Comments - Costly power grid upgrade to boost renewables will test Maine’s commitment - Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine2024-03-28T11:37:22Zhttps://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/comment/feed?attachedTo=4401701%3ABlogPost%3A213909&xn_auth=noELECTRIC SCHOOL BUS SYSTEMS N…tag:www.windtaskforce.org,2021-03-03:4401701:Comment:2140062021-03-03T14:12:46.272ZWillem Posthttps://www.windtaskforce.org/profile/WillemPost942
<p><strong>ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUS SYSTEMS NOT COST-EFFECTIVE IN VERMONT AT PRESENT</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/electric-bus-systems-likely-not-cost-effective-in-vermont-at">https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/electric-bus-systems-likely-not-cost-effective-in-vermont-at</a></p>
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<p><strong>China, India, New England and Vermont</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Electric bus proponents often point to China to advance their interests, i.e., sell more…</p>
<p><strong>ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUS SYSTEMS NOT COST-EFFECTIVE IN VERMONT AT PRESENT</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/electric-bus-systems-likely-not-cost-effective-in-vermont-at">https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/electric-bus-systems-likely-not-cost-effective-in-vermont-at</a></p>
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<p><strong>China, India, New England and Vermont</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Electric bus proponents often point to China to advance their interests, i.e., sell more electric buses</p>
<p>China has made electric buses and EVs in urban areas a priority to reduce its well-known excessive pollution.</p>
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<p>This pollution is due to: 1) using a lot of coal in dirty, inefficient power plants, and 2) vastly increased vehicle traffic in urban complexes with 15 to 30 million people each.</p>
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<p>India has a China pollution problem, but not China's money and work ethic, i.e., few electric vehicles.</p>
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<p>Those two countries emit about 45 - 50% of all world pollution and GHG.</p>
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<p>The US has much less of a pollution problem than China, except in its larger urban areas. </p>
<p>The US uses more domestic gas and much less coal, and nuclear is still around.</p>
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<p>New England has a pollution problem in its southern urban areas.</p>
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<p>Vermont, known for its cleaner air, has a minor pollution problem in Burlington and some of its other urban areas, i.e., no need to get panicky, and to use scare-mongering to rush into expensively advancing Montpelier’s( TCI and RE goals.</p>
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<p><strong>Governor and Senators Seeking More Electric Vehicles and Buses with Federal COVID Money</strong></p>
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<p>The energy priorities of New England governments are driven by a self-serving cabal of RE zealots, because of excessive subsidies for wind, solar, etc. They have powerful allies on Wall Street, which is molding the minds of people by means of generous donations to universities and think tanks. Here is an example of the resulting double-speak:</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong>Vermont’s Governor</strong>: “Investing in more energy-efficient public transportation is important for our economy and environment,” the governor said. He added that the COVID money is enabling the transportation agency to replace as many as 30 buses and fund energy-efficient projects."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.truenorthreports.com/governor-and-senators-seeking-more-electric-vehicles-with-covid-money">http://www.truenorthreports.com/governor-and-senators-seeking-more-...</a></p>
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<p>The Vermont House Energy/Environment Committee and the VT Transportation Department echo the same message, to "convince" legislators, people in the Governor's Office, and Vermonters to use COVID money to buy expensive electric buses to deal with a minor pollution problem in a few urban areas in Vermont.</p>
<p>Such an electric vehicle measure would be much more appropriate in the over-crowded Boston Area and the Connecticut Gold Coast.</p>
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<p>They urge Vermonters to buy electric buses at about:</p>
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<p>$750,000 - $1,000,000 per <strong>mass-transit bus</strong>, plus high-speed charging systems; a <strong>standard </strong>diesel mass-transit bus costs $380,000 - $420,000</p>
<p>$330,000 - $375,000, per <strong>school bus</strong>, plus high-speed charging systems; a <strong>standard </strong>diesel/gasoline school bus costs about $100,000</p>
<p><a href="https://atlaspolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Electric-Buses-and-Trucks-Overview.pdf">https://atlaspolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Electric-Buses-a...</a></p>
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<p><strong>Federal COVID Money for Expensive Electric School Buses</strong></p>
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<p>The Governor and bureaucrats are throwing COVID money, meant for suffering households and businesses, into another climate-fighting black hole.</p>
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<p>Vermont has cold winters, and hills, and snow-covered roads, and dirt roads in rural areas; kWh/mile would be high.</p>
<p>Those buses likely would need 4-wheel-drive, or all-wheel-drive in rural areas.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Spending huge amounts of capital that yield minor reductions in CO2, is a recipe for low economic efficiency, and for low economic growth, on a state-wide and nation-wide scale, which would adversely affect state and US competitiveness in markets, and adversely affect living standards and job creation.</p>
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<p><strong>Charging Electric Buses During Cold Daytimes and Night-times</strong></p>
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<p>The electric bus battery uses its own energy to heat itself above a required minimum temperature, during charging, driving and parking to:</p>
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<p>1) Prevent battery damage at all times, even during Peak-Demand periods, because “waking-up” an expensive, ice-cold battery may take hours, or a day, or more.</p>
<p>2) Provide electricity to operate various “always-on” systems, similar to Teslas and other EVs </p>
<p>3) Be ready for service, as soon as the driver enters the bus, instead of waiting to warm up the battery </p>
<p>4) The driver would need at least 70% charge to make his morning round, because batteries would require more energy per mile on cold days. No one should risk having an electric bus run out of juice, with a busload of children, in the winter.</p>
<p>5) Battery University recommends operating batteries between 20% charge and 80% charge for long life, say 15 years. That range also happens to have the highest efficiency.</p>
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<p><strong>NOTE</strong>: If the battery temperature is less than 40F or more than 115F, they will not deliver their peak performance.</p>
<p>They prefer to be around 60F to 80F for high efficiency. Batteries are more affected by temperature while charging.</p>
<p>Pro-bus folks often point to California regarding electric buses, but in New England using electric buses to transport children would be a whole new ballgame, especially on cold days. See URLs</p>
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<p><strong>NOTE</strong>: Where would the electricity come from to charge and protect the expensive batteries during extended electricity outages, due to multi-day hot and cold weather events, as occur in California, Texas and New England?</p>
<p>Emergency standby diesel-generators? Emergency standby batteries?</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/electric-cars-cold-weather-tips/">https://www.wired.com/story/electric-cars-cold-weather-tips/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1127610_keep-your-parked-electric-car-and-its-battery-healthy-with-these-simple-tips">https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1127610_keep-your-parked-electric-car-and-its-battery-healthy-with-these-simple-tips</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/hybrids-evs/buying-an-electric-car-for-a-cold-climate-double-down-on-range/">https://www.consumerreports.org/hybrids-evs/buying-an-electric-car-for-a-cold-climate-double-down-on-range/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/06/aaa-confirms-what-tesla-bmw-nissan-ev-owners-suspected-of-cold-weather.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/06/aaa-confirms-what-tesla-bmw-nissan-ev-owners-suspected-of-cold-weather.html</a></p>
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<p><strong>MASSACHUSETTS ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUS PILOT PROGRAM </strong></p>
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<p>An electric bus pilot program was funded through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) with about $2 million, and administered by the Massachusetts State Department of Energy Resources.</p>
<p>Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, VEIC, performed the evaluation of the program</p>
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<p>The pilot program operated electric buses from the Fall of 2016 to early 2018 </p>
<p>Three eLion buses were used in this pilot program by the school districts of Amherst, Concord, and Cambridge.</p>
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<p>Lion Corporation of Quebec, Canada, builds eLion electric school buses. The eLion buses can have three, four or five battery packs. Five battery packs would provide about a 100-mile range, using 130 to 140 kWh DC of battery charge. This means the eLion buses would be capable of servicing almost any route of a school district.</p>
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<p>The capital cost <strong>at each site</strong> was $327,500 for the bus, plus about $25,000 for single-direction, Level 2 chargers.</p>
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<p>There are other balance-of-plant costs for a complete electric bus system, but they were ignored for various reasons.</p>
<p>For example, the increased cost of parking facilities with chargers for an electric bus system vs much less costly parking facilities for diesel bus system was ignored</p>
<p><a href="https://thelionelectric.com/en/products/electric">https://thelionelectric.com/en/products/electric</a></p>
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<p>Here is an evaluation of the MA electric bus pilot program by VEIC.</p>
<p>See page 4 and 45 of URL</p>
<p><a href="https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/04/30/Mass%20DOER%20EV%20school%20bus%20pilot%20final%20report_.pdf">https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/04/30/Mass%20DOER%20EV%20...</a></p> Let the State set up a differ…tag:www.windtaskforce.org,2021-03-03:4401701:Comment:2138312021-03-03T01:42:32.543ZKenneth Capronhttps://www.windtaskforce.org/profile/KennethCapron
<p>Let the State set up a different distribution network for renewables and make renewable owners use their own energy first. </p>
<p>Let the State set up a different distribution network for renewables and make renewable owners use their own energy first. </p> Penny,
A utility merely adds…tag:www.windtaskforce.org,2021-03-02:4401701:Comment:2140052021-03-02T21:56:49.460ZWillem Posthttps://www.windtaskforce.org/profile/WillemPost942
<p>Penny,</p>
<p>A utility merely adds the cost of any investment to the rate base, which is used by the utilities commission to set rates.</p>
<p>A utility is strictly a cost plus set up, with captive customers.</p>
<p>Being off the grid, enables you to give them the finger.</p>
<p>Penny,</p>
<p>A utility merely adds the cost of any investment to the rate base, which is used by the utilities commission to set rates.</p>
<p>A utility is strictly a cost plus set up, with captive customers.</p>
<p>Being off the grid, enables you to give them the finger.</p> Solar panels produce DC.
That…tag:www.windtaskforce.org,2021-03-02:4401701:Comment:2140032021-03-02T21:53:22.066ZWillem Posthttps://www.windtaskforce.org/profile/WillemPost942
<p>Solar panels produce DC.</p>
<p>That is converted to AC, then through a utility meter, then to distribution grid.</p>
<p>This way the utility knows how much you produced.</p>
<p>If you are net-metered, you will be compensated accordingly by the utility.</p>
<p>Solar panels produce DC.</p>
<p>That is converted to AC, then through a utility meter, then to distribution grid.</p>
<p>This way the utility knows how much you produced.</p>
<p>If you are net-metered, you will be compensated accordingly by the utility.</p> Can someone educate me on AC/…tag:www.windtaskforce.org,2021-03-01:4401701:Comment:2138262021-03-01T22:35:41.634ZKenneth Capronhttps://www.windtaskforce.org/profile/KennethCapron
<p>Can someone educate me on AC/DC - what is produced by solar - what is flowing through the distribution lines - is there a conversion - what's with all these big transformers on the poles? </p>
<p></p>
<p>Can someone educate me on AC/DC - what is produced by solar - what is flowing through the distribution lines - is there a conversion - what's with all these big transformers on the poles? </p>
<p></p> Why would any utility want to…tag:www.windtaskforce.org,2021-03-01:4401701:Comment:2136952021-03-01T13:21:08.119ZPenny Grayhttps://www.windtaskforce.org/profile/PennyGray
<p>Why would any utility want to invest huge sums of money connecting to inefficient and unreliable power sources?</p>
<p>Why would any utility want to invest huge sums of money connecting to inefficient and unreliable power sources?</p>