Students design extremely efficient vehicles

Energy efficiency is garnering widespread publicity lately while US regulators wrestle with energy and environmental issues. Separately, I couldn’t help but hope that energy czars and policymakers of the future emerge from among 400 students who competed in last month’s Shell Eco-marathon Americas.

Extreme energy efficiency was literally tested when student teams competed to design and build vehicles running the farthest distance using the least amount of energy. The eco-marathon kicked off Mar. 27 with Shell Oil Co. President Marvin Odum waving the green start flag as 48 vehicles tested on the course in downtown Houston.

A team from Laval University in Quebec won the grand prize for a second consecutive year. The fuel efficiency of Laval University team’s entry in the Prototype category was 2,487.5 mpg.

For the Prototype category, teams entered futuristic, streamlined prototypes–experimental vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design. Prototype entries included 28 vehicles powered by combustion engines, five by fuel cell-hydrogen technology, two by solar power, and two by diesel fuel.

I am impressed by the design skills of these high school and college students. Maybe someday, I will drive a car designed by one of them. Hopefully, some of them will take their efficiency experience and innovative skills into legislative chambers to help draft future energy policy.

New York state drafts energy plan

While Congress continues to debate cap-and-trade proposals, some state governments are moving forward on their own energy plans. The latest example is New York state, which issued a draft policy setting forth a 10-year plan.

The New York plan identifies energy efficiency as an economic way to expand its clean energy economy.

“In the short-run, investments in energy efficiency reduce energy use and bills for participating customers,” said the plan’s executive summary. “In the long-run, a significant reduction in electricity demand has been shown to put downward pressure on wholesale electricity prices, reduce price volatility, and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants.”

The draft plan notes efficiency improvements in transportation also would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. New York Gov. David A. Paterson issued an executive order last year calling for a state energy plan, which could be finalized by Dec. 31, 2009.

The plan calls for reducing electricity use by 15% below 2015 forecasts and increasing the proportion of renewable generation to 30% of electricity demand by 2015. Andrew C. Byers, an associate vice-president with Black & Veatch, believes that it could prove to be a stretch for New York to meet its renewable power goal.

“Although renewables make up about 21% of the state’s electricity already, large-scale hydropower accounts for 19% while wind and biomass are less than 2% combined,” Byers wrote in a recent Black & Veatch Pathfinder newsletter.

“Since the state’s hydropower resources are already developed, getting to 30% will require adding five times as much power from other renewables, which are much more expensive than traditional fossil fuel generation,” Byers said. “Skeptics fear that this means much higher subsidies, paid for through increases in ratepayers’ bills.”

Decades ago, people promoted conservation. Today, people are promoting energy efficiency. But as Byers points out, it remains to be seen whether the goals can be met in the timetables being proposed.

Chinese vs. US gasoline consumption

When it comes to anticipated oil demand, Amy Myers Jaffe of Rice University’s James Baker Institute for Public Policy likes to point out what she calls a big myth.

The myth is the notion that China has replaced the US as a driving force in world gasoline consumption, Jaffe says. The US has 250 million vehicles compared with China’s 13 million vehicles on the road, she said, citing statistics from various agencies.

Gasoline use contributes about a third of all emissions stemming from fossil fuel combustion, she said.

“A vast pent-up demand for automobiles and electricity exists in the developing world,” said Jaffe. One of the biggest questions is the potential fuel efficiency of future automobiles. Climate and energy security policy are expected to focus heavily on automobile efficiency.

“Most forecasts indicate that future growth in global oil demand will come almost entirely in the transportation sector,” Jaffe said. “Technology and policy, therefore, will be vital to determining the pace of oil demand growth.”

Emerging policy is apt to get complex. California developed a very detailed Low Carbon Standard aimed at driving innovations in vehicle efficiency and alternative transportation fuel.

Jaffe spent three hours discussing the California Low Carbon Standard with someone who was very familiar with it. Everything could not be covered in that period, she said. California hopes that its standard could serve as a model for US national policy.