Crossposted from http://indiaclimatesolutions.com/good-day-be-revolution
The Climate Solutions Road Tour – a journey across India in solar electric cars – is just driving into Hyderabad, and I’m glad that I’m sitting in “Revolution,” our beautiful white Reva covered in images of causes, impacts, and solutions to climate change — messges of how to take the world with us on the road to 350. Anyway, Abishek and I just got the message from our Solar PunchBuggy (the van covered in solar panels that is the primary transport for Solar Punch – our solar powered band) that there is a diesel strike in all of Hyderabad.
This explains why there have been so few trucks on the road today – we’ve seen more parked on the side than driving; explains why there’s really hardly any traffic at all. We were told this morning it’s a truck strice against the price of diesel and petrol, but really it’s a citywide diesel strike! All of the gas stations are closed in the city, people protesting the rising cost of diesel. We agree! It is too high! It’s too high to continue building our infrastructure, our automobiles, and our economies on petroleum products. It’s an opportunity that this moment in history has to seize! There can be a revolution in automaking if key decision makers set standards for the reinvented auto industry that allow us to have zero carbon sustainable mobility.
We have the chance to reinvent the global auto industry as automakers all over the world face a major crisis, while we face a global climate crisis that all of us must address if we are to maintain a climate fit for our survival. We conduct this road tour of hope to present a wake up call to consumers and policy makers across the world to drive change e by reinventing the global auto industry. This chance for change cannot be missed, if we are to protect our global economy environment and future. Globally, transportation contributes more than 13.1 percent of CO2 emissions, and is one of the biggest factors in local air pollution issue in Indian cities. India’s rapid rate of growth in vehicle use, economic growth and potential for innovation, mean that India is and must be a change driver.
Dr. RK Pachauri, Director General of The Energy & Resources Institute and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said, “The transport sector requires major and urgent change. The automakers, engineers and academics have enormous capabilities in bringing about massive innovation in transportation technologies. The time to do that is now. I hope that this tour will not only lead to a change in driving patterns but will also drive change across the world as far as transportation is concerned.”
The tour across Incredible India was originally envisioned by Caroline Howe and Alexis Ringwald, both Yale graduates and residents of India, and is now implemented by the Indian Youth Climate Network, partnering with Moser Baer, Freeplay Technologies, and Infosys. The tour started on January 3rd, 2009 from Chennai, and is being undertaken in high performance solar-integrated Revas. The caravan is supported by international alternative fuel vehicles, as well as a solar band, to reiterate the message that climate solutions exist around the world. The climate caravan will wind its way over 3500km through 15 major cities, driving across India to gather voices, listening to Indian perspectives on climate change, documenting Indian climate solutions, and supporting young climate leaders who are ready to BE the change. The rally will end in India’s capital, New Delhi on February 4th, a city adding 1,000 cars to the streets every single day, with a grand finale highlighting transportation alternatives for the city, from Revas to the metro, bicycles to buses.
There is one solution that can tackle the twin crises of the global auto industry and the global environment. The consumers, innovators and decision makers in developed nations must reinvent the auto industry to create vehicles that run not on polluting fossil fuels, but on clean energy. Technological solutions already exist for sustainable mobility, and the policy makers must take this historic opportunity to implement policy to support this technology, alleviate both crises and create millions of new green jobs. 2009 must be a year of change.
Our historical journey across India, will be the longest electric car caravan in India and the longest joint tour of multiple ‘market ready’ and ‘solar-supported’ electric cars worldwide. By traveling more than 150 kilometers on a single charge and 3500 km in a single month, the group aims to demonstrate that low impact transportation solutions do exist, even when pushed beyond city driving. While using existing electricity infrastructure for car charging every 150 kilometers in a country with limited electricity supply is a challenge, most vehicles around the world actually travel much less. 70 percent of cars worldwide being driven in urban areas, about 60 percent of which drive less than 80 kilometers per day. More than half of all automobile trips
worldwide are less than 5 kilometers. These short distance trips can easily be replaced by market-ready electric vehicles.
According to Alexis Ringwald, a solar entrepreneur with Valence Energy and coordinator of the road tour, “Just as oil companies are beginning to re-invent themselves as energy companies with entry into renewable energy, so too do auto companies need to transform into mobility companies, offering clean solutions for movement for a 6.5 billion global population.”
History confirms that the powerful partnership of consumer demand and supporting policies is unstoppable. Global decision makers must seize the opportunity to support the reinvention of the auto industry today to halt climate change and while saving the automobile industry and creating millions of new green jobs. Enacting a powerful new year’s resolution, our Drive2Change will show the world that a new world is just around the corner – if we want it.
We drove a total of 173 kilometers in our cars yesterday, without recharging, and had average of 25 percent remaining in each battery! This is an incredible achievement! I am proud to be part of a revolution in automotive engineering, especially at this time when so many in the auto industry are looking for a transformation, are looking for hope in a auto crisis in key companies and countries. I hope that all of those employed by Reva, residents of Bangalore, residents of India, global citizens, are equally proud of what has been accomplished, as we continue to show the world what is possible when innovators push the limits, when policy makers support such innovation, and when consumers recognize that it is time to change the world and to be the change – to be the solution.
We must continue to Drive2Change – driving change and celebrating change drivers!
Caroline, thanks for your post!
The IYCN continues to impress and inspire me.. You all carry such a beautiful, positive vision!
Keep us posted on the journey. I look forward to reading more about it soon!
- Christine
Dear Caroline,
I was very impressed by your what you have written, more importantly by what you have done. I am not young 62 years old but your account is inspiring.
I wonder if you had thought of an immediate change you can bring about in the Indian transportation Sector. I am sure in your tarvel from Chennai to Delhi, you would have crossed a number of smaller towns where the main mode of transportation is the ubiquitous autorickshaw apart ferom large buses. thes autos are pollutres running on diesel/petrol/gas carbon and notrogen polluters of varying degrees.
Imagine a situation when you could retrofit these autos with battery driven motors and the discharged batteries could be exchange for fully charged batteries avialable in kiosks like filling stations. These kiosks would be fed with electricity generated through intermittent sources such as solar or wind. Small power plants would only charge batteries. Even if locational factors do not merit location of these power stations near the kiosks, they could feed into the state grid and swapower. At an average price of Indin rupees [ INR] 8 per kwh of electricity , it would cost 0.5 INR per km if one were to take the REVA as the basis. The weight of the unit would be comparable using the tare weight and payload together.
There are about 50000 autos coming in every year and and more rhan amillion on the roads. If a selected town is taken as the test bed and this exercise carried out, the idea could catch on. Financing retrofits and the small power stations could be partilyy helped by the carbon credits which would accrue to the exercise
I would love to get your reaction
Ten Million Energy-Free Solar Homes in Ten Years
From the Sun, in less than an hour mankind receives all the energy we need in a year. If the solar energy on less than 5% of the Sahara was collected, it would meet the global energy consumption projected for the end of the century. This fuel is inexhaustible, clean and free.
We all hope that President Obama has the kind of vision which initiated the Marshall Plan or the Moon Landing. It is that kind of vision that is needed to create millions of jobs while not only revitalizing the housing industry, but also making us energy independent. One important step towards meeting these goals is the building of energy-free solar homes.
In the southern half of the United States, a 20% efficient solar collector will yearly generate about 400 kWh/m2 of electricity (Figure below). Therefore, if 100 m2 collectors were installed on 10 million homes, the energy saving would exceed the total imports from the Persian Gulf and if 100 million such roofs were installed, they would meet the total electricity consumption of the nation.
(Courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
To make solar energy continuously available requires storage. The means of storage can be thermal (hot oil), chemical (hydrogen) or electric (batteries or on the grid). In locations where the home is already connected to the grid, this provides a convenient method of storage. The grid makes it possible to send the excess solar electricity to the grid when the level of insolation is high and take the electricity needed from the grid when it is not. In this “net metering” mode of operation, when solar energy is in excess, the home’s electric meter is “running backwards” and the home is accumulating an electricity credit. This credit can than be used at night or when the sun is not out without any cost to the homeowner.
Many utilities are willing to provide this “net metering” service, because excess solar energy is usually generated during peak periods (when the air conditioning loads are high) and therefore, by accepting it, the utility can “shave” its peak demand and thereby operate more profitably. Where either the grid or this “net metering” service is not available, the solar energy can also be stored in hydrogen by the use of a reversible fuel cell (RFC). This device makes hydrogen from the excess solar energy when the sun is out and makes electricity from the stored hydrogen when solar energy is not available.
To make a home completely energy free, the area of the solar collector has to be sufficient to also provide the energy needed for other purposes, such as transportation. Depending on the number of cars and on the commuting distances of the residents, the recharging of the electric car batteries might require the doubling of the solar collector area.
The cost of conversion from today’s exhaustible energy economy to the coming free, clean and inexhaustible energy economy will determine the speed of this conversion. Today, the cost of pohotovoltaic collectors ranges from $5 to $10 per “peak solar watt”. This cost has been dropping by about 5%/yr and once mass production starts, it is likely to drop at an even faster rate, similarly to the reduction experienced when the mass production of computers started. (Some suppliers using nanosolar technology are already projecting $1/Wp in the near future).
Thin cell collectors require less expensive materials to build and use less of them. They are made from a thin film of amorphous silicon on plastic and are used on the roofs of private homes or commercial buildings. This results in a substantial cost reduction. Such flexible strip collectors are already available (Figure) and are used to cover the roofs with solar shingles. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in March 2008 reported a world record in thin-film solar cell efficiency (19.9%), nearly tying the record for traditional photovoltaics (20.3%).
(Courtesy of NREL/DOE)
The time for debating the feasibility of solar energy is over, now it is time for action. What is needed are hard cost and performance data based on the use of mass produced and state-of-the art components. To prove that it is time to convert to this inexhaustible energy economy, we not only need solar roofs, grids, electric cars and solar–hydrogen demonstration plants! We also need statesmen. We need leaders who care about the future of the planet and the future of our grandchildren. We need leaders who are ready to lead this, the third industrial revolution. We need leaders with vision, commitment and the conviction, that the United States is still the leader of the planet, that she can stop the trend towards wasting our resources on energy wars and instead can lead a global Marshall Plan to make our peace with the planet.
It is debatable how much time we have before our fossil and uranium deposits are exhausted. It is also debatable how much climate change we can live with or how much of our economic resources should be devoted to stabilizing and reversing mankind’s growing carbon footprint. What is not debatable is that our resources are exhaustible and that we must not give reason to our grandchildren to ask: “Why did you not act in time?”
Béla Lipták
Very long on emotion, short on fact and very questionable science. It would be nice if all this enthusiams could be direct at pragmatic and practical results.
what is the price of the solar car