QUICK NEWS, September 2: EV SHARING COMES TO INDIANAPOLIS; NEW LINE TO MAKE MEMPHIS WIND’S GATEWAY; BUFFETT UTILS, CALIF GRID TO UNIFY

EV SHARING COMES TO INDIANAPOLIS Groundbreaking Electric Car Sharing Program Launches in an Unlikely City

Brad Tuttle, September 2, 2015 (Money)

“…[T]he nation’s most ambitious electric car sharing program launches [today in Indianapolis]…BlueIndy, is being run by [France-based] Bolloré Group, which says it is investing $41 million…BlueIndy will have 25 charging stations and 50 vehicles around the city at launch, and the plan is for 200 stations and 500 electric cars in the near future. The cars themselves are small white hatchbacks made by Bolloré…Prices vary depending on the type of membership a driver opts for, and they’re charged on a sliding scale…Subscribers who sign up for a year pay $9.99 per month, then $4 for the first 20 minutes of a rental and 20¢ per minute after that. At the other end of the spectrum, a one-day membership is free, though the daily rates are much higher—$8 for the first 20 minutes and 40¢ per minute thereafter. Weekly and monthly memberships are also possible. There are no fees for parking, insurance, or gas…though drivers could incur charges for getting into accidents ($500 deductible) and things like failing to plug the car into the charger ($55)…[Indianapolis has] one of the worst public transit systems in the country…” click here for more

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NEW LINE TO MAKE MEMPHIS WIND’S GATEWAY The wind to come sweeping down the plain to Memphis

Ed Arnold, September 1, 2015 (Memphis Business Journal)

“…[Work will soon begin] on a $2 billion, 700-mile energy transmission line starting in [the wind-rich Northwest corner of Oklahoma and stretching across Arkansas to end in Shelby County…A wind turbine farm [in Oklahoma] can generate enough clean energy to power more than a million homes. But the area is relatively unpopulated. Much like the huge oil and gas pipelines…[the Plains & Eastern Clean Line will deliver electricity to the TVA and other Southeastern electricity providers, allowing them to] reduce carbon emissions…The project will be done in stages, with multiple segments all being built at once…[with] private capital…” click here for more

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BUFFETT UTILS, CALIF GRID TO UNIFY Brown seeks to broaden California's clean-energy reach in the West

Chris Megerian, August 29, 2015 (LA Times)

Plans are moving ahead on incorporating the Warren Buffett-owned regulated PacifiCorp utilities, the West’s second biggest transmission system, into the California grid, the West’s biggest system run by the California Independent System Operator (the ISO). The integrated system would allow for the sharing of generation between PacifiCorp’s six states, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and part of Northern California, and 1.8 million customers and the ISO’s two states, California and a small part of Nevada, and 30 million customers. Bringing PacifiCorp into ISO operations is expected to open new markets for California’s growing supply of renewables and, though skeptical environmentalists fear California could end up importing PacifiCorp’s fossil fuel-generated electricity, it is expected to reduce coal use, as the 9-month old Energy Imbalance Market between the two systems has done. The new partners seem committed to eventually unifying the entire Western grid. click here for more

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