Project Better Place

CPR for the electric car 3

Project Better Place has a new take on jumpstarting the electrification of transportation: they've raised $200 million (about enough to buy, what, three fuel cell vehicles?) to start building infrastructure for charging and battery exchange stations.

That's just a down payment. If you play Internet Nancy Drew for a sec you will quickly find out that Israel Corp, a major investor, also has a stake in oil refineries, and 45 percent of Chery, the Chinese car company that keeps threatening to build electric cars. These guys are invested in the full value chain, and dollars to donuts they're leveraging much more value from partner companies than the measly $200 million. We are talking about a $6-10 trillion industry, after all, which tends to focus the mind and get people working together.

Do yourself a favor and check out the video. The vision is a transportation system powered by wind and sun. And a software exec (CEO and founder Shai Aggassi comes from SAP) is exactly the right person for the job.

We don't have an energy problem, we have an energy storage problem. When I listen to Agassi talk about developing software to manage the charging strategies of EV's flexible and mobile loads in a way that enhances integration of intermittent resources like solar and wind into the grid, I get a little weak in the knees.

Combine that with REC's announcement that it was building a 1.5 GW fully integrated solar manufacturing plant in Singapore, and the future seems much brighter indeed. Note that 1.5 GW was about the size of the entire world market in 2006.

The combination of cheap solar and millions of big batteries on the grid can mean only good things.

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  1. David Roberts's avatar

    David Roberts Posted 4:31 pm
    31 Oct 2007

    indeedWhen I listen to Agassi talk about developing software to manage the charging strategies of EV's flexible and mobile loads in a way that enhances integration of intermittent resources like solar and wind into the grid, I get a little weak in the knees.
    A man after my own heart.

    grist.org

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  2. theBike45 Posted 10:54 pm
    31 Oct 2007

    Birdbrained idea The overwhelming stupidity of this will-never-fly business plan is that it : 1) doesn't reduce the cost of batteries but does just the oppositie. Leasing offers no financial advantage, either now or down the road, when batteries would be covered by a 5 or 6 year car loan anyway. The other mistake is in assuming that a monopolistic system like this is planning to be, is providing an answer for a problem that's already been solved by GM and BYD, Fisker, etc by using a range extender engine to provide unlimited range (without stopping every couple hundred miles for a battery pack transplant. All-electric versus plug-ins with over 40 miles differ very little in terms of emissions reduction and crude oil avoidance, so one cannot claim much in the way of "planet saving" from this idea. Plug-ins accomplish over 90% of what an all-electric can accomplish.   There are tons of other problems with this scheme - when plug-ins arrive, public receptacles at office buildings, shopping malls, etc, etc, (usually free) will destroy any scheme such as this one from ever making any economic sense. Advancements in battery technolgy (quick recharge batteries) also doom this business plan.

    In fact, just about everything coming down the pike dooms this plan.

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  3. amazingdrx Posted 12:22 am
    01 Nov 2007

    DoomThe software to unite credit/debit card accounting with metering in the car charger that takes care of the financial end of distributed renewable power generation and storage is right around the corner.  
    And software to turn off and on appliances, and heating/cooling systems to store peak renewable power in your home.  Google is working on it.
    You will be able (well maybe not you) sell power into the grid from your home solar/wind/biogas fuel cell systems, and buy it back to recharge your plugin hybrid at work or school or shopping.  Or maybe even while driving, with an tuned inductive charge strip under the roadway.
    You want doom?  You got it with the status quo, keep guzzling that gas/oil/blood mixture and spewing it out as GHG and continuous war.

    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

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