Open Source Affordable Charging Solutions Read new article in Current EVents / May 2013, page 18-19, 21: "Open Source Affordable Charging Solutions", focusing on new JuiceBox Fundraising KickStarter campaign and the Maker Faire 2013.
As awareness increases around climate change, more families and individuals are seeking a greener lifestyle. Do you want to reduce your carbon footprint? If so, two key areas to explore in reducing carbon emissions are your transportation habits and your home. That’s because together, transportation and housing account for more than half of an individual’s carbon footprint within the U.S. The easiest ways to reduce your carbon emissions associated with transportation are to fly less (that’s easy these days!) and drive electric. On the energy savings side, you can go green without building a new house. There are numerous energy efficiency and smart home energy performance upgrades you can make to your existing house to have a positive impact on the environment and help in efforts to reduce climate change. The affordability and complexity of these approaches may vary, but there are many simple, quick, and affordable ways to turn your home into an energy efficient smart home. This passive house design in New Brunswick, Canada is a smart, eco-friendly dream home you can take inspiration from. This article will explain key sustainable design concepts, such as the passive homes and smart homes, and highlight sustainable passive house design elements of the Scoudouc River Passive House. What is a passive house? A passive home leverages passive building principles to attain a high level of energy performance and building comfort. The concept of passive building dates back to antiquity. Ancient civilizations took advantage of thermal elements, such as the direction and angle of the sun, or materials used within a building, to provide natural heating and cooling without the use of electricity. Of course this was an essential need since electricity did not exist! Over the last two decades, as more people have become interested in improving home energy efficiency and their ecological footprint, the idea of passive housing has returned with renewed popularity and is widely practiced today. In this type of structure, the passive movement of air within a home is optimized to maintain thermal comfort with minimal space conditioning or heating required. A common example of passive design principle is a solarium designed to face south towards the equator, to provide natural passive heating. Low-energy heating can also be accomplished with high insulation, high performance windows, and air-tight enclosures to prevent heat transfer. Passive house principles can be applied to all building types, from single-family homes, to multi-family apartments, to office buildings and even skyscrapers. What is a smart home? Savvy homeowners are upgrading their existing home appliances with smart, WiFi connected devices to take charge of their energy savings. In smart homes, green technology is often a core design principle where nearly every element of the home, such as the thermostat, refrigerator, lighting, blinds, and EV charger, are all digitally connected. Smart devices allow homeowners to monitor and control their energy consumption. They also typically provide scheduling and automation features to make users’ lives easier while improving energy efficiency. More and more, homeowners and tenants expect to have the convenience of managing their everyday appliances through their phones. Whether it’s home energy consumption, security, or health, people today appreciate the benefits of ease, control, sustainability and access to useful data. This trend of utilizing technology to improve home life has been progressing for decades with the growth of the Internet-of-Things. Once inspired by early adopters and tech geeks, now mainstream residents seek digital connectivity and want to be able to say, “Hey Google, turn off the lights.” The green dream: Off-grid solar + storage + EV charging The dream of a green home continues to increase. A recent National Realtors’ Association survey found that nearly 70% of homebuyers prefer sustainable, efficient homes. The Scoudouc River Passive House in Shediac, New Brunswick, Canada, is a dream green home. It was designed by Lise Fournier - Filo plus, built by Riko Homes, and engineered by HAVEN. The 2,600 square foot home (with a 1,300 square foot mezzanine!) was completed for the LeBlanc family in under 10 months. The family and the team of designers and builders are passionate about green building. “We really pushed for the most energy efficient envelope, which was principle to our design,” said Richard LeBlanc. “The building is as energy efficient as possible, which makes a lot of sense and the payback period is relatively short.” The certified passive house has been outfitted with passive solar design and passive heating. The home is a 100% off-grid passive house that gets its energy from an array of 20 kW solar panels, 100 kW lithium-ion battery system, and a geothermal heat pump. Despite harsh Canadian weather conditions, the house stays warm and comfortable year-round due to its passive design that controls ventilation and heat loss. The energy used comes from 100% off-grid clean energy sources. This is the passive house standard. The family outfitted their garage with two Enel X JuiceBox Smart EV Chargers, each with their own 50-amp circuit and breaker, to have ready for the Tesla Cybertruck they have ordered. They are particularly excited about the scheduling feature, which allows them to schedule the timing of vehicle charging with times when there is ample energy available, such as in the middle of the day when production from solar panels often peaks. Enel X data shows that a popular hour to charge is between 11-12am , during off-peak energy hours. Another key smart EV charging feature the family plans to take advantage of is load balancing. If more than one electric vehicle is plugged in at a time and needs to charge, load balancing enables JuiceBox customers to reduce and cap total EV charging load. With load balancing, you can control the amount of energy delivered to the vehicle so that it does not exceed a certain amount of kilowatts. Smart home features The home uses a wide variety of smart home appliances, listed below: Lighting and Shades LEDs + Lutron Controls, wifi enabled Window Technology Vetta Tilt and Turn European Windows Ventilation Alnor PremAir 450, auto relative humidity and CO2 controls Voice Controls Google Home + Amazon Alexa light switches Smart Speakers Sonos Door Deadbolts and Garage Doors WiFi-enabled EV Charging Enel X JuiceBox Home EV Chargers TV Harmony Software, WiFi-enabled Camera Dahua Technology Doorbell Dahua WiFi Video doorbell Garden Controls Exterior lights and exterior speakers Fireplace Renaissance Linear 50 Wood Burning Fireplace Kitchen / Bath Water Appliances Riobel Get more info about the sustainable design elements of this eco-friendly home and see pictures. Download Case Study
How RECs and carbon offsets can help decarbonize systems Study after study confirms that electric cars are much cleaner than internal-combustion vehicles. For example, the Union of Concerned Scientists recently verified that the average gas car produces up to seven times the average electric vehicle emissions. That’s based on a new gasoline car getting an optimistic 31 mpg. While electric vehicles don’t produce any local emissions, an EV’s exact carbon footprint is dependent on the local grid’s energy mix. In many parts of the country, the grid is getting cleaner and greener every day. But it’s likely to take another decade or two before most regions rely on 100% renewable power. Even if you don’t get 100% of your energy from a renewable source, you can still achieve zero emission vehicles and transportation. That’s achievable with JuiceEco, a clean energy solution from Enel X that enables EV owners to purchase Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) that match the electricity used to charge their electric cars. With a single click, EV drivers can purchase that number of JuiceEco renewable credits that correspond to the energy usage required to power their driving. Voila! An Overview of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and Carbon Offsets Governments, companies, organizations, and everyday folks alike are trying to curb their carbon emissions to mitigate climate change and provide environmental benefits. Over 90% of Fortune 500 companies now report their greenhouse gas emissions, and many are pledging to achieve carbon neutrality, with Amazon promising to be carbon neutral by 2040, Microsoft committing to be carbon negative by 2030, and Shell targeting net-zero emissions by 2050. These businesses have developed comprehensive strategies to hit their sustainability targets by cutting fossil fuels and resorting to more clean energy solutions. One strategy, used by businesses as well as individuals looking to reduce their carbon footprint, is to leverage carbon offsets or renewable energy certificates, both of which help cancel out greenhouse gas emissions These tools can support consumers and businesses in achieving their climate goals and help enable the growth of renewables and clean energy. Any EV driver interested in reducing their carbon footprint and making their electric transportation even greener may want to consider taking advantage of carbon offsets and Renewable Energy Credits. What Is a Carbon Offset? A carbon offset represents the act of reducing, avoiding, destroying, or sequestering the equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Those reductions happen in one place to offset carbon emissions taking place somewhere elsewhere. In other words, it’s indirect. You can invest in a decrease in emissions anywhere in the world to cancel out your carbon footprint. A carbon offset is a useful but imperfect solution. It’s the means by which a business, government, or individual essentially pays somebody else to remove a given quantity of greenhouse gas emissions. A carbon offset is usually measured in terms of metric tons of CO2. It can take the form of financing a wind turbine, providing solar panel solutions in developing nations, or planting trees. There is no fixed price on carbon for carbon offsets, but they can be purchased through specialty providers or via programs offered by companies, such as airlines. It's critical to buy carbon offsets from providers who use third-party certification companies (often non-profits) to ensure that funds go to legitimate and effective carbon-reducing projects. As Vox writer Umair Irfan summarizes: "At its core, an offset is an accounting mechanism. It's a way of balancing the scales on pollution." What Are Renewable Energy Credits? Whereas carbon offsets can come in many different forms and are measured in metric tons, a Renewable Energy Credit or Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) represents a prescribed megawatt-hour of renewable energy added to the grid. It’s a specific, measurable unit. Every renewable energy certificate comes with a unique ID number, which is used for tracking. This ensures the investor knows where his or her energy comes from and that no one else can use that purchased REC. The REC(s) must be used by the purchaser and cannot be resold. RECs are a natural fit for EV drivers seeking to minimize their carbon footprint. After all, purchasing a renewable energy credit ensures that a megawatt-hour of renewable energy is added to the grid. Not every individual or business can install solar panel solutions. And not every region of the United States benefits from hydro-electric green power like the Pacific Northwest or abundant wind in Texas and solar energy across the southwest. But an EV driver who plugs in a car will likely want to know about the source of the electricity. It could be powered by a mix of solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, natural gas, or coal. However, RECs come in the form of a third-party verified certificate that confirms with certainty that renewable energy is generated on the purchaser's behalf. RECs support the growth of renewables by helping to fund a renewable energy project and demonstrate customer demand for renewables, which is critical for the industry’s growth. Enel X offers a shopping-cart experience to purchase RECs based on a specific amount of energy consumed by an EV for a set number of miles. Enel X's JuiceEco Green-e renewable certificates are administered by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions (CRS). The San Francisco-based organization certifies that the renewable is generated from new facilities, marketed with complete transparency, and delivered to the purchaser, who has the sole exclusive title. JuiceEco: How It Works Enel X is the only home EV charging provider that provides renewable energy credits. Purchasing a JuiceEco REC could not be easier. The process starts by visiting the Enel X online store. Do you want to put 10,000 miles' worth of renewable energy into the grid? Then use the dropdown menu to purchase a "10,000 mile, 3,400-kilowatt-hour certificate." Add the $30 certificate to the cart and check out. The math is straightforward. Let's say your electric car travels about 3 miles per kilowatt-hour. If you purchase 3,400 kWh, that means you are contributing enough renewable energy to the grid for 10,200 miles of pure green electricity. (Many EVs get closer to 4 miles per kWh, but you get the idea.) Suppose that you want to cover at least 15,000 miles of zero-emission driving. Then select the $45 REC, which invests in 5,100 kWh of renewable energy. Or go the extra distance of 20,000 zero-emission miles with a $60 REC covering 6,800 kilowatt-hours of carbon-free energy. These REC purchases represent the final piece of an unassailable three-part, ultra-green electric driving strategy. First, drive less. Second, when you need to motor to a destination, drive an EV. And finally, buy those Green-e-backed JuiceEco certificates. With JuiceEco certificates, you can rest assured that you're doing as much as you can to reduce your carbon footprint while still getting around. Find out more about JuiceEco and Renewable Energy Certificates Get More Info
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Electric vehicles are often dubbed “zero-emission.” You’ve probably seen the phrase sported on the back of a new Tesla. But are electric cars really zero emissions? In this article, we will dig into what it means for a vehicle to be zero emissions, and how electric vehicle drivers can go beyond zero-emission to truly decarbonize their transportation. Are Electric Vehicles Really Zero Emission? The short answer is yes. An electric vehicle does not have tailpipe emissions or an exhaust system, so zero emissions are coming from the back of an EV. This means they do not emit local pollutants such as volatile organic compounds, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, ozone, and lead. And yet, a car’s energy must come from somewhere. In most cases, electric cars pull energy from the power grid, just like any appliance in your home. In this scenario, the amount of carbon emissions required to power an electric vehicle depends on two things: 1) The efficiency of the engine and 2) The electricity mix provided by the local power operator. When it comes to efficiency, traditional internal combustion engines (ICE) don’t hold a candle to battery-powered engines (BPE). BPEs are over 4X more efficient than ICEs. They convert between 60 – 77% of the energy available, compared to gas cars, which only convert 21 – 40% of the available energy. This fact alone makes EVs much cleaner than a traditional vehicle. Given these efficiency advantages, the average EV in the US produces global warming pollution equal to a gasoline vehicle that gets 88 miles per gallon fuel economy. That’s significantly better than the most efficient gas car available in the United States, which gets 58 miles to the gallon. Now let’s consider the second factor in determining the carbon emissions of an EV: the electricity mix of powering the vehicle. What we mean by electricity mix is the mix of electricity sources powering the electric grid in your community. Depending how much renewable energy is in that mix, an electric car’s emissions will vary. Nationally, the US gets around 17% of its energy from renewables, a number that is increasing steadily. And in some regions of the US, the grid is already extremely clean. For instance, Washington state, which relies heavily on hydropower as an electricity source, gets around 90% of its electricity from renewable resources. The more renewables you have in your local electricity mix, the cleaner your electric vehicle will be. Many utilities and cooperatives now offer options enabling their customers to choose whether to source all or a percentage of their electricity from renewable sources. Two Ways to Drive Even Cleaner We’ve established that EVs are much cleaner to drive than a traditional gas car, but if you want to minimize your ecological footprint as much as possible (which we highly encourage!), there are two ways you can eliminate the emissions associated with your transportation: 1) Power your car with onsite renewables Some EV drivers have rooftop solar that powers their home and EV charging. If your solar is sized sufficiently to power your electric vehicle, you can truly claim that your transportation is zero emission. 2) Power your car with JuiceEco We worked closely with our sustainability and product development team to develop JuiceEco, a new way for EV drivers to match the energy consumption of their electric vehicle with renewable energy from Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). With a small investment ($30/year for a person that drives 10,0000 miles), you can purchase a 3400-kWh certificate that will help add more renewable energy to the grid and gets credited towards your vehicle’s energy consumption. The result? Zero emission driving. A Word on the Future The grid gets cleaner every day. As a result, every EV on the road produces fewer emissions than it once did. The percentage of electricity generated from coal decreased from 2008 to 2018 in 49 states. Notably, California (which is home to the most EVs) passed its 33% renewable energy target two years before the 2020 deadline. The state’s next renewable milestone is 44% renewables by 2024 and 60% by 2030. These trends bode well as California is set to increase EV adoption to 100 percent by 2040, and ban gas car sales by 2035. The state’s Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate and gas car sales ban will ensure a shift to battery-powered vehicles. Nearly 20 other states follow the same ZEV rules. By the time EVs start to dominate our roadways, the vast majority of electricity used to charge them will be delivered from renewable sources. We’re looking forward to a future where all emissions – whether from transportation, buildings, or power generation – come out to net zero. Want to learn more about how Enel X is making electric vehicles even greener with JuiceEco? Get More Info
Aarhus - Rome, December 15th, 2020 - Vestas Wind Systems A/S, a world leader in sustainable energy solutions, signed a partnership with Enel X, the Enel Group’s advanced energy services business line, to accelerate the electrification of its company fleet. Through the agreement, Enel X will be providing Vestas with the required charging infrastructure to electrify its corporate fleet across its most prominent service markets. "This new agreement marks another fruitful step in the collaboration between Vestas and the Enel Group,” said Francesco Venturini, CEO of Enel X. “Enel X’s key role as a technology leader in the electric mobility sector keeps on boosting the e-Mobility Revolution, and will support Vestas on the journey towards its ambitious sustainability goals, as well as further promoting electric mobility as one of the true enablers of the zero-emission future towards which the two companies have been working together for a long time." “If we are to succeed with the energy transition across a global scale, industry leaders have a duty to implement the change we want to see,” said Anders Nielsen, Chief Technology Officer at Vestas. “One of our key goals at Vestas is to enable more sustainable energy systems by supporting the increased deployment of renewable energy beyond power and into the transport sector. By joining forces with Enel X, we can proudly demonstrate this process of deployment across our own global footprint, and help pave the way for a more sustainable future.” Enel X will provide Vestas with a cloud-based charging platform solution, and 370 charging stations. The charging stations will be comprised of JuiceBoxes, enabling mobile e-vehicle charging, and JuicePoles, enabling the charging of two vehicles at the same time through an RFI card or App. The charging network will support Vestas’ service and benefit car fleets across workplace locations in 15 of Vestas’ largest markets, spanning Europe and the Americas. The collaboration marks a key step in Vestas’ journey towards retiring conventional vehicles by 2025, and forms part of Vestas’ commitment to becoming carbon neutral, without the use of offsets by 2030, as part of its broader sustainability ambitions. Once the transition to electric vehicles is complete, Vestas anticipates more than one third of its scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions to be displaced. In addition, Vestas and Enel X have committed to leveraging their extensive resources as industry leaders in a joint effort to explore new innovations that will advance the energy transition. Both companies will begin an effort to identify opportunities to collaborate on developing innovations across e-mobility, grid integration and sector coupling. About Vestas Vestas is the energy industry’s global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service wind turbines across the globe, and with more than 122 GW of wind turbines in 82 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled more than 108 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas’ more than 25,500 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future. We invite you to learn more about Vestas by visiting our website at www.vestas.com and following us on our social media channels: Twitter: @Vestas LinkedIn: @Vestas Facebook: @Vestas Instagram: @Vestas YouTube: @Vestas About Enel X Enel X is Enel's global business line dedicated to the development of innovative products and digital solutions in sectors where energy is showing the greatest potential for transformation: cities, homes, industries and electric mobility. The company is a global leader in the advanced energy solution sector, managing services such as demand response for over 6 GW of total capacity at global level and around 116 MW of storage capacity installed worldwide, as well as a leading player in the electric mobility sector, with around 140,000 public and private EV charging points made available around the globe. Innovation and sustainability are at the heart of Enel X’s strategy since its inception, with circular economy being the perfect combination of these two elements, applied in many of Enel X’s products and services. Discover more on www.enelx.com and follow Enel X on social media channels: Twitter: @EnelXChargingNA LinkedIn: @EnelX Facebook: @EnelXNorthAmerica Instagram: @EnelXChargingNA YouTube: @EnelX
Brooklyn, N.Y. and San Carlos, CA, December 10th, 2020 -- EnergyHub has partnered with Enel X, the Enel Group’s advanced energy services business line and leading EV charger manufacturer and service provider, to expand the availability of smart electric vehicle (EV) charging stations as a flexible distributed energy resource (DER) for utilities. Through the partnership, utilities can now manage customer-owned Enel X smart EV charging stations through EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS platform, expanding the breadth of EnergyHub’s EV charging solution and increasing the EV charging resources available for utilities to manage. Utilities including Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E) and Eversource are the first to leverage the partnership and enroll customers with JuiceBox residential smart charging stations, with more to come. Preparing for transportation electrification has emerged as a top priority for utilities. Bloomberg New Energy predicts EVs will account for the majority of passenger car sales by 2040. According to the same research, smart EV charging technology, which encourages customers to charge at optimal times, is estimated to save grid operators 30 to 70 percent of electrical infrastructure upgrade costs, representing hundreds of millions to billions of dollars a year in savings. “We see managed EV charging as an important and growing piece of our DER portfolio, which we leverage not just during the hottest days of the year, but to manage demand year round,” said Michael Goldman, Director of Energy Efficiency for Eversource. “We’re glad to be able to allow more customers to participate by offering incentives to our customers with JuiceBox EV chargers.” The partnership with Enel X, with over 60,000 consumer charging stations deployed nationwide, expands the ecosystem of EV chargers that utilities can manage with EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS. “Working with EnergyHub and Enel X allows us to partner with our customers to manage flexible EV charging load, preparing us for the future of transportation electrification, while also supporting the grid as whole” said Kristy Fleischman Groncki, manager of strategic programs at Baltimore Gas and Electric. “Our EV Smart program managed with EnergyHub rewards customers for contributing to the grid while using their preferred EV charging equipment.” EnergyHub and Enel X are working with electric utilities to harness the benefits of EV adoption and smart charging for the grid. The partnership enables utilities to grow their DER portfolios deployed with EnergyHub by managing enrolled Enel X JuiceBox smart charging stations in a service territory. Through the integration of EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS platform with Enel X’s cloud-based JuiceNet smart EV charging software, utilities can forecast load, intelligently instruct, and monitor load results from customer- owned Enel X charging stations. “Preparing for mass adoption of electric vehicles and EV charging infrastructure is one of the most critical steps utilities should be taking today to lead the energy transition,” said Giovanni Bertolino, Head of e- Mobility, Enel X North America. “Enel X’s expanded partnership with EnergyHub adds to over thirty utility programs we have underway and further demonstrates the ability of our product portfolio and JuiceNet software platform to seamlessly integrate with third-party platforms to deliver best-in-class solutions and added grid flexibility to utilities everywhere.” Utility time-of-use (TOU) rates incentivize EV owners with Level 2 smart charging stations to utilize off- peak charging, generating bill savings for the customer and reducing strain on the grid during peak periods. In Maryland, where the state has a goal to deploy 300,000 EVs by 2025, the Public Utilities Commission authorized local utilities to install a network of 5,000 residential, workplace, and public charging stations. To best support the rollout, BGE deployed EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS to implement an EV-TOU rate that incentives off-peak charging, through the gathering and analyzing of charging data. This charging data is provided at a 15 minute granularity from customers’ Level 2 charging equipment, including Enel X JuiceBox smart chargers. Matt Johnson, VP of Business Development at EnergyHub said, “Integrating with a leader in EV charging and clean energy solutions like EnelX demonstrates our commitment to providing a comprehensive EV managed charging solution to utilities. We’re excited to partner with Enel X to enhance our ability to deploy a comprehensive grid-edge management solution that optimizes the value of customer-owned distributed energy resources for our clients.” The integration of EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS platform with Enel X’s JuiceNet smart EV charging software platform is enabled by JuiceNet, which optimizes the energy consumption of the JuiceBox EV charging station to align with grid conditions, while ensuring customer mobility requirements are met. EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS platform allows utilities to monitor, coordinate, and orchestrate EV charging in concert with other DERs. EnergyHub works with utilities on multiple types of EV management solutions: time of use (TOU) enablement, peak management, and dynamic load shaping. EnergyHub and Enel X previously partnered to provide utilities with access to certain portfolios of Enel X commercial and industrial demand response assets. About EnergyHub EnergyHub is the distributed energy resources (DERs) management platform for utilities. EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS allows utilities to partner with their customers to deliver more powerful demand side management and grid services using the industry's leading ecosystem of DERs. Our Bring Your Own Device service makes millions of existing connected homes available to utilities for demand response without a single truck roll. Over 40 utilities rely on EnergyHub’s platform to operationalize various configurations of programs and services. EnergyHub is an independent subsidiary of Alarm.com (NASDAQ: ALRM), the leading platform for the intelligently connected property. For more information, visit www.energyhub.com. About Enel X Enel X is Enel's global business line dedicated to the development of innovative products and services in sectors where energy is showing the greatest potential for transformation: cities, homes, industries and transportation. The company is a global leader in the advanced energy solution sector, with more than 6.3 GW of demand response capacity, 110 MW of installed storage capacity, more than 90,000 utility bills managed across 104 countries, and around 130,000 public and private smart EV charging stations available around the world. In North America, Enel X has around 4,500 business customers, spanning more than 35,000 sites and representing approximately $10.5B in energy spend under management. Enel X North America has approximately 4.7 GW of demand response capacity, over 70 battery storage projects that are operational and under contract, and more than 60,000 smart EV charging stations. Enel X advises large energy users on energy procurement, sustainability, and risk management, and has completed 65,000 energy procurement events including 2,000 MW of long-term renewable energy contracts. The company’s intelligent DER Optimization Software is designed to analyze real-time energy and utility bill data, improve performance, and manage distributed energy assets across a number of different value streams and applications. JuiceNet, Enel X’s smart EV charging platform, delivers energy services to utilities, businesses, drivers and automotive manufacturers.