The Tailpipe Endgame: Charging of Electric Vehicles with Secure,

Domestic, Renewable Energy Resources July 2011

The goal of the University of California San Diego’s Zero Emission Vehicle Project named ‘Tailpipe Endgame” is to eliminate greenhouse gases and local air pollutants from the tailpipes of the transportation sector by using secure, domestic, renewable energy resources to charge a variety of new models of electric vehicles from twelve international manufacturers and ten of the top EV Support Equipment (EVSE) suppliers. The Tailpipe Endgame project was announced on January 31, 2011 as one of five key electric vehicle initiatives by a bold, new Smart City San Diego Collaborative among the City of San Diego, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), GE, UC San Diego and CleanTECH San Diego. The Tailpipe Endgame was recently featured in PluginCars.

Electric vehicles (EV) achieve four-times the efficiency of internal-combustion engines, but the long term goals of an 80% reduction in green house gas emissions will not be met due to the carbon intensity of the generating sources of the electricity that supplies California’s and our nation’s grids. The California Energy Commission’s 2012 Investment Plan for the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program Committee Draft Report in support of AB118 recently recommended, “Encourage workplace and fleet charging, the Energy

Commission will consider grants to support charging infrastructure (with emphasis on battery storage and renewable charging) and outreach to business and fleet owners.” CleanTech San Diego, CONNECT, GE, San Diego Regional Economic Development Council and UCSD submitted for the record support for this recommendation.

A proposal from a consortium of Maui’s rental car companies, hotels, utility, local and state government and universities was submitted to DOE that included the Tailpipe Endgame strategy.

The concept of using “grid connected” Photovoltaics to charge EVs in a carport configuration was very prevalent in the news during the past two months with separate press releases by GE, Nissan and Hitachi. GE commissioned in Plainville CT (pictured above) a 100 kW PV carport to fully charge up to 13 electric vehicles per day via six Level 2 GE EV Charging Stations and to power the overhead lighting in the parking lot.

Above: On September 22, 2010 the Executive Team from the State Grid China Corporation, the world’s largest utility, visited UC San Diego’s initial site for the renewable energy charging of electric vehicles.

Nissan North America began installation of 30 solar assisted charging stations at the Smyrna Plan in Franklin, TN with a scheduled operation in July 2011. Ford Motor Company announced a 500 kW PV facility that would have a 750 kW/2 MWH battery storage bank for factory loads and 10 EV charging stations. Hitachi announced plans for various types of rapid chargers will be installed on Maui HI by 2014, including flexible power supply type, Photovoltaic DC to DC Power supply type and DC power supply type with battery power at EV charging stations, and demonstrate their effectiveness at controlling EV chargers so they do not overload distribution facilities.

Bids were submitted on July 1 to the CA South Coast Air Quality Management District for $30M of financial incentives for five megawatts of in-basin renewable distributed electricity generation and storage to support electric technology applications such as plug-in hybrid vehicles in response to a Request For Proposals. The schedule calls for award of contracts by early October 2011, and a desire to have equipment installed within one year. The Agency also stated that the use of renewable feedstocks for energy production is a necessary transition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide for domestic energy diversity. The Agency also noted that renewable distributed generation and time-shifting of electricity purchases benefit the environment by conserving fossil fuel, reducing emissions from power plants and reducing operation of power plants during peak demand periods when air pollutants are at highest levels. This California viewpoint is shared by the European Union which published its Renewable Energy Directive for Transportation in 2009 establishing that 10% of final consumption of energy in all forms of transport are to be renewable in 2020, and each Member State will submit a report on progress towards its targets by 31 December 2011 and every 2 years thereafter.

A Ricardo Study released in June highlighted the increasing importance of accounting for whole life carbon emissions to compare the GHG of low carbon vehicles. Ricardo found that a typical medium sized family car will create around 24 tonnes of CO2 during its life cycle, while a battery electric vehicle (BEV) will produce around 18 tonnes over its life. For a battery EV, 46% of its total carbon footprint is generated at the factory, before it has travelled a single mile. If the charging source is renewable energy, i.e., “Tailpipe Endgame” rather than 500g/kWH that Ricardo assumed, then the battery EV would have a life cycle C02 footprint only 37% that of a standard gasoline vehicle. The report was prepared by Ricardo for, and in collaboration with, the expert membership of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership that includes major vehicle manufacturers and oil companies, and it will be a strong baseline along with other analyses for all present and future funded efforts to document the environmental benefits of renewable energy charging of BEVs. This document will be debated for sometime into the future, particularly on the CO2 footprint of the manufacturing of BEVs.

The Ricardo study supports the international implication of the zero tailpipe emissions concept utilizing renewable resources that was also referenced in LBL’s China Energy Group published ”China’s Energy and Carbon Emissions Outlook to 2050” which emphasized that decarbonization has important effects on the CO2 emissions mitigation potential of switching to electric vehicle technology, but in the absence of any concurrent decarbonization of the power sector, EVs will actually increase CO2 emissions. China’s largest EV manufacturer, BYD, announced a similar strategic goal of utilizing Renewable Energy for charging of EVs in October 2010.

Uniquely, UC San Diego serves its population of 45,000 with an internationally acclaimed microgrid that has a growing portfolio of 1.2 MW of solar Photovolatics, 27 MW of an EPA Energy Star Award combined cooling, heating and natural gas power plant, and a 2.8MW of fuel cells where the renewable waste methane gas is obtained pursuant to a contract where biogas is nominated and delivered to customers via a natural gas

pipeline1

Smart Grid

. UCSD currently self generates 82% of its needs and will achieve 90% by the end of 2011. UCSD announce in June 2011 the addition of 830 kW of PV at five off campus facilities that was financed by the ratepayer funded incentive CA Solar Initiative and US Treasury Clean Renewable Energy Bonds. A recognized prototype to the of the future, UCSD proposes to divert a portion of its solar and directed biogas resources to charging a fleet of approximately fifty new electric automobiles that will be road tested by a control group of students, faculty and staff with a diversity of demographics, driving ranges and patterns.

This quantum advancement will establish the technical feasibility of using renewable energy to electrify the transportation sectors while inciting the global competitive forces to leapfrog to the one solution that provides the greatest sustainable, secure supply of energy and reduces the largest global source of greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollutants.

The Project Director is UCSD’s Director of Strategic Energy Initiatives, Byron Washom who held the world’s efficiency record for sunlight to grid electricity for 24 years, received R&D magazine’s award for one of the most innovative products in 1984 and was named in 2010 to Fast Company magazine’s 100 Most Creative People in Business for his pioneering research and leadership at UCSD. Mr. Washom is the principal investigator on the top ranked research proposal funded by the US Department of Energy and the CA Energy Commission for $2.5M for modeling techniques to mitigate negative impacts from high penetrations of solar systems on a distribution grid. In 2010, the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment Group awarded UCSD the 1st Annual Climate Leadership Award for Institutional Excellence, and UCSD in May, 2011 was the first CA university and 10th in the nation to receive a Gold STARS Rating from AASHE.

The university is a pillar in the dynamic CleanTech San Diego region which is one of five awarded by the US Department of Energy to deploy 1000 all-electric Nissan Leafs and a companion 2300 charging infrastructure in SDG&E’s service territory through 2011. Collaborative partner GE recently made the largest single purchase commitment of 25,000 EVs worldwide by 2015. The region won 19% of the total, or $154M, of the US Treasury’s 2009 Allotments of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds. The City of San Diego is a Solar American City and host to numerous economic incubators including CleanTech San Diego, rated the 7th Best CleanTech cluster in the world and the CA Center for Sustainable Energy. In June 2010, Governor Schwarzenegger named the San Diego region as the California iHub for bio-algae fuels and solar energy storage. The CA Energy Commission has designated UCSD as the co-lead of the CA Solar Collaborative, and the local utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, was rated the #1 Intelligent Utility in the US for the second year in a row. The New York Times in June had two favorable feature articles on the San Diego Region as a major hub for CleanTech venture capital and innovation.

The blue ribbon Electrification Coalition published in November its Fleet Electrification Roadmap. UCSD’s planned fleet deployment, moreover, has already initiated unprecedented partnerships and coordination among regulators, vehicle manufacturers, electric utilities, research organizations,

1 There is no means of ensuring the actual molecules of renewable gas are consumed at the customer’s site. Thus, the gas is not literally delivered, but notionally delivered, as the biogas may actually be utilized at any other location along the pipeline route.

government planners, and consumer advocacy groups. UCSD with its installed or funded infrastructure is poised at the leading edge to demonstrate ultra clean vehicle electrification by the utilization of a diversity of secure, distributed and renewable energy resources.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), TVA and Oakridge National Laboratory are currently testing a solar assisted EV charging station which utilizes a battery storage system to assess the impact on reliability, analyze electric vehicle supply equipment, and test advance metering infrastructure.

The CEC in May 2011 approved approximately $200,000 towards the project, and DOE is amending its High PV Penetration CY2011 grant by ~$50,000 to include the Tailpipe Endgame Project. The required new funding is only for the incremental cost of the leasing and integration of the EVs and charging stations since the

preexisting or under contract renewable solar and biogas energy resources have been funded by other private, state and federal sources.

The schedule would be to complete the scoping studies based upon the EPRI Base Design Report and conclude the global competitive solicitation within 15 months after the receipt of the initial grant funding. The 24 month test plan for each charging station and EV deployed at UCSD will produce widely circulated reports and lead to hosting numerous international visitors and conferences.