posted Nov 6, 2010 6:26 PM by Jackson Cafazzo
I got to test drive a Leaf today, and it was great! Big ups to SolarWorld for host the Nissan Leaf Tour and being an amazing asset to our region! Stocked with information and smiling friendly people, the Tour was a great way to ask all the questions I could think of and even take the car for a spin. I highly recommend anyone who is interested to check if it is coming to a  city near you!
I registered online so when I got to the tents I confirmed my arrival and was up in 10-15 mins. When it was drive time, I was ready!
The Tour included a couple tents where our guide explained important details about the car, all of which could be found on the website http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car but in flashy displays and from a real person. Much more interesting :)
The photo on the right features our charismatic host LaFleur (Lost fan? Hope so) explaining the battery pack and Nissan's experience in electric vehicles.
Consisting of 48 separate cells I hope that if one goes bad the others can operate independently but I'm not sure. Cool thing about the car is that the pack is really a blank slate for future technologies...hypothetically you could replace it with another source of power and the rest of the car will operate the same.
The techie in me was completely satisfied. A completely multi-media dashboard had everything: a navigation showing approximate range and electric fueling station locations, a stereo system that could handle any media or player including satellite radio, even an LCD with diagnostic readouts similar to the Prius that switches to camera mode when you put the car in reverse! Very slick. They even have an iPhone app that will display the battery level and let you set the climate control. If they had an Android app already I would have been floored. Guess I wasn't COMPLETELY satisfied, but it sure went a long way to impress me.
My favorite part was ECO mode, basically an acceleration-limiter that extended the range of a charge. Without it the car was a zippy little thing but switch on ECO mode and you are driving a Geo Metro-style compact. Even with nearly 100% torque at any speed from those DC motors, you can't ignore inertia; faster acceleration will always require more force no matter what you drive. Nissan understands that and programmed it in. Hooray! Nobody there could help me out with the specific algorithm they were using but I'm not holding it against em :)
Basically, the car is perfect to replace the little consumer combustion engine cars out there, it drove smoothly and the technical details harmonized; this car was carefully engineered from the ground up as an electric vehicle and it showed. Light-weight and aerodynamic, the designers took advantage of the fact they didn't need a big engine or fuel tank and gave that room to the passengers, creating a small car that fits tall people. The battery pack weighs in around 600 pounds but it was placed in the center of the car, which helps the handling. Everything about the car is great. Here's a couple photos under the hood. LeFleur explains the charging port on the front of the vehicle.
Level 1 and Level 2 chargers use the same port, the one with the plug in it in the pictures above, which fully charges the vehicle in either 12 or 6 hours respectively. The plug on the left is the upgraded Level 3 SL model, which is factory only and will not be available as an after market upgrade. Level 3 charging is, in programming terms, in beta; science hasn't caught up with the aspirations. It charges very quickly but it damages the batteries. It's not their fault, batteries store electricity in chemical reactions, until that changes it will damage them. The chargers have a fail-safe built in so that the prongs are not electrified unless it is fully plugged in. I'll say it for them: because it would kill you. It's not any small amount of power they are cramming in there: up to 50kW at once. That's 454 times the wattage of a household outlet. Think about that one.
We haven't yet come to terms with how much energy is in gasoline. It is so readily accessible, you push the lever and go fast, but think of it in terms of energy use of other things that are important to us, like powering our cell phones for instance; accelerating to pass on the freeway "costs" whole lifetimes of cell phone usage. Driving a car requires a ton of power, whatever the power source is. If people want to make a difference they could drive less. I'm not sure why buying a new car helps.
Which leads us to the dark cloud within the delightfully silver lining: how, exactly, is this affecting our environment? This car is intended, and will be perfect, for people who have a lifestyle of efficiency. People who drive efficient cars and even then drive maybe 8000 or 9000 miles a year. A Leaf replacing a family's little four cylinder would offset such a small amount of carbon, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. And I'm cringing remembering all the hybrids I saw in the parking lot. It's not wrong or bad, but it's certainly not a big deal as far as polar bears are concerned. Maybe I'm just sore from the big screen version of that ad. But really. String some wires down a Trimet bus line and that reduction of diesel fuel would overshadow the impact of a whole neighborhood of Leafs.
Now, more than ever, I really want to see a green cop car!! If someone (Ford, I know you can do it. Tesla, you hearing this?) could design a burly yet efficient, low drag, carbon fiber, 100% electric drive, full-sized car with CNG generators to power the batteries, that company would make a big difference in reducing daily emissions. Cops drive all the time. Then they sell the car and taxis buy it and REALLY drive all the time. Think of all the cop cars, and all the taxis, and all the gas that could be saved; enough for millions and millions of families to go to and from school and work and occasionally on vacation.
I'm not complaining. The Nissan Leaf will advance (has advanced) the public's understanding of the efficiency of electric drive. A man over 60 asked if he could put a roof rack on there to rig up a diesel generator to extend the range! I think the Volt is going to go over well ;)
As a car, the Nissan Leaf is awesome, if I was going to buy a personal car and I lived in Portland I would buy this one. Chargers are sprouting up around here like it's springtime, I bet a thrifty person could find places to charge for free for a few years. But I don't want a personal car. And I'm trying to figure out how make it a taxi but I'm really struggling with the downtime vs. frying the battery. As much as I love it, it's not for me. Totally perfect pace car :D
Thank you Nissan and SolarWorld! It was great fun! Jackson Cafazzo
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posted Sep 15, 2010 4:49 PM by Jackson Cafazzo
If you are reading this and care, you may have also noticed I haven't posted anything here for a while. For this I apologize. After college I was putting my energy into the EcoFleet project, but shortly thereafter realized there was an opportunity for me to join the Radio Cab Board of Directors, affording me the ability to represent and promote the Green Team and our efforts towards a more sustainable taxi company. It has been going really well, but I'm not positive I have the authority or permission to share the inner workings of our company with the internet audience, so I have not posted anything about that. Sadly, I should be posting other things important to EcoFleet, but I have not. Sorry, audience.
I intend to resume publication!
In the meantime, follow me on twitter @ecofleet for new ecofleet content alerts, brief quips and retweets (my filter of twitter) of news important to fleet managers concerned about their carbon footprint.
Might as well point out that since the advent of my new android phone I've also begun greatly enhancing my @jaxicab twitter profile where you can find me promoting fun stuff to do that catches my eye, occasional photos, and commenting on life in general 'cause it's something taxi drivers are good at.
Thanks for following, be on the look out for more content in the future! -Jackson Cafazzo |
posted Apr 12, 2010 2:16 PM by Jackson Cafazzo
The congress gave a lot of attention to electric vehicles, but Shell was there to poo-poo alternative fuels as sideline players. Boo. In the electric vehicle matters, concern over range was touched upon but not addressed heavily. Not much was reported about where the power for the cars will come from, either.
It was reported that vehicle weight has doubled over last 25 years; we need to begin "lightweighting" the vehicles of the future instead of continuing to add mass. Less mass needs less force to accelerate, less force equals less gas required. Lightweighting is a new term for me but I enjoy the concept.
Very entertaining segment about green motorsports: a modified Honda Insight hybrid has won 11 class A races in the last 4 years at 81 mpg. Proves that hybrids can be both fast and fuel-efficient.
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posted Apr 8, 2010 12:26 PM by Jackson Cafazzo
As reported in NGV Global, Fiat has introduced Eco:Drive on their most fuel-efficient and bi-fuel (methane and gasoline) vehicles. Eco:Drive is software that will monitor driving style and save to a USB stick. Simple, right? After driving, transfer the USB stick to your computer and it will give you a detailed evaluation that can be expressed in one number, called an "eco:score." If the program identifies areas where you could improve your fuel efficiency, it will suggest them, with tutorials and everything. You can start tracking your eco:score, setting goals for improvement. The program also shows great stats like how much fuel was used and(!) how much was saved with EcoDriving techniques, or "eco:tips" in Fiat marketing lingo.
Brilliant! I want one :D I'm so glad that the world is catching on!
Remember, though, kind readers, you don't have to have a computer to start saving money by increasing the efficiency of your current vehicles and their operation. And although the Eco:Drive system undeniably is really neat, another good "eco:score" is easily obtained by clearing the trip odometer every time you fill up, so you can divide that number by how many gallons you put back into the tank. Put them in a spreadsheet, make a chart, and you'll have a visual indicator of the relative efficiency of the vehicle and it's operation. At little to no cost.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment :)
Jackson Cafazzo
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posted Apr 4, 2010 9:10 AM by Jackson Cafazzo
In Portland, Oregon, the heavily-lauded public transportation system is slowly sinking further and further into the red. The last few years have brought fare increases, less frequent service, a change from Fareless Square to Fareless Rail Zone, and cancelled bus routes. These down points are offset with the shiny new Green Line and Bus Mall and bus stop improvements, yet facing a $27 million budget shortfall currently, Trimet is discussing raising the fare another nickel, cancelling more bus lines and other service cuts.
Obviously something is amiss. Sadly nobody is dealing with it because the culprit is politically difficult to challenge. Why was this article was published a couple years ago to no effect? The single biggest factor that continues to hinder Trimet is the high cost of biodiesel.
Their intentions are pure...Trimet wants to lower their emissions, and they have in a number of ways. But the political allure of biodiesel led them away from the possibility of other alternative fuels, namely natural gas.
Selling for about $1.80 a gallon, $1.30 commercially, natural gas will reduce Trimet's fuel budget significantly. I'm not sure what they are paying now for fuel, but it's likely $3 or more per gallon.
That's the budget side of things. On the environment side: natural gas is a domestic fuel that can potentially be created renewably, it burns cleaner and transports easier than bio or traditional diesel, and the existing buses can be converted; all in all it is a clear win for compressed natural gas.
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posted Mar 30, 2010 6:17 PM by Jackson Cafazzo
As I wrote in a post not too long ago, http://ow.ly/1sUgp, it is easy to overlook the initial energy cost of hybrid vehicles. I return to this subject because I just learned Portlanders drive an average of 16 miles a day. That is amazing, only 5,840 miles a year, driving every day of the year. Remember, Portland has the highest percentage of hybrid ownership in the nation. 5,900 is just about half the figure I used in the previous article, meaning it takes Portlanders not 3 years to "work off" the initial carbon cost of a new hybrid, but SIX! Hope they like that model, it's sticking with 'em. Or they could sell it to a cab company!
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posted Mar 18, 2010 5:00 PM by Jackson Cafazzo
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updated Apr 1, 2010 6:00 PM
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Police fleets and taxi fleets can play a key role in reducing emissions. Both fleets drive as much as SEVEN TIMES that of the average driver, greatly multiplying the effect of their choice of vehicle and/or fuel.
Traditionally...well, you know what police cars look like. They are everywhere, making up the nation's taxi fleets, medical/other special transport fleets, you name it. They are painted and sold to any taker at state auctions for as little as $3,000. They are all over our streets, in all kinds of conditions. The only constant is that they uniformly suck up way more gas than necessary.
Because cops need to accelerate and decelerate quickly. That's OK :) Yet, after they sell them, that design remains, and our air quality suffers because of it. Fortunately, an electric drive train would allow them to operate at 100% torque 100% of the time, better than ANY combustible engine, ever! It would even save their constant brake maintenance! Intelligent hybrids, like my dream police car, only use the engine to maintain speeds above 25. And after the cars are sold at auction, the design will remain, to the benefit of our air-quality and regional gas consumption.
"But where's the vehicle!?" you shake your fist and scream, and I'm right there with you. They don't make it yet, amazingly enough, but WHO HAS MORE BUYING POWER THAN THE NATION'S POLICE FORCE? The right initiative, with enough backers, might have an effect.
Well, until that day, when the right car is available, there is something that can be done right now: Convert the existing fleet to natural gas.
Gasoline needs refinement, which creates all kinds of carbon, and significant transportation costs to get to the tank. THEN it pollutes the air. It's nasty stuff, we've all agreed, but cops want to accelerate quickly!
Natural gas, on the other hand, is forced out of oil wells naturally by the pressure of the oil. In many places with oil underground, natural gas will well up to the surface where it can be contained. Traditionally, natural gas was "flared" off, that is burnt on site, because they didn't want to let pressurized explosive material build up. Go figure. Maybe it was good after all. Un-tapped, if it enters the atmosphere, each methane molecule warms the earth 21 times that of a carbon molecule. As a fuel, natural gas is about 20% less combustible than gasoline, but that's still 20% more than ethanol; it will explode just fine.
Today, smart land-owners can cap natural gas wells and put it straight into the pipeline. With no refinement and nearly cost-less transport, it can be sold at a little about $1.25 per gallon equivalent. It currently fuels our stoves and hot water heaters, but its use as transportation fuel has been largely overlooked (in Portland). Other cities, like Washington D.C. have natural gas buses!
1) The "Energy Impact Score" is almost non-existent (0.2 barrels) and entirely domestic on the CNG side, where the petroleum version uses 13.4 barrels of imported oil and 8 barrels domestic to operate the first 15,000 miles. Natural gas is so easy that the EPA doesn't count it in the impact score. And, yes, that's only 15,000 miles. I don't know exactly how many miles police cars put on a month, but I'd guess they'd do 80,000-100,000 miles a year, like a taxi.
#1 thing to understand about Biomethene: it comes with a negative carbon rating (remember, 21 times worse) which would reduce each Crown Victoria's footprint by 91%!!!!!!1!!!1
3) But back to reality. The third thing that popped out was that any fleet would experience a 24% drop in fuel cost, and that is assuming that natural gas is $.50 more a gallon than what it currently is (we are at record lows, $1.17-$1.30). Later, if the city could produce and sell its own biomethane, the cost may be able to be lessened further. Today, at $1.55 less per gallon, the savings rack up quickly. How many gallons does Portland's police force go through a day? To estimate, say each car is driven 24 hours a day for an average of 200 miles, needing 11 gallons of gas. How many cars? I don't know...I'll guess 200. 2200 gallons a day = $3,410 fuel savings over the whole fleet, per day. One year, rough estimate, could save as much as $1,244,650 if the cars are used all the time.
"Again, man, where's the damn car!? There's no CNG police cars!" Don't worry, it's OK!
A conversion is simple at this point, and new technologies such as carbon fiber tanks etc make a bi-fuel system a breeze. A bi-fuel system leaves the gas tank, so that the officer can run natural gas normally and switch to gasoline with a push of a button. When out of natural gas, or when he or she is chasing somebody and needs the extra explosive power of gasoline, they have the full function of the normal gas tank, too. Here is a (fairly) local EPA-certified and experienced conversion shop, World CNG, who can help explain it. Tell 'em Jackson at Radio Cab sent you ;)
The existing fleet could be natural gas in months. In a few years, fueled by the city's compost. Who's gonna touch that? Then you could start putting pressure on the manufacturers to release a wicked awesome CNG-hybrid. This link will show you how one rocking example. And the design will remain.
Just think about how many miles those police put on them, then how many miles a taxi puts on it, then how many miles the person who buys it from the taxi driver for $400 puts on it...and the impact of each car just keeps going. Clean Energy, who I was also in contact with, were (hopefully are) interested in establishing some stations in the area, they have the money to put stations in and good contacts. The company is primarily owned by T. Boone Pickens, that wily guy ;) End of the day, he makes some money and we get stations for the fleets and public, not a bad deal really.
Thank you for your interest in renewable energy :D I'm positive biomethane is the next big thing. Jackson Cafazzo
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posted Mar 15, 2010 1:10 PM by Jackson Cafazzo
The amount of carbon offset, the environmental gain from hybrids is derived from how many miles a hybrid drives as a replacement to a conventional vehicle. More miles at less gas = less carbon. Fleet vehicles are prime candidates for hybrids because of the amount of miles they drive.
Many consumers replace their vehicles with hybrids because they want to reduce their gas consumption, and their intention is pure. Yet they overlook the "hidden" cost of energy that is consumed when producing the new car. The production a Prius requires 113 million BTUs (more than a Hummer!) roughly equivalent to the energy potential of 1,000 gallons of gasoline. see link for more info
That basically means that a new Prius owner needs to offset 1,000 gallons of gasoline before the car can be considered a positive influence to the environment. I write this post because I'm not sure many new Prius owners understand the depth of that responsibility.
Let's take Roy, an imaginary hybrid owner. He traded in his 16 MPG vehicle for a 49 MPG hybrid. Every gallon that Roy uses will have taken him about 3 times further. This is good! Now, Roy is an average driver, drives around 12,000 miles a year. Last year, at 16 MPG, he used 750 gallons of gas. This year with his new car, he'll only use 245 gallons! That's great! But it is only 505 gallons of fuel saved, he'll need to drive another year before his car "enters the black" and starts actually helping the environment!
If Roy really wanted to offset some serious emissions, he could contact his friend Harry who owns a cab and offer to replace his 16 mpg cab with a hybrid. Within 3 months Harry could save over 1,000 gallons! In the two years that it would take Roy to offset his first 1,000, Harry could save 8,400 gallons. That's 82 tons of carbon!!
So consider, hybrid owners. Do you drive enough to require the purchase of such a vehicle? If you do, more power to you. If not, are you in it for the long haul? More power to you, too. Neither of these sound right? Consider donating that car for use as a cab in your local area. It should be easy to find a gas-guzzler to replace, and the extreme number of miles driven per day will maximize that hybrid's potential. |
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posted Feb 24, 2010 2:23 AM by Jackson Cafazzo
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updated Mar 19, 2010 6:27 PM
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Thought this was posted yesterday but it wasn't showing up on my feed. Hmm. Now it's out! The Energy Server is available. Fantastic, nearly unbelievable developments in renewable electricity are beginning to emerge! If you haven't heard yet, the biggest contender to revolutionize the industry is Bloom Energy!
They put stacks of fuel cells (below) into a box the size of a small HVAC system. Basically an on-site generator, the device uses a novel form of fuel cell made of painted silica that uses oxygen and methane to create electricity, not hydrogen! These factors bring the cost to build and operate Energy Servers way down!
Recently featured on 60 minutes.
Already in use and popular with firms like Fed-Ex and Walmart, and Silicon Valley companies like Google and eBay. eBay uses landfill gas as a fuel, making the operation of their devices carbon-neutral, as 60 minutes said it, but I'd say it's carbon-negative! Their 5 or 6 Bloom Boxes also create way more electricity than their acres of solar panels!!!
Imagine a Bloom box hooked up to an anaerobic biodigester! Free fuel for zero-emission electricity and your waste gets processed! What's better than that!?
Check it out and let me know what you think in the comment box below!
LINKS
It's time for the revolution :D
http://www.bloomenergy.com/
Here is the Bloom Box featured recently on 60 minutes, media's first glimpse at the device. Sorry for the advertisement during the segment.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6228923n&tag=api
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posted Feb 20, 2010 8:56 AM by Jackson Cafazzo
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updated Feb 21, 2010 2:29 PM
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Renewable natural gas has the lowest emissions of any available fuel, making it a great candidate for reducing fleet emissions. Waste management companies are realizing that the landfills they have been bringing trash to all these years can be a great source of methane. By investing in the means to harvest methane from landfills, waste management companies are greatly reducing their carbon footprint, while producing their own fuel! They must stand to benefit immensely from such a sustained reduction to the fuel cost or they wouldn't invest in these multi-million dollar projects.
Landfill owners may be the first adopters, likely because they already own massive amounts of decomposing matter that has been producing biogas this whole time. They just needed to reach out and harness that potential. But it doesn't have to stop there.
Small, ambitious fleets can do the same. Not create a landfill, but purchase a biodigester and partner with the local community or restaurants to dispose of their food waste. A mixture of biogas and natural gas would fuel a fleet of compressed natural gas vehicles quite well, and over the long term it would reduce fuel costs as well as provide the community a green solution to dealing with organic waste.
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