Tag Archives: LBNL

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Storm Francis Follows Hot on the Heels of Ellen

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At the moment I’m too busy writing about the seemingly never ending sequence of power cuts due to “extreme weather” events to wax lyrical about developments in vehicle-to-grid technology!

In California the heat wave is over and rolling blackouts a thing of the past, for the moment at least. However the wildfires continue, and the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory is temporarily closed:

Meanwhile in the Gulf of Mexico tropical storms Laura and Marco are simultaneously heading for the Louisiana coast. Laura is forecast to be a hurricane by the time she gets there, with Marco being merely an ex hurricane by landfall later today.

Now this morning comes news that hot on the heels of Storm Ellen last week, which caused many tens of thousands of properties in Ireland to suffer a power cut, the United Kingdom’s Meteorological Office has named Storm Francis:

Further power cuts are expected in the near future, on the shores of both the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic! Here is the local wind forecast for the V2G Group office in (Silic)Inny Valley, North Cornwall, courtesy of MeteoCiel:

Please note that this forecast is for the peak of the post 2020 Covid-19 lockdown Cornish staycation season, not the middle of winter!


[Edit – August 25th 08:00]

As the winds from Storm Francis increase over South West England let’s take a quick look at current and projected electricity generation for today:

Plus today’s Octopus Energy Agile electricity tariff for South West England:

and the United Kingdom’s carbon intensity forecast:

[Edit – August 25th 22:00]

Here’s an image of Storm Francis over the British Isles recorded earlier today by the Suomi satellite:

California Invests $2.3 million in V2G Technology

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The California Energy Commission have announced that they have awarded:

A $2.3 million contract to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will help fund demonstration of an all-electric, heavy duty, non-tactical vehicle-to-grid (V2G) fleet at Moffett Field near San Jose. The vehicles will explore the revenue-generating capability of V2G technology to participate in California’s electricity markets, where the vehicles can both get charged by the grid and send energy back to the grid to help meet demand.

The money comes from the Energy Commission’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP)

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.