[Teaa-l] TEAA Newsletter No. 4

[Pete Eckhoff]

TEAA Newsletter No.4  
May 27, 2008

Hello All,

It's been almost 6 months since the last newsletter went out and there
have been a lot of developments directly and indirectly related to
Electric Vehicles (EV).  General Motors is definitely committing to the
Volt,  solar cell manufacturing is on the increase, and Amp Mobiles
Conversion Mini Workshops are going well.  Now I read where Duke Energy
is going to construct a Solar Electric Farm north of Charlotte and will
also be placing PV on roofs.

DC has often chided me for spending too much time on the Internet and
not enough time under the hood of Sparky.  I counter that I have
learned a tremendous amount of things on the Internet and that they
have some to help me understand what is happening to us all.  I do feel
guilty for not being under her hood more often.   Along the way, I've
come across various sites that have shaped my thoughts about this
coming decade and how it will affect us.  

We know that gold an silver mines play out and we are told the same
thing happens to oil fields.  We have seen evidence of this in
Pennsylvania, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Alaska, the North
Sea, Indonesia, and maybe Saudi Arabia.  We are finding new deposits in
the waters off of Angola, Brazil, and China.  The easy oil has been
found and the more difficult to get to, difficult to extract, and
marginal reservoirs are the ones that are left.  People often cite the
great oil shales of the Colorado Basin but when you scratch the surface
of their arguments you find that the oil in the oil shale is a waxy
substance called Keratin and the shale is rockified mud.  In order to
extract the Keratin, the rock has to be cracked and then heated to get
the Keratin to flow.  The Keratin has to be processed with natural gas
to convert it to something that resembles oil.  Lee Raymond, ex CEO of
Exxon Mobile says we have reached a peak in Natural Gas production in
North America and caveats it with”unless there is some new deposit that
no one knows about.”.  We have been trying to extract Keratin from the
oil shales on an economically justifiable basis and that looks like it
will never happen

We are beginning to see that demand is outstripping supply.  As T.
Boone Pickens recently said: “People talk about all sorts of things
that are driving up gasoline prices but the simple fact is that demand
is 87 million barrels of oil a day while supply is 85 million barrels
of oil a day.” He thinks that it will be very difficult to increase the
supply.  The other thing is that he did not mention was that world
leaders are seeing this happen and to prevent unrest, countries will be
exporting less and saving their resources for their people.  Saudi
Arabia said that they could increase production but are reluctant to do
so.  It is [past?] time to transition to what is available.  You should
carefully read the last paragraph in the first message.


Topics:

Duke Energy announces deal with solar farm proposed for Davidson County
Amp Mobile Mini Workshops
GM Volt Cost of Operation
On PV Powering Electric Vehicles
Power of DC – May 31 – June 1
Google Hybrid Vehicle Contest

Messages:

(Ref: http://www.solarbuzz.com/news/NewsNAPR1093.htm)

Duke Energy Carolinas will purchase the entire electricity output of
the nation's largest photovoltaic solar farm to be built in Davidson
County, N.C., north of Charlotte.
Under agreements signed with SunEdison, customers of Duke Energy
Carolinas will purchase electricity from a PV project with an expected
nameplate capacity of 18 megawatts (AC) or 21.5 megawatts (DC).
SunEdison will start operating the solar farm beginning no later than
December 31, 2010. The agreements run for 20 years. 
"We said we wanted to lead the way in the development of more renewable
energy and we meant it," said Keith Trent, group executive and chief
strategy, policy and regulatory officer. "Today's agreements, coupled
with the other significant initiatives across our company, clearly
demonstrate that renewable energy has an important place in our power
generation portfolio." 

The SunEdison agreements are a result of a request for proposals, or
RFP, that Duke Energy issued in April 2007. It was the first RFP of its
kind in North Carolina and was specifically designed for potential
renewable providers.

The PV solar farm will consist of 36 individual solar PV structures,
located at a single site. Construction is anticipated to start early
3rd Quarter, 2009. 

In addition to purchasing renewable energy from other providers, Duke
Energy is advancing plans for its own distributed solar generation
program. Distributed generation is energy created close to where it is
used, rather than being produced in large power plants and sent to
customers over the power grid. The company plans a filing with the
North Carolina Utilities Commission in the near future that will seek
approval for the program, and the authority to recover its investment.
Under the plan, Duke Energy would install and operate distributed solar
generation on customer rooftops and other spaces.

*****

Amp Mobile Mini Workshops

(Ref: http://www.ampmobileconversions.com/CarbonOffsets.html)

The JUNE 6-9TH, 2008 is FULL, thank you to all who have signed up and
Welcome to the class.  

The JUNE 27-30TH, 2008 workshop is  filling up fast, so sign up NOW if
interested. Contact us at info at ampmobiles.com for more details or to
sign up. Please include "MINI-WORKSHOP sign up"  in the subject line.
Sorry, but we must have at least a $50.00 deposit to hold your spot!
Would you like to have your car/truck the "discussion and assembly
vehicle" for one of our workshops? Standard conversion prices apply (
less some of the labor fee) and your vehicle will be assembled during
the workshop and driven out onto the road in 4 DAYS! Your attendance to
the workshop is free also. Email info at ampmobiles.com for more
information.

Mini Workshops  are limited to 8-10 students per class. The workshop
will allow the students hands-on basic DC conversion information.  Each
converted vehicle is completed under the close supervision and
instruction of Mike Moore and a DVD is made of the entire process for
the student's review. (Ampmobile Conversions will hold rights to the
DVD.) The mini workshop is 4 days - from Friday through Monday from 9
AM - until 5 PM each day. (This is to allow more people to attend and
not miss as much work.)  The workshop will be a basic introduction to
DC drive systems, battery discussion, wiring diagram reading, control
board and component placement and more. An actual "donor" car will be
assembled during the workshop and test-driven before the end of the
workshop. Study materials and suggested reading will be sent to paid
attendees only. 

The cost for a mini-workshop is $400.00. A deposit of $50.00 ($25.00
non-refundable) will add your name to the class roll for that specific
workshop. The balance due must be received at least two weeks prior to
the workshop date. This will allow us time to organize the class roll
and add anyone if room is available. 

*****

Volt Cost of Operation

(Reference:
http://gm-volt.com/chevy-volt-reasons-for-use-and-cost-of-operation/

COST OF OPERATION:
The Volt can drive for 40 miles on a single full electric charge of
it’s battery pack. It is a known fact that the battery pack will be
allowed to drain down from 80% to 30% before the gas-generator kicks
in. Since the battery pack holds 16 KWH of energy, that means 8 KWH
will get you 40 miles.

[ed.  This is about 0.2 kwr/mile which is along the lines of very
aerodynamic vehicles such as sport cars.]

*****

On PV Powering Electric Vehicles

You can find solar radiation maps covering the entire US for each month
of the
years at http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/
These maps plot the average amount of solar radiation that you would
expect to receive anywhere in the USA in units of kwhr/m^2/day.  I've
attached one for your reference.  For a Flat plate collector tilted, in
January, at our latitude -15 degrees, we receive about 3.5 kwhr/m^2/day
in the RDU area.  Assuming PV is about 20% efficiency, (record is 23%
for silicon, 15% average), each square meter of PV would produce 0.7
kWhrs/day.  Let's assume that I want to fuel all my family's vehicles
using PV for all our around town use of about 70 miles plus a pad of 20
miles.  At 0.3kwhr/mile for 90 miles, we would need about 30 kwhr.  We
would need 43 - 1 meter squares of PV (30 kwhr/0.7 kwhr/day).  The sun
facing portion of my roof is 15' x 40' or roughly 5m x 13m or 65 square
meters.  I have ample roof top space to generate enough power for three
EVs.  The question comes down to cost.

First Solar and Nanosolar are both producing cells with a $1/watt cost.
 They have a produced cells with a 19.5% efficiency in their lab and
I'm assuming that will translate to being around 20% efficiency in the
near future.  The cost to you and me is probably about quadruple due to
profits, markups, transportation, installation, PV support framework,
etc.  I think the industry uses a solar incidence of roughly 1000 watts
per meter square.  Therefore, the 20% panels would produce about 200
watts per meter square or cost about $200/meter square or $800 to you
and me.  A 43 panel setup would cost about us $34K provided that they
can get their efficiency up to 20%.  

If we assume 25 miles/gallon as an average vehicle gasoline
consumption, At $4/gallon, thats about $16 each day.  At $34K for a set
of panels, that's a pay off in about 2125 days or about 6 years.  

While these are rough figures and there is some fallacy in them.  For
instance, 1) $34K seems to low for a set of panels, 2) A vehicle would
have to be plugged in wherever the sun is out, and 3) if not plugged
directly into the panels, the utilities will charge their typical rate.

However, the method of calculation parallels a number of studies I have
seen on the Internet.  So this method could be used for your own
parallel study

*****

Power of DC – May 31 – June 1

(Ref:  www.powerofdc.com)

The Power of DC, organized by the Electric Vehicle Association of
Washington DC, is an annual electric vehicle competition featuring an
AutoCross and Drag Race that puts these vehicles through their paces to
prove they are more then glorified golf carts. Now in it’s eighth year,
the 2008 event takes place in Hagerstown, Maryland Saturday, May 31 and
Sunday, June 1. The AutoCross is a slalom course being run by the
Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and the Drag Race is sanctioned by
the National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA) and will take
place at the Mason Dixon Dragway. Vehicles racing in the competition
include cars such as Porsche’s, Volkswagen Rabbits, Pontiac Fieros and
Ford Escorts that have been converted to run on electricity. Custom
built electric vehicles including roadsters, dragsters and motorcycles
will also be racing and competing for NEDRA records.

“New motor, control and battery technologies are developing at an
unprecedented rate and as a result NEDRA cars and bikes are becoming
common sights at tracks around the country,” says NEDRA President Shawn
Lawless who will be bringing 4 vehicles to the event including a high
powered electric dragster powered by 4000 A123 lithium battery cells.

For additional information on the Power of DC contact Chip Gribben or
visit www.powerofdc.com

The Power of DC is organized by EVA/DC and NEDRA member Chip Gribben of
Laurel Maryland. Chip has been organizing the Power of DC for six
years. The event was featured on the Discovery Channel in 2005.

*****

Google Hybrid Vehicle Contest

Call for Videos: "Why I Want to Drive a Plug-In"

Ref: http://www.google.org/recharge/dcpluginsconference/videos.html)

Google.org, the search-engine giant's philanthropic arm, is calling for
90-second YouTube videos from plug-in vehicle owners and those who want
to own them. The former should show and tell the world how plug-ins
work and why they like them and the latter should explain why they'd
like to take the wheel.

The videos must be posted on YouTube by June 4 and some of the "most
informative, original and funniest" will be shown at a major EV
conference organized by Google.org and the Brookings Institution to be
held in Washington, D.C. on June 11 and 12. The conference, titled
"Plug-in Electric Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington?" will
explore EVs, their potential to reduce oil dependence and the role of
federal policy in promoting them. Plug In America co-founder Chelsea
Sexton is among the event's speakers. Others include Rep. Jay Inslee
(D-WA); Sen. John Kerry (D-MA); Shai Agassi, CEO & Founder, Project
Better Place; Troy Clarke, President, GM North America; and John
Podesta, President, Center for American Progress.

The plug-in videos also will be featured on a map on Google.org's
RechargeIT website. RechargeIT is Google.org's initiative to reduce CO2
emissions, cut oil use and stabilize the electrical grid by
accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and
vehicle-to-grid technology.

Plug In America is not affiliated with Google.org or the upcoming
conference. We are simply helping to spread the word about another
terrific opportunity to spread the plug-in gospel.

For more details on creating and submitting a video, visit.
http://www.google.org/recharge/dcpluginsconference/videos.html.






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pete Eckhoff
TEAA President 2005
teaaprez at yahoo.com
http://rtpnet.org/teaa
919.477.9697(h)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~