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Research News and Highlights
August 3: Sustainable Futures All-electric cars: driving costs down... Drive to work and plug in your car to re-charge. Will this be the norm in the future? .... Following on from a study that compared gasoline-fuelled vehicles with plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), DEREK LEMOINE AND DANIEL KAMMEN, FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, have extended their analysis to include EVs. ... "Electrified transportation may be crucial to the transition to a low-carbon future because it becomes cleaner as the grid becomes cleaner. Introducing EVs soon can begin the slow process of adopting the vehicles that could enable achievement of long-term greenhouse gas targets," write Lemoine and Kammen.
August 3 Can the Military Find the Answer to Alternative Energy? ...the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Defense Dept.'s famous research branch ...DARPA wants to reduce the current cost of algae-based fuel from $20-$30 per gallon down to $3. In January, DARPA awarded contracts worth up to $34.8 million to two companies to produce aviation fuel at $3 a gallon from algae. The competitors are General Atomics, best known as the maker of the Predator drone, and Science Applications International (SAI). They have three years to do it. Some doubt these companiesor any companycan achieve that goal.
July 29: McKinsey Report Cites $1.2 Trillion in Potential Savings From Energy Efficiency.... Daniel Kammen, a professor in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California at Berkeley who is unaffiliated with the study, said that McKinsey’s work underscored the possibilities inherent in energy efficiency. “There’s absolutely no place in the U.S., whether it’s residences or industry or buildings or vehicles, that can’t achieve this,” he said.
"I think this is really the key story — everyone can do this," Mr. Kammen added.
July 16: Car-share programs turn to more alternative-fuel options...The number of people joining such services grew from 214 in 1999 to 309,437 this year, according to Susan Shaheen of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California-Berkeley.
NEW in the Data Bank July 2009 California Independent System Operator (CAISO) grid ancillary service (regulation and spinning reserves) requirements and price
Spring 2009 ACCESS magazine (from the University of California Transportation Center): Saving Fuel, Reducing Emissions, Making Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles Cost-Effective, article by Daniel M. Kammen, Derek J. Lemoine, Samuel M. Arons, and Holmes Hummel.
May 13, 2009: Electric-drive-vehicle developments: a California perspective Talk delivered to the Swiss Silicon Valley Association Study Tour at Swissnex by TSRC Post-Doctoral Scholar Brett Williams.
FINAL NOTE-Economic Assessment of All-Electric Vehicles: Posted May 19, 2009: This note extends the analysis of Lemoine, Kammen, and Farrell's paper, An innovation and policy agenda for commercially competitive plug-in hybrid electric vehicles" to cover the case of all-electric vehicles (EVs). We pay particular attention to grid impacts, break-even battery costs, and the three ways in which EVs could dramatically change the results we obtained for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).
June 1: Dan Kammen one of three scholars from the University of California, Berkeley, appointed to the state's new Economic and Allocation Advisory Committee, a group charged with helping California implement the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32).
June 1: Dan Kammen in "Smart People" on smartplanet.com He discusses ways to reduce carbon emissions through "smart homes," as well as "smart grids" using vehicles that are either purely or partially electric.—links to video on smartplanet.com.
May 30: Beefing up the green fleet Taking advantage of increased supply, car rental firms expand hybrid offerings...Even as the recession and lower gas prices have chilled demand for hybrid vehicles, many car rental companies are adding to their fleets of Priuses and other gas-electric cars to lure a growing number of city dwellers attracted by high-mileage and "green" appeal....From 2004 to 2008, car-sharing membership grew by an average of 53 percent annually, according to a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY study released in November. SUSAN SHAHEEN, one of the study's coauthors and DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY'S INNOVATIVE MOBILITY RESEARCH GROUP, said the US car-sharing market's estimated 310,000 members and 6,090 cars will continue to expand and attract conventional rental companies....
May 13, 2009: Electric-drive-vehicle developments: a California perspective Talk delivered to the Swiss Silicon Valley Association Study Tour at Swissnex by TSRC Post-Doctoral Scholar Brett Williams.
