Tesla’s first battery-swapping stations were supposed to open by the end of 2013. They didn’t and they haven’t opened yet. However, Tesla Motors CEO & Chief Product Architect Elon Musk says that they will open within the “next few months.”
Depending on how usage goes at these first battery-swapping stations, Tesla will decide whether or not to build more.
You may recall that Tesla unveiled its battery-swapping capabilities at a demo in California back in June 2013. At the demo, Tesla employees performed a 90-second battery swap in a Tesla Model S. Not much could be seen, unfortunately, but I assume that’s because Tesla didn’t want anyone stealing its technology.
I’m a Tesla fanboy, but I have to say that I’m a little disappointed that Tesla would unveil its battery-swapping technology practically one full year before it was ready to launch it. What’s up with that?
Via Pulse2
Tesla To Open Battery Swapping Stations Within “Next Few Months,” Elon Musk Says was originally published on EV Obsession.
Yingli Solar (aka Yingli Green Energy*), which is “the largest vertically integrated photovoltaic (‘PV’) module manufacturer in the world,” recently landed its largest order to date in Israel and the Middle East as a whole. The order is for just 27.5 MW of solar PV panels, which isn’t a ton but demonstrates that Yingli is getting its foot in the door of the young, high-potential Middle East market.
“The Company will supply its YGE 72 Cell NH Series modules to a solar power plant that will occupy more than one million square meters of land in Israel. Designated a National Infrastructure Project by the Israeli Government, the solar farm has been granted the conditional feed-in tariff approval from the Israeli Public Utilities Authority,” a press release about the news stated.
“This supply agreement builds upon our long-standing relationship with Ledico Ltd., our local distribution partner in Israel, and it also extends our presence and visibility throughout the region. We view Israel as an important and sustainable growth market with the potential to reach more than 340 MW of installed solar PV capacity in 2014. We are excited to continue supporting the region’s successful implementation of solar PV through this major supply agreement,” said Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy.
*Full disclosure: I own stock in Yingli Green Energy.
Yingli Lands Largest Order To Date In Israel & Middle East was originally published on Solar Love!.
This is actually sort of old, but I just ran across it and it is a lot of fun, so thought I’d share. As you can see on the chart, it’s from Jalopnik. Given that Tesla has now patented Tesla Model E and the next Tesla model is supposed to be an affordable version of […]
Chart of Potential Tesla Models (A to Z) was originally published on EV Obsession.
The Nissan LEAF is the world’s top-selling electric car. The words behind the acronym fit it — Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable, Family car. Many of us are waiting eagerly for another version of the LEAF, with a lot of expectation that Nissan will come out with a version with a larger battery and more range. We’re […]
Nissan Building Smaller, Cheaper LEAF For India was originally published on EV Obsession.
A smart EV charging trial is apparently underway in London. The special software being used allows for the operator in charge to briefly suspend EV charging if electricity demand on the grid gets up to a concerning peak level. That said, “the smart control system is designed to have no noticeable impact on those using the charge points.” Here are more details from a UK Power Networks press release:
A smart new system for charging electric vehicles is being tested in London to help get the electricity network ready for widespread use of electric vehicles.
If and when electricity starts replacing petrol and diesel as a main fuel source for transport, smart systems will be needed to prevent the electricity system being overloaded by colossal extra demand, or having to re-equip substations and dig up busy roads to lay new cables.
London’s electricity distributor UK Power Networks is working on the Low Carbon London trial with POD Point, Smarter Grid Solutions and Imperial College London.
Between December and April, the companies are testing POD Point’s new Carbon Sync software and Smarter Grid Solutions’ ‘active network management’ system to briefly suspend the flow of electricity to selected public EV charge points at peak times on the network, while still ensuring drivers receive a sufficient level of charge.
Three sites have been selected for the trial, including five public charge points in the City, ten in Beckton and 50 of the most popular points in London. The smart control system is designed to have no noticeable impact on those using the charge points.
Michael Clark, Low Carbon London programme director, said: “Success in these trials could reduce the cost and disruption associated with building new power infrastructure to support the expansion of EV charging systems, benefiting consumers across the country. We believe this is the first trial of ‘active network management’ involving electric vehicles in Britain.”
Alan Gooding, Commercial Director and Co-Founder, Smarter Grid Solutions, said: “Active Network Management is already proven as a highly effective way of connecting larger volumes of distributed energy, such as solar, wind and CHP, to congested electricity networks. This new trial is a great opportunity to demonstrate that the technique can also help electricity network operators to accommodate other features of a low carbon economy, such as electric vehicle use.”
Erik Fairbairn, CEO of POD Point, said: “Adding electric car charging facilities will require close monitoring to ensure that drivers are supplied with the electricity they need without potentially overloading the electricity network. The software used in this trial monitors in real time the demand, the status of all charge points in the network, and the level of charge required by each car in real time. This information is fed into a control algorithm which carefully manages the charge point to ensure the driver gets a full charge without exceeding local capacity.”
The Government’s Carbon Plan pledges to source ten per cent of UK transport energy from renewable sources by 2020. Without smart controls on the electricity network, estimates suggest a 25 per cent uptake of EVs by 2030 could lead to half the transformers closest to homes or businesses needing an upgrade, potentially increasing the cost of new EV infrastructure.
This is the challenge the new trial is aiming to address. The new software will provide live data showing electricity demand from a cluster of charge points and how much demand could be reduced, if curtailed. Interruptions to the EV charging are designed to have no noticeable effect on those using the charge points. In addition, by monitoring the state and rate of charge, the system will not interrupt charging to cars that need it most. Data collected during the trials will be extrapolated by Imperial College London to model the impact on London’s electricity cables and substations in various scenarios.
Photo Credit: waldopepper / Foter / CC BY-NC
1st Smart Electric Vehicle Charging Trial Launched In London was originally published on EV Obsession.
First of all, above is a video of a Tesla Supercharger station that was getting put in and then put on halt for some reason. One commenter on the YouTube page noted that the NJ Power Commission quietly decided to implement an old law stating that a car company couldn’t distribute electricity and this project thus […]
NJ Tesla Supercharger Project Stopped — Concern That Children In Bookshop Could Be Burned From Car Company Handling Electricity? was originally published on EV Obsession.
This is what you call bad solar policy, bad investment and business policy, and overall bad policy. Greece has retroactively cut solar feed-in tariffs (FiTs) by 30% on average. Of course, it comes as part of broader economic problems in Greece.
Feed-in tariffs aren’t the only thing being cut either.
“The new measures ask solar photovoltaic energy producers to contribute 35% of their 2013 income to the Greek electricity market operator LAGIE. The intention is to plug a €700 million gap in LAGIE’s fund used, which is used to pay renewable energy producers in Greece. The country has promised its international lenders – the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – that it will completely eliminate LAGIE’s fund deficit by the end of 2014,” PV Magazine writes.
“While the same measures also apply to other renewable power producers, they are currently only required though to contribute 10% of their 2013 income to the LAGIE fund, with one exception: rooftop solar PV installations are exempted completely from this measure.”
Here are some details on the FiT cuts:
The second measure introduced by YPEKA regards the drastic reduction of FITs for operational RES plants. Again, solar PV installations face the sharpest reductions, which on average reach 30% of the initial tariffs. Retroactive FIT cuts also apply to rooftop installations.
A smoother FIT reduction, around 20% on average, applies to smaller PV projects up to 20 kW each that are not installed on buildings, and to those projects owned by farmers should they not exceed 100 kW each.
Other renewable energy systems such as wind and hydro projects have been instructed to take a much smaller FIT reduction of around 5-6% on average.
Reductions for solar PV FITs have taken into account a number of factors, such as the technology used, the time of project development, the cost of the installation, and even the location (specifically differentiating between projects in mainland Greece and in the smaller electricity grids of the many Greek islands). A critical factor also taken into account is whether a RES project has received any additional form of aid (e.g direct subsidy, tax exemption). FITs for projects receiving such aids face even sharper cuts.
Read more over on PV Magazine.
Image Credit: NickWinslow (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Greece Cuts Feed-in Tariffs 30% Retroactively was originally published on Solar Love!.
This isn’t a new commercial, but I ran across it recently and had to share again. It’s so funny and so well done. And it does nail the #1 reason why people go solar. Check it out:
Why People Go Solar (Not For Dolphin Babies) was originally published on Solar Love!.
I shared China’s 2013 electric car sales numbers in January. The total for all models came to 6,795. “In the first weeks of 2014,” BYD reports that about 6,000 units of its new Qin plug-in hybrid electric car have been sold! Holy cow. I’ve noted previously that sales for the BYD Qin were expected to […]
BYD Qin Plug-in Hybrid Electric Car Is CRUSHING It In China was originally published on EV Obsession.
Frankly, I’ve seen this over and over again — with the Chevy Volt, the Tesla Model S, the Nissan Leaf, and probably other electric cars. It’s a problem… well, a temporary problem, but actually a good thing in the long run! Here are the details from a post on the GM-Volt.com forum: Who else is/was […]
New Disease Afflicting Chevy Volt Owners was originally published on EV Obsession.
