Electric Vehicles
By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Thu, 2009-12-10 13:32
The Electric Vehicles market has gone from barely noticed to one of the biggest stories in 2008/09.
This microsite aims at gathering information on the solutions available for electric vehicles, their batteries and the necessary charging infrastructure. The challenges, opportunites and the role Electric Vehicles can play on decarbonizing the economy will be analysed here.
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-09-21 14:04
This paper extends a broad functional category approach for the study of technological capability progress recently developed and applied to information technology to a second key case—that of energy based technologies. The approach is applied to the same three functional operations—storage, transportation and transformation—that were used for information technology by first building a 100 plus year database for each of the three energy-based functional categories.
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By HDK / Published on Fri, 2009-08-21 19:52
A new paper from Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center
We examine the potential economic implications of using vehicle batteries to store grid electricity generated at off-peak hours for off-vehicle use during peak hours. Hourly electricity prices in three U.S. cities were used to arrive at daily profit values, while the economic losses associated with battery degradation were calculated based on data collected from A123 Systems LiFePO4/Graphite cells tested under combined driving and off-vehicle electricity utilisation.
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By HDK / Published on Fri, 2009-08-21 18:27
A new paper from Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2009-08-18 16:41
The implementation of millions or even hundreds of millions of electric vehicles (EVs) will require a lot of effort on technical and financial aspects, but also on socio-economic aspects.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-05-19 05:30
Electronic management system controls temperature
Last March, the Société de Véhicules Electriques (SVE) presented its new battery system for electric vehicles (EVs).
SVE is a joint venture of the Dassault Group and the Heuliez Company. Dassault is known for the design and manufacture of military and civilian aerospace equipment. Heuliez is specialised in car design, engineering, and OEM manufacturing. The mission of SVE is the development of electric and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles, EV drives, and equipment.
The new system combines the Cleanbat modular battery set, containing one or more lithium-ion units with a capacity of 7 kWh, with the Digital Vehicle Management System (DVMS) control unit. The DVMS controls the charging, discharging, and temperature of each battery unit and the battery system as a whole for optimal performance and safety.
Temperature control is one of the key issues in a battery-powered electric vehicle drive system. If the battery cells become too cold, the autonomy of the vehicle drops. If they become too hot, the battery thermal controls may fail, creating a safety problem. Moreover, both too much cold and too much heat have a negative influence on the life expectancy of the system.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2009-05-05 07:42
Paper authors: Ching-Shin Norman Shiau, Constantine Samaras, Richard Hauffe, Jeremy J. Michalek, from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburg, USA
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2009-02-25 17:33
The use of electronic loads is increasing very fast. The gap between demand and the short generation is also increasing very fast. These have made the power quality, reliability and stability a critical issue. Further, there is continuous thrust on optimal utilization of the non-conventional energy resources due to price rise of oil and environmental issues, in addition to the fact that the central power station with improved quality of power has made it necessary to use the energy storage technology.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2009-02-25 11:26
On Lake Victoria in Kenya OSRAM has launched a unique project for producing light away from a permanent power supply. At a specially constructed solar station (OSRAM Energy Hub) the local people can recharge batteries for energy-saving lamps, luminaires and other electrical appliances, such as mobile phones, at low cost and without damaging the environment. Off Grid solutions are the way forward for developing and emerging countries that cannot afford to set up a permanent power supply network. The market is huge. 1.6 billion people throughout the world live without electricity.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2008-04-30 19:18
Decentralised production means greater stability problems for the electricity system. This paper investigates a wide range of storage solutions. Rather than just looking at storage capacity or economics, it considers the very different technical characteristics of storage options in terms of available power, efficiency, durability and reliability.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-04-03 12:11
A clever tool to provide electricity for anybody anywhere
Engineers tend to see things big. So much so that they sometimes forget that the biggest impact can often be achieved by seeing things small and simple. This tendency to opt for the big certainly doesn’t hold for Colin Bulthaup, founder of Potenco. The mission of his company is huge: making clean power universally available and immediately useful anywhere and everywhere in the world. His solution is surprisingly small: a pull-cord generator the size of a yoyo that can safely power rechargeable batteries and provide energy for applications such as lighting, cell phones, or water purifiers.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2007-12-18 08:30
An annual survey
This past year of 2007 was again an eventful one in the world of energy. There were new trends, evolving markets, and important breakthroughs. The following 11 highlights stood out:
1) 4th IPCC Assessment Report
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 4th Assessment Report. One of its most striking conclusions is that we don’t have to wait for miracles or ingenious new solutions. The technologies, policies, and measures needed to mitigate climate change are known and doable. They just need to be applied.
With this 4th report, the IPCC has confirmed that there is a consensus among experts on what we know about climate change, how serious the earth’s situation may be, and what we can do to mitigate the phenomenon. Its efforts were rewarded with this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, shared with the mediagenic Al Gore.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2007-12-06 08:30
Technological dead end or a challenge to be overcome?
When screening the data sheets of prototypes electric vehicles and electric vehicle batteries, you often come across some spectacular recharging speeds. The 35 kWh lithium-ion batteries of Altair Nanotechnologies for instance are said to fully charge in a mere ten minutes.
What the data sheets don’t say is that the electric connection must be capable of supplying sufficient power for this rapid recharging. Only ten minutes for 35 kWh? That would require a 250 kW connection. This is about 20 times the maximum power of a residential connection. Consequently, rapid charging would be impossible at home. Moreover, it would create a serious challenge for any grid connections for electric recharging stations located along the road.
Several studies have asserted that a large penetration of plug-in electric vehicles is feasible without massive investments in new power generation and transmission infrastructure. But that is only true if those vehicles recharge at slow speed during the night, when there is sufficient idle generation and transmission capacity.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2007-10-18 07:30
How far away is mass marketing of electric vehicles?
Electric vehicles are being taken more seriously than ever before. And not just by environmentalists and electrical engineers. Some of the world’s biggest car companies are finally seeing the writing on the wall.
Is this a positive evolution? In my opinion, it certainly is. Even if the electricity is produced with coal-fired power stations without carbon capture, a plug-in hybrid car will still emit about 25 per cent less CO2 over its life cycle than a standard gasoline car [1]. Moreover, electricity generation is evolving towards an increasing share of carbon free renewables in its energy mix.
Yet in spite of this, the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce is considering subsidizing the production of coal-to-liquid transport fuels. One has to wonder why, since that option results in approximately double the CO2 emissions compared to the coal-to-electricity option.
Does the current interest mean that mass production of electrical vehicles is on the horizon? Yes, but it is not likely to be tomorrow. First of all, the current hype is based more on promises and prospects than any hard facts and proven hardware. The inescapable truth is that there are still no true electrically powered standard cars available on the mass market. Secondly, what will be achieved in the market as a whole in the next few years depends largely on progress in battery technology, and more specifically, lithium-ion battery technology [2].
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2007-09-06 07:30
Growing interest from big corporate players and investor funds
Batteries have joined photovoltaic systems and biofuels as the latest heartthrob of venture capitalists. The battery market has got the full attention of major corporate players and venture capital funds. In 2006 alone, more than $100 million of venture investments were made in the battery sector. The innovative battery company A123 Systems, for example, received huge injections of cash and technology from General Electric, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, Qualcomm, and a number of key venture capital funds. The driver for this battery market boom is the expectation of robust growth in electric vehicles.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2007-08-21 07:30
Taking the edge off four classical counter-arguments
Over the years, electrical vehicles have been the object of much scepticism, even outright slander. The battle between believers and non-believers has been intense. Today, plug-in electrical vehicles are close to a commercial breakthrough. The all-electrical Tesla Roadster is planned for launch on the market later this year. GM’s Chevrolet Volt and Toyota’s FT-HS (Future Toyota Hybrid Sport), which are both plug-in hybrids, are in development phase.
Suddenly, it looks like the edge has been taken off the four major counter-arguments:
- The power and capacity of the batteries will be too small
- The high voltage battery will present safety problems
- Electrical vehicles only transpose the emissions to power stations
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By Hans Nilsson / Published on Thu, 2007-06-21 07:00
The answer might be - a capacitor!
In a recent IEA-workshop, a good survey of the status of battery development was delivered. The Li-ion batteries are almost ready to be used in plug-in hybrid vehicles, but there is a further development needed to get batteries to the energy-density required for "standard-size" electrical vehicle.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Wed, 2007-02-28 08:30
Game-changing technology or Much Ado About Nothing?
There have been a lot of rumours flying around the energy sector lately about EEStor, a secretive Texas start-up. True: if EEStor can reach its ambitious goal of replacing the electrochemical battery with high performance ultracapacitors, that would indeed be a major breakthrough in the energy sector. The technology has the potential to radically change transport systems, offset the intermittency problem of some renewable energy power generators, and improve the stability of power grids.
But we’re not that far yet. Most specialists are very sceptical, warning that what EEStor aims at is too good to be true. They have not proven anything yet and some of the technical difficulties seem insurmountable at this point.
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