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For electric vehicle (EV) charging in North America, three AC connectors are standardized, resulting in a proliferation of charging stations which can only charge one of the three types of EV. We propose a "Universal EV Outlet" that works with an EV "carry along" charging cable—one end of the cable has a connector specific to that user's EV, the other a plug for the Universal EV Outlet. This proposal does not interfere with, nor require change to, any existing charging stations. It does not require any new types of inlets on EVs. The components are already standardized. Eight use cases are examined to illustrate the advantages, and some limitations, of the Universal EV Outlet. The use cases illustrate how this solution: resolves the problem of multiple AC charging connectors, makes today's "EV Ready" building codes more adaptable, lowers capital and maintenance costs, creates a solution to curbside and urban charging, increases energy efficiency, enables higher power three-phase AC charging for heavy vehicles, and facilitates use of EVs for building backup power and for vehicle-to-grid. Finally, we propose a standards-based active cable used with the Universal EV Outlet, which would allow fast and secure EV identification for curbside or other shared charging locations, usable today without modifications to current EVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares potential revenue from electric storage in retail and wholesale electric markets. The retail value can be extracted when storage responds to time-of-day retail prices. The wholesale value is enabled by the recent US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 2222, which requires regional transmission operators (RTOs) to allow distributed storage behind the meter to participate in wholesale electric markets. To quantify the value of these markets, we use realistic time-of-day rates and market prices in one RTO's ancillary service market. Formulae are developed to estimate the value of behind-the-meter storage in wholesale and retail markets, using an example electric vehicle in a fleet setting. The formulae are also used to compare whether or not net metering is available and different charging rates. The aggregate national storage behind the retail meter is very large, given the projected growth of electric vehicles. Our findings indicate the revenue from wholesale markets can be significantly more than that of retail opportunities. However, the potential in either retail or wholesale markets is currently limited by both state policy and incomplete RTO implementation of FERC orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey covering the scientific and social aspects of climate change was administered to examine U.S. undergraduate student mental models, and compare knowledge between groups based on major and environmental group membership. A Knowledge Score (scale 0-35, mean score = 17.84) was generated for respondents at two, central East Coast, U.S. universities (n = 465). Elements of student mental models examined include environmental issue confusion, skepticism, and self-reported understanding. This study finds that students frequently confuse climate change with other environmental issues, and that a substantial majority of students do not have an understanding of climate change that closely matches the scientific model. These misconceptions extend to their understanding of mitigation actions. Environmental group membership is shown to be a greater determinant of climate change knowledge than enrollment in a science major.

One year of high-resolution driving data from a sample of 333 instrumented gasoline passenger vehicles are used to create a trip inventory of U.S. vehicle travel requirements. A set of electric vehicles (EVs) is modeled, differing in battery size (kWh), recharging power (kW), and locations for charging when parked. Each modeled EV's remaining energy is tracked while traversing the entire sample's trip inventory in order to estimate how well each EV meets all U.S. driving requirements. The capital cost of refueling infrastructure is estimated per car, for gasoline and for each analyzed combination of charging station locations. We develop three metrics of the ability of different EV characteristics to meet trip requirements: the percentage of trips successfully met by each modeled EV, the number of days that the driver must "adapt" EV use to meet more demanding trip requirements, and the total driver time required for refueling. We also segment the market of trip patterns per car, finding that 25% to 37% of the vehicle population could meet all their drivers' trip needs with a smaller-battery EV combined with community charging. This potential combination of EVs and charging would enable lower-price EVs and lower-cost recharging power, and would broaden EV availability to groups for whom today's EVs and charging configurations are less accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic, labor-intensive inventory of all local environmental groups in the Delmarva Peninsula and the state of North Carolina found 566 local groups, 7-20 times the number in published directories. Unexpectedly, high school student groups made up about 30 percent of the total. Groups' diverse objectives, primary activities, and alliances are discussed. (Contains 36 references.) (SV)

The views of people on environmental impacts of offshore wind power are presented.

Ancillary services are becoming an indispensable tool for maintaining power grid stability due to the increasing adoption of renewable energy resources, many of which (e.g., wind and solar power) are inherently variable. Some energy resources, such as electric vehicles (EVs), have a significant potential for providing their own ancillary services and creating ancillary service markets in smart electric grids. The installation convenience of EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs) has made them the target of many studies. In previous works, the grid-integrated-vehicle (GIV) mechanisms are recognized as a suitable approach to exploit EVs and PHVs for ancillary service markets, particularly regulation markets, which require fast responses. It is important to consider individual consumption behavior (e.g., vehicle usage and energy consumption) in selecting optimal operational points of EV and PHV for maximizing resource effectiveness and user profit. There is, however, currently no mechanism that takes the individual consumption behavior of market participants into account. In this article, a new vehicle-to-home (V2H) aggregator is proposed, which allows individuals to participate in a regulation market using the in-vehicle batteries of their EVs or PHVs. The results show that the proposed V2H aggregator can successfully supply predictable power to the power grid and maximize the profits of individual market participants. Note to Practitioners—This article proposes an architecture of home energy management systems (HEMSs) with electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs) to participate in a regulation market using the in-vehicle batteries. Ancillary services are the mechanism for the power grid to ensure the quality of electricity. The proposed architecture is composed of two stages: 1) calculation of the charge and discharge profiles considering minimizing the electricity charge at home and maximizing the capacity to provide for ancillary services and 2) real-time control of charging and discharging the in-vehicle batteries to follow the regulation signal provided from the manager of ancillary services. The simulation result shows the estimated benefit of the aggregator obtained by the trade in the market and the precision of HEMSs’ charging and discharging to follow the request signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]