Articles

Guest Article: The Market Scope of Renewable Energy Business in India

India is country that is most recognized for its deep cultural roots, and its significant contributions to the history of the world. In terms of modernity, India is not necessarily the first country that comes to mind. This way of viewing India is changing however; with India making great strides and going through one of the most significant economic boom periods in modern history. One surprising area where India is actually a leader among nations, is that of India’s commitment to renewable energy.

Conventional wisdom says that emerging nations can’t afford to focus on renewable energy initiatives. The old model says that countries that want to succeed must grow their economies by any means necessary, and worry about the environmental impacts later. India has turned this notion on its ear; using the renewable energy business as a method of boosting its economy significantly. This home-grown Indian ingenuity has shocked the world; with so-called “modern” nations now looking to the Indian model for inspiration in solving their own environmental (and economic) concerns.

One of the most remarkable things about the Indian renewable energy market is that the country of India is as much a producer of renewable energy products as it is a consumer. The net effect of this unique situation is that both the production and consumption of renewable provide benefit to the Indian economy. This enviable situation is one that other nations would love to match.

India entered the renewable sector early. At a time when renewable energy was largely an untested niche-sector, with more emotional attraction than economic promise; India gambled that this sector was one worth making a substantial commitment to. In the early 1980’s, India established a government ministry for the purpose of developing non-conventional energy resources, including renewable. Currently, renewable energy concerns fall under the purview of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Among the earliest renewable energy sources that India committed its resources to developing was that of solar energy. Working with the United Nations, India established a loan program enabling home owners to purchase solar power generators and related materials. The program served to bring viable energy options to far-flung corners of the nation, with tens of thousands people signing up. Of course, the program spurred a solar power, and solar power support services, industry that is still thriving in India today.

In the 90’s, India began to seriously develop its wind power capabilities. This sector of the Indian renewable energy market has experienced a ramp-up effort in recent years. Today, India has the fifth largest wind power generation capacity of any nation on earth. With plenty of land that is ideal for the generation of wind power, it is reasonable to expect wind energy development to expand there.

Another sector that India is making great inroads into is that of waste-to-energy. By converting sewage and industrial waste into fuel products, India reduces its consumption of fossil fuels. This lowers the amount of environmental damage caused by the use of conventional fuel usage in the country. As the Indian population continues to expand, waste-to-energy will become an increasingly more important part of India’s overall energy and environmental portfolios.

Renewable energy sector output growth in India fuels the need for greater expansion of the sector. An Indian worker who receives a high paying job in the sector suddenly has access to financial products such as a home mortgage, or an auto loan. Taking out that auto loan and purchasing a car, means more greenhouse emissions, and the possibility of greater pollution. This in turn motivates the Indian government to pursue more effective methods of reducing environmental pollution nationwide, for the good of the entire country.

Guest article on renewable energy: The Challenges in Developing a Zero Carbon Internet

Probably the strongest challenge in creating a zero carbon Internet is discovering renewable sources of energy that will provide power to routing nodes, carrier hotels and data centers. A suggestion was made to just buy renewable power from a local utility but it was swamped with different issues in that purchasing renewable energy credits will still not get rid of the need for coal plants. It also does not work in protecting a customer from the price jumps of power as trade and cap comes into play.

Renewable power transmitted through a grid will still have increased cost over dirty power because there will be an increase in demand for such power as cap and trade pushes the price of dirty power up even if the customer purchases the renewable energy credits.

There is also the “megawatt mindset” coming from most utilities that remains one of the major challenges in developing a zero carbon broadband Internet technology. The good news in this is that there are already companies who are utilizing windmills and river turbines in order to power their ICT and Internet industry, making this work independently from the electrical grid.

The utility industry’s windmills are usually gigantic devices as they need to get the economies of scale in check. However for data centers and Internet network nodes, smaller devices mounted on rooftops will do the trick. As these smaller devices are not part of the electrical grid, users can secure clean and renewable electricity for their needs.

One good example of this is Ecotricity in the United Kingdom that operates and builds wind turbines in their partner sites such as factories and data centers. The company shoulders all of the capital costs of the project, even the turbine. Their partner will agree to purchase the electricity from their turbine device and receive their own dedicated supply of green energy in return. Another advantage in this set up is that the energy rates are significantly reduced. Aside from that, there is no finical risk to the Internet node or the data center.

New research and concepts are still required to create a least cost non carbon path routing that offers the best route without necessarily affecting latency. Research must be made on the distributed caching architectures which will minimize carbon emissions so that computers and large databases can be relocated to distant renewable energy locations and will not impact its latency. There is also the need for new network routing topologies as most routers and switches nowadays can be found at the intersection of multiple routing paths. Lastly, new architectures and ideas are still needed in order to incorporate carbon optical networks paired with energy hungry routers.

Article: EV Charging Infrastructure & Grid Integration

While participating at the China EV Charging Infrastructure & Grid Integration Forum 2012 I asked for opinions on charging issues during a forum discussion and all six panelists came with a different answer. This made me realize that the EV industry is far from settled yet; everybody agrees that uncertainty and the lack of infrastructure and associated standards are the issues. As I participate in more forums (lately the China EV Forum in Shanghai) and also communicate with industry specialists in Europe and North America I have a distinct opinion on how Charging Infrastructure & Grid Integration issues can be addressed. This article is therefore a compilation of the opinions of international leaders in the EV field.

Slow charging

Everybody agrees that this is the preferential way to go and the time hereto is available at home, at work and at hotels. The infrastructure hereto must be built; every residential parking lot must have a power outlet for the chargers integrated in the car (typically 3.3 kW for battery capacities in the range of 16 – 24 kWh). The next priority is to install power outlets at offices. Acceptance of EV’s for home-work use will depend on this basic, but essential infrastructure. Optimally the chargers at residential parking lots should have built in timers so they can default be charged during the night time, when the grid has ample capacity and charging cost will be lower. Of course this default mode can be easily overruled by the user.

Medium to semi-high speed charging

This mode can be in the range of 6 – 12 kW and will thus charge a 24 kWh battery in 2-4 hours. When used at shopping malls this will therefore not full charge the customer’s EV battery but this is also no a requirement; even when charging with 6 kW during a 1 hour mall visit, adding 25% to the capacity will be enough to get the customer back home. Reducing the charging current is a priority for grid stability.

High speed charging

Industry specialists agree that high speed charging is a last resort and will be more expensive than lower speed charging. When commuting between cities (that have EV charging support) it is a requirement that charging stations are available on regular intervals, a bit more frequently than gas stations. If this infrastructure is not available, consumers will not buy EV’s without extended range option (such as the GM Chevy Volt).

When North American consumers were asked which charging speed they would expect at shopping malls more than 90% answered: high speed charging. When confronted with the option of free slow charging (using the internal charger) or paid higher speed charging more than 90% selected slow charging. Consequently mall management can safely chose a low high speed (paid) option and a high slow charging capacity; the latter will cost the mall owner typically 2 RMB, well spent marketing money.

Battery swapping

There is probably no EV subject as controversial as battery swapping. When analyzing this issue, it becomes clear that battery swapping is a perfect –and internationally widely proven- application here. Taxis –preferably managed by one organization- are also potential users as they also need to operate on a continuous basis.

But for private car owners battery swapping is not the preferred choice, mainly because of the associated higher cost but also because private individuals wish to fully own a car, reportedly especially in China. Besides, in a country like China, building a widely spread infrastructure for battery swapping would be an enormous investment, which can be compared with the high speed Maglev train from Pudong Airport to Longyang Road: an interesting technological achievement, but not deemed very useful by consumers. For public transport, investments are much lower as this is a controlled environment within a limited area.

Grid stability challenges and solutions

Now, Beijing has 40,000 electric cars. When a Chinese official was asked what would be the consequence of all Beijing electric cars be high speed charged at the same time, the answer was…. a blackout! There is little doubt that in the future electric cars will become far more popular, driven by reduced prices and improved range (CALB and Foton both stated that 300Wh/kg will be a feasible reality in the near future; more than 3 times the current performance/weight ratio).

When there would be more than 6 times the number of electric cars in the future, the grid could not even handle consecutive slow charging. One solution, as proposed by the Zigbee group is the Smart Grid, where the utility can influence the charging times in function of the grid usage. The Smart Grid can also regulate a balanced use of other power users such as HVAC, washing machines, without sacrificing user comfort.

Additionally, energy storage –that could well be performed with written-off EV batteries- can help to balance the power usage. The most structural solution is the additional use of renewable energy close to the electricity users. Residence roofs, parking lots canopies can be covered with solar PV panels. For new construction of high buildings the use of solar windows is a consideration for the (very) near future.

Used EV batteries and wind turbines

Wind turbines can normally have a limited (typical maximum 20%) contribution to the total base load (which is much lower than the maximum load), because wind surges cause a very fast increase in output. Without this limitation the grid would become instable (fluctuating output). Used EV batteries however can be used to smother the wind turbine output and will thus allow a far higher wind penetration. Needless to say that it is advantageous –like with solar PV panels- to place them close to the users; not just for EV application but to achieve a higher Renewable Energy contribution: a wider governmental goal.

If I were in charge I would first….

• Make it the highest priority to get all stakeholders on one line so the decision process can start
• Require to build power outlets at every new parking spot at residences and offices, followed by building this infrastructure in existing construction.

This way the first and foremost EV applications Home-Work and Shopping/Dining are secured. Without this infrastructure consumer acceptance will lag behind.

About the author

James Post is the Executive Product Manager of Battery Condition Test Equipment designed by a Dutch high tech company (http://engineering-spirit.nl), active in the crossroads of power electronics, embedded & technical software. He can be reached via email: jpost@engineeringspirit.nl China phone: 138.1663.0584

Guest Article : Geneva International Auto Show Bares All

It is a car lover’s dream to attend the 82nd annual Geneva International Motor show. Creators of present and future technologies worldwide join together for this automobile extravaganza in search of bragging rights. Since 1905, this premier event has captivated professionals and laymen alike. Peugeot is even sponsoring a contest to give away the predecessor of its 207, the sleek 208. Simply fill out an entry form, answers a couple of questions, and you might just get to kiss your auto loan goodbye. The conventional autos on today’s roads are giving away to dramatic engineering innovations. No longer are four wheels a necessity for comfort and safety.
Take the Morgan three-wheeler for example. This two-seater comes equipped with a 120 hp engine which easily catapults its light aluminum frame up or down any winding road. The double wishbone suspension gives this double front wheeled vehicle a smooth ride at every turn. In Addition, the Morgan reveals it new electric and environmentally friendly engine. Going green is fortunately on the minds of big car companies. This is evident as a number of electric and hybrid cars have reached the pedestal.
Hyundai’s I-Oniq concept car is offering a seventy five mile electric charge with a three hundred and sixty mile gas back up. Next is Mini’s new Clubvan designed as a commercial-use vehicle. This economically fuel savvy transport is a two seater with the five doors for easy access and loads of room for cargo. Always present at the auto show is Mercedes Benz. Their latest flower child is the A-Class. This sporty compact car boasts models with high efficiency diesel engine that is almost ninety nine percent emissions free. Finally we come to Tesla’s Model X. This compact sedan has three rows of seats accessible through ‘Falcon’ doors claimed to offer easier access to the second and third row seating.

Now we enter the world of the exotics. Lamborghini makes a stunning appearance with is new Aventador. This dreamcatcher is well endowed with an engine package that propels it from zero to sixty in just under three seconds with a top sped of two hundred miles per hour. Audi stakes its claim with the TT Rs Coupe and the Eco-friendly A8 hybrid. Austin Martin shows off with its V12 Zagato. Only about one hundred and fifty of these five hundred horsepower monster Martins are available, so order yours today. BMW steps it up with its I8 concept car. This futuristic looking bullet is powers by and electric/ gas combination that shoots it from zero to one hundred in just about five seconds.

There are literally hundreds of cars at the Geneva show capable of dropping your jaw. From tiny economy cars to super fast gas guzzlers. The imagination of the scores of creators is staggering. If you are lucky enough to attend, it will be an experience you will not soon forget.

Guest Post – Why should I Buy An Electric Hybrid Vehicle?

Electric Hybrids combine the advantages of Electric motors and petrol engines. The electric motor slows the wheels down thus converting energy by acting as a generator, into electricity. This is then stored in the battery awaiting use by the electric motor.

This electric motor also means a smaller, more efficient engine can be used as the electric motor adds more power to accelerate, overtake or climb hills. The engine shuts off instinctively when the vehicle stops and starts again once the accelerator is pressed. This stops energy from being wasted at its minimum R.P.M

taken from wikimedia.org

Toyota Prius V Hybrid Car Family

So how much can I expect to pay?

Despite their innovative designs and impressive properties, hybrid vehicles are more affordable than you might think. They cost between $22,000 (£11,000) and $100,000 (£50,000), so although the initial outlay could be around 20% more than a standard fuel car, together with allowing between $3000 (£1500) and $6000 (£3000) depending on the type of battery you require, the hybrid is still very likely to be a better deal economically in the long run, mainly due to the fact that they run on either no or very little oil based product compared to a standard vehicle. Your finance options to assist your purchase in this difficult economic climate include personal loans, extending your mortgage, balance transfers or the more traditional Hire Purchase route.

Are Hybrids durable in the long-term?

The world’s first Toyota Prius taxi cab driver, BC’s Andrew Grant used his Prius on a daily basis. After 3 years of this continuous use, his Prius was proudly displaying over 180,000 miles with only a few very minor problems. Grant has now bought a new generation Prius and is an inspiration to taxi-drivers who are willing to keep up to date with technology.

Would I need to plug it in at night?

No, it can be filled up at the petrol station just like any other petrol car. The beauty of it is that it never needs to be recharged from an external power supply as the powerful electric motor that supports the petrol – engine runs on a battery that charges itself when the car stops or runs down.

How reliable is the technology?

Honda are so happy with the reliability of their hybrid vehicles that they back up their motor and IMA battery with an 8 year warranty. They can afford to have this level of confidence in both their motor and battery having sold half a million reliable vehicles worldwide so far.

Are you sure they aren’t just one of the latest crazes?

Believe it or not, the first production hybrid arrived in the U.K in 1999. As the cars look so modern and futuristic it is hard to believe they’ve been around for over a decade. They really do offer an opportunity for drivers who wish to remain green without their levels of performance and comfort becoming compromised.

taken from wikimedia.org

US HEV Sales by model 1999 2009

Are there any other reasons I should consider purchasing a Hybrid?

Honda state their company car drivers tax liability starts from less than £30 per month for a UK Tax-payer at the current rate of 20%. This is due to a low 10% BIK banding. Another advantage is that cars under 110g/km CO2 fall into the most advantageous tax allowance bands of outright purchase and leasing, meaning companies pay less tax.

Why choose a Hybrid over an electric car?

Unlike a hybrid, sub 120g/km petrol cars are typically small and don’t offer enough space for passengers to sit comfortably.

How does a Hybrid compare to environmentally friendly Diesel?

Diesel costs more at the pump, even though they do have a similar mpg and there is also the disadvantage of increased driver tax. Petrol hybrids exhaust gases and are also cleaner than that of diesel producing less oxides of Nitrogen

Do any celebrities drive Hybrid cars?

Early adaptors of hybrids are rumoured to include Cameron Diaz, David Hyde-Pierce, Jack Black, Harrison Ford, Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt. This could be a potential chance to be inspired to drive something similar to your celebrity idol as this can only enhance your cool and green status!