CHARGING STATIONS NEEDED: For the electric car market to prosper, millions of charging stations must be installed at residences and commercial sites.
Image: Flickr/felixkramer
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology report, issued yesterday, concludes that creating a nationwide infrastructure for electric vehicles appears to be a bigger challenge than producing affordable batteries to power the cars.
The report, authored by professors Ernest Moniz and John Deutch, summarizes an MIT symposium last year on the electric vehicle.
Symposium participants generally agreed that a comprehensive federal policy to limit carbon emissions would be the most effective boost for electric vehicle development, stimulating steadily growing consumer purchases and moving the United States toward low-carbon or carbon-free generation of electricity to charge the cars.
But the summary pessimistically concludes: "The prospect for such a policy at the national level is remote. More likely, is a hodge-podge of state and federal regulation and targeted subsidies for favored technologies."
Leaving the matter to separate states "is sheer lunacy," but that is where the matter is headed, Deutch said.
"We need to continue aggressive R&D on these areas," he said. There was consensus on that point, as well, at the symposium, although the participants differed on how much government support should go to pure research versus manufacturing operations with current technologies.
Moniz said he came away from the study more hopeful about the prospects of research breakthroughs that could lower battery costs significantly. "The infrastructure issues were far more complex that I realized," he added. He and Deutch said that the summary released yesterday reflected their own conclusions and was not offered as a consensus view of the symposium participants.
Seeking a magic combination of gas prices and research dollars
The infrastructure challenges include installing tens of millions of charging stations at residences and commercial sites, strengthening the grid to handle electricity demand by plug-in vehicles, and changing utility regulations to promote nighttime recharging. Looming over these issues are the unsettled questions of who pays for the new infrastructure and who decides who pays, panel members said.
The summary takes a cautious view of the prospects for advanced batteries that would bring electric vehicle costs in line with internal combustion engines. It concludes that a "rough rule of thumb" is that battery costs must drop from $600 to about $300 per kilowatt-hour to compete against an internal combustion-engine vehicle burning gasoline at $3.50 a gallon.
"It is worth noting that there has been considerable support for battery research and development (R&D) by industry and government both in the U.S. and elsewhere for many years without the kind of major advance that would make EVs economically competitive," the summary says.
Yet-Ming Chiang, one of the MIT professors presenting the report, said the outlook is not so grim. Predicted prices and performance measures for electric vehicle batteries are improving faster than predicted a few years ago. The number of scientists working on the technology has tripled in a decade, he added. "I saw more grounds for optimism about future progress in battery technology," he said.
Deutch was on the other side. "I don't have a lot of confidence about incremental improvements in lithium-ion" batteries, he said. No one knows yet whether a successor technology such as the lithium air battery can be perfected and commercialized, said MIT professor and panelist John Heywood. "The technology hasn't yet developed enough for us to have clear answers."
Deutch offered a back-of-the-envelope assessment that reducing greenhouse gas emissions from light motor vehicles by half, between now and 2050, would require gasoline prices to rise to $6 to $8 a gallon, which would depress vehicle miles driven by 20 to 30 percent. The rest of the improvement would come from some combination of electric vehicles and low-carbon fuels, provided that the electricity for vehicles came from clean sources, he said. Stiff federal policies could achieve that result, but he dismissed the prospects of that happening in next few decades. "The answer is, 'no chance at all.'"
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21 Comments
Add CommentThe ones who benefit the most, the utility companies, should pay for the upgraded infrastructure. They are the ones right now who is providing the electricity. The oil companies provide all the equipment needed to build a gas station and people buy into the chain. Why can't the same thing work with electric cars. The greatest majority of the time, people will be charging their car at home and they can lessen the burden on utilities by installing solar panels on their garage...and every electric car in America will not be recharging at the same time for the same length of time. I live within site of a gas station and they, sometimes, do not get enough business to keep them open.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe biggest concern about electric cars is the battery. If you can get 300 miles between charges, you will not have to recharge every night.
Liquid salt and liquid metal batteries can hold a mega charge and you would probably have to recharge about two to three times a month. Liquid salt batteries can be mass produced right now and one the size of an acid lead battery is all you will need and it should last twice as long as the acid lead battery.
Stop trying to find excuses to stay with fossil fuel and start mass producing these high tech batteries an get them on the market. People can charge at home until they get charging stations put up through out America.
JamesDavis: Do you ever wonder why all consumers, all automobile manufacturers, all government agencies, all research universities, and all corporations do not seem to know what you 'know' about 'liquid salt and liquid metal' batteries? Doesn't it strike you as strange? Doesn't is seem a little questionable that the importance a battery technology that you suggest has an energy density an order of magnitude greater than the current state-of-the-art is only known to you? Are you suggesting that automobile manufacturers, government agencies, universities, and corporations are involved in a grand conspiracy?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually, molten salt batteries were invented by the Germans in WWII and used in V2 rockets. :-) So this tech is well known to work and has been used by the USA since 1946. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_battery
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe problem for automobiles is the stuff has to be extremely hot! Lowest molten salt batter is 245 to 700 degrees C. (That is 473 to 1,292 degrees F.)
If that hot salt comes in contact with oxygen it will burn like a torch. It would be extremely pretty bright colored flames but burn it would. So that takes lots of energy.
If the hot salt cools, it solidifies and the battery goes dead. This should take 3-4 days in normal weather. In the arctic it could take less time. It can take days to reheat the battery safely to operating temperature.
This presents issues of safety and reliability. In a crash, that battery had better not break open.
The energy density of the molten salt battery doesn't seem much different than existing Li:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe ZEBRA battery has an attractive specific energy and power (90 Wh/kg and 150 W/kg). For comparison, LiFePO4 lithium iron phosphate batteries store 90–110 Wh/kg and the more common LiCoO2 lithium ion batteries store 150–200 Wh/kg. Nano Lithium-Titanate Batteries store energy and power of (116 Wh & 72 Wh/kg) and (1,250 W & 760 W/kg
Solar charging stations can be installed in parking lots and driveways. An added benefit is that on hot summer days, vehicles parked under solar collector canopies will not be heated by the sun to the extent they otherwise would. That would increase comfort for drivers getting into the vehicles and would reduce the energy use of air conditioning as the car starts to be driven.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJudging by the message on the picture of the 'charging station' sign, does the city tow your electric vehicle away if it's still parked there after charging has completed?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this'kcaldwel' Molten salt battery and liquid salt battery is two different kinds of batteries. I don't know how they make liquid salt, but it is the same as the acid in our current lead batteries, without the corrosive side effect. The cells in the liquid salt battery is 'cellophane'. I believe they are already making liquid salt batteries for iPhones and the iPad. The current iPhone battery lasts about 4 hours of use, but the liquid salt battery will give you over 4 times the use and can recharge quicker than the current iPhone battery we now have.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this'lamorpa', I read about the liquid salt and the liquid metal battery, which has three different liquid metals in them, on this magazine about 5 or six months ago, so do a little research before you start running your mouth about something you know nothing about.
Sorry, but I know very well about liquid salt battery research. You are correct stating, 'I believe,' about 'they' making liquid salt batteries for i<products>. It is a belief of yours, and a false one. There's some research going on and an example has been proposed for the difference in charging time and density as applied to popular products, but not even a prototype has been produced, let alone 'making.' I'm guessing your 'research' comes from places like Discover magazine, that bastion of scientific fantasy and wishful thinking. All well and good, but not scientific research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, in general, imputed ignorance of others is not a way to put your points forward. Let's keep our hopes up for continued advancements in the field of battery technology without villainizing corporate America...
Convert refineries to pyrolyse hydrocarbons to produce clean fourth-generation biofuels and there will be no need for expensive electric cars which produce CO2 at the power plants!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSolar charging and swappable batteries (entire unit or section) will alleviate the strain on our existing "dumb grid". Creating incentives for the average American to own rooftop & carport solar will help employment, and the economy in general. With the average aged American about to go into a fixed retirement income situation, cutting out the power bills will be a benefit.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDaytime charging is perfect for solar. The charging infrastructure needs to include disabled veterans, children and the elderly that use wheelchairs for getting around.
Nothing in this article is near the truth as far as I can see....MIT continually produces great break throughs but fails to follow up on them...(read lithium iron...;-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthe 10kw statement is just bull...an electric car requires much more than that...the GM electron volt requires a 16kw one to go 30 miles(maybe less)
the Tesla has a 53kw battery pack(450kg)...
once battery packs get into the 100kw(lithium iron talked about a 10 fold increase) then finally the base load factor becomes moot...
just to clarify....if there are 100s of millions of evs plugged in at any given time then that energy could drawn out to the grid when needed....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe whole idea of "charging stations" is nonsense. All-electric is nonsense, as the environmental and real costs are excessive to the nth degree when measured in environmental cost per mile. My 2010 Honda Insight, bought new for $20,000, gets 40 miles per gallon, with a 400 mile tank range (a 10.5 gallon tank, by the way) and is clearly the right solution: who drives only 40 miles a day? Who would take a chance on having to go to the emergency room 41 miles away?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have no "plug-in"; I don't add to environmental polution by using electricity generated by BURNING COAL !!! Do you think electricity generation is a "clean" technology? Only 8% is hydro: guess where the rest comes from!. (Hint: it isn't solar!)
Get serious: all-electric is a marketing pitch to the environmentally nieve; nothing else.
Someone had the brilliant idea of repurposing the nation's gas stations to be "battery rental" stations. Running low on juice? Pull into an Exxon and swap your drained battery for a charged one.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEM SOLVED.
Let Exxon produce and maintain their own aftermarket batteries (i.e. you can only swap an Exxon battery at an Exxon station) to eliminate scamming the station by dropping off a faulty battery or vice-versa -- the station pawning off their faulty battery on you.
Got an Exxon battery but no station in sight? Swap it at BP for an extra fee.
Or join a membership club -- swap unlimited batteries for $30 a month.
Done.
Oh, I forgot this last part. Assuming you rarely charge your car and simply keep pulling up to the "pump" to swap batteries, at 100 miles per charge, you're likely to arrive at least 2-3 times per week. The stations will make more on the sale of food, drinks, and convenience items since you're continually stopping there to "fill up".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShifting our dependence to renewable energy resources will ensure for future generations that there will be reserves of coal, gas and oil to go around during an ice age. There should be nothing stopping us from using combustion efficiently and that includes designing more efficient thermo electric devices attached to ceramic kilns that ensure complete combustion of all the weeds grasses and garbage we generate that would otherwise contribute the same amount of carbon to the atmosphere by rotting alone.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGasoline prices in Europe and Australia currently exceed $6 to $8 a gallon, and rising, but we have not seen much effect on miles driven yet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShould we ridicule young people expressing untutored opinions?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo why don't our parking lots have solar awnings with programmable window heat pumps for parked electric cars, charging them constantly and cooling or heating them immediately prior to the driver's return? Surely drivers would pay to park so well?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCorporations are devices for exploitation and making money. American corporations have led the world in creativity, yes, but it is true that we could certainly improve our entrepreneurial spirit and be less shy about experimentation. Individuals can find the way forward when an entrenched bureaucracy stumbles. Ideas take shape in one mind, not many. If we prosecuted fraudulent patent applications and insisted upon paying inventors a flat percentage for their inventions we would improve our country's wealth enormously. If you think that George Lucas came up with Star Wars, or that James Cameron came up with Avatar, or M. Knight Shymalan came up with the Sixth Sense, you are misinformed. All these people are merely good thieves, that much I know, as for Corporate America, presumably stealing is similarly rewarded. Pirates!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"So why don't our parking lots have solar awnings with programmable window heat pumps for parked electric cars, charging them constantly and cooling or heating them immediately prior to the driver's return? Surely drivers would pay to park so well? "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEvidence of non-existence (which you have not provided) is not evidence that something cannot work. If it was, you would not have fire or a pointing stick, let alone an Internet. The 'holy market' isn't infallible and all knowing, technology takes time to advance and consumers must have the option to be able to choose it.