Episódios
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Topics Discussed:
No one cares about panel gapsWe need to shut up about deeply technical aspects of EVs when the average consumer literally doesn't know or care about themWe need to stop making such a (public) deal about battery chemistriesNo one cares about megacastingsSolid state batteries will not save usEducation isn't a significant barrier to electric vehicle adoptionEV weight is and isn't an issue Tesla charger shouldn't become the standardVehicle-to-Grid (V2G)Battery recyclingSedans!Return-on-Investment (ROI) doesn't mean anything to most individuals when making vehicle purchasing decisionsAutonomous drivingHydrogen makes zero sense for passenger vehicles and never willOther alternative fuel industries have absolutely shot themselves in the foot and it's hard to imagine them recovering in the long termThe term "zero emission" needs to be abolishedWe both should and shouldn't care so much about public transit in decarbonization effortsMarine and rail are important, but not the most pressing need -
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Vehicles:
Toyota is apparently planning on rolling out their first dedicated EV platform in 2027 or 2028, "when demand will justify the investment".
Toyota has replaced its CEO, allegedly in order to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.
I'll believe it when I see it.Hyundai is refreshing the Kona to be EV-first instead of a weird three-drivetrain thing, and they're changing the design to be more in-line with the Ioniq series.
The Hyundai Ioniq 6 has official EPA range numbers, getting up to 361 miles.
We have a small amount of info about the upcoming 2024 Ram 1500 electric truck, which will also have a plug-in hybrid version.
Apparently one version will be called the "Range Electric Paradigm Breaker" which will have a lot of range or something. This was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show, so . . . YeahAnd more info about interior and such hereThe Chevy Bolt received a small-ish price increase of around $900.
The VW ID4 had a $1,500 price increase for the 2023 model, even for existing reservation-holders.
They cite battery cost increases as the reason.The Ford F-150 Lightning has increased in price by at least $15k to $55k starting.
The Porsche Taycan now has an upgrade available that upgrades the onboard charger to accept 19.2kW.
For home charging, this would require a pretty beefy circuit capable of 100A, which is . . . a lotThis is probably more relevant for public charging because of that current requirementThe upgrade costs $1,850 in hardware, plus laborGeneral Motors is getting a $2.5b loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to build a battery plant in support of its electric vehicle production.
GM claims it will be able to produce 1 million EVs per year by the middle of the decadeRivian has increased the range of its vehicles a small amount through an over-the-air update and added a snow mode for better traction in snowy conditions as well as remote pre-conditioning.
The automotive supplier ZF revealed a heated seatbelt at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) meant to improve electric vehicle efficiency in cold weather.
They say that the product is production-ready, though they do not have customers yet.The marginal cost is around that of heated steering wheels.They claim up to 15% range increase while using the seatbelt instead of traditional cabin heating.Not terribly surprising, but a new report found that cold weather results in more charging of EVs, not less driving.
Basically, people aren't driving less as a result of less range, they're just charging their vehicles more often.Redwood Materials, the battery recycling company, is planning to build a $3.5b plant in South Carolina, which will employ 1,500 people.
Redwood is making serious moves in the battery recycling world, this is awesome news.The Environmental Protection Agency has released new, more stringent emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, but they're still less aggressive than California's.
California still needs a waiver from the EPA to set its own standards for the more stringent standards.The EPA's are still fairly aggressive.These new standards take into effect in 2027.Infrastructure:
Electrify America has increased its prices by $0.05/kWh across the board.
AAA is launching a pilot to provide free mobile charging to members who drive EVs in several cities across the country.
The initial 14 cities are:Sandia National Labs just published a paper looking into the issue of cybersecurity and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Link to the full paper.The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program places a lot of emphasis on cybersecurity and chargers, but there hasn't been much actual guidance about how security should be maintained with this infrastructure.The paper is a pretty thorough look at the whole issue.The paper does claim that more damaging types of attacks would be very difficult, but it's still an issue that needs to be addressed.Nikola is planning to have a mobile fueling truck to deliver hydrogen to customers without a standalone hydrogen station.
This sort of technology has been used for natural gas and propane vehicles in the past, so there is precedent, though it hasn't been very widely used in general.Hydrogen is already trucked to stations (they rarely, if ever, use pipeline hydrogen), so this isn't too large a leap.I think this is putting the cart before the horse.Deployment:
Ford is going to deliver 2,000 electric delivery vans to shipper, DHL, by the end of 2023.
This also comes with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to purchase more vehicles in the future.DHL will also use Ford's Ford Pro software to manage the vehicles.DHL operates a total of around 27,000 delivery vans, for context.The United States Postal Service (USPS) has, again, changed its EV plans.
The current plan moves their EV targets up to over 50% of their new fleet.They now plan to only by EVs from 2026 on.$3b of the funding to make this happen will come from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.Air Canada has purchased 30 electric-hybrid airplanes from Heart Aerospace.
These are both battery electric and have more traditional powertrains to increase range, from what I can find online.Air Canada is also acquiring a $5m stake in the company.Energy:
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that renewable energy will make up over 25% of the U.S. grid mix by 2024!
This is an incredible milestone! -
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EPA Clean School Bus Rebate Program awards
Tesla opens up their charging standard
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My guest appearance on Talk on the Wild Side!
Document Notes:
Quarterly data submissions (p.7 and p.43/44; Section 680.112(b))Charging station useCharging session metricsEnergy dispensed per portReliability, maintenance, and installation cost Charging station uptimeTotal monthly cost of electricity paid to operate the stationDemand chargesEnergy charges ($/kWh)Fixed chargesTaxesOther feesMonthly maintenance and repair costs per portConstruction and installation dataDetailed costs such as:Installation costsDistributed energy resource acquisition and installationGrid connection and upgrade costs (paid for by charger operator)Annual data submissions (p.7 and p.44/45; Section 680.112(c))Identifying information about organizations operating, maintaining, or installing EVSEWhether these organizations participate in State or local business opportunity certification programs such as programs for minority-owned businesses, Veteran-owned businesses, woman-owned businesses, and/or businesses owned by economically disadvantaged individuals for private entitiesInformation about any certifications of these entitiesAnnual report (p.7 and p.45; Section 680.112(d))Description of community engagement activities conducted in accordance with their approved State EV Infrastructure Deployment PlansWith regard to data requirements: Will this data collection place undue burden on states? (p.7/8)Charging station networking requirements (p.8; p.46/47/48; Section 680.114)Must be able to communicate through the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) in tandem with ISO 15118This is meant to help with cybersecurity concerns and;Reduce the risk of stranded assets in the event that an operator abandons a stationMust be capable of “Plug and Charge”Must be capable of “smart charge management”FHWA recognizes that these requirements (Plug and Charge; smart charge management) are fairly new, hence the requirement of OPCC communications instead of requiring the use of those capabilities outrightChargers don’t need to use those capabilities, but they must be capable of it“FHWA proposes to include a requirement in Section 680.114(b) that, where credential-based electric charge initiation or payment is implemented, charging networks be capable of communicating with other charging networks to enable customers to use a single credential regardless of the charging network responsible for a charging station.” (p. 48)Charging networks must be capable of communication with electric utilities and energy providers, or local energy management systems (p.48)Charging stations need to provide real-time status information through a freely accessible API to all third-party software developers (p.8)LocationConnector typePower levelStatusNumber of ports accessible to persons with disabilities (p.51; Section 680.116)PricingChargers would be required to display the price of charging in $/kWhIn states where “charge for charge” is not allowed, FHWA requests comment on how to best require the display of price on these chargersShould it be $/mi, $/minute, or some other metric?Price transparency (p.27/28)Public disclosure for the documents concerning the operations of the EV charging stations where price setting is involved, including the procurement process used, the number of bids received, the identification of the awardee, the proposed contract with the awardee, and, in accordance with State law, the financial summary of contract payments (including the price and cost data), and any information describing how prices for EV charging are to be set under the contract.States are subject to 23 U.S.C. 112 and any State procurement policies and procedures per 2 CFR 200.217 (p.28)Level 2 chargers may be eligible for NEVI funds after corridors are fully built out (p.31)J1772 would be the required connector for a Level 2 chargerNon-CCS plugs at DCFC sites (p.31)“Section 680.106(c) would further provide for additional flexibility for the provision of charging ports after the aforementioned CCS requirement has been met. This includes adding permanently attached proprietary connectors to DCFCs. In addition, specific to the use of FY22 NEVI Formula Program funds, DCFCs may include permanently attached CHAdeMO connectors for one or more DCFC charging port.”It is not clear to me if “CCS requirement has been met” refers to “fully built-out” or just the 4 plugs per site requirement.Station power level (p.32)Chargers with higher power levels are encouraged “where appropriate to support industry efforts to ensure a consumer’s time to charge is at least comparable to filling a gas tank”.“The inclusion of a requirement that each DCFC charging port must be at or above 150kW would benefit the charging industry primarily in communicating standards with individual utilities that may not be accustomed to EV industry preferences.”Level 2 chargers (if funded) would need to deliver at least 6kW per port simultaneously across all ports.Charger availability (p.32 and p.50; Section 680.116(b))Stations must be available for public use 24/7 with minor exceptionIsolated or temporary interruption due to maintenance or repairs would not violate this requirementStations must have an uptime greater than 97%Uptime must be submitted quarterly and retained for quarterly reviewUptime calculation:Mu = ((8760 – (T_outage – T_excluded))/8760) X 100Mu = port uptime percentageT_outage = total hours of outage in previous yearT_ excluded = total hours of outage in previous year for reasons outside operator’s controlThe FHWA requests specific comment on what additional considerations should be contemplated to ensure EVSE resilience/reliability in floodplains and during natural disastersPayment systems (p.34)Stations cannot require memberships for accessPayment options must include contactless payment methods from all major debit/credit card providersAccess cannot be limited by payment typePlug and Charge payment capabilities are requiredCredit card is not required to be the only payment method to be mindful of the underbanked.FHWA requires multilingual access and access for people with disabilitiesEfficiency certifications (p.35)For Level 2 chargers, ENERGY STAR certification is requiredFor DCFC, ENERGY STAR certification is not currently required due to a lack of widespread availabilityPhysical and Cybersecurity measures (p.35/36)“Section 680.106(h) would require States to implement physical and cybersecurity strategies consistent with their State EV Infrastructure Deployment Plans. This section also includes options for both physical security, such as lighting, siting, driver and vehicle safety, fire prevention, tampering, charger locks, and illegal surveillance of payment devices, and cybersecurity strategies that may be addressed in order to mitigate charging infrastructure, grid, and consumer vulnerability associated with the operation of charging stations. The FHWA encourages States to implement policies to safeguard consumer privacy and requests comments on best practices available in the industry.”Operational period (p.36)Charging infrastructure must operate for at least 5 years (Section 680.106(i))5 years was chosen to provide a reasonable useful life while providing sensitivity to the changing landscape of charging standards/expectations and tech developmentsWorkforce concerns (p.36/37/38)Installation and maintenance must be done safely by a skilled workforce with appropriate licensing, certification, and training.Workforce used should be diverse.With exception of apprentices, all electricians installing, maintaining, and operating EVSE must be certified through the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program (EVITP)The participant in the program must provide documentation of a minimum of 8,000 hours of hands-on electric construction experiencehttps://evitp.org/FHWA is aware of industry concerns with EVITP:It being the sole provider might serve to privatize the licensing process or impose a hurdle to obtaining electriciansTo address this, States can meet this requirement through another Registered Electrical Apprenticeship program that includes EVSE-specific trainingFor projects with more than one electrician, at least one must be an apprentice in a registered electrical apprenticeship program – Section 680.106(j)“FHWA recommends that States take proactive steps to work with training providers, workforce boards, labor unions, and other worker organizations, community-based organizations, and non-profits to build a local workforce that will support the EV network”Funding sources for such programs can be found at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/alternative_fuel_corridors/resources/ev_funding_report_2021.pdfStates should also consider how disadvantaged communities will benefit from added job growthStation customer feedback requirements (p.39)Stations must allow for customers to report outages, malfunctions, and other issuesThese reporting mechanisms must be accessible and equitable in accordance with ADAFHWA requests comments on customer service strategies to enter issues as part of the real-time status data outlined in Section 680.116(c)Traffic control devices and signage (p.42)Requirements are set by existing regulations in 23 CFR part 655 and 23 CFR part 750 for NEVI Formula Program projectsManual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) is currently being updated (updates due in September, 2022?)Section 680.110 -
Yep, I'm taking September and October off, but I'll be back afterwards!
If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to find me on Twitter @archduketyler
You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose (though payments are halted until I come back)! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
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My guest appearance on Talk on the Wild Side!
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If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to find me on Twitter @archduketyler
You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
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Interchange Podcast episode about Power Purchase Agreements.
Vehicles:
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has achieved the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick+ list.
The federal electric vehicle tax credit is going to begin phasing out for Toyota and Lexus starting in October of 2022.
This means it will drop down from $7,500 to $3,750 until April 1, 2023, then phase out entirely in October 2023.Here is a page with the tax credit status by automaker/vehicle.Not a surprise, but the F-150 Lightning's vehicle-to-home system will require additional hardware that may cost around $4k, maybe more depending on the home.
This is in addition to needing Ford's Level 2 charger, which costs $1,310.The Chevy Bolt received a massive price cut across the board, now starting at $26,595.
GM is also giving retroactive discounts to Bolts bought new in 2022.Hyundai is discontinuing the Hyundai Ioniq hybrid and plug-in hybrid, after already cancelling the fully electric Ioniq.
This mostly makes sense, since they're properly moving towards electrification with the Ioniq name.This is a shame, though, since the Hyundai Ioniq hybrid was the most efficient gas car on the market for several years.We now have pricing for the Mercedes-Benz EQB, which will start at $55,550.
Nissan and Wallbox (the charging company) are partnering to offer at-home charging to Nissan customers.
Nissan owners will be able to purchase a level 2 Wallbox charger and schedule its installation through Nissan, all in one process on the Nissan website.Owners will also receive a rebate of an unknown amount when going through their website.Stellantis is testing under-road wireless charging in their Fiat 500 with a system that is capable of up to 20kW.
Ford is going to assemble its "next generation" EV platform in Valencia, Spain, and is moving forward with converting its Cologne, Germany facility to produce EVs.
The site in Spain would begin production at the end of the decade.The Germany site's conversion is a $2b project.BMW is opening its own battery production facility in late 2022, not to produce its own batteries at a large scale, but to develop specifications for other battery manufacturers to meet.
The idea is that learning more about battery manufacturing will allow them to set higher quality technical standards for their suppliers to meet.This facility will also do battery research to develop new batteries that meet their performance goals.This is a 130m Euro investment.LG Chem and Korean Energy Materials are partnering to build a $160m battery precursor factory in South Korea.
Stellantis and Samsung are partnering to build a battery plant in Kokomo, Indiana.
It will have an initial capacity of 23GWh/year and will ramp up to 33GWh over a few years.Production is to begin in 2025.This is a $2.5b investment.It will create 1,400 jobs.Toyota is now also partnering with Redwood Materials to develop a "closed-loop" battery market.
Redwood Materials is a company that does battery recycling and is partnering with Ford and Volvo already.Redwood Materials is already processing 6GWh of batteries annually with the goal of ramping up to 100GWh by 2025.Electrify America has set up a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement with Terra-Gen to take advantage of 75MW of solar power with an annual electricity production of 225TWh.
That is enough electricity to drive roughly 675m miles or 1b km.Operations of that solar facility in the Mojave are expected to begin in Summer of 2023.The EV charging company, FreeWire Technologies, has opened a new headquarters in Newark, California and raised $125m in additional funding for scaling up.
FreeWire is definitely gearing up to take advantage of Infrastructure Bill funding.Their charger uses a large battery to lessen the grid-connection requirements at their chargers.Deployment:
The charging company FreeWire and Phillips 66 have signed a letter of intent to partner on installing FreeWire chargers at Phillips 66 fuel stations across the U.S.
There are unfortunately no details available about the number of planned sites, timeline, etc.It's worth noting that "letters of intent" are usually not binding.Seattle is offering (a limited number of) free curbside Level 2 chargers to property owners who don’t have a way of installing EV chargers at their sites.
The chargers would have a flat rate to charge, but would be free to install.Rivian has installed its first two WayPoint Level 2 chargers in Michigan at the Holland State Park on Lake Michigan.
The United Kingdom's Department for Transportation has announced more than £200 million of new funding for demonstration projects for hydrogen and electric heavy duty trucks.
This will be a 3yr project.Milan's transit system has ordered 75 more electric transit buses from Solaris to go into service in late 2022.
This brings their total order up to 215, out of 250 included in their original deal with Solaris.They intend to completely phase diesel out by 2030.Los Angeles has deployed its first electric fire truck in Hollywood.
It only has a 132kWh battery pack, which can allow for about 2 hours of pump operation.It has a "range extender" 6-cylinder diesel engine that can operate the pumps for an additional 6 hours.This vehicle will not be a full replacement for traditional fire trucks, which may need to operate for well over a dozen hours continuously.Energy:
Grand Rapids, Michigan is hoping to reach 100% renewable power by 2025 and just launched a 0.9MW solar facility to help power its water filtration plant.
Nebraska Public Power District held a ribbon cutting for a new solar facility in Norfolk that produces 8.5MW of solar power with 1MW of battery storage.
The Sandy Creek Solar Power Plant in Bay County, Florida is now online, producing 74.9MW of power.
Entergy has completed a 100MW solar facility in Mississippi.
The French Road Solar project in Burlington, Indiana has officially come online with 2.8MW of solar power.
The DeCordova Energy Storage Facility by Vistra in Granbury, Texas is now online with 260MW of battery storage, which makes it the largest storage facility in Texas.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers have developed a record-breaking solar panel that is 39.5% efficient.
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Huge thanks to Seonghoon Woo, CEO of Amogy, who took a lot of time out of his schedule to have this conversation with me!
If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to find me on Twitter @archduketyler
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Notes:
Amogy's website
The roundtrip efficiency of such an ammonia system is between 15-25% based on the following sources:
An ammonia energy group.A study under the American Chemical Society.On Density: ammonia holds approximately 5 times the amount of hydrogen per unit volume compared to gaseous hydrogen used in a traditional fuel cell vehicle.
Paper from the Department of Energy (2006) about ammonia as a hydrogen carrier.
There are approximately 5,000km of ammonia pipeline in the U.S.
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The Environmental Protection Agency's page for the program.
The program guidelines.
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Vehicles:
Electric vehicles had record sales in Q1 of 2022 by a significant margin.
There's some interesting data in the article, with the most interesting thing being the chart of EV sales over the last decade, the chart looks pretty exponential.Around half of the higher-risk Chevy Bolts included in the battery recall have been fixed.
This article discusses whether or not chasing 350kW chargers for an EV that can accept that speed of charging, and the complexity of the article is a clear example of why we really need to find a better way to discuss charging speeds.
The main point of the article is that, since there aren't many 350kW chargers out there, planning a trip around hitting those chargers won't save you time over simply going to slightly slower (150kW) chargers that are closer to your planned route.The article is more interesting in its discussion around the actual charge rates the author saw while testing the Ioniq 5 and EV6, which were all over the place compared to the stated power of the chargers.Lucid has increased prices across the board by up to $15,000 for their vehicles effective June 1, 2022, but will honor the prices of current reservation holders.
This puts the starting price of a Lucid Air at $88,900.They still expect to hit their target of 12-14k vehicles produced by the end of the year.Volvo's entire 2023 lineup of vehicles will be, at minimum, hybrids.
This is awesome.We now have a full review by Green Car Reports of the Genesis GV60, which is basically a luxury version of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 that starts at $59,980.
We also now have pricing information for the Cadillac Lyriq, which will start at $62,990.
Freightliner is slated to begin production of their eCascadia electric semi by the end of the year.
The semi will have up to 230mi/370km of range, which is quite close to the number that fleets were asking for at ACT Expo (around 250mi/400km).It will have up to a 438kWh battery pack.Both Kia and Tesla have stopped included Level 1 (120V) chargers with their electric vehicles.
They claim usage is very low, which may be true, but it's still absolutely asinine to sell a vehicle without a way to charge the vehicle included in the purchase.Level 1 charging is a crucial emergency feature that is very low cost on the side of the automaker.Maybe in 5-10 years this will make sense, but given how immature the market is, this is an absolutely obscene decision.Lordstown Motors says that they need an additional $150m to get production rolling.
Lordstown Motors has completed the sale of its factory to Foxconn, who will do the actual manufacturing of Lordstown's trucks.
This comes with a $100m investment by Foxconn in a joint venture to engineer new EVs.They still claim to be on track to begin production in the third quarter of 2022.Ford has sold more of its shares in Rivian, bringing its investment from 12% to 10% of Rivian's value.
The Rocky Mountain Institute argues that time-of-use charging and smart charging programs can decrease the carbon impact of EVs by up to 18%.
They basically argue that EVs won't increase electricity's carbon impact because smart charging can take advantage of lower carbon electricity at the right times, but this isn't really a guarantee.Deployment:
Westerville, Ohio has deployed 16 new Level 2 chargers across the city.
The Swedish company, Volta, is planning on bringing 100 electric trucks to the U.S. to be used as a pilot for their "truck as a service" business model, and eventually begin manufacturing trucks in the U.S. by 2025.
These initial trucks will be Class 7 trucks with a range around 100mi (160km).Chatham Area Transit in Georgia has deployed 6 electric transit buses into their fleet of 62 buses.
The University of Virginia is getting 4 electric transit buses from Proterra, adding to its fleet of about 40 buses.
This is part of a strategy to become carbon-neutral by 2030 and fossil-fuel free by 2050.Charlotte, North Carolina is piloting light pole-mounted EV chargers that focus on usage data collection and sharing, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy.
The first charger is being used approximately once per day.Four more of these chargers will be installed by the end of the year.Energy:
Rivian has financed 1 MW of solar power at the Paris Solar Farm in Tennessee to provide electricity for its Waypoint network in Tennessee's state parks.
The solar farm is still in construction and should begin operations by the end of 2022.It will produce a total of 6.75MW.SpaceX is expanding its solar farm in Boca Chica, Texas by about 30%, adding around 750kW of solar power.
The bank OZK has completed construction of a 4.8MW solar plant that will produce enough power to supply 40 of its locations as well as their headquarters.
Houston County, Texas now has 68MW of additional solar power.
The city of Urbana, Illinois has a new 5.2MW solar farm installed on an old landfill.
The Minnesota Department of Commerce has opened a grant program called Solar for Schools which will award grants of up to 95% of project costs for schools to install solar power.
There is $7.5m available through this program.Each school district can install up to 80kW of solar.The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a finding of no significant impact for the Humboldt Wind Energy Area off the coast of California, which allows a lease sale to move forward for the region.
The area has the capacity for around 1.6GW of wind production. This is an early step towards leasing the area for development, but it's a very significant one.The company RiverCap Ventures plans to recycle 200 old wind turbine blades to make benches, planters, tables, and other outdoor equipment.
They begin production in August 2022.It's apparently hard to grind the fiberglass blades for use in cement and such, so they're avoiding that by simply cutting the blades and utilizing their structural integrity.They are building two more facilities in the U.S. to do this sort of recycling, which is around a $10m investment.A seven-year study found that the Block Island Wind Farm did not negatively impact fish habitats.
The study was funded by the wind industry, so some skepticism is prudent.A link to the study.The U.S. federal government has announced a plan to use over $12b to modernize Puerto Rico's grid, focusing on renewable energy and resiliency.
Policy:
The U.S. Department of Energy has officially opened up a notice of intent for the $2.5b of funding for grid transmission through the Infrastructure Bill.
This sort of "notice of intent" is important for gathering industry feedback and the allow the industry time to plan for how to take advantage of the funding (such as beginning partnerships, raising capital, etc.).The U.S. General Service Administration (GSA) has issued new standards requiring lower-carbon cement and asphalt to be used in all GSA projects.
This should result in a 20% reduction in carbon emissions associated with concrete and asphalt for GSA construction projects. -
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Stats from the upcoming warehouse build by Prologis Ventures:
Power Output: 2.5 MW
Annual Energy Output: 4 GWh
Class 8 Trucks Supported: 22
Annual Miles/Kilometers Supported: 1,760,000 miles | 2,800,000 km
Annual Greenhouse Gas Reductions: 5,695 tons
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If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to find me on Twitter @archduketyler
You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
Find and review this podcast on Podchaser!
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If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to find me on Twitter @archduketyler
You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
Find and review this podcast on Podchaser!
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If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to find me on Twitter @archduketyler
You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
Find and review this podcast on Podchaser!
NOTES:
Industry-wide:
Daimler:300,000,000,000 miles (482b km) of trucking annually in the U.S.Full electrification of trucking would increase electricity usage by 20%GNA:Around $3b annually is spent on incentives for alt fuels, but expecting $20b/year with Infrastructure Bill Funds.Batteries:
Cost:70% of a pack's cost is in the cells themselves30% is in the packaging, battery management system (BMS), thermal control, etc. (the pack stuff, basically)Manufacturing:Battery Manufacturing apparently costs $65m/GWh of production rate to build a factory.Second-Life and Recycling:The cost of breaking down and separating components of used batteries, plus the cost of reprogramming and repackaging them means that used batteries are nearly as expensive for grid storage and second life solutions than brand new batteries.This implies that battery swap is a boon to second-life applications.Italy has mandated that anyone bringing a battery into the country must have a plan for disposing of that battery (they own the value chain).Weight and Efficiency:There was a resounding sigh when someone asked about getting battery weight down. The long and short of it is that it doesn't seem likely, according to all the panelists.Battery packs get about 60% packing efficiency (60% of the pack is the cells, 40% is the housing and such). They hope to optimistically get towards 80% one day.Cells have increased in energy density by 4x over the last 2 decades, but has stalled since 2017.New form factors improve pack density, not energy density of the cells.Solid state:Not in the next decade. Manufacturing ramp-up will take forever and they are too far behind traditional batteries. Will come to wearables and consumer electronics first.Surprises:
Romeo Power claims to have a battery that did 1000 cycles from 10-80% state-of-charge at 1MW of charging power, and the pack still has over 85% of its health.GNA said CNG and Propane no longer need incentives for adoption.I think this is *maybe* true for Propane, very much not true for CNG.Refuse trucks (trash trucks) use around 50kWh of energy for trash compaction alone in a day's work.Not Surprises:
Shell says they really believe in hydrogen.The conference has, so far, been heavily focused on the California Market.There were lots of buzz words and often very little substance. -
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Find and review this podcast on Podchaser!
Electric Vehicles:
Tesla will no longer allow for the purchase of their vehicles at the end of lease.
Green Car Reports has a preview of the Mercedes EQS if you're interested in such things.
We now have a price for the 2023 Subaru Solterra, Subaru's first EV at $46,220.
It will allegedly be available in all 50 states.Not much other info is available.Kia has updated its specs for the Niro hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric models for 2023, with decent spec upgrades across the board.
The 2023 Nissan Leaf has also been updated with some slight changes, though it still uses CHadEMO charging.
Ford has officially launched "full production" of its F-150 Lightning!
Ford will also apparently have another electric truck launch in 2024, not based on the F-150.Ford said they will not have any dealer stock until later model years, since they have such a long backlog of reservations.Honda has released a bit of a roadmap towards electrification, including a promise of devoting around $40b over the next 10 years to the effort.
They mention swappable batteries as a tech option.2 EVs in the US in 2024.There's a lot in the press release, but it's kinda a lot of big words and no real substance of interest.CATL, the battery manufacturer, is launching a battery-swapping service in China.
The service is focused on folks who can't charge their EVs at home.30 stations are planned in Xiamen by the end of 2022.In that city, drivers will never by more than 1.8mi (2.9km) from a station.The service will be called Evogo.They claim the service is compatible with 80% of EVs on the road.They expect to charge around $61/mo for the service.GM has confirmed they'll use heat pumps in all of their electric vehicles.
Mack now has a Range Calculator for their electric vehicles so that fleets can determine whether electrification will work for them on a particular route.
GM has signed a deal with MP Materials to provide rare earth materials for GM's battery production, and those materials will be mined and manufactured in Texas.
The battery recycling company, Lithion, has received $22.5m from the Canadian government to help build out their facilities to begin dismantling and recycling used EV batteries.
Japanese manufacturer, Envision AESC, will invest $2b to build a 30GWh battery factory in Kentucky.
They will receive $116.8m in state incentives, as well as a $5m grant for skills training.This is expected to create 2,000 jobs.They will power the factory by 100% renewable energy through both on-site generation and a partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority.Full production is expected by 2027.Wallbox, a charging station manufacturer, has begun construction of a facility to build chargers in Texas.
This is an initial investment of $11m for the construction.They plan to begin production by October, 2022.They intend to initially have 250k units of annual production, and 500k by 2025.They will produce by bi-directional Level 2 chargers and DC Fast Chargers.Deployment:
WattEV, a "Truck-as-a-Service" company, has ordered 50 Volvo VNR Class 8 electric trucks for operation in California.
This basically seems like a leasing model.4 Gen Logistics, a drayage operator in California, has ordered 20 Kenworth T680E electric trucks.
These have a 150mi (240km) range.Penske has ordered 750 Ford E-Transit cargo vans which will be available for rental and leasing.
Maersk will add 300 electric trucks to its North American network between 2023 and 2025.
The initial vehicles will be built by BYD.Frito-Lay will deploy 40 Ford E-Transit trucks in Texas.
They have already taken delivery of one truck, and the remaining trucks will be delivered by Summer 2022.Hertz will purchase up to 65k Polestar electric vehicles.
This purchase will be done over the next 5 years.The Swiss transport company, Galliker, has deployed an all-electric truck for transporting EVs.
The Saudi Arabian government will purchase 50k Lucid EVs with the option to purchase 50k more.
Deliveries start Q2 2023 and will happen over a 10 year period.Pace Suburban Bus in Chicagoland has awarded $26.5m to Proterra for the purchase of 20 electric transit buses and 2 megawatt-scale chargers.
VW and BP will install up to 8k 150kW fast chargers across Europe using VW's Flexpole chargers, which can be installed on light poles.
They expect to have the first 4k installed by 2024.These stations will include 2 chargers and a battery storage system.The VW Flexpole platform apparently doesn't require any voltage (transformer) upgrades at the site.The UK energy company, Gridserve, has finished its overhaul of the 300 chargers that make up the Electric Highway in the UK.
This replaced existing, slower chargers with 350kW chargers.These 300 chargers are at 130 sites.They were previously very unreliable, and were taken over by Gridserve around a year ago.Tesco, a UK grocery chain, is installing free public chargers at 500 sites.
This is a partnership between VW, Tesco, and Pod Point (the charger manufacturer).They are a mix of level 2 and DC Fast Chargers.They will use 100% renewable energy.Rivian is funding 1MW of solar power to be built out in Tennessee to power its Waypoint chargers in the state.
Energy:
Burns and McDonnell has completed construction of 65MW of solar power in Texas.
Duke Energy just started operations at a new 22.6MW solar farm in North Carolina.
Duke Energy has announced that it will launch two landfill renewable natural gas projects in North Carolina.
They will be operational in late 2022.They will produce enough gas to offset the natural gas usage of approximately 34k houses.CLECO, a utility in Louisiana, has announced a $900m project to capture 95% of the CO2 from their largest coal plant and sequester it.
The plant emits 4m tons of CO2 per year.Georgia Power Co. has announced that it will shut down 9 coal plants and 3 oil-burning plants by 2028 (ahead of schedule), and add more natural gas and renewables.
This shutdown would leave only two coal plants in their fleet, which would shut down by 2035.They will offset the lost generation with the purchase of 2.4GW of natural gas and 2.3GW of solar generation by 2029.They plan to hit 6GW of renewables by 2035.They also intend to add energy storage to the mix.Origin Materials is building a facility that will manufacture plastic from wood residue in Ascension Parish, Louisiana.
They claim this is a carbon-negative process.It will be a $750m project.Production will begin in 2025.They'll produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from wood residue sourced from timber mills and managed forests.The process will also result in "hydrothermal carbon", which can be used in fuel pellets.Policy:
Louisiana's Governor, John Bel Edwards, has a press release about Louisiana's use of the Infrastructure Bill funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
This press release specifically mentions Louisiana Clean Fuels!The event he spoke at is a major expo that Louisiana Clean Fuels held in partnership with Louisiana's Department of Transportation and Development. -
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You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
Sources, Figures, and Calculations:
Hydrogen Station Cost Estimates - A study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory about the costs that go into building hydrogen fueling stations for vehicle use.
Electric vehicle charging station cost average comes from my personal experience working with several installers, utilities, and charging companies.
AFLEET - Tool by Argonne National Labs used for emissions and cost-of-ownership analysis for alternative fuel vehicles.
Cost per kilogram of CO2 reduced per day:
Hydrogen vehicle infrastructure: $194 / kg/day
Electric Vehicle infrastructure: $90.6 / kg/day
Cost per mile, per day:
Hydrogen vehicle infrastructure: $42.29 / mile/day
EV vehicle infrastructure: $19.84 / mile/day
CO2 emissions factors by fuel type:
Gasoline vehicle: 0.430 kg/mi
Hydrogen vehicle: 0.212 kg/mi
Electric vehicle (U.S. national grid average): 0.211 kg/mi
CO2 benefit per mile by fuel type (conventional fuel factor - alternative fuel factor):
Hydrogen vehicle: 0.218 kg/mi
Electric vehicle: 0.219 kg/mi
Hydrogen Calculations:
Station assumptions:
Total station cost: $5,050,000
Daily production rate: 1,500 kg/day
Cost per production rate: $3,370 / kg/day
Vehicle assumptions (used the Toyota Mirai as a baseline):
Efficiency: 0.01256 kg/mi
Miles supported per day of station production:
(1,500 kg/day) / (0.01256 kg/mi) = 119,426.75 mi/day
Cost per mile per day:
($5,050,000) / (119,426.75 mi/day) = $42.29 / mi/day
Cost effectiveness (cost per CO2 kilogram reduced per day):
($42.29 / mi/day) / (0.218 kg/mi) = $194 / kg/day
Electric Calculations:
Station assumptions:
Total station cost: $750,000
Power output: 600 kW
Load factor (percentage of time in use): 75%
Average output: 450 kW
Daily energy production (460 kW * 24 hr/day): 10,800 kWh/day
Cost per production rate: $69.44 / kg/day
Vehicle assumptions:
Efficiency: 3.5 mi/kWh
Miles supported per day of station production:
(10,800 kWh/day) * (3.5 mi/kWh) = 37,800 mi/day
Cost per mile per day:
($750,000) / (37,800 mi/day) = $19.84 / mi/day
Cost effectiveness (cost per CO2 kilogram reduced per day):
($19.84 / mi/day) / (0.219 kg/mi) = $90.60 / kg/day
-
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You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
Vehicles:
Tesla had record sales in Q1 2022, selling over 300k vehicles, a 70% increase over Q1 2021.
Tesla has officially sold its first Model Ys from Gigafactory Berlin.
Rivian says that they're on track to sell their targeted 25k vehicles in 2022.
Maserati plans to offer all-electric versions of all of their vehicles by 2025 and be all-electric by 2030.
Porsche expects over 80% of their sales to be all-electric by 2030.
For reference, they sold around 300k vehicles worldwide in 2021.GM and Honda are partnering to produce EVs, an increase in scope of their existing partnership to develop hydrogen vehicles and EV batteries.
This partnership will result in a line of "affordable" EVs by 2027.GM's press release.The Ford F-150 Lightning has official EPA range estimates now.
The range will be between 230 and 320 miles (368 to 512 km, respectively).Toyota and ChargePoint have formed a partnership to provide ChargePoint charging to buyers of Toyota's upcoming bZ4X.
This includes an option to buy a ChargePoint Level 2 charger for the home.Toyota will also have a feature in the Toyota app to help drivers find public ChargePoint chargers.EVGo and Chase Bank are partnering to add fast charging at 50 Chase Bank locations in the U.S..
Buildout should begin in Summer of 2022, all sites operational in 2023.All sites will be powered by 100% renewables, some with solar on-site.The City of Boulder saved around $270/mo during an 11-month vehicle-to-grid project in partnership with Fermata Energy.
Both GM and Ford are partnering with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) on vehicle-to-grid pilots.
Proterra will provide batteries for Blue Arc electric delivery vans (made by Shyft Group), with production expected to start in 2023.
These are class 3 vans.The autonomous and electric delivery company, Gatik, is partnering with ChargePoint to charge their vehicles as they roll them out.
Gatik is currently partnered with Walmart to test autonomous, electric delivery across their fleet.LG Energy Solutions is partnering with Stellantis to create a $4.1b (USD) battery plant to begin operations in 2024.
They plan to produce 45GWh of batteries annually.The plant will be in Windsor, Ontario.Stellantis is the company that owns Chrysler, Dodge, and others.LG Energy Solutions is investing $1.7b in its battery facility in Holland, Michigan.
This is expected to create 1,200 jobs.Ford is hoping to open a 30-45GWh battery manufacturing plant in Turkey.
bp pulse is investing £1 billion over 10 years to build out a charging network in the UK.
Chick-fil-A is partnering with Darling, a renewable diesel, to produce renewable diesel from their used cooking oil in 47 states.
Deployment:
USPS has increased their initial order of electric mail carriers from 5,000 to 10,019.
This is out of a total of 50,000 vehicles in this initial order.These vehicles will hit the road in 2023 (hopefully).Madison, Wisconsin is getting 27 electric transit buses from New Flyer through a federal grant of $41.6m.
Their contract with New Flyer has the option of buying 19 more electric transit buses in the future.St. Louis, Missouri is deploying 18 New Flyer electric transit buses.
For some God-forsaken reason, none of the press releases I read gave a deployment date.Akron, Ohio's METRA RTA has deployed 2 new electric transit buses into its fleet.
The majority of its existing fleet is currently compressed natural gas (CNG).They were able to purchase these buses through a grant that covered the cost.They expect to save $500/mo per bus in fuel costs.The buses cost $924,000 each.Moreno Valley in California is getting 42 electric school buses from InCharge Energy.
Prague is deploying 20 bi-articulated Trollino electric trolleybuses.
Danish concrete company, Unicon, is ordering 11 Volvo FM Electric trucks to test as cement mixers.
Energy:
Texas now has 200MWh of additional battery storage on the grid, operated by Jupiter Power at their Flower Valley II site.
The battery system can provide up to 100MW of electricity to the grid.This system is expected to be upgraded to 650MWh of capacity by summer of 2022.The Traverse Wind Energy Center has official begun operations of its 998MW wind farm in Oklahoma.
It's expected to generate 3.8 *million* MWh of electricity annually.298MW of new wind power has gone online in at the Haystack wind park in Nebraska.
4MW of solar just went online in Sioux City, Iowa.
Shiawassee County, Michigan now has 200MW of new solar power online.
U.S. Department of Energy funding is bringing 3.3MW of solar power to 13 tribal communities.
Several GW of coal power is likely to retire in PJM's network over the next few years.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh will expand the use of renewable natural gas from food waste.
They are adding a significant amount of heat capture to their current RNG electrical production to more effectively use their RNG.Policy:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has finalized its new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
The standards will require a corporate average fuel economy of 49mpg by 2025 across new light duty cars and trucks.This effectively requires automakers to begin producing electric vehicles or incredibly efficient hybrids.NHTSA has also increased the penalty for automakers who fail to meet the standards.
The penalty has increased from $5.5 to $14 per 0.1mpg they fail to meet the standards by.This increased penalty undoes the penalty reduction from the previous administration. -
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You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
Vehicles:
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has a year-end report for 2021 about the EV industry in the Southeast U.S. and it has some pretty interesting stuff in it.
The link above is for a 2-page infographic with some cool stats.EV sales more than doubled from 2020 to 2021 in the Southeast.43% of the U.S.'s total announced investment in EV manufacturing and jobs were in the Southeast in 2021.Tesla has once again increased prices.
Rivian increased the price of their vehicles by a lot, and kinda goofed in the process.
They increased the price of their R1T truck by up to $12k in some cases, including increasing the price for existing reservation-holders.We have a first drive review of the Subaru Solterra electric vehicle by Green Car Reports, but no release date apart from "in 2022" so far.
Porsche has announced plans to build a charging network beginning in 2023, but details are currently scant.
They also upped their EV sales goals to 50% battery-electric by 2025 and 80% battery-electric by 2030.Ford officially has pricing available for their bi-directional home chargers at $1,310.
These chargers will be necessary for vehicle-to-grid functionality for the F-150 Lightning (unless some 3rd party chargers come along to offer that function).They are 80A chargers, so they can offer nearly 19.2kW of charging, which is super high.This price is high, but it's not exactly unreasonable, really. A ChargePoint home charger may cost around $600 on its own.These chargers will be built by Siemens.GM's Cadillac Lyriq EV will begin production on March 21, 2022, with preorders reopening in the coming months.
GM and the utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) are partnering on a pilot project looking at bidirectional charging and the grid.
GM has sold its stake of $75m (less than 5%) in Lordstown Motors.
Jaguar is using old I-Pace batteries to support operations for its Formula E program.
These batteries power auxiliary and such where grid access is limited during Formula E testing.The batteries are charged by solar panels on-site. It's not a huge thing, but it's pretty cool.Ascend Elements (discussed briefly in Ep. 40) has been selected by SK Battery America to recycle their battery manufacturing scrap.
“People often think lithium-ion battery recycling is just for end-of-life batteries, but waste from the battery cell manufacturing process is the biggest segment of the battery recycling market right now,” said Michael O’Kronley, CEO of Ascend Elements.Mercedes-Benz is going to get into the battery recycling game, planning to open a pilot plant in 2023 at a site in Kuppenheim, Germany.
This pilot plant will be able to process 2,500 tons of batteries per year.They have a goal of recycling over 96% of a battery.A battery manufacturer startup, SPARKZ, is planning on building a battery factory in West Virginia in 2022 that will employ displaced coal miners.
They are partnering with the United Mine Workers of America to recruit and train those displaced miners.The facility will employ around 350 workers.Deployment:
Volvo and Momentum Dynamics are partnering to pilot wirelessly charging taxi vehicles in Gothenburg, Sweden.
These wireless chargers will charge at 40kW.They will be used on a "small fleet" of XC40 Recharge EVs operated by Cabonline.Volvo and Starbucks are teaming up to install DC Fast Chargers at Starbucks locations, initially on a route between Seattle, Washington and Denver, Colorado.
This initial charging network will have up to 60 chargers along the 1,350mi route between those cities, with up to 15 locations selected around 100mi (160km) apart.These will be ChargePoint chargers.Drivers of Volvo vehicles will get either free or discounted charging at these locations.The installations are slated to be completed by the end of 2022.This may be a wider network in the future.The companies Tritium and Wise EV are partnering to develop a national charging network in the U.S., starting with 25 locations in Florida.
The press release doesn't say when the chargers will be built by.The release also mentions the Infrastructure Bill funding at length and it's not clear if they will build the network primarily through Infrastructure Bill funds or if they will foot the bill if they don't win funding.IndianOil, a huge oil producer in India, has installed over 1,000 charging stations across India.
Florida's Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority has received $18.4m of federal funding to deploy 12 electric buses, 12 depot chargers, and 2 inductive wireless chargers.
Denver's transit agency has ordered 17 electric transit buses from New Flyer.
Energy:
Burlington, Vermont's electric utility is offering an incentive for multi-unit dwellings to install EV chargers.
There is extra funding for sites that benefit lower-income communities.The funding can cover over 50% of the total cost of installation.Early County, Georgia will get 70MW of new solar by the end of 2022, built by Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives.
Dominion Energy has received regulatory approval in Virginia to move forward with around 1GW of solar projects.
Duke and Dominion Energy will begin factoring in Scope 3 (supply chain and customer) emissions into their net zero goals.
We will learn more about what actions they will take on this front in October.Oak Ridge National Labs and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will partner to explore different decarbonization technologies and strategies.
They will explore:Chevron has acquired Renewable Energy Group for $3.15b.
Renewable Energy Group (REG) produces renewable and bio diesel.We should have more info about what this means for the future of the companies in the coming months.A new report finds that coal mining releases more methane than venting and flaring from oil and gas wells.
The report is by the Global Energy Monitor.This is pretty huge, considering how major methane emissions from oil and gas is.According to this report, each industries methane emissions are:The report says that these emissions are equal to the total greenhouse gas emissions from 1,100 coal-fired power plants in China.These numbers come from directly measuring methane emissions from around 2,300 coal mines globally.Full report.Miscellaneous:
Big Storm Brewing Company in Florida captures CO2 from the brewing process and uses it to carbonate their own beer, and apparently saves money in the process.
This is a cool story and it's super surprising that it's apparently profitable for them. -
**During this episode I used the word "OEMs" a lot, that means "Original Equipment Manufacturers", which is a general term we use to refer to the companies who actually manufacture the equipment we're discussing.
If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to find me on Twitter @archduketyler
You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
Vehicles:
Lordstown Motors maintains that it will manage to sell 500 of its Endurance electric trucks this year.
VW has increased the range of its ID4 EV by around 20mi in the long range version for the 2022 model through efficiency increases.
Toyota will offer 1 year of free fast charging at EVGo stations for buyers of their bZ4X electric vehicle, still slated for sale mid-2022.
The article claims that it's interesting that they chose EVGo stations since there are "only" 800 stations across the country, but I think this is much more a "who can we make this deal with" situation than some clever demographic push.Kia is offering 1000kWh of free charging at Electrify America stations for EV6 buyers.
This is something like 3,500mi (5,500km) or so of charging.This is equivalent to about $430 worth of charging, since Electrify America charging costs $0.43/kWh.Fisker has opened reservations for a $29,900 EV we have very little information about yet, for delivery in 2024.
It'll be called the Pear.Reservations are $250.Fisker's Ocean EV is slated to begin production in late 2022.Uber drivers with EVs will be able to get a discounted rate for Wallbox home chargers, but the discount rate is still unannounced.
All 36 of Tesla's Supercharging sites in the Netherlands are officially open to all EVs.
Tesla has officially produced its millionth large-format 4680 battery cell, which is a pretty decent milestone for a battery that is apparently difficult to manufacture.
This is enough batteries to power about 1000 Model Y's.Ep. 2, 12, 36 all discuss this battery type in some detail.Nissan is ending internal combustion engine development everywhere except for in the U.S, because of course.
Nissan is investing $500m in its Canton vehicle plant in Mississippi to produce two new EV models.
The Universal Technical Institute (UTI, seriously), a school in Phoenix, is adding EV training to its Ford training program in partnership with Ford.
This is part of the Ford Accredited Credential Training program.Ford is plug-in hybrid vehicles to each campus to be used for the training program.Volvo is also collaborating with Redwood Materials, the battery recycler, on a pilot project.
This is in addition to Ford working with Redwood Materials (Episode 28).The goal is to prove that a circular economy is possible with EV batteries.The U.S. Department of Energy (through Infrastructure Bill funding) has announced $2.91b in funding for battery manufacturing, research, and recycling.
Deployment:
Rhode Island Public Transit Authority has purchased 14 New Flyer electric buses and chargers for its fleet.
New York City's Transit Authority has ordered 60 New Flyer electric buses, adding to their existing 15 New Flyer electric buses.
New Jersey has ordered 8 New Flyer electric buses with the option to buy up to 75 more over the next 5 years.
Norway's Postal Service has ordered a total of 32 electric and 13 biogas trucks from Volvo to be delivered in 2022.
*that's how you do it, USPS*Norway has some pretty aggressive terrain and climate, so this is a great sign for electrification.Daimler, NextEra Energy Resources, and BlackRock Renewable Power are forming a $650m joint venture to install EV charging across the U.S. for medium and heavy duty trucking.
The article says both battery electric and fuel cell vehicles, which is interesting, though hydrogen support will "come later".The stations will also be available for light-duty vehicles.The first chargers will come in 2023.The three companies will be equal partners.Florida is getting 200 fast chargers made by ADS-TEC Energy, deployed by Smart City Capital.
These chargers have on-site battery storage and can supply up to 320kW of charging.Deployments start in late 2022.They intend to roll out such deployments across 13 states, though we don't know which states yet.Energy:
Duke Energy is considering offering a flat-rate "all* you can charge" program for EV owners in North Carolina.
It would cost $20/mo.In exchange, Duke Energy would get to control your charging to some degree for load-side demand response.Duke Energy would provide 12hr notice to customers before stopping the charging, and customers could opt out a limited number of times per month.Duke Energy could only halt 4hr of charging, 3 times per month.The break-even point for the $20 cost is around 170kWh or 600mi (1000km) of driving.Customers charging over 800kWh in a month may be removed from the program.A blueberry farm in Maine is testing out a solar + agriculture setup for a 4-year research pilot.
The project is in early days, so we don't know if it's successful or not so far.The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has begun auctioning offshore areas off the New Jersey and New York coasts for wind generation.
The area auctioned is large enough to produce upwards of 5GW of offshore wind power.Over $1.5b of bids came in for the auction, which is a record apparently.Legislation is working its way to the Florida state Senate (having passed in the House) to develop a regulatory framework for floating solar installations.
Floating solar is super cool: -
HUGE DISCLAIMER: As always, I do not represent any organizations I work for in my professional life, these are my thoughts and my thoughts alone.
If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to find me on Twitter @archduketyler
You can now support me on Patreon, if you so choose! Thank you so much for support in any way you provide it, whether that's via Patreon, sharing the podcast with friends and family, reviewing on your podcast platform of choice, or simply by listening to the show!
Some helpful links from the show:
National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) guidance document (32p).
How much funding each state will get through NEVI.
Alternative Fuel Corridor Requirements.
Clean School Bus Program Initial Implementation Plan.
My brief notes on the NEVI guidance:
Renewable energy generation and storage can be funded if they lower overall operation and construction costs (p.12)The development of the State Plan is an eligible cost (p.12)Exceptions can be made to the Corridor-related requirements under rare circumstances on a site-by-site basis (p.17)Some site benefits specifically called out as focus areas include: access to affordable charging, charging infrastructure for transit and ride-share vehicles, and minimize gentrification-induced displacement due to new EV charging infrastructure (p.18)The new EV Charging Justice40 Mapping Tool is available for planning equitable infrastructure (p.18)The focus of the funds is for publicly accessible charging, but they can also be used for charging that will be available for at least 2 different companies (p.19)There are no deadlines for disbursing the money.Funding can cover operations/maintenance for up to five years, especially for low-utilization areas (p.19)Funding can cover site planning and installation costs (p.20)Funding can cover signage (p.20)Funding can cover Mapping and analysis related to forecasting infrastructure needs (basically our Master Plan, but more; p.20/21)Existing corridors that are designated but do not meet new corridor requirements don't need to be redesignated, but they can't be considered "fully built out" until they meet the new requirements at minimum (p.22)Charging costs at funded sites need to be comparable to market prices (p.22)States should work on developing permitting processes that support operation of charging infrastructure within 6mo of procurement (p.22/23)Sites should be developed such that they operate longer than the 5yr of operations/maintenance covered by the NEVI funds (p.24)Clean Cities callout on p.24 and p.30!!States should consider requiring project data sharing, including charging usage, cost, and reliability (p.29)Some notes on the Clean School Bus program:
Key takeaways:
$2.5b will be made available for zero-emission* school buses over five years;$2.5b will be made available for clean school buses** over five years;The first round of funding may be opened as early as April 2022;Funding may cover 100% of the cost of bus replacement and fueling for those buses;Further guidance will be available no later than March 15, 2022.Goals of the funding:
Replacing older diesel buses that do not meet current EPA emissions standards with newer, alternative fuel buses;Reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of alternative fuels;Support the Federal Government’s Justice40 initiative by focusing on rural and underserved communities;Support domestic manufacturing and American jobs.Below is a list of eligible recipients for funding:
Government Entities that are responsible for:Providing school bus service to public school systems; orThe purchase of school buses.Eligible Contractors, which can be for-profit or not-for-profit, that have the capacity to:Sell eligible school buses or fueling infrastructure or maintain school buses;Arrange financing for such a sale.Nonprofit School Transportation AssociationsTribes, Tribal Organizations, and Tribally-controlled schools that are responsible for:Providing school bus service to one or more Bureau-funded schools; orThe purchase of school buses.The EPA may prioritize applications that serve:
High-need local education agencies;Tribal schools;Rural or low-income areas; orApplications that provide cost share through public-private partnerships, grants from other entities, or school bonds.The EPA will consider each of the following criteria equally when evaluating project proposals:
Lowest cost of bus replacement;Local conditions, such as the length of bus routes and weather conditions;The impact on domestic manufacturing jobs, especially in underserved communities;Technologies that most reduce emissions;Whether technologies will bring new technologies to scale or promote cost parity between old technology and new technology, particularly for production in the United States. -
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Vehicles:
GM is planning to restart production of the Chevy Bolt vehicles in the beginning of April.
Ford is planning on making constant, iterative improvements to the Mach-E instead of doing yearly updates.
One reason cited for this decision is that it helps inform the production of other electric vehicles more quickly than yearly updates.Green Car Reports has a first ride article for the F-150 Lightning - not much groundbreaking info, but the impressions are positive.
BMW will offer two years of free charging on Electrify America chargers for their customers.
This is available for buyers of:They specify 30min charging sessions, but it's unclear if there is a limit on the number of sessions.Jaguar is going to have a dedicated, ground-up EV platform called "Panthera".
They still plan to sell 100% electric vehicles by 2030.Lightning eMotors is now producing Class 3 through Class 6 vehicles through GM.
Airstream is toying with a concept trailer that would have large battery packs both for being off-grid while camping as well as for assisting the vehicle towing it.
The off-grid part is simple enough, the battery can power all electronics and such while parked.The vehicle assist part is more complicated.Toyota is investing $73m more into its plant in Buffalo, West Virginia for the purpose of producing more electric motors.
Part of this investment goes to producing 120k rear motor stators per year.Volvo and Northvolt are building a battery plant in Sweden that will produce up to 50GWh of batteries per year, opening in 2025.
The company, Ascend Elements, will open a battery recycling plant in Georgia by August 2022.
They are investing $43m in the facility and will be able to recycle 30k metric tons of batteries.They also intend to build a facility to produce cathode materials in 2023.Yet another company (Continental) is trying to offer automated charging, but this time through a physical connection instead of inductive.
It's super unclear if the charger bit moves to meet the car, but it can apparently handle 30cm (12in) of deviance in parking.The article is funny, because it talks about an alleged benefit being energy efficiency, but mentions Oak Ridge National Labs' demonstration of high efficiency wireless charging.The article also mentions that this seems like a better solution than the Tesla snake robot, but I wholly disagree: the snake robot doesn't require a retrofit for the car, this solution does.They're aiming for full production in 2024.Deployment:
Oslo's transit agency has ordered 183 Solaris electric transit buses!
These are Urbino 18 buses.The deal is worth approximately €100m.They're expected to go into service in April, and these will replace older, non-electric, Solaris models.These buses have a 500kWh battery pack.MetroLINK in Illinois has been awarded a $5m grant by Rebuild Illinois to build overhead chargers to support their growing electric transit bus fleet.
They plan to grow their transit fleet to 30% electric.70% of their fleet is currently compressed natural gas.Energy:
The U.S. saw an increase of about 28GW of electricity generation in 2021, with over 75% being renewable.
40.8% wind35.6% solar18.8% natural gasCryptocurrency companies are arguing that they will strengthen Texas' grid because they can act as demand-side response.
The linked Washington Post article talks about some of the problems with this statement, though I don't necessarily wholly support the article.One issue with the idea of cryptocurrency being good as demand response is the same argument against curtailed renewables for hydrogen: you need to over-build capacity in order to be demand response, and this decreases your uptime.Duke Energy will shut down all coal generation by 2035 and will invest over $100b in "cleaner sources".
Clearway Energy Group has begun operations at a 115MW wind farm in West Virginia, which will provide power to Toyota and American Electric Power (AEP).
Saluda County, South Carolina is getting nearly 75MW of new solar power.
Policy:
There's funding available for Level 2 charging in the Jacksonville, Florida area through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program.
Deadline is March 30.Funding is up to $7,500 for equipment and installation. - Mostrar mais
