Weekly-ish News - Episode 38 (January 23, 2022)

What's the Alternative?

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Vehicles:

Green Car Reports compiled a list of all EVs we expect to debut in 2022.

• They have info about each EV in the article.
• Here are the cars:
  • Rivian R1S
  • Kia EV6
  • BMW i4
  • BMW iX
  • Nissan Ariya
  • Ford F-150 Lightning
  • Cadillac Lyriq
  • Mercedes-Benz EQB
  • Mercedes-Benz EQE
  • Toyota bZ4X
  • Lexus RZ 450e
  • Subaru Solterra
  • Genesis GV60
  • Genesis G80 Electrified
  • Polestar 3
  • Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle (lol)
  • Vinfast VF 8 and VF 9
  • Fisker Ocean

The GM Cadillac Lyriq is in pre-production at its old Saturn factory in Tennessee and they still expect to make first deliveries near Q1 of 2022.

Volvo has increased the range of its electric semi trucks by 85% and Kenworth has tripled its electric truck orders over the last 90 days (but we don't know how many orders that comes to).

Proterra and Nikola have signed a multi-year agreement for Proterra to supply Nikola with batteries for its Class 8 trucks.

• These batteries will be used both in Nikola's fuel cell vehicles and its fully electric vehicles.
• Nikola expects to begin production of trucks powered by Proterra batteries by the end of 2022.

A journalist tested "idling" in an EV for 12 hours in sub-freezing weather to see the effects on the remaining charge.

• You should read the story, it's not terribly long.
• After 12hr, the battery only lost about 25% of its range.

The North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) has released its Run On Less - Electric Report.

• The primary finding of the report is that for the following vehicle types, EV tech is mature enough to support fleets:

Lots of companies are developing mapping tools to increase freight efficiency and reduce freight's burden on disadvantaged communities.

• Mapping tools is becoming a whole industry on its own.
• Some of the tools are focused on increasing fuel efficiency, especially with an eye towards determining if an electric or hydrogen truck could run a given route.
• Some of the mapping tools focus on how to reduce emissions in traditionally disadvantaged communities.

Charging:

Rivian is installing its Waypoint (Level 2) chargers at Moab and Lake Powell in partnership with the hospitality company, Under Canvas.

• They expect the chargers to be installed before opening day of Moab and Lake Powell.

Deployment:

There are already over 1,700 electric school buses on the road in the U.S.

• This is way more than I would have expected, actually.
• There are about 480,000 school buses on the road in total.
• This is *excellent* that there are so many school buses deployed already, they'll provide a massive amount of data to guide future adoption.
• The three top states are:

Connecticut is using VW Settlement funds to replace 43 diesel school buses with electric buses.

• This is a $9.5m investment, and the grant covers 65% of the cost.
• This means school boards are paying around $115k/bus.
• A regular diesel bus costs closer to $85k.

Energy:

Great River Energy has reached an agreement to build a 400MW wind farm in North Dakota, slated to begin operations in 2025.

The company VERBIO opened a renewable natural gas (RNG) facility in December 2021 in Nevada that uses waste from corn production to produce methane.

• The plant uses corn stover, which is the left over stalks and such from corn farming, as a feedstock for RNG production.
• At the end of 2022, the facility will be able to produce 60m gallons of ethanol and 19m ethanol-gallon equivalents (EGE) of RNG.
• The process also produces organic waste that can be used as fertilizer.

A new study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) looks at how grid storage can be used to enable 100% renewable electricity.

• The most interesting result is that 12hr storage is incredibly complementary with generation from solar power.
• Wind generation is very weakly related to daily cycles and its cycles are much longer-term, happening over months, so grid storage isn't very useful for wind.
• Grid storage can also reduce burden on transmission lines by allowing for local overgeneration.

Policy:

The White House will direct $4.7b to plugging orphaned oil and gas wells across the U.S.

• There are approximately 130k wells that need to be plugged.
• They cost around $87k each.
• If the bill were to fund the closing of every well, it would only provide $36k per well.
• Louisiana is among the 26 states that has applied for federal funding to close its abandoned wells.