New Geothermal in Oregon

U.S. Geothermal Inc. has started development at Neal Hot Springs in eastern Oregon. The first well in the program is currently at of 300 feet. The total planned depth is approximately 2,800 feet where it is expected to hit a large aperture fracture of hot geothermal fluid.

Three wells, ranging in depth from 2,300 to 3,800 feet are planned for this site. Construction of the drill pads began in August. One drill pad is complete and a second pad is currently under construction. Trinity Drilling initiated drilling on September 18.

Permits for four exploration wells were received from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries on September 11, 2009 allowing for expansion based on results. The Bureau of Land Management has issued a Record of Decision for an Environmental Assessment which allows surface access and construction to a well site that is located on federal lands that overlay private geothermal rights.

In addition to these deep, large diameter production wells, a temperature gradient well program consisting of up to 9 small-diameter wells each approximately 500 feet in depth was started. This program will acquire field data to better understand the geothermal potential at Neal Hot Springs, U.S. Geothermal said.

The new plant is designed to deliver 22 megawatts and is scheduled to come online in late 2011.

via renewableenergyworld.com

Solar Decathlon

The Solar Decathlon joins 20 college and university teams in a competition on the National Mall in Washington D.C. to design, build, and operate an attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house.

This year the "solar village" will be on the Mall from October 9 - 18, 2009.

The Solar Decathlon looks at 10 areas for each house:

* Architecture
* Market Viability
* Engineering
* Lighting Design
* Communications
* Comfort Zone
* Hot Water
* Appliances
* Home Entertainment
* Net Metering

Links:

http://www.solardecathlon.org

Electric Vehicles at Best Buy

The Aptera is featured in the video. Makes me wonder when Best Buy will be selling them.

Solar Power International

Solar Power International is the biggest solar conference in North America. This year, 2009, it is October 27 - 29, in Anaheim, California.

If you cannot attend the event in person, you can watch the videos that they post on their website. Last year they posted keynote speeches and many other highlights. Here is a 2008 video overview.

http://www.solarpowerinternational.com

International Day of Peace (9/21)

In 2001, the United Nations declared September 21st as the International Day of Peace.

I have shown the first video below on this blog before but it is appropriate for Peace Day. Modern wars are often fought for oil. If we can replace our fossil fuel use with renewable energy, there is one less reason to fight. Renewable energy is generally used near its production site.

Below is a video that starts with an interview of General Wesley Clark, former NATO Allied Supreme Commander. He makes it clear that the US cannot have the security that we need while we are importing 70% of our energy demand.

There never was a good war or a bad peace.
~Benjamin Franklin

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
~Thomas Jefferson

One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

International Day of Peace :: Bloggers Unite

Sun, Wind & Gears

Sun, Wind & Gears is a meandering 35 mile bike ride through beautiful landscape of Silicon Forest. The ride cruises the the rural countryside surrounding Hillsboro, visits a wetlands preserve, and returns to SolarWorld Headquarters where the fun continues with food, drink, live music and tours of the facility. A longer 55 mile route starting in Portland is also available.

The ride is Sunday October 4th and is for a worthy cause. This event supports a local nonprofit that works to stimulate long-term, positive change in the developing world.

http://sunwindgears.org/

350.org 2009 Event

Ready to get your community on the map? Sign up your event at http://www.350.org/oct24

Links:

Another 350.org Video

Toyota iQ EV

Toyota debuted an electric iQ concept car at the North American International Auto Show in January. Concepts can be interesting technology, but unless the car is planned for production, it is not worth talking about outside of the auto-industry, IMHO.

The iQ electric has just made the transition from concept to planned production vehicle. Now we're talkin'.

There is little information released yet, but the production EV is expected to be launched in 2010 with styling unique from the gas version of the car that is currently in Japan and the UK.

The car is a 2-door, 3 seater was designed by Toyota in collaboration with Aston Martin. The electric version will be powered by lithium ion batteries made by Panasonic. It will be propelled by four in-wheel motors. This provides more room in the car than its small size would suggest.

The car is expected to travel up to 150km (93 miles) on a full charge. Toyota estimates that recharging should take about eight hours, but the exact time will depend on a number of variables.

Below is a quick video of the gas version of the car.

Ironically, only days after making this announcement Toyota executives dismissed the coming electric cars from Nissan and GM. Toyota's statement included the comments:

• The time is not here for electric cars
• Batteries aren't ready
• Electric cars are going to be expensive, with low margins
• Car company profits are down, now is not the best time to burn money on unproven technologies
• The mass market is not ready for an electric car
• Hydrogen! Toyota is developing a better alternative car technology

Those are interesting statements for a company that just announced an EV. Toyota has an enviable position in the hybrid market. One they have a vested interest in protecting. Talking down about upcoming technologies that could knock Toyota's Prius from its king of the green hill is just smart business.

However, the iQ EV is Toyota's hedge. It allows Toyota to develop expertise in EVs. If the market accepts EVs and Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi iMEV and/or the Volt begin to encroach on Toyota's market, then they can quickly respond with the iQ and possibly a plug-in Prius.

Unless driven by the competition, Toyota seems happy to shift innovation into low gear, milk the HEV, and bash the innovations of other companies. I find this ironic since the shoe was on the other foot when Toyota brought the Prius to the US.

The Business of Plugging In

The Business of Plugging In, A Plug-In Electric Vehicle Conference is being held October 19-21, 2009 at the MotorCity Hotel and Conference Center in Detroit, Michigan.

Plug-in vehicles are emerging as an economically and socially promising alternative to current vehicle powertrain technology. Much still needs to be accomplished to bring these vehicles to the mass market. This conference is designed to foster a dialog among many different stakeholders to explore viable solutions.

The conference looks at the plug-in vehicle industry from a business perspective with the focus on policy, practice, consumers, and suppliers including the utility companies and infrastructure development.

The first day of the conference will focus on “The Electrification of the Vehicle: Supporting a National Strategy.” On Tuesday the focus shifts to “When We Build It, Will They Come?" There are also several plenary and breakout sessions focusing on the supplier, utility and battery manufacturing.

http://www.pev2009.com

What is the Volt's MPG?

In August '09 GM launched the "230" marketing campaign. They claimed that the Chevy Volt will get 230 MPG. Soon after GM launched the campaign, the EPA said that it could not support these claims, and Nissan pointed out that using the same calculation scheme the all-electric LEAF would rate at 367 MPG.

Plug-in hybrid cars are scheduled to be on the market in 2011. They promise to have significantly better gas mileage than traditional hybrids. These will be partially 'fueled' from the electrical grid with the balance of propulsion coming from gasoline (or ethanol). If a car uses electricity and gasoline, how do you rate its MPG when not all of the Ms are using Gs? How can an all-electric car even have an MPG?

PHEV, EREV, REEV; what are they?

The above questions are further complicated by the fact that PHEVs come in two different types. There are parallel-series plug-in hybrids such as the plug-in Prius and BYD cars and there are series plug-in hybrids such as the Chevy Volt or the Chrysler Envi line. Plug-in series hybrids are referred to as extended range electric vehicles (EREV) by GM and range extended electric vehicles (REEV) by Chrysler.

A series plug-in is propelled exclusively by an electric motor. The electricity comes from batteries for an initial range and then after the batteries are exhausted, the electricity comes from an on-board generator.

• AER-All Electric Range
• CSM-Charge Sustaining Mode (i.e. the flex fuel generator provides most of the electricity required to propel the car.)

For a parallel plug-in, it is not as clear when the gasoline engine will run. It will run when the batteries are low just like a series plug-in but it can also run when the vehicle is at high speed, during acceleration, or when climbing hills.

Given that multiple fuels will be used, how can you measure fuel efficiency? Some methods include: energy equivalence, pollution, and cost. Since the focus is currently on the MPG ratings, we'll use energy equivalence.

disclaimer

For the rest of this article, let's examine the 2011 Chevy Volt as presented in the sticker above from gm-volt.com. It is unofficial but matches all the data that is known at this point. I must point out, that despite the big 230 MPG marketing campaign, real answers about the Volt's performance are still being held close to the vest, so many of the assumptions below may turn out to be incorrect. I'll leave comments below if/when I am made aware of any discrepancies.

assumptions

The first thing to note is that GM claims a 40 mile electric range for the Volt. However, to ensure the battery life they are only going to use ~10kWh of the 16kWh pack for the electric mode. This means that you can only get the promised 40 miles in city driving (or congested freeway driving). Aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance reduce the efficiency at higher speeds. For this exercise we'll assume that all 40 miles can be traversed with just 10kWh using the better city performance values. Note that if your first 40 miles of daily driving includes some high-speed driving, you might not get the full 40 miles before the generator kicks in.

Since we are already dealing with the complexity of two fuels, let's assume a 50/50 split of city and highway driving for the charge sustaining portion of the drive. Averaging the 50 city and 45 highway yields 47.5 miles per gallon after the battery is depleted. Given that the car changes operating modes at the 40 mile mark, we'll need to examine different distances. I'll use 25, 50, 100, & 200 miles assuming each starts out fully charged.

While these single trip numbers are helpful illustrations, a month of driving with commuting and an occasional longer trip is more interesting. For this example month, Mon-Friday driving will be 30 miles (all-electric). On most weekends, we'll use 25 miles per day unless we go for a longer drive to the beach or the mountains. For these long weekend journeys, we'll use 200 miles round trip and assume that you can charge at your destination.

Example Month:

23 weekday commutes = 690 miles electric

6 short weekend trip = 150 miles electric

1 long trip weekend = 200 miles = 80 miles electric + 120 miles gas

Example Total = 1040 miles = 920 miles electric + 120 miles gasoline

Miles	Electricity (kWh)	Gasoline Used (gallons)
25	6.25	zero
50	10	0.2
100	10	1.3
200	10	3.3
1040*	230	2.5

* one example month

energy equivalence

This method of comparison converts all fuel sources, be it watts-hours or gasoline, to an energy unit such as Joules. One gallon of gasoline is 132 mega-Joules. A kilowatt-hour of electricity is 3.6 mega-Joules. With this you can convert the battery energy and gasoline used on a given drive to get a Joules per mile rating. Most people don't have an intuitive feel for Joules per mile, so this would generally be converted back into MPG and noted as MPGe, regardless of the energy source or how silly that result sounds. While this does give you an interesting efficiency number, it hides the sources of the energy. It is an over simplification that often adds confusion especially when the 'e' is missing. The energy source is an important factor in both the cost and pollution of those miles. And in cases where majority (or all) of the 'fuel' is electricity, stating a MPG rating is just not right, as Nissan illustrated when they stated the all-electric LEAF would rate at 367 MPG.

These are not exchangeable items; it is like reporting how many miles per banana it gets. But MPG is a unit that the public is used to hearing and anything over 100 MPG is attention getting. That is impossible for the marketing types to resist. Don't be fooled by this, demand to know the consumption numbers in both modes and do your own math for your driving patterns.

Here is our table of examples expanded to add energy consumption:

Miles	Electricity (kWh)	Gasoline (gallons)	Total Joules (MJ)	Miles per Megajoule	MPGe **
25	6.25	zero	23	1.1	147
50	10	0.2	62	0.8	106
100	10	1.3	208	0.5	64
200	10	3.3	472	0.4	56
1040	230	2.5	1158	0.9	119

** use MPGe with caution, and please don't drop the 'e'

You can see in the table above that there is no MPG equivalent that is close to the 230MPG that GM is reporting for the Chevy Volt, not even the all electric 25 mile trip. While I could not find the exact calculations that GM used, I think I found the cause of the discrepancy. The DoE formula includes a multiplier, called the Gasoline-Equivalent Energy Content of Electricity Factor (Eg), to compensate for upstream efficiencies in the fuel source. Currently, the government is promoting the idea of getting off of foreign oil (sounds good to me), so this compensation factor is very favorable for electrically powered transportation (you can read the full EPA explanation here).

The value being used for Eg is 2.42 in 2000 and it might be higher in the 2008 version of this specification currently in use. This means that the electrically powered mileage is getting extra credit at a significant rate.

Applying this factor and you can see in the table below that the 230 MPG number that GM is reporting is achievable for a trip just around 50 miles.

Miles	GM MPG
25	355
50	226
100	100
200	72
1040	267

This is much closer to what the 230 campaign is claiming (as incorrect as that might be). And you can see how the Nissan Leaf scored over 360 MPGe. My understanding is that the EPA test track is a 10 mile loop with various speed, acceleration, stop & start zones. For a plug-in car like the Volt, they will drive it until the batteries are depleted and then do one more lap around the track with the generator running. This corroborates that the 50 mile calculation is the one closest to the magic 230.

The 106 MPGe for the 50 mile trip in the second table or the one month of driving example at 119 MPGe would still be a very impressive number to launch a marketing campaign around and it would not have the backlash that quickly branded the 230 MPG campaign as unrealistic hype. You can see the reception that Conan O'Brien gave it on The Tonight Show in the video below.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I support plug-in vehicles. And I have discussed the importance of "well-to-wheel" consideration. Well-to-wheel is looking at the full life-cycle of the fuel that you use. However, hiding this in a single MPG number is not the right thing to do. This is really more of a pollution value than a vehicle fuel efficiency value. Presenting it simply as MPG, sets up unrealistic expectations. I like the idea of a pollution indication per mile, especially if were applied to all vehicles. On a regular gas powered car with a 32 MPG rating, when you look at all the energy used to process, refine, and move the fuel, you might see that it has a pollution rating of 120 pounds of CO2 per 100 miles. Whereas a grid powered 110 MPGe PHEV might have only 15 pounds of CO2. That would stop the "long tailpipe" argument quickly. And as crude moves from easy to extract light sweet crude to the to deeper and heavier forms, the gasoline numbers will get worse, whereas as the electricity grid will improve as new wind turbines, geothermal and solar thermal plants come online.

The consumer could decide how important each the fuel economy value and pollution factor value is to them and shop according to their own values. They might decide that only one of the numbers matters and simply ignore the other or they may try to find a balance.

Despite the fact that GM has greatly oversimplified things and shown the best possible MPG that they could (without using all electric), they just might be able to get away with this. Looking at the example month, there is 1040 miles of driving, using just 2.5 gallons of gas. If one were to ignore all the watt-hours used, 1000 miles on 2.5 gallons is 400 miles per gallon of gasoline used. Miles per gallon of "gasoline used" is not the same as MPG, but if this is the number that people are seeing, they may just feel like they are getting more that the 230MPG promised. And if your concern is the reduction of oil use (and not vehicle efficiency), this is a valid number to consider.

conclusions

With plug-in cars, the game has changed. People are used to a single MPG number and change can be difficult for some. The marketing departments are going to want to fly these great MPG(e) numbers on a high flagpole, even if they don't apply to the real world because people will ask and they are great numbers. GM and other companies making plug-in vehicles should strive for integrity and rise above the temptation to hustle these as facts.

Consumers are going to have to consider more than just a single MPG number. There is a learning curve. Auto companies can help by creating tools such as a webpage where prospective buyers could input their driving patterns and information such as can they plug-in at work, etc. Then this webpage could generate a custom report with cost, consumption, pollution and other relevant information. Hymotion has a web tool to do just this for people that are considering a PHEV conversion. I hope GM creates one for the Volt too.

Now you are more aware and can be an informed skeptic when confronted with only an MPG number for a plug-in vehicle. Decide for yourself what aspects are important and do the math.

Links:

So Much For That; EPA Will Not Back Up GM's 230 MPG Claim

230 MPG? Stop the Madness! How the EPA Should Rate

Auto X Prize Throws Water on GM's 230 MPG Claim

Ignore the 230 MPG Claims by GMGreen Car Congress

Volt Specs

Argonne Study

Boston.com

Crude, the real price of oil

Sunny Disneyland

We recently went to Disneyland (and California Adventure). Walking around, I noticed that there were sun images all around the park. So in addition to taking pictures of my family and the normal touristy stuff, I also snapped pictures of the solar icons. There were way more than I expected once I started looking.

There were suns in several small world 'cultures' and cave painting and even Indiana Jones. Although Disneyland is not an accurate anthropological sample by any means, it does demonstrate how the sun's importance spans cultures past and present.

Dan Rather Reports on Electric Cars

Dan Rather says the time for electric cars is now and that his next car will be the Tesla Model S.

"Dan Rather Reports" episode #428 aired on Sept 8th 2009 and the subject was electric cars. Below is a brief behind the scenes interview with Dan Rather about what he learned while working on this episode.

If you missed it, you can purchase the episode from iTunes.

No Impact Man Trailer

Go Green Portland Conference

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7th 2009

Get ready to GO GREEN! The GoGreen Conference is a unique opportunity to learn the latest in sustainable practices for your business. This full-day conference is designed to educate, motivate and inspire you - the aspiring or established business owner or professional - to take your green quotient to the next level.

Spend a value-packed day connecting with local eco-entrepreneurs + leaders, 40 cutting edge visionaries, sustainability experts and forward thinking individuals who will provide you with the knowledge and tools needed to make your business visibly sustainable.

If you are committed to or interested in making your business as sustainable as possible and ensuring the green line is as relevant as the bottom line - the GoGreen Conference is an opportunity for you.

Via GoGreenPDX

Arcimoto Electric Vehicle Launch

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Pioneer Courthouse Square | Portland, OR

11am – 3pm | Speakers starting at 11:30am

It's time for a mode of transportation that redefines efficient; that sips, instead of guzzles; that burns rubber, not oil. Be there for the debut of a new kind of transportation. Join us as we launch the Arcimoto Electric Vehicle.

Pioneer Courthouse Square Direction and parking information.

Questions about the event? Email info@arcimoto.com.

As you can see in the images below, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski recently paid them a visit and drove one of the prototypes.

The Age of Stupid Movie

The Age of Stupid USA Trailer from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

J1772 One Ring To Rule Them All::Electric Car Charging

If you own a cellphone and MP3 player, or any collection of the mobile devices that are prevalent in our modern world, then chances are that you know the headache of having different chargers for each of them. Every product, even if made by the same company, seems to use an entirely different power adapter.

Electric cars suffered similar woes in the 1990s. GM and Toyota used an induction system, while Ford used a conductive system. And even though GM and Toyota had similar systems, they used different size induction paddles. You can see the myriad of connectors here. This meant that you could not just pull an EV up to any charging station and expect it to work without, sometimes expensive, converters.

Things looked like they were on the same course of confusion for the 2010 generation of EVs. Tesla had their own connector, RWE (a German energy company) had a three prong 400V connector that was endorsed by BMW, Volkswagen and others.

why reinvent the wheel? er, the plug?

Standard 120V 15A US household outlets are ubiquitous, many cities already have them installed curbside for xmas lighting. But with the large battery packs using one is like filling a swimming pool with a straw. Depending on the vehicle, this type of plug can recharge at a rate of 5-6 miles per hour. At that pace, it could take 17 hours for 100 miles. If you are driving 40 miles or less per day, as most people do, and can plug in overnight, this rate can fill you up, albeit slowly. 240V outlets are better, at 15-20 miles of range recharge per hour, but if you really want to charge an EV up fast, you'll need to move to 400V.

Faster charging is the primary motivation for making a new standard, but is it needed? More on that later.

J1772:: one ring to rule them all?

J1772 is not the winning number in an intergalactic bingo game. It is the specification number for an electric vehicle charging connector. With several car companies each defining their own, GM had to decide what to do for the Chevy Volt. Rather than defining yet-another-plug, they turned to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to define a worldwide standard.

J1772 truly is a plug by committee. It is packed with features including multiple levels of charging.

Level 1 is 120V in the 12A - 20A range

Level 2 is 240V in the 12A - 80A range

Level 3 is "fast charging" and will be defined in a later update to the specification. The assigned working group is discussing 480V with current levels up to 600A. Wow!

The addition of DC charging options are also being considered for future versions of the specification.

J1772 was approved by Underwriter Laboratories in June 2009. Since then, support for all the alternatives has fallen away and J1772 is "it" for the new generation of electric vehicles. Chrysler, GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Tesla have all pledged to support J1772 with Tesla having agreed to retrofit the new socket to all the cars it has already built and sold.

The charging station companies such as Better Place, Coulomb, eTec, & SynkroMotive will also support the new connector.

The J1772: 5-pin plug (two power, two signal, one ground) single-phase worldwide standard

two way communication

Normally for an electrical outlet, the plug has an associated voltage and current. You cannot plug your vacuum into the dryer outlet; it just doesn't fit. J1772, however, has multiple levels that it supports. If I have a small car that is expecting lowly standard household energy levels and it were smacked with 400V, there could be big problems. This is solved by automated communication. Before any electrons are exchanged, the charger and the car discuss all the options. The charger tells the car what is available and the car tells the charger what level(s) it can utilize. They agree on the best match and the electrons fly.

This communication can also be used to manage power. For example, the car may be programmed to start charging when the electricity rate is cheapest (say 10PM). So when it is plugged in at 6PM, the car would tell the charger that it does not accept any charging levels. Then at 10PM, it starts the conversation over and reports new possibilities.

This communication can also be used by power utilities to control grid load. Power utilities often divide a day into Peak, Mid-peak and Off-peak. During peak electricity demand the charger could offer only level 1 charging. Then at mid-peak, level 2 would also be offered. Finally, level 3 would only be available at off-peak hours.

The above power management methods are simple demand reduction methods. The J1772 communication layer would also be the foundation for vehicle-to-grid (V2G), if/when it ever becomes a reality.

it takes a lickin'

"Why can't I just use an extension cord to plug in my car?"

In addition to the fast charging options, there are safety and durability considerations. Multiple levels of shock protection are built into J1772 including ground-fault protection, "finger-safe" sleeved prongs and enhanced cable insulation make it safe rain or shine. Another safety feature prevents the vehicle from driving away if you accidentally leave the plug connected.

This connector is tough. "You can literally drive over the plug, hose it down with water and plug in 10,000 times.", said GM Engineering Specialist and SAE Charging Station Chairman, Gery Kissel. "Try that with an extension cord!", Kissel continued on VoltAge.com. Oh, and did I mention there’s a flashlight designed into the charge cord plug so that it will be easier to plug in at night?

learn from the past or repeat it

The documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? was in the style of a who-done-it. There were suspects (GM, Big Oil, Batteries, Consumers...) and they examined the evidence for and against each suspect. Charging Infrastructure was a suspect. And I don't want to see it on the list again (I don't want another killing either). Let's learn from the errors of the past and not ignore the vast electrical infrastructure that already exists.

Toward this end, there will be portable and wall mounted chargers that can plug into existing outlets and give you the J1772 on the other end that your vehicle needs. Below are the examples that GM plans to have for the Volt.

They only plan portable versions for 120V outlets and the wall mounted charger is restricted to 16A even though 30A is commonly available and some homes could support 50A. The batteries could easily take that level. GM is taking the safe route, they are trying to make sure the wall-mounted unit works everywhere and the only way to do that is with a low current. One nice thing about having a standard, if someone else comes out with a version of a charger that suits your needs better, you can just use it. Due to the communication, it would never send more juice than your batteries can take. I'd like to be able to plug an XBOX 360 controller (which fits my hands better) into a PS3, but I cannot because the connections are proprietary. With a plug-in car, I'll be able to plug a new J1772 Tesla charger into my Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt. That's the way it should be.

And with a small portable charger, you'll be able to take advantage of the ubiquitous 120V plug infrastructure. There is no need to build "The J1772 Highway", thereby solving the chicken and egg problem of which comes first the plug-in car or the charging station. The answer is the car and when charging stations are built, that just makes the vehicle more usable.

Too bad they didn't wait for J1776; it could be called the "Freedom Plug". Kidding aside, the plug is going to need a name that is better than the specification number. IEEE 1394 is called FireWire and IEEE 802.3 is better known as Ethernet. Have any ideas for a better name? Leave a comment.

Links:

Charging The Volt

Common EV Plug

Electric Vehicle Connectors

EV Plug Standards?

Electric Vehicle Charging
Past and Present

---

Large and Small Inductive Paddles Used by GM and Toyota	Avcon Connector Used by Ford Ranger EV
YAZC Yazaki Plug and Receptacle	Dodge EV Receptacle
PHEV Prius Receptacle	PHEV Prius Plug
Ford Escape Receptacle 1	Ford Escape Receptacle 2
Aptera-2e Receptacle	Aptera-2e Plug
Saturn Vue PHEV Plug	Concept Chevy Volt Plug
Prototype Chevy Volt Plug	Prototype Chevy Volt Receptacle
Tesla Receptacle	Tesla Plug
Mini E Receptacle	Mini E Plug
Smart ED Receptacle	AC Propulsion eBox Receptacle
Th!nk City Receptacle	Project Better Place Nissan Rogue Receptacle
i-MiEV 110/220v Plug	i-MiEV 110V/220V Receptacle
i-MiEV Fast-Charge Receptacle	i-MiEV Adapter Cables
Ford Focus EV “Mule” Receptacle	SAE J1772 proposed 2010 “standard”

Via casteyanqui.com

August 2009 PV & EV Report

Summer is waning. The days are slowly getting shorter. Our best solar production days have dropped below 20 kWh.

In total, our PV system has generated 6.9 megawatts and 1.6 of those megawatts were pumped into the grid during peak demand.

Our PV system generated 506 kWh in total for August. This is better than the the 474 kWh of Aug 2008.

For electric vehicle driving, I logged 209 miles in my truck using an estimated 146 kWh.

For the year, the PV system has generated 2950 kWh and EV driving has used 2000 kWh.