May 6, 2008, 11:22 am EST
How does this impact Altairnano?
That’s the first question that came to mind when Electrovaya Inc., the Mississauga, Ontario-based maker of Superpolymer lithium ion batteries, announced that it is “negotiating a purchase and supply agreement and has begun work on a battery pack design and production program with Phoenix Motorcars.” The company said it has already received advance payment for upfront engineering design services and hardware production.
Electrovaya’s program is to focus on production of an integrated battery system and intelligent battery management systems for Phoenix’s long-range electric SUVs and sport utility trucks. Phoenix Motorcars will manufacture the vehicles at its California facility.
Perhaps Phoenix, which says it plans to deliver its first vehicles to fleet customers sometime this year, is hedging its bets, like GM and Think Global have been doing. The company has had warranty claim issues with its previously announced battery supplier, Altairnano, but as recently as March the company re-stated its support for Altairnano’s technology. “We wholeheartedly support Altairnano’s technology and believe they provide the greatest product available on the market today,” said Daniel Elliott, Phoenix Motorcars’ CEO in a statement in March.
The key word being “today.” That was then, this is now. Perhaps there are more underlying problems with Altairnano’s battery. Discussion boards are abuzz. So far today Altairnano’s stock is down 4 per cent on the news, which I’m sure hasn’t sunk in yet.
Electrovaya, itself no stranger to bad news, is on a roll lately. In January it announced a joint venture with Malcolm Bricklin’s Visionary Vehicles to produce battery packs for his plug-in electric hybrid car. The same month it announced it will “soon” be launching a low-speed electric vehicle called Maya-300 that will have a 120-mile range but be limited to 35 mph speeds. And last October is revealed it is establishing a joint venture with Electrotherm, the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles in India, with plans to build a manufacturing plant capable of producing 10-megawatt-hours per month of battery storage. The only problem, and perhaps this will change soon, is that Electrovaya is a penny stock that isn’t exactly flush with cash. So I’m waiting to see if someone will soon step up to the plate and provide much-needed funding for this company and its battery technology — a dark horse maybe in the HEV, LSV and EV races.
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May 6, 2008, 9:14 am EST
This research was reported back in February, but it was profiled again in a European Commission newsletter this month. It bears repeating, if only because there’s a lot of misinformation going around about how the energy that goes into producing solar panels isn’t much less than the lifetime energy you get out of it (claims I often hear — surprise, surprise — from proponents of nuclear and clean coal plants).
Researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory and the EC’s Integrated Project CrystalClear used data from 12 solar PV manufacturers to determine lifecycle emissions from four different PV technologies: multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon, and thin-film cadmium telluride. Their findings, according to the newsletter:
“The thin-film cadmium telluride technology emitted the lowest amount of harmful emissions because it uses the least energy during production. However, the differences in emissions between these PV technologies were very small in comparison to the significant emissions that could be saved by switching from conventional energy technologies to PV. The researchers suggest at least 89 per cent of air emissions associated with electricity generation could be prevented if PV replaced energy from the average European grid.”
Even with the cadmium telluride approach, which produces heavy metals, it still found that this thin film process produced heavy-metal emissions that were 90 to 300 times lower compared to a coal plant fitted with the latest emission-control technologies. I should note that the cadmium telluride approach, used by First Solar, incorporates end-of-life recycling of heavy metals. Montreal-based 5N Plus, for example, is a main supplier to First Solar and places emphasis on its recycling services.
And, as processes for producing PV become more efficient, emissions will continue to fall. “Thinner films and greater efficiency are trends that will further reduce PV lifecycle emissions,” the researchers concluded.
For a 2006 paper from Columbia University that looks at lifecycle emissions of a 3.5 MW multicrystalline solar PV plant in Arizona, click here.
If one looks at data from the World Nuclear Association, they’ll see that solar PV is shown to emit three to 10 times the CO2 per g/kWh as nuclear. But you’ll notice that the data for solar PV is several years out of date. Given much of the advances around solar PV are only a few years old, one could easily challenge the assumption of the nuclear industry. What I’d like to see as an up-to-date comparative analysis between nuclear, wind, solar, natural gas, and coal. If anyone has see one, please let me know.
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May 3, 2008, 10:46 pm EST
Most algae-to-biofuel ventures or projects I’ve seen in the past have been focused on areas in the U.S. south where the warmer climate is favourable to algae growth. Canada, from what I’ve been told, isn’t an ideal place to conduct such projects.
Turns out that’s more assumption than fact, at least according to the Alberta Research Council and a research consortium looking into CO2-to-algae-to-biofuel processes as a way of cleaning up the oil sands. “Most people felt you can’t grow algae to any great extent in higher latitudes, but in fact we’ve demonstrated it’s tangibly not true,” says John McDougall, CEO of the Alberta Research Council. “There’s a million plus species of algae that grow in Canada today, and if you choose the right ones you can grow them very well here.”
McDougall says they’ve also learned that growing algae in higher latitudes has some advantages. “We’ve learned that in very intense sunlight environments that algae actually turn off their functions and take a rest. In northern climates people don’t take siestas, and neither do algae.”
Still, we’ve got Canadian winters to deal with. McDougall says the consortium has ruled out the use of bioreactors to grow algae, simply because of the volume needed for a typical fossil fuel plant or oil sands operation. At the same time, the open pond route doesn’t work so well in colder weather. So they’ve determined that a covered pond system will work best, with the idea being that the heat already in flu gas will be enough to keep the pond warm. Their base test case is a pond where the algae consumes up to 30 per cent of the CO2 emitted from the smokestack of a 300-megawatt coal plant. “We’ve just come through a feasibility study that’s given us some design parameters,” says McDougall. “The next two years we get to the point where we’re dealing with practical issues.” He expects a commercial-scale project is about three to five years away, and so far there are no insurmountable barriers to reaching that goal.
As far as the oil sands are concerned, he envisions algae ponds that do more than just capture CO2. The plan is to grow the algae on toxic tailing ponds that have attracted much scrutiny in the oil sands. The algae doesn’t just consume CO2, they also love some heavy metals, nitrogen and residual hydrocarbons. If the approach could be made to work — including the required management of algae growth, handling and harvesting — the algae could be used to produce biofuels and a number of other products as they suck up CO2 and clean up other chemicals. “Industry is incredibly interested in this, because they can see it has a potential to take a cost burden out of the equation and turn it into a revenue-generating device, which is huge,” says McDougall, adding that he sees a new industry spawning from this research. “I’m really quite excited about this. There aren’t that many things that have the right buttons on them, but this one seems to have them.”
Carbon capture and geological sequestration. Char production and biosequestration. Turning CO2 into baking soda and other usable materials. Growing CO2-sucking algae to make biofuels and clean up toxic pools. Certainly we’ve got options — and we’re going to need them all.
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April 28, 2008, 5:51 pm EST
I’ve got a feature today on a Barbados-based company called PickupPal Online Inc., whose founders are based out of Ontario. The Web service takes a bit of eBay, a bit of Facebook, and a dash of online dating to create a rather slick service that matches up drivers with people who need a drive. Now, there’s no shortage of rideshare services out there, but what makes PickupPal so unique is its global reach and its unique application of Google Maps to find common routes. And unlike other rideshare sites, which tend to be non-profit and encourage workplace carpooling, PickuPal focuses on events: music events, sporting events, or any other gathering where a particular group of people are congregrating at a particular time and place. It’s a great way to reduce the number of cars on the road, and the amount of emissions.
The business model is a bit daring. They plan to take a 7 per cent commission from any driver who charges someone for a ride. The only problem is there’s nothing forcing a drive to charge for a ride, and nothing really forcing a driver to pay — except the fact that PickupPal has a rating system, so if you want repeat business and good reviews you’ve got to be honest. Bottom line is PickupPal is basing its future revenues on good will, and the ability to collect recurring commissions from a growing stable of loyal users. Now, there’s a reason they’re based in the Barbados: not only is it a tax haven, it also offers the company some protection from jurisdictions that frown upon anything that takes business away from buses and taxis. Imagine if people start using this service for airport dropoffs and pickups? Huge.
I also wonder about other legalities. What if somebody is assaulted, abandoned, or wronged somehow during a ride and decides to sue PickupPal? I guess it’s no different than a dating site — user beware. That’s something for the lawyers to deal with.
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April 28, 2008, 11:16 am EST
My Clean Break column today revisits the idea of creating “biochar” out of wood waste using a pyrolysis process, and then blending the char in topsoil as an alternative way of sequestering carbon. We know that, done properly, we can lock about 60 per cent of the biomass’ carbon into the char. We also know the char, when mixed in topsoil, helps with water and nutrient retention. The char is also easy to weigh and package, meaning it’s an ideal substance for calculating carbon offsets as part of carbon-trading efforts. I wrote the column specifically to draw attention to the pine-beetle infestation on the northwest coast and a recent study that said the dead trees — rather than absorbing CO2 — are releasing huge quantities of greenhouse gases as they decay and rot. One solution could be to harvest the dead wood and convert it into biochar. It’s worth a serious look, since carbon capture and sequestration technologies being considered by the oil and coal industries simply can’t be applied outside of specific facilities and locations. With Canada’s emissions growing, not shrinking, we have to consider all approaches.
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April 25, 2008, 9:59 pm EST
The U.S. Department of Energy detailed nine projects destined to get funding as part of a move to make the U.S. electricity grid more efficient. The department, which is allocating $50 million over five years to these projects, aims to reduce peak load electricity demand by at least 15 per cent by integrating renewable energy and distributed generation into the grid. The only Canadian company taking part in the nine projects is Vancouver-based flow-battery maker VRB Power, which has a compelling product but so far has been unable to gain any sales traction.
VRB will be working with Chevron Energy Solutions, Pacific Gas & Electric, SatCon Technology Corp., the University of Wisconsin, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, among others, on a three-year, $14 million project that will integrate solar energy, fuel cells, flow-battery storage and control systems in a way that significantly reduces peak load and improves power reliability at the Santa Rita Jail, in Alameda County.
Frankly, I don’t get it. Storage seems more important for wind, in the sense you can store the energy overnight when you don’t need it and dispatch it during the day. Solar is inherently beneficial during normal peak times, so I can’t immediately see how storage will reduce peak load — unless off-peak daytime solar is stored and dispatched during the highest peaks in the day. I suppose this helps reduce reliance on inefficient, dirty fossil-fuel superpeaking plants. Perhaps it can also smooth out solar output on cloudy days when the sun is obscured many times throughout an afternoon. Even so, I can’t see how using storage in this way would be as economical compared to coupling it with wind.
On another note, Ontario seems to finally be putting some thought into grid modernization and intelligence. The Independent Electricity System Operator recently announced the formation of a working group composed of several utilities, which plan to brainstorm on a smart grid vision for Ontario and come out with a white paper later this month that more or less provides a rough roadmap of where we need to go. It’s about time. For too long the industry here has equated smart meters with smart grid, not appreciating that intelligence has to be injected into the core AND the edge of the system.
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April 24, 2008, 2:10 pm EST
A Montreal-based company touting itself as “Canada’s only original equipment manufacturer of wind turbines of 1 megawatt and more,” has raised $7.5 million in equity from a syndicate led by Canaccord Adams and National Bank Financial. AAER Inc. will use the proceeds to purchase manufacturing equipment for production of turbine blades and put deposits toward the purchase of required nacelle components. The syndicate has an option to purchase another $1.125 million in common shares. “AAER Inc.’s short-term business strategy targets market niches for wind parks not exceeding 50MW,” according to the company’s Web site.
Focusing on smaller wind projects could prove a good way for a newcomer in the wind-turbine market to gain some traction and slowly build up. There is so much demand for turbines these days that small projects are getting squeezed out, unable to reserve a spot in line because they’re considered too small potatoes compared to larger wind-farm projects in the hundreds of megawatts. While it won’t be a cakewalk for this company, it’s certainly a new venture worth watching.
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April 21, 2008, 6:09 pm EST
I’ve got a story in today’s Toronto Star about a ground breaking on the first of many massive solar parks expected to be built across Ontario over the next two or three years. SkyPower Corp., a Lehman Brothers company, and joint-venture partner SunEdison LLC are beginning construction of a two-phase, 19-megawatt solar park about 30 kilometres west of Kingston, Ontario. SkyPower has another six 10-MW projects under development, and it’s not alone. Topping the list is California’s OptiSolar, which breaks ground on a six-phase, 60-MW solar park next month. In all, Ontario has signed contracts to purchase more than 400 MW of solar electricity for 42 cents a kilowatt-hour. Now, it’s no guarantee all of these projects will get built, but given the fact that the largest solar installation in Canada to date is only 100 kilowatts, the ground-breaking on these large parks is nothing short of impressive.
NOTE: When they’re built I’m going to have the Toronto Star charter a plane so we can take fly-by pictures and video of the parks. It’s about time we have our own images, rather than relying on the same old snapshots out of Bavaria, Germany.
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April 21, 2008, 3:24 pm EST
I’m being bombarded with press releases — most of them greenwashing — because of Earth Day, but one announcement caught my eye. A company called EcoCab unveiled today that this summer it will launch a pedal-powered taxi service in Toronto, with plans next year to expand into other major urban centres across Canada. The launch in Toronto will involve 28 EcoCab “bikes” — which are three-wheeled bicycles with a passenger cabin that also features battery-assist, allowing the vehicle to reach speeds of 12 km/h (8 miles/hr) without having to pedal. “Able to easily navigate through congested city streets, the EcoCab provides convenient door to door service between office buildings, transit stations, shopping areas, restaurants, and entertainment attractions,” the company said.
Now here’s the kicker, and conventional cabbies won’t like it one bit: the service is free. That’s right, anybody can hop into one of the EcoCabs and get a free ride. The service is funded by do-good corporate sponsors.
Simple. Effective. My only question is if you can drive one of these things in downtown Toronto, why can’t you drive a ZENN?
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April 21, 2008, 12:43 pm EST
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and RockPort Capital Partners have formed a joint venture with Norwegian electric car maker Think Global to bring their highway-speed, crash-tested car to the U.S. market in 2009. Kleiner Perkins managing partner Ray Lane, who is chairman of the new Think North America, called the creation of the joint venture and plans to mass-manufacture an electric car in the United States a “seminal event” along the way to zero-emission transportation. “The transportation industry is undergoing its largest transformation since Henry Ford built the Model T,” said Lane.
The Think City model is 95 per cent recyclable and reaches a top speed of 65 miles (100 kilometres) an hour. It can also drive up to 110 miles (180 kilometres) on a single charge, though I’m guessing that varies depending on the battery technology used. Think Global is working with two battery technologies: On the lithium-ion side, the car can use a nanophosphateTM system produced by A123, or a lithium manganese system from Enerdel; another option is a nickel-sodium chloride “Zebra” battery from MES DEA SA.
This announcement merely adds momentum to an exciting trend. The fact that Kleiners and RockPort are getting behind this and directly steering the new Think company is yet another sign that EVs aren’t just a passing fad. A number of startups and some of the big automakers are in a race to get the first mass-market electric vehicle to market over the next year or two. This competition is healthy, and will continue to drive the kind of battery innovation we need to truly see EV vehicles reach mass appeal.
Me, I drive a little 1997 Honda Civic hatchback. My next car will be electric — either all or plug-in. I can’t wait until that purchase day comes.
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