The following article is obtained from here.

Québec Premier Philippe Couillard announced at the 2016 World Economic Forum in Davos, a research and development initiative between the Gouvernement of Québec, Hydro-Québec (with its subsidiary TM4), PSA Peugeot Citroën and Exagon Motors.

Their goal is to develop a new high-performance electric drivetrain that will be manufactured by TM4 in Québec.

“TM4 will act as the developer of the electric powertrain in the pre-development phase of the project.

During this process, TM4 will develop a new, highly efficient and high performance drivetrain. This system will be a state-of-the-art evolution of the TM4 MOTIVE series, consisting of permanent magnet electric motors and power electronics. Specifically designed for passenger cars and light-duty vehicles, these systems are effective turnkey solutions created expressively for electric vehicles. This new powertrain will be designed and manufactured at TM4’s headquarters in Boucherville, Quebec.”

The government promised $10 million (CAD) equity interest and a $6 million (CAD) loan for the project, while Hydro­Québec will contribute another $4 million (CAD). In total, the project will cost nearly $31 million (CAD) .

Our concerns of commercialization of the product arose when we found that the $31 million is only for a feasibility study, but hopefully companies like PSA will introduce some high-performance plug-in DS-series model using those drivetrains.

“The resulting joint venture will bring together PSA Peugeot Citroën, French SME Exagon Motors, Investissement Québec and Hydro-Québec subsidiary IndusTech. Its first mission will be to conduct a feasibility study for an estimated CAD 30.8 million. In an initial phase, the study could lead to the development of components for high-performance electric vehicles.”

“PSA Peugeot Citroën would lend its expertise in integrating the electric vehicle components, for which it would become the main customer for worldwide distribution.“

The Québec electric drivetrain project seems to have many supporters:

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said:

“My government intends to make Quebec a standard-bearer in the campaign to electrify transport. Our commitment to the project announced today and our 2015-2020 Transportation Electrification Action Plan are another milestone in the drive to develop the electric car sector, and they will help to spread a culture of innovation throughout Quebec.”

by Robert Rapier

I write about energy, the environment, and the economy.

This article is taken from here.

Many people talk about fossil fuels as if they are monolithic, but there are key differences between them that impact their outlook. Coal and natural gas are used primarily for heating and power production, but there are many competitors in this space. Not only do they compete with one another for supremacy in power production, but there are scalable non-fossil fuel alternatives like nuclear power which in theory could totally displace either or both from the market. Further, they compete against hydro-electricity (which actually supplies more power globally than nuclear power), and fast-growing renewables like wind and solar power. For these reasons I think coal’s days in particular are numbered.

Petroleum is in an entirely different category. It is used primarily for transportation, and it has held more than 90% of the transportation market for over 60 years. To date there have been no scalable, economic competitors in the transportation space:

Biofuels made a push in the 2nd half of the last decade, particularly in the U.S. as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandated more ethanol in the gasoline supply. But the 1 million barrel per day (bpd) global increase in biofuel consumption in the past decade was a drop in the bucket compared to the nearly 7 million barrel a day increase in crude oil consumption over that time period. Thus, despite claims from many that biofuels would be a crude oil killer, demand growth for crude oil has been remarkably consistent, rising by an average of 1 million bpd for more than 30 years:

Globally demand growth for crude oil has been consistent for >30 years.

This constant demand growth happened despite biofuels, conservation, higher fuel standards, skyrocketing crude oil prices, and carbon emission legislation — which was contrary to the expectations of those who have been predicting the end of the oil age for the past 2 decades or more.

That preamble brings me to the latest candidate to vie for the title of “crude oil killer.” This week Bloomberg published an article on electric vehicles (EVs) that made many of the same arguments biofuel proponents were using a decade ago: Another Oil Crash Is Coming, and There May Be No Recovery. The article starts by arguing that the present oil price crash is a result of 2 million bpd in excess crude capacity caused largely by the surge of U.S. shale oil production.

This article is taken from here.

Who among us hasn’t seen a drastic influx in the amount of business data related to our little corner of the world? At most mid-size and enterprise-level companies, there are obligations — if not requirements — to store that information. Are we also taking strides to make that data more searchable and discoverable?

The fact is, analytics is a process. It can be short (bordering on instantaneous) or drawn out, but it involves converting raw data into usable insight, and then using that insight to fuel game-changing decisions. On that road to performance, there are several steps, and it all starts with the accessibility and usability of data.

In Aberdeen Group’s recent report, Explore It, Don’t Just Store It: The Value of Searchable Data, the research highlighted companies that had taken that first step, but were also executing in other key areas of the analytical process, including:

• Better sharing and collaboration. The ability to create top-notch insight can be improved by bringing to bear wisdom and experience from multiple areas of the organization. Companies with a significant increase in searchable data were almost three times more likely to share data and knowledge across business functions.
• Broader analytical exposure. Beyond simply connecting data between functional areas of the company, another critical step is building deeper analytical activity and a data-driven culture within these different areas of the company. The research shows that companies with growth in searchable data also enjoyed a greater degree of analytical pervasiveness in key functional areas like sales, finance, and marketing.
• Technology diversity. The rapid expansion and evolution of analytical capabilities has allowed organizations to connect the right tools with the right user types. Those with a strong increase in searchable data are more likely to use some of the old mainstay business intelligence (BI) technologies like managed reporting and strategic dashboards, but also some of the more sophisticated tools like predictive analytics and interactive data visualization.

– See more at: http://techproessentials.com/data-spinning-straw-into-gold-with-analytics/#sthash.1PUAlqwf.dpuf

The following article can be obtained here.

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The charger built by researchers from Kettering University with support from HELLA, an automotive electronics company, and gallium-nitride power switches from GaN Systems. The new charger boasts a conversion efficiency of 97%, around 3% more than similar chargers, even though it works at lower power densities. (Image courtesy of GaN Systems).

As the falling price of gasoline helps to soften concerns about the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, researchers and semiconductor companies remain focused on advancing electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure behind them. Recently, the Advanced Power Electronics Lab (APEL) at Kettering University partnered with HELLA, an automotive electronics company, to develop a compact vehicle charger that makes a big step forward in efficiency.

The researchers built what is known as a Level 2 charger, which plugs into a wall outlet and converts electricity into a form more suitable for electric cars. What sets apart the new charger is an efficiency of 97%, more than 3% over the average for these chargers. The charger used power switches based on gallium-nitride transistors, wide bandgap semiconductors that operate at higher voltages and temperatures than silicon. With these components, supplied by GaN Systems, the charger achieved a 2.6 kW per hour power density.

While Level 2 chargers typically have higher power densities than the new model, their efficiency has stalled around 94%. Even though they require special charging equipment, Level 2 chargers add about 10 to 20 miles of range per hour of charging time, according to the Alternate Fuels Data Center, the energy department’s storehouse for electric vehicle data.

According to Dr. Kevin Bai, an associate professor of electrical engineering at Kettering University, the key to the charger’s efficiency is a special two-stage design. Unlike traditional three-stage versions, the new design allowed the researchers to make a lighter and more compact charger. Bai characterized the advance as a “game changer” in electric vehicle charging.

In a three-stage process, the charger converts ac grid voltage into dc voltage, inverts the dc into high-frequency ac, and then rectifying ac to dc again to charge the car’s battery. Bai says each stage of this process results in about a 2% power loss.

In addition to Level 2 chargers, there are also Level 1 chargers that add about 2 to 5 miles of range to an electric vehicle per hour of charging time. Also available are dc fast chargers, like the models used by Tesla Motors and Nissan, which can add roughly 50 to 70 miles of range in about 20 minutes, according to the Alternate Fuels Data Center. Tesla Superchargers can apparently provide 170 miles of range in about a half hour, delivering up to 120 kW of dc power directly to the battery, according to the company’s website.

The research between HELLA and Kettering University began last year, as the automobile industry prepared for a new wave of advances in electric vehicles. Earlier this year at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, automotive companies unveiled new long-range electric vehicles, like the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt, which the company claims can drive more than 200 miles on a single charge.

While advances in rechargeable batteries and design have made electric vehicles more competitive with traditional cars, the charging infrastructure has been the subject of equally intense research. In 2015, for instance, Bai worked with Derindere Motorlu Araclar (DMA), a Turkish automotive company based in Istanbul that is focused on developing electric vehicles. They developed a prototype three-phase 380-volt, 24 kW charger, a huge step over existing 3.3kW or 6.6kW on-board chargers.