NewEnergyNews: MORE NEWS, 12-29: IN 2010, CARS PLUG IN; MEGA PV FOR NM; HAWAIIAN ISLANDS WANT CONNECTING CABLE; INSIGHTS INTO SMART GRID/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

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    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

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    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

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    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

  • ---------------
  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Tuesday, December 29, 2009

    MORE NEWS, 12-29: IN 2010, CARS PLUG IN; MEGA PV FOR NM; HAWAIIAN ISLANDS WANT CONNECTING CABLE; INSIGHTS INTO SMART GRID

    IN 2010, CARS PLUG IN
    Year of the electric car dawns
    Peter Whoriskey, December 24, 2009 (Washington Post via Seattle Times)

    "…As many auto companies tell it, next year may be the year the massive U.S. auto industry really begins to go electric.

    "Nissan's all-battery Leaf is scheduled to go on sale in November. General Motors will begin selling the Chevy Volt, a primarily electric car (with a small auxiliary gasoline engine that kicks in to boost the car's range). Ford plans to produce an electric commercial van. The Obama administration has doled out $2.4 billion to companies involved in producing batteries and other parts of electric cars…But overshadowing prospects for the transition of the vast U.S. auto fleet to electric — and the billions of dollars the automakers invested in the switch — is the question of whether anyone beyond a sliver of enthusiasts will embrace the newfangled cars."


    click thru for Plug-in America's complete listing of battery electric vehicles and how they are progressing

    "The only major automaker with a fleet of new all-electric vehicles priced for mainstream consumers is BMW, with its 500 Mini E…Electrics pose two primary challenges to convention: When fully charged, they generally cannot travel even half the distance a conventional car can go on a full tank. And once the battery is depleted, there are few places to recharge besides home, and charging can take hours…Still, Department of Transportation data show U.S. drivers travel an average of 29 miles a day, well within the electric vehicles' range…

    "…Mini E drivers are rhapsodic about the car's performance and the promise of environmental benefits…[and pay] $850 a month to lease the cars and have a recharging wall box installed…But when Mini E drivers gather, their talk often turns to the art of maximizing the number of miles they can get with a single charge…They slow down…In a pinch, they turn off the heater or the air conditioner, tolerating a chill or a sweat to get another mile. And they have learned that in extreme cold, they must restrict their travels further. When temperatures dip, the normal 100-mile range can shrink to 80…Car companies…say such difficulties will be minimized soon…[T]he cars, now pricey, will be manufactured more cheaply when produced in greater numbers. Battery innovations will provide greater range at lower cost. The problem of the cold will diminish [with better] heating systems…"


    click thru for more about BMW's Mini E

    "Perhaps most critically, they say, public charging stations will become far more common. There are about 117,000 gas stations in the United States. By contrast, a database of public recharging stations maintained by Tom Dowling, an electric-car enthusiast in California, lists 734 public charging stations, with the vast majority in that state…[But] the comparison to gas stations isn't completely apt because most charging can be done at home. Still…In conjunction with Nissan, a company called ECOtality has a $100 million federal grant to set up about 7,000 stations in Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. More than 2,000 charging stations will be built in the Puget Sound area alone.

    "Given these hurdles, some automakers and environmentalists have cast a wary eye on the enthusiasts…John DeCicco, a University of Michigan lecturer and former senior fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund, said expectations for electric cars were similarly high in the 1990s, after California passed a zero-emissions mandate…Nevertheless, enthusiasts remain optimistic, many hoping to lead the way to weaning the United States from foreign oil…"



    MEGA PV FOR NM
    SunEdison, Xcel announce solar project
    December 23, 2009 (AP)

    "North America's largest solar energy services provider and a Western utility are planning to install five photovoltaic solar facilities in southeastern New Mexico.

    "SunEdison and Xcel Energy's Southwestern Public Service Company say the 50 megawatt project will be one of the largest in North America. The five installations will be capable of generating enough electricity to power more than 10,000 homes…"


    Solar assets don’t get much better than New Mexico’s. (click to enlarge)

    "Xcel says the project will bolster rural economies and help the company meet renewable energy standards in New Mexico.

    "The project will be built, financed and maintained by SunEdison under a 20-year agreement with Xcel, which will then buy the power…Officials expect the project to be fully operational by the end of 2011."



    HAWAIIAN ISLANDS WANT CONNECTING CABLE
    Ocean cable key to attaining energy goals
    Editorial, December 27, 2009 (Honolulu Advertiser/McClatchy via TMC News)

    "Hawai'i is embarking on an enormously complex journey, one that will take uncommon resolve, focus and planning…Destination: a cleaner, more self-sufficient energy future for the Islands.

    "…Initial planning has just begun for an interisland cable linking O'ahu with proposed windfarm turbines on Lana'i and Moloka'i. This moves the state in the right direction…Hawai'i needs an electrical grid networking multiple islands, making service statewide more robust in the face of outages."


    click to enlarge

    "Also key is the need for Hawai'i to wean itself off its reliance on imported oil. This is not only because of mounting global concern about greenhouse-gas emissions but also because it has driven the cost of electricity to double the national average, a continuing drag on the economy. That money, too, would be put to better use by keeping it in state…

    "The state has put out a request for proposals on preparing the environmental impact statement, a crucial planning document…[and] seeking consultants to bid on the contract to prepare the EIS…But it needs to be clear in the review that the cable is an essential element but only part of what's required to make an interisland grid a reality. A series of infrastructure projects and upgrades will be needed to make sure electrical grids on each island can accept the power…[and] the Neighbor Islands need to be brought into the inner circle of planning so that their concerns are not given short shrift…"


    click to enlarge

    "The development does have some federal support in stimulus funds already, but…payments by Hawai'i taxpayers and electric ratepayers are likely to be enormous…But it undeniably will be a worthwhile investment. At some point oil costs will resume an upward trajectory and Hawai'i, which can't lean on neighboring states for support, needs alternatives.

    "The state's aim is to draw 70 percent of electrical needs from renewable sources by 2030…[S]everal different building blocks will be required…Waste-to-energy. Solar. Biofuels. And a robust network of windfarms…The course toward this preferred future is still uncharted, and the right mix of renewable-energy approaches has yet to be discovered…The state is taking a big step in the right direction with the cable project…"



    INSIGHTS INTO SMART GRID
    Smart Grid Technologies; Networking and Communications, Energy Management, Grid Automation, and Advanced Metering Infrastructure
    Jevan Fox, Bob Gohn, Clint Wheelock, 4Q 2009 (Pike Research)

    "The worldwide electrical grid is perhaps the greatest technical innovation of the 20th century, delivering the life blood for more recent technical advances in computing and communications…[T]he days of taking the grid for granted are coming to a close, as economic, technical, environmental, and political challenges call for fundamental changes in how electricity is generated, distributed, and used.

    "The [4 categories of] key market issues driving change in the electric grid…[1]Improved reliability and security…[2] Reducing waste through operating inefficiencies…[3] Responding to the growing imbalances between worldwide supply and demand in power generation and distribution capacity, generation fuels, and the associated price volatility…[4] Reducing the overall electrical system’s impact on climate change…"


    click to enlarge

    "…[Taking] full advantage of the integrated intelligence of the computing and communications technologies that [enable the grid…represents tremendous opportunity to transform the current infrastructure into a Smart Grid that can deliver more efficiency and capacity…[I]mplementing such a large scale transformation… is analogous to switching engines on an airplane mid-flight…[Barriers include] lack of a common vision and/or standards, outdated and fragmented business and regulatory models, and lack of awareness (and often trust) of the consuming public. However, government and industry bodies are coming together with newfound urgency…

    "...Pike Research has found…the Smart Grid [has] three key dimensions…[1] Functional characteristics, including: end-to-end integrated communications infrastructure…[including] integration of distributed, renewable generation resources…and support for electric vehicles…[2] Component technologies, including: smart meters…networking…demand response systems…and vehicle-to-grid technologies…[3] Application use cases, such as: consumer empowerment and incentives…time-based pricing, and utility-based demand controls; net metering for consumer-based renewable (wind, solar) generation…and support for home and mobile plug-in electric vehicles."

    From Pike Research. (click to enlarge)

    "An important goal of the smart grid is to enable informed choices by consumers…[including] the economic realities of peak vs. off-peak generation costs (for example)…Pike Research’s surveys have found that consumers’ willingness to participate in managing their energy use is quite high, within certain constraints…the heart of the smart grid is the communications technology that is required to link everything from high-voltage transmission systems and utility control centers to a consumer’s individual appliances…[C]ommunications ‘silos’ need to be linked into a common, consistent, and flexible communications architecture…[N]ew technologies will make up this infrastructure…[which] can also make it more vulnerable to cyber-attacks unless the proper security technologies are included…high voltage transmission lines, enabled by new materials and voltage control technologies, promise to reduce line losses…as renewable generation plants are often far from consuming population centers…

    "In many ways, the smart grid represents the melding of traditional industrial grid companies, communications equipment and services firms, and IT hardware, software, and services companies. The result will be no less transformative than the integration of the voice, data, and video communications industries that rocked the previous decade…[It] represents a large market opportunity, with worldwide revenues growing from approximately $10 billion in 2009 to a peak of $35 billion in 2013…The transformation, and ultimately the success, of to the Smart Grid…[has risk but] as electricity is the life blood of our modern world, the forces pushing for ultimate success are strong."

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