Listen: Electric vehicle economy - can "Recharge" by the Sun?

In just ten years, hybrids and full electric vehicles (EVs) by quirky cereals have gone transport mobiles to mainstream commuter. A type of electric vehicle offers almost all the major automotive manufacturers and sales are constantly increasing. But are economically sound road EVs of a State-sponsored fad or the future? And rooftop solar is useful as a source of energy for your car?

Have questions for Barry? In the comments to share, and they can be answered in the next episode.
On this week energy renewable energy world show, we explore these issues with our special guest, Pete Levy, founder of IntelliChoice, the automobile inventory software experts. As Pete EV bought, he asked me some basic questions about solar and EVs. After we crunched the numbers became very clear that some slightly cheaper than gas cars, EVs with the economy are still compelling, as gas prices rise and solar power is cheaper. To turn off show this week and to figure out, if one is EV in your near future.

About the energy show

As energy costs consume more and more of our hard-earned dollars, we start really pay attention as a consumer. But we caught up with $5 / gallon gas prices, $200 / month electric bill and $500 heating costs is to resign. There are literally hundreds of products, tricks, and techniques that we can use to dramatically reduce these costs - very cost effective.
The energy show on renewable energy world is a weekly 20 minutes podcast, which offers to reduce tips and advice, your home and energy consumption. Each week we cover subjects that can help reduce your energy bill explain new products and technologies in plain English and cut through the hype, so that you can make intelligent and cost-effective energy decisions.

About your host
Barry Cinnamon is a longtime supporter of renewable energy and is a widely recognized expert solar. In 2001 he founded Akeena solar - she grew to the largest national residential solar installer from the middle of the last decade with more than 10,000 roofing customers coast to coast. He collaborates to create solar Westinghouse Westinghouse in the year 2010, and sold the company in the year 2012.

His pioneering work to reduce costs on the rooftop solar power systems include Andalay, the first solar panel with built-in racking, earthing and cabling; the first UL listed AC solar panel; and the first fully "plug and play" AC solar panel. His current efforts focus on reducing soft costs for solar power systems, cause the system rates against double from Germany, in the United States.
Although Barry may be known for his outstanding work in the solar industry, he has hands-on experience with a variety of energy-saving technologies. He makes residential energy audits since the days of punch cards, one of the first ground source heat pumps in the early 1980s developed and always adheres to the laws of thermodynamics.

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Energy Department, EPA Release 2013 Annual Fuel Economy Guide

The 2013 Scion iQ EV, a minicompact, is the top rated car in the 2013 Fuel Economy Guide.
Credit: Scion

The Energy Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 6 released the 2013 Fuel Economy Guide, giving consumers information to help them choose the most fuel-efficient and lowest greenhouse gas-emitting vehicles. The 2013 models include efficient and low-emission vehicles in a variety of classes and sizes, but notable this year is the growing availability of hybrids and the increasing number of electric vehicles (EV).

This year's guide gives consumers a broad range of information that they can use to select their next fuel-efficient vehicle, whether they want to consider an EV or one that uses a more conventional fuel. For the first time, the EPA and the Energy Department have added a second top ten list of most efficient vehicles—separating advanced technology vehicles from conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles. Electric and plug-in hybrid electric models are the most fuel-efficient and lowest-emission vehicles available and are becoming more common. At the same time, consumers may still look up the conventional gasoline and diesel models that offer superior fuel efficiency.

The overall highest-ranking vehicle was the Scion iQ EV, a minicompact with a 121 miles per gallon equivalent (MPGe) rating. Some of the other cars topping their classes are: the 2013 Ford C-Max Energi Plug-in Hybrid and 2013 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, which tied for best in the midsized class with 58 MPGe for use of both electricity and gasoline; the 2013 Tesla Model S (60 kilowatt-hour battery pack), ranked best in the large car class with a 95 MPGe rating; and the 2013 Toyota Prius v, which topped the midsized wagon class with a 42 miles per gallon rating. See the Energy Department press release and the www.fueleconomy.gov website.

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Georgia Leading the Charge for the Clean Economy in the Southeast

This post was written in collaboration with Ben Taube, BLT Sustainable Energy, Inc.

In California it’s San Francisco. In New England, it’s Boston. Now, 2012 is proving that Georgia is rising as the cleantech epicenter of the South. This year we witnessed IKEA flip the switch on two large scale solar installations and Quality Technology Services announce a more than $1 million investment in solar for their Atlanta and Richmond data centers. Meanwhile, Georgia Solar Utilities emerged to propose building 90MWs of solar in Georgia, and selling it to Georgia Power, which itself has a 50 MW solar initiative.

Lehigh Technologies based in Tucker recently raised $5 million in an investment for their method of recycling post-industrial rubber into new materials. GenAgain Technologies set up shop in Lithia Springs to convert mixed waste plastics into synthetic crude oil. If that’s not all, Savannah Technical College started offering new sustainable technology programs, this year, a first of their kind in Georgia.

Another first in Georgia is the Savannah International Clean Energy Conference (Nov 11-13). It will play host to a prominent line-up of over 50 global cleantech speakers and an estimated 300 international clean economy executives. VIP speakers and participants like Governor Nathan Deal, U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, Savannah Mayor Edna Branch Jackson, AGL Resources CEO John W. Somerhalder II and Southern Company executives will all have an unprecedented opportunity to highlight the Georgia’s sustainable accomplishments and the state’s potential to become a major clean economy marketplace for both local and international companies.

The Georgian clean economy 2012 accomplishments are just the tip of the iceberg. Even during the worst parts of the Great Recession, clean economy jobs grew at a rate of 3.7 percent. Today they total over 83,000 jobs, more than 2 percent of Georgia’s total workforce. However, if Georgia is to lead the Southeast in green jobs, more must be done to ensure that companies and jobs flourish and stay in Georgia.

Supporting the clean economy starts at the early-stage, and the “godfather of Atlanta angel investing” Sig Moseley co-founded CTW Venture Partners this year to fill what he and his partners see as a critical shortage in the Southeast of seed and early-stage capital. Standing for “Change The World” cleantech is one of the firm’s investment focuses.

With or without seed funding, companies still need business support and Georgia Tech has been doing an excellent job incubating and commercializing new innovations coming out of its incubation programs. Additionally, the Global Cleantech Cluster Association is fostering early and later stage companies locally and around the world, by networking together over 40 of the world’s leading cleantech clusters. Headquartered in Atlanta, the GCCA provides a gateway for established and emerging cleantech companies to gain exposure to potential investors, new markets, influential networks, innovative technologies and best practices. The group’s annual Later Stage Awards with over 200 global companies competing for 10 winning spots, sponsored by Deloitte and McGuire Woods, will be presented at the Savannah International Clean Energy Conference on November 12th.
Once established, clean and green companies thrive in Georgia. The state is home to a growing number of international solar companies including Suniva, Mage Solar and the solar mounting firm Renusol. Biomass is also winning here, as the state was listed as third in the nation in 2011 for energy generated by this alternative fuel source.

However, to truly rival Boston or San Francisco for cleantech status, the state must get serious about the four critical policies identified by The Pew Charitable Trusts that support a state’s clean economy. Currently, Georgia offers one them, financial incentives, which is an excellent start. The state should also encourage clean economic development by assessing policy options such as a renewable portfolio standard, energy efficiency resource standards, and options to allow for power purchase agreements. Of our 50 states, 30 have mandated renewable energy standards and 7 offer voluntary goals. In the Southeast, North Carolina mandates a clean energy goal.

According to the report “Sizing the Clean Economy” by the Brookings Institution, the clean economy added more than half a million jobs, between 2003 and 2010, nationally. Georgia is well on it’s way to solidifying it’s strong hold in the Southeast as a cleantech leader. But it can only capture that title, through diligent public policy and building momentum by consistently sharing its variety of success stories with the world. At the Savannah Clean Energy Conference, Governor Deal and others have a pivotal opportunity to impress on the international audience the strength of Georgia’s clean economy and its reliable potential for successful cleantech profitability in the 21st Century.

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NREL Study: Hybrid Vans Get 20% Higher Fuel Economy

The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently completed a performance evaluation report that showed hybrid electric delivery vans had a 13% to 20% higher fuel economy compared to similar conventional vans. The new NREL report, Eighteen-Month Final Evaluation of UPS Second Generation Diesel Hybrid Electric Delivery Vans, details the impact of hybridization on fuel economy and performance and identifies the conditions under which hybrids offer maximum fuel savings.

The NREL team collected and analyzed in-service fuel economy, maintenance, and other vehicle performance data on 11 hybrid and 11 conventional step vans operated by the United Parcel Service (UPS) in Minneapolis. The hybrid vans feature hybrid propulsion systems with 44-kilowatt electric motors, lithium-ion batteries, and regenerative braking, which captures energy normally lost during braking to power the electric motor. See the NREL press release and the complete report.

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The clean energy economy is creating jobs

The clean energy economy is here, and all over the country to work. Some in fact possibly even in your area.

Environmental entrepreneurs reported recently, 137 jobs for clean energy, which could create 46,000 jobs in 42 States. Of production facilities, power generation projects are energy efficient retrofit, more than 126 companies, cities and organizations about this great country jobs. Atlanta to Michigan to Arizona workers are in the field of clean energy to find employment.

A new tram is mobility for citizens, traveling between the city and the region to increase greater Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. This project will create nearly 1,000 construction jobs alone. In Madison County, Indiana, Indianapolis, a 200-megawatt wind farm is built to the gates. In addition to generating electricity for up to 60,000 houses, more than 300 workers have hired to build the farm. Read the full story on the power blog.

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Will show Cyber supported the future of energy efficiency?

The US economy is three times larger than China's, but when it comes to developing a clean energy industry, he keeps US China. Ranking moved the United States renewable energy much observed in the second – again – China in this quarter in Ernst & young published February 28.

But it's a clean energy segment in the United States leads: demand response.

Request-response comes into play, if there is high demand for electricity burdening the power grid, typically hot summer days. Utilities or carriers give factories and other enterprises a payment in return for them to peak hours to reduce their energy consumption. As a result, request-response not only unsightly power failures, but also us saves money, because it much cheaper is to save energy when the network is curious, as it is to generate more energy.

An industry, American grown, request-reply WINS now international attention. The concept abroad according to Gregg Dixon, senior Vice President for marketing and sales is increasingly described each, a Boston company, the demand response services. The company supplies now about 12,000 companies, universities, hospitals and other large energy consumers, not only in the United States, but also in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Other demand response companies, Johnson controls, Comverge and Silver Spring networks, Wipro and Honeywell, reports international expansion, the $1.3 billion global market for demand response to see, a compound annual growth rate of 37% by 2016 expected Pike research.

So demand response clearly a success story, at least when it comes to reducing the use of energy by companies and large institutions. The next challenge for request-response is the owner of the House. And unfortunately, that would be a more difficult market to crack. The average person displays little interest, take the time to reduce energy consumption at peak times.

"The concept of an economist point of view makes sense." But, if it is managed for us in a very simple way, only I see it use. And I'm a zealot on this stuff, "said Dixon."

A recent report by the American Council for an energy-efficient economy underlines the problem. It turns out House and apartment owners are not much energy save, even if devices give new energy them real-time feedback about the costs.

This home gadgets that contain screens, smart meters and Web interfaces, are to encourage people at peak times, cut, when energy prices are high. ACEEE home owners found but only a 3.8% achieved overall savings in nine pilot programs tested. Peak period, four of the pilots showed savings of up to 11.3%. The programmes were carried out in the United States, UK and Ireland.

However, there is an interesting exception, a group that responds. ACEEE not quite sure who they are, but she calls Cyber supported. Do you not fit in each of a demographic box; You're not at a certain age or income. But they make a swathe of the population, the energy savings of up to 25% by certain devices reached, providing you real time feedback on their energy consumption.

Some in the energy sector believe demand household response never over the Cyber supported to accept. Others see this group as a starting point for further studies, which can show us what energy conservation, promotion, whether it says cost, comfort, green altruism or even an emotional or intuitive reaction to technology, ACEEE.

It is to difficult, not to draw a parallel between this energy information gadget and the early days of the personal computer. First, the computer was regarded as a device that would be used extensively in business as demand response is today. Then Steve Jobs came, and we all know the rest of the story. If demand the attention of households collect response companies can, as they must be companies, might find the United States which has its new Apple.

DOE, EPA release of 2012 annual fuel economy guide

This is an excerpt from EERE network news, a weekly electronic newsletter.

2012 Full electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV was after the year 2012 fuel economy guide most economical with a 112 miles per gallon average rated.
Credit card: Mitsubishi

DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published on 16 November 2012 fuel economy guide. The manual contains information with which consumers can choose one of more efficient vehicles that save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Operate during fuel-saving vehicles in a variety of fuel types, classes and sizes come many new technology advanced vehicles debut at this year's each year a list of the top fuel economy performers. 2012 Full electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV top this list after a conversion from gas electric account was in a 112 miles per gallon (mpg) average type. The electric vehicle Nissan leaf, the Azure Dynamics transit connect electric van, the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt and last year's leader, the Toyota Prius hybrid, the top five spots rounded.

Fuel pump industry leader within each category - of two-seater to large SUVs - widely available products, such as traditional gasoline models and clean diesel. Some models 2012 be voluntarily a new fuel economy show and eco-label, fuel consumers of comprehensive efficiency provides information, including the five year fuel costs or savings when compared to the average vehicle as new greenhouse gases and smog reviews. These labels are 2013 model year will be required.

The online rankings are the vehicles with the lowest fuel consumption. Each vehicle offers an estimated annual fuel costs of listing in the Guide. The estimate is calculated based on the vehicle of mpg rating and national estimates for annual mileage and fuel prices. The online version of the Handbook allows consumers to enter of their local gas prices and the typical driving habits get personalized fuel cost estimates. See the DOE press release ©, the complete manual and 2012 fuel economy heads of State and Government.

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