Nissan Announce “LEAF to Home” Power Supply System

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Nissan announced last week that from the middle of this month its Japanese dealerships will be showcasing:

An industry first backup power supply system that can transmit the electricity stored in the large-capacity batteries of Nissan LEAFs to a residential home.

Here’s a video in which Nissan corporate vice president Hideaki Watanabe explains the benefits of such a system:

The technology is actually supplied by Nichicon as part of their “EV Power Station” fast charging units. According to Nissan:

The LEAF to Home system will help encourage Nissan LEAF owners to charge their cars with electricity generated during the night, when demand is low, or sourced from solar panels. This assist in balancing energy needs by supplying electricity to the grid during daytime, when demand is highest. It can also be used as back-up power source in case of power outages and/or shortages.

The [LEAF’s] lithium-ion batteries can store up to 24kWh of electricity, which is sufficient to supply an average Japanese household for about two days. This system underscores an additional attribute of EVs: vehicles which can be used as a storage battery whether they are moving or stationary.

Nissan say that “all current Nissan LEAF owners in Japan will be able to use the system, depending on their home’s installation requirements” as long as they have 330,000 yen to spare (after Japanese government subsidies). Nissan are forecasting sales of 10,000 “LEAF to Home” systems in the first year.

Mr. Watanabe says in Nissan’s video that:

We are starting from Japan, but if there is interest from other parts of the world we are willing to partner up with any other partners. This time we are partnering up with Nichicon, so we can go out to other countries and partner up with other global suppliers.

Nissan’s press release concludes by saying:

Nissan and Nichicon will continue to work together to create new value in EVs as part of the way forward toward the realization of a zero-emission society.

although they don’t forecast when such a society will be realized!

P.S. The video mentioned above seems to have disappeared, so here’s an infographic of Nissan’s V2H technology instead:

Nissan-LEAF-to-home-system

Google Recommend the Raspberry Pi at The Science Museum

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Yesterday Nesta and The Science Museum unveiled a report on the “Legacy of the BBC Micro“.  The preface to the report outlines how last year Google Chairman Eric Schmidt gave a speech at the Edinburgh TV Festival that:

Contained a stark warning about how Britain was throwing away its great computer heritage by failing to teach programming in schools.

and then explains how the report:

Explores the lessons for bringing back an ambitious vision of technological literacy to today’s Britain.

Coincidentally Eric Schmidt gave another speech yesterday at the Science Museum in London, which also mentioned the topic of computer literacy . This time around Mr Schmidt offered to put some of Google’s money where it’s mouth is. According to the BBC they:

Would provide the funds to support Teach First – a charity which puts “exceptional” graduates on a six-week training programme before deploying them to schools where they teach classes over a two-year period.

and according to Nesta:

Some of the money has been earmarked for relevant teaching equipment, including the new Raspberry Pi computer.

According to Eric Schmidt in his speech yesterday:

If the past has taught us anything, it’s that if you connect people with information they will change the world. The success of the BBC Micro in the 1980s shows what’s possible. There’s no reason why Raspberry Pi shouldn’t have the same impact, with the right support.

It remains to be seen how much support will be forthcoming in these troubled times, and how much impact Google’s initiative and the Raspberry Pi will ultimately have on technological literacy here in the UK and abroad.

 

Raspberry Pi Progresses on a Few Fronts

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I registered my interest in buying a Raspberry Pi single board computer several weeks ago, and yesterday I finally received an email from Farnell/Element14 assuring me that:

We are very pleased to tell you that you can now pre-order your Raspberry Pi. Current lead-times for new orders are July/August depending upon where you are in the registration queue. At this time orders will continue to be kept to one per person, to ensure the products get into the right hands.

Of course I clicked the link in the email and parted with my company credit card number for the grand total of 29.46 GBP including shipping and VAT for my very own RasPi model B.  Unfortunately the order confirmation informs me that the “Estimated Delivery Date” is the “Week Commencing 17/09/2012”, so I’m still not entirely clear when I’ll be able to start my own experiments with what Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s technology correspondent describes as:

A credit-card sized computer designed to encourage children to learn programming, [which] caught the imagination of millions when it was unveiled in February.

Rory is one of the lucky few to have received his credit-card sized board already, and concludes his review of the Raspberry Pi as follows:

The device may inspire a new generation of computer programmers or it could leave children used to smartphones and tablet computers baffled and bewildered.  A great experiment with the way we teach computing has begun and we can’t be sure how it will end.

which seems to me to sum up the current position nicely.

Although the product seems to be selling itself, here’s how Element14 are currently presenting the Raspberry Pi to the world:

On another raspberry flavoured front it was announced on Twitter earlier today that:

The MagPi team are proud to launch a new official HTML website.

The MagPi is “is a voluntary-run magazine for the Raspberry Pi computer user community.” and the first issue of the magazine is available for download via the aforementioned website. One of the articles discusses “the dawn of affordable computing” in the United Kingdom.

It would seem that my memory extends slightly further back in time than the MagPi team’s. My own first “home computer” was a Nascom 1, which predates the Sinclairs and Acorns that they mention by a few years.  It bore some similarity to the Raspberry Pi in so far as it came as a bare board that needed connecting to a TV if you wanted to see what was going on.  However the size of the board was very much larger than a credit card, which was just as well since you had to solder in the numerous components yourself. The price was also very much higher than the Raspberry Pi model B’s $35, especially if you allow for inflation since the late 70’s!

I trust that the Raspberry Pi Foundation won’t suffer the same fate as Nascom, who were effectively victims of their own success. They swiftly went bankrupt following component sourcing difficulties caused by unanticipated demand for their ground breaking products!

California and DoD Commit $3.75 million to Explore V2G at Los Angeles Air Force Base

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Last year the US Office of Science and Technology Policy announced that:

Air Force officials unveiled a plan to establish Los Angeles Air Force Base as the first Federal facility to replace 100% of its general-purpose fleet with Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEV’s). This is the start of a broader Department of Defense (DoD) effort toward large-scale integration of PEV’s into its fleet. Lessons learned from this project will help DoD and other agencies understand operational implications of fleet electrification, while demonstrating cutting-edge PEV technologies, such as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems.

Yesterday the California Energy Commission announced that it had:

Unanimously approved funding of more than $15 million to projects that will advance biofuels and electric vehicle research in California.

Amongst other EV projects, some of the funding goes to:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in Berkeley, [which] will receive $1 million as match funding for a $3.75 million project to demonstrate vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology for an all-electric heavy duty non-tactical vehicle fleet at Los Angeles Air Force Base. The fleet vehicles will be used to explore the revenue-generating capability of V2G technology by participating in the California’s electricity markets, where the vehicles can at different times charge from the grid and also discharge energy into the grid to meet demand. The Department of Defense is providing $2.75 million for the project at the lab, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

I wonder how much this pilot project will assist the US Navy in avoiding rolling blackouts in California as the summer heats up?

State energy officials say Southern California could be hit by rotating blackouts this summer if a heat wave hits while San Onofre‘s twin reactors remain dark.

BEAMA Publish a Guide to Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

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In a veritable blizzard of acronyms the British Electrotechnical and Allied Manufacturers’ Association (BEAMA for short) started their Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (BEVIP for short) last year. Last week BEVIP held a conference at The Institute of Physics in London, and all the presentations at that event have now been made available online.

In particular BEAMA have just published their “Guide to Electric Vehicle Infrastructure“, about which they say:

This guidance document presents the position of industry today for the best practice use and application of the electrical infrastructure for the charging of electric vehicles. This guide is intended for use by organisations providing advice and guidance to consumers on the day-to-day use of electric vehicle infrastructure.

If you are currently one of the fortunate few in the United Kingdom who use an electric vehicle on a daily basis note in particular that BEAMA do not recommend simply plugging your EV into a “non-dedicated socket outlet” because:

Mode 1 charging without cable-incorporated RCD protection should not be used for the charging of an electric vehicle because RCD protection, which is necessary for a safe charging system, cannot be guaranteed at all outlets.

BEAMA also helpfully provide an illustration of the problem, including the relevant British Standards.

BEAMA don't recommend plugging your EV into the wall without an in-cable RCD

BEAMA don't recommend plugging your EV into the wall without an in-cable RCD

You have been warned! You will also be pleased to hear that there are three safe methods of charging your EV, with dedicated AC charging equipment supporting bi-directional communications (Mode 3) being “the preferred solution in the long term”.

Today Is Smart Grid Day

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According to the IEEE Power and Energy Society at least, today is “Smart Grid Day“. The IEEE PES are currently holding their annual Transmission and Distribution conference in Orlando Florida, and they are devoting today’s proceedings to:

A complete smart grid program…. to highlight lessons and identify opportunities as experts reflect upon the most recent smart grid developments.

The schedule for the day doesn’t explicitly mention electric vehicles or vehicle to grid technology, but it does include “Smart Grid Standards: Developments and Gaps” and “The Future of Smart Grid – Technology, Policy, Standards and Consumer Behavior”.

Surely V2G will be mentioned at some point in both those discussions?

IEEE Unveils Transportation Electrification Web Portal

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Last month the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers announced their new Transportation Electrification Initiative, together with the accompanying IEEE Transportation Electrification Web Portal. According to the IEEE:

The IEEE TE Web Portal is intended as a resource for manufacturers, engineers, computer scientists, researchers, policymakers, educators, academics, and governments, as well as consumers and other stakeholders interested in learning about various aspects of transportation electrification.

which covers a non trivial percentage of the population of the planet!  The IEEE then goes on to itemise the resources they intend to make available:

The IEEE TE Web Portal is the go-to source for articles and technical publications related to transportation electrification. It is also a dedicated resource for news items on the latest TE developments happening around the world; updates on standards and standards projects; and educational conferences and events. Additionally, it offers a roster of companies, universities, government institutions, IEEE Societies, and industry associations essential to the development and deployment of electric vehicles and electrified transportation.

All in all a treasure trove for those of us:

Drawn together with one common passion; to make Transportation Electrification a reality.

As one example of the sort of educational material the IEEE is making available through their new portal, here’s a brief video on the topic of “Hybrid and Plug-In Vehicle Systems”:

Will that be sufficient to persuade you to join the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society and/or purchase the VTS video lecture being advertised?

VMS Becomes V2G

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Our first piece of news on our shiny new website!

It’s been many years since we changed our name, but now we’ve gone and done it again.

Earlier today VMS morphed into V2G. Vehicle Management Software Ltd. is now officially known as V2G Limited.