Electric Vehicle Class at Portland State

Portland State University, in Portland Oregon, is now offering a course on electric vehicle engineering.

Power electronics and electric motor technologies have had decreasing emphasis in Electrical Engineering curricula over the last thirty years. In large part, this is due to the growth in semiconductors, digital technologies, signal processing, and wireless communication. Power electronics and electric motors have employed fewer engineers than their digital counterparts and had less glamorous, less exciting reputations.

However, with the growing focus on green and sustainable technologies, these older techs are making a comeback. In many cases, exciting new combinations of modern controls and old technologies are creating solutions that were previously not possible.

Portland State University is now offering a class that brings these technologies together. It is from PSU's School of Engineering & Computer Science. It is a senior elective (410) or graduate level (510) class, so there is an expectation that you have an understanding of electrical engineering. It is not a walk-in introductory 101 class.

Part 1 of the class is scheduled for this Spring semester with Part 2 planned for the Fall semester. The class will be limited to only 20 students.

Over the two classes, students will learn about electric propulsion and drive control systems, with emphasis on brushless DC and induction machines. Other topics include switch mode power electronics, battery technologies, battery management, vehicle weight and driving performance (range, acceleration...). The extensive laboratory work for the class will use Matlab and Simulink and include experiments with the Power-pole board and the Arduino microcontroller.

You can see the course details and syllabus here.

via PSU and the OEVA

Plug In Power

Oregon is scheduled to have 2500 electric vehicle charging stations installed over the next year. They will span the west coast of the state along Interstate 5 and on routes spoking from Portland to the cities of Eugene, Tillamook, & Hood River.

Optimization Technologies of Beaverton, Oregon is "plugging in" to the future of transportation with its OpConnect Electric Vehicle Charging Station. Recently OpTech held a launch event for the press to announce their new product. Three members of the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association (OEVA), including yours truly, were there along with our battery powered vehicles, to help launch the new product.

The Beaverton Valley Times newspaper was there to cover the unveiling event too. Their story was on the front page of the March 18th edition (Link below). William Norris-York of the OEVA, talked about the efficiency of electric powered transportation; while I discussed the national security aspects of domestically fueled transportation.

The star of the day was the charging station. It is difficult to build loyalty to an electrical plug. OpTech's challenge is going to be location, location, location, getting these charging stations into areas where the plug-in vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt (both expected to be on sale later this year) will be parked. Commercial electric vehicles will have a range that exceeds what most people will use in a typical day. These charging stations will allow opportunities to top up or stay out of gas mode for PHEVs. Their mere presents, even if you don't use them, can be reassuring.

The OpConnect does have a few tricks up its sleeve to stand out from the crowd. First, unlike some of its competitors, it does not require a loyalty card. Rather you swipe your Visa card, this can be used to pay for parking or access to the station (unless it is free) and it also establishes your account. That could be the end of the transaction, or you can log on to their website and, if you know all the right security info for your Visa, you can check out your entire vehicle charging info.

In the above picture, there are the three EVs on display as they are charging. The hoods are open only for display purposes.

You can see in the picture above that the OpConnect station has both 120V and 240V connectors. It is currently one of the few that offers level 2, 240V 32A charging. Later this year the new electric vehicle connector called the J1772 will be rolled out to all the new EV charging stations in the US.


Links:
Beaverton Valley Times

Garbage to Energy in Oregon

The Columbia Ridge Landfill in Arlington, Oregon is already generating energy in two ways today. First, it is the home to 67 wind turbines. Second, the methane gas generated by the decomposing waste in the landfill is captured and used to power a  6 megawatt (MW) generator. This electricity powers about 5,000 homes.

A third method of generating energy is planned for the Columbia Ridge Landfill. S4 Energy Solutions, a joint venture by Waste Management, Inc. and InEnTec, have announced plans to develop a plasma gasification facility. The system will convert municipal solid waste into fuels and energy. Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2010, with full power-on scheduled by year's end.

The waste material is prepared and fed into a first phase gasification chamber that operates at temperatures of approximately 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. After the first phase, the waste material flows into a second chamber where they are superheated to between 10,000 and 20,000 degrees Fahrenheit using an electricity-conducting gas called plasma. The intense heat of the second stage plasma gasifier transforms the molecular structure of the waste to create synthesis gas (syngas). The syngas can then be converted into transportation fuels such as ethanol or diesel, or industrial products like hydrogen and methanol. The syngas could also be used as a substitute for natural gas for heating or electricity generation. Any inorganic materials are transformed into environmentally inert by-products.

"Our goal is to extract as much value as possible from waste and this project will help us recover valuable resources to generate clean fuels, renewable energy and other beneficial products," said Dean Kattler, area vice president for Waste Management Pacific Northwest.

Together with Waste Management's other renewable energy initiatives, the joint venture has moved Waste Management toward meeting two of their sustainability goals, doubling their renewable energy production to a energy equivalent of powering two million homes by 2020, and investing in emerging technologies for managing waste. It is also complementary to Waste Management's comprehensive waste services in the areas of recycling, landfill, and waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy capabilities.

Hybrid Driving

My primary vehicle is a battery electric truck. It is a Chevy S10 EV, made by GM as an electric vehicle in 1998. With the 12 year old NiMH batteries, the range is only about 45 miles (down from the original 80 miles when new). With this range, it is great for my commute and errands, but it cannot meet all my driving needs.

My second vehicle is a Honda Passport. It has 4WD, seats 5 and can pull my camper. But at only 18 MPG, it is a gas hog. My rule of thumb is to take the S10 whenever possible and then the Passport when the S10 will not suffice. For example, when we had snow this January or when the entire family is going out for a weekend day hike. The Passport is also my "range extender" when the S10 EV cannot bridge the distance.

In this way, rather than driving a hybrid vehicle, my driving habits are a mix or hybrid.

This year I am tracking both my gas power miles and my electrically fueled miles. In each of the monthly reports, I'll be reporting this data, with an average miles per gallon consumed that I hope exceeds the average Prius.

February 2010 EV & PV Report

Each month, I have been reporting how much solar energy our solar photovoltaic system has made and how much energy I have used driving my electric vehicle.

In late January, our inverted died. It is still under warranty, but because it had paint on it from when our house was painted, we were not able to cross-ship a replacement. Rather, the painted inverter had to be shipped to the manufacturer, repaired and then shipped back. Technically, the paint voided the warranty but the manufacturer was still willing to honor the warranty as long as we were willing to keep the painted case. That is good customer service.

The repairs were not quick and a shipping mix-up delayed the return even longer. Our inverter was not back in operation until Feb 26th. That is 38 days that we were offline, so there is very little PV energy generation to report. But I am glad this happened in February instead of the more productive June-August months.

As for EV driving, I logged 345 miles in the Chevy S10 EV, using an estimated 242 kWhs.