What to Consider When Planning for Electric Vehicles

Date: 30 Jul 2018 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In the coming years, as electric vehicle ownership and charging infrastructure grow, communities and the energy system will be transformed. This month, we submitted comments to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to inform a regulatory process on accommodating the expansion of electric vehicle use.… Read More

Get Charged Up About Drive Electric Week

Date: 11 Sep 2017 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

This Drive Electric Week, join ILSR in celebrating the rise of the electric vehicle and the opportunity it presents to modernize the grid, empower consumers, and benefit communities. Below, we invite you to explore our recent work on electric vehicles and energy democracy. (You can also find our full report, Choosing the Electric Avenue — Unlocking Savings, Emissions Reductions, and Community Benefits of Electric Vehicles here.)… Read More

Slow-to-Accelerate EV Charging Program Provides Lessons for Improvement

Date: 12 Jul 2017 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Minnesota’s largest investor-owned utility, Xcel Energy, last month reported sparse participation in a program designed to deliver value to customers who charge their electric vehicles when it’s most convenient for the grid. But despite its benefits for the grid and cost savings for customers, the initiative appears stuck in neutral.

By April 2017, a year and a half after its launch, just 95 Xcel customers had opted in to the state-mandated electric vehicle charging tariff. With nearly 1,000 plug-in vehicles registered to Minnesota drivers — a bulk of them likely in Xcel’s metro-area territory — participation numbers hover well below reasonable expectations. Why?… Read More

Will All New Vehicles Be Electric By 2030? One Expert Says Yes — Episode 46 of Local Energy Rules Podcast

Date: 12 Jun 2017 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

That’s exactly what entrepreneur and lecturer Tony Seba argues in his book, Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation. His multi-pronged predictions include: all new energy will be provided by solar or wind, all new mass-market vehicles will be electric, and all of these vehicles will be self-driving or semi-autonomous — by 2030, or maybe sooner.

Seba explained his breathtaking vision in a recent conversation with John Farrell, who leads the Energy Democracy Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. He pointed to a series of factors, including falling energy storage costs and fast-moving innovation in the auto and renewables industries, that he says will reinvent day-to-day life in America.… Read More

Report: Choosing the Electric Avenue – Unlocking Savings, Emissions Reductions, and Community Benefits of Electric Vehicles

Date: 7 Jun 2017 | posted in: Energy, Energy Self Reliant States | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

The U.S. vehicle market will undergo a massive technology disruption from electric vehicles in the coming decades. Many analysts see the potential for surging sales of these efficient vehicles to enable smart grid management, but few have explored the local impact of electric vehicles: promoting energy democracy. Electric vehicles offer a natural use for solar energy, a pathway to pump more local solar power onto the grid, and a source of resilient power when the grid goes down. Ultimately, electric vehicles are another tool to miniaturize the electricity system, providing unprecedented local control.
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Kicking Our Oil Addiction: Minnesota Becomes First State to Endorse an Electric-Alcohol Strategy

Date: 8 Jun 2006 | posted in: Energy, Press Release | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – June 8, 2006 Contact: David Morris, 612-276-3456, dmorris@ilsr.org Kicking Our Oil Addiction:  Minnesota Becomes First State to Endorse an Electric-Alcohol Strategy Minneapolis, MN – Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has signed into law H.F. 3718, the nation’s first law promoting plug-in hybrid, flexible-fueled vehicles. The legislation – inspired by the Institute for Local … Read More