Posted by Max Dunn Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:34:18 GMT | no comments
Pike Research released a new report “Plug-in Electric Vehicles” which estimates that by 2015, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) will total over 3 million worldwide with over 800,000 sold in the U.S. While I think these numbers are conservative, they are higher than Pike predicted just a year ago.
Posted by Max Dunn Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:41:50 GMT | no comments
Have you ever wondered where energy comes from and where it goes? Well, wonder no more – here is a great energy flow diagram from Lawrence Livermore Labs that presents this information in a straightforward way:
Comparing the tiny, thin lines from solar, geothermal and wind against the big, fat lines from fossil fuels shows us that we have a long ways to go to a sustainable energy infrastructure!
Posted by Max Dunn Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:04:32 GMT | no comments
Prices of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have come down drastically in the last few years. Many solar modules can now be purchased for less than $2 per watt. There has been some speculation that these low prices are due to a glut of solar capacity that is causing manufacturers to sell below their cost. However, a tidbit in a Pike Research blog entry revealed this:
First Solar’s 11.2% efficient modules cost $0.76/W to make according to company reports, and total manufacturing cost of c-Si modules produced by the most competitive companies has plunged to about $1.20.
So in actuality, the solar manufacturers can still make a healthy profit by selling their modules at $2 per watt. Let’s hope that prices comes down even further!
Posted by Max Dunn Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:08:57 GMT | no comments
Five teams from four continents started the ZERO Race on August 16th in an attempt to drive their electric vehicles (EVs) around the world in 80 days using only renewable energy – which means they will produce no emissions at all!
It is not a race about speed, but the start to creating a greener planet and a better place to live for future generations by making small, efficient vehicles popular. The team with the smartest, most efficient, most reliable, most usable and most popular concept will be the winner.
Posted by Max Dunn Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:33:36 GMT | 2 comments
I have been putting off this post about the cost of converting my Zapino electric scooter to lithium batteries because it was certainly more than I would have liked to spend. But anyone that is considering doing the same conversion should know about the cost, so I am going to bite the bullet and put out the numbers.
Whew, that wasn’t as bad as I thought!
I considered saving $300 by not buying the charger, but I am glad that I got it. Besides being 3 times faster than my current charger, it also works great with the battery balancers by providing pulsed charging at the end to equalize all the batteries.
Also, with care these batteries should provide about 60,000 miles of use, which works out to about $0.03 per mile. So even though the purchase price was high, the lifetime cost will be about 1/3 that of the cheaper lead-acid batteries all while providing higher performance.
Posted by Max Dunn Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:22:18 GMT | 1 comment
Putting in lithium-ion batteries in my Zapino scooter was a big investment and I am still a little nervous about how well they will work and how long they will last. But I just went for my first ride on my newly converted Zapino and came back with a big smile on my face after covering 18 miles!
I had planned on just riding to the library and back which would have been about 6 miles, but it felt so good after I got there that I decide to ride down to Los Gatos along the long stretch of Hwy 9. The entire trip, the acceleration remained peppy as the voltage on the batteries never sagged below 60 volts. I could also feel the difference that the 80 lb lighter weight made in acceleration and handling. I passed one radar speed sign and it said I was doing 37 MPH. The whole way the voltage of each battery pack remained very similar, which was a good sign.
I am estimating that with the new lithium batteries and lighter weight, I should be able to get about 40 miles out of my newly converted Zapino. Next up, a longer trip to test this range!
Posted by Max Dunn Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:54:56 GMT | 3 comments
This post is very specific about the new Elite Power Solutions Thundersky battery balancers. I am posting it in order to help other people that might have the same questions I did about how to mount them.
First off, here are the old battery balancers that Elite Power Solutions provided for Thundersky batteries:
Notice that the circuit boards have a short wire attached. This makes it easier to mount and allows both LEDs on the board to be seen. However, some might think that the wires look a little sloppy.
Here are the new battery balancers:
Posted by Max Dunn Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:12:35 GMT | no comments
I finally did it – I got Li-Ion batteries for my Zapino and started the conversion! This will reduce the battery weight from 150 lbs to 70 lbs and increase the range from about 20 miles to about 40 miles. While quite a bit more expensive than lead-acid AGM batteries, they will last more than 3 times as long so the lifetime cost will be less.
The first challenge I ran into is that the batteries are slightly taller so the two in front wouldn’t fit. The fix for this was to take the Zapino to my mechanic and have him reweld the battery box to add about 2 inches to it. This worked fine, but does reduce my clearance so I will need to be more careful about speed bumps and going up curbs.
After
Batteries Mounted
Posted by Max Dunn Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:36:35 GMT | no comments
I have long heard that oil companies get a lot of special tax breaks, but no-one has ever been able to explain clearly what those tax breaks actually are. Now an article in the New York Times As Oil Industry Fights a Tax, It Reaps Subsidies provides the best explanation I have seen. Some of these tax breaks are:
While some of these ploys are also employed by other industries, like moving their headquarters outside the US, the US tax code makes it especially easy and profitable for oil companies to employ these tactics.
Furthermore, many of these tax breaks no longer have any valid reason for existence since they were enacted a century ago to encourage oil exploration in the fledgling industry and then later in the 50s to decrease Soviet influence in the Middle East.
It is estimated that these tax breaks averaged $12 billion from 2006 to 2008. While this is a large number, it is only a small fraction of the $280 billion the oil industry was taxed in this period.
Nonetheless, with a growing deficit, dismantling these archaic tax breaks for the oil industry would raise badly needed revenue and help reduce the unfair advantage that the oil industry holds over cleaner forms of sustainable energy.
Posted by Max Dunn Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:13:02 GMT | no comments
Battery life has always been a big concern of electric vehicles (EV). Being the most expensive element of an EV, if they don’t last long it would drastically increase the cost of owning an EV. Early ead acid batteries last about 300 to 500 cycles, which is good for only a year or two of driving. Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries are much better, lasting about 1,500 cycles and with a 100 mile range, this would give a life of 150,000 miles, or about the same as the life of the car.
However, Toshiba has been working on a new battery technology with a greatly increased life span of 6,000 cycles. This would give an EV a lifetime range of about 600,000 miles, or enough to swap into 4 different EVs! Imagine that you buy an EV and 10 years later it is starting to fall apart, but you can use your batteries for your next EV greatly reducing the cost of your subsequent EVs.
Another advantage of the SCiB technology is that it is safer and can withstand fast charging. Now word on price or when it will be available, but they are working with Mitsubishi and several other partners to bring it to market.
Source: AutoBlog Green: Toshiba partners with Mitsubishi for development of li-ion SCiB EV batteries