As reported in RMI Outlet, the Rocky Mountain Institute's blog, reductions in storage battery prices are opening new opportunities for transforming energy use patterns. The Tesla Powerball battery, expected to reach the market in 2016, has caused analysts to rethink projections of home lithium-ion battery costs and potentially shake up utility industry practices in a number of geographies. The cost reduction is fairly dramatic, as highlighted by this excerpt from the article:

In our modeling for both The Economics of Load Defection from April 2015and its predecessor, The Economics of Grid Defection from February 2014, our average battery price in 2015 was $547/kWh. Our models did not assume a price close to $350/kWh until 2022 (the $429/kWh price arrived in our models in 2018). This means Tesla’s batteries are seven years ahead of the prices we modeled. (The $250/kWh utility price point didn’t appear in our models until 2028, though we didn’t specifically model a utility-sized solution.) A seven-year accelerated price reduction means tens of millions of more customers will be able to cost-effectively install solar-plus-battery systems than we originally modeled in our analyses.

Some utility companies are already signing up to offer the Powerwall to customers with a variety of incentives, including Green Mountain Power in Vermont.

Why buy an electric vehicle? Consumers speak out . . .

With a growing number of electric vehicles (EVs) reaching the market, consumer preferences are being scrutinized in a serious way. A recent Web survey conducted by ZPryme Research and Consulting—as discussed in a Gizmag article—revealed what it might take to lure a future car buyer away from a fossil-fueled macine to an EV.

As might be expected, range and charging time were key concerns:

Within the very to somewhat likely within two to five years group, 33.7 percent said that 400 miles (644 km) would be a sufficient range, while 33.3 percent were willing to settle for 300 miles (483 km). When it came to acceptable charge times, 32.1 percent indicated 4 hours, 18.1 percent indicated 6 hours, and 20.0 percent would wait for 8. If it were possible to pay a premium to charge their cars faster, 87.4 percent said they would opt for it. The ability to charge one’s EV at home is also a big deal, with 93.2 percent describing it as very important.

The technology is getting there, but meeting some of these consumer demands is going to take some work and some of that work involves consumer education.

Triac is not Tesla, but it's not meant to be

Tesla may have the celebrity cachet and media spotlight, but the humble, three-wheeled Triac is clearly the more practical choice for a "Green Core" consumer looking for a $25,000, all-electric vehicle with an honest 100-mile range. In a siliconvalley.com article, Mike Ryan, president of the firm based in Salinas, CA that produces the Triac, says that the car is aimed at people who have a more environmentally conscious lifestyle.

Key among the features is a sophisticated system for predicting remaining range before a recharge is needed.

The Triac will include a Vehicle Efficiency Data Assistant -- VEDA -- interface to the battery management system as well as diagnostic and navigational data. VEDA is an electronic learning system that captures a person's driving habits and commute patterns to accurately predict miles left before recharging.

"Range anxiety is something that gives people a lot of concern," Ryan said. "Say I forgot to charge my car. I'm at lunch. I want to run an errand before I go home. Will I make it home?"

Options in the electric car market are getting more expansive. The Triac is an interesting home-grown option that favors practicality over panache—and for many buyers that's a plus.

Life Cycle Analysis: Electric Vehicles

A recent Gizmag article summarized the findings of a life cycle assessment of the lithium-ion batteries often used in electric vehicles. Scientists from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research tracked the environmental footprint of Li-ion batteries, including the charging cycle when tied to a typical European electricity mix, with generally positive findings.

The study shows that the electric car’s Li-ion battery drive is in fact only a moderate environmental burden. At most only 15 per cent of the total burden can be ascribed to the battery (including its manufacture, maintenance and disposal). Half of this figure, that is about 7.5 per cent of the total environmental burden, occurs during the refining and manufacture of the battery’s raw materials, copper and aluminum. The production of the lithium, in the other hand, is responsible for only 2.3 per cent of the total.

“Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are not as bad as previously assumed,” according to Dominic Notter, coauthor of the study which has just been published in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Now if we could just get past the controversy on whether there is a pending lithium shortage, the technology would have a clear path to success.

Bugatti: The Last Grand Accomplishment of the Age of Oil

Those of us born in the 50's or 60's (maybe even later) are so thoroughly enraptured by the mystique of the automobile that—even though the reality of peak oil is as inescapable as a future visit from the grim reaper—we still can't totally escape the visceral admiration of machines that can propel bodies at fantastic speeds with unflappable precision.

WIRED reviewer Joe Brown did a nice job of straddling the line between fantasy and irony in his piece, Peak Oil: Bugatti Makes a Car for the Ages. This machine is at once a monument to excess and gluttony while at the same time being an example of the engineering expertise of a species that celebrates the sheer joy of making things, with nary a concern how those things will affect the planet as a whole. Nuclear bombs, genetically modified crops, nanotechnology, and a host of other engineering marvels fit under this umbrella. It creates a certain schizophrenic point of view—a perspective that makes it possible to see the Apollo moon landings with a sense of awe and simultaneously condemn the incredible amounts of money consumed while people around the world starve.

At the article's close, Brown adds a nice summation:

Maybe we'll idolize maglevs next. Maybe Tesla will have its day on a Trapper Keeper with a juice box that tops 250. But whatever we're drooling over next year, whatever makes its way onto the dorm-room walls and man-children's screen-savers, it won't run on petrol. Unless it's still a Veyron: the last king of the gas-guzzlers, forever the greatest. All hail.

It gets 10 miles per gallon, but it sure is something.

Reservations Strong for Tesla Model S

GM and Chrysler are practically giving their vehicles away and still can't find takers. Even perennial market leaders Honda and Toyota are in the sales doldrums. But, even in this economic climate, Tesla Motors collected 520 pricey reservations (at $40,000 a pop) for an electric car that won't be delivered until 2011.

No ordinary car, the Tesla Model S has specifications that put electric vehicles on an equal footing with petroleum-powered machines, the only serious drawback the steep $49,900 price tag, which can be offset to the tune of $7500 by a tax credit. The Model S has a range of 300 miles, zips from 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds, seats 7 (if you count the two tiny baby seats in the hatch), offers a 45-minute quick charge, and provides cargo space that rivals a station wagon.

Clearly the demand is there:

"Frankly the number of cars reserved in the first week has exceeded our optimistic internal projections," said Tesla CEO, Chairman and Product Architect Elon Musk. "Enthusiasm surrounding the Model S is proof that there's pent-up demand for more affordable, fuel-efficient vehicles -- including those made in America."

No matter how many electric cars we put on the road, we can't drive ourselves out of the current climate destabilization path that the world is on. The electricity that charges the Model S can just as easily come from a coal-fired plant as it can from a community wind farm or even a solar installation on the garage roof. The Model S does show that a practical electric car is a feasible mode of transportation while we're busy restoring our railway systems, revamping public transportation, and rethinking city planning paradigms.

More on this intriguing machine can be found on Treehugger or on the Tesla Motors site.