Rising Current: America’s Growing Electricity Demand

Americans have been demanding more electricity recently, a sudden
shift from nearly two decades of low U.S. load growth. What’s more,
the growth trend is rapidly accelerating, potentially leading to the
greatest era of load growth since post-World War II nationwide
electrification.

Artificial intelligence (AI), cloud-based services, and cryptocurrencies
are driving demand for new data centers and computing power
as quickly as they are driving new business opportunities. A wave
of new technology manufacturing and oil and gas production is
revitalizing the country’s industrial base—and industrial electricity
demand with it. Homes and businesses are increasingly choosing
electric vehicles, heat pumps, …

Evaluating Future Powertrain and Recycling Technologies and Their Impact on the Life Cycle Assessment and Costing of Mid-Size and Large Passenger Vehicles

Electrification is needed to improve the environmental performance of the transportation sector but must be accompanied by technological innovations that eliminate ecological hotspots over the vehicle’s lifetime. Additionally, the lifetime costs of electric vehicles must be reduced. This study uses the battery electric vehicle sustainability impact assessment model (BEVSIM) to analyse the effects of potential changes in recycled plastic content and its waste treatment, electricity grid, and the price of battery electric vehicles. Using recycled content in plastic parts improved their environmental performance in all categories except land use; e.g. using 40% recycled plastic reduced 107 kg CO2 eq. per …

Ten States Hit Ambitious Electric Vehicle Target

MOU set target in 2013 to put 3.3 million electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads by 2025 in the signatory states. Directed formation of a multi-state task force, facilitated by NESCAUM, to galvanize state leadership and collaboration on transportation electrification. Signed by governors in ten states: California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.…

Application Guide: SEPA Interoperability Profile for Electric Vehicle Fleet Managed Charging Utilizing IEEE 2030.5-2018

This Application Guide provides the ‘how to’ information for implementing the SEPA Interoperability Profile for EV Fleet Managed Charging using an open industry standard communication protocol, IEEE 2030.5-2018.

SEPA’s Interoperability Profile Task Force, SEPA’s Interoperability Working Group, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), collaborated on an arc of research to develop and demonstrate a process that starts with a concept documented in a use case, elicits and defines interoperability requirements in a Profile, and then completes the exercise with accompanying implementation guidance in an Application Guide.…

Recommendations of the Electric Vehicle Working Group – 2024

The EVWG group is charged with developing three reports, and interim recommendations to the Secretaries on critical issues that need more immediate attention. The first report was produced in April 2024. After receiving public input, holding multiple subcommittee meetings among subject matter experts from the Working Group, and deliberating on the most pressing issues in the light-, medium-, and heavy-duty EV market, the EVWG has developed the following initial recommendations. These recommendations are deemed critical and in need of immediate attention.

The recommendations fall into three broad categories:
– Public Communications and Information Dissemination
– Grid Integration
– Research and …

Harvesting Sunshine: How Productive Uses of Minigrid Electricity Make Farmers Richer and Energy Cheaper

Income-generating productive uses of energy (PUE) allow rural entrepreneurs to utilize clean electricity to support their businesses and increase their incomes. PUEs also boost revenues for rural utilities struggling to achieve profitability and maintain reliable energy services because of limited demand. The Energizing Agriculture Programme (EAP) recognized PUE’s potential to transform livelihoods and improve the economics of energy access. It brought together Nigerian energy and agriculture companies to design and test business models that deliver affordable PUE equipment to rural customers.

The EAP confirmed the value proposition of PUEs. By switching from fossil fuel-powered equipment to electric PUE alternatives, agribusiness …

Hydrogen for Heavy-Duty Vehicles

While light-duty vehicles (LDVs) are well on their way to an electric future, hydrogen is often talked about as still having a sizable market in cleaning up heavy-duty trucks (HDTs)— and particularly long-haul tractor-trailers—due to perceived limitations with battery electric trucks (BETs). For example, six of seven federally funded hydrogen hubs have plans to build out hydrogen refueling station networks, with at least five explicitly pointing to serving HDTs.

This fact sheet is part of an Energy Innovation paper assessing clean hydrogen’s value for cutting climate pollution from 12 end uses. …

Hydrogen for Light-Duty Vehicles

Manufacturers, governments, and researchers have spent decades developing hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in pursuit of clean vehicles that operate similarly to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs)—that is, promising long ranges and fast fueling times. However, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have improved dramatically over this time, closing the gap on these metrics and taking off in sales and infrastructure deployment. Even so, a desire to keep all options open has kept interest in FCEVs alive. For example, California is dedicating substantial funding to FCEVs despite very low sales and a booming BEV market.

This fact sheet is part of …

Unlocking Low-Cost Lending for Electric Two- and Three-Wheelers

The global shift to electric two- and three-wheelers is vital for environmental and equity reasons. These vehicles play a crucial role in transporting both people and goods worldwide.

However, despite growing interest in electric vehicles (EVs), their adoption rate must accelerate to meet air quality and climate goals. A significant barrier to this is the steep financing costs compared to traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Currently, interest rates for electric two- and three-wheelers are twice as high as ICE equivalents, undermining the economic argument for transitioning to EVs. High EV perceived and real risks largely drive high-interest payments. When …

Political Ideology and U.S. Electric Vehicle Adoption

The prospect for electric vehicles (EVs) as a climate change solution hinges on their widespread adoption across the political spectrum. In this paper, we use detailed county-level data on new vehicle registrations from 2012-2022 to measure the degree to which EV adoption is concentrated in the most leftleaning U.S. counties, and how this concentration has changed over time. The results point to a strong and enduring correlation between political ideology and U.S. EV adoption. During our time period about half of all EVs went to the 10% most Democratic counties, and about one-third went to the top 5%. There is …