July 7, 2017 – Vol. 19 #5: Being the Light
In This Issue
Flanigan’s Eco-Logic
Electric Buses in Focus
Range Anxiety Today and Tomorrow
Biggies in the eBus Space
eBuses for Cities and Transit Agencies
Buying Clean Air in a Can
Flow Batteries for Cars
Paris Music Center Feat. Solar Sail
Utility-Scale Solar for 65 Cents/Watt
Renewables Outpace Nuclear
Flanigan’s Eco-Logic: Being the Light
Few if any EcoNet readers believe that there has been anything short of an ecological forest fire in Washington. The Administration has and will continue to tear apart rational energy and environmental policies. Not many of us want to bring back coal and amplify climate change. For Pete’s sake.
At EcoNet, we focus on the positive. It’s our promise to readers. So where is the positive? Clearly it’s not federal. But there is a silver lining shining brightly. There is profound positive at the root level. It’s at a level that doesn’t show up on a map…. It’s at your home and mine, in small businesses, churches, etc. The DC rampage has galvanized action. People in motion. Where? Throughout our daily lives we see the agents of change. They are us. This is power.
Individuals are galvanized, so are communities, and cities, and states. The people are taking to the streets. And on June 7th, Hawaii was the first state to make the goals of the Paris Agreement state law. Hawaii and 12 other states formed the U.S. Climate Alliance, committed to the Paris goals. Jerry Brown is making California the de facto U.S. international climate leader; witness his negotiations with the Chinese. The Climate Registry is promoting The People’s Agreement that endorses the Paris accord and its actions, making clear in at the next COP in Bonn, Germany that the American public has not withdrawn its support of the Paris Agreement.
The Climate Mayors was founded by LA’s Mayor Eric Garcetti , former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Founded in 2014, the organization received one million dollars in start-up funding from the Clinton Global Initiative to support the founding mayors’ efforts to organize cities in advance of the signing of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Within a week of the Trump announcement to pull out of the Paris Agreement, the Climate Mayors’ membership grew from 61 to 279. As of June 1st, 340 U.S. Mayors representing 66 million Americans have committed to adopt, honor, and uphold the commitments to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. They have collectively pledged to intensify efforts to meet each of our cities’ current climate goals, to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, and work together to create a 21st century clean energy economy.
The D.C. rampage is reckless and grossly irresponsible. But there’s nothing stopping me from taking action, or you. There’s nothing stopping us from taking little steps, and big steps when we can. This is the time to walk the talk, to create eco-actions and to move the needle in our homes, businesses, in our schools, and cities… to meet and beat Paris.
EcoMotion’s trademarked term is the Power of the Increment. The inverse of the tragedy of the commons, the Power of the Increment is based on the synergy of each of us taking action and marveling at it. It’s about collective action that is at best contagious. As our theme song states, ” You can’t move a mountain alone, but if each of us carries a stone, you turn back and look and see that the mountain’s been moved.”
We have the power. Take actions. Focus on small ones that can be easily replicated. If nothing else, take 5% eco-actions. If you can, hit one out of the park… and make that your statement. And let us and all your neighbors know about it!
Quote of the Week
“It’s the silver lining… It’s really encouraging, and it may be that, ironically, the decision to vacate Paris energizes the pro-climate movement,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told The Hill.
Electric Buses in Focus
Source: Transport for London
To be honest, this caught me by surprise: The electric bus movement is as pronounced as the movement to electric vehicles.
In the electric – or eBus – space, there are major advances brewing, matched by cities’ commitments to cut GHGs, fascinating technological advances, and dozens of well-capitalized companies competing for dominance in a huge field of opportunity. I knew this was the case for cars… but I had no idea of the explosion in the e-bus space, nor its innovation.
eBuses come in many varieties, and they seem to be taking over the hybrid electric buses that have combustion engines and motors on board. Are hybrids now a thing of the past?
The most common eBuses are battery-electric buses. The market is moving fast, producing a litany of shuttles, school buses, and city buses for transit systems. There are double-decker electric buses, and articulated and bi-articulated models. Some eBuses are propelled by induction currents embedded in roadways.
There are two major types of eBuses: Autonomous and non-autonomous. The first are autonomous. They are free-range buses with all the range limitations of electric vehicles. Non-autonomous buses are on fixed routes. The most common type are trolley-buses that rely on overhead catenary lines to provide their power. Non-autonomous buses run efficiently without the on-board weight of battery banks, and they run without limitation.
Navya Autonomous Bus Trail in Perth, Australia
Range Anxiety Today and Tomorrow
BYD eBuses Parked at Charging Stations
Electric buses suffer the same range anxiety as cars. And while a bus’s heavy chassis can carry more batteries, buses are large, heavy, and thus hard to power. One positive is that electric buses are well suited for city driving with lots of stops and starts. Electric buses have regenerative braking to capture the energy of the bus’s momentum.
Most electric buses have on-board battery banks and are charged at their home base. And the range of the buses is progressing! The Antelope Valley Transit Authority purchased its first 60-foot eBus from BYD which comes with a 547 kWh battery pack that get up to 275 miles on a single charge. (BYD also makes the e6 SVUV with a range of 186 miles, double that of most electric cars on the market. The e6 is showing up in taxi fleets around the world.) Proterra’s eBus gets 200 miles per charge; GreenPower’s electric school buses all get 100 – 125 miles per charge, more than ample for most bus routes.
Then there are a number of promising, emerging charging options: Just as trolley-buses collect their power from overhead catenary lines, “gap buses” grab power from below. Power is supplied over a 4-5″ gap in the road, from a power line embedded in the road.One of the most intriguing emerging bus technologies is being promoted by Capabus. It’s a new Chinese bus that uses ultracapacitors – instead of batteries – that are quickly recharged every 3 – 4 miles at bus stops under electric umbrellas.
Cables to be Buried Underground to Power South Korean Tram
The best ultracaps hold only 5% of the power of lithium. But what they make up in their inability to store power, is their great ability to charge and recharge quickly. For buses that have to stop frequently anyway, at specific stops, the buses can charge as they go. At bus stops, a collector on the top of the bus rises a few feet to touch an overhead line and to take the charge. This gives them virtually unlimited range plus system efficiency as buses do not need to be taken out of service to charge. The ultracap systems has been tested in Shanghai. Company officials at Sinautec that sponsored the test, claimed that the eBuses bear one tenth of the fuel costs of a diesel bus.
South Korean Bus Powered by Induction
Biggies in the eBus Space
BYD eBus Outside BYD’s Los Angeles Offices
Sure, everyone has heard of Tesla cars. They are red hot. Who’s the dominant player in the eBus space: It’s BYD, a Chinese company that’s gone global. Warren Buffet owns 10% of this company’s shares. BYD stands for “Build Your Dreams.”
BYD’s Lancaster, California plant is making BYD eBuses. The company is using a “defunct, gas-gobbling RV manufacturing plant.” Its buses use 324 kWh iron phosphate batteries. (BYD also produces electric garbage trucks in Lancaster, the site of its heavy vehicle division.) BYD has been awarded contracts for electric buses in Long Beach and Los Angeles. New York’s MTA did a two-month test with the BYD eBus in 2016.
The South Carolina company, Proterra, built a factory in Walnut, California. It’s headed by a Tesla-alum who’s built an all-electric bus that beats all others in 0-20 miles per hour acceleration, can go 200 miles on a single charge, and can recharge wirelessly in as little as ten minutes. Proterra’s bus also sets records for grade climbing and overall efficiency, the lightest bus ever. Company officials aim to be the MacBook Air of buses, light and nimble and highly capable. Proterra’s EcoLiner used by Foothill Transit in West Covina, California is the world’s first heavy-duty fast charge electric bus. Regenerative braking captures 90% of braking energy. Its buses go 30 – 40 miles on a charge.
Proterra
Canadian company, the GreenPower Motor Company, based in Vancouver, Canada began making electric buses in 2014. It now has a line of seven buses (plus another four school bus models) and features an electric double decker bus: The EV550 can hold up to 100 passengers, and 240 miles on a single charge. GreenPower also manufactures the Synapse 72, an all electric, Type D school bus. The company’s school buses have 100 – 125 mile ranges. In June, the company began its “Synapse 72 Demonstration Tour” to school districts and charter schools in California.
In June 2017, GreenPower opened a manufacturing plant in Porterville, California. The plant will make 30 – 40 foot city buses, plus school and shuttle buses. The City was awarded a $9.5 million check from the California Air Resources Board for its commitment to be the nation’s first, all-electric transit system.
GreenPower Double Decker Bus
eBuses for Cities and Transit Agencies
Photo: Office of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti
Cities have big appetites for eBuses. While their share of total fleet buses is likely less than 1%, despite their significant cost, they are popular climate protection measures. Several transit agencies have made pledges to go all electric. Foothill Transit already runs eBuses that recharges at its Pomona Transit Center. Charging is actually on the bus schedule! Antelope Valley Transit Authority has 13 buses on order to full electrify its fleet by 2018. Park City, Utah runs an all-electric bus line that it boasts is quiet and requires less maintenance than combustion engines. Chicago Transit CTA all-electric 700 series buses were added in 2014.
Vienna, Austria features an interesting twist on charging. It uses a quick-charge bus system made by Siemens and Rampini, an Italian bus manufacture. The Siemens-Rampini bus use lithium ferrite batteries, taking a slow charge to full capacity at night. Then the buses tap the city’s overhead catenary line network for 10 – 15 minute recharges. Siemens, incidentally, is no stranger to eBuses. In 1909, a battery-powered bus shuttled Siemens employees and customers between the Vienna Opera and its headquarters. Today, Siemens is part of the Austrian Mobile Power Platform promoting e-mobility.
LA Metro retired its last diesel bus in 2011. When it did, it was the first major transit agency in the nation to completely switch its fleet to alternatively fuel technologies. Now it’s planning to switch again. In June, its Board has passed a resolution to convert its entire, 2,200+ bus fleet to electric by 2030.
To cut pollution and greenhouse gases, a 2015 test conducted by Metro found that eBuses had a tough time on hills and recharging. Nevertheless, environmental groups have lobbied Metro to give eBuses another chance. Metro is now planning to purchase 35 eBuses to operate on the Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley.
Buying Clean Air in a Can
Source: Vitality Air
Alberta-based Vitality Air has been cashing in on Beijing’s worsening air quality, selling aluminum cans of “fresh clean air and oxygen” from the picturesque Canadian Rockies for around $10 each. Vitality fills massive cans of compressed air from the Rocky Mountains around Banff and Lake Louise before dispensing it into retail canisters that are shipped worldwide.
Founders Moses Lam and Troy Paquette admitted to Canadian media that the project first started as a joke, selling their first sealable food bag of air for 99 cents on eBay. They launched Vitality Air shortly afterward. “The truth is we’ve begun to appreciate the clean, pure and refreshing taste of quality water,” the website reads. “Air is going the same way.” The business isn’t without precedent given the growth of oxygen bars.
Canned air is now heading to South Korea. Hadong Vitality Air will soon start producing canned pure air under the trademark Jiri, and will be selling it in drugstores across South Korea. The company is a joint venture, being 50% owned by Canadian firm Vitality Air, 10% by distributor SL Biotech, and 40% by the South Korean town of Hadong’s municipality.
Hadong Vitality Air will be capturing the air in a forest area at 700 to 800 meters altitude. The company’s plant then bottles the air per eight liters, which can be inhaled through a built-in mask in the can. For $13, one can fill one’s lungs 160 times with “the most pristine, cypress-flavored forest air.”
Flow Batteries for Cars
IIT-Argonne Nanoelectrofuel Flow Battery
Imagine pulling up to a “gas station” and, instead of gas, you buy fresh electrolytes for your EV’s batteries! Purdue University researchers have developed a concept for using the existing gas station infrastructure, to power EVs. And instead of charging solid-state batteries, the use of flow batteries adds a new dimension to the experience.
The idea is elegant, even if the power density may plague its actual use. (To get significant range, you might need a trailer towing large tanks of electrolytes!) The goal is to create an instant-recharge system. The Purdue system has the potential to make recharging an EV as quick and easy as refueling at a conventional gas station.
Paris Music Center Features Solar Sail
Photos By Luc Boegly & Sergio Grazia
La Seine Musicale is a new yet already iconic Parisian landmark. The concert hall is a massive, egg-shaped structure made of glass and lattice of timber laminate that sits on a small island in the Seine River, finally open and the city approves (according the New York Real Estate News). Ile Seguin has quite a history, once home to tanneries, then dance halls and factories. In fact, the Renault auto factory there was France’s largest factory. The site of protests and legal challenges, today the island is en route to becoming a stopping point for all visitors to Paris. La Seine Musicale’s designers blended a tribute to the island’s industrial past, with a forward-looking structure. Includes a 6,000 seat performance hall.
Photos By Luc Boegly & Sergio Grazia
Its most notable feature is a “solar sail” that wraps around the huge sphere like a genoa on a sailboat. The solar sail is about 150 feet tall. A 200 tonne structure, it moves about 5 feet per minute, The sail is made of 470 photovoltaic panels that are mounted on movable rails that follow the sun to maximize power generation. The sail, “la piece de resistance,” is a highly visible “glittering bank of solar panels” that powers the center. At night the concert hall’s exterior giant screen will show off what’s inside, and can be seen for two miles away.
Utility-Scale Solar for 65 Cents a Watt
Solar prices are incredibly low. What a decline. What’s next? At the end of May there was the Tucson Electric Power announcement that it signed a PPA for solar for 20 years at 3 cents per kWh. Here in Southern California, it’s routine for installers to buy panels for less than 50 cents a watt. And analysts state that the decline in costs is not slowing down. Solar is becoming pervasive and hugely cost-effective.
GTM Research expects a 27% drop in average global project prices by 2022. Those improvements are not limited to the U.S. They are occurring globally. And it’s seemingly only trade disputes that can derail the price-decrease train.
And on that note, bankrupt Suniva is petitioning the ITC to impose a tariff of 40 cents per watt on non-U.S. manufactured solar cells and a price floor on imported panels of 78 cents per watt. Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 is being called upon in the petition, a rarely used “global safeguard.”
Suniva claims that increased imports have depressed domestic manufacture of solar cells. While the Solar Energy Industries Association has opposed the petition on behalf of the 260,000 solar workers that it represents – fearing that increasing costs back to 2013 prices will cause a downturn in the market – and dampening the 72% per year gain in utility-scale solar and the 35% gain in small-scale solar projects in 2016. The ITC will make a recommendation to the President on this petition.
Notwithstanding the Suniva petition, solar energy systems are dropping in price and are projected to drop 4.4% per year until 2022. The plunges in system pricing haven’t and won’t just come from modules — they’re from reductions in inverters, trackers and even labor costs. GTM finds that India’s system of tenders has produced extremely competitive bidding, and as a result, the lowest system prices of any major solar market in the world. India has also driven down soft costs, paying its labor force and engineers very little. But as the report queries, is that sustainable, or even a positive thing? Markets with low-cost labor are also more likely to use fixed-tilt systems, lowering turnkey system prices even more.
Japan is the highest-priced market in the study, with systems landing at $2.07 per watt, driven by heavy wind, earthquakes, and mountainside erosion that add additional engineering scrutiny and costs. The U.K. has the lowest-priced solar in Western Europe, largely because of common adoption of string inverters, which shaves a few pennies per watt. In the U.S., soft costs such as customer acquisition have risen
Renewables Outpace Nuclear
For the first time since the beginning of the nuclear era, renewable energy sources have outpaced nuclear power. The U.S. Electric Power Monthly for April 2017 finds that biomass, geothermal, hydropower, utility-scale and distributed solar, and wind are providing a greater share of the nation’s electricity than nuclear power.
The tipping point was reached in March. Then, renewables generated 21.6% of the nation’s power requirement while nuclear generated 20.24% Then in April, renewables generated 22.98% versus nuclear’s 19.19% share. And the trend lines continue: In a year, renewable capacity has increased by 12.1% while nuclear has dropped by 2.9%.
Comparing the first four months of 2017 with the first four months of 2016, solar grew by 37.9%, wind by 14.2%, with smaller increases in hydropower and geothermal. (Biomass and geothermal were essentially flat.) In April, solar hit another milestone, providing 2.33% of the nation’s power requirement.