This week, the drive was on to put a public electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure in place, offer new high-efficiency EV models that will be attractive to consumers and available at the right price points—and reach a “tipping point” for smart home energy that is likely to begin with an EV in every garage. In addition, researchers are working on new solutions that will capture CO2 before it leaves the factory and reduce energy usage at data centers.
Mitsubishi (News - Alert) Motors North America and the U.S. State of Hawaii announced a plan to vastly improve the infrastructure needed to deploy the new Mitsubishi i and other 100 percent EVs, for residents of America's tropical island paradise. Among their efforts will be making Mitsubishi i electric vehicles available for test drives, sales, and service training through their Cutter Mitsubishi dealership in Honolulu by November 2011. They also will deploy DC Quick Chargers, which can fully repower a car in as little as 20 minutes.
Ford Motor Company revealed on June 9 that it is tripling production capacity of its complete North American electrified vehicle (EV) lineup by 2013—further boosting volumes of its all-new C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid, which will be in showrooms by fall 2012. Production capacity is scheduled to reach more than 100,000 EVs annually by 2013. Ford is electrifying platforms – versus a single vehicle – to offer customers the most choice. Five electrified vehicles are planned for North America by 2012 – including the van-size, plug-in Transit Connect Electric, on sale now; and Focus Electric, coming this year.
According to a release from Telit Wireless Solutions, SemaConnect has selected its CC864-DUAL and GC864-QUAD V2 M2M modules to provide cellular capabilities for SemaConnect's ChargePro, a safe, reliable, and convenient charging solution for a new generation of electric vehicles. With the capabilities of the Telit modules, ChargePro stations will be able to send and receive charging system data. ChargePro’s users will be able to receive real-time emails and text messages regarding the charging status of their vehicle.
On June 8, Waste Management of New Jersey cut the ribbon at the first public-access compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station in Camden and announced plans to convert its regional fleet to this clean-burning, environmentally-friendly fuel. The new "Clean N' Green Fuel" public fueling station, to be operated by PetroCard, will sell CNG to commercial fleets as well as individuals, at prices typically one-third below the cost of gasoline and diesel. In addition to cost savings, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the use of CNG reduces particulate matter emissions by 86 percent, carbon monoxide emissions by 80 percent, nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 32 percent, and greenhouse emissions by 25 percent.
The smart grid industry is learning some “home truths” about expansion: Until the average Joe has a plug-in car in his garage, or needs to cut monthly overhead, or wants to enjoy the convenience of remote-control appliances, the industry will not experience a “tipping point” or the “social epidemic” that Malcolm Gladwell described in his recent book. A recent report released by Boulder, Colorado-based Pike Research forecasts that worldwide users of home energy management systems will reach 63 million by 2020, up from just over 1 million in 2011.
On the research side, the National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) in Wilsonville, Alabama, has opened a new test center, to find better ways of “capturing” carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal-based power plant flue gas. The new center, the Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Center (PC4), is a part of the larger NCCC — a national testing and evaluation center established by the U.S. Department of Energy and operated and managed by Atlanta-based Southern Company, the premier energy company serving the Southeast. NCCC works collaboratively with third-party technology developers to test and improve their emerging CO2 capture technologies.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has funded a project for Energid Technologies, to be managed by the Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. IRG conducts field tests to prepare for lunar and planetary robotic missions. In this case, Energid is exploring the opportunity to replace remote hardware and support teams in space with a digital simulation, or proxy, for some studies. Simulation offers a range of benefits, including cost savings, a reduced burden on engineers, and improved variation of scenarios for study.
On the military side, Nujira (News - Alert), a provider of Envelope Tracking technology, and KCB Signal Solutions have entered into a formal partnership to support their growing US military customer base. As part of the pact, the two companies plan to establish a joint entity whereby KCB Signal Solutions will develop and support a range of products to address the military communications market’s need to upgrade to modern, high data rate waveforms— and yet still meet the demanding size, weight, and power requirements .
This week, two data centers announced successful efforts to reduce energy consumption. Communications and information technology company, Harris Corporation, was honored with a 2011 Green Enterprise IT Award for green innovation for its new 140,000 square-foot U.S. Cyber Integration Center. The award was presented by the Uptime Institute and is meant to recognize pioneering advancements that significantly improve energy productivity in IT and data center operations.
Major telecom provider Verizon revealed that it significantly reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions at 24 of its U.S. data centers. With intelligent systems from Vigilent, Verizon (News 
- Alert) could turn off approximately 40 percent of the computer room air conditioners in these data centers within two days of implementing the energy management systems. The energy management company also assisted the telecom service provider to instantly reduce energy consumption and make an anticipated savings of more than 55 million kilowatts annually. The innovative technology assisted the operator to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 66 million pounds of CO2 on an annualized basis, company officials said..
Finally, commodity traders like to take risks—but not with their own ability to do business effectively. That’s why Europe’s newest bio-fuels trading house, Ambrian Energy, chose the easily deployable, Web-based AspectCTRM suite from Aspect (News - Alert) Enterprise Solutions for its front-to-back-office trading and risk management operations—and installed it in a weekend.
Cheryl Kaften is an accomplished communicator who has written for consumer and corporate audiences. She has worked extensively for MasterCard (News - Alert) Worldwide, Philip Morris USA (Altria), and KPMG, and has consulted for Estee Lauder and the Philadelphia Inquirer Newspapers. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
