“General Motors is joining governments and companies

around the globe working to establish

a safer, greener and better world.”

Source: EVVolumes.com

This is a rising star… the electric vehicle. In 2020, global EV sales surged despite a drop in overall sales of passenger cars. According to the market research firm Canalys, EV sales jumped 39% globally. At the same time, sales of passenger vehicles dropped by 14%. EVs are now almost 5% of all new car sales globally. Europe was responsible for much of this growth in 2020.

According to EVVolumes.com, 2020 was a banner year for plug-in electric vehicle sales, with sales increasing from 2.26 million in 2019 to 3.24 million in 2020. These values include Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV). Europe is the leading region, taking 1.4 million units, 137% more than in 2019. This growth was due to attractive models, incentives from green recovery funds, the European Union’s “95g CO2 mandate” for average fleet emissions, much improved EV availability, and intense promotion of EVs.

Now, let’s look at the share of the market. What percentage of total sales were EVs? Overall, sales of BEVs and PHEVs made up 4.2% of the global car market, up from 2.5% in 2019. In Europe, EV sales were 10.2% of the market, up from 3.3% in 2019. In China the EV share rose from 5.1% to 5.5%. Meanwhile, in the United States, EVs were 2.4% of new car sales… up just 4% from 2019. U.S. EV sales did nevertheless outperform the overall American auto-market, down 15% year to year. Analysts suggest that this was mostly due to the introduction of the Tesla Model Y.

The world’s largest EV manufacturer is Tesla. In the first quarter of 2020 it had a 29% market share. It was followed by Renault-Nissan with 13% of the market share, Volkswagen Group (11%), and BYD (6%). Tesla’s Model 3 has been the world leading EV, but Model Y sales last year equaled Model S, X, and 3 sales combined. All told, Tesla delivered 499,550 vehicles in 2020. It has new factories in Austin, Texas, and Brandenburg, Germany. It is boosting production with eight massive casting machines. Tesla is going big and building all-electric, semi tractor-trailers. It is also going small, developing the Model 2, a compact hatchback with a price that may be as low as $19,000. There are rumors that Model 2 steering wheels will be optional.

Norway, a Scandinavian nation with a population of just over 5 million, is leading the EV revolution by selling more EVs per capita than any other country. Why? Despite being a major oil-producing nation, the Norwegian government has developed strong incentives for decarbonizing transportation by utilizing the country’s carbon-free hydroelectricity resources.

Norway has invested in consumer incentives since 1990. At the turn of the century, charges for toll roads and public ferries were removed for EVs. Free parking was offered in some municipal car parks. Norway eliminated its 25% sales tax for new EV purchases in 2001. EV drivers were permitted to use bus lanes in 2005. This was all supported by an extensive EV charging infrastructure initially capitalized by Norwegian government, but now taken over by the private sector.

Let’s look at the numbers in Norway: Market penetration of EVs, that’s the percentage of EVs on the road, passed 15% in 2020. The EV Market share, based on the percentage of cars sold each year, has been the world’s highest, 74.5% in 2020. By the end of 2020, Norway had 337,201 BEVs and 142,807 PHEVs on the road. As a result of early adoption of EVs, Norway was able to achieve its climate target for average fleet CO2 emissions (85 grams/km) for new passenger cars three years earlier than pledged.

Norwegian consumers now compare the total cost of ownership of a “petrol car” versus an EV. They are finding that net of incentives, the electric option makes financial sense. EVs also address environmental realities. In Bergen, Norway the air pollution is so bad at certain times of year that drivers are restricted in using their vehicles to certain days of the week. Naturally, EVs with no tailpipe emissions are a logical solution for this beautiful city in the fjord region.

This third brief in the ten-part series on microgrids is intended to shed light on the concept we’ve been developing. In Microgrids 1.1 we talked about the genesis of microgrids, and what we call green microgrids. In Microgrids 1.2 we delved into the three major components. Here we present two wildly different microgrid case studies.

***

Let’s begin in New York. Co-op City is one of America’s largest housing developments. It hosts one of the largest microgrids in the world. Co-op City was built in the late 1960s on 320 acres in the Baychester section of the Bronx, one of New York City’s five boroughs. I remember when it was built. It has 15,372 apartments in 35 towers serving a population of 60,000 residents. It also has seven clusters of townhouses, eight parking garages, three shopping centers, a high school, two middle schools, and three grade schools. If it were incorporated, it would be New York State’s tenth largest city.

By the early 2000s, its owner – the Riverbay Corporation – recognized that its dated central heating plant and 6 MW back-up generator needed replacing. Repowering the facility enabled far greater efficiency and reliable onsite power. The new 40 MW Siemens combined-cycle natural gas power plant was commissioned in 2011. With a 24 MW peak load, Co-Op City sells excess power when Consolidated Edison calls for it. The plant cut Co-op City’s energy bill by $15 million a year.

The community’s islanding feature – to become a microgrid – was an added benefit that has shined brightly and gained recognition due to Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. When nearly all of New York City was blacked-out, Co-op City was fully functional. It was powered and heated thanks to its power plant tri-generation facility that generates electricity, heat, and cooling. Its plant operator noted that “We weathered the storm well.” There was no flooding at the plant, and in addition to serving the residents with uninterrupted power and heat, Coop City’s plant operators were supporting Consolidated Edison with grid support, specifically VAR support (volt ampere reactive) for the surrounding neighborhoods.

***

Stone Edge Farm and Winery is a 16-acre organic farm and vineyard located in Sonoma, California. The farm produces heirloom vegetables, fruits, olives, flowers, honey, eggs, wine grapes… and world class Cabernet. It’s owned by “Mac” and Leslie McQuown who are dedicated to addressing climate change. Now the farm is not only known for its organic Bordeaux-style varietals, but it has also become a showcase microgrid.

The rather complex project was built over a five-year period by project engineer and general contractor, Craig Wooster, now deceased. His legacy is the Stone Edge Farm Microgrid, a demonstration of taking a footprint “As low as you can go,” to what some call a “Sub-zero carbon footprint.” His vision and application also led to the project being called the Stone Edge Farms University, as many interns have flocked to the farm to learn about its innovative and integrated systems.

The project has 12 solar arrays on ten buildings, 553 photovoltaic panels constituting 160 kW. It features four types of batteries, including Aquion which use seawater chemistry, Tesla Power Packs, a 65 kW Capstone natural gas-fired microturbine, and a set of “hydrogen devices.” These include an electrolyzer to create hydrogen from water using surplus solar power. The hydrogen is stored to refuel the farm’s Toyota Mirai, and can be fed into the farm’s three fuel cell “hives” to return the hydrogen fuel into electricity.

We’ll discuss Stone Edge’s utility interconnection in a coming article in this series, but to whet your appetite… Stone Edge Farms has been completely islanded for the past nine months. Now “Mac” has his engineering team – led by Ryan Stoltenberg of Heila Controls –designing and building a microgrid at another winery… this time a DC microgrid.

***

There is a growing list of notable microgrids ready for investigation and emulation. Other exemplary microgrids include the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Richmond, California, the University of California at San Diego, Borrego Springs, the Blue Lake Rancheria, and the Miramar Marine Corps Air Base. Microgrids come in many sizes and in many forms. The next article in this series discusses six microgrids developed by EcoMotion for a school district in Monterey County.

On Friday, February 19th, the United States officially rejoined the Paris Agreement. Following United Nation rules, that’s 30 days after a letter from President Joe Biden the day of his inauguration stating his decision for America to immediately re-join the global accord. That’s good news, the implications of which were made clear by Dr. Robert Kay of ICF Consulting in a recent webinar.

The Paris Agreement was adopted by 195 countries in 2015 following the 21^st United Nations Conference of Parties in Paris (COP 21). The Agreement commits nations to work together to limit the global average temperature rises to 2 degrees C, and to pursue a lesser 1.5 degree rise. Signatories are responsible to submit Nationally Declared Commitments (NDCs) that state their goals and plans.

A brief review: The United States signed the Agreement in 2015. The Agreement was ratified by the U.S. Congress in 2016. Former President Trump pulls the U.S. out of Paris in 2017.

Then “non-federal actors” took over. Out of necessity, climate action shifted from the federal level to states, local governments, NGOs (non-governmental organizations, non-profits), and to the private sector. We Are Still In was formed. It is now made up of over 3,900 CEOs, mayors, governors, county executives, faith leaders, tribal leaders, college presidents, health care organizations, and others who have pledged to continue striving for the Paris Agreement goals.

Three governors – Cuomo, Brown, and Inslee – forged the U.S. Climate Alliance in 2017 to carry on America’s work with climate protection. By the end of 2020, there were 25 states in the Alliance representing 60% of the U.S. population. These states are reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions faster than the national average rate, and their economies have grown slightly larger than average.

The cooperation of these states in building markets for low-carbon products and services has been significant. Hydrofluorocarbons are refrigerants, but also potent GHG gases. The Climate Alliance states took on HFC regulation when it was “vacated” by the Trump administration. The Climate Alliance has been making progressive policies the norm; now there are 16 states with 100% renewable energy goals… unthinkable just a few years ago. They are forming good jobs in clean energy and energy efficiency, providing multiple job pathways in the climate sector.

President Biden recommitted the United States to the Paris Agreement through Executive Order on his first day in office, January 20, 2021. Now the federal government shifts from climate protection adversary to ally. According to Julie Cerqueria, Executive Director of the U.S. Climate Alliance, “There has been a complete sea change.”

The states have built a strong foundation for the federal government to build upon. President Biden’s Executive Order also established the Office of Domestic Climate Policy. It also calls for the creation of the Climate Corps reminiscent of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Student Conservation Corps formed in the 1950s and going strong.

The Biden administration plans to release the new Nationally Declared Commitment on Earth Day, April 22, 2021. According to Rob Kay and his colleagues at ICF, the United States must demonstrate global leadership, but its plan must also be do-able. The first U.S. NDC called for reducing emissions by 25 – 28% by 2025, from a 2005 baseline. Biden is being pressured to up the ante and to cut emissions by 50% by 2030, and to achieve neutrality mid-Century. We’ll stay tuned.

Farmers are finding a new source of income: carbon sequestration. By adopting new planting strategies, carbon can be captured and returned to the soil. It’s part of a movement called regenerative farming. A Nature Conservancy study focuses on a particular type of no-till farming. It involves the planting of cover crops and nutrient-dense root vegetables during the off season. This technique alone could sequester as much as 10% of the world’s carbon footprint.

In President Biden’s announcement of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, he noted that his policies will make American agriculture the first in the world to achieve net zero emissions. His policies will encourage farmers to plant cover crops that use the soil to capture carbon. It’s also a good way to boost food production.

One farmer, a man named Hill from Maryland, was paid $115,000 for returning 8,000 tons of CO2 back into the ground. He earned $16.50 per ton sold through Seattle-based company, Nori, the broker of carbon credits. Reportedly Spotify, Arizona State University, and several individuals bought the credits. The farmer used clover, lentils, and rye as cover crops, and radishes and turnips for root crops as sequestration and regeneration agents in his corn field.

Another farmer, Kelly Garrett in Iowa, has a passion for sustainable agriculture. For the last eight years he has become 100% no till, doing exactly what the science would suggest for carbon capture. He went through a documentation and certification process with Nori, and then was able to sell 22,745 tons of carbon credits for $15/ton… a total value of $341,175.

There is a romantic notion of a farmer tilling the land, turning over the soil, and breaking up clumps. This act of disturbing the soil, breaking apart roots, and exposing vulnerable microbes to the sun, however, sends billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Regenerative farming uses root crops to loosen up and aerate the soil, and cover crops to shade it from the sun, introducing more microbial diversity, and sequestering more carbon in the plant roots.

Source: Danish Energy Agency

It will be the largest construction project in Danish history:a 30-acre, $34 billion artificial wind energy island. The man-made island will be located 50 miles offshore in the North Sea near the Jutland Peninsula in the north of Denmark. It will serve as the hub for 200 wind turbines with an aggregate capacity of 3 GW. The island will have massive batteries to store wind power. Wind power will also be used to electrolyze water to create green hydrogen that will be carried in undersea pipelines to shore. Construction is slated to start in 2026 and to be complete in 2033. The Danish government will take a 51% share of the project.

Denmark’s Climate Act commits the country to be 70% carbon-free by 2030. The Danish Energy Agency is working hard to keep Denmark in a pioneering position, taking a bold and innovative step with “energy islands.” A smaller energy island is also being planned off Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. These islands are being designed to accommodate the huge expansion of wind, some 10 – 12 GW of capacity that can be developed, and that will position Denmark as a major renewable energy exporter in the region.

Meanwhile, South Korea is planning to build a huge offshore wind farm. In fact, it will be by far the world’s largest wind farm with 8.2 GW of capacity. That’s many times larger than the current world leader, the 1.1 GW Hornsea 1 wind farm in the United Kingdom. The $43.2 billion South Korean project will be almost entirely privately financed with less than $1 billion in government support. It is reportedly on fast track and slated for completion in 2030.

The wind farm off the coast of Sinan is part of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s Green New Deal. Investments in electric and hydrogen vehicles play a major part in that plan to make the country – Asia’s fourth largest economy — carbon neutral by 2050. The President’s plan is to make South Korea a leader in the offshore wind industry. He aspires for the country to become one of the five top leading nations with offshore wind in the world.

The wind farm is about cutting carbon and stimulating the country’s economy. It is projected to create 120,000 jobs and will be developed and built with all domestic partners, spearheaded by Korea Electric Power Corporation, Doosan Heavy Industries (which will manufacture the wind turbines), Hanwha, and CS Wind.

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