The Need for Standards and the Right Market for Innovation
The transportation sector plays a large role in economic competitiveness and in environmental sustainability, which according to the EPA, accounted for 27 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2010, trailing just the power sector. Going forward, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects an average energy consumption increase of 1.1 percent by the world transportation sector. In light of the growing concern over climate change, alternative fuel vehicle use — natural gas and biofuels — have increased in use over the past four years, yet EIA reports that petroleum still accounted for 93 percent of energy consumption in the transportation sector in 2011. Furthermore, transportation is typically the second-largest expense among households, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA).
Given the significant impact of the transportation sector in climate change mitigation and household expenditures, New York Energy Week’s Transportation Breakfast brought together a wide range of experts — including Jeremy McCool of HEVO Power, Tod Hynes of XL Hybrids, Auke Hoekstra of Alliander and the Technical University of Eindhoven, and Richard Drake of NYSERDA — to discuss the current state and future of alternative vehicle technology. The panel engaged in conversations ranging from the impact of the EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan, integration and infrastructure issues, and innovations on the horizon regarding advanced and alternative vehicle technology.
The event began with a discussion of the important role that electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles play in helping states achieve the EPA-proposed 30 percent reductions in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. Although the EPA proposal does not impact the transportation sector directly, Hynes and McCool pointed out that significant adoption of EVs could help reduce grid load and allow intermittent renewables like solar and wind to be a viable and consistent energy source for utilities by acting as storage devices during peak hours.
However, a common theme among the panelists was that the widespread adoption of these alternative vehicles would depend on the government establishing open standards for charging infrastructure. The “disenfranchised network of EV usage and charging” limits customer flexibility and adoption of electric vehicle technology and creates higher operating system development costs. Interoperability is one of the big issues in electric vehicle adoption, according to Drake, who said that consumers “don’t need 6-7 different fobs on their keychain” due to different charging systems. McCool cited the Open Charge Point Protocol (OPCC) standards from the Netherlands as something the United States could adopt.
The panel also focused on innovations in transportation and the right market for these new technologies. McCool, founder and CEO of HEVO Power that provides wireless charging and data management solutions for electric vehicles, is optimistic about innovation of EV technology — a market that “happened in only three years” and is “growing at about double the rate of the hybrid market.” According to him, the key to further innovation in this field is in getting the market to support it since the technology is already there. His company, for example, was created using “old-hat” wireless charging technology. Also working in favor of EV technology has been the dropping price of batteries, which were $1,500 per kW about three years ago but has fallen to about $400-500 per kW, according to Hoekstra.
Meanwhile, as founder and president of XL Hybrids, Hynes discussed the economics of finding the right market for new transportation technologies, which for his hybrid powertrains are in larger commercial vehicles like Class A trucks. Notably, Hynes points to how his company is able to sell vehicles without subsidies at an unassisted cost of approximately $25,000, depending on how long the vehicle is used. Electric vehicles, on the other hand, make the most sense for the lower mileage market, according to Hynes, because of the cost of batteries and the limitations of charging infrastructure.
Overall, the panel agreed on the importance of the transportation sector in mitigating climate change and were optimistic about the trends in innovation and adoption of alternative vehicle technologies. New York has been at the forefront in upgrading and retrofitting its transportation infrastructure to improve resilience and sustainability — as highlighted by the opening remarks by Christine Weydig, deputy director for energy and utilities management at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Drake added that NYSERDA is working on developing a statewide transportation sector roadmap similar to that of California. However, while the US and Europe have made significant progress in alternative vehicle technologies, Drake commented that in order to truly face the issue of global warming, transportation solutions are also needed in the developing world, where the rate of adoption of new petroleum-fueled vehicles have increased dramatically. View the full event recording here.
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