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Tesla responds to rumors its car batteries turn to useless bricks: “Plug it in”

Ben Popper — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:38:52 +0000

Blogger Michael DeGusta sparked a minor uproar in the electric vehicle community this week when he posted about the “devastating design flaw” that he said left many Tesla cars “bricked:” their batteries depleted, unable to move, with the only repair being a new $40,000 battery.

Tesla responded today with a long blog post that tried to answer Mr. DeGusta’s accusations point by point. “If ever the battery in your Tesla runs low, the car is designed to let you know with repeated visual and audible warnings…. Starting with Roadster 2.0, owners can also elect for their car to contact Tesla headquarters once the state of charge falls below a specified level, and we can then contact the owner.”

Mr. DeGusta has his own spin on what Tesla describes as their exemplary service. “In at least one case, Tesla went even further. The Tesla service manager admitted that, unable to contact an owner by phone, Tesla remotely activated a dying vehicle’s GPS to determine its location and then dispatched Tesla staff to go there. It is not clear if Tesla had obtained this owner’s consent to allow this tracking, or if the owner is even aware that his vehicle had been tracked. Further, the service manager acknowledged that this use of tracking was not something they generally tell customers about. Going to these lengths could be seen as customer service, but it would also seem to fit with an internal awareness at Tesla of the gravity of the “bricking” problem, and the potentially disastrous public relations and sales fallout that could result from it becoming more broadly known.”

DeGusta wants to have things both ways. Tesla is intentionally playing down the issue and trying to keep customers from knowing about the danger. When they do go above and beyond to ensure that their customers don’t lose a battery, its an invasion of privacy and a cover up to keep the problem from being widely known.

The truth is that any electrical vehicle needs to be treated with a certain amount of care. As Sam Jaffe explains at the Clean Energy Blog:

Another error on the part of the blogger is the claim that if the cars discharge fully, the battery packs will be damaged. This is blatantly false.The battery management system of the Tesla Roadster keeps the battery from being discharged to a damagingly low state of charge under normal driving conditions. It’s true that a full discharge to zero percent state of charge can potentially be damaging to a battery. However the battery management system of the Roadster won’t allow the car to reach that low level of charge. There is a fundamental problem when any rechargeable battery is discharged and then left to sit for months. Any boat owner understands that that’s why you plug in a trickle charger when the craft is put into storage. The same should be done for any electric vehicle. However, to imply that the Tesla Roadster has a fundamental design flaw because of the nature of electrochemistry is like saying that Chrysler has a fundamental design flaw because its engines will be damaged if you drain all the oil out and then drive cross-country.

DeGusta claims to have found five instances of Tesla vehicles that were bricked. He doesn’t have any names or links to support this claim. It would be very interesting to hear from those owners directly, since DeGusta himself doesn’t own a Tesla (he’s on the waiting list).

Jaffe over at Clean Energy has a response to this as well:

Here’s the primary fact that the blogger in question doesn’t understand: the Tesla battery pack is not a battery. It’s a collection of more than 8,000 individual batteries. Each of those cells is independently managed. So there’s only two ways for the entire battery pack to fail. The first is if all 8,000 cells individually fail (highly unlikely except in the case of something catastrophic like a fire). The second failure mechanism is if the battery management system tells the pack to shut down because it has detected a dangerous situation, such as an extremely low depth of discharge. If that’s the case, all that needs to be done is to tow the vehicle to a charger, recharge the batteries and then reboot the battery management system. This is the most likely explanation for the five “bricks” that the blogger claims to have heard about. They probably aren’t actually bricks, but cars in need of servicing.

At this point the claims from DeGusta directly contradict what Tesla and an independent blogger have said. We’ll keep you updated if anyone else weighs in or fresh details emerge. So far, Tesla hasn’t said anything about adding an option for insurance on the battery, which was DeGusta’s biggest complaint in terms of the company’s failure to protect its customers.

Image from Flickr user randychiu

Filed under: green

CDP’s Carbon Action Initiative Brings $10 Trillion to Bear on Climate

Robert Kropp — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:00:37 +0000

The Carbon Action initiative of the Carbon Disclosure Project, launched last year on behalf of 34 institutional investors, now has 92 signatories with more than $10 trillion in assets under management.

“Invisible” Solar Panels are on the Way

Tina Casey — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 03:35:20 +0000

Window gazers of the future may soon find themselves looking right through an energy-producing transparent glass solar panel, if the folks at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are on the right track. Working with the company New Energy Technologies, Inc., the lab has produced a transparent photovoltaic module that is 14 times bigger than its last attempt.

Windows that double as solar panels

At 170 square centimeters (about 26 square inches), the new module is about the size of a small window. If the technology can be ramped up to a more useful scale, practically any glass window could double as a clean energy generator, with the embedded photovoltaic cell all but invisible. The largest device of its kind produced at NREL, the new module represents a breakthrough in organic photovoltaic cell (OPV) technology according to a statement by Dr. David S. Ginley of NREL, who said that integrating solar technology into window glass represents a “promising avenue for OPV deployment.”

Organic photovoltaic technology set to rise

In contrast to conventional solar technology based on silicon, OPV cells can be made from a variety of inexpensive polymers (plastics), which can be produced in liquid form and sprayed onto a substrate, or applied using a high volume, inexpensive roll-to-roll manufacturing process. The two sticking main sticking points so far have been increasing the size of the solar module, and increasing its efficiency. The solar energy conversion efficiency of other solar technologies has been trending up in the double digits but OPV efficiency is currently stuck around eight percent according to NREL. Though OPV is starting from a lowly place on the conversion efficiency totem pole, its potential for building-integrated usage puts it in a strong position in the solar industry. The relatively low conversion rate could be counterbalanced by the potential for extremely low installation costs compared to other solar technologies. See-through glass solar panels could simply be substituted for conventional window glass at a marginal increase in cost, rather than being treated as an expensive add-on.

A place in the sun(shot) for OPV

Lowering the overall installed cost of solar power is a primary goal of President Obama’s SunShot Initiative, which aims to make solar energy compete on price against fossil fuels within the next few years. That partly explains why NREL is so gung-ho on OPV technology despite its low efficiency. It should be noted, though, that the focus on OPV predates the Obama Administration. OPV was part of the Solar America initiative under the Bush Administration. Despite a conversion efficiency of only five percent at the time, a 2007 Department of Energy draft report identified some key benefits of developing OPV technology, including “the inherent low materials cost and low-energy, high-throughput processing technologies, and because of the huge variety of possible organic systems.”

OPV and American-made energy

Another aspect of NREL’s interest in OPV has to do with reliability and stability of price and supply, which are key elements in President Obama’s broader “American-made energy” pitch. The use of a variety of polymers would enable the U.S. solar industry to overcome a major obstacle that derives from reliance on silicon-based solar technology, and that is the price fluctuation of a single key material – silicon – on the open market. According to a report last week in Bloomberg News, China, which it describes as the “biggest…supplier to solar-panel manufacturers worldwide,” has shut down almost a third of its polysilicon production after prices fell by 60 percent, a move that is expected to result in a quick return to higher prices. However, it’s too soon to say good-bye to silicon forever. NREL is also working with another small company, Innovalight, to develop solar modules based on a low cost, nano-engineered spray-on liquid silicon process. Image: Cat in window. License Some rights reserved by the12thplaya. Follow Tina Casey on Twitter: @TinaMCasey. Related posts:

EnerVault raises $15M for environmentally friendly batteries

Sarah Mitroff — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:12:02 +0000

Flow-battery startup EnerVault announced a $15 million round of funding Thursday, which will help the company move forward with its first energy storage system installation. Flow batteries aren’t well know, but they can be powerful energy storage devices. Instead of the typical lithium-ion battery, which powers most of the devices we use daily such as cell phones and laptops, flow batteries are cheaper and can storage large amounts of energy generated by solar panels and wind energy. The technology behind them can be a bit complicated to understand if you don’t have a science degree, but essentially flow batteries generate electricity from electrolyte liquid flowing through a fuel cell. The liquid is stored in two external tanks next to the cell, and can be replaced when needed. EnerVault has been developing large-scale redox flow batteries to power big buildings and support existing power grids. Its current plans involve the development and installation of a one-megawatt-hour flow battery system in the Central Valley of California. “There is a high level of interest in our systems for addressing the stationary energy storage market,” EnerVault CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Craig R. Horne said in a statement, “Utilizing our patented Engineered Cascade(TM) technology, we are able to develop large-scale energy storage systems needed in a variety of applications with an unmatched combination of cost-effectiveness, safety and reliability.” EnerVault was found in 2008 and has raised $24.5 million dollars over all from Mitsui Global Investment, Total Energy Ventures, 3M Company, TEL Venture Capital, Commercial Energy of California, Oceanshore Ventures, and US Invest. The company is based in Sunnyvale, California. Stack of batteries image via Shutterstock Filed under: deals, green

US, Canada Launch a New Global Attack on Climate Change Pollutants

Leslie Guevarra — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:57:25 +0000

The $15 million effort involving four other countries and the United Nations Environment Program is aimed at reducing powerful but relatively short-lived pollutants to bring about near-term results in the battle against climate change.

DOE Budget a Bonanza for Battery Builders

Matter Network — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:30:57 +0000

Announced on February 14, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) budget recommendation is a big valentine to those working on developing batteries for electric vehicles. As we said last year, the current administration has focused the majority of its vehicle technologies research and development dollars on EVs. This is a significant reversal from the attention given to fuel cell vehicles and biofuels such as ethanol during the second Bush administration. As with last year, the request completely omits funding development for these two technologies, which is a significant blow to the companies developing those alternatives. For fiscal year 2013, the DOE is requesting a total allocation for the Vehicle Technologies program of $420 million, down from the $588 million requested last year, but still a 27-percent jump over the $329 million that Congress actually approved last year. The new budget calls for an increase of 73 percent in funding dedicated to “Batteries and Electric Drive Technologies.” This $203 million would represent 48 percent of the total vehicle technologies budget, up from the 35 percent included in last year’s budget. As you can see in the accompanying chart, three research areas would receive less investment in 2013 while no other area would receive an increase of more than 20 percent, a further indication that battery R&D is where the federal money is. These numbers show a consistent viewpoint between the DOE and the automotive industry: For plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) to succeed, major improvements are needed across the board for EV batteries. The technology currently being used in today’s plug-in vehicles is not sufficient to sell millions of these vehicles annually. Improvements are sorely needed in making the batteries last longer, cost less, store more energy, and produce more power for the majority of consumers to consider buying a PEV. Let’s not forget that there continues to be tangible progress in battery development. Lithium ion batteries are seeing improvements in all of these areas annually, as the estimated installed cost per kWh for an entire battery system fell from nearly $900 in 2010 to below $800 in 2011. Thanks to the billions of dollars of private capital, and in part the $2 billion in grants from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for battery technology, R&D on battery technology development is accelerating. However, the fruits of this investment won’t be fully realized for a few years to come due to the deliberate process of commercialization within the automotive industry. In some cases (such as the award to EnerDel), no benefits are likely to be seen from the government funding, but every program has its winners and losers. The additional research battery being undertaken this year is unlikely to provide any benefit until the latter part of the decade, which requires patience that many investors lack. Article by John Gartner, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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Nominate your fav Albertan company for an Emerald Award

kevindahl — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:56:04 +0000

Albertans are passionate about balancing the development of this province’s rich resources with environmental stewardship. The Emerald Awards recognize and reward the excellent environmental initiatives undertaken each year by large and small corporations, individuals, not-for-profit associations, community groups and governments.

You can submit your nominations BEFORE Feb. 24th, 2012 by visiting http://emeraldfoundation.ca/emerald-awards/nominations/

Each year the Foundation receives nominations in ten established categories. Nominations open in November and close at the end of February.
A panel of knowledgeable judges, with cross-sectoral experience, carry out an independent evaluation based on criteria outlined in the nominations package and select the finalists and recipients.

In June each year, about 500 guests gather in Edmonton or Calgary to celebrate environmental excellence in Alberta and provide recognition to those individuals and organizations whose commitment to our environment truly demonstrates leadership. Because of their ingenuity, dedication and hard work, others will follow, what is now innovative will become the norm, and all Albertans will benefit from a healthier, cleaner environment.

The 21st Annual Emerald Awards will take place on Wednesday, June 6, 2012 in Calgary.

Don’t Do These 7 Things When Installing Solar Panels

Solar Calfinder — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:00:10 +0000

Every homeowner that makes the switch to solar becomes part of the solution to sustainably meeting the world’s energy needs. To ensure that your residential solar system is not only kind to the planet, but to your finances as well, avoid these seven mistakes when installing solar panels. 1. Hiring the Wrong Contractor Choosing the wrong solar contractor can lead to multiple mistakes. An awesome contractor will not only advise you about the right system to choose, where to install it and how many solar panels you’ll need, but can help with financing, incentives and other cost-cutting options. The right contractor will assess your home’s energy usage and show you how to make the system as efficient as possible. 2. Picking a Bad Location Ideally, a home solar system should be installed on a south-facing roof that is not shaded by other structures or trees. In sunny areas, other roof locations can make a home a good candidate for solar as well. If a good roof location isn’t available, your solar contractor will provide you with information other alternatives, such as ground-mounted PV arrays. 3. Buying the Wrong-Sized System Homeowners need to be clear about what percentage of their home’s energy needs they expect to be met with a new home solar system. Even a small system can save homeowners money, but it’s important to understand what they should expect before signing a contract. A good contractor will know the efficiency ratings of the solar panels that they install and can explain how efficiency ratings affect performance. 4. Missing Out on Incentives Incentive and solar rebate programs offered on the federal, state and local level are always subject to change. While a great solar contractor will keep up to date on them, it’s important for you to do your homework as well. Depending on where you live, you may be able to save up to 60 percent on installation costs by taking advantage of incentive programs. 5. Not Getting the Most Out of Solar Learning about how net metering systems work with home PV systems helps homeowners make the most out their solar systems. Since many utilities charge different rates at different periods of the day, you can enjoy additional savings by taking advantage of your solar array’s peak efficiency periods. 6. Missing Out on Financing A careful assessment of your home’s energy needs and your household’s financial health can help determine whether it’s more advantageous for you to purchase or lease a system. Other types of solar financing options are available as well, including home equity loans. 7. Missing Out on Property Tax Exemptions Home improvements can trigger a new tax assessment on your property, but many states exempt renovations that increase a home’s energy efficiency or that use renewable energy. Check with your state’s board of equalization department for details.

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4 Innovative Startups that Lower Costs of Commercial Energy Audits

Paul Baier — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:45:13 +0000

Although an energy audit is an extremely useful tool in the sustainability toolbox, it is also usually a labor- and cost-intensive process. But these four firms are helping to make them affordable for any company.

Reliance on ‘Virtual Water’ Puts Some Nations at Risk, Study Says

Yale Environment 360 — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:00:14 +0000

A new study calculates that about one-fifth of all water goes toward the production of crops and commodities for export, part of a global phenomenon known as “virtual water” that researchers say could place pressure on finite water supplies in some nations. Using worldwide trade indicators, demographic data, and statistics on water use, researchers from the University of Twente in the Netherlands mapped the world’s water footprint, including patterns of trade they say are creating disparities in water use. According to the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, many desert and island nations are becoming increasingly dependent on water from other countries, as they import not just food products but the water needed to produce it. The nations most reliant on this virtual water include the island nation of Malta, which is 92 percent dependent, Kuwait (90 percent), Jordan (86 percent) and Israel (82 percent). Some of the most water-rich nations — including the U.S. and Japan — are also among the biggest importers because the products they import require so much water to produce. Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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