Electric Vehicles, The Smart Grid and the Crony Subsidy Windfall to Force EV Adoption

[FastTadpole]

Just read a great article posted last year that forcasted what is taking place today by Jack on the Smart Grid.

Here's what they are doing in terms of EV Subsidy for infrastructure and the likes in America:

Quote:Electric Vehicles Infrastructure Council
December 9, 2009

Governor Rell’s Executive Order No. 34

Focus of WorkGroup

The Council Shall:

a. Strategize on preparing the State for the rapid and seamless integration of EVs into the market:
b. Coordinate intragency decision-making on critical issues:
c. Establish performance measures for meeting infrastructure funding, environmental and regulatory goals, and
d. Align State goals with what is occurring on the national level for EVs.

Key Issues to Address

* Customer and Stakeholder Education;
* Options for development of metering and charging infrastructure including, placement
opportunities to prepare the State for the arrival of EVs;
* Home charging installation process and streamlining permitting requirements and
contractor installation of residential EV charging equipment;
* Rate Design options and metering;
* Interplay of CO2 reduction programs affecting utility and transportation sectors;
* EV incentives to encourage CT consumers to buy and operate EVs including tax cuts, financing and grants;
* Process to move forward, series of monthly meetings and working groups.

http://www.ct.gov/dpuc/lib/dpuc/ev/ev--c...9-2009.pdf

and the UK Model:

Quote:The Round Table

The lively debate was followed by a roundtable discussion hosted by Robert Goodwill, MP, Shadow Minister for Roads, on the topic of Infrastructure for EV's. Participants included representatives from vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, infrastructure builders and the utility sector who, along with Frost & Sullivan helped provide a full perspective of EV infrastructure requirements and issues. After hearing the cases from the table and following the spirited discussion, Robert Goodwill concluded that significant developments in EV infrastructure is clearly necessary and the UK government is in favour of EV's. However, it was understood by all that it is not the role of the government to pick and choose a technology, but rather set out norms and regulations to allow the industry to come up with the best solution.

The Cocktail

The activities on the 10th June were rounded off by a VIP cocktail dinner hosted by Lord Palmer, Vice Chair of the Renewable Transport Fuels Group where the group lobbied to change the perception and bring the salient issues around EV's to the awareness of MPs and peers.

Day long Presentations and Networking

The second day of the EV Workshop was comprised of a series of presentations from a cross section of the electric vehicle industry with representation from vehicle manufacturers, battery and electrification businesses, the utility industry, infrastructure builders and the government.

Sarwant Singh, Partner and Practice Director at Frost & Sullivan demonstrated how urbanisation is creating the demand (??) for EV's and supporting this with crisp vehicle forecasts. He educated the audience with the challenges ahead of EV's, world-wide developments, roadmaps and emphasised the role of new business models before appealing the government to support electric vehicles.

Kulveer Ranger, Director of Transport Policy from the Mayor of London's office promised to lead the world's EV fleet. His inspirational speech detailed the efforts taken by the Mayor of London in turning the City of London into a Mecca for EV's. He ascertained that the UK government is talking to many vehicle manufacturers, working on huge incentives for the industry and consumers alike with a plan to set-up the charging network to support the fleet.

In the end a Single Industry Lobby Group made a nice chart and told the democratic government here are your options .. pick one:

   

http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/market...=175022244 (Full Article)

Meetings, VIP Cocktails and a Trade Show + handshakes. It's not financially feasible. But don't fear that can be corrected! Solution -- subsidy, subsidy and more subsidy to support EV and infrastructure, R&D and discounts for select crony corporations with your tax dollars.

Great insight by JazzRoc from a good debate on the Electric Car

Quote:Electric cars obtain their energy from electrical power stations. The BURN takes place there. There is NO GAIN by using electric vehicles, because of the efficiency losses of both the station and its transmission lines.

Internal combustion engines are capable of development yet. Their power to weight ratio can be five times greater and their fuel efficiency doubled.

Canals and rail are underutilized in western society. Common sense demands a return to both.

http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?t...#pid151020

and another by Hans Olo

Quote:Quote:Using the current standard of making electricity is worse than gas, not that gas is good but replacing one posion for another will not be any better.

I disagree. This is really two questions got mixed up in this. Should we replace the coal based electricity with something better, sustainable, cleaner? Yes we should. No argument there.

The second question is, should we replace our legacy of oil / gas - based combustion engines with modern, clean, silent electric cars? My answer is YES we should, this would benefit the environment greatly. Is that the only thing we should do? NO, we should still replace the basis for that energy with something better.

You, my friend, and I believe, unwillingly so, are reciting propaganda of the fake environmentalist groups and now the Obama campaign. They have two things in stock for you:

1. They want to ruin the coal industry and that way crash the food market (because it's an energy dependent market). That's exactly what Obama said, he wants to tax CO2 so higly, that coal companies go bankrupt. Go look it up.

2. They want to keep the world hooked on oil / gasoline stranglehold. They (the British / Arab oil industry) have a monopoly on running cars, and the electric car would kill this monopoly. With an electric car, you are free to choose where your energy comes from. You want to pay your neighbour to power your car with his solar panels? Done. You want to make a deal with that company that makes energy from bio-mass? No problem.

What I'm saying is, do you realize that the only way to sustain the status quo is WAR with oil producing countries, and by promoting fuel engines over electric cars you help justify the myth that the oil monopoly depends on?

Just stop and think for a minute.

http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?t...#pid151374

Damn .. the whole thread (c. 2008) is great... just read it:

The Electric Car
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=6435


One more .. for now. This is from softball questions from smartplanet.com

Quote:Q: Can you explain transformer loading and how this could be a problem?

A: The concern is if there’s a cluster of electric vehicles with fast chargers behind a single transformer that it could draw too much juice. But where that clustering is going to occur initially, the utilities are well aware of that and they’re looking at how to get ahead of the issue.

Mike Rowand [Director of Advanced Customer Technology] from Duke Energy said they did a study, and if every one of their [4 million] customers bought a Chevy Volt tomorrow, it would increase the grid requirement only 10 percent. They don’t think it will be an issue.

http://www.smartplanet.com/people/blog/p...ntent;col1

They don’t think it will be an issue. There are 64 Million Registered vehicles in the US. To supply all of them with 'green' electric energy so that's +%160 of CAPACITY (not generation).. They don’t think it will be an issue. -- nice way to distance yourself Mike so you can blame it on the kids.

.. but I suppose that's where the biofuel crony subsidy scam kicks in.

Other Related Threads:

Smart energy meters in every UK home by 2020
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=3241

Smart Grid
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=4332

A Slideshow Pitch by ESB to Install Infrastructure Software to Ireland
Attached PDF

[FastTadpole]

Oh I couldn't ignore this ...

Quote:Senate Committee Approves $3.6 Billion for EV Infrastructure
by Brit Liggett, 07/22/10

The bill was authored by U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who wants to provide electric vehicle charging stations and infrastructure in order to persuade Americans that EVs are the way to go. He wants to make it an easy and quick switch from gas guzzlers and believes — and we agree — that making it easy to charge an EV is probably the best thing you can do to make people want to buy them. The bill would create a series of deployment communities that would be testing grounds for EV charging technologies where the government would be able to find the best strategy for widespread EV infrastructure. As we all know, a seamless infrastructure is the key to a seamless transportation system.

“Passing this legislation will strengthen our national security and improve the air we breathe, while relying on our abundant and diverse electricity supply to fuel our cars,” Dorgan noted. “We are now one step closer to dramatically reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil that hurts our economy, helps our enemies and puts our security at risk.” The Senate is also working on passing a $25 billion retooling loan program for advanced technology vehicles which would provide loans for domestic manufacturing facilities so that they can retool their machinery to produce EVs and retrain their employees on how to use the new machinery. All the while the Senate still hopes to approve the looming Energy Bill before they go home for recess next month. It has been noted that the $3.6 billion infrastructure bill and the $25 billion retooling loan program could be squashed into the larger Energy Bill, but that has yet to be decided. Nothing’s written in stone as of yet, but at least we’re inching in the right direction.

http://inhabitat.com/2010/07/22/senate-c...structure/

Here's another handout. Free Market anyone?

President Obama Announces $2.4 Billion in Grants to Accelerate the Manufacturing and Deployment of the Next Generation of U.S. Batteries and Electric Vehicles
Recovery Act will fund 48 new advanced battery and electric drive components manufacturing and electric drive vehicle deployment projects in over 20 states

Where is the subsidized infrastructure technology going to come from?

Quote:Q: What kind of EV preparation have you seen in other countries?

I spend a fair amount of time in China. The Chinese have adopted an extremely aggressive plan. They look at it not just as an environmental and economic imperative but as a commercial opportunity–to leapfrog the rest of the world in electric vehicles. They showed with cell phones that they can leapfrog technology, and we need to pay attention to that.

The Chinese have the largest example of mainstream deployment of electric vehicles in the world, and that’s electric bikes. They make 20 million electric bikes a year, and there are 250 million on the street. It has completely changed access to economic opportunity for millions of Chinese. We think of the Chinese as heavily policy driven, but this was a complete market phenomena. The Chinese are going to embrace this technology and be aggressive in promoting it. The commercial imperative is an important goal that we dare not take our eyes off.

http://www.smartplanet.com/people/blog/p...ture/4007/

Massachusetts Set To Install 100 EV Charging Stations!
Subsidy for SAAB
http://inhabitat.com/2010/10/08/massachu...-stations/

Who is making the Electric Cars?

It's a Beta VHS type battle going on for plug-in standards. I haven't done enough research yet to discern the who's who on voltage/ connector compatibility but here are the top car manufacturers as they stand and how they are predicted to roll out.

Available Now

Think
Mitsubishi
BYD (Chine)
Bolloré
Subaru


Pre 2012 Expected Rollout of Models

Daimler
Ford
Nissan
BMW
Renault
Toyota

Source: http://www.cired.be/CIRED09/round_tables...20RT6b.pdf

The Report is issued by EDF (A big 85% French Government Owned EV Infrastructure Builder). They appear to be pushing the Toyota standard.

Quote:"This is a global Toyota project involving 600 Prius Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles that will also be deployed in Japan, the US, Canada and Australia. "

http://press.edf.com/press-releases/all-...80481.html

Finally here's a link to a list some of the players but they're fronting the US bias to sell it better in Anaheim California. But lots of Asian and European interests are going to be attending to shake hands and garner government handouts. Oh look there's BP, Sanyo, Honda, GE, BASF, Panasonic, MERK, IBM and P&G and Lockheed Martin as the main sponsors. Lots of speakers like ECOtality, DOW, DuPont, Fuji, Honeywell, Peritus, PricewaterhouseCoopers, NASA, Homeland Security, Chevron and Ernst & Young too. Sounds like fun! If you're in the area - drop by and tell them I say hi.

http://www.techconnectworld.com/Cleantech2010/

Here's where some of that 'free' cash is going -- San Francisco and Oregon.

Quote:ECOtality Expands EV Infrastructure Plan for Oregon Adds PacifiCorp as EV Project Partner
Medford, OR, United States, 09/29/2010

“Oregon is leading the West Coast in the adoption of EV infrastructure,” stated Jonathan Read, CEO of ECOtality, Inc. “With this announcement, residents will be able to travel the entire state of Oregon, from the Washington border in the north to the California border in the south, and can rely on the EV infrastructure ECOtality is installing. In the future, ECOtality hopes to expand our deployment on the I-5 corridor to link the West Coast from Mexico to Canada.”

“Our vision for Oregon is to create an electrified highway so that Oregonians, and our visitors, can travel throughout our state on business and leisure using the next generation of clean, electric vehicles,” said Governor Ted Kulongoski. “With the partnership of the federal government, our utility companies, local governments and private companies like ECOtality, we are quickly turning that vision into a reality.”

ECOtality recently unveiled is infrastructure plans for Northwestern Oregon, which included potential locations for more than 1,100 publicly available charging stations. As part of the plan, the company will place approximately 20 stations in Medford and Ashland, providing needed publicly available charging stations for electric vehicles that will be arriving in the area after January 2011. A large part of the expansion into Southern Oregon is thanks to the support from local area stakeholders, the Rogue Valley Clean Cities Coalition, and the newest EV Project national partner, PacifiCorp.

ECOtality is tasked with supervising the construction of the largest deployment of EV infrastructure to date. The $230 million public-private initiative is funded with a $114.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The EV Project includes 16 cities and major metropolitan areas in six states, and will result in the installation of approximately 15,000 charging stations by June 2011.

http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/78196/

Funny that they left this part of the press release out..

Quote:The project will provide an EV infrastructure to support the deployment of 8,300 EVs.

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/10/12/eco...ct-best-b/

Not to mention a bunch of these will be installed in Best Buy parking lots. So let's do the math ..
Infrastructure for 8,300 EVs = $230,000,000
Infrastructure for 64,000,000 EVs (160% of Current Grid Capacity) = $1,773,493,975,903 (Cost at that rate)

Yup that's $1.773 QUADRILLION DOLLARS. 50% Subsidized 50% passed on to the customer. What a value!

Not to mention the ongoing fuel subsidy (estimates at 70%) and carbon taxes etc...

Picking the lesser of 2 evils I'd rather go with the Algae Biofuel Scam but that's not nearly enough production.

[FastTadpole]

A breakdown of the $2.4 Billion in grants for battery R&D and education by the DoE.


  battery_awardee_list.pdf (Size: 34.3 KB / Downloads: 26)

Fascism as defined by John T. Flynn (1944) based on an analysis of Mussolini's Italy:

1. Anti-capitalist, but with capitalist features;
2. Economic demand management...
3. ...through budget deficits
4. Direct economic planning, reconciled with partial economic autonomy through corporatism;
5. Militarism and imperialism;
6. Suspension of rule of law.

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

[h3rm35]

tapes -> cd's-> Mp3's
VHS-> DVD -> BluRay
TV -> digital -> HD -> 3D
Normal cars -> hybrid -> EV's

The same trend can be seen in computers and finance.

It's a bunch of Bullshit.

Come out with something "new and improved" and social pressure will force spending.

[rsol]

tbh guys unless you are living in a major city you can kiss my ass on this point.

If you are living out in the sticks you simply wont understand the amount of illness and damage is caused from the internal combustion engine.

Powering an EV doesnt actually require you to be hooked up the the grid. Powering it overnight can be done through wind power and by day via solar. even the cost of 100 miles worth is in the pennies.

Jazz makes an old point. there are new ways and new means.

The real problem is people need to be sucking on some for of establishment tit at all times in order to make a change in thier lives.

[FastTadpole]

GM Plans To Tax You Into A Volt.

Quote:Government Motors Pushes Gas Tax Bailout
06/09/2011 06:46 PM ET

Energy Policy: Unable to sell its electric cars, a failing General Motors wants to "nudge" you out of your gasoline-powered vehicle by upping the federal gas tax a buck a gallon. We don't think consumers will buy that either.

We've all followed that car with the bumper sticker that reads "Don't Laugh — It's Paid For."

Well, GM wants to increase our pain at the pump and force a struggling Joe Sixpack out of his "gas guzzler" by making him go from gas he can't afford to cars he can't afford and does not want.

Rather than force people into cars they don't want through higher fuel-efficiency standards, Government Motors CEO Dan Akerson, who works in a city that government has run into the ground, said in an interview with the Detroit News that "we ought to just slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas."

This, presumably, would be in addition to the 56.5 cents a gallon that Republicans on Congress' Joint Economic Committee reckon has been added to pump prices due to administration policies that have weakened the dollar.

We have documented the administration's campaign to raise the price of fossil fuels by imposing drilling moratoriums to reduce domestic supply in the name of environmental protection. Making the price of fossil fuels "necessarily skyrocket," as President Obama famously promised, is the only way that heavily subsidized, uncompetitive and little-used alternative energy can be made attractive.

Akerson believes his company, in which the federal government still has a 26% stake, would benefit from a government-imposed tax hike. Such a levy will prompt more people to buy small electric or hybrid cars such as the Chevy Volt and do more good for the environment, and his company, than higher mileage standards.

GM sold 493 Chevy Volts in April, bringing sales for the first four months to a staggering 1,073.

At this rate, it will take quite a while to fulfill the 2008 campaign pledge by Barack Obama to put 1 million plug-in vehicles on the road by 2015.

GM hopes to move 10,000 units by year-end. What would happen to the nation's power grid if they were all plugged in is anybody's guess.

While this is said to be good for the environment, it will not be good for our pocketbooks, since electricity rates are also supposed to "necessarily" skyrocket as the result of the administration's no-growth energy policy.

Full Story: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis...ailout.htm

[FastTadpole]

Discussion from the IRC Chat at #concen.org

Code:

[01:15] <zr> the volt seemed like a good idea back when it was reasonably priced
[01:16] <zr> petroleum is a far more totalitarian-friendly energy source than electricity
[01:16] <zr> granted most electricity still comes from petroleum
[01:17] <zr> but electricity doesn't necessarily come from petroleum which is the key difference between electric and gasoline cars
[01:38] <@FastTadpole> .. but what regeime does it serve and at what cost?
Petrol is more plentiful than we are led to beleive (see diamonds). Drill deep enough and you will find it. Green is not as green as invisioned nor reported and the patents are in the hands of the few, attached to the same banking institutions. Price is underestimated. Efficiencies are pegged too high by research borne from the market that seeks to capitalize on it. The technology is being developed by many of the same entities in the petrol game, sacrificing a few to short selling profits, in which case they really don't lose at all since they are mere shells for transacting monetary power. The price is under heavy subsidy which makes for more centrist control via cronyism to the tune of 70% in most cases. The 'green' technology (Solar, Wind) is primarily Chinese and Indian with some 'elite' European and a few NA players. Biofuel is drawn from the earth where food crops are then inflated and made scarce due to the competition for arable land; the water to produce them too. Moratoriums on oil, coal and gas "fossil" fuels are obvious in Agenda 21 areas like the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska; maybe Alberta sometime as its 'dirty oil' is under incessant attack from the Gaia worshippers. Carbon Dioxide Credits are dolled out to the same players and they are already create a bubble in the new markets for it, not on Wall Street but in London and Hong Kong. Carbon deals such as the Copenhagen Treaty exempt states such as China, India and their territories in Africa are set to turn the balance on Energy.

[FastTadpole]

How nice of California to subsidize Mitsubishi.

Quote:Mitsubishi Launches a Solar-Powered Charging Station
by Gina-Marie Cheeseman
July 26, 2011

....

“This project will build awareness of solar power’s versatility and efficiency,” said Katsuya Takamiya, president and chief executive officer, Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA. “As electric vehicles’ popularity grows, we expect to see more charging stations at large employers, automobile dealerships, shopping centers and schools, where cars can charge while people work, shop or study.”

“We hope that our dealers, learning institutions, and municipalities will look to this technology with a keen eye towards the future, and bear in mind that the gradual acceptance of the pure-EV transportation will be aided by increasing the number of facilities like this one,” said Mitsubishi Motors North America President Yoichi Yokozawa.

...

http://www.care2.com/causes/mitsubishi-l...ation.html

[FastTadpole]

Solar powered electric sounds great but here are some details on cost and viability.

Quote:Mitsubishi has launched its first of these facilities at its North American headquarters in Cypress, California.

The charging stations will eventually be located at Mitsubishi dealerships to charge the forthcoming Mitsubishi i vehicles, which are still on pre-order online and start at $21,490 considering a potential tax credit of $7,500. The vehicles will be available early next year, the company says.

The charging stations, whose computers and compatible vehicles use the Chademo protocol to communicate with each other, will work with Mitsubishi’s electric vehicles as well as those from Nissan and Toyota, according to Mitsubishi Motors spokesman Maurice Durand.

The solar charging stations are big enough to house eight vehicles and charge four of them, according to the company. But the ability to capture enough solar energy to charge a car with the sun alone is still out of reach, so these solar charging stations actually pick up a majority of their energy from the nation’s electrical grids, Durand explains.

...

How long it takes to fully charge a car makes them unrealistic for most one-car households. It can take 22 hours or more to charge an electric car using basic Chademo charging.

Faster charging is possible, but it’s not surprisingly more expensive. Owners of the Mitsubishi i or another Chademo-compatible vehicle can buy and install an optional 240-volt wall-mounted charging dock that can charge an electric car’s battery in about six hours.

Pricing on this option depends where the charging dock is installed and how much work is required prior to installation, Mitsubishi explains. The charger itself might cost about $1,600, but the installation could add thousands of dollars in additional costs, Durand says.

Full Article: http://blogs.forbes.com/altheachang/2011...ic-option/

US standards are for 120 volts you'd have to upgrade the outlet to be 240 compatible like other countries. Interesting.. there might be another big subsidized infrastructure project in line.

Nice of the US to pay Mitsubishi to do this, set up the infrastructure and give an incentive to buy foreign good on top of it.

The solar powered electric car is just another electric car.

Quote:.. But more than 4.7 million charging stations are expected to be installed by the time the number of electric cars on the roads exceeds the 3 million mark, according to Pike Research.

Already, about 1,100 Blink Electric Vehicle charging stations from clean energy company ECOtality are expected to be installed in the state of Oregon by the end of the year.

And ECOtality has already partnered with BP and Arco gas stations, Cracker Barrel restaurants and major nationwide department stores like Macy’s and Sears to install charging stations at their retail locations.

Nationwide, with federal stimulus money, the U.S. Department of Energy will help fund ECOtality’s installation of about 14,000 commercial and residential charging stations in 18 major cities in six states and in Washington, DC., ECOtality says.

And so far, since last December, the company has installed 1,200 residential charging stations nationwide, according to the company.

http://blogs.forbes.com/altheachang/2011...e-country/

[rsol]

Quote:US standards are for 120 volts you'd have to upgrade the outlet to be 240 compatible like other countries. Interesting.. there might be another big subsidized infrastructure project in line.

welcome to earth, where the first adopters and the original designers get to pick the input/output.
something people in the tool industry have had to cope with since the invention of power tools. all 110V(US). If you guys had bothered with it you could of had a say so.

[FastTadpole]

Quote:Government Motors offers to buy back electric Volt cars
Dec 1, 7:15 PM EST
By TOM KRISHER

General Motors will buy Chevrolet Volts back from any owner who is afraid the electric cars will catch fire, the company's CEO said Thursday.

...

"The fire broke out seven days later. Not seven minutes. Not seven seconds," Akerson said, adding that the company wants to fix the problem so people continue to have faith in Volts and other advanced technology cars. The company is notified of any Volt crash through its OnStar safety system and dispatches a team with 48 hours to drain the battery, preventing fires, he said.

...

He conceded that the fires may cause some potential buyers to shy away from the Volt. But he added that GM is trying to get the message out that they happened only after extreme tests. Akerson also stressed that standard gas engine cars also have problems with fires after crashes.

The Volt can go about 35 miles on battery power before a small gasoline generator kicks in to keep the car running. The car can be recharged with a standard home electrical outlet.

The Nissan Leaf, a fully electric car and the Volt's main competitor, has not had any similar fires after crash tests or real-world crashes, Nissan said.

The Leaf battery is cooled by air rather than a liquid used to cool the Volt battery.

..

Full Story: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/U...TTERY_FIRE

So the US government (on your behalf, with your money) is willing to buy back electric cars if they to promote them. Yet another subsidy to force widespread adoption.

Nice to see they can go a whopping 35 miles until using gasoline. It seems AP has spun the story with a motive to promote the foreign made Nissan Leaf which is even more heavily subsidized (details upthread) and requires a non-US Standard power supply (also subsidized).

Interesting point on OnStar GPS Technology being installed on every car and reporting back to a central database somewhere. A black box is required for all new cars.

This is all part of the Smart Grid / Real World Web wireless tech that will follow everything around and more..

Extensive Information on that topic here:

Smart Dust: HP & Shell to deploy Central Nervous System for Earth (CeNSE) via 1T Micro-Sensors + DARPA and Honeywell
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=33737