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Energy Department Invests More Than $55 Million to Advance Efficient Vehicle Technologies

August 14, 2014 in Electric Vehicles, EV News, Politics

WASHINGTON—As part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to reduce dependence on foreign oil and transition to a clean energy economy, the Energy Department today announced more than $55 million for 31 new projects to accelerate research and development of critical vehicle technologies that will improve fuel efficiency and reduce costs. These new projects are aimed at meeting the goals and objectives of the President’s EV Everywhere Grand Challenge, as well as improvements in other vehicle technologies such as powertrains, fuel, tires and auxiliary systems.

Launched in 2012, the EV Everywhere Grand Challenge seeks to make the U.S. automotive industry the first to produce plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) that are as affordable and convenient as today’s gasoline-powered vehicles by 2022. In just the last several years, significant cost reductions and improvements in vehicle performance have had a dramatic impact on the U.S. automotive market. PEV sales continue to grow – sales in the first six months of 2014 were over 30 percent higher than the same period in 2013 – and the cost of battery technology has come down by over 60 percent since 2009.

Dr. Ernest Moniz Photo courtesy of DOE

Dr. Ernest Moniz
Photo courtesy of DOE

“Investments in the next generation of vehicle technologies will both strengthen our economy and lead to a more fuel efficient, clean energy future,” said Secretary Ernest Moniz. “Improving vehicle efficiency is instrumental to establishing a 21st century transportation sector that creates jobs as well as protects future generations from harmful carbon emissions.”

Through the Advanced Vehicle Power Technology Alliance with the Energy Department, the Department of the Army is contributing an additional $3.7 million in co-funding to support projects focused on beyond lithium ion battery technologies and reducing friction and wear in the powertrain. The Army will also test and evaluate fuel-efficient tires resulting from projects at its facilities in Warren, Michigan.

“Partnering with the Energy Department, we are accelerating the development and deployment of cutting-edge technologies that will strengthen our military, economy, and energy security,” said Dr. Paul Rogers, director the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center.

The selections announced today are under two major topic areas:

Critical Technologies to meet the EV Everywhere Grand Challenge:  Nineteen projects are aimed at reducing the cost and improving the performance of key PEV components. This includes improving “beyond lithium ion technologies” that use higher energy storage materials, and developing and commercializing wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors that offer significant advances in performance while reducing the price of vehicle power electronics. Other projects focus on advancing lightweight materials research to help electric vehicles increase their range and reduce battery needs, and developing advanced climate control technologies that reduce energy used for passenger comfort and increase the drive range of plug-in electric vehicles.

Fuel Efficiency Improvements in Passenger Vehicles and Commercial Trucks:  Twelve projects are aimed at improvements including developing and demonstrating dual-fuel/bi-fuel technologies to reduce petroleum usage, accelerating growth in high-efficiency, cost-competitive engine and powertrain systems for light-duty vehicles, and accelerating the introduction of advanced lubricants and coatings to increase the efficiency of vehicles on the road today as well as future vehicles.

Read the full list of awardees.

The Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) accelerates development and facilitates deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality. The Vehicle Technologies Office funds research and development for energy efficient and environmentally-friendly vehicle technologies. To learn more about the program, please visit the Vehicle Technologies Office website.

This article is a repost, credit: Energy Department.

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California continues to set daily records for utility scale solar energy

June 25, 2014 in EIA, Environment, EV News, Solar, Wind

By US Energy Information Administration

Source: CAISO Daily Renewables Watch Note: Data do not include distributed generation solar electricity where output is behind-the-meter. Courtesy of EIA

Source: CAISO Daily Renewables Watch
Note: Data do not include distributed generation solar electricity where output is behind-the-meter.
Courtesy of EIA

On June 1, 2014, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) recorded a record midday hourly peak of 4,767 megawatts of alternating current (MWAC) of utility-generated solar electricity delivered into the California grid. With rapidly growing utility-scale solar capacity, CAISO has regularly recorded new hourly output records going back to 2010 when it first began publishing the daily data. When the hourly data are averaged over the course of a month to control for weather variation, the average peak hourly generation in May 2014 of 4,086 MWAC was 150% greater than the level in May 2013.

In 2013, 2,145 MW of utility-scale solar capacity entered service in California, of which more than 500 MW came from large-scale solar thermal plants. California accounted for more than 75% of U.S. utility-scale solar capacity installed in 2013.

Total solar electricity output in May 2014 constituted 6% of the total CAISO electricity load that month, compared with 2% in May 2013. However, during the average peak solar output hour, between 11:00 a.m. and noon for May 2014, solar supplied 14% of total power, compared with 6% in May 2013.

Solar generation facilities generally provide power to the CAISO grid from early morning until the evening, and reach peak output around midday. When solar electricity is being generated, less electricity from other sources such as natural gas or interstate electricity imports is required. Conversely, when there is little-to-no solar generation, the shares of other fuels used in California’s supply mix rise.

Source: CAISO Daily Renewables Watch Note: This chart shows a set of 24 hours for each month, calculated from CAISO's average hourly output data by taking the average output for each hour in a given month. The peaks therefore do not exactly correspond to actual peak outputs, but should approximate the average peak hourly output in a given month. Courtesy of EIA

Source: CAISO Daily Renewables Watch
Note: This chart shows a set of 24 hours for each month, calculated from CAISO’s average hourly output data by taking the average output for each hour in a given month. The peaks therefore do not exactly correspond to actual peak outputs, but should approximate the average peak hourly output in a given month.
Courtesy of EIA

Source: CAISO Daily Renewables Watch Note: This chart shows a set of 24 hours for each month, calculated from CAISO's average hourly output data by taking the average output for each hour in a given month. The peaks therefore do not exactly correspond to actual peak outputs, but should approximate the average peak hourly output in a given month. Note: The fuels above generally reflect CAISO's categorization of renewable fuels that meet the eligibility requirements of California's Renewable Portfolio Standard. Small hydroelectric includes facilities with generation of 30 megawatts or less. (EIA defines all conventional hydroelectric generation as renewable.) Courtesy of EIA

Source: CAISO Daily Renewables Watch
Note: This chart shows a set of 24 hours for each month, calculated from CAISO’s average hourly output data by taking the average output for each hour in a given month. The peaks therefore do not exactly correspond to actual peak outputs, but should approximate the average peak hourly output in a given month.
Note: The fuels above generally reflect CAISO’s categorization of renewable fuels that meet the eligibility requirements of California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard. Small hydroelectric includes facilities with generation of 30 megawatts or less. (EIA defines all conventional hydroelectric generation as renewable.)
Courtesy of EIA

Source: CAISO Daily Renewables Watch Note: This chart shows a set of 24 hours for each month, calculated from CAISO's average hourly output data by taking the average output for each hour in a given month. The peaks therefore do not exactly correspond to actual peak outputs, but should approximate the average peak hourly output in a given month. Courtesy of EIA

Source: CAISO Daily Renewables Watch
Note: This chart shows a set of 24 hours for each month, calculated from CAISO’s average hourly output data by taking the average output for each hour in a given month. The peaks therefore do not exactly correspond to actual peak outputs, but should approximate the average peak hourly output in a given month.
Courtesy of EIA

While solar generation follows a relatively consistent pattern throughout the day (see tab 1), CAISO also faces challenges in integrating other renewables (see tab 2). Wind output during the summer months frequently coincides with the afternoon and evening peak demand hours, but it is also an intermittent resource and therefore has a limited ability to provide firm capacity. Hydroelectric power, which provides 12% of California’s net generation, is typically a flexible, dispatchable resource—but is also subject to seasonal variability, drought effects, and restrictions on dispatch created by the needs of other water users.

Solar and renewables still constitute a relatively small share of generation for California in the context of all fuel sources (tab 3). Natural gas accounted for 59% of net generation in 2013, and 3,940 MW of new natural gas capacity came online in 2013, which will help address some of the reserve capacity needs for balancing renewables, as well as replace some of the baseload power that was lost when two of the state’s four nuclear units were retired in 2012.

California’s utilities are less than two-thirds of the way toward meeting their 2020 RPS goals. With declining solar manufacturing costs, and the federal investment tax credit in place through the end of 2016, utility-scale solar installations are expected to continue through 2014. Projects currently reporting to EIA have indicated plans for an additional 1,728 MWAC of new utility-scale solar to be installed between May and December 2014.

In addition to leading the nation in utility-scale solar capacity, California also has a significant level of behind-the-meter residential and commercial solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, approximately 700 MWDC of residential and commercial/industrial solar PV capacity was also installed in California in 2013, further reducing midday baseload power demand.

AC/DC Measurement of Solar

EIA collects electric capacity data in alternating-current megawatts (MWAC), the type of electricity used in homes and on the grid. Solar photovoltaic generators produce electricity in direct-current megawatts (MWDC), which is how organizations like the Solar Energy Industries Association report capacity. Generally, PV systems are associated with an AC-to-DC ratio between 80% and 90%.

Principal contributors: Gwendolyn Bredehoeft, Robert McManmon, Tyson Brown

This article is a repost, credit: EIA.

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What Happened to My 13 Billion Barrels?

May 22, 2014 in EIA, EV News, Oil

By Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute

Richard Heinberg Photo courtesy of Post Carbon Institute

Richard Heinberg
Photo courtesy of Post Carbon Institute

In 2011, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US Department of Energy commissioned INTEK Inc., a Virginia-based consulting firm, to estimate how much oil might be recoverable from California’s vast Monterey Shale formation. Production of tight oil was soaring in North Dakota and Texas, and small, risk-friendly drilling companies were making salivating noises (within earshot of potential investors) about the potential for an even bigger bonanza in the Golden State.

INTEK obliged with a somewhat opaque report (apparently based on oil company investor presentations) suggesting that the Monterey might yield 15.4 billion barrels—64 percent of the total estimated tight oil reserves of the lower 48 states. The EIA published this number as its own, and the University of Southern California then went on to use the 15.4 billion barrel figure as the basis for an economic study, claiming that California could look forward to 2.8 million additional jobs by 2020 and $24.6 billion per year in additional tax revenues if the Monterey reserves were “developed” (i.e., liquidated as quickly as possible).

Image courtesy of Post Carbon Institute

Image courtesy of Post Carbon Institute

We at Post Carbon Institute took a skeptical view of both the EIA/INTEK and USC reports. In 2013, PCI Fellow David Hughes produced an in-depth study (and a report co-published by PCI and Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy) that examined the geology of the Monterey Shale and the status of current oil production projects there. Hughes found that the Monterey differs in several key respects from tight oil deposits in North Dakota and Texas, and that currently producing hydrofractured wells in the formation show much lower productivity than assumed in the EIA/INTEK report. Hughes concluded that “Californians would be well advised to avoid thinking of the Monterey Shale as a panacea for the State’s economic and energy concerns.”

On May 21 the Los Angeles Times reported that “Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil buried in California’s vast Monterey Shale deposits, deflating its potential as a national ‘black gold mine’ of petroleum.” The EIA had already downgraded its technically recoverable reserves estimate for the Monterey from 15.4 to 13.7 billion barrels; now it was reducing the number to a paltry 0.6 billion barrels.

What happened to all those billions of barrels of oil? Of course, the resource is still there. The Los Angeles Times article quotes Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association, as responding, “We have a lot of confidence in the intelligence and skill of our engineers and geologists to find ways to adapt. . . . As the technologies change, the production rates could also change dramatically.”

However, technology comes with costs. The current tight oil boom in North Dakota and Texas would not have happened absent the context of historically high oil prices. But even with oil at $100 per barrel, the EIA now thinks only a very small portion of the Monterey formation’s oil resources can be produced profitably. Maybe with oil at $150 or $200 per barrel that percentage would change. But how high an oil price can the American economy bear before it falls into recession? Evidence suggests that $100 per barrel oil is already acting as a brake on economic expansion.

The new EIA estimate is a welcome note of realism in a California energy discussion that had veered into hyperbole and wishful thinking. Can we now begin a reasoned discussion about our energy future? It’s late in the game, but better late than never.

This article is a repost, credit: Post Carbon Institute.

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Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Offshore Wind Energy

May 6, 2014 in Environment, EV News, Wind

By Greg Matzat, Senior Advisor on Offshore Wind Technologies, Wind Program (DOE)

10. Offshore Wind Resources Are Abundant: Offshore wind has the potential to deliver large amounts of clean, renewable energy to fulfill the electrical needs of cities along U.S. coastlines. The Energy Department estimates offshore wind could produce more than the combined generating capacity of all U.S. electric power plants if all of the resources in state and federal waters were developed.

9. Offshore Wind Turbines Can Be Extremely Tall: In order to capture the abundant wind resources available offshore turbine components can be scaled up to reach heights almost twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty — about 550 feet.

8. Offshore Wind Components Are Easier to Transport: Offshore wind turbine components are transported by ships and barges, reducing logistical challenges that land-based wind components sometimes encounter, such as narrow roadways or tunnels. These components enable offshore wind developers to build larger turbines capable of producing more electricity

7. The U.S. Offshore Wind Industry is Ready for Takeoff: The Energy Department works to accelerate deployment of offshore wind technologies through a series of  projects that reduce market barriers such as environmental impacts, logistical challenges, siting and permitting, and infrastructure development. The Energy Department also works with both the public and private sector to support research and technology innovations that advance the nation’s emerging offshore wind industry. Finally, the Energy Department is also working to demonstrate advanced technologies.

6. Offshore Wind Farms Use Undersea Cables to Transmit Electricity to the Grid: Electricity produced by offshore wind turbines travels back to land through a series of cable systems that are buried in the sea floor. This electricity is channeled through coastal load centers that prioritize where the electricity should go and distributes it into the electrical grid to power our homes, schools and businesses.

5. Shallow Waters Have Big Potential for Offshore Wind: For example, 43 percent of the offshore wind potential in the Atlantic Ocean is located at depths of less than 100 feet.

4. Even More Offshore Wind Resources Can be Found in Deeper Waters: The bulk of the nation’s offshore wind resources, more than 60 percent, are in areas where the water is so deep that conventional foundations — large steel piles or lattice structures fixed to the seabed — are not practical. U.S. offshore wind projects are developing a variety of different foundations suited to unique conditions at each site.

3. Offshore Wind Turbines Can Float: Several U.S. companies are developing innovative floating offshore wind platforms for use in deep waters. There are three kinds of floating platforms: spar-buoy, tension leg platform, and semi-submersible.

2. Offshore Wind is Right on Time: Offshore winds are typically stronger during the day, allowing for a more stable and efficient production of energy when consumer demand is at its peak. Most land-based wind resources are stronger at night, when electricity demands are lower.

1. Offshore Wind Resources are Near Most Americans: More than 70 percent of the nation’s electricity consumption occurs in the 28 coastal states — where most Americans live. Offshore wind resources are conveniently located near these coastal populations. Wind turbines off coastlines use shorter transmission lines to connect to the power grid than many common sources of electricity.

Photo courtesy of NREL (Dennis Schroeder)

Photo courtesy of NREL (Dennis Schroeder)

This article is a repost, credit: US DOE. Video courtesy of US DOE.

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