I don’t envy the folks charged with determining where the public charging infrastructure should be installed to support the rollout of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). The lucky owners of the first Volts and Leafs that are delivered during the next few weeks and months will primarily rely on home charging, but that will be complemented by public locations.
charging stations
In a push to improve air quality in London, city officials will require that all new black taxi cabs be electric by 2020. Under increased pressure to reduce the worst air pollution in Europe, London Mayor Boris Johnson says the city will refuse licenses to any taxi older than 15 years beginning in 2012, a move that will remove about 1,200 black cabs from London’s roads.
Of the 12 smart grid projects to win an award as part of the GE Ecomagination Challenge, one in particular caught my attention.
That is GE’s collaboration with Columbia University’s School for Engineering and Applied Science, FedEx Express and Con Edison to take Columbia’s patented
Since taking office, President Obama and his Administration have taken unprecedented steps to build a clean energy economy in this country. You may have already read about the events and announcements across the Administration in October on this front. I wanted to highlight a few items from the last couple of weeks:
Electric Car Charging Stations Coming to Heart of Oil Country in Texas
A U.S. utility is planning to build a network of electric vehicle charging stations in Houston that would be available to subscribers for a flat fee, the first such network of its kind in the nation. NRG Energy Inc., a New Jersey-based power company, plans to install private and public charging stations across the city, at a cost of $10 million. For $49 per month, customers would receive their own
We can thank the arrival of the Toyota Prius, Al Gore, and a few summers of flirting with $4 gas prices for the current rise in consumer interest in vehicle efficiency and reducing emissions. While every year the vehicles – hybrids and ICEs alike – gets more efficient, the 2010 crop of plug-in vehicles will be accompanied by new tools that help drivers to further shrink their
Electric vehicle charging stations are now popping up at locations scattered across the country. Because of the low penetration rates of EVs and charging equipment during the next year, utilities are generally comfortable that their ability to reliably serve customers won’t be impacted.
This is partly because both categories of
Oregon electric vehicle fleet is getting a boost with the expansion of electric vehicle charging stations. The northwestern metropolitan areas of Portland, Salem, Corvallis and Eugene are playing host to what is deemed the “largest rollout of EV infrastructure in the world” and will include more than a thousand publicly available chargers.
As concerns over air pollution and climate change continue to mount, the electric vehicle (EV) market is predicted to expand at a corresponding rate. And charging stations for electric vehicles is an equally high-growth market.
In August, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden released the White House’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery
Decades ago the only type of car was the internal combustion (gasoline)type. Other varieties have arrived such as Hybrid and electric. With the new choices are other decisions such as which one reduces most the carbon footprint (or is the most green)and which one is the most cost effective. No more is “the miles per gallon” a standard that can be applied across the
The U.S. retailing giant, Home Depot, is now selling a super-efficient, LED light bulb for just under $20, and the chain says that the bulbs are selling so quickly that it is having difficulty keeping them in stock. LED bulbs, which emit a brighter light than energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs, can last as long as 30 years, which makes their $20 price tag appealing; not long ago,
Speaking to a gathering of mayors in Copenhagen, London Mayor Boris Johnson announced plans to add 25,000 charging stations for electric cars across the city by 2015, turning London into a center of plug-in vehicle technology.
By creating the right conditions, Johnson said the city can encourage a “golden era” of electric cars, and he predicted that every resident will be within a mile of a charging point.
Johnson said the challenge of reducing carbon emissions is urgent, but should not require “hair-shirt abstinence.”
The movement towards zero emission electric cars is gaining a tremendous amount of momentum. As we move into 2010, practical electric vehicles for the vast majority of the public will be available late in the year with the release of the Nissan Leaf. The shift that may occur in the coming years provides the opportunity to engage in open dialogue about the tax benefits and burdens as the US moves into the era of the electric car.
If you plan to purchase an electric car in 2010, you can expect a healthy federal income tax credit to reward you. For plug-in electric vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of less than 14,000 pounds acquired after December 31, 2009, the maximum tax credit available will be $7,500. The base amount of the credit is $2,500. If the car has a battery capacity of at least 5kWh, then an additional $417 in tax credits will be available. For every kWh of battery capacity in excess of 5kWh, $417 will be added to the total amount. The additional amount, based on battery capacity, over the base amount is limited to a total of $5,000.
Some heavyweights who know a thing or two about transportation are having a pointed online debate about whether or not electric vehicles should receive support from the federal government.
Terry Tamminen, who was Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, threw down the gauntlet last month in an editorial in which he stated that “it’s time to dump the battery-powered car in the same policy landfill as corn-based ethanol.”