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Feb 21

KBB: Volt, Insight Offer Lowest Cost Of Ownership Over 5 Years

There are a lot of EV and hybrid-haters out there who throw out some softball arguments against such vehicles, along with legitimate gripes. But some of those gripes don’t necessarily ring true anymore. Kelly Blue Book, the go-to guide for used car values, has put together a best-of list for the five-year estimated ownership costs of every class of vehicles, including electrics and hybrids. Some of the winners may surprise you.The total cost of ownership compares eight different factors in the true cost of owning cars over a five-year period, with the two highest costs associated with owning a vehicle including depreciation, which accounts for 44% of ownership costs, and fuel, which accounts for a staggering 26% of ownership costs. In the subcompact segment, the Nissan Versa got KBB’s nod. For sports cars, it was the Mazda MX-5 Miata by a wide margin.

via KBB: Volt, Insight Offer Lowest Cost Of Ownership Over 5 Years.

Feb 21

Can Tesla Survive?

The year 2012 will be an important one for Tesla Motors. Amid growing competition from established automakers, Tesla plans to sell a new Model S luxury sedan in July, and to supply Toyota with batteries, motors, and control systems for a new electric RAV4 SUV. Yesterday it announced a similar deal with Daimler for a new electric Mercedes-Benz. The success of these efforts could determine whether the company survives long-term—and what it might look like if it does.

Even if Tesla can’t succeed as an independent automaker, it could still be acquired by a bigger company, or live on as a supplier to major automakers.

Tesla is best known for its electric sports car, the Roadster. But from its early days, the company has hoped to move beyond the Roadster to lower-priced electric vehicles sold in much higher volumes. Earlier this week, Tesla revealed a luxury electric SUV, the Model X, which it plans to sell starting in 2013.

via Can Tesla Survive? – Technology Review.

Feb 19

The Water-Energy Nexus and Our Infrastructure Gap

There is a growing gap between the infrastructure we need and the infrastructure we have.

For two decades, Wedbush attorney, investment banker, and water industry executive Michael George has watched “the way we think about, use, finance water infrastructure and now the nexus between potable water, wastewater and energy.” It has, he said, “changed — not necessarily for the better — recently.”

The same could be said of energy and the way it is delivered.

Knowing that its service is “critical to human health and happiness,” the water industry has embraced a regulatory structure that ensures consumers are getting water that is not only safe but healthful.” This, George noted, comes at a cost. And “the question of how that is going to be paid for has been deferred,” he said.

via The Water-Energy Nexus and Our Infrastructure Gap : Greentech Media.

Feb 19

Clearing Up the Facts About Solar In Germany

On January 18, 2011, the German magazine Der Spiegel published an article titled “The Solar Subsidy Sinkhole,” which paints a distorted picture of the German solar story. The following summarizes the misleading statements made – and facts to correct them.

SPIEGEL: “As is so often the case in winter, all solar panels more or less stopped generating electricity at the same time. To avert power shortages, Germany currently has to import large amounts of electricity generated at nuclear power plants in France and the Czech Republic.”

FACT: During Europe’s extreme cold weather in February 2012, German news reported that Germany actually increased its electricity exports, thanks in part to photovoltaics helping to strengthen grid stability at peak hours. France, in turn, relying on nuclear powered heating, had to import electricity from Germany.

FACT: Germany has been a longtime net electricity exporter. In Summer 2011, the country did need to intermittently import electricity from neighboring countries; however, the cause was not attributed to photovoltaics, but to the nation’s ambitious shutdown of 7 nuclear power plants following the Fukushima disaster. Despite this bold move, Germany again became a net exporter of electricity in October 2011, according to the International Energy Agency’s most recent statistics.

SPIEGEL: “German consumers already complain about having to pay the second-highest electricity prices in Europe.”

via Clearing Up the Facts About Solar In Germany | renewables100PI.

Feb 19

Low Carbon Credit Prices Are a Sign of Success, Not Failure

Sadly we’ve another piece bemoaning the fact that carbon credits, under the European Union’s cap and trade plan, are low. The point that low prices are a sign of the success of the plan, not a failure of it, seems to have escaped the people advancing this argument.

The piece is here at Der Spiegel.

“Emissions trading, the European Union hoped, would limit the release of harmful greenhouse gases. But it isn’t working. The price for emissions certificates has plunged, a development that is actually making coal more attractive than renewable energy.”

This is an unfortunate but not uncommon problem: people failing to distinguish the effects of price under a carbon tax plan and a cap and trade plan.

via Low Carbon Credit Prices Are a Sign of Success, Not Failure – Forbes.

Feb 19

Fossil Fuels: We’re not dead yet

Having looked at the major alternatives to fossil fuel energy production (summarized here), we come away with the general sentiment that the easy days of cheap energy are not evidently carried forward into a future without fossil fuels. In the slapdash scoring scheme I employed in the alternative energy matrix, the best performers racked up 5 points, whereas by the same criteria, our traditional fossil fuels typically achieved the near-perfect score of 8/10. The only consistent failing is in the abundance measure, which is ultimately what brings us all together here at Do the Math.

Fossil fuels are presently used in abundance — 85 percent of current energy use — but this is a short-term prospect, ending within the century. The first effects of decline may be close at hand. Do I hear talk of nursing homes?

via Fossil Fuels: We’re not dead yet — Cleantech News and Analysis.

Feb 19

World Energy Consumption – Beyond 500 Exajoules

Today’s post goes into the global consumption of energy and provides a dataset in Excel for researchers on global primary energy consumption from 1830 to 2010. In other words, the energy contained in fossil fuels, uranium, and biomass in their raw form before processing into electricity, heat, or liquid fuel, and direct electricity production from hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal. The dataset, based on an assessment of seven different data sources, shows the following:

  • We are now burning 10 times as much energy as a century ago to provide the goods and services we consume.
  • Energy consumption is still increasing rapidly, with an approximate 550 exajoules (523 Quadrillion BTUs) consumed at the primary energy level in 2010.
  • Of this total 80% was provided by fossil fuels, 11.3% by bio-energy mainly from wood combustion, 5.5% from nuclear, 2.2% from hydro, and 0.4% from other renewable energy sources.
  • The historic time for each energy source to grow from 1 to 10 exajoules in primary energy production was 12 years for nuclear, 33 years for crude oil, 39 years for natural gas, 52 years for coal, and 59 years for hydro-power.

A graphical depiction of the data and comparison of sources can be found below the fold.

via The Oil Drum | World Energy Consumption – Beyond 500 Exajoules.

Feb 19

More evidence of consumer electric vehicle angst

Summary: Whether it is range anxiety or safety fears, 87 percent of U.S. adults have some sort of nagging concern about EV technology.

Apparently close to 90 percent of us have some sort of anxiety or concern about electric vehicles, which is probably a big factor in slower than expected electric vehicle sales over the past 12 months.

The data is part of the Consumer Reports 2012 Car Brand Perception Survey, which covers much broader issues than just the electric vehicle movement. Data was collected from 1,702 adults who lived in households with at least one home; the survey period was early December 2011.

via More evidence of consumer electric vehicle angst | ZDNet.

Feb 16

Warm weather, low natural gas prices hold down wholesale power prices this winter

Average daily power prices in the Northeast and Midwest from the beginning of November 2011 through the first week of February have been unusually low. The driving factor is warm weather. Warm winter weather decreases the demand for electricity, which puts downward pressure on prices. The warm weather also cuts demand for natural gas, both as a heating fuel and as a fuel for power generation. This acts to hold down natural gas spot prices, which in turn decreases the cost of generating power.

Northeastern and Midwestern wholesale power prices typically are linked closely to natural gas prices, since natural gas-fired generators are often the marginal provider of power, and the marginal generator sets the power price in those markets. This connection is illustrated by the close tracking of the natural gas price (red line) and power price (blue line) in the chart above. This winter, warm weather and robust natural gas supplies moderated natural gas prices.

via Warm weather, low natural gas prices hold down wholesale power prices this winter – Today in Energy – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Feb 16

Overinvesting in energy efficiency, on purpose

Let’s briefly review what we’ve covered so far in my rebound series:

  1. Climate change means we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a lot, beginning immediately.
  2. There are two ways to reduce GHG emissions from energy: increase low-carbon energy supply and/or decrease total energy consumption.
  3. Ramping up clean energy supply can’t be done fast enough to keep us within our carbon budget, certainly not in the short- to mid-term, if at all. So we’ve got to use less energy.
  4. There are two ways to reduce energy demand: reduce the energy intensity of the global economy and/or reduce the growth of the global economy.
  5. Substantially reducing global energy intensity turns out to be extremely difficult, thanks in part to the rebound effect.
  6. If energy intensity can’t be reduced quickly enough, then the only answer left (other than failing to stabilize global temperature at all) is slowing GDP growth. Yikes.

via Overinvesting in energy efficiency, on purpose | Grist.

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