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Monthly Archives: January 2016
Turning over a new leaf: Electric vehicle carbon emissions
Published Tue, 2016.01.19 | By
The original article can be found here
A few times a year, a news story appears about electric vehicles having high carbon emissions, throwing doubt onto electric vehicles’ ability to play a major part in any low-carbon transportation future. With the New Year still young, let’s resolve to assess the data, get to the bottom of things, and stay well informed on all our low-carbon technology options.
Electric versus gasoline vehicles
Stories like this one highlight how power from coal-fired generating facilities partially powers electric vehicles, suggesting that clean electric vehicles are not quite here yet. That story focused on the Netherlands, which gets about 29% of its electricity from coal. And it’s true that coal-generated power flows through the electricity grid most everywhere. But the story could have done a much better job in answering the real question, which is whether (and where) electric vehicles are cleaner than their non-EV counterparts.
Luckily, there is a lot of data available to answer that question. The case of the U.S., where the electricity supply is even more coal-dependent in many areas than in the Netherlands, is quite instructive. A recent Union of Concerned Scientists study added up the carbon emissions through the vehicle life cycle and estimated U.S. vehicle carbon emissions as averaging 68 miles per gallon fuel economy equivalent, about two and a half times better than average gasoline cars. In places like California, the Pacific Northwest, and New York, where coal is a relatively small proportion of the energy mix, EVs were even cleaner. Even in regions of the country that are still big coal users, electric vehicles handily beat the average car on carbon emissions. This is true because electric vehicles are typically 3 to 5 times more efficient in using energy than combustion vehicles.
We took a look at the recent US EPA “eGrid” data on electricity generation carbon emissions. Then we combined this with data on where new electric vehicles are registered state-by-state. The figure below shows carbon emissions versus the percentage of electricity generation from fossil fuel sources for each state. The size of the bubbles represents electric vehicle sales in 2014. California is highest with almost 60,000 vehicles, and the other top-10 electric vehicle sales markets are also labeled. We use electric vehicle efficiency of 0.3 kWh per mile, which is the efficiency of the popular Nissan Leaf, and include factors like transmission losses and upstream energy emissions as EPA does.
Electric vehicle carbon emissions and fossil fuel energy source (and electric vehicle sales as size of bubbles), compared to gasoline vehicles in the U.S.
What we see, quite clearly, is that electric vehicles’ average carbon emissions tend to vary with the amount of fossil fuel (mostly coal and natural gas) in a state’s electricity generation mix, but they are reliably lower than conventional gasoline vehicles. The chart also plots various US average gasoline vehicles from US EPA “Trends” and fueleconomy.govdata. Based on these data, the average U.S. electric vehicle has about 60% lower carbon emissions than the comparable 34-mpg conventional vehicle and about 70% lower emissions than the average 28 mpg car. And another way to show how much cleaner electric vehicles are than conventional cars is by comparison to highest-mpg gasoline-only car – theestimated 56-mpg 2016 Toyota Prius. Considering that light trucks are now over half of US light-duty vehicle sales, the average 20 mpg light truck is shown for context. As shown, the average U.S. light truck emits about twice as much carbon per mile driven as a Nissan Leaf in the states that have the highest coal generation.
Getting cleaner with age
Beyond already having lower emissions from the start, electric vehicles are the only vehicles that get substantially cleaner with age. How is this possible? Whereas conventional vehicles must burn whatever the oil industry refines and delivers to fuel pumps, with some ethanol blended in, electric vehicles are powered by a dynamic electric grid that keeps shifting to lower-carbon energy sources. The grid continues to get cleaner, shifting to more renewable sources, due to states’ renewable power regulations, carbon trading schemes (like RGGI and California’s), and, going forward, the federal Clean Power Plan. Of course, there are places that are also working to de-carbonize the vehicle fuel supply with low-carbon biofuels too, but the grid is de-carbonizing much quicker.
So the grid itself is turning over a new leaf. The primary energy generation that is transmitted on the U.S. electric grid, the world’s second largest, is shifting one power plant, wind farm, and solar array at a time. The data in the figure below from U.S. EIA show how, in just seven years, the U.S. grid has (1) reduced its share from coal by about a third, (2) increased its share from natural gas by 60%, and (3) steadily increased its share of low-carbon renewable plus nuclear power. The changes are coming fast enough that even the analysis and figure above (and really all other analysis) does not yet incorporate the lower 2015 CO2 emissions yet. Furthermore, as pointed out elsewhere, electric vehicles will enable and accelerate ever further greening of the grid.
U.S. electricity generation from 2008 through September 2015
Perhaps society at large is turning over a new leaf on electric vehicles. Consumers in many markets are increasingly turning to EVs. Electric vehicle sales are about double in 2015 versus 2014 in auto markets like China, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. And while electric vehicle sales are up, the grid emissions keeping getting lower.
So let’s resolve to track how this trend continues to keep further cleaning up electric vehicles’ already-low emissions. Perhaps we are all closer to accepting that electric-drive vehicles are not just the future’s low-carbon transportation option, but are also the lowest carbon option available in today’s vehicles.
Perhimpunan Bulanan Bersama NC 2016
TARIKH PERHIMPUNAN BULANAN 2016
Tempat : Dewan Sultan Iskandar Johor Bahru
Dewan Utama, UTM Kuala Lumpur
Masa : 8.00 pagi
Your face is mapped on the surface of other people’s brains
This article is taken from here
A map for other people’s faces has been discovered in the brain. It could help explain why some of us are better at recognising faces than others.
Every part of your body that you can move or feel is represented in the outer layer of your brain. These “maps”, found in the motor and sensory cortices (see diagram, below), tend to preserve the basic spatial layout of the body – neurons that represent our fingers are closer to neurons that represent our arms than our feet, for example.
The same goes for other people’s faces, says Linda Henriksson at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. Her team scanned 12 people’s brains while they looked at hundreds of images of noses, eyes, mouths and other facial features and recorded which bits of the brain became active.
This revealed a region in the occipital face area in which features that are next to each other on a real face are organised together in the brain’s representation of that face. The team have called this map the “faciotopy”.
The occipital face area is a region of the brain known to be involved in general facial processing. “Facial recognition is so fundamental to human behaviour that it makes sense that there would be a specialised area of the brain that maps features of the face,” she says.
Alhamdulillah – Final report submitted
Since July 2015, the Master of Software Engineering Full Time students batch 11 were sent to various companies in the city for their Industrial Attachment program. I supervised two students- Farah and Husna.
Alhamdulillah after presenting their initial proposals and their final work, they have officially submitted their reports to the School. Congrats to all.
Today we managed to meet up for a while. Yaz and his student Syafick were also there. Ahmed is missing here. He must be busy getting ready to go back to Iraq.
We would like to wish all our students the best of luck in their future undertakings.
May Allah bless all of you.
The Sultan Mosque
Le Québec roule vers une expertise de pointe en voiture électrique
Following the Davos World Economic Forum, the Philippe Couillard, the prime minister of Quebec announced the distribution of 16 Million Canadian dollars towards the initiative in the domain of components for high performance electric vehicle. This investment will support the partnership of PSA Peugeot Citroen, France with Exagon Motor, Investissement Quebec and IndusTech, Canada.
Original article at this link
Création d’une co-entreprise franco-québécoise pour développer des composants de véhicules électriques.
En marge du Forum économique mondial de Davos, le premier ministre du Québec, Philippe Couillard, accompagné du ministre de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et des Exportations, Jacques Daoust, et du ministre de l’Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique du Canada, l’honorable Navdeep Bains, a annoncé l’attribution d’un soutien financier de 16 millions de dollars canadiens afin d’appuyer la réalisation au Québec, en partenariat avec PSA Peugeot Citroën, Exagon Motors, Investissement Québec et IndusTech, une filiale d’Hydro-Québec, d’une initiative innovante de recherche et développement visant le partage d’expertise dans le domaine des composants pour véhicules électriques haute performance.
L’apport gouvernemental consiste en une prise de participation de 10 millions de dollars et en un prêt de 6 millions de dollars. À ces sommes s’ajoute une contribution d’Hydro-Québec de 4 millions de dollars, en plus des services offerts par sa filiale TM4 pour le développement d’une motorisation électrique.
« Mon gouvernement entend faire du Québec un chef de file en matière d’électrification des transports. Notre engagement dans le projet annoncé aujourd’hui et le Plan d’action en électrification des transports 2015-2020 constituent un pas de plus dans le développement du secteur de l’auto électrique et permettront d’étendre la culture d’innovation au Québec », a affirmé le premier ministre Philippe Couillard.
La coentreprise ainsi formée compte PSA Peugeot Citroën, la PME française Exagon Motors, Investissement Québec ainsi qu’IndusTech, la filiale d’Hydro-Québec, agissant comme actionnaires. Son premier mandat sera de réaliser une étude de préfaisabilité estimée à 30,8 millions de dollars. Cette étude pourrait mener, dans un premier temps, au développement de composants pour véhicules électriques haute performance.
« Le gouvernement du Canada est résolu à promouvoir l’innovation au sein de l’économie canadienne et à faire valoir son rôle visant à encourager les nouveaux investissements, l’exportation et la croissance. Le soutien financier accordé à la coentreprise formée de PSA Peugeot Citroën, Exagon Motors, Investissement Québec et Hydro-Québec, est un exemple probant que nous sommes déterminés à soutenir les entreprises qui misent sur l’innovation et la collaboration » a déclaré l’honorable Navdeep Bains, ministre de l’Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique.
« Ce projet est une retombée concrète de notre mission à Londres en 2014, au cours de laquelle j’ai pu rencontrer cette compagnie prometteuse afin de l’attirer au Québec. Notre appui à cette initiative est une occasion de croissance unique pour la filière québécoise des véhicules électriques. Elle permettra au Québec et à ses entreprises d’acquérir une expertise de pointe auprès d’acteurs clés du secteur automobile mondial et engendrera des retombées économiques pour l’ensemble du Québec », a déclaré le ministre Jacques Daoust.
PSA Peugeot Citroën apporterait son expertise pour l’intégration automobile de ces composants, dont il deviendrait le principal client pour la diffusion mondiale. Carlos Tavares, président du directoire, a ainsi souligné que « cet accord avec Investissement Québec, Exagon Motors et Hydro-Québec démontre l’agilité de notre groupe à saisir toutes les occasions qui contribuent à renforcer son avance technologique. Ce partenariat souligne également l’intérêt de notre entreprise pour le développement de composants pour véhicules hybrides et électriques de haute performance. »
Exagon Motors, pionnier des chaînes de traction électrique à haute performance, conçoit, assemble et met au point des véhicules électriques de compétition et développe des plateformes technologiques innovantes pour différents fabricants d’équipement d’origine (OEM). « Je me réjouis à l’avance de ce partenariat unique qui nous permettra de proposer une technologie qui réconcilie performance et environnement, et où le plaisir et la passion pour l’automobile seront présents. Cette formidable aventure, qui a pris naissance entre les murs d’Exagon, se concrétise grâce à la détermination sans faille de chaque partenaire, notamment PSA Peugeot Citroën et Investissement Québec, ce dernier ayant été un véritable catalyseur pour le projet », a ajouté Luc Marchetti, président d’Exagon Motors.
« Hydro-Québec est heureuse de soutenir un projet concret dans le secteur de l’électrification des transports, une priorité pour notre entreprise. Nous sommes très actifs dans ce secteur avec notamment le Circuit électrique, notre réseau de recharge public, et nos technologies de pointe développées à l’Institut de recherche d’Hydro-Québec. L’intérêt d’un grand constructeur comme PSA Peugeot Citroën pour les produits de TM4 témoigne de leur qualité et de leur réputation enviable à l’échelle internationale », a mentionné Éric Martel, président-directeur général d’Hydro-Québec.
Borang Anak Cemerlang bagi tahun 2015 – Majlis Anjuran WANGI UTM KL
Semua Ahli WANGI UTMKL
Merujuk kepada perkara di atas,
WANGI UTM KL akan meraikan anak- anak yang cemerlang akademik dalam satu majlis yang dijangka akan diadakan pada bulan Februari 2016.
Sehubungan dengan itu, sukacita dimaklumkan kepada semua ahli WANGI UTM KL yang mempunyai anak-anak cemerlang dan memenuhi kriteria serta syarat-syarat tersebut bolehlah mengisi borang seperti seperti dilampiran Borang-Anak-Cemerlang1 (1). Syarat dan kreteria terkandung dalam borang tersebut.
Borang yang telah lengkap diisi hendakalah dikembalikan bersama salinan sijil akademik yang telah disahkan benar kepada :
BIRO AKADEMIK:
Puan Kahiruzilah Khalil
03-2203 1359Puan Latifah Ismail
03-2203 1359Puan Latifah Ismail
03-2615 4856
Sekian, Terima kasih
– fauziah
b.p. Pengerusi WANGI UTM KL
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