All posts by Jo

New battery technology could cut energy bills by up to £40bn by 2050, says Ofgem

August 17, 2017Energy and Climate Change, Energy Storage, News, Reviews and CommentJo

The new rules will help households generate and store electricity and sell it back to the National Grid.

File photo dated 24/11/10 of electricity pylons as a Parliamentary report has found that electricity prices have soared because of constant intervention in the energy sector by successive governments.

The first phase of a four-year £246m Government investment into battery technology has been launched in a move that could help bring down household electricity bills.

The long-term vision includes creating giant battery facilities around the National Grid to store excess wind and solar energy for when demand rises.

In addition, new rules will help households with solar panels to generate and store their own electricity with new battery technology and sell it back to the Grid when they do not need it. They will also reduce costs for people and businesses who power down appliances at peak times and use electricity at cheaper times.

The Government and Energy regulator Ofgem estimate that consumers could save between £17bn and £40bn by 2050.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark unveiled details of the first phase, known as the Faraday Challenge, on Monday.

This includes a £45m competition to establish a centre for battery research which he said would help make the UK a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of electric batteries. This will be spearheaded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to bring the best minds and facilities together to create a ‘battery institute’ to make products more accessible and affordable.

A three-month consultation earlier this year on an industrial strategy to increase UK productivity and growth attracted more than 1,900 written responses from businesses and organisations.

A shift to cleaner energy and technologies such as electric cars has made the design, development and manufacture of batteries a top industrial priority. Mr Clark said:

“A smarter energy system will create new businesses and high-skilled jobs, while making sure our infrastructure is able to cope with demand.”

Gareth Redmond-King, head of climate and energy at WWF, said battery storage was a “game-changer” in the ability to produce clean power from renewables.

“These technologies give us flexibility to run on solar when the sun isn’t shining, and be powered by wind when it is still.

“It will support the transition to electric cars and enable our homes to be more efficient – which means cheaper, as well as cleaner and greener energy.”

Visit the showroom where you can test drive every electric car

August 17, 2017Electric Cars, Milton Keynes, News, Reviews and CommentJo

Yet to be convinced that electric cars are the future? EV stalwarts are hoping this unique ‘experience centre’ located in a shopping centre in Milton Keynes could be the encouragement you need to swap your diesel for a plug-in – and we’ve been for a behind-the-scenes look at the showroom which is being described as a “landmark moment”.

The EV experience centre is operated by Chargemaster using Government funds through Milton Keynes’ Go Ultra Low City status. It’s not a pop-up dealership – there’ll be no hard sell, just experts on hand to talk people through electric cars and advise about whether they’ll fit into their lifestyle.

“[There’s] a series of myths people have about electric cars,” transport minister Jesse Norman told Motoring Research during our preview of the EV experience centre.

“They think about whether they might be expensive or whether they’re hard to charge, and how long that takes. An experience centre that actually gives a person the experience of actually sitting behind the wheel or potentially driving it, that just knocks down a whole series of these myths and that makes it much easier to think about buying one.”

The showroom, located in Centre:MK, is multi-brand, displaying cars from partners including Renault, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW and Kia. The experts on hand won’t be on commission and will be able to give independent advice on which – if any – electric car suits a particular person’s needs.

If an electric car won’t fit a person’s lifestyle, they’ll be honest that they’re better suited to a conventional petrol or diesel car – while, although Tesla isn’t a partner, a visitor with a big budget after a long range and high performance will be pointed in the direction of a Tesla dealership.

“With 17 million people a year coming into this particular shopping centre in Milton Keynes, that’s potentially an awful lot of people who are potentially going to be impressed by it,”

added Norman.

Household batteries will be key to UK’s new energy strategy

August 17, 2017Energy and Climate Change, Energy Storage, News, Reviews and CommentJo

UK to pioneer energy innovation through batteries in homes as energy department announces £246m research funding

Renewables will be able to provide more of the UK’s energy when companies are able to store it more efficiently. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Batteries and renewable power sources are on the verge of bringing about an “epochal transformation” of the UK that could make energy clean, abundant and very cheap, according to a cabinet minister.

As the government unveiled plans for a more flexible energy system and £246m of funding for battery research, Greg Clark told the Guardian that a smarter grid would “radically” bring down bills.

“Energy, for the last 100 years, for good reasons, we’ve rationed the consumption of [because] it’s been very expensive and environmentally-damaging to consume fossil fuels. [But] given the possibilities we are on the cusp of at the moment, we might move to a world where energy is clean and abundant,”

said the business secretary.

Storing intermittent renewable power in batteries so it was ready when the grid needed it would bring down costs for everyone, including vulnerable and low income energy consumers, he said.

“If only we can capture it [power from the sun and wind] then we can go from energy being a worrying cost to people, to being, if not free, then very cheap,”

Clark said, speaking in Birmingham on Monday as he put energy at the centre of the government’s industrial strategy.

New Nissan LEAF with e-Pedal

New Nissan LEAF with e-Pedal premieres in the U.S. September 5 (Septermber 6 in Japan)

Solar car start-up launches vehicle and prepares for European tour

August 16, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Solar Cars, Sonos MotorsJo

German start-up manufacturer Sono Motors has presented its solar car, the Sion, in Munich. Sold without a battery, the vehicle has a range of 250km and will sell for €16,000.

The Sion features integrated solar cells, which generate additional energy to top up an electric vehicle (EV) battery, creating an extra 30km of range in a day. The company’s vision is to offer a mobility concept for the future which does not produce CO2 emissions or use oil. The Sion also offers drivers the opportunity to extract power from the vehicle and offer it to other users, in a form of bidirectional charging. The company believes ‘with the Sion’s output of 6.6kW, other electric cars can be charged.’

Sono Motors aims to either sell a battery for an additional €4,000, or offer a monthly lease, similar to that offered by Renault. The company hopes the car’s design will make it a popular choice for both families and commuters, with its low price bringing it in line with the traditional automotive market, in a sign that EV prices are beginning to come down.

A statement released by the company to coincide with the launch comments: ‘Sono Motors first attracted attention after launching a successful crowdfunding campaign in the summer of 2016. For the development and production of the vehicle, the company is working together with well-known contract manufacturers and system suppliers from the European automotive industry. A total of 5,000 reservations of the Sion are required to start serial production in the second quarter of 2019. Shortly before the presentation of the solar car, more than 1,200 reservations had already been placed.’

As Sono Motors sees sharing as the future of mobility, the Sion comes equipped with three mobility services: ‘powerSharing, rideSharing and carSharing.’ An app allows Sion users to share power, rides and even the car itself with other users.

Drop in wind energy costs adds pressure for government rethink

August 16, 2017Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Wind PowerJo

Tories urged to look at onshore windfarms which can be built as cheaply as gas plants and deliver the same power for half the cost of Hinkley Point, says Arup

Building windfarms in the windiest places, such as Whitelee in East Renfrewshire, would cut opposition from Tory heartlands in the English shires, says Arup. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Onshore windfarms could be built in the UK for the same cost as new gas power stations and would be nearly half as expensive as the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, according to a leading engineering consultant.

Arup found that the technology has become so cheap that developers could deliver turbines for a guaranteed price of power so low that it would be effectively subsidy-free in terms of the impact on household energy bills.

France’s EDF was awarded a contract for difference – a top-up payment – of £92.50 per megawatt hour over 35 years for Hinkley’s power, or around twice the wholesale price of electricity.

By contrast, Arup’s report found that windfarms could be delivered for a maximum of £50-55 per MWh across 15 years.

ScottishPower, which commissioned the analysis, hopes to persuade the government to reconsider its stance on onshore windfarms, which the Conservatives effectively blocked in 2015 by banning them from competing for subsidies and imposing new planning hurdles.

Keith Anderson, the firm’s chief operating officer, told the Guardian that onshore wind could help the UK meet its climate targets, was proven in terms of being easy to deliver, and was now “phenomenally competitive” on price.

“If you want to control the cost of energy, and deliver energy to consumers and to businesses across the UK at the most competitive price, why would you not want to use this technology? This report demonstrates it’s at the leading edge of efficiency,”

he said.

The big six energy firm believes that with a cap on top-up payments so close to the wholesale price, onshore windfarms would be effectively subsidy-free – but the guaranteed price would be enough to de-risk projects and win the investment case for them.

Swing to electric cars will be a quiet evolution

August 15, 2017Electric Cars, OpinionJo

The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. It ended because we learnt how to make and work something even more versatile…metal. Bronze and then Iron.

Those “Ages” took us thousands of years to get through. But things have speeded up a bit as we have harnessed, made and learnt how to use many other things –the Industrial Age (revolution) leading to the Engine Age and then a rat-a-tat-tat of Jet Age, Atomic Age, Space Age, Digital Age (another revolution) and Information Age.

Many of those advances have taken place in an overlapping “Oil Age” which has lasted little more than a century. And picking up on the theme of this column last week, that Age is entering the beginning of its end not primarily because we are running out of oil. We could keep using this and other fossil fuels for at least another century, even at gas-guzzling rates.

But it will be replaced by the “Electric Age” because oil-sourced energy is ultimately finite, more expensive to extract, has some end-of-the-world-side effects and above all because we have discovered (but so far grossly under-used) more ways to make something better – electricity – using more powerful methods like nuclear fusion/fission and infinitely more abundant and planet-friendly sources like rivers (hydro power), the sun (solar power), the wind and ocean currents.

HUGE APPETITE

The fundamental point here is that imminent swing from petrol and diesel to electric and hybrid motor vehicles will dominate the headlines for a while, but in practice this change will be a quiet evolution. The real “Revolution” will be how we generate the electricity and how we use what will be massive advances in that process in myriad ways other than the propulsion of your car.

All existing technology for generating electricity will improve exponentially in efficiency, availability and versatility – at prices that get progressively lower and for sure there will be new technologies not yet thought of.

UK’s ‘largest solar carport’ – with additional storage – planned for St Ives Park & Ride

August 15, 2017Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Solar PowerJo

Cambridgeshire County Council has received planning permission for what it claims will be the UK’s largest solar carport.

The installation, which will be developed at the site of St Ives’ Park & Ride, is anticipated to be 948kW in size and combined with a battery storage system as part of a wider demonstrator project with collaboration from distribution network operator UK Power Networks (UKPN).

Planning documents associated with the proposals do not include any prospective size of the storage unit.
The council is combining with central government, St Ives town council, UKPN and local businesses in a bid to turn the scheme into a replicable model for future smart grid deployment. Should it prove successful, it is hoped that further systems of similar size and scope could be deployed elsewhere.

The £3 million cost of the project is to be supported by European Regional Development funds, which will provide half, while the council will invest the remaining funds.

The car park will be covered by three main canopies fitted with solar modules. Generated electricity will be used first and foremost to power LED lighting and adjacent electric vehicle charging points.

Any surplus will be stored using the battery system and sold to local customers, helping to finance the project’s development.

Renault Zoe is best selling plug-in car in Germany

August 15, 2017UncategorizedJo

Renault Zoe was the best selling plug-in car in Germany last month, keeping up with its sales trend this year and setting a new record for sales of plug-in (BEV and PHEV) vehicles on German market.

Zoe was followed by Audi A3 e-tron (535 units sold, best plugin-hybrid) in the second place, while BMW 225xe Active Tourer was third with 338 units sold. Renault Zoe was also the most successful plug-in car in the first half of 2017, racking up 2.429 sales.

Second ant third place again goes to Audi A3 e-tron and BMW 225xe Active Tourer. Bavarian PHEV edged out Mitsubishi Outlander plugin hybrid in the fight for third place. With 4.624 registrations in June German plug-in car market recorded 181% on year-on-year growth vs. June 2016, and total year to date sales for first six months are up 115%.

Source: Plugin Magazine

First all-EV car showroom opens in Milton Keynes

August 14, 2017Electric Cars, Milton Keynes, News, Reviews and CommentJo

The UK’s first multi-brand, electric vehicle showroom has opened in central Milton Keynes, with the ambitious aim of trebling the national take-up of EVs and plug-ins in the local area over the next five years.

The showroom, operated by Chargemaster as part of the Milton Keynes’ £9m Go Ultra Low City programme, won’t sell cars directly, and its 11 EV “gurus” are not salesman. They concentrate instead on educating people about the capabilities and advantages of electric vehicles and on showing them a selection of the latest EVs from VW, BMW, Kia, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, Chargemaster’s partners in the venture.

Q&A, David Martell, chief executive, Chargemaster

Will you be looking to attract visitors who are serious about electric cars?

Not necessarily. We’d like to talk to people who are simply curious about them, and want to reach the truth for themselves. We can help with all kinds of facts and figures, impartially delivered because we’re not selling anything. Or we can take people on a familiarization drive.

How does Chargemaster gain from such an apparently philanthropic exercise?

We’re convinced electric cars will play a vital part in future motoring. If that happens, as the country’s leading provider of charging points we’ll benefit. In the meantime, we’re aware of a lack of general knowledge about electric cars and we want to help address that.

When the number of EVs sold is still so small, how can you be confident about their future?

Three things: they’re a great answer to some of the difficult problems we’re facing, the population of EVs is increasing fast (5000 to 100,000 in five years) and the best models are easy to own yet great to drive. Latest forecasts say EV sales will reach 150,000 a year by 2020.