Automotive X Prize Purse Set at $10 Million
The X Prize Foundation officially launched the Automotive X Prize last week and announced Progressive Insurance as its title sponsor for the prize purse, which will be set at $10 million. The Progressive Automotive X Prize is an international competition that challenges competitors to design, build, and bring to market a car that exceeds 100 miles per gallon, or its energy equivalent fuel efficiency, while meeting market requirements for size, capability, affordability, and safety.
To date, more than 60 teams from nine countries have signed up to compete for the prize. Applications to compete for the prize will be taken until mid-year, at which time the applicants will go through a qualification process to confirm that their cars are production-capable and consumer-friendly.
The competition will be divided into two vehicle classes: mainstream and alternative. Mainstream vehicles must carry four or more passengers, have four or more wheels, and travel 200 miles or more without refueling. Alternative vehicles must carry two or more passengers, can have any number of wheels, and must travel 100 miles or more between refueling stops. The mainstream vehicle winner will take home a prize of $7.5 million, while the alternative vehicle winner will garner the remaining $2.5 million.
Qualifying cars will compete in cross-country stage races in 2009 and 2010, and the prize will go to the car that finishes fastest while meeting the fuel economy requirements and strict air emissions requirements. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the first stage of the 2009 cross-country race will start in New York City in September, and race officials will seek proposals for other cities to host additional stages of the race. See the Progressive Automotive X Prize press releases.
The US DOE is awarding a grant of nearly $3.5 million to the X Prize Foundation for an education and outreach component of the Progressive Automotive X Prize. The grant will be used to conduct outreach activities and vehicle demonstrations that encourage students and the public to learn more about advanced vehicle technologies and important skills, such as teamwork; creativity; strong literacy, math and science skills; and innovative thinking. The outreach activities will also include an interactive, online component with information for students, parents, and teachers. See the DOE press release and the Progressive Automotive X Prize Web site.
Electric Vehicles, Diesels Take Spotlight at New York Auto Show
Several Japanese automakers are displaying electric vehicle concepts at the New York International Auto Show, now underway in New York City, and two of those automakers are planning to test their vehicles in the United States. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. unveiled the appropriately named Denki Cube Concept ("denki" is Japanese for "electric"), which powers its electric motor with a lithium-ion battery that uses a unique manganese electrode for safer operation. Nissan has joined with NEC Corp. and NEC Tokin Corp. to launch a new company called Automotive Energy Supply Corp. to market the battery.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is displaying its "i MiEV," which is also powered by lithium batteries. The company began testing the vehicle in Japanese fleets in October 2006 and plans to test it in U.S. fleets this fall, working in cooperation with select power companies. See the press releases from Nissan and Mitsubishi.
In addition, Subaru of America, Inc. is displaying its R1e electric vehicle, a minicar powered by a lithium-ion battery and a 40-kilowatt motor. According to Subaru, the battery allows partial charges and quick charges without compromising battery life. The battery can be "quick charged" to 80% capacity in only 15 minutes using a special charging device, or fully charged in eight hours by plugging into a standard electrical outlet. The two-seat vehicle has a top speed of 65 miles per hour and a range of up to 50 miles. The Tokyo Electric Power Company has been testing the Subaru R1e in its fleet since 2006, and the New York Power Authority will soon begin testing two of the vehicles in its fleet. See the Subaru press release.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler, chose the occasion to introduce three new diesel-powered SUVs that will go on sale in the U.S. this fall. The ML 320 BlueTEC, the R 320 BlueTEC, and the GL 320 BlueTEC all feature advanced diesel engines and emission controls that will meet stringent emissions standards, including California’s Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle (ULEV) standard. Because the vehicles meet such tough standards, they can and will be sold in all 50 states, which will make them among the first "50-state diesels" to be sold in the United States. The New York Auto Show is open to the public through March 30. See the Daimler press release and the New York International Auto Show Web site.
NREL Thin-Film Solar Cell Achieves Record Efficiency
The prospect for alternatives to crystalline silicon solar cells brightened considerably on Monday, when DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced it has created a thin-film solar cell with a record efficiency. NREL created the solar cell from thin films of semiconducting materials made from alloys of cadmium, indium, copper, and selenium, or CIGS. The cell achieved a record thin-film conversion efficiency of 19.9%, that is, the cell is able to convert 19.9% of the sunlight hitting it into electricity.
Although solar cells have been built with much higher efficiencies using expensive processes a multiple layers of semiconductors, the more common crystalline silicon solar cells have achieved at most efficiencies of 20.3%, which is quite close to the NREL achievement with the thin-film CIGS solar cell. CIGS solar cells involve applying a thin film of semiconductor material to an inexpensive substrate such as glass, plastic, flexible foil, or stainless steel. See the NREL press release.
While crystalline silicon solar cells currently dominate the solar cell market, their growth has been hampered in recent years by a lack of the polysilicon from which they are made. A recent report from Frost & Sullivan concluded that the polysilicon supply would catch up with demand by the end of this year, with the four top producers boosting their annual production by more than 17,000 tons, an increase of more than 50%.
By the end of 2009, Frost & Sullivan expects the majority of the world’s polysilicon supply to be going toward solar cells rather than computer chips, representing a fundamental shift in the silicon market. A BCC Research report released in December 2007 estimated global shipments of solar cells and modules at 2,875.1 megawatts in 2007 and expected shipments to increase by 28.6% this year, reaching 3,697.3 megawatts. The report anticipates continued annual growth of 30% per year, reaching 13,724.4 megawatts by 2013. See the press releases from Frost & Sullivan and BCC Research.
Thin-film solar cells are already supplying a portion of the solar cell market, and their influence is growing. First Solar, a manufacturer of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar cells, is now the largest U.S.-based manufacturer of solar cells, with 277 megawatts of annual capacity and plants under construction that will increase its annual capacity to 910 megawatts by next year. Early this month, Global Solar Energy opened a CIGS plant in Tucson, Arizona, with an annual capacity of 40 megawatts, while startup company AVA Solar, Inc. announced plans to build a CdTe manufacturing plant in northern Colorado.
Looking ahead, Konarka Technologies, Inc. has demonstrated its ability to produce organic (polymer) solar cells using inkjet printing techniques, while a report from NanoMarkets predicts that the use of printing technologies and roll-to-roll manufacturing (the type used for printing newspapers) will cause rapid growth of thin-film solar cells. See the First Solar Web site; the press releases from Global Solar, AVA Solar, and Konarka; and the NanoMarkets report (PDF 125 KB).
Vermont Approves a Wide-Ranging Clean Energy Bill
Vermont Governor Jim Douglas approved a bill last week that will promote energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the state. Called the Energy Efficiency and Affordability Act of 2008, the new legislation creates a new $4 million fuel efficiency fund that will be financed from existing revenues and from the sale of emission credits under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
The fund will provide energy efficiency services to the state’s consumers of heating and process fuels. The state will use a competitive process to award the funds to service providers under performance-based contracts. The new legislation also assures that the state’s residential and commercial building energy standards are upgraded to keep pace with changes to the international energy conservation code, and it doubles the spending cap for weatherization projects in homes of low-income families.
Regarding renewable and distributed energy use, the bill expands net metering to include renewable energy systems up to 250 kilowatts in capacity, up from only 15 kilowatts, and allows for combined heat and power systems up to 20 kilowatts in capacity. Net-metered systems earn credit for power fed back into the utility grid. The bill also doubles the cap on net-metered systems to 2% of the peak demand as of 1996.
It allows farms to have all their electric meters consolidated on paper into one net-metered system, and it also takes the innovative step of allowing groups of buildings, such as all the municipal buildings in one town, or all the schools in a district, to be consolidated on paper into one net-metered system. Individuals, such as residents of an apartment building or a subdivision, can apply to be treated as a group, with all their electric meters consolidated on paper into one net-metered system, and even a geographically distributed group can apply, if such a group serves the common good. Such group net metering could encourage people to band together to install a large renewable energy system that will serve them all.
For customers that don’t want to own their own renewable energy systems, the bill requires all utilities to offer a voluntary green power program. It also establishes an alternate education property tax of 0.3 cents per kilowatt-hour for wind energy facilities that are at least 5 megawatts in capacity, and allows businesses to earn solar energy tax credits. And it encourages the state to use more biodiesel in its vehicles and buildings. See the governor’s press release and the full text of the bill, S 209.
New Guidelines Launched for Green Home Remodeling
The American Society of Interior Designers Foundation and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) launched new guidelines for green remodeling of residential properties in mid-March. The new "REGREEN" guidelines are organized by the 10 most common remodeling projects and can be applied to a wide variety of projects, from remodeling a kitchen to a full-scale home renovation.
The guidelines are accompanied by case studies and address the major elements of any green renovation project, including the home’s location, green building materials, and the project’s impacts on energy efficiency, water efficiency, and indoor environmental quality. According to the USGBC, additional electronic resources will be available online starting in early summer, with a comprehensive educational lineup for the interior design, contractor, and consumer to follow. See the USGBC press release (PDF 85 KB) and download the REGREEN guidelines and other materials from the USGBC’s Green Home Guide Web site.
A new report from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) concludes that promoting the green design, construction, renovation, and operation of buildings could cut North American greenhouse gas emissions more deeply, quickly, and cheaply than any other available measure. The CEC was established by Canada, the United States, and Mexico to build cooperation on environmental issues in North America.
The CEC report notes that North America’s buildings cause the annual release of more than 2,200 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, or about 35% of the continent’s total carbon emissions. The report concludes that the rapid deployment of currently available and emerging energy efficiency technologies could avoid 1,700 megatons of annual carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. See the CEC press release and the full report (PDF 2.1 MB).
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Kevin Eber is the Editor of EREE Network News, a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
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