Richmond, Virginia-headquartered Dominion Energy is building the Charybdis, the first Jones Act-qualified offshore wind turbine installation vessel in the US. (Interesting name choice for the vessel – a dangerous mythological sea monster.)
And Danish wind giant Ørsted and Boston-headquartered electric company Eversource today announced that they will charter the Charybdis for the construction of Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind, two of their planned offshore wind farms in the Northeast.
Today only, as part of its Daily Deals, Lowe’s is offering the Genesis 42 Plastic Composter for $79.99 shipped. Down from its $130 normal going rate and $123 list price at Home Depot, today’s deal is the best available. If you’re working on a spring or summer garden, forget buying fertilizer at the store. This composter allows you to transform grass clippings, leaves, or organic waste into compost that you can use for a healthy garden. Just set it outside, place the waste into the bin, and wait a bit for the compost to be ready. You’ll find two different compartments here, so you can add to one side while the other is composting. With a 42-gallon capacity, there’s plenty of room here as well for you to have more than enough fertilizer for your entire garden. Rated 4.5/5 stars.
According to a new report produced by the Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) at the request of Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the entire US public transit fleet could replace its fossil fuel vehicles with battery-electric and fuel cell buses by 2035 at a cost of between $42 billion and $89 billion, depending on bus capital costs and other factors.
The report envisions federal support for vehicle and equipment procurement, technical assistance, and a comprehensive research and innovation program to accelerate transit vehicle technology development. It offers a roadmap for federal lawmakers to pursue this policy objective, including an accounting of estimated agency costs and a list of key assumptions underpinning the figures.
Currently, more than 1,300 battery-electric and fuel cell buses have been delivered or awarded to US transit agencies—this represents roughly 2% of the US transit bus fleet.
CTE’s cost analysis includes the incremental costs of EVs compared to legacy vehicles (diesel, hybrid, CNG), fueling infrastructure, direct technical assistance for transit agencies, and federal R&D support services. Low and high estimates for each vehicle type are provided to represent the range of available models.
The report’s authors assume that legacy buses will be replaced by both battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles. CTE assumes that transit agencies operating in areas with lower population density will need more vehicles with greater range, and therefore will procure more fuel cell buses. CTE’s scenario envisions a national mix of 73% battery-electric buses and 27% fuel cell buses.
CTE finds that federal support for research, development, and component testing will be integral to accelerating the transition to cleaner vehicles. Workforce development is also a crucial component of the plan—transit operators, technicians, engineers and planners need specialized training to understand EVs and supporting infrastructure.
“Rapidly electrifying the US transit system has to be done the right way,” said Dan Raudebaugh, Executive Director of CTE. “Transit agencies need more than vehicles to successfully make this transition, and the federal government is well-positioned to provide that much-needed support.”
SAE International’s Wireless Power Transfer and Alignment Task Force is urging the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to act to support the commercialization of wireless charging operating in the frequency band of 79 kHz to 90 kHz.
The SAE task force consists of more than 150 international experts representing automakers, suppliers, users, national laboratories and government agencies.
In a letter sent to FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch, Task Force Chair Jesse Schneider recommends that the Commission adopt a radiated emission limit of 82.8 dBμA/m from 79 kHz to 90 kHz (SAE J2954 Radiated EMI Limit Proposal). The task force also urges the Commission to support the testing methodologies specified in the ANSI C63.30 standard.
The letter reads, in part: “Should the Commission act on its proposal to adopt new internal electric field limits between 3 kHz and 10 MHz, the task force further requests that the Commission update KDB 680106 to indicate that magnetic field reference level measurements at or below 27 μT, in accordance with ICNIRP 2010, are sufficient to show compliance in the frequency range of 79 kHz to 90 kHz. Finally, the SAE J2954 task force requests that the FCC allows ‘Type’ accreditation for WPT-EV Ground Assembly systems.”
Wireless Power Transfer for Electric Vehicles (WPT-EV) is an automated and touchless charging method that transfers power across an air gap from a Ground Assembly (GA) to a Vehicle Assembly (VA) and then rectifies that power into DC voltage to charge the vehicle batteries. WPT-EV systems operate at similar efficiencies to plug-in charging—tests have shown grid-to-battery efficiency that often exceeds 90%.
The letter continues: “The wireless power transfer portion of a system includes only local energy transfer, with no communication occurring at the resonant power transfer frequency. The frequency range of operation, 79 kHz to 90 kHz, was carefully selected by several Standard Development Organizations including SAE J2954, ISO 19363, IEC 61980, and the Chinese GB/T 38775.4 standards for its low probability for electromagnetic interference to other radio services (EMC) as well as its ease of verifying dosimetry levels to be compared against international requirements for exposure to non-ionizing radiation to humans (EMF) and Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices (CIED). Communication for WPT-EV system operation occurs over wireless LAN and is undisturbed by the power transfer process.”
The SAE J2954-2 team is also working on the standardization of wireless charging for heavy-duty vehicles, and will produce a guideline a year from now.
Materials supply chain intelligence company Roskill expects Indonesia to become the world’s largest producer of refined nickel this year, pushing China to second place. As recently as 2014, Indonesia produced only 24 kilotons of refined nickel. In 2020, Indonesia produced 636 kt of refined nickel, most of which was nickel pig iron (NPI) for the domestic and Chinese stainless steel industry. This level of production made the country the world’s second-largest nickel producer behind China.
Indonesia is encouraging investment in nickel for EV batteries. This type of nickel requires a more complex and costly leaching process, rather than the relatively straightforward pyrometallurgical process used to produce NPI.
A paper presented at the 2019 International Conference on Mining and Environmental Technology in Indonesia noted that high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) is a proven technology, but is not used in Indonesia due to the high investment needed, and the requirement for a large site for waste disposal.
Nickel limonite ore with grades of 1.1-1.4% can be processed using HPAL technology to produce more than 37% nickel and cobalt. China’s Ningbo Lygend will process nickel ore at a plant on Indonesia’s Obi island,using HPAL technology at temperatures of 240° C to 270° C and pressures from 3,400 kPa to 5,600 kPa.
Lygend’s plant, which has a design capacity of 35 kt Ni-in-mixed hydroxide product (MHP) in its first phase, will initially supply the third-party market before becoming fully integrated to produce nickel sulfate, supplying the EV battery market, Roskill said.
Once the second phase is operational, the plant will have a total design capacity of 52 kt/year Ni-in-nickel sulfate, as well as 6 kt/year of Co-in-sulfate. The first MHP is expected to be produced in May.
Donaldson has expanded its dual-stage battery pack vent line with the addition of the Dual-Stage Flex battery vent. The new battery vent enables pressure relief at lower pressures, helping support battery life and reliability.
EV weight can be reduced by using thinner battery pack walls, but thin walls can’t withstand higher pressures within the battery pack. The new Dual-Stage Flex battery vent was developed to address this low-pressure requirement.
Donaldson’s Dual-Stage Flex battery vent contains a one-way umbrella valve that allows for quick exhaust if pressures within the battery pack increase,allowing the internal pressure to be quickly released through a flexible valve, helping avoid potential further disruption to other battery pack cells.
The dual-stage vent now includes the Flex and Burst vent options—both provide sealing and guarding against contaminants, offer continuous pressure equalization, expel damp air and help with mitigation of gases in the case of thermal runaway.
“The Dual-Stage Flex battery vent is easy to integrate into most battery pack configurations, and is a great choice for EV manufacturers looking for a venting solution with low-opening pressure,” said engineer Shane Campbell. “Both of our Dual-Stage vents feature Donaldson’s proprietary Tetratex ePTFE filtration membrane that is engineered for maximum airflow and offers advanced ingress protection.”
Tesla has filed a new trademark for its brand under restaurant services as the automaker is expected to expand amenities around its charging infrastructure, including actual restaurants.
A bill called Clean Energy for America advanced in the US Senate Finance Committee on a 14-14 tie vote. The bill, which contains a number of measures designed to incentivize clean energy, clean transportation and energy efficiency, must now be approved by the full Senate and the House of Representatives in order to become law.
Here’s how the bill’s sponsor, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) describes it: “On the federal tax books today is a hodgepodge of 44 different energy tax breaks for a host of fuel sources and technologies…The system is anti-competitive and anti-innovation. It puts the government in the role of picking winners and losers by giving some fuels and technologies big, permanent tax breaks while others have short-term, temporary extensions. The Clean Energy for America Act throws the old system in the waste bin. It replaces the old rules with a free-market, technology-neutral system in which reducing carbon emissions becomes the lodestar of America’s energy future. It can spark a wave of carbon-cutting, job-creating ingenuity all across the country.”
Few details about the bill have been reported, but the one that has grabbed the attention of the EV press is a proposal to boost the existing EV tax credit to as much as $12,500. The proposed measure, championed by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan), would eliminate the existing 200,000-unit cap for individual automakers, but would phase out the credit over three years once EV sales reach 50% of US passenger vehicle sales. The existing $7,500 credit would be increased to $10,500 for vehicles assembled in the US, and to $12,500 for cars built by union labor. Only vehicles with a retail price below $80,000 would qualify.
As Reuters reports, the bill also includes a 30% tax credit for manufacturers to retool or build new facilities to produce advanced energy technologies including batteries, and new incentives to purchase commercial electric vehicles.
United Auto Workers President Rory Gamble praised the bill for ensuring that “EV production will directly create the good-paying union jobs of the future President Biden has championed.”
Republicans were less enthusiastic. “This is a frontal assault on my state,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas. “This is an ideological jihad against the status quo…where many jobs in our country depend on the oil and gas sector.”
