I am writing this just before Christmas. Our family Christmas this year has been completely overshadowed by the birth of our first grandchild, Charis Eva, who was born December 20, 2009. Of course the near record snow storm was thrown in just for good measure. As you might of guessed, our daughter-in-law in Lynchburg was taken to the hospital in the midst of the storm in a four wheel drive vehicle. It’s a great story for the grandkids. I am attaching our family news letter for those who want more detail. Some encouraging RideForward items are summarized below.
• We are driven. That’s right our Honda is on the road! It was driven for the first time on a rainy December night, just before the final design presentations. I was not there, but the three members of the Honda group made RideForward history by driving our first converted vehicle about a mile. Everything went well (ie no one was hurt, and the car actually made it up Reactor hill on the way back.) We need to do a good bit more work on the car to make it more rugged, before we take it to be inspected. (Can you picture the inspector trying to find the exhaust system, or even the engine?)
• We are in the fall edition of the UVa Engineering Alumni Magazine. I have attached a copy. Do a search on RideForward and you will find our article.
• The other big news is that at this time last year we didn’t even have half of our money in, we were running way in the red, and hadn’t even ordered most of our components. This year, we have all the large components in, everything else is ordered, and we are running a surplus (of course contingencies have not been accounted for, so we are confident that the surplus will get soaked up).
• We actually bought some tools and are starting to equip our shop to look like a garage. We need at least two of everything, but it’s great to actually start getting the things that we so desperately need.

Upcoming:
• Get in the remaining items for the building teams and get everything organized.
• Set up the shop with the new tools

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good…. New Years! Take good care. Travel safely. Enjoy friends and family.

We look forward to what God will do with our project in 2010.

An observation: I am so encouraged to see the creativity and diversity in design ideas that are bursting forth in alternative energy. I have attached an interesting article that summarizes an electrochemical based system for converting sunlight to electricity. It utilizes fiber wires, similar to what is used in fiber optics. The intriguing aspect is that this system collects the sunlight through the end of the fiber, which is about 3 times the width of a human hair. Then the absorbed light is converted to electricity within the wire itself. The attached article has been “popular pressed” and I have not read any other articles on this, so I don’t understand the details of how this works, but it has the prospect of needing much less surface area exposed to the sun then conventional PV.

Upcoming:
• Get the remaining items in for the building teams
• Set up the shop with the new tools

Enjoy the remainder of your Thanksgiving weekend!

General Comments:
A lot has been happening since our last update. Many apologies for the long silence. I have to say that this year’s team is working really hard and a lot has been accomplished. All the groups have completed their designs, and I am now ordering all the equipment. Congratulations to all. Here is a summary of how things look as we approach Thanksgiving.
• The Honda is running. It moves, but barely. All the auxiliary systems work. Our main problem now is that the drive axles we got at a junkyard are no good and will have to be replaced with new ones. Once we put in new axles, and fix the suspension, we hope to be able to drive our machine.
• The photovoltaic (PV) system is now up on the Geilker garage roof (see pictures). Our next step is to wire the PV up to our power panel and start putting power onto the grid.
• Our research this year is centered around using less expensive motors and controllers, and eliminating the transmission. To try out our ideas we decided to convert a small golf cart (brand name EZ-GO) that we found abandoned on campus. It looks a little like a small Gator, so we call it the Gator Jr. (see pictures). We will be going with two AC induction motors coupled with 10:1 gear reductions to each wheel. Each motor will have its own controller. It should be most interesting to see how this turns out.
• The Ranger is just about stripped of all that nasty IC engine stuff, and is ready for its green makeover EV conversion. We will be using a 20hp DC series wound motor, with 24 – 6V deep cycle lead acid golf cart batteries. This motor is used by many for Ranger conversions.
• We applied for a $50,000 grant over a 2 year period from the Jefferson Trust a UVa group that provides funding for a wide range of groups across the university.
• We were not successful in our large proposal for $3.2 Million of DOE stimulus funds.

An observation: With gas at $2.60 a gallon, and no stimulus money going out, things are fairly quiet on the surface of alternative energy and electric vehicles, but in fact, there continues to be a lot going on under the surface. For example, there was more wind power installed last year than any other source. Wind accounted for over 40% of the electrical generating capacity installed, more than coal, nuclear, or natural gas. Installed costs for a large wind turbine are reported to be in the $1/Watt range. Also, First Solar, says they will sell conventional silicon based solar cells (PV) for less than $1/Watt (if you buy in MW amounts). We are purchasing our 1 kW of PV for about $2/Watt. There are also significant advances in energy storage. A company just received $5 million in stimulus funds for a battery they say has ten times the energy storage density of a Lithium Ion battery for one third the cost. Of course these batteries are under development. Similar claims are being made by EESTOR, a company making ultracapacitors, only EESTOR claims their ultracapacitors are ready for use and Zenn Motors, a Canadian based EV manufacturer, claims they will start selling ultracapacitor powered EVs next year.

Upcoming:
• Get last years PV on the grid
• Get our parts in and get ready to build
• Continue to work to get the new PV system on campus
• Get the Honda on the road

General Comments:
There have been many things happening since our last update about a month ago. Sorry for the long lapse, but things have been quite busy. Here is a summary of some of the main happenings:
• Almost all of the parts for our project are here now.
• Albemarle County has tentatively agreed to provide us with one of their fleet cars for conversion next year, probably a Ford Tempo.
• The UVa Facilities Management department has tentatively agreed to provide us with one of their fleet cars for conversion next year, probably a Ford Ranger pickup
• We submitted a proposal for a small in-house grant
• We are about to submit a proposal for a grant from Bama Works, the foundation supported by the Dave Matthews family
• The electric motor is almost ready for installation in the car
• A hole has been cut in the trunk for the first battery box
• We are getting close to sending out the PV mounting frame for construction
• RideForward was in the news a lot around spring break
• RideForward is now an independent student organization (CIO). As such, we have just received word that we will get about $3,100 in funding, a crucial benefit for our project which is running significantly in the red right now.

An observation: We heard a great presentation recently by one of the entrants in the competition for the X-Prize, which offers a $10,000,000 prize for the team that can build a vehicle that could be mass produced and can successfully complete a series of tests and races with an average fuel consumption of 100 miles/gallon. The entrant that spoke to us is the only serious contender that is not doing some kind of hybrid vehicle. It is interesting how many approaches there are to reducing petroleum consumption in vehicles. Although there are many ways to calculate which is best, the method that wins out, may well achieve its dominance through something that comes up by chance, or through circumstances that are unforeseen at this point. It’s truly fascinating to be participating in something that I feel will be a significant part of history…. the development of the next prime mover for our planet.

Update:
Ordering Materials: Almost everything we need is now here, and construction is under way. You can see some pictures of things at the end of this report.

Albemarle County: Dave Slutzky, a member of Team RideForward, is also a County Commissioner. He has persuaded the County to consider donating a fleet vehicle to RideForward for conversion in the 2009/2010 school year. The vehicle we have talked about is a 1991 Ford Tempo with about 90,000 miles on it. Dave is also trying to talk the County into giving RideForward the money for the conversion parts up front to reduce our fund raising requirements.

UVa Facilities Management: Cheryl Gomez, another RideForward Team member, and director of the UVa Department of Facilities Management, has tentatively agreed to donate a fleet vehicle for conversion for the 2009/2010 academic year as well. This would probably be a Ford Ranger with about 100,000 miles on it.

Grant: We submitted a grant for about $25,000 to a group within the UVa. A UVa Alum, who has become a successful venture capitalist, has donated some money to be used to encourage multidisciplinary groups who have a entrepreneurial aspect to their projects.

Foundation Grant: We are about to submit a small proposal for a grant from the Bama Works Foundation. This foundation favors projects in sustainability so we are hopeful that we can catch their eye.

RideForward in the News: Within the space of a week and a half, RideForward was:
The lead story in UVA Today
Had a link to a newspaper story in UVA Today
Had a photo in This Week in Photos on the front page of the UVA website
Had a front page story in the Charlottesville Daily Progress
Had a feature story in the Charlottesville Daily Progress
Had an article done on us in the Richmond Times Dispatch
Did an interview for the UVA radio station
Was on Chanel 19 News (the local CBS Charlottesville affiliate).

Motor Installation: The last transition piece that will allow the motor to connect to the transmission is being built. We are hoping that the process of lining up everything and doing a test fit out of the car, will take place in the next week.

Hole in the Trunk: We now have a hole in the trunk where we will put a large steel box that will contain about ½ of the car’s batteries. The box will be built out of heavy gauge steel, and will be welded into place in the car. The box will be lined with rubber padding to keep the batteries safe from bumps, and to insulate the batteries from the box.

PV Installation: We are about to have a frame built that will be used to install the PV panels on. The frame will be installed on a garage belonging to Eric Geilker, a RideForward Team member and member of the Charlottesville Community. The frame is complicated by our desire to do seasonal adjustments to the angle of the PV array (one axis tracking). We are hoping to have the design ready for construction next week.

Other Progress: Other progress by the PV Computer group, Car Computer Group, Auxiliary Group, and Digital Throttle group, is going well. We had hoped to have all systems ready for initial testing by April 1. We may not quite make that, but we hope to be close to that date.

Funding: RideForward is now an independent student group (CIO). The UVa provides some funding for CIO groups, and we were informed today that we should be receiving about $3,100 for qualifying expenses. This is a wonderful piece of news.

Upcoming:
• Build Build Build
• Apply for additional Foundation Grants
• Continue working on funding opportunities
• DOE Clean Cities
• NSF Collaboration
• Meet with Parking & Transportation

An observation:
We continue to hear of activities similar to RideForward, such as the University of Delaware professor who converted a Scion to electric drive, and set his car up so that the electric cord that went from the outlet to the charger onboard the car, could also carry power back to the grid from the car batteries. The idea of using EVs for distributed energy storage is not new of course, but not many EVs are set up to do it. Although there are many claims about payback times, driving ranges, top speeds, etc. my thoughts at this point is that the economics are not there yet for a personal EV that can perform the way a gasoline powered vehicle can (driving range, top speed, acceleration), and is competitively priced. Nor are the economics there for many alternative energy sources. The gap, however, is closing. In addition, special use vehicles may be feasible now, such as fleet vehicles with low top speed and acceleration requirements. But another way to make current EVs and alternative energy attractive is to package them in a larger system. This is why I continue to believe (until I can do a more detailed analysis that proves me wrong), that converting a community’s fleet of vehicles (such as a town, municipality, or university), combined with distributed generation (preferably alternative energy based) , and optimization of the community’s grid (microgrids) will provide a package that, with proper design, will allow the individual components that would not be economical to do on their own, to be profitable as a package, and will allow petroleum independence and true zero emissions… anywhere.

Update:
Ordering Materials: It seemed like the log jam broke on materials acquisition this week as the following occurred:
• The motor and controller arrived. The shipping was so fast that we had to rapidly shift from complaining about all the delays to scrambling to get set up for the delivery.
• The touch screen (that will be mounted on the dash of the car – hey the Toyota Prius has nothing on us), came in
• We went out to a junk yard that swapped us for our existing engine and automatic transmission, for a manual transmission and drive axles.
• We were having trouble arranging for cross country transit of our $17,000 shipment of Lithium Ion batteries, when our student leader asked an expediter company he had worked for to help. Within a day, the batteries were on their way, for a shipping cost of half of what we were expecting.
• We hit an all time record for minimum time through the purchasing system. On Tuesday, the quote for the PV inverter charger system came into the UVa system, and on Thursday, the supplier had the equipment on a truck and coming to its new home. In the past we have spent weeks getting this same process to happen, so we were thrilled at the quick response.

Car Status: There was a small mishap in the painting process at CATEC, but the car should be ready for pickup this coming Tuesday.

Spring Cleaning: In anticipation of the car coming, and our materials coming in, we gave our garage a good spring cleaning on Saturday (it was 70o on Saturday!). And it was just in time. It looks like UVa would like to do a photo shoot (and you thought that was only for highly paid models), out at the garage this week.

Siting: One of the biggest things that occurred last week was settling on the place that the PV system will be located. Our hope was to put the system on the UVa campus. But on Thursday, the initial estimates for the cost to put in the system, and the time required to get the permitting completed, make it clear that it is not possible to locate our system on campus this spring. Instead, we are going to locate the array off campus for this semester in a temporary location (see photo). Over the summer and fall we hope to raise some additional funds, and get the panels moved over to one of the two sites that seem the best (either at the Vaughan House, or the roof of the Emmet-Ivy parking garage bus shelter.

Upcoming:
• Get the car from CATEC
• Get the car batteries
• Place the final PV order
• Get the remaining items for the car ordered
• UVa Photo Shoot
• Continue working on funding opportunities

An observation:
We heard of a couple of interesting technological developments. First, a company in China (something like IDY or DIY) claims to have developed Lithium Ion batteries that are half as expensive as current batteries but have twice the energy density and can charge very quickly (minutes, not hours). These batteries are supposedly being used in a production EV offered by a Chinese company. The author of the article that I read, asked the designers of the Tesla what they thought, and they just rolled their eyes. I would definitely like to know more.

Also, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, have developed a nanocoating for PV cells. The nanocoating can be grown right onto the PV. First the nanocoating absorbs about 95% of the incoming sunlight, as opposed to conventional materials that only absorb about 70% of the sunlight (the rest is reflected). Secondly, the nanocoating absorbs the sunlight as if the cells were facing the sun all the time. The nanocoating essentially makes a tracking collector out or a stationary system. This single coating will boost performance significantly. But can it be applied rapidly and economically and can the coating maintain its performance over time?

Update:
Ordering Materials: We are still struggling with getting our initial group of items ordered (like the car motor, the car batteries, and the PV panels). The car motor should be shipped this week. Hopefully, the batteries will also be shipped this week. We are just entering the UVa purchasing system with the electrical portion of the PV order (inverter/charger, load center, battery charger, etc.), but hopefully we can move this along a little faster than the previous orders. The PV panels themselves will be ordered separately once we find out how and where the PV array will be mounted.

Car Status: CATEC is probably painting as I type. They hope to be finished with the painting by mid week, and then we will have the car towed back over to the Reactor/shop.

Siting: We are coming down to a final selection of a site on campus. It seems that budget and schedule are most favorable at the Vaughan House over at Hereford College. We would use a 20’ pole and mount the panels near the utility area that is to the east of the house. We would then take the DC power from the PV and bring it into the utility room in the Vaughan house. At this point, the DC would be inverted and tied into the house electrical system. We are awaiting an initial estimate of the costs and the schedule, which we hope to get this week. With these estimates, we should be able to tell if we can put the PV on campus this year. If the costs or schedule are prohibitive, we do have an offsite backup location available.

Data Acquisition: The initial data acquisition systems that we looked at for the car, and the PV system, were on the order of $3,500 each. These costs were too high for this year’s budget. The first piece of good news came when we found that a number of the components we were buying (such as the motor controller and the battery management system in the car, and the inverter/charger for the PV system) already had sensors in place that were collecting much of the needed data and had it available in digital form. The second piece of good news came when we met with Harry Powell in the Electrical Engineering department last week. He was able to show us how to build some simple data acquisition equipment of our own at a small fraction of the cost of the original equipment that we were considering.

Funding:
We are looking at a variety of funding opportunities for this year, and the future. For example, we plan to submit a proposal soon to a local foundation, and to become a CIO at the UVa, which means we could request startup monies.

Upcoming:
• Meeting of siting committee to review the Hereford site
• Get the car from CATEC
• Place initial PV order
• Continue working on funding opportunities

An observation:
I just read a great article in Technology Review on the need for a large investment in our transmission grid. We have areas of the country that have great potential for alternative energy the article notes, but our aging transmission system is not capable of getting the power from the places where the alternative sources can be installed profitably, to where the power is needed. For example, there is currently almost 30,000 MW of wind power which is waiting to be installed, because there are no power lines that can get the power to market. Such a transmission upgrade will require hundreds of billions of dollars (which used to sound like a lot until all the bailouts), but the harder part is getting the various state and local governments to agree to site these power lines. This is a macro solution which will probably require federal mandates in order to reconcile all the interstate and special interest squabbling. My thought is to work on a micro scale in our own backyard. Let’s make the UVa grid a smart one, and include distributed generation from alternative energy, and energy storage from electric vehicles. If more communities did that, we would not need to ship PV power from the deserts of Arizona to Cabel Hall, and no new transmission lines would have to be built. I am not sure which approach is best but, barring federal mandates, I am confident which one can happen quickest.

Update:
The Big Order: We have been struggling with getting our initial group of items ordered (like the car motor, the car batteries, and the PV panels). We have learned a lot, have had to change our design some, and have struggled with various suppliers who do not return calls, do not want to accept UVa’s payment terms, or do not have the materials that we need. This is indeed the real world. We are now up to a 320 volt system for the car which will require 100 Thundersky Lithium Ion batteries, and we are using the Azure Dynamics AC55 3 phase AC motor. Of course the costs have gone up along with the changes (somehow they always go up).

Funding: Prayer works! We ended with a strong showing for the year despite the terrible economic times. Through the end of December we raised $39,000! This still leaves us short, but we have enough to purchase the main items for our project even though the prices have increased because of the change in design (We are ordering the photovoltaics, the car motor and Lithium Ion batteries and battery charger and battery management system, and the car and PV computer systems). But there is still plenty left to do for our prayer people. We still need about $10,000 of additional funding which will cover additional PV, the battery storage for the PV, the auxiliary equipment, and the data acquisition components.

Visit to Al Tabakman’s: I had the opportunity to visit Al Tabakman’s home. Al, as you may recall, is doing a similar conversion to ours. The only difference is that he is totally cool because he is using a Delorean for the donor car, truly a RideForward. Al also has a PV system installed at his home, and it will be instructive for our PV group to see how Al has set up his system.

Location: I think we are converging on a location. I talked to the president of Hereford College, Nancy Takahashi, about locating our PV and car at Vaughan House, the home for the president of Hereford College. Professor Takahashi is a professor in Landscape Architecture, and is very interested in sustainability issues, so our project is an excellent fit for Hereford. I have sketched out three possible designs for three different locations. One location would create a roof over a utility area located next to Vaughan House. A second location would be adjacent to the courtyard that is in front of Vaughan House. A third location would be on the roof of Vaughan house. We will be meeting this week to try to hone in on a best design location.

The Leader of the Fleet: Rebecca White, the head of Parking and Transportation has agreed (in principle anyway) to take on our vehicle as a part of the UVa fleet. I am hoping that we can raise a little money this way. Also, this is how I currently see the first viable application for RideForward, namely in the conversion of fleet vehicles to electric drive, and coupled with smart grids.

Initial Calculations for MOAP: I have gone through some initial calculations for the Mother of All Projects (MOAP) to convert all of UVa’s fleet to electric drive coupled with a large PV array. At current prices, and with enormous assumptions, I get an initial investment of about $50 million, and benefits on the order of $5 million annually. It may be a while before I can get back to it, but now I have to refine the analysis to make it closer to what is really going on here at the UVa.

Brown Honda: John Hays, who runs the Brown Honda dealerships in this area, has agreed to support our project. He cannot contribute cash at this time, but he is willing to allow us access to his shop and his top mechanics. This is a great resource, which I am sure we will take advantage of.

Status of the Car: I went out to CATEC right after the first of the year. The car is looking great. Norm Cooper, the body shop teacher, told me he thinks they can have the car done by the middle of February.

Upcoming:
• Meeting to determine best location for our system
• Meeting with Parking and Transportation to discuss making our car a part of the UVa fleet
• Get components ordered

HELP:
If anyone has suggestions, or wants to help in any way, my office door (MEC 209B), e-mail in-box, and phone (434 426-3110) are always open. If you know of anyone that wants to be included on the distribution list please let me know. Our biggest needs are:
• Short term money
• Long term funding opportunities
• Publicity

An observation:
I am learning to appreciate patience and perseverance at a whole new level. In the startup mode that we are in, there is so much that is needed, and it is easy to get impatient and frustrated that things are not moving at a faster pace. But we must move at the right pace. Too much too soon builds a poor structure that will not last. And it’s also important to always be thankful for the great things that have happened. We have had an awesome semester, and a lot of great things have happened.

Update:
This Year’s Funding Prospects: We were promised another $1,000 donation by a local banker that is very involved in sustainability. This person, like many others, would have normally given more, but the economy has dampened spirits (and portfolios). We also have what may be our final funding prospect for the year. I should know more at the weeks end. For those of faith, this is a great time for prayer.

Long Range Funding: We are starting to apply for grants for next year’s program. EPA has a request for proposals for environmental education. The grants are small (about $15,000) but fit what we are doing quite well. The proposal has to be submitted on December 18th. There are also several foundation proposals that we would like to write, and several proposals that are coming up in early January.

Publicity: I Gave an in depth interview to a writer for the UVa. The article will come out in the Alumni Magazine in a couple of months. The writer will also share the story with other UVa groups for inclusion in different venues.

Center for Alternative Energy Powered Electric Vehicles: I have started talking to different people about establishing a center for studying Alternative Energy Powered Electric Vehicles here at the UVa. This will take time and money (you know the patience and perseverance thing), but the process is started.

Inquiries: We are starting to get inquires from a variety of sources. For example a teacher at a nearby community college would like to start something similar to RideForward at his college. A couple of professors in the Electrical Engineering department contacted me. One came to our group presentations. The other wants to have his fourth year class do some projects related to our car. We were also contacted by someone who has a website focused on sustainability. We are now linked to their website, and will try to meet soon to see how we can collaborate for mutual benefit.

MOAP: As most of you know, this stands for Mother of all Projects. This is what I am calling the project that I am trying to get support for to convert the entire UVa fleet to electric drive (400,000 gallons of fuel would be saved annually), and supply the electrical power the vehicles would consume with a 2 MW PV array. We might as well think big, time is short (but still being patient mind you).

Upcoming:
• Submit EPA grant
• Determine the final budget for this years project

HELP:
If anyone has suggestions, or wants to help in any way, my office door (MEC 209B), e-mail in-box, and phone (434 426-3110) are always open. If you know of anyone that wants to be included on the distribution list please let me know. Our biggest needs are:
• Money
• Funding opportunities
• Publicity

An observation:
Last week I wrote about the need for multiple benefits in order to make a photovoltaic powered electric vehicle system pay. This week I learned about microgrids, which would fit perfectly with this scenario. Microgrids, are electrical networks with distributed generating sources where the supply, demand, and storage are controlled in some smart way to optimize the system. We are doing this to a small extent for the UVa grid with the system we are designing. It could even be done to a much larger extent without any distributed generation. For example, computer supervisory control could watch the peak on the UVa grid, and turn off or back down large electrical loads as the peak approached to minimize the peak. Comfort levels might have to be compromised a bit, but the potential savings are large. If this were coupled with photovoltaics as distributed generation, along with energy storage, even more could be saved. I was talking with a professor from the STS department on Friday who challenged me to try to look at a large system for the UVa, that would involve conversion of a large fraction of the UVa fleet, as well as a large PV array (on the order of many hundreds of kw). Coupling the advantages of fuel savings for the vehicles, cost savings on the power generated by the PV, and of course bragging rights on being the first university to do this, could add up to enough to make this system profitable. It looks like I have a project to keep me busy over Christmas break. Draper Labs of MIT is interested in smart microgrids because one of the big things they are working on is sensors, and sensors are a vital component of smart microgrids. In this regard, our interests seem to match rather well.

Update:
Design Review: We are continuing with careful design reviews for each of the groups. The focus is on completeness of the design, and being sure that all the designs will fit together, and that nothing has fallen between the cracks.

Funding Prospects: We finished making calls and sending out e-mail to equipment suppliers. We have covered the PV, electric motor, and energy storage suppliers. We have not received any replies this week. We have also expanded our list of companies to contact who might be interested in sponsorship. Finally, we are considering putting GreenMan to work. Most of you don’t know GreenMan, but you will…… Also, we continue to hope for a shot at the entrepreneurial funds.

Draper Lab Presentation: I spoke to a management team from Draper Labs. As noted above, they are interested in the use of sensors for microgrids. They seemed interested in our project, but whether we move past interest remains to be seen.

RideForward: Through an unlikely chain of events, I was introduced to a doctor here in the Charlottesville community who is very interested in the world of EVs. In fact he is converting a vehicle to electric drive himself. He is also doing independent research on batteries. What is quite unique is that the vehicle that he chose to use for conversion is a Delorean (as in “Back to the Future”). Check it out on the web if you have never seen one. They are cool. Anyway, this doctor is going to give me a ride in his car on Monday. At this point it’s still running the gasoline powered engine.

Upcoming:
• The Ride of a lifetime
• Operation GreenMan
• Thanksgiving

An observation:
My initial assessment, based on the time I have spent in this field so far, is that the only way a photovoltaic powered electric car can be viable is if there are multiple benefits that are accumulated. For example, suppose an existing car that is converted could be credited with the carbon it would have produced, and that these credits could be sold. At $30/ton, these carbon credits would be worth about $1000 annually. If national tax incentives are offered for EVs or PVs (several cities and states offer them already) they would be on the order of $1000 annually as well. If green power prices are paid to PV producers, this could reap a benefit of about $1000 annually for an array of the size required to offset a vehicle traveling 10,000 miles. Finally, fuel savings for a vehicle that had operated at 25mph, and was used 10,000 miles annually assuming gas costs of $3/gal, versus the converted vehicle’s electrical off peak charging costs of $0.03/kwh would be on the order of ….. you guessed it, $1000. So this system could reap savings or revenue of $4000 annually. For a 10 year life, that would be $40,000. At this point, we are starting to close on a system that could be economically viable. There are a lot of ifs, but this just shows a chain of reasoning that could bring such a system to pass at current cost levels.

Update:
Design Review: We are going through a careful design review for each of the groups. The focus is on completeness of the design, and being sure that all the designs will fit together, and that nothing has fallen between the cracks.

Funding Prospects: We are continuing to make calls and to send out e-mail to equipment suppliers. We have covered the PV and electric motor suppliers. We have received a couple of replies. So far, all suppliers seem very very busy, and do not seem interested in providing discounts or donations. Several mentioned that there are a lot of college programs like ours that are seeking support. At this point, we are wracking our brains to think of any sources of potential funding that we have overlooked. Since our budget has increased somewhat, we are currently less than half way to our goal. On a good note, we did find out that a company that I used to work for, TRAX International, will donate $2,000 to our project.

MAE Faculty Presentation: I spoke briefly at an MAE departmental faculty meeting.

Upcoming:
• Draper Labs presentation
• Continue contacting equipment suppliers
• UVa Development Group to talk to AutoTrader
• Talk to Entrepreneurial Fund Trustees