Let in the Sun Shine

Tags: clean fleet, solar, EV, Batteries, cleantech, Cleantech Blog, vehicles, VOW, PV, KYO, NEV, LEV, EV
30 Nov 7:48am
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(11/28/07 by John Addison) Gene Coan does not worry about the price of gasoline, nor is he concerned with his gas and electric bill. Gene powers his home and car with solar photovoltaics (PV) and also uses solar hot water heating. With his Zenn electric-vehicle (EV) Gene rides on sunlight.

Gene is following his beliefs. He is a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of the Sierra Club. From PV to EV, Gene is living zero-emissions from energy source to wheels.

The Zenn is a stylish three-door hatchback, which makes it handy for hauling stuff from stores. It is fully enclosed. It is a light electric vehicle with a curb weight of only 1,200 pounds because of its aluminum frame and ABS plastic body panels. It has a range of 35 miles and a legal speed limit of 25 miles per hour.

There are over 25,000 battery-electric vehicles on the road in California. Most are the $9,000 to $12,000 light electric vehicles (LEV) such as Gene’s Zenn. These electric vehicles are often referred to as neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV). LEVs are popular in university towns, such as Palo Alto, California, where Gene lives. There are over 100 in use at nearby Stanford University. Many silently zip around the campus carrying the people, goods, and equipment necessary to keep the university running.

New Year’s resolutions are easy to make, but often not kept, especially when the price tag is $45,000. In January 2002, Michael Mora convinced his wife that they should buy a Toyota RAV4 electric vehicle for $45,000. Michael had to practically beg the dealer to sell his last one. Today, Michael could sell his RAV4 as a used-vehicle for $20,000 more than he paid for it. After a showdown with the California Air Resources Board, all major auto makers including Toyota stopped selling their EVs. Freeway speed EVs are in hot demand. Now Michael could pocket a handsome twenty grand after driving the vehicle for almost six years.

Michael is not selling. He powers his RAV4 with the solar power installed on his roof. The daily cost to drive the vehicle is zero. Because the RAV4 has NiMH batteries, he can achieve up to 100 mile range. Freeway speeds are a piece of cake.Hundreds of individuals are lining-up to order freeway-speed electric vehicles from Tesla, Miles Motors, AC Propulsion, and others. Price tags of up to $100,000 do not faze these electric vehicle enthusiasts.

Electric vehicles are equally popular with individuals and with fleets. The U.S. Marine Corps is vitally concerned about the nation’s energy security. At Camp Pendleton, in Oceanside, California, the Marines use 320 LEV’s for routine maintenance, goods hauling, and transportation on the vast base. The LEV’s 25-mile per hour speed matches the use. The vehicles are recharged at an eight-station solar carport. Just as two-car families may have one electric vehicle and a heavier vehicle for range, the Marines use different vehicles for different purposes. At Camp Pendleton, five million gallons of B20 biodiesel is used annually, powering heavy duty and long distance vehicles.

The City of Santa Monica is rapidly installing solar power on roofs throughout the city. It intends to be the nation’s first Net-Zero City. The city uses many electric vehicles including EVs: 24 RAV EVs, a GEM electric truck for the popular Third Street Promenade, a demo electric scooter, and even a Segway.

National Renewable Energy Labs turned to Envision Solar to cover part of its parking lot with solar shaded vehicle charging. Envision CEO Robert Noble is an award-winning LEED architect. His solar design follows the metaphor of trees and groves that convert ugly “heat island” parking lots into beautifully landscape. A pre-fab version for homeowners will be showcased as the vehicle charger of choice at the EVS conference. Envision is in partnership with Kyocera (KYO).

Why not just cover a car with solar panels and skip the separate solar charging station? Each year teams build demonstration solar cars that do. This year, 38 vehicles covered with solar panels crossed 3,000 kilometers of Australia in the Panasonic Solar World Challenge. This year’s winner, Nuon Solar Team from the Netherlands, accomplished the feat in 33 hours and 17 minutes.

Big auto makers are demonstrating concept vehicles with integrated solar roofs. VW’s (VOW) “Space Up! Blue” includes 150W solar roofing to help charge the vehicle’s 12 lithium-ion batteries. This vehicle is designed to travel 65 miles in electric-only mode and only then use added electricity from an on-board fuel cell to achieve a 220 mile range.

The new Mitsubishi iMiEV Sport also includes solar roofing for the next major automaker commercially sold battery-electric vehicle. By 2010, we may be seeing these sleek freeway-speed electric vehicles being sold for well under $30,000 by Mitsubishi (7211:JP).

Over 40 million electric vehicles are in use globally, often silently whisking by without attracting our attention. Increasingly those driving will experience the added joy of riding on sunlight.

This article is Copyright © John Addison and will be part of his upcoming book, Save Gas, Save the Planet. Permission is granted to reproduce this article with the preservation of this copyright notice.
Content provided by and all rights reserved to CleantechBlog.com, the premier site for commentary on clean technologies, news, and issues relating to next generation energy and the environment.

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Cleantech Blog was founded by Neal Dikeman, and all our columnists are experts in their fields. Some of them are available for media interviews and quotes, speaking engagements and consulting. You can find biographies, areas of expertise and contact information for the columnists who have agreed to be available for comments below. Contributing Columnists: * Neal Dikeman, Founder Cleantech Blog, Partner at Jane Capital Partners * Richard Stuebi, BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement, Cleveland Foundation * Heather Rae, President, Brae Consulting – Sustainability marketing expert * John Addison, Author of Clean Fleet Report, Director, California Hydrogen Business Council * Dr. Peter Beadle, CEO GreenJobs.com, former BP Solar exec Guest Contributors: * Joel Makower, World Leading Sustainability Advocate, Founder Clean Edge * Felix Kramer, Founder, CalCars.org * Nick Bruse, General Manager Clean Technology AustralAsia * Anne-Marie Fleming, President, Investor Ideas, and publisher of leading renewable energy stock web site * Mark Bitterman, Editor, Superconductor Week * Gerry Woolf, Editor, BEST Magazine We also welcome contact from PR firms looking to connect with green, sustainable, and cleantech bloggers. Neal Dikeman: I founded Cleantech Blog in 2005. I am a merchant banker and co-founder of Jane Capital Partners LLC, where I head the energy and environmental practice, and prior to that worked in venture capital, private equity and investment banking in the tech and energy sectors. We have co-founded four emrging startups in cleantech and IT (in superconductors, fuel cells, RF, and carbon credits) since the tech wreck, and advise the technology and venture investment arms of three multi-nationals. In all of it, I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing colleagues, bosses, and partners. Besides Cleantech Blog, I am a contributing editor of AltEnergyStocks.com, and contributing author to Inside Greentech. Along with our own, the blogs I regularly read include Jim Fraser's The Energy Blog, Rob Day's CleantechVC, Tyler Hamilton's Clean Break, Joel Makower's Two Steps Forward, and Inside Greentech. My areas of expertise are always a work in process, but I have been quoted, cited, or interviewed on energy, alternative energy, and cleantech issues by numerous online and print publications including Red Herring, Energy Intelligence, Time.com, Bloomberg, San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes.com, Ethical Investor, Wall Street Reporter, and FT.com among others, on topics ranging from: cleantech, solar, ethanol, blogging, technology commercialization, corporate venture investment, energy prices and policy, technology transfer, carbon trading, and renewable and alternative energy. Feel free to contact me at dikeman@janecapital.com. Mr. Richard T. Stuebi Richard Stuebi has nearly 20 years of experience as an executive, entrepreneur and consultant in the energy industry, with most of the past decade focused on advanced energy technologies. He is currently serving as the BP Fellow for Energy and Environmental Advancement at the Cleveland Foundation, one of the largest community foundations in the US with over $1.6 Billion in assets. He works with various public and private sector stakeholders to promote commercial activity in advanced energy in the Cleveland area. Mr. Stuebi has authored numerous articles that have appeared in such leading industry periodicals as The Electricity Journal and Public Utilities Fortnightly, and has presented at numerous major energy conferences. He is a contributing columnist to Cleantech Blog, writing on alternative energy issues, news and events. Prior to joining the Foundation, Richard founded NextWave Energy, a professional firm focused on capitalizing upon new business opportunities stemming from innovative energy technologies. As President of NextWave Energy, he assisted several emerging and established private-sector clients in various aspects of business development, including strategy and capital formation. Previously, Richard was a senior vice president at Louis Dreyfus, the global commodity trading firm and was a management consultant in the energy practice of McKinsey & Co. Richard earned degrees in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. His areas of expertise include: Economics in alternative and renewable energy, energy policy, trade, and development. Cleantech finance and technology strategy. You can contact him at rts@nextwave-energy.com. Ms. Heather Rae Heather is a green marketing expert and a long-time advocate of green technology and sustainable business. Through her consultancy Brae Consulting, Heather has worked for energy companies, cleantech startups, and nonprofits (she is currently working with a home energy efficiency program of the Maine Governor's office). Her previous corporate marketing experience includes Xcel Energy (demand-side management and green power) and Qwest Communications. A hands on expert - Heather has practiced what she preached. She is certified in high performance residential building (Green Advantage®) and has served as co-director of Colorado's Interfaith Power & Light. Readers of Cleantech Blog will know that Heather converted a retired school bus into the Brae Bio Bus, a recreational vehicle running on biodiesel (B100) with solar panels for auxiliary power, and recently drove it across the country blogging the experiences in finding biodiesel in different parts of the US. Having reached her destination at Maine Home Performance, a program of the Maine Governor's Office where Heather is helping design programs to certify and link Maine contractors with homeowners who want to "go green", Heather is now tackling the conversion of an 1880s Maine farmhouse into an energy efficiency and green showcase. Heather graduated from Wesleyan University and is a contributing columnist to Cleantech Blog writing on green and sustainable products and marketing from the consumer's point of view. Her areas of expertise include: Green marketing programs and strategies, grass roots green and sustainable programs for consumers, using green technologies in the home. You can contact her at heather.rae@braeconsulting.com Mr. John Addison John is an accomplished writer, speaker, and expert in technology marketing and strategy. He is one of the IT converts that are driving the cleantech industry. Since 1992, his marketing consultancy OPTIMARK, Inc. has provided educational programs, market intelligence, market development and partner development for technology and government leaders. A believer in cleantech's potential to change the world for the better, John is the Publisher of the Clean Fleet Report and serves on the Board of the California Hydrogen Business Council. He is a contributing columnist to Cleantech Blog. He is the author of the book Revenue Rocket on channel marketing in technology, and the upcoming book Save Gas, Save the Planet on what we as individuals can do to help save the planet. Earlier in his career John was an area channel manager for Sun Microsystems. For three years, he led a sales team to 300% annual growth in 15 states, increasing revenue from $4 to $110 million. He has taught courses about marketing and innovation at U.C. Davis and U.C. Santa Cruz Extension. He is a popular speaker in the Americas, Europe and Asia. You can find more of his speeches and articles on his websites Clean Fleet Report and Revenue Rocket. His areas of expertise include: Technology marketing and marketing strategy, channel marketing, fuel cells and the hydrogen economy, alternative fueled fleets, and California's energy tech corridor. You can contact him at johnaddison1@gmail.com. Dr. Peter Beadle Peter is the owner and CEO of GreenJobs.com. He is an is an experienced technology executive and an expert on a wide range of green and energy technologies, including photovoltaics, fuel processing, fuel cells, and oil & gas technologies. Green Jobs is one of the few dedicated job sites for the renewables and cleantech industry. They put out the online Green Directory, as well as a weekly newsletter on People News in cleantech. Peter is a contributing columnist to Cleantech Blog writing on renewable energy news and events. Peter holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry, and previously served President of BP Solar's North American division. Prior to that he held a number of positions in R&D and technology management within British Petroleum. His areas of expertise include: Solar, fuel cells, oil & gas, renewable energy job market You can contact him at Peter@greenjobs.com.

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