CelticSolar

Doh! Most solar panels are facing the wrong way, new study shows

2013-11-21T08:43:00.001-08:00

Doh! Most solar panels are facing the wrong way, new study shows "Getting the most out of solar panels might seem easy, but it isn't. Common sense tells us that pointing them south (in the Northern hemisphere) will lead to the best performance, but according to a new study, they actually do better when pointed west because peak demand on the power grid is in the afternoon and evening, and so getting more solar power during that period is actually more useful at reducing the need for polluting sources of energy.

In short: To get maximum benefits, it's not just about how much electricity is produced, but also when it is produced..."

Strong Standards Make America Safe

2012-08-26T12:01:00.001-07:00

While Charging Only

2011-11-21T00:23:00.001-08:00

Electric vehicle charging stations are being installed all around the world. For most regions this is a new experience. Many things should be considered: Where should they be installed? What are the considerations for disabled EV drivers? How should they be labeled? Many lessons will be learned over the next few years. Regardless of planning, some learnings will only happen by trial and error.

You can see in image 1 below, currently there are many ways under trial to indicate an EV parking spot.

Image 1 - The Signs of Our Time

At some point we'll need to converge on a standard sign. Let's look at some of the aspects of EV signage. Let's start with the No Parking "circle slash P" sign that is currently used in the city of Portland.

Image 2 - Portland EV parking sign

No Parking (except electric vehicles)
To label a parking spot as "no parking" is confusing. Although confusing, since most vehicles on the road today are gas powered, this works well to ward them off from the precious few spots that currently have charging stations. As more EV parking spaces are added, I am not sure labeling them 'no parking' is the right solution. I prefer the positive expression of what can park there, rather than what can't.

For comparison, when a table is being held at a restaurant, it is not marked "no sitting, except for the party that reserved this table." While I understand, and appreciate, the 'no parking' aspect, these signs seem like they are telling a long winded story.

The lower half of this sign reads Electric Vehicle Parking Only. This should be enough to let someone know they can not park their gas car there.

Let's look at another sign.

EV Parking Only

Image 3 - Electric Car Parking

Labeling a spot ELECTRIC CAR only, as in the image above, has multiple problems. Yes CAR is fewer letters to pay the painter, but there are electric trucks and other vehicles too. My first EV was a Chevy S10 Electric; does this label mean I cannot park my truck there? Of course not. I am nit-picking; however, if this word requires me to know when I can make exceptions, then maybe other aspects of the sign are also up to drivers' interpretations. "VEHICLE" or (if you want to minimize letters) "AUTO" are better choices.

The more important part of these words is ELECTRIC. For pure electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, there is no question if they can park there, but what about vehicles like the Chevy Volt? It has had an identity crisis, with GM calling it "more car than electric", while others call it a plug-in hybrid. It has an onboard internal combustion engine that usually doesn't, but when needed can, directly provide power to the wheels. The Volt's marketing issues aside, what about Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) such as the Plug-in Prius? They make no claim to be electrically-only driven. Can they park there? Of course they can, they are plug-in cars.


Image 4 - Hybrid and EV Parking	Image 5 - Alt-Fuel Parking

If ELECTRIC can be interpreted to mean partially-electric as in the case of the Volt and the Plug-in Prius, then can an HEV that does not plug in, such as a Honda Civic Hybrid or a Ford Escape Hybrid, park there? Many of the alt-fuel parking signs, such as Images 4 and 5, allow HEV, biodiesel, CNG, vege oil, or H2 combustion vehicles to park there, so it is not unreasonable for HEV drivers to assume they can park in a spot like the one shown in Image 3.

What kind of vehicle is the parking spot in Image 3 really intended for? If this spot has a charging station, and the point is to make it available for plug-in ~~cars~~ vehicles, then this needs to be clear. Rather than referring to the vehicle's drive-train (PHEV, BEV, HEV, EREV...), what matters is whether or not it can use grid power for propulsion. Given this, the better term is PLUG-IN rather than ELECTRIC. With all of these considerations, the text for Image 3, IMHO, should read PLUG-IN VEHICLE PARKING.

One additional clarification, note that I said "use grid power for propulsion", rather than "plugs in". Plugs in could refer to a block heater or an alternator disconnect 12V battery system. Neither of these use electricity to propel the car and so should not be able to park in this spot. This is the sort of clarification that can be spelled out in local parking ordinances.

While Charging Only

Image 6 - EV parking sign in Beaverton Oregon at the Farmers Market parking lot

Another bit of text occasionally found on charging signs can be seen at the bottom of Image 6. The phrase is "While Charging" or "While Charging Only". This seems well-intentioned; once you are done charging, you should move your car and allow someone else to charge up. However, requiring the vehicle to be charging has some unintended side-effects:

If someone comes along and unplugs my car, then I am suddenly illegally parked.
It prevents a charging station from servicing more than one parking spot.
If my batteries fill up and stop charging, I am again, illegally parked.
Once full, if I unplug and move my car, then I can not use the remote cabin preconditioning feature without reducing my range.

Looking at each of these carefully, you'll see that the three little words "While Charging Only" causes several problems.

The second item on this list is the one I find most troubling. If placed correctly, a single charging station can service up to six parking spots, regardless of which ones are marked EV-only. EV drivers have developed a charging station sharing protocol. This protocol lets you know when another vehicle has enough juice so you can unplug it and plug in your own vehicle. However, if the spot they are parked in is marked "While Charging" then unplugging that vehicle, even with permission, would cause them to be in violation of the parking sign.

Let's look at the example from Image 6 above. In this parking lot there are three level 2 charging stations. These are in front of parking spots #2, 4, and 6 on the east side of the lot. Only the parking spots directly in front of the stations are marked for EV only. However, due to the placement of the charging pedestals parking spots #1, 3, and 5 can also easily be serviced by these charging stations.

Say I were to pull into this parking lot and the EV only spots (2,4, & 6) are occupied. So I park in spot #1. I look and the car in spot #2 has a protocol card that says it can be unplugged at 3:00pm. I am in luck, it is 3:30. They have enough juice to get to their destination. I, on the other hand, need to charge. If there were no "While Charging" restriction, I would disconnect their car and plug mine in. In this scenario, both drivers get the charge they need and the charging station is more fully utilized. That is why it is there.

Unfortunately, this parking lot has the "While Charging" restriction shown in Image 6. So, I would not be able to charge there unless I were willing to illegally unplug the other car, where one or both of us could be ticketed. So I would either have to forgo charging or sit around waiting for one of the drivers to leave before I could plug in. Most people would do the former unless they desperately needed to charge.

Since public infrastructure is currently rare, anything that can be done to maximize its use should be the law of the land. The point of the public charging infrastructure is to have it utilized. In this case the While Charging clause is preventing exactly that.

California recently had a bill (AB 475) to address public EV charging etiquette. General Motors asked for an amendment similar to those we discussed in the first half of this post. They wanted to make it clear that plug-in hybrid vehicles, like the Volt, would be able to legally park in "EV" parking spots. These changes make sense, but along with these changes, GM also added a "While Charging Only" requirement.

This did not go unnoticed by California's EV community. When this was pointed out, it seemed like it would be a simple matter to keep the PHEV clarifications and remove the While-Charging-clause. However, it was not that simple, GM showed their arrogance by ignoring their potential customers and advocates. They insisted that all the amendments remain. The state legislature listened to GM rather than their citizens. The bill passed the state legislature and now "While Charging Only" is the preferred sign text in the state.

Oregon and other regions that are rolling out infrastructure should learn from California's mistake. Here are a couple better alternatives: on Electric Avenue in Portland every parking spot has their own charging station, so there is no contention to plug in once you are parked. This removes the sharing hurdles that "While Charging" causes; however, the other issues remain. And having every parking spot with a charging station is obviously not a scalable solution. Considering the associated costs a station should be installed such that it can service as many possible parking spots as possible.

The second solution they use is simply restricted parking times. Like most street parking in downtown Portland, these Electric Avenue spots have time restrictions. The DC Quick Charger parking spot is limited to one hour. This ensures some level of turn over on this high-demand spot. Of course, putting time restrictions on level 2 spots will mean that drivers will not be able to fill up from empty, but topping up with a mid-day convenience 1-4 hour charge should be all that most drivers need. Parking garages, home charging, and DC quick charging can handle the rest.

Conclusions
For EV parking signage there are several semantic considerations. A sign should:

not say car, if vehicle is what is meant
not say electric vehicle, if plug-in vehicle is what is meant

Labeling a parking spot as "No Parking" only adds to confusion. I prefer "Plug-In Vehicle Only". And finally, "While Charging" should not be part of the signage. If the goal of these signs is to increase public infrastructure utilization, in practice, these words have the opposite result. In areas where there is contention for EV parking spots, simple time restrictions, like most urban parking areas already have, gives more vehicles a chance to participate and improves infrastructure utilization.

Oregon Gets Plugged In

2011-11-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Electric Vehicle Charging Station in Portland Oregon

Portland is a nice testing ground for plug-in cars. The per capita hybrid ownership here is higher here than anywhere else in the US. The urban growth boundary provides a high density that allows trips to and from the surrounding suburbs and back well within the range of EVs such as the Nissan Leaf or Mitsubishi i or the soon to be here Ford Focus Electric and Honda Fit EV.

In 2010, to reduce emissions from transportation, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 1059. Given the ample hydroelectric power and growing wind and solar in this region, the best way to reduce transportation emissions is to power transportation with electricity.

To facilitate this, Oregon invested in transportation electrification and applied for and received federal grant. Charging stations are being installed in Oregon by the following projects:

The EV Project - This is a $230 million dollar public/private partnership project is deploying 14,000 chargers in six states and the District of Columbia. This program is installing both public and residential charging stations. In Oregon The EV Project will deploy about 900 home stations to new EV owners, 1,150 publicly available Level 2 charging stations, and 45 DC Quick Chargers.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) - This federal stimulus grant paid for the peculiar combination of high efficiency woodstoves, irrigation, & EV charging stations. $700,000 will be spent installing 8 DC quick chargers in the southern part of the state by the end of the year.
Tiger II - The bulk of this $27 million grant will be spent improving light-rail and freight rail, however, $2 million will be spent to install 42 DC quick chargers along the I-5 corridor.
Electric Avenue is a street in Portland that has 8 charging stations. Plug-in vehicle manufacturers can bring their vehicles here to test compatibility. This installation was paid for by Portland State University, Portland General Electric, and the City of Portland.

DC Quick Charger in Central Point Oregon

Other Oregon investments in EVs include Drive Oregon. It is the state's EV small business incubator. Drive Oregon members are made up of EV manufacturers, component designers and developers, and EV charging station manufacturers. The group is funded by $1.2 million from the Oregon Legislature.

Additionally, local governments such as the city of Hillsboro are installing charging stations at transit centers and parking garages. Within her city limits, Hillsboro currently has more EV charging stations than gas stations.

So if you are looking for a launch market to test your EV in, consider Oregon. You can collect data here about usage and charging patterns that you could not get anywhere else.

Sweet Revenge Comes to Portland

2011-10-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

If revenge is sweet, then Portland is going to get its sweet-tooth satisfied on November 4th when Revenge of the Electric Car has its Portland premiere.

The northwest electric vehicle community is pulling out the stops to support the film on the night of the premiere in three ways:

There is free parking for plug-in vehicles just across Sandy Blvd from the Hollywood Theatre. Portland General Electric is sponsoring this free parking for up to 70 vehicles.
Many EV drivers will be caravanning to the theater from the new DC fast charger at the nearby Fred Meyer store.
41st Ave on the west side of the theater will have some of Portland's coolest EVs on display.

Chris Paine, director and co-writer of Revenge, will be arriving in an EV and addressing the audience in a Q & A session after the 7PM screening.

Tickets are available online from Hollywood Theatre.

To RSVP for free EV parking contact plugin@pgn.com. Free parking location is 1814 NE 41st Street, right across the street from the theater, above the Rite Aid, on the rooftop level.

To participate in the EV caravan (dubbed the EV Road Rally), arrive at the Hollywood district Fred Meyer charging stations before 5:30PM. The store's address is 3030 NE Weidler Street. The caravan leader is Steve “LEAF” Erickson. You can contact him at:
Email: steven.erickson@mssb.com
Cell phone: (360)513-6040

Coast to Coast EV Drive

2011-09-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

There have been many highly publicized EV treks: coast to coast, around the world, to the Arctic Circle... You name it, someone has tried to drive it in an EV. Most of these trips have very good intentions to raise awareness of EVs and/or renewable energy.

I laud these efforts, but as I have mentioned in other posts, they are often using EVs for the one thing they currently are not well suited for, long distance treks.

This is not a trek story. I picked up my Nissan Leaf on May 18th and recently crossed the 3300 mile mark. Why is 3300 significant? This is the distance from Seattle, WA to Miami, FL.

I did not drive from Seattle to Miami or NY to LA or any other monumental trek. These 3300 miles were primarily racked up with commuting and errands, trips to pick-up dog food, milk and eggs, or burritos. This is were EVs shine. All of these trips are well within the car's range. With these trips, there is no concern about making it to the next charging location. The car ends each day in my home garage, where it has a dedicated level 2 charger.

This blog post is a celebration of the mundane trips that make up most people's driving. 3,300 miles in just less than 4 months is an average of ~28 miles per day. The Leaf's 100 mile range covers this with ease.

Different cars have different capabilities. If you were going to help a friend move gravel with your vehicle, you should take a truck rather than a sports car. The same is true for EVs. Today the range is too short and the charging times are too long for EV treks to be popular for anyone other than EV diehards to attempt. However, if you have to run to the store, daycare, then soccer with cargo of groceries and kids, then the Leaf is a great fit.

Perhaps, a decade from now the country (or better yet the world) will be dotted with fast charge stations that would make treks simple. Until then, if I want to make one of these epic journeys, I'll rent a Prius and leave my EV at home.

EV in an Emergency

2011-08-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Several times each year I display my EV at public events. There are the usual 'How far will it go?' and 'How long does it take to charge?' questions. One of the less frequent but recurring questions is 'What if you have an emergency?' I can now answer that question with an actual experience, rather than a hypothetical response.

Where I work there is free, solar powered, EV charging. During the week, this has become my primary charging source. Free renewable energy, it can't get much better. One typical morning, I park with 48 miles of range remaining. I plug in the car and head to my cubical like any other workday. These are only level 1 outlets, but the car typically emails me around 3 in the afternoon to say that it is full. Level 1, albeit slow, is adequate for workplace charging.

At about 2:30 that afternoon I get a call from my wife. She was rollerskating at Oaks Park with my daughter when she fell and broke her wrist. Oh no! I told her that she needed to head to the nearest emergency room. She could not drive. Call an ambulance, I tell her. No it is not bleeding, she responds. Ok then call a taxi, I say, and I'll meet you there. No, you come get me, she responds.

I grab my keys and head to the car. I am ~25 miles away and have to drive through downtown Portland to get there. The car has had all morning and early afternoon to charge, that along with the 48 miles it had, means it should be nearly full.

Unplug, jump in, start the car; as I am backing out, I see the car only has 50 miles of range. There are about 10 EVs at my workplace and the charging stations have 8 outlet pairs (16 outlets). This means that occasionally two EVs will be plugged into the same circuit on an outlet. The outlets have 20 amp GFIs. A Nissan Leaf like mine can draw up to 12 amps when charging at full level 1. This means that it is possible for two EVs to exceed the 20 amp limit of a GFI. The car I was sharing the circuit with was a conversion EV which I later found out was pulling 19 amps. I generally use the Leaf smartphone app to check on my car sometime mid-day to see if it is going as expected. On this day, unfortunately, I made no such check.

This was bad timing for the GFI to pop, but I still have more range than I need to get there. I hop on the freeway and drive ... fast. This is not the slow driving with most traffic passing me as I go merely 3 MPH over the posted limit, that is my norm. This is an emergency. I don't have the car or my right foot in Eco mode. The quick acceleration is just what I need to jump into any traffic opening I can find to get there sooner. Luckily rush hour(s) had not started and I am able to make good time.

I arrive in the parking lot to find her waiting in the passenger seat of her Prius. From her, 'no I'll wait for you' comments on the phone I was wondering if her wrist was really broken or just sprained. Now that I see it, her arm is not straight. It is broken! I jump into the driver's seat of her car and head to the emergency room about 5 miles away. They set her wrist and put a splint on her.

I am there by her side for the entire ordeal. Then they said that she needs to stay in an observation room for an hour or so just to make sure there are no side effects from the drugs they gave her during the procedure (which included propofol, the drug that Micheal Jackson overdosed on).

While she is being observed, I am to go pick up our daughter. She is still at Oaks Park with one of our friends and her children. I drive back to Oaks and park the Prius next to the Leaf. Only now do I start to wonder how I am going to get both cars home. I'll need a 2nd driver. The Leaf reports 20 miles of range remaining. It is only 13 miles to my house from there, I probably could make it, but I'd prefer not to deep discharge the battery. I did buy this car, not lease it. Also I would prefer not to drive the last couple (uphill) miles in turtle mode.

I am going to need some help. Hitting the 'find nearest charging station' shows one on Barbur and several in downtown Portland, just 3 miles away. A friend of mine lives in the south waterfront district which happens to be about half way between me and the downtown charging stations. I give him a call, tell him what is going on, and ask him if he can meet me at one of the downtown charging stations and give me a ride back to Oaks Park. He agrees. I can easily take the MAX back downtown and pick up the Leaf either that night or early the next morning and it will be adequately charged by then.

The first charging station that I find is occupied, but I find another 2 blocks away. This is one time that living in an EV-friendly area with several charging stations is coming in very handy. Many times I have said that home charging is all that is really needed, maybe I need to rethink that a little.

My friend shuttles me back to Oaks, I pick up my daughter. We then pick up my wife and head home in the Prius. I call her brother, he is getting off work that night at 10pm and had taken public transportation. He is happy to help me get the Leaf in return for a ride home. I have the 2nd driver I need.

I arrive to pick him up in the Prius. In the couple minutes that I am waiting, I run the Leaf app on my phone and see that the car is up to 42 miles of range, and it will have more by the time we get there. This is more than enough for the 12 mile drive home. He gets in the car and we head downtown. We pull up next to the Leaf, I hand him the keys and because we are double parked with traffic behind us, the only instructions I gave him were "The shifter is a little different. You'll figure it out."

I have to admit that I was a little worried. This is my new car, the one I blog about, and post pictures of on facebook. And I just gave the keys to my wife's little brother. On the other hand, I want people to experience the EV grin and know that these are 'real cars'. The best way to do that, is let them get behind the wheel. I circle the block and find a spot to wait behind him. He adjusts the seat and mirrors and pulls out into traffic. I follow. He turns on to the freeway, but headed in the wrong direction. He quickly realizes it, takes the next exit and gets back on headed the right way. Good thing the batteries have more than enough to make it home.

We head up the Sylvan hill at freeway-speeds. The Leaf can run up Pike's Peak, so the Sylvan hill is no sweat. We pull into my garage, he gets out and said "That is fun to drive." His only complaint was the slope of the front windshield reduces some visibility. Oh and that it is "too easy to speed because it is so quiet."

I give him a ride to his house, drop him off, and return home. The family is now all here and both cars are in the garage. The Leaf is charging on its own dedicated 40 A circuit.

It was a good thing that I didn't pull in to work with just 20 miles remaining that morning. In my normal routine, the range does not drop below 40 miles remaining. Now I have a reason to try to keep it there, just in case.

In conclusion, the Leaf worked great in this emergency. If I had a gas car that day, what would I have done different that day? Nothing. Even moving the car from Oaks to downtown would have been the same so I could have gotten to it via the light-rail system. The only thing I would do different that day is be more insistent that my wife call a cab rather than wait for me.

1000 Leaf Miles

2011-06-25T23:46:00.000-07:00

I picked up my Nissan Leaf on May 18th, 2011. It is a blue SLe model with all the options. I’ve had the car for 1 month and put just over 1000 miles on it.

This is enough time & miles to evaluate the car far more than a short test drive. I’ll cover the driving experience, range, and areas that I think could be better.

The Leaf is intended as an around-town commuter car. It fills this need very well. If you are looking for a racer, or a cross-country cruiser, skip the Leaf and keep looking.

Driving Experience
The driving experience is great. The car has enough acceleration off the line to put you back in your seat. The acceleration slows when you get above 40MPH or so, but still plenty for a car in this category. The low weight gives the car a solid feel when cornering. The front-wheel drive and traction control have kept it surefooted on the wet roads of Oregon.

It is difficult to compare an electric motor and a gasoline engine. They have very different performance characteristics. The 80kW motor only has 107 BHP. However, it has a full 206 ft-lbs of torque from zero PRMs. This aspect is more comparable to a 250 HP gas engine. So off the line, the Leaf feels like you have 250 horsepower, whereas at speed, it has a mere 100 horsepower feel.

If you are the first car at a red light and want to change lanes, you are not going to have any trouble zipping ahead of the other cars at that light (unless another one of them is an EV).

Driving Range
When driving an EV you do have to be “range aware” but there is no need for anxiety. The Leaf has a display that shows you an estimate of how far you can go. The estimate is based on two factors: how much charge you have left and how efficiently you have been driving recently.

The first thing that all EV drivers need to know is that not all miles are the same. Going 65 MPH uphill with the A/C on is very different from puttering around town. The range estimator in the car monitors your driving and attempts to tell you how far you can go based on your recent driving. For planning purposes, you should have an understanding of the impact that speed has on range. Here is a chart that shows the expected range at various speeds:

from mynissanleaf.com

Many Leaf owners have complained about the range estimator calling it the guess-o-meter or referred these as “Nissan Miles” to note that they may or may not be related to actual road miles. Among these complaints has been that this estimation value changes too much. If you accelerate hard, it drops; glide or regen and it goes back up. I live in a hilly area. When you climb a hill it drops, but when you use regenerative braking coming back down the hill the estimation goes back up. "If it is so dynamic, how much can you depend upon it?", they ask.

On the flip side, this ever-adapting value encourages efficient behavior. If you were to accelerate hard and the range did not adjust, you may incorrectly assume this has no impact. In addition to the range estimation the car also has a “fuel” gauge. This gauge is made up of 12 bars indicating how full the batteries are. This does not adjust based on your driving patterns, it is a simple measure of the charge you have remaining. I find this combination of estimate and fuel gauge meets my needs.

The lowest I have had the car was down to 2 bars remaining with an estimated 18 miles remaining. You should plan all of your trips to have at least 20 miles to spare to allow for unseen detours.

The Leaf has a great telematics system. It shows you how far you can go on the map with a white circle. If your destination is within this, you should have no trouble making it there. Outside of the white circle is a light grey ring, this is an area that you can reach if you drive efficiently. Outside of that is the dark grey area. If you plan to go there, you should look for charging stations along the way.

Speaking of charging stations, there is a button on the steering wheel that will show you the nearby charging stations at a glance. You can also select “nearby charging stations” in the navigation menu, and you can add these as waypoints on any trip. In the month that I have had the car more than 20 charging stations have been added within a single charge driving distance of my house.

Charging
I can charge in my garage with 240V 16A and I can charge at my work with 120V 12A. Most of the time I used overnight charging. This gave the car plenty of time to fill up and the car started out each day fully charged.

Last week I decided to see if only charging at work would meet my needs. With a 20 mile commute, during my workday the car was able to fully charge up, even on just a 120V outlet. The cost to my employer is minimal, about 40 cents worth of electricity each day. I consume more than 40 cents in free drinks that we have at work each day. It is good green PR, makes me happy to see their support and does not cost much, so it is a nice perk.

Complaints
My only complaints about the experience so far are not about the car itself, but the amenities. It comes with XM satellite radio. I was unimpressed with XM. It did not have as many stations as I would have liked and they had commercials. Why would I pay for radio with commercials?

The second radio failure is the lack of HD radio. There are free stations on HD radio that I do like. The Leaf system does not have HD. I took the car into my local Car Toys and they said that there was nothing that I could do about it short of replacing the entire telematics system. Since the Leaf’s system has some very special support for finding charging stations, I would not be able to find a replacement with these features.

The car does support streaming bluetooth, so I plan to listen to Internet radio via my yet-to-be-purchased smart-phone while driving.

Speaking of smart-phones, my next complaint is that the Carwing app for the car only works on the iPhone. This app will allow you to: check on the car’s state of charge, set charge times, turn on the climate control, set climate control timers... However, this app is not yet available on Android. Many people have Android phones, they seem to be ignoring too many customers by not supporting this OS.

Summary
I have been very happy with the Leaf. You can see that Nissan put a lot of thought into the car. It was not a conversion of an existing gas vehicle just to get something on the road, but a real effort to make an EV market for Nissan. There are things that they can fix in next year’s model and I hope this is just the first of many increasingly better EVs from Nissan.

EVs From Aptera to Zero

2011-02-18T09:42:00.000-08:00

If you have been following electric vehicles for any amount of time before 2010, then you know the heart-ache of disappointment.

Promises were made over and over about the new great EV that was going to come out and have a great range, do freeway speeds, and be affordable. The dream did not come true, in fact it was crushed repeatedly in 2001 through 2010 and until the Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt delivered their 2011 models in December of 2010 it looked like it may never happen.

December 2010 changed all of this disappointment into hope. This was the point when I felt I could exhale a long sigh of relief. I had been hoping that start-ups like Aptera, or Coda, or Zenn would deliver. I was shocked to see that it was not start-ups, but major auto manufacturers the likes of GM and Nissan that delivered.

Perhaps they were concerned that the writing was on the wall and that start-ups like Tesla were gaining too much ground or perhaps it was the ground swell of demand from buyers. What ever the reason, they responded and there are now EVs for sale. Real cars, with real freeway capabilities, and more are coming.

Ford, Honda and others are not going to sit back and let Nissan and GM run away with the new tech market. Toyota has made a deal with Tesla to produce an(other) electric RAV4. Ford and Honda have announced 2012 model EVs of their own.

It looks like EVs are here to stay this time. No auto maker wanted to be the one left behind. They have all learned the lessons of the Prius and want to be the one that had the next jump in this new plug-in technology.

If you want to see what EVs are coming out and which one would be right for you, check out the EV tracker at Plug In America. It has the complete list from Aptera to Zero. Narrow your search by the number of wheels and/or the availability date. There are vehicles available now and even more available next year.

Plug In America EV Tracker

Volt Car FTW

2011-01-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

Moving transportation off of crude oil is vital; pick your reason: energy prices, national security, war, military spending, pollution, environmental devastation, CO2... Whether your political views run left or right, down the middle or indifferent, there are reasons to support moving off of gasoline. Tea Party members can support the reduction in this massively government subsidized energy source. Tree Huggers can support the cleaner air. The indifferent can enjoy the decline (or at least slower rise) in gasoline prices as demand is decreased and competition is increased.

Toward the goal of moving away from oil, the Chevrolet Volt is an important car for America for two primary reasons. First, it allows electricity to be the primary fuel without any of the concerns that many people have about pure electric vehicles. The Volt is a plug-in hybrid* that can be "fueled" by electricity or gasoline. If the car has been plugged in, then the Volt uses its battery power for the first 25 to 50 miles (usually about 35 miles) of travel. If you need to drive more and don't want to stop to plug in then the Volt has a gas tank and an on-board gasoline generator that can move you another 340 miles down the road. At that point it operates like any gas car in that you can fill up at any gasoline station and keep on driving. The next time you plug in the car, it goes back to using cheaper, cleaner electricity. It is the best of both worlds.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation most Americans drive less than 30 miles each day. This means that with the Volt, most days will be completely gasoline free. Electricity will be used for commuting and all the in-town short trips, while gasoline will be there when you need it for a road trip to Vegas. If you are unsure of, or cannot use a full-electric car, then a plug-in hybrid with an electric range to cover "most days" is a great way to move the majority of your driving to electrical power and still have the safety net of all those quick-fill gas stations.

The second reason that the Volt is important, specifically to America, is that it is made by an American Company that has a loyal following. If a new technology like this had been introduced by a foreign car company, there are some people that would never consider it and even disparage it. The Volt has taken a couple of knocks from Rush Limbaugh, but Chevy diehards will ignore this completely. As their ads say "Chevy Runs Deep".

Americans know that General Motors is here to stay. As the recent US government bailout and resurrection IPO proved, GM is not going away. They will be here to honor their warranties and service their vehicles. Additionally, potential US customers know that the vehicles are being assembled in an American factory and that their payments are, at least in part, going in to the pockets of American workers.

The Volt reaches out to an audience that has never been interested in a car like the Prius. For example, when NASCAR's Rick Hendrick bought the first publicly available Volt in a charity auction, an entire segment of America was introduced to this car technology as something really cool. Yes, it is different technology than the Chevy that their Dad drove, but it comes from that same company and carries the same bow-tie logo that they trust.

The Volt will be the first opportunity for many people to experience an electric motor bigger than a golf cart. In a Volt you can feel the high-torque electric motor acceleration. The Volt will be the first chance for many to have the "EV Grin." In short, it is fun to drive. Plus it has a lower fuel bill and a quieter ride.

The Volt will also give people a choice of how they fuel their driving. They can plug in, filling up on locally generated electrons, putting money into their local economy. Or they can pump up, knowing that most of that money is going out of the country and some of it is going to regimes that don't like our freedoms or way of life. The point is the Volt gives them a choice.

Conclusions
The Volt is an eloquent machine that Americans can be proud of. When plugged in nightly, the Volt is fueled with enough locally generated electrons for most people's daily driving to be "energy independent." Because the Volt can be run on gasoline too, there is no need to be concerned about range limitations or charging times. Many people that would have ignored "yet-another-foreign-hybrid" will give a Chevy a chance.

References
Volt Specifications
Rick Hendrick Buys a Volt

Rick Hendrick fields 4 Sprint Cup teams:

Five time consecutive Sprint Cup Champion in the Lowe's #48 Chevrolet Impala SS driven by Jimmie Johnson.
Four Time Sprint Cup champion #24 Jeff Gordon
#5 Chevrolet driven by Mark Martin
and #88 driven by NASCAR’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.

* Call it a range extended electric vehicle (REEV) if you'd like.

Solar Powered Charging Station in Portland

2011-01-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

EV Charging Station at Farrell & Associates is Live!

Oregon is a eco-friendly state. With electric vehicles (EVs) like the Nissan LEAF arriving this year, it will be getting even greener. One business is getting ready for customers with EVs and plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt and Plug-in Prius that are expected in 2012.

The company is Farrell & Associates Inc. They are a real estate and property management company. They hope to attract eco-friendly customers with their new solar array and plug-in car charging station.

Mark Farrell, Principal Broker and Owner of Farrell & Assoc., said that they are doing this to be good neighbors and because it matters to customers in this region. Their business area has several recent green renovations and they are looking to stand out. Solar panels and an EV charging station help them do just that.

The solar photovoltaic (PV) system is made up of 40 solar panels and is 9.8 kilowatts in total. The PV array will generate enough energy to power an EV such as the LEAF nearly 40,000 miles per year. These solar panels are more than enough to charge any cars that plug in here while still greatly reducing the electricity bill of the business.

Solterra Systems installed the solar panels and partnered with Charge Northwest for the plug-in vehicle charging station.

Farrell said that they would not have been able to take these steps without the state and federal incentives.

The charging station has both level 1 and Level 2 charging and is open to the public free of charge!

Name: FARRELL & ASSOC / STATION #1
Address: 4772 N Lombard St, Portland, OR 97203, USA

Photos courtesy of Solterra Systems and Farrell & Associates

Turning Over A New Leaf in 2011: Nissan LEAF Innovations

2011-01-01T01:11:00.000-08:00

With dozens of patents to my name, I consider myself an innovative person. I enjoy looking to the future and wondering how it will be different. So while watching the Lance Armstrong commercial for the 2011 Nissan LEAF, when I heard the tagline "Innovation for the Planet. Innovation for all." it commanded my attention. Searching for LEAF innovations I found a quote from Jon Brancheau, Nissan N. America Marketing VP. He said the LEAF is the "poster child of innovation". Beyond a slogan and marketing guy's word, what innovations does the LEAF really have?

The obvious first thing that someone might call innovative about the LEAF is that it is all-electric. However, I would argue that point. My simplistic definition of innovation is the "introduction of something new". All-electric cars are not new. Production EVs were on the road in the early 1900s, in the 1990s, and there are EV conversions, forklifts, golf carts, the Tesla Roadster... The new thing about the LEAF is not the electric motor.

Innovation: Little Things
There are many small LEAF innovations such as noise reduced wiper blades and wiper motors, the shape of the headlights to move air around the mirrors to further reduce wind noise and the navigation system that shows the vehicle's driving range based on the current battery charge. These are things that make the vehicle more usable. They are not enough in themselves to label the vehicle as a poster child for innovation, but they are nice icing on the cake.

Innovation: Price and Availability
Nissan claims the LEAF will be the first freeway-speed electric car with 10,000 vehicles on the road. Worldwide Nissan is building five factories for the LEAF and its batteries. They're investing around $6 billion into this vehicle's production.

In Oregon, the after-incentive price is $23,780. In Cali, the after-incentive price is $20,280. That is a price that new car buyers can afford.

Before the LEAF, the options for freeway-speed EVs with more than 70 miles of range were limited to the few RAV4 EVs, expensive DIY or professional conversions, or an expensive sports car. The big innovation in the LEAF is the affordability and availability of an all-electric but otherwise very "normal" car. The LEAF is the first affordable, mass produced, EV with the size, speed, and range performance to meet a large percentage of people's driving needs.

The price of the LEAF is a game changer for the would-be EV industry. It will force the makers of vehicles like the Mitsubishi iMiEV, Wheego Whip, Smart ED, and others to reconsider their pricing. There is no significant market for a 100% electric vehicle that performs worse than the LEAF without that vehicle being priced notably cheaper. A smaller EV with less range cannot have a price tag equal or higher than the LEAF and expect to sell many vehicles. Even the Chevy Volt team needs to consider the LEAF when they price the 2012 model year Volt. How much of a price premium is an on-board generator worth? Far less than $9,000, IMHO.

Innovation: Batteries⁽¹⁾
For innovations, the batteries of the LEAF are a must mention. One of Nissan's advantages is that they make their own batteries. Nearly every other auto manufacturer that is coming out with a PEV in 2011 or 2012 is getting their batteries from someone else. This means that those manufacturers have to share their profits and/or charge a higher price for their vehicles. Nissan has been developing Lithium batteries since 1992 and they are the only company that used Lithium batteries in their 1990's EV (the Hypermini). Just as the biggest LEAF innovation was the business model for affordability and availability, again, in the batteries I assert that there is innovation in the business model. Nearly two decades of lithium powered vehicle experience and their own lithium battery production is unique in the industry.

Let's look at the battery tech itself. Nissan is not babying their lithium manganate packs in the LEAF. Whereas other EVs give the batteries better environmental conditioning than the passengers, Nissan says their batteries can take whatever Mother Nature dishes out anywhere but the worst corners of the globe. The batteries are not liquid cooled or heat pump conditioned. Others in the EV industry have said the lack of an active thermal management system makes it "under engineered" and that relying on a simple passive cooling system is "primitive". It may be but this passive system further reduces the vehicle's price. Will the gamble pay off? The batteries are covered by an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty, so we'll find out. And if this turns out to be "under engineered", Nissan will pick up the tab, not the customer.

Innovation: Connected Car
Next on the innovation list is the "connected car" or CARWINGS features of the LEAF. With this, your car becomes a smart phone accessory. The LEAF's smart phone app connects you to your car so you can check the charge, or turn on the heater or air conditioning. When the car is plugged-in, this feature allows you to use grid power to precondition the cabin. This way you can jump into a nice temp car, ready to drive and while you are driving, little or no energy is taken from your range to condition the cab.

Another connected car feature allows you to set the time that the car starts to charge at night. This allows you to plug it in as soon as you get home, while still paying off-peak rates (if you are on a tiered rate).

This communication path can go both ways. You can have the LEAF email or text you if it is not plugged in by a certain time such as 10PM. This is a little reassurance that you won't walk out to the garage in the morning to find an uncharged car.

And if you want to compare your driving efficiency with other LEAF owners, you can upload your data and see if you rank in the platinum, gold, silver, or bronze category. A little hypermiling social competition can help encourage efficient driving.

Innovation: LED Lighting

Nissan LEAF LED Headlight Assembly

In a traditional gasoline vehicle, the alternator is a small drag on horsepower that is always there. In return it provides power to recharge the starter battery and to run the accessories. In an all-electric vehicle the accessories such as the headlights are powered by the same batteries that are used to propel the car. So it is important that the accessories be efficient.

The LEAF's headlights use two LEDs per headlamp in normal (low beam) operation. This uses only 50 watts of power. This is significantly better than Halogen bulbs that use about 130W. And still better than the 90W LED bulbs that are used in other new vehicles today.

Do these low power lights mean that you won't be able to see the road? At 500 lumens and 5500K color, these wide beam lights ranks very similar to other production HID lamps.

Innovation: Recycled Materials
Last on my innovation list is the extent to which the car is both designed for recycling and made with recycled parts. The seat fabric is made from recycled water bottles and other interior plastics come from recycled material too. The majority of early LEAF adopters will be eco-minded, so this is good marketing, but it is more than just that. It is a smart way to get material for more cars.

Nissan claims that when a LEAF has reached the end of its life, it has a recoverability rate of 99%⁽²⁾. That is that to say that only 1% of the car will go to a landfill. The other 99% will be reused or recycled. Sure the metals and plastics can be recycled but what about the batteries? There are 600 pounds of them. What happens to them?

To address the batteries, Nissan has formed a new company called 4R Energy Corp. 4R will accept defective and worn-down batteries. Batteries that are no longer sufficient to power a car can still have a long "stationary" life such as storing renewable energy for the grid. 4R will examine each battery that arrives and, depending on its condition, it will be resold, repaired, or recycled. (That is 3 Rs, what is the 4th R?) The LEAF batteries are a combination of lithium, manganese and graphite, which means there are no toxic materials in the batteries making them easier to recycle than some other battery chemistries.

To anyone that is concerned that EVs trade foreign oil dependency for a lithium dependency, I must point out one significant difference. The lithium in a battery is not consumed. When the battery is no longer useful, the lithium can be made into new batteries. This means that not only will the next generation of lithium batteries be lighter and hold more energy, but they will also be cheaper because there will be a steady supply of 'used' lithium. Let's compare this to something a little more familiar. When was the last time that you had a can of soda? If it was recently, than that aluminum can likely included metal that had been an aluminum can hundreds of times before, and possibly some aluminum that was last year's iPod case and yet more that was an old airplane structure. My point is that metals like aluminum (and lithium) can be reused indefinitely.

Again Nissan's innovation is not the technology (they didn't invent recycling), but it is the business model that takes advantage of it in a way that allows them to deliver an affordable product profitably. In 4R, they have established a source for recycled lithium to be used to manufacture their next generation battery packs. This will help them maintain a profit and price advantage compared to other EV manufactures that are buying batteries from 3rd parties or mining for virgin material.

Conclusion
Nissan is uniquely positioned to be able to deliver an all-electric car in volume, at an affordable price, while still making money on the transaction.This is primarily due to planning they have been working on for decades. They knew the time for EVs was coming and they were not going to miss the critical technology inflection point where market leaders and laggards are determine.

As an engineer, I assume everyone from marketing is a Dilbert caricature and I hate to agree with them. However, this time I will say that I do agree with Nissan's Jon Brancheau that the LEAF is a "poster child of innovation". Nissan has ambitious production goals, new ways to get materials, make cars, and price EVs and the LEAF has many new features that make it easier to use than previous generations of EVs. Nissan is "all in" with their bet on EVs. They have the technology and the innovative business plan, to make that a winning bet.

References:
1) Nissan Batteries
2) LEAF Recoverability Rate

2010 Review & 2011 Look Ahead

2010-12-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

Since 2007 I have been driving an electric vehicle, powered by solar panels on the roof of my house. Each year I look at how much energy my driving used and how much the solar panels generated. I want my EV transportation to be better than net zero. So how did 2010 do? Let's take a look and then see what will change in 2011.

In 2010, the solar panels generated 3575 kWh. That is enough energy to drive my electric truck 5100 miles. I drove my EV only 4506 miles. This means the PV system generated 425 kWh more than my driving used; yet another year of free driving.

Now that the first Chevy Volt and Nissan LEAF cars have been delivered, there is a lot of press about the coming wave of electric vehicles and how they could overwhelm the grid. Our "EV driving" home does just the opposite. We supply power to the grid during sunny days when the air conditioners are running and charge the EV overnight. We supply energy when it is most needed, and withdraw it when there is a surplus. This helps to stabilize the grid, not bring it crashing down.

Sure, not everyone that buys an EV will get solar, but once I was driving with electricity, the source of that electricity mattered more than it ever had when I flipped on a light switch. And unlike with gasoline, I had a choice to produce it myself. I hope this awakening experience is a common one in the next decade.

One final note about 2010 before we look to the future: Our PV system's 2010 production was below 2008 and 2009's output by ~6%. There are two reasons, first the system was offline for 31 days starting in late January when the house painters sprayed paint into the inverter exhaust vent and killed it. Our inverter manufacturer, SMA, was very cool about it and gave me a refurbished replacement unit for free even though this was clearly not their fault. The second reason for the reduced output was the predominantly cloudy weather in May and June of 2010 when compared to the previous two years. In short, 2010 had a cloudy, rainy spring.

Looking ahead to 2011, there is one big change planned. I have ordered a Nissan LEAF. In early December I was told the car should arrive in 4 to 7 months. This means I should get the car, my first brand new car ever, before my birthday in July. This car will change my EV energy consumption in two ways. First, my heavy non-aerodynamic induction-charged truck uses about 700 Wh per mile. The Nissan LEAF is rated to use 340 Wh per mile for 73 mile range by the EPA. With a little hypermiling, I think I'll be able to use only 250 Wh per mile for a 100 mile range. This means that I'll be using less than half the energy per mile in the LEAF than I am using today. On the flip-side, with the longer 100 mile range of the LEAF compared to the 35 mile range of my truck, I'll be able to drive the LEAF far more. It will be interesting to compare energy use of these two vehicles and how the longer range changes my driving habits.

Federal Solar Energy Plans Skip Oregon

2010-12-20T00:49:00.000-08:00

Federal officials plan to accelerate large-scale solar energy developments across the Western United States. However, OPB News reports that those plans do not include Oregon.

Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, named 24 public lands areas in six states to be prioritized for utility-scale solar projects. The lucky states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. This list does not include the vast BLM lands in the sunny southeastern part of Oregon.

BLM officials said that Oregon was excluded because the lands have impediments such as inadequate transmission lines and a lack of nearby population centers.

Rachel Shimshak with Portland-based Renewable Northwest said the solar projects could still benefit Oregon, “Remember that in Oregon, we have a variety of solar manufacturers. So the kinds of jobs and manufacturing opportunity that Oregon has to serve projects in the Southwest is high.”

Federal officials are focusing the future of large-scale solar investment on "solar zones.” Oregon was passed over this time, but Oregon's solar advocates will continue to point out the benefits of solar investment in the state.

Via OPB News

Nissan LEAF Was My Idea

2010-12-16T16:08:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen the commercials for Windows 7 where a user has an idea for an OS feature? In the ad, Windows 7 came out and it included that feature. The user then proclaims "Windows 7 was my idea." That is how I feel about the Nissan LEAF.

The first Nissan LEAF cars are being delivered to customers this week. This is a historic time for EVs. In October of 2008, I was selected to take part in a small focus group of EV-drivers with Nissan. We met with several people from Nissan including Mark Perry, director of product planning and strategy for electric vehicles. This was the first time that I had ever met anyone from Nissan. I had no idea if Nissan was serious about EVs, or if they would really listen to what I had to say. I had been reading a lot of press about EVs at that time and I had not seen a product that focused on what I thought were the right things. A chance to talk to a car company, any car company, was an opportunity to share my thoughts.

During the session, I was one of the last participants to address the Nissan team. Most of the other members talked to them about how great 100 miles would be and about deploying charging infrastructure. As I have discussed recently, I don't think charging infrastructure is the priority. Rather, I focused on what I thought the *car* should be. Obviously I am biased, but it seemed to me that the Nissan team was far more engaged when talking with me than with the other participants. They had several direct questions as well as open ended discussion areas. Here are some of the many things we talked about.

Set Realistic Expectations
Their opening statement was "We will be selling an affordable, mass market, 100-mile range, fully electric, freeway capable car. It comes to market in late 2010. What do you think the car needs in order to be successful and what do we as a company need to do to make it work in your region?" I was skeptical. Remember this was 2008. It is easy to make big claims like this and no one had ever delivered on them. Every EV that had been brought to market up till that point had been a niche vehicle. Even the highly priced Tesla Roadster had slipped its delivery date multiple times in 2007 and in 2008 only a handful of Roadsters had been delivered. It was the only freeway capable EV being sold at that time, and with the $100k price tag it was a niche vehicle. With Tesla having CEO troubles, it was not clear if the little up-start would survive and ever make it to their "Blue Star" project. In 2008, wildly hyped vaporware was the norm in the EV world. I suggested that they take the opposite approach and "under commit and over deliver" rather than fall into the hype-cycle syndrome. If the vehicle was really only going to get 70 miles of range in real-world driving, start saying so now.

The rule of thumb is that an EV must exceed the 70/70 point to have any hope of broad appeal. That is minimum of 70 miles range in real world conditions and minimum of 70 MPH top speed. If the goal truly is a mass market vehicle, they must surpass these minimums, or go back to the drawing board.

Range Anxiety
Our next topic was range: One hundred miles of range was the stated goal. Many of the participants in the room talked about how great that was and how it is more than enough for most people, even if they don't know it. And while I agree with that, the important thing is to make sure the vehicle alleviates range concerns whenever possible. Make the vehicle to sell to the customers as they are; not how you want them to be. People currently are concerned with range. When I am showing my EV, the most common question is how "far will it go?". Right or wrong, some people will be concerned about range until EVs can drive the 300+ miles per charge, comparable to a typical full tank of gasoline.

To address range concerns, Nissan must give drivers the range data in a clear picture. My recommendations were:

Show how far the current charge level will take the vehicle. Not with just a number, but I wanted to see on the map if the place I want to go is within my currently available range. I wanted to be able to check this even if I had not entered my destination, because most of the time I know where I am going and do not need to enter an address.
Include charging station locations in the navigation system maps. This seems obvious now, you can find Google mash-up maps of just about anything, but back then (over 2 years ago) it seemed like a great idea.
If I enter a destination beyond the range, suggest charging points along the way.
Have a "Find Nearest Charging Station" button that is prominent. The button should be on the steering-wheel or a fixed button near the navigation system. I don't want to have to go through levels of menus to get to this. This is the "Oh no, low battery!" button.

Charging station locations will be added frequently over the first few years that the cars will be on the road. It is a pain to keep car navigation system maps up to date. You have to download files, burn a disc or use a thumb drive, take it to the car... Forget all that, it is a hassle and I would not want to do it on a frequent basis. Rather, I said they should include a telematics system that automatically updates the maps in near real-time.

Size
When they asked what size I thought the vehicle needed to be, I told them the story of buying our first hybrid. Early in 2000 our Subaru Outback had been totaled. We wanted a fuel efficient car to replace it. After some research we had found that Honda and Toyota were coming out with hybrids within the next year. These were the top two candidates. A few months later, a nearby Honda dealership had an Insight that we could test drive. It was not a good fit for us. The 2-door felt crowded and impractical. Based on that test drive, we went to Toyota and put down a deposit on the 4-door Prius, sight unseen, no test drive (there were no cars in our area to drive yet).

We were on a waiting list to get one of the first Prius sold in the US. It was 9 months before the car arrived. During which time my wife took the bus to and from work. She was determined to get a car that used less fuel and was already loyal to a car that she had never driven.

What does this anecdotal story mean to Nissan for their (then yet-to-be-named) electric vehicle? If they truly want it to be mass market, make it a 4-door. I also mentioned that the car should be sized for Americans; we are big people and generally need a little more room than people from other parts of the world.

Naming
Multiple participants asked in various ways what they were going to call the vehicle. They did not give us any hints. When the name topic came to me, my only suggestion was that they have a dedicated EV name. E.g., they should not launch with an "Electric Altima" or an "Electric Cube". My example was again the Prius. Prius sales were far better than Hybrid Camry or Hybrid Civic. If they wanted electric versions of their existing line, they could do this later. They must have an EV flagship product first.

For early adopters especially, part of the experience of buying a new breed of cars is being part of something special. This does not mean the vehicle has to stand out as weird, but it does have to be recognizably badged as an EV. It has to be its own brand and not "just a sub-brand". Owners will want a name they can rally around, with their own fan sites and discussion groups. They don't want to be some sub-group on a gasoline car forum.

Ford's hybrid badge uses a leaf

Later after the name LEAF was announced I found out why they did not give us any hint at what the name might be. They wanted a single worldwide name for the vehicle and Nissan's various countries could not agree, primarily Japan and the USA offices could not agree. Japan would suggest something like "the Nissan Plug" and the USA office would point out how that name has no excitement and would be subject to ridicule. Other names ran into copyright issues in one or more countries.

Toyota's Prius marketing used a leaf

The name LEAF even had some trouble. First Nissan could not get the rights to use a leaf symbol. Check out their early marketing. They use a blue tree. Whereas both Ford and Toyota use a leaf symbol (see pictures to the right). The name LEAF is an acronym (or more likely a bacronym) of Leading, Environmentally-friendly, Affordable, Family car. The use of the name as an acronym likely cleared some final region's legal hurdle.

Gas Car Rental Partnership
About one week before this meeting with Nissan, I was talking to another member of the Oregon EV Association about what he drives and I was surprised to hear that his only car was an EV, whereas in my household the EV was just one of three vehicles. When I asked what he does when he needed to drive farther than his EV would take him, he said he was a member of Zip Car and that there was a car that parked in a dedicated spot at his work and several cars were within EV range of his house. He could take the Zip car whenever he needed it. I found this model of EV ownership and ride sharing interesting.

I suggested that Nissan should consider a partnership with ride-share companies and car rental companies to give Nissan EV owners discounts on occasional gas car use.

Roadside Assistance
Soon before attending this meeting with Nissan, I received an email from AAA of Oregon stating that they were adding roadside assistance for bicyclists. If you get a flat or bend a fork, you could call AAA and get repair help or a ride back home for you and your bike.

If AAA were willing to add bike assistance, what could they do for EVs? If you were to run out of battery power, could they bring a 240V generator to you and give you enough of a charge to get home or to the nearest charging station? It is unlikely that this service would be needed often, but the point of a roadside assistance program is peace of mind. Also, if this further alleviates range anxiety, it would be a good idea to work with road side assistance companies to support EV drivers.

Under The Hood
As I have mentioned before, I show my EV a few times each year at various events. People often want to see under the hood. In a conversion EV there are usually interesting things to see, like where parts were mounted and how various wires were run. My EV, however, was factory build as electric by GM. It has a large heat-sink that covers most of the visible area under the hood. Frankly, it is boring. Yet, people are curious and so the hood is up and it leaves them underwhelmed.

I told them that early Nissan EV owners are going to be advocates for these cars. People will approach them and ask questions, and based on my experience they will want to see under the hood. So Nissan should consider adding a little more visual appeal here than they normally would.

LEDs
I have written in this blog several times about LEDs. A couple months before this meeting, I changed the tail lights in my EV to LEDs because they illuminate faster and they are brighter. If a vehicle were designed for LEDs, they could also use less power. I suggested that the Nissan EV use LEDs wherever they could.

Regen Breaking Level
Many people that are into electric cars love regenerative braking, so much so that they want to feel it kicking in as soon as they lift their foot off of the accelerator. I prefer to coast when I can. Coasting maintains momentum and if the obstruction ahead clears or the light turns green, you can keep on going rather than stopping and starting. Even if you have great regenerative breaking, coasting is better than regening and then accelerating again.

My recommendation to Nissan was that this a "religious war" that they don't want to get in to. On one hand they might want the car to feel like most cars on the road today (light regen). On the other hand, they will want to have a heavy regen option to appease the many EV enthusiasts that think that there is no such thing as too much regen.

The best option is to have this be user settable. This would allow people to set the regen to the level that they like.

Solar Panel
My final item to them was to mention that they should consider adding a solar panel, but perhaps not for the reason that you think. Yes, I am a solar advocate, but I am an engineer first. If you want a solar powered EV, currently the best way to do that is with solar panels on your house, not on a car. There simply is not enough roof space on a car to make it practical today.

So if I know the math does not support it, why did I suggest that they have an option for a solar panel? Nearly every time that I am displaying my EV at an eco-event, someone will suggest that it would be great if I could add solar panels. I used to explain the available surface area and angle and efficiency details, often during this explanation their eyes would glaze over. Now I just say "Well, I have solar on my house. It works better there since I never park my house in the shade."

Nissan could avoid a deluge of email in their inbox from well intentioned, uninformed people by adding a solar panel; even if it is just a single small panel that is only offered as an over-priced accessory. It does not need to add any range it just needs a token function such as running a cooling fan. This gesture would make them happy.

Again, this is about selling to the customer that is there, not some ideal person. And explaining to someone that they have a bad idea is generally not the best way to start a customer relationship.

Conclusions
After the meeting, as we are leaving and shaking hands with the Nissan team, saying thanks and goodbye, Mark Perry from Nissan takes me aside. He said something like, "I really liked what you had to say today and I have made some notes to take back to the engineering teams". I am sure that many of the things that define the LEAF today would be exactly the same as they are even if I had not attended this meeting. And I am sure they don't make any decisions based on input from one guy in a customer roundtable session. But once the LEAF did come out, and I saw that it had many of the things that I had suggested, it felt good. It felt like they really listened and that I helped make this generation of EVs a little better.

To this day when I see a review of the LEAF and someone says "I really like this nav system. It shows me exactly how far I can go with this circle and it shows me all the charging stations around here," I think "That was my idea. I'm glad you like it."

Comparing the LEAF to my suggestions
So how did Nissan do with the LEAF compared to what I thought an EV should be? Some of that is covered already, but I'll do a point by point breakdown in another blog post soon.

-----------------
C-Net Review of the LEAF

EV Infrastructure: What Kind and How Much

2010-12-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

In the recent Chicken-and-Egg posting about EV charging infrastructure, I claimed that a vast charging infrastructure is not required for EVs to be highly useful for a large number of people. If you have a dedicated outlet where the car is parked overnight, you don't need a charging station at the bank, movie theater, or coffee shop. Having them is nice, but not a requirement.

“	Public charging stations should be used as a convenience, not as a requirement.

While I assert that they are not 'required', that does not mean that they aren't nice to have. A PEV driver is far more likely to stop at a place that allows them to plug in than at a neighboring competitor that does not have a plug. And once stopped, that driver may stay longer knowing that their batteries are getting juiced up. That could mean buying another coffee, soda, or whatever wares that the shop sells. Businesses that want to court plug-in vehicle drivers will install charging equipment.

Level 2 Public Charging Station in Portland

In addition to these businesses, some local governments will be installing charging stations too. What criteria will be used to determine where these charging stations will be installed and what type will they be? In many cases, that will be up to local policy-makers. Do they have the right information to make these decisions?

Just as journalists have incorrectly claimed there was a chicken-and-egg problem, some policy-makers are setting out to solve this problem with millions of dollars being spent on public charging infrastructure. My last posting accused journalists of having little more than a few test drives as the sum total of their EV driving experience. For these policy-makers, their EV experience is likely less. In fact, it may consist only of reading articles by these under-informed journalists. Pike Research reported that more than 5 million charge points (nearly $6.5 billion in revenue) will be installed worldwide by 2015. ECOtality said it would install more than 1,100 Blink charging stations in the Portland, Salem, Eugene, and Corvallis areas, making Oregon a major hub in the company's $230 million plan. The US Federal government plans to install more than 15,000 charging stations across six states over the next three years. I hope this money is spent in the right way.

Consider this: A policy-maker with no EV experience receives some of the above grant money and wants EVs to succeed in his/her region. They are tasked with making an "EV success plan". They don't know where to start or what the challenges will be, so they begin to research and read press articles. The vast majority of articles state that EVs cannot be successful without a charging infrastructure. A-ha! Now they have a problem they can solve. They read on and are told that level 1 charging is too slow. After some research they determine that DC fast chargers are too expensive to be densely deployed. So they make a plan to blanket the region with level 2 charging stations and EVs will take over.

Now the plan framework is complete, it still needs details. Unfortunately, this is the wrong plan. A plan that consists only of blanketing a region with public charging stations, misses many important issues. EVs have had a couple false starts already (1910s, 1990s). Poor planning and bad policies could kill them a 3rd time. It is important that local governments are focused on the right things.

What are the right policies? Cars spend most of their time parked at home. This is where they are most likely to be recharged. So this is where the emphasis should be for charging infrastructure deployment. During this period of infrastructure growth, for every EV that is sold in a region, there should be about 1.2 charging stations installed. That would be one charging station installed where the car will be parked overnight and the other fraction to support a shared public charging station. For example, if 500 PEVs are sold in a region, then there would be 500 home charging stations and 100 public charging stations installed in that area.

“	A regional EV success plan is more than blanketing a region with charging stations.

Charging stations are just part of the picture. Here are the things that I think policy-makers should be considering.

New home codes to support EVs:

SAE J1772 Connector - Supports Level 1 and Level 2

Require pre-wiring for charging stations. A two car garage should be wired to support two charging stations. Home electrical service panel, a.k.a. circuit breaker boxes, should have pre-dedicated circuits for charging stations.
Sufficient Home Amperage. That same two car garage should be able to support the load of two EVs charging (while the AC, dryer, and water heater are running, while the plasma screen TV, game consoles and computers are on and a hair dryer is running). Modern homes demand a lot from our energy grid.

Apartments and Condos:

Accommodations for high-density living areas must be made too. Require charging facilities in all new apartment building and condo complex parking areas. Charging facilities where cars are parked overnight is what is important. EVs cannot only be for people that own homes.
Create incentives for retrofitting existing apartments. These should be done in such a way that encourages pay-as-you go business models for charging. An apartment dweller is not going to pay $500 or more to have a charging station installed. They may, however, pay $40 extra per month for a dedicated parking spot that has a charging station.

Hotels/Inns

Add charging stations where guests' rental cars are parked. This would allow EVs to be rented for local driving during vacations and business travel. Again this could be a premium upgrade parking space, or part of a partnership with the car rental company.

Usage Incentives

Put policies in place to make your region EV friendly, such as:

HOV access
Dedicated parking city spots
Don't add "EV taxes": Some politicians are concerned that EVs don't buy gasoline; therefore owners do not pay fuel taxes which are used for road maintenance or upgrades. This concern is overblown. Any alternative road tax can be delayed until EVs are a meaningful number (say 5%) of vehicles on the road. Until then they can be taxed at the same rate as bicyclists and pedestrians that use the road, zero %.

Broader Network of Cheaper Plugs

“
Level 1 charging is the best solution for many cases.

When considering public charging locations, it would generally be more effective to have a lot of level 1 (standard outlets), than to have a few level 2 stations, or a single DC fast charge station. I think level 1 charging is being dismissed, when it could be the best solution that we have. If you are installing a charging station in a long term parking area for example, that car is likely to be there for several days. It will be full when it is picked up, regardless of the charging level. This is one clear example, but there are several other use cases where level 1 would be preferred. There are several advantages to having standard (level 1) outlets:

For the cost of a level 2 charging station, you can have far more level 1 outlets. If a location has only a few stations, then it is more likely that they would be occupied. Rather, if you have a parking lot that has 8 outlets on every lamp post, PEV drivers will easily be able to find a spot to plug in.
No monitoring needed. If there are only a few level 2 stations, then a potential user might want to be able to check the status of the stations online to see if they are operational and available. This means that the stations have to be managed. This further adds to the cost discrepancy between level 1 and level 2. Rather if there are as many outlets as there are parking spaces, availability is not a concern.
Lower energy cost. Level 1 plugs dispense energy at about one quarter of the rate of a level 2 station. If a business is installing a station only as a customer convenience, then there is no need to attempt to fill the vehicle up all the way during a short stop.
Lower grid load. Since public charging stations are more likely to be used during the day than home (over night) charging stations, making them level 1 reduces peak-time grid load.
Any electrician can install or repair them. Level 1 parts are simply the outdoor plugs that homes already have, they are cheap and available at your local home store if repair or replacements are needed.
They can be used for purposes other than EVs. Since level 1 is a standard outlet, these plugs can be useful for other things such as engine block heaters, holiday lights, and dead starter battery charging. Near outdoor seating areas they could be used for customers' computers...

Outdoor Level 1 Charging Outlets on Bike Lock Posts

For EV infrastructure the initial focus for charging stations should be to get them to locations where cars will be parked overnight. The stations that I have seen installed so far in my local region have been in curbside parking and daytime use lots. These are not locations where cars are left overnight. These are nice for public visibility and ribbon cutting ceremonies, but they are not the locations needed for most effective utilization.

Indoor Level 1 and NEMA 14-50 (level 2) Charging Station

Here is an idea for an EV charging station company: team up with apartment complexes and install Visa swipe pay-as-you go charging stations. If the charging station company pays for the station and the installation, the apartment complex can pay for the electricity. The charging station company gets the revenue until the charging station is paid for, then they enter into a revenue sharing agreement.

For full disclosure, I must mention that I was selected to receive a free level 2 charging station in my garage. This was from ECOtality and funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant of $99.8 million. While I am making the case that level 1 is usually sufficient, I am not going to say 'no' to a free level 2 charging station. In return for the free station, data from my vehicle such as distances driven and charging habits will be collected for a national labs study.

Level 3 DC Fast Charge Station

The U.S. Department of Transportation gave Oregon a $2 million TIGER II grant for Level 3 stations. The funds will provide up to two dozen DC fast charge stations in northwest Oregon. That is $83,000 per station. Two million dollars could install a lot of level 1 outlets rather than just 24 fast charging stations.

The obvious counter point here is that there are areas where fast charging can be very useful. A drive from Portland to Hood River is 70 miles. So a round trip is beyond the capability of a 100 mile range EV. However, if Hood River had a DC fast charge station installed, then you could drive there and back on a day trip to wind surf in one of the world's best places to catch the wind.

However, if you plan on driving an EV from Portland to Hood River, I would argue that you are attempting to force a square peg into a round hole. Trips like this are not what 100 mile range EVs are designed to do. Don't let that stop you though. If you are the adventurous type it might work out fine. However, be prepared to stay a few hours if the fast charge station is not available.

Level 3 DC Fast Charge Connector

I don't expect this one lone voice to be well heard against the mass of press. The message here is also not a simple one. If I had just said 'yes we need charging stations', I could find support. If I had said 'these are a waste of money', that message too could find a receptive (although different) audience. However, this message is neither of these extremes. Instead, it is about the efficient use of the planning resources and funds that we have available for infrastructure deployment.

EVs & Charging Infrastructure - Not Chickens & Eggs

2010-12-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

There has been a glut of electric vehicle (EV) press recently, some of it pro-EV, some anti-EV. One thing these articles seem to agree on is that EVs are not usable until a charging infrastructure is deployed. They call it by different names such as the “chicken and egg” problem, or “catch 22”, or “infrastructure shortage problem” but they generally agree that EVs cannot be successful until networks of charging stations are deployed.

Despite the fact that these two sides agree, they are wrong! The vast majority of this press was written by people whose EV experience consists of a few test drives at best. I assume their reasoning is something like this: for gasoline powered cars there are gas stations and I see them everywhere. So, if I were to drive an electric car, I would need to see charging stations in equal or greater abundance. If you have driven gasoline-fueled cars for decades, it can be difficult to see that electric vehicles are more than just a change in the fuel source.

An EV with 100 miles of range has more than enough driving distance for most people on most days. That means that you can charge your EV in your garage overnight with off-peak rates and there is no need to charge it at all during the day. You don't even need a special charging station in your garage. A simple outlet will do. If your car is plugged in for 10 hours, that will give you 60-70 miles of range. Most people drive less than 40 miles each day. The outlet you likely already have in your garage can charge an EV.

“	Public charging stations should be used as a convenience, not as a requirement.

There are benefits to having charging stations around. They act as a safety net. Knowing they are there provides peace of mind to drivers that are new to EV technology. However, if you are buying an EV and your planned usage *depends* on the availability of public charging infrastructure to be successful, perhaps you should rethink the type of vehicle you plan to buy. Consider buying one with longer range or a plug-in hybrid instead. There will be times when a charging station is down, occupied, or otherwise not available due to construction or an event.

There are a couple hundred EVs that are active in Oregon today. These vehicles were being used for commuting and errands and all the around-town things that people do in cars, long before there was an EV infrastructure to support them. Furthermore, most of these EVs that are on the road in 2010 are conversions or NEVs with less than 60 miles of range. This means that the new generation of OEM EVs, that have significantly more range, will be able to get along without a vast infrastructure roll-out too.

There is no chicken and egg problem. The outlets that we need are already here now. It's the same one I use for my lawn mower and leaf blower. Adding level 2 charging stations in garages and adding public charging infrastructure makes EVs more convenient, but they are not preventing EVs from being ready for you to drive right now.
...

If public charging stations are just a convenience or safety net, what does that mean for how and where they should be deployed? More on that aspect soon.

Making Portland a Solar City

2010-11-30T14:30:00.000-08:00

In a residential area of unincorporated Washington County, west of Portland Oregon, there is a house that is now solar powered.

The owner, Doug, said that the large south-facing roof screamed "SOLAR!!" when he and his wife moved in 10 years ago. The normal bills of life and the quick arrival of two children meant that the solar ~~scream~~ dream would have to wait.

That changed when Doug read about SolarCity in this blog. He researched it and signed up for a program that offered him solar energy for less than what he was paying for wind power and with no money down. "Solar was not something that we could afford. The panels alone would have cost about one-third of the house price. Electricity is cheap here so I could never make that work. However, this program made it a no-brainer for a place like my roof."

We asked Doug a few questions about his experience.

CelticSolar: What does your family think about this?
Doug: My family is all environmentally aware so they all think it’s pretty cool. My favorite moment so far is when my son said “Daddy, with the panels we could turn our house into a space station!”

CS: How big is the system?
D: It’s just under 8kW. The installers said it’s about 3x the size of what they normally do. There are 36 panels (Kyocera I believe) so it should be good for a watt or two.

CS: How does this align with your values?
D: I would like to leave a legacy of stewardship and responsibility to my children. I want to be an example to them. I felt it was the right thing to do. SolarCity allowed me to do this while still keeping the costs down. Why every house in LA or Arizona and why the whole Sunbelt isn’t covered in panels is a real failure of mankind. We have the technology, we know this stuff is helpful for a ton of reasons (emissions, reduced dependency on oil nations, better supply distribution) but we still don’t get it. It kills me.

CS: This is installed in Oregon, is there enough sunshine in Oregon to make it worthwhile? (see the clouds in the photos)
D: While it was overcast and raining, during the test phase of the install it still generated 400W. Even a tiny amount like that is still energy that is not from burning coal or gas. Every little bit helps. And Oregon doesn’t have THAT bad of weather. Look at my garden. When I bought the house that was a deck, and I took it out because there is no shade at my house and it would get killer hot out there during the summer. I’ll be making some juice even during the winter. With an array the size of mine it won’t take much sun to make a positive outcome.

"Doing

what’s

right

shouldn’t

come with

a label"

CS: Do you consider yourself an environmentalist, an eco-geek, or other?
D: I consider myself a realist. Doing what’s right shouldn’t come with a label.

CS: How will this change your electricity use?
D: We are already responsible energy users. We have all CFC for lighting and when they die I’ll probably put in LED lighting. Best of all, now we'll be able to play solar powered Rock Band!

Power Line Park: South-facing view from the property

CS: What did you think of the install crew?
D: The team was great. They worked three days, rain or shine, and kept me in the loop at all times. They put up with my nosing around, and they left the work area in good shape. They always practiced safety protocols, and that made me feel better since I knew they were safe (unlike some roof repairer we had last year).

CS: What would you say to someone else that is considering SolarCity?
D: If you have any doubts about working with them, I can only tell you my experience has been great. Professional, patient (I asked lots of stupid questions) and even kept after it when the rules in Oregon changed. I’m very happy.

The output will continue to be meager throughout the winter. In the spring and summer, however, this system will be able to power his entire house and feed the grid during peak sun hours. You can see the energy produced by Doug's PV system here. Φ

Revenge of the Electric Car

2010-11-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

I drive an EV today, in part because of the 2006 documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? I saw the movie in late 2006 and then purchased my first EV in Feb 2007. Later that same year I put solar panels on my house to power that EV. That year changed the way I see the world. I have been an EV and solar advocate ever since. Now I have blogs, twitter feeds, and facebook pages dedicated to solar power and EVs.

So when Chris Paine, the director of Who Killed the Electric Car?, recently wrote a Huffington Post article asking the EV blogosphere to start spreading the word about his new movie, I jumped at the chance. The new movie is called Revenge of the Electric Car and it is scheduled for release in the Spring of 2011.

If you want to see a trailer for the movie, it is going to be premiered on the movie's facebook page when the page reaches 10,000 fans. As I write this, they currently have over 6000 fans. They have added over 1000 fans in the last week and they are growing fast.

You Don't Know EVs

2010-11-25T00:14:00.000-08:00

Mass market electric vehicles (EVs) are coming soon to a dealership near you*. The Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt are both scheduled to begin delivery in early 2011. These vehicles are very different from the gasoline powered cars that most of us are used to driving. EVs are new to the mass market and people are asking questions. These questions, however, often come from their gasoline driving experience. For example, when I am showing my EV to the public the typical questions are:

How far can it go on a charge?
How long does it take to recharge from empty?
How fast is it? (top speed & 0-60MPH)

These seem like important things to know about a car, and they are; however, most people are asking them without really understanding the question. I'll explain. If you are willing to take a step back, and look at personal transportation from a fresh perspective, EVs are a whole new opportunity.

"How far can it go on a charge?"
When people ask this, what they often really want to know is, "Will this go far enough for my needs?". Most people don't know how far they drive on a typical day. The numbers that most people know are: one, how many miles they get on a tank in their current vehicle and, two, how far it is for that long annual trip they take. Neither of these numbers apply to a commuter EV, yet the EV range value will be compared to them. When they hear that an EV can travel 100 miles or 120 miles, this is compared to the 300 plus miles that they get per tank or the 580 miles to grandma's they drive every other year. This makes the 100 mile EV range sound far too small and EVs are dismissed as unusable or "not yet ready". They don't realize that 80% of people drive less than 40 miles per day.

Less than 40 miles per day for most people means that a 100 mile range is more than 2.5 times the distance that most people need on most days. And unlike a gas car, EVs can be conveniently charged overnight in your own garage and start out each day fully topped up.

Viewed another way, how often are you filling up that gas tank? If a tank carries you 350 miles, and you are filling it up once per week, that is an average of 50 miles per day; well within the capabilities of modern EVs.

If you want to quickly map your driving, try the Nissan 100 mile drive test. Plug in your own locations for a busy day. Try home to work, to the gym, errands, dinner, and back home. Or try home, school, shopping, pick up kids, soccer, dance, then back home. Can you do these with miles to spare? For most people the answer is 'Yes'. This means an EV can fit most people's lifestyle well. If your answer was 'No', read on, option #5 below might work for you.

What to do about that annual long trip? There are several options.

Keep a gas 2nd car around. Use your EV whenever you can and the gas car when the EV won't work. See Hybrid Driving without a hybrid car. If you drive the gasser less than 5k miles per year, you may be able to put it on recreational insurance rates.
Borrow a gasser. Swap cars with a friend for a week. They get to try out an EV and you can take your trip.
Rent a car. The annual savings you get from not buying gas will allow you to rent a nice vehicle for an extended period of time and still come out ahead.
Ride Share. Programs such as Zip Car have been expanding. If there is one in your area, this can complement EV ownership well. Just log-on, find a car parked near you, reserve it with a click and it is yours when you need it.
Buy a PHEV: Rather than buying a pure EV, buy a plug-in hybrid like the Chevy Volt, the 2012 Prius PHEV, or the Fisker Karma. You don't get all the benefits of a pure EV, but you can utilize a gas station when needed.

The new perspective on range is how far per day, not how far between fill ups. On to the next question.

How long does it take to recharge from empty?
No one wants to be stuck for hours waiting for their car to charge before they can go someplace. Vehicles represent our freedom. When you drive an EV, you can be less restricted, not more.

Going to the gas station is inconvenient, so we tend to put it off until it cannot be avoided. Therefore a gas car is usually being filled up from empty. Don't assume the same with an EV, in fact, the opposite is usually true. For an EV, the charging station is right there, in your garage, the one that you are already driving to when you go home. It is not a side trip that you have to make to fill up. This means that you can plug in each day, even if you only drove a few miles.

Until you stop going to gas stations, you may not realize what an inconvenience they really are. Compare this to your cell phone. You plug in your phone overnight and it is fully charged, ready for all your needs the next day. That is convenient. By contrast, what if you were not allowed to plug in your phone? Instead, you had to take it to a "phone station" each week for a "fill up". This would be intolerable, yet it is OK for our cars because most people don't know of any other way.

Continuing with the cell phone analogy, do you know how long it takes your cell phone to charge up? Probably not, it depends on how much you have used it that day, and most likely you don't really care because an overnight charge is more than enough. The only time you pay attention is the few seconds it takes to drop the phone into the cradle and then to grab it the next morning.

It is the same with an EV, your attended time is just the few seconds to plug it in each evening and unplug it each morning. The charge duration is completed while you sleep. Most days the battery pack is more than half full at the end of the day, so charging to full has a head start. Public charging infrastructure is nice to have, but it is not required for EVs to be usable.

The new perspective for charge time is not how long does it take, but how much of my time does it take. EVs take far less of your time.

What if I am stranded with a drained battery, how long will that take?
Modern EVs such as the LEAF will show you on the nav system how far you can go. If your destination is not within the circle, you cannot get there without stopping to charge. When you do stop to charge, no one said that you must charge up all the way. If you are plugged into a standard 120V outlet this will give you about 7 miles of addition range per hour. A Level 2 outlet that you'll find at EV charging stations will give about 16 miles of additional range each hour you are plugged in. So a stop for lunch or dinner can give you the extra miles you need to get home or your stop for the night.

Tom Saxton is a Seattle area Tesla Roadster owner. He has blogged about driving his roadster down Highway 101. He stayed at the coast, charged overnight, drove into Portland to meet up with NEDRA, raced his Roadster, charged between races, and then headed back home. He was able to make the entire trip without ever waiting for the car to charge. Charging was always something that he could do in the background while he was sleeping or waiting for his next turn on the line. Granted the Roadster is out of most people's price range, but you can do the same thing in a LEAF on a smaller scale.

The new perspective on charge time is the charging rate in miles per hour, not hours till full.

How fast is it? (top speed & 0-60MPH)
I think most people that ask this question are wondering "Is this a golf cart or a real car?". There have been many low speed EVs and glorified golf carts that have been pitched as the solution to transportation. Skepticism here is well deserved. Low speed EVs have niches that they can serve very well such as retirement communities or commutes that can be done exclusively on residential roadways. However, when they are sold outside of these niches they fail to meet the needs and give all EVs a bad name.

Perhaps in part because of the "golf cart" experience, many people assume there are things that an electric motor is just not suited to do. In fact, other than burn gas directly, electric motors can do everything and more that internal combustion engines are used for today. Such as, the little white car shown in the picture to the right. It is an electric car that can run the quarter mile in 10.4 seconds. That is supercar territory. And it was done as a DIY project with a Datsun and two forklift motors.

What about big loads? Surely electric motors cannot handle hauling. Think again. Diesel-electric trains have moved big loads for years. The diesel is only used to generate electricity. It is the electric motors that do all the work of moving the load. The same is true for many types of giant hauler trucks like the one shown to the right. Large mining machines, NASA's huge Crawler-Transporters, some submarines and ships also use electric motors.

Assuming all electric motors are weak based on riding in a golf cart is like seeing a moped and assuming that a Dodge Viper is not possible.

Performance, hauling, & range are all possible if you are willing to pay for them. In the '90s, Ford and Chevy both made electric trucks. Ford, NaviStar and others have new generations of EV trucks planned.

The new perspective: EVs can be whatever we design them to be.

Conclusions
To truly understand if an EV would work for you, it should be compared to your needs, rather than to the gasoline car that you drive today. This means that you have to understand your current driving habits. How far do you drive in a day? Try resetting your trip meter each morning this week to see. How many hours does your car sit parked each day? If an EV was plugged in for just those hours, would it get enough range for your current driving needs?

EVs are a new tool for your transportation needs. They do not work in all cases, but they can work for many people and coupled with a 2nd car or a range extender, a large percentage of your driving can move off of gasoline.

2.8 Megawatts of Solar coming to Salem OR

2010-09-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

"enXco, an EDF Energies Nouvelles Company (PARIS:EEN) and Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR) have entered into two power purchase agreements for solar photovoltaic installations to be located in the Willamette Valley near Salem, Oregon. The two installations will combine for a total of 2.84 MW (dc)"

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/solar-pv-installations-northwest,1469888.html

J1772 Finally Here

2010-06-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

In this month's Oregon Electric Vehicle Association (OEVA) meeting, the Portland based charging station company, Shorepower, showed off a prototype of their new SAE J1772 plug-in vehicle charger.

This plug will be standard on all new PEVs that use level 2 charging. All new charging stations installed after October can have this option. Many of the Shorepower charging stations currently planted around Oregon are scheduled to be upgraded later this year.

Links:
J1772 One Ring to Rule Them All
OEVA.org

May 2010 PV & EV Report

2010-06-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

Tesla Roadster Test Drive in Portland May 2010

The Seattle sales office of Tesla took a little road-trip down to Portland and I was lucky enough to get to drive a Roadster. The picture above is of my friend Jim as he pulled out on the start of his test drive. See that big smile? That is known as the EV-grin. Driving an electric vehicle is a blast, driving a sports car is a blast, putting the two together and you are sure to smile.

Excluding the Tesla drive, I logged 446 miles of EV driving this month, using an estimated 320kWh. During the same time our PV system had its best month this year and produced 475kWh of energy. Driving on sunshine is an easy thing to do.

Solar 101 Video

2010-05-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick video that answers the following questions:

How is sunlight turned into electricity?
What are the basic components of a solar electric (photovoltaic)?
What is the grid?
What happens to surplus electricity?
What does an "inverter" do?
Can my meter run backwards?

April 2010 PV and EV Report

2010-05-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

April 22nd 2010 Earth Day

In April, our little solar photovoltaic system quietly generated 402kWh. This is significantly better than April of last year when our system was down for 20 days and we only generated 129kWh. But we also edged out April 2008, when the system was only a few months old, which yielded 392kWh.

As for electric car driving, I logged 417 miles using 292kWh. The solar panels generated more than the EV used. I drove for free.

This month I put down a $99 deposit on a Nissan Leaf. If I do get one in December, it will use about one third of the electricity as the Chevy S10 Electric that I currently drive. There are two primary reasons that the Leaf is more efficient: one, it is lighter and two, it is more aerodynamic. Neither of these should be surprising. The Leaf is using newer lighter Lithium batteries compared to the Nickel Metal Hydride batteries in the S10. The Leaf is estimated to weight 2800 lbs. My S10 weights 4200 lbs. As for aerodynamics, the Leaf is a purpose built electric car. Whereas, for the S10, GM took the existing gasoline truck and retrofited the EV1 drivetrain into it.

Here is to the sunny summer months ahead and watching the meter spin backwards!

Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn OR, April 2010