Editor's Notebook: Intellectual ferment makes the desert bloom - Daily Astorian: Columns

Editor's Notebook: Intellectual ferment makes the desert bloom - Daily Astorian: Columns: "Electric vehicles and the power grid was an especially timely discussion. Research scientist Michael Kintner-Meyer walked us through the data that PNNL is examining to determine “how many electric vehicles could we support on the Pacific Northwest power grid?” All vehicles could not recharge during peak electricity demand. An engineer within PNNL’s Advanced Grid Analytics & Renewable Energy Integration research group, Kintner-Meyer described an invention of the PNNL that will tell an electric vehicle the optimal time to recharge, based on regional power capacity."

The Issue of the Public, and Free, Electric Vehicle Chargers - Gas 2

The Issue of the Public, and Free, Electric Vehicle Chargers - Gas 2:

We All Gotta Breathe (until we can't)

When asked if EV drivers could start a class action lawsuit for breathing fumes from exhaust producing vehicles, here was one well thought out response with references.

Vehicle exhaust is dangerous, dangerous stuff, and some studies (Szagun and Seidel. 2000) have estimated car exhaust kills five times as many people as car crashes, but there classes at far greater risk than EV drivers.

Bicyclists and pedestrians are at far greater risk than EV drivers, since the aerobic exercise of walking and cycling pulls pollutants into the deepest parts of the lungs, which is not the case when you’re sitting on your ass in an EV. Even worse, tailpipes are often mounted on the right-hand side, where they discharge directly into the bike lane or sidewalk, while the driver of the following car is on the left-hand side and thus is somewhat protected. (George. Monsere. Figliozzi. 2010)

Further, EV drivers only sit in traffic for an hour or two per day, while people living, working, or going to school along the highways are exposed to those pollutants 24/7. People who live near a freeway have asthma at much higher rates than the general population and are almost twice as likely to die from heart or lung disease (Hoek et al. 2002) while children are six times more likely to develop all types of cancers and eight times more likely to get leukemia (Pearson et al. 2000). Despite this, their lawsuits haven’t exactly stopped new highways from being built (or existing freeways widened) and if people can’t win lawsuits even with the ample medical research that exists demonstrating harm, EV drivers don’t have a chance.

-Chase

Everything You Think You Know About Electric Cars Is Wrong

Everything You Think You Know About Electric Cars Is Wrong: "Just as autos replaced horses en masse once their technological superiority was undeniable, EVs will have to be objectively better than internal-combustion vehicles to justify widespread adoption. There are bound to be some bumps and bankruptcies along the way. After all, more than 1,000 automakers of all sizes were founded between 1896 and the mid-1920s. How many of them are still around?"

Fox Reports False Telsa Battery Range Problems

Fox Reports False Telsa Battery Range Problems | EV.com - Electric Vehicle Authority - News-Reviews: "Elizabeth MacDonald claimed that Tesla Motors and Space X founder Elon Musk “has got to fix the Tesla (Model S) battery–which conks out after 16 miles or about a half-hour of usage.”"

Paul Scott - What is the real TCO of gasoline?

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/lifetime-costs-of-electric-cars-within-10-of-competing-vehicles

Paul Scott I take issue with the study's methodology. Nowhere does this article identify the comparison vehicle. You can't just say the LEAF costs 10% more than a comparable vehicle without telling us what it is.

I sell the LEAF and have been driving one since they first came out. This is a very nice car. There isn't any car that is an ideal comparison since there are so many variables to consider.

For instance, how would you value the fact that it's extremely quiet and smooth. The Lexus is essentially a quieter and smoother Camry. They share the same platform, but the Lexus is twice the price. Does the fact that a LEAF is quieter and smoother than a Rolls Royce have any bearing on the value of the car?

Just as importantly, many of my customers value the fact that they can make the energy for their car from sunlight falling on their roof. This is a big deal and not one single ICE car can make the same claim!

Add that no soldier or civilian has ever died in a war over electricity, and you get one of the most powerful aspects of the EV. Many people hold that characteristic in high regard.

We are willing to pay more money for these things!

So, if you insist on writing these lame articles proclaiming that EVs are in some way "comparable" to another car, you HAVE to tell us what you're comparing to.

I believe you are doing a disservice to those good people who care whether they pollute the air, contribute to the need for wars, or give their money to the oil companies.

Ultracapacitors in Tesla's Future?

In a recent earnings announcement for Tesla Motors, Elon Musk said that Tesla would demonstrate something that will make their superchargers look slow. “I mentioned that there would be an announcement on June 20... not an announcement... a demonstration,” said Musk.

Tesla's superchargers are the fastest, highest-power charging technology on the market today. They are the state of the art. So what could be faster? What could make rapid 20-minute supercharging look positively slow?

Most of the twitter-sphere, blogosphere, and autopress seem to agree that Tesla will demonstrate a battery swap station. There are statements like "Tesla will have swap stations like Better Place, but they will have a better business model or make them free."

Elon Musk has publicly talked about battery swapping several times. He has said that Tesla may offer an option to rent a high mileage pack for a roadtrips. Something like this would require the ability to swap battery packs but overall his comments about battery swapping have not been glowing. Battery swapping is not a "first principles" solution. Battery swap stations make an assumption that the current energy storage technology will not advance rapidly. Swap stations workaround batteries recharge time limitation. Tesla is not a half-measures workaround type of company. They prefer the pure play. The company is betting on the advancement of energy storage systems.

Despite the consensus on of cyberspace, I predict that they will not be showing a swap station on the 20th. It is not an Elon move. I have a different guess as to what Tesla will be showing. I think they will be showing a car that has ultracaps.

Why do I think it will be an ultracaps demo?

There are hybrid buses on the streets today that use large format ultracaps to store energy from regenerative braking. There are also wind turbines that use ultracaps to smooth out the variable power that intermittent wind can cause. Portland, Oregon's Tri-met recently announced that their light rail trains will be the first in the country to use ultracaps to improve power delivery from the overhead lines.

Given that there are many applications using ultracaps on the market today, including transportation uses, I think Tesla has made a prototype EV that has ultracaps rather than (or in addition to) batteries for the energy storage system (ESS).

Elon said that the demonstration will make the current Supercharger systems (still being rolled out) look slow. The bottleneck of the current system is not the ability to deliver energy. Delivering more energy may have some logistical problems, but it is not technically difficult. Rather, the limiting factor of recharge time is the ability of the batteries to absorb the energy. Ultracaps have no such limitation. Since ultracaps stores energy in an electric field, rather than in a chemical reaction, they can store the energy as fast as it can be delivered.

Ultracaps are Virtually Lightning in a Jar

Given the strategy for both the Tesla Roadster and the Tesla Model S has been to take commercial 18650 form-factor laptop batteries and pack them together for vehicle solutions, ultracaps would be the logical evolution beyond batteries.

Ultracaps have several advantages over batteries including charge-time and cycle life. They can survive hundreds of thousands more charge and discharge cycles than a battery can. There have been great strides in graphene supercapacitors recently. Including methods to make them significantly cheaper.

Batteries still have several times the energy capacity of ultracaps. So, if my speculation is correct and the demo is an ultracap car and an ultra-fast supercharger, and a vehicle with either a shorter range than the current production models, or it will be a hybrid energy storage system with both batteries, for range, and ultracaps, for fast charging and improved regen braking energy capture.

The Tesla Roadster has 6,831 batteries and the Model S has over 7000 of the 18650 laptop batteries. So, if there is any company out there that knows how to package a large number of little rechargeable devices together in a crash and fire-safe manner, it is Tesla.

We'll find out on June 20th!

Oregon's First Nissan Fast Charger

The Oregon Electric Highway Expands with Addition of Nissan Faster Charger at the State Capital

On Thursday, June 13, at 1 PM, Governor Kitzhaber will be joined by representatives from Portland General Electric, Nissan North America, and IBEW will dedicate a new Nissan DC Quick Charging (DCQC) Station and two Blink Level 2 EV charging stations at the State Street entrance of the Oregon State Capitol building in Salem. The site is officially part of the Oregon Electric Highway due to its proximity to US Highway 99 and Oregon Highway 22 and their nearby connections with Interstate 5.

The DCQC station was donated by Nissan, with installation donated by IBEW Salem Local 280.

You are invited to attend and show your support for additional EV charging in Oregon!

New all-solid sulfur-based battery outperforms lithium-ion technology

New all-solid sulfur-based battery outperforms lithium-ion technology: "The ORNL team overcame these barriers by first synthesizing a never-before-seen class of sulfur-rich materials that conduct ions as well as the lithium metal oxides conventionally used in the battery's cathode. Liang's team then combined the new sulfur-rich cathode and a lithium anode with a solid electrolyte material, also developed at ORNL, to create an energy-dense, all-solid battery.
"This game-changing shift from liquid to solid electrolytes eliminates the problem of sulfur dissolution and enables us to deliver on the promise of lithium-sulfur batteries," Liang said. "Our battery design has real potential to reduce cost, increase energy density and improve safety compared with existing lithium-ion technologies.""

Galway Independent | Tesla's power surge

Galway Independent | Tesla's power surge: "Elon Musk, the billionaire philanthropist, CEO of Tesla, seems able, thus far, to shrug off the vagaries of the stock market’s panic mentality. This week he took to his Twitter account (which has 199,000 followers) to announce, somewhat inscrutably, that “there is a way for the Tesla Model S to be recharged throughout the country faster than you could fill a gas tank.”

Tesla recently unveiled a plan for a national (and international) network of solar-powered ‘Superchargers’ – fast charge points which can recharge a Model S’ batteries to 80 per cent full in about 30 minutes. Now that’s far longer than it takes to refill a conventional fuel tank, so what does Musk have up his sleeve? All he will reveal so far is that it’s “part of a mystery announcement. Part five of the trilogy.”"