Ship It Green: Electrification of Delivery Trucks

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Ship It Green: Electrification of Delivery Trucks

Don Anair, senior engineer, Clean Vehicles
December 19, 2012

http://blog.ucsusa.org/ship-it-green-electrification-of-delivery-trucks/#http://blog.ucsusa.org/ship-it-green-electrification-of-delivery-trucks/#



$1.5 billion in a single day. That’s the estimated value of internet purchases made on Cyber Monday this year, up 17 percent from last year and the current record. Most of those purchases, ranging from iPads to Furby’s, will have traveled thousands of miles by ship, train, or truck before making the final leg of their trip in a local delivery truck. Of course, internet shopping prompts the question: Is getting the package delivered to your house better or worse for the environment than picking it up at the store?
A 2009 study by Carnegie Mellon, covered in this LA Times blog, concluded that the environmental impact of online shopping is less than traditional shopping — basically finding that a truck delivering many packages on a delivery route produces less emissions than lots of individual car trips to and from local retailers.
But just as taking fewer trips to the store or using alternative transportation options like public transit or biking can lower the footprint of traditional shopping, so too can the impact of online shopping be reduced. One way is by using cleaner, more efficient delivery trucks.
Our recent review of electrification options for trucks shows that urban delivery vehicles, like those Fedex and UPS trucks delivering your holiday packages, have the potential further reduce their emissions and oil consumption with the use of hybrid and battery electric technologies.
Urban delivery trucks travel short, defined routes with lots of stop-and-go operation and are often parked at a central location when not in use. These attributes make them good candidates for hybridization as well as full electrification.
(read rest at link in title)

Electrifying Trucks: Moving Stuff with Less Oil
Ship It Green: Electrification of Delivery Trucks - The Equation
 
Another epic government subsidized failure in the works. Wait till the heat of summer when additional fossil fuel trucks must be dispatched to move the packages from the dead electric vehicles and everyone must wait for their deliveries. Not to mention the increased shipping costs that must invariably result as the batteries begin to fail and outrageous replacement costs begin to become part of the profit / loss equation.
 
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Smith Electric Vehicles, zero emission commercial electric vehicle manufacturer.

Using EV's for urban delivery makes good sense. Most of these delivery vehicles work out of a warehouse complex with enormous roof space. Coat that space with solar panels, and you are now creating most of your own fuel.

Until it clouds over and rains for 2 weeks like it does in our area. EV have a very limited role to play,the larger the truck the less role electric can play.

Zero emissions is a big fat lie.
 
Another epic government subsidized failure in the works. Wait till the heat of summer when additional fossil fuel trucks must be dispatched to move the packages from the dead electric vehicles and everyone must wait for their deliveries. Not to mention the increased shipping costs that must invariably result as the batteries begin to fail and outrageous replacement costs begin to become part of the profit / loss equation.

AN imaginative, if unsupported, fantasy that for some reason doesn't correlate with the actual system test studies already conducted.

"FedEx Gasoline Hybrid Electric Delivery Truck Evaluation: 6-Month Interim Report" - http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/fleettest/pdfs/47693.pdf

(aside from a flaw in a keyless entry system on one of the hybrid vehicles which caused it to be removed from service for two weeks while a new entry system was ordered and installed - the service uptime of the hybrid system was 100%)

Bloomberg-BusinessWeek seems to like the system - FedEx's Electric Vehicle Experiment - Businessweek

A Stanford Business School analysis supports the system - http://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/plambeck/PDF/FedEx_Environmental_Defense.pdf

And of course Fedex isn't the only fleet of electric/hybrid delivery vehicles on the road

Hundreds of Electric Delivery Trucks Now, Millions Tomorrow | Clean Fleet Report

I think a better way than tax breaks or investment subsidies, would simply be a mandate for the government itself to transition to hybrid and all-electric vehicles for government vehicles where-ever such is feasible.

I'm partial to the idea that government fleet replacement purchases of US built hybrid and electric vehicles each year should be enough stimulus to encourage and sustain the fledgling US hybrid/electric manufacturing sector. According to Data.gov, the U.S. Government owns or leases 662,154 cars trucks and vans, about a quarter of which are replaced each year. Encourage state governments to do the same and you create a stable and substantive annual market that operates (In My Opinion) much better than government handouts to stimulate and enhance specific market sectors.
 
"Alaska is going rogue on climate change.

Defiant as ever, the state that gave rise to Sarah Palin is bucking the mainstream yet again: While global temperatures surge hotter and the ice-cap crumbles, the nation's icebox is getting even icier.

That may not be news to Alaskans coping with another round of 50-below during the coldest winter in two decades, or to the mariners locked out of the Bering Sea this spring by record ice growth.

Then again, it might. The 49th state has long been labeled one of the fastest-warming spots on the planet. But that's so 20th Century.

In the first decade since 2000, the 49th state cooled 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Widespread warming

That's a "large value for a decade," the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said in "The First Decade of the New Century: A Cooling Trend for Most of Alaska."

The cooling is widespread -- holding true for 19 of the 20 National Weather Service stations sprinkled from one corner of Alaska to the other, the paper notes. It's most significant in Western Alaska, where King Salmon on the Alaska Peninsula saw temperatures drop most sharply, a significant 4.5 degrees for the decade, the report says.



The new nippiness began with a vengeance in 2005, after more than a century that saw temperatures generally veer warmer in Alaska, the report says. With lots of ice to lose, the state had heated up about twice as fast as the rest of the planet, in line with rising global greenhouse gas emissions, note the Alaska Climate Center researchers, Gerd Wendler, L. Chen and Blake Moore. After a "sudden temperature increase" in Alaska starting in 1977, the warmest decade on record occurred in the 1980s, followed by another jump in the 1990s, they note. The third warmest decade was the 1920s, by the way."








While the globe warms and people swelter, Alaska is chilling | Alaska Dispatch
 
We all know that the electricity to recharge the batteries magically appears.

Zero emissions my ass!
Wait... Nevermind that
ADD34012-C342-4F67-93E7-ABA65FEBEA6B-15454-000015242196D61D_zpsd6496540.jpg
 
I love reading stuff written by people who have no clue what they're talking about.
 
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From the conclusion of the actual paper at the Alaska Climate Research Center that this article is purportedly based upon.

http://www.benthamscience.com/open/toascj/articles/V006/111TOASCJ.pdf

"...In summary, the long term observed warming of Alaska
of about twice the global value, as expected by the increasing

CO
2 and other trace gases, is sometimes temporarily

modified or even reversed by natural decadal variations. This
is not the first observed occurrence that can be found in the
historical record of Alaska [14], as the 1920’s were warm,
and starting in the mid-1940’s a cold period occurred lasting
some 3 decades, after which it become warm again..."

 
"Alaska is going rogue on climate change.

Defiant as ever, the state that gave rise to Sarah Palin is bucking the mainstream yet again: While global temperatures surge hotter and the ice-cap crumbles, the nation's icebox is getting even icier.

That may not be news to Alaskans coping with another round of 50-below during the coldest winter in two decades, or to the mariners locked out of the Bering Sea this spring by record ice growth.

Then again, it might. The 49th state has long been labeled one of the fastest-warming spots on the planet. But that's so 20th Century.

In the first decade since 2000, the 49th state cooled 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Widespread warming

That's a "large value for a decade," the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said in "The First Decade of the New Century: A Cooling Trend for Most of Alaska."

The cooling is widespread -- holding true for 19 of the 20 National Weather Service stations sprinkled from one corner of Alaska to the other, the paper notes. It's most significant in Western Alaska, where King Salmon on the Alaska Peninsula saw temperatures drop most sharply, a significant 4.5 degrees for the decade, the report says.



The new nippiness began with a vengeance in 2005, after more than a century that saw temperatures generally veer warmer in Alaska, the report says. With lots of ice to lose, the state had heated up about twice as fast as the rest of the planet, in line with rising global greenhouse gas emissions, note the Alaska Climate Center researchers, Gerd Wendler, L. Chen and Blake Moore. After a "sudden temperature increase" in Alaska starting in 1977, the warmest decade on record occurred in the 1980s, followed by another jump in the 1990s, they note. The third warmest decade was the 1920s, by the way."








While the globe warms and people swelter, Alaska is chilling | Alaska Dispatch

Alaska

Over the past 50 years, Alaska has warmed at more than twice the rate of the rest of the United States. Its annual average temperature has increased 3.4°F, while winters have warmed by 6.3°F. The higher temperatures are already causing earlier spring snowmelt, reduced sea ice, widespread glacier retreat, and permafrost warming. The observed changes are consistent with climate model projections of greater warming over Alaska, especially in winter, as compared to the rest of the country. Climate models also project increases in precipitation over Alaska. Simultaneous increases in evaporation due to higher air temperatures, however, are expected to lead to drier conditions overall, with reduced soil moisture. Average annual temperatures are projected to rise between 5 and 13°F by late this century, with lower emissions scenarios yielding increases at the lower end of this range and higher emissions yielding increases near the high end of the range.
 
"Alaska is going rogue on climate change.

Defiant as ever, the state that gave rise to Sarah Palin is bucking the mainstream yet again: While global temperatures surge hotter and the ice-cap crumbles, the nation's icebox is getting even icier.

That may not be news to Alaskans coping with another round of 50-below during the coldest winter in two decades, or to the mariners locked out of the Bering Sea this spring by record ice growth.

Then again, it might. The 49th state has long been labeled one of the fastest-warming spots on the planet. But that's so 20th Century.

In the first decade since 2000, the 49th state cooled 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Widespread warming

That's a "large value for a decade," the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said in "The First Decade of the New Century: A Cooling Trend for Most of Alaska."

The cooling is widespread -- holding true for 19 of the 20 National Weather Service stations sprinkled from one corner of Alaska to the other, the paper notes. It's most significant in Western Alaska, where King Salmon on the Alaska Peninsula saw temperatures drop most sharply, a significant 4.5 degrees for the decade, the report says.



The new nippiness began with a vengeance in 2005, after more than a century that saw temperatures generally veer warmer in Alaska, the report says. With lots of ice to lose, the state had heated up about twice as fast as the rest of the planet, in line with rising global greenhouse gas emissions, note the Alaska Climate Center researchers, Gerd Wendler, L. Chen and Blake Moore. After a "sudden temperature increase" in Alaska starting in 1977, the warmest decade on record occurred in the 1980s, followed by another jump in the 1990s, they note. The third warmest decade was the 1920s, by the way."








While the globe warms and people swelter, Alaska is chilling | Alaska Dispatch

Alaska

Over the past 50 years, Alaska has warmed at more than twice the rate of the rest of the United States. Its annual average temperature has increased 3.4°F, while winters have warmed by 6.3°F. The higher temperatures are already causing earlier spring snowmelt, reduced sea ice, widespread glacier retreat, and permafrost warming. The observed changes are consistent with climate model projections of greater warming over Alaska, especially in winter, as compared to the rest of the country. Climate models also project increases in precipitation over Alaska. Simultaneous increases in evaporation due to higher air temperatures, however, are expected to lead to drier conditions overall, with reduced soil moisture. Average annual temperatures are projected to rise between 5 and 13°F by late this century, with lower emissions scenarios yielding increases at the lower end of this range and higher emissions yielding increases near the high end of the range.






But what about the last decade?????
 
It has cooled 2.4 F in the last decade. After an average annual increase of 3.4 F. So there is still a net warming. And there is still the problem of the permafrost melt which is affecting much infrastructure in Alaska.
 
However, Alaska has little to do with the electrification of our urban truck fleet. Smith trucks offer urban trucks to 8 ton payload. Down to delivery vehicles of passenger van size.

Smith Electric Vehicles » Models and Configurations

And this is just the beginning.

I really think that abundant cheap natural gas has rendered flex/dual/hybrid/electrics irrelevent in the short to medium term. Yes it's a fairly recent phenonemon, but the only impediment to NGV's is the government.

Sure there are tax preferences given to NGV's but the vast majority of focus, thanks to Obama, is on the sillier technologies. By sillier I mean tech-heavy dual-fuel systems with short-term lifespans.

Hydrocarbons are and will remain a far superior fuel in many respects for decades to come.
 
Tonight, I addressed our city council which recently entered into an aggregated purchase agreement for lower electricity rates for community residents.

At a recent pubic hearing it was explained that the most expensive rate available was from 100% renewable/alternative-generated electricity. Conversely, the cheapest rate was that from 100% conventional (hydrocarbon/nuclear) -sourced electricity. I asked the mayore where the city council stood on this. He told me that they are after the cheapest rate available.

Well, the city turned heel and went with total renewable/alternative-generated electricity.

So I called them on it. I was told by the mayor and city manager that they chose to "make a statement" with this move, and to also support the local university and their "renewable" resource electric generating facility (which BTW has a huge natural gas manifold parked next to the building).

I went on to explain how C02 emissions have been greatly reduced in our country primarily due to the increased use of natural gas. They all nodded.

I also stated that, in irony, if they wanted to make the most profound immediate positive impact on the environment they should have gone with 100% conventional electric generation.

They all nodded.

You stupid enviro-pimps want to "make a statement" with convoluted and counter-productive processes, no matter how inefficient, for the sake of feeling good. Fuck the economics of hydrocarbons and their true environmental impact. Go with your "gut" feeling and gut reason.
 
Tonight, I addressed our city council which recently entered into an aggregated purchase agreement for lower electricity rates for community residents.

At a recent pubic hearing it was explained that the most expensive rate available was from 100% renewable/alternative-generated electricity. Conversely, the cheapest rate was that from 100% conventional (hydrocarbon/nuclear) -sourced electricity. I asked the mayore where the city council stood on this. He told me that they are after the cheapest rate available.

Well, the city turned heel and went with total renewable/alternative-generated electricity.

So I called them on it. I was told by the mayor and city manager that they chose to "make a statement" with this move, and to also support the local university and their "renewable" resource electric generating facility (which BTW has a huge natural gas manifold parked next to the building).

I went on to explain how C02 emissions have been greatly reduced in our country primarily due to the increased use of natural gas. They all nodded.

I also stated that, in irony, if they wanted to make the most profound immediate positive impact on the environment they should have gone with 100% conventional electric generation.

They all nodded.

You stupid enviro-pimps want to "make a statement" with convoluted and counter-productive processes, no matter how inefficient, for the sake of feeling good. Fuck the economics of hydrocarbons and their true environmental impact. Go with your "gut" feeling and gut reason.

anecdote ≠ data

people succeed and advance because they think with their heads and process poo with their guts.

You risk health and failure when you transpose the functions of these specialized body parts.
 
Fuck + you = fuck you.

I've been happily married for the last 42 years, with children and grandchildren from that blessed union. Though heterosexual, I am flattered that you are sexually attracted to me, and please don't take it personally, you probably have very nice qualities that don't translate well in this media, but I must turn down your proffer. Don't let it get you down, I'm sure there's some gentleman somewhere who will help you find the fulfillment and satisfaction you seek.
 

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