EV Charging Plugs: Gateways to Power

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Underwriters Laboratories approves SAE J1772 charging plug: Virtually all of the automakers from the U.S., Japan and Europe are planning to use the standard plug on upcoming electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, including in the Chevy Volt.

The charging plug is a critical gateway to success for electric vehicles, as was amply demonstrated during the 1990s.

Back then, GM promulgated the Hughes Electronics developed "Magnecharge" inductive charging system, touting the safety of its inductive design. However, a fire in the garge of an EV-1 leasee proved this was no guaruntee. Inductive charging relies on bringing two magnetic coils in very close proximity. Increased distance reduces efficiency and power transfer. If I recall correctly the fire was caused by a design flaw, where the Magnecharge 'paddle' would heat up if not inserted correctly, leaving the coils out of alignment. This was quickly resolved by GM and Hughes, but caused the EV community to collectively hold its breath, anticipating negative publicity which never came.

Meanwhile, Ford and Honda used the less glamorous "AVCON" conductive charging plug. The Avcon used a set of metal contacts, which were not activated until a 'circuit check' signal was received by the plug head. Only then, a circuit breaker would be magnetically closed to turn on the power.

The AVCON was an extremely simple design compared to Magnecharge. A small circuit board and a breaker was contained in a box about a foot square and a few inches deep. Magnecharge boxes were nearly one hundred pounds, had complete computer systems onboard that displayed vehicle charging status. It was nice, but was it really neccessary?

GM thought so, because they were using charging plugs to fight a bluRay/HD-DVD style format war. If they won, their competitors would need to retrofit all cars in the field. As it was, owners of charging locations needed to purchase at least one of each unit, creating the possibility that 'your' type of charging station might not be available in an 'EV charging' spot.

The J1772 standard is designed to resolve this before a format war breaks out. It supports two-way communication with the vehicle's onboard charging system, several charging power levels, and Vehicle to Grid -ready. Someday your EV may sell power back to the grid during periods of high demand.

While the article referenced above claims all is well, there is however an issue based on power differences in Europe and the US. In the US power is more commonly delivered at high amperage on two 'pins'. In Europe, at somewhat lower amperage on three 'pins'. Thus a different standard has been proposed by Daimler and RWE.

Who will win? With millions at stake it should be interesting to watch. But this time around it doesn't appear we'll have two standards in one country.

Mitsubishi launches production of the iMiEV

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The first shot has been fired. Mitsubishi is the first major automaker to begin building a battery electric car since the 1990s. As AutoblogGreen reports, initial production will be small, but the ramp up will come quickly (if demand justifies it).

The primary loser in this may be Th!nk Nordic, as the iMiEV is clearly targeted at exactly the same consumer segment.

Mitsubishi launches production of the iMiEV

RIGZONE - Oil Patch Digs in on Tax Issue

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The White House says strengthening international tax laws could raise $210 billion over 10 years, as well as create a greater incentive for multinational companies to invest in the U.S. rather than taking their money and jobs overseas.

But companies in the oil and gas industry, along with a chorus of U.S. business groups, say the measures would penalize them by adding costs, make them uncompetitive with foreign companies and possibly force them to downsize.
- RIGZONE - Oil Patch Digs in on Tax Issue

In what's become a familiar pattern the new Obama administration is attempting to roll back tax breaks which act as subsidies for the oil industry. Nearly a century of land use laws, direct tax incentives, etc. have accrued to give the oil industry considerable financial advantage versus alternative energy sources.

As the article points out, this effort is likely to fail, as did a previous attempt to fix a "mistake" that eliminated public benefit from new oil and gas extraction in the Gulf of Mexico.

My opinion: given the current, lopsided market for energy, where cleaner alternatives are at a significant disadvantage relative to traditional sources like oil, we face two choices. The first is to reduce subsidies for oil and gas. As previous powerplays have shown, this is not politically feasible. Thus, we're left with piling on new subsidies for alternative energy, or technically advancing until alternatives have a 10x or greater advantage in the market.

Privatize Canadian Reactor Company? CANDU!

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During the first wave of nuclear reactor construction in the 1950s and 60s Canada's national atomic energy company made some interesting and very practical design choices. The CANDU series uses heavy water (deuterium) as a moderator, and as a result their neutron "flux" can "burn" natural (unenriched) uranium and lower grade ores. They also garnered a deserved reputation for reliability, with 80% or better uptime, while other designs underwent significant teething problems. However, their need for tons of 97.5% pure heavy water moderator fluid, and therefore a fairly large "core", meant overall costs weren't significantly less than other designs. Other reactors caught up in terms of reliability after a decade or so. But even so, CANDU reactors were sold around the world, and the advantage of burning lower enrichment fuels very efficiently remains attractive. That efficiency also means fewer waste products.

Against this backdrop, one can understand the nuclear industry's excitement at hearing that AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada, the company which designed CANDU and its successor-to-be) is being broken up for sale. The current company is claimed to be "too small" to survive on its own.

It will be interesting to see where this goes. AECL has a next generation Advanced CANDU Reactor in development that retains the current advantages, with a core design that's 1/2 the size (and deuterium loading). This should make it an attractive buyout target.

labs.moto.com » Blog Archive » DIY Android Home Energy Monitor

Now here’s an interesting way to deal with the “dumb” electrical grid until it gets smarter: have the internet “browse” it.

Moto Labs used Google’s Android mobile phone operating system, running on a single board computer, to send webcam pictures of the electric meter dials to Flickr.  A little image recognition later and you get charts of your power usage.

While this sounds a bit “Rube Goldberg” its actually a good solution because its non-invasive, that is, it reads the power without requiring the builder to touch any high power lines going into the house.  There are commercially available inductive power reading devices, but this one is by far a safer way to do things.

I’ve come to believe that the first step in conserving any resource is helping people see clearly when they’re using it.  In decades past electricity and gasoline have been so cheap that it was “in the noise” financially for many people.  With recent price rises that’s no longer the case.  But who out there can say how much it really costs to run the home AC?  If you knew it cost $5/day to cool your home would you be more careful about it?

labs.moto.com » Blog Archive » DIY Android Home Energy Monitor

First Google Power Meter Partners

Google is partnering with a number of electric utilities (link here). They will display electricity consumption data from home "smart meters" in private, Google-hosted web pages.

This is a great way to let consumers see how they're using energy, and plan to conserve it.