the migration to renewables progresses, this will only improve.  This whole calculus makes it virtually impossible to identify an “MPG-e” with any real accuracy.

I can assure the reader that I had no intention of being dishonest, btw. “Wow,” as my teenage daughter would say, as she rolled her pretty green eyes. 

But let us not forget, as I’ve written elsewhere, we could charge 90 million EVs this very evening with off-peak power that would otherwise be dumped back to ground.  And we’re a very, very long way from having 90 million EVs on our roads. 

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

PhotobucketAgain, I urge readers to check out the comments on the Three Brass Tacks landing page, and to enter more if desired. I just read that incredibly lucid thoughts of Arlene Allen on the EV adoption curve, in which she brought up several factors that I omitted, for example, V2G. To me, her summary is spot-on: fun and interesting to talk about, but extremely unlikely to shape the calculus meaningfully in the foreseeable future.

IMO, her comment on the Volt applies to all PHEVs regardless of the financial health or design savvy of the OEM, i.e., it’s regrettable to have to own, maintain, and lug around two independent sets of energy storage systems and energy conversion equipment. With Moore’s Law applying, as it appears to be, to the energy density and cost of lithium-ion batteries, the whole PHEV concept may be short-lived.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

PhotobucketSteve Ryan from Australia writes: There must be millions of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars sitting at ports and storage lots all over the world awaiting delivery to owners who do not want to buy them.

I have to think you’re right, Steve. As if the car companies needed more trouble, they face customers’ anticipation of a disruptive innovation — anticipation that I would think would make it very hard for them to sell what’s in dealers’ showrooms right this minute. My 1995 BMW 540i has 204,000 miles on it, but it’s still in my garage because I’ve sworn to myself that I’m never going to by another ICE-based car. I can’t believe I’m alone in that decision.

For grins, I called my local Toyota dealer and asked his, “When can I buy a Prius that I can plug in?” He said, “Oh, we have not plans to offer anything like that.” Now, of course, if by “we” he means Toyota, this is not at all true. But I’m sure, based on what he’s been told, he’s telling the truth. Why tell a dealer ANYTHING that will make it hard to sell what’s on his lot?

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I want to thank readers for their enthusiasm for Brass Tack #1 on Electric Transportation. As I knew I would, I see an incredible spirit of devotion and commitment to ecological stewardship, and a positive attitude that something can be done to correct the mistakes we’ve made in the past.

I feel more strongly than ever that 2GreenEnergy will become a forum for meaningful discussions and a meeting place for likeminded people to share their ideas that will ultimately change the course of the entire civilization with respect to the health of our environment.

In the coming days, I will post my views on some of the concepts that have been raised in the comments, and so I encourage readers to post their viewpoints.

Again, please accept my sincere thanks.

 

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

oil-platformIsn’t it common knowledge that offshore oil drilling represents a danger to the ecology of our oceans and beaches? And aren’t the oil companies the only ones with enough greed and callous disregard for the environment that they would suggest the validity of this process?

No.

Ironically, there are cases in which offshore drilling actually improves the health of the environment by reducing the volume of the natural seeps of oil and methane, which cause enormous (though not manmade) damage to the plants and animals that live in certain regions.

Readers may wish to learn about SOS California, a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of natural gas and oil seep pollution on our ocean, our beaches, and our air quality. This group, co-founded by my friend Bruce Allen, points out that massive amounts of natural oil and gas seepage pollution is coming from offshore Santa Barbara California’s coastal areas. He points out that since Native Americans first arrived in coastal California, approximately 800 million barrels of oil have seeped into the coastal environment. Allen notes that peer-reviewed reports document the connection between existing Santa Barbara offshore oil production and natural seepage pollution reductions over the last 20 years and the larger natural seepage pollution reduction potential through expanded offshore oil and gas production.

According to SOS California, the tax revenues that would come from such an effort would reduce the deficit signifcantly, or fund massive efforts in the directio of renewable energy. In any case, I encourage readers to lean more about this subject, and join the cause.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

What happens when a building is demolished – say a old barn? Well, normally, the material is burned or carried off to a landfill — just another negative impact to our environment. “Reclaiming” or “repurposing” wood means giving this beautiful old wood — steeped in natural charm — a new life. Check out Heritage Salvage.

It’s hard to put into words the serenity and grace that some of these pieces have — tables, armoires, picture frames – you name it. Nadine Chisholm, a warm and wonderful person, showed my wife and me dozens of fantastic items created from this forward-thinking process when we met her yesterday. If you happen to be in Northern California anytime between now at August 10, you’ll want to run by the Sonoma Country Fair and have this experience for yourself.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I met John Gurrola at the Sonoma County Fair yesterday, who told me how thrilled he was to be in the solar energy business. “I’ve been in sales and marketing for years, and these are the most exciting times of my career right now,” he said with a broad smile. “And what we’re doing at Steele Energy Solutions is made even easier by Assembly Bill 811 and money Sonoma County. They’ve loaned out over $14 million to over 370 local homeowners; energy independence is really happening fast around here.”

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I happened to be at the Sonoma County Fair in Northern California yesterday. It was a terrific experience in many ways – one of which was seeing how sustainability has become such an important part of our lives. I’m not sure every county fair in the country would have done this, but there was an entire tent dedicated to renewable energy and sustainable living practices, with 30 or more groups displaying their products, services, and overall approaches to environmental stewardship.

A concept we see with increasing frequency is “eat local,” supporting local farmers, reducing the cost of food transportation and the associated carbon footprint, while turning people against industrial farming practices. I ran into some deeply commited groups of people who tell the story in a clear, compelling way — one of which is The Green Grocer is certainly a fantastic group on an important mission.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Doug Rosen works hard to promote Miles EV’s neighborhood electric vehicles around the globe. The company is very much in the news; it company recently spun of its highway-speed EV sedan division, Coda , effectively making two companies where there was once one.

The company was founded by Miles Rubin, noted businessman and philanthropist. Rubin’s interest in environmentalism is not at all recent; during the 1970s, along with Paul Newman and others, he helped to create Energy Action, an advocacy group dedicated to American energy independence, and he continues to be active in organizations working for energy conservation.

I’m interested in telling Doug’s story because I think his background is particularly germane to the challenge facing environmentalists everywhere. One does not need to be a conspiracy theorist to see that entrenched interests are working very hard to ensure that the migration to renewable energy and electric transportation fails. I heard today that the moneyed interests that sell bunker fuel to the power generation plants in the Caribbean are in the process of making it impossible for those who are working to introduce clean energy. And this, of course, if very small potatoes indeed as compared to the dirty tricks and misinformation campaign that the oil companies are orchestrating doing in the United States.

Doug’s background, in fact, is politics. Disgusted with the inherent treachery, he walked away from the field some years ago, but it’s clear to me that he’ll never forgot the lessons that he learned before he left, and so I publish what he told me, largely unedited:

I was in a small group of people having dinner with Al Gore in 1997 when I heard the term “global warming” for the first time. Here was the vice president of the Unites States, passionately trying to address a huge environmental issue, where the administration had no interest in fuel economy or environmentalism at all. It just wasn’t on the table. And Lord know it wasn’t anywhere near the table in Bush administration. It wasn’t that Bush and his people had no interest; they were the oil people themselves; they had a counter interest.

And don’t forget about Enron. Ken Lay ran George Bush’s first campaign. We’re trying to sell EVs in a climate in which big oil and big government have come together to form enormously powerful forces that work against us. Do you thing you would see the whipsaw of inflation and deflation of oil prices if there were no outside agenda to make this happen?

Fortunately, this has left Americans with a huge distrust for and hatred of the oil companies. When they hear Chevron say ‘Imagine an oil company being part of the solution,’ they say, ‘No, I really can’t imagine that at all; you’re a $%^& liar.’ Most Americans have not forgotten the deceit, and they can’t wait to buy a car that enables them to thumb their noses at the oil companies.

Now, however, you have a clear twist. The Obama administration has committed $14.1 billion to EV development, and the former oil people like Mack McCarty and Hank Paulson have both invested heavily in EVs. So I have to think this is a seachange in which it will no longer be as easy to suppress EV and renewable energy as it was for so long.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

evworld_logoI can’t imagine anyone who has earned the respect of more electric vehicle enthusiasts than J. William “Bill” Moore. Born in Germany, educated in England, Bill is the founder and publisher of EV World.Com, an online ‘zine dedicated to tracking the development and deployment of sustainable vehicle technology. The site was launched on January 1, 1998, and has become regarded as one of the most respected sources of information about EVs online today. Over the last decade, Bill has written millions of words, conducted thousands of interviews (including congressmen, presidential candidates, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Time magazine’s “Heroes of the Planet”, as well as respected academicans and up-and-coming entrepreneurs), and attended hundreds of conferences and expositions.

Perhaps more importantly, he’s made countless friends all over the world – and I’m proud to count myself among them.

His articles have been published in Discover, Popular Science, Air & Space/Smithsonian and Mother Earth News. His first book publishing effort, Electrifying Rides, is in the works now. “I’m just about wrapping up Chapter Three,” he told me cheerfully when we spoke just now.

As the name implies, ELECTRIFING RIDES: The Electric Vehicles of the Past Decade… and the Next takes its reader both into the past and into the future.

Moore writes,

(The book takes the reader) from the steel gray waters of the English Channel to the chalk gray surface of the Moon to explain how the revival of the electric car came about and where it’s taking us.

Though it seems counter-intuitive, the modern era of the EV (electric vehicle) began in the air and not on the ground with the flight of a fragile, human-powered aircraft made of aluminum and mylar plastic. When Bryan Allen, struggling with leg cramps, dehydration and fatigue, triumphantly set down the Gossamer Albatross on the sands of Cap Gris-Nez, on the French side of the English Channel on June 12, 1979, he unwittingly set in motion the resurrection of a technology long-consigned to the footnotes of history.

Two years earlier, Allen and his mentor, Dr. Paul MacCready had won their first Kremer Prize for sustained human-powered flight over a mile-long, figure-eight course in the Albatross’ predecessor, the Gossamer Condor. That flight, as daunting as it was, took just over seven minutes and covered 1.35 miles. The flight across the Channel would be 35.8 km (22.2 mi) — 26-times further than the flight at Minter Field back in California — and take nearly three hours, all of it over water.

Six years earlier, the last of three, multi-million dollar electric vehicles completed its own mission along the waterless — and airless — Sea of Serenity. When Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt switched off their LVR (lunar roving vehicle), it had carried them, during three exploratory missions over as many day across the Moon’s rugged Taurus-Littrow region, almost exactly the same distance as the Albatross had carried Allen: 35.9 km (22.3 mi).

As far apart in space and time as these two incongruous events might seem, a common thread — beyond the uncanny similarity in distance — not only binds them but also constitutes a double helix of sorts that is the common DNA of virtually all contemporary — and future — electric cars. These entwining, interlocking strands are themselves comprised of a surprising small subset of individuals, a sort of human ATGC, that binds and breaks and binds again into new, but always familiar organisms, each with its own unique story, only a fraction of which can be told in Electrifying Rides. We trust those we’ve chosen will convey to you the reader, a sense of the urgency and excitement that has propelled a long dormant technology from the night of irrelevance into the brilliant daylight of necessity.

I know we’re all looking forward to the opportunity to sitting down with this one.

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