Ida Is Proof That Louisiana Needs To Embrace Building Microgrids
Last week, Hurricane Ida knocked out all 8 transmission lines into New Orleans. In Baton Rouge, it took out our communications along with our electricity — with the exception of those who had Verizon. Although most of Baton Rouge is getting back online, New Orleans as well as smaller towns and cities still don’t have power.
Someone shared an article by Canary Media with me, and after reading it, I fully agree. We need microgrids here in Louisiana, yet our leaders don’t seem to want them. Advocates have been trying for years to make our local grid resilient, but oddly, our leaders don’t seem to want that. Why?
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen governments (local, state, etc.) purposely refuse to do things that benefit everyone. It’s like they want us to have messed up grids so that we suffer during disasters. The article cited another article by Canary Media that showed the outcome following local authorities’ repeated dismissals of proposals to invest in decentralized and resilient grid upgrades.
In 2016, a New Orleans-based nonprofit, Alliance for Affordable Energy, had a great alternative to Entergy New Orleans’ plan to build a new natural-gas-fired power plant. That idea was to build clean electricity resilience from the ground up — an integrated resilience plan that challenged Entergy New Orleans to try to find an alternative to a central power plant. The plant would be subject to known vulnerabilities — such as the impact of a category 4 hurricane.
The Alliance for Affordable Energy called for pursuing distributed microgrids. The article aptly described these as self-powered islands of solar power, batteries, and backup generation that could provide electricity during grid outages. If only we had these during Ida. Executive director Logan Atkinson Burke shared how this was frustrating. “Had we taken the time and initiative to plan for distributed generation, distributed solar-plus-storage, and more energy efficiency, people would be more prepared to shelter safely and comfortably,” Burke said. “We’ve been advocating for microgrids to be built within the city for years for precisely this reason.”
Here’s Why Entergy Doesn’t Want Distributed Energy
The problem is Entergy’s long-standing opposition to distributed energy. The utility has consistently opposed including local renewable energy and energy storage in its own plans. Utilities also get an incentive when they convince regulators to approve large power plants instead of enabling customer-sited distributed energy such as rooftop solar. The article pointed out that vertically integrated utilities such as Entergy are paid a guaranteed rate of return on capital investments, including power plants. Self-supplied customer energy reduces the revenue and profits Entergy and other utilities earn from selling electricity.
It’s all about money, profits, and greed. They make more money from weakening our defenses against disasters such as Ida than they would from strengthening them. And we, the people, end up paying the price. And our government readily caters to this greed. Not just Louisiana’s — this trend is seen elsewhere as well.
Car dealerships in Connecticut, for example, lobby legislatures to prevent Tesla and Rivian from coming to their state and opening a sales center. This hurts the economy, but they do it anyway. It’s all about greed, money, and profits.
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After teasing the launch of its first two-wheeled product, the drone and camera powerhouse DJI has now unveiled an electric mountain bike under the Amflow brand. Take a look at the new Amflow PL, powered by DJI’s own new drive system.
Amflow is described as a new electric mountain bike brand incubated by DJI and is responsible for the eMTB’s ultra-light carbon fiber frame design.
The e-bike’s motor is all DJI. As the company explained, “DJI’s long history of R&D in motor, battery technology, and software development drove the creation of the DJI Avinox Drive System, which powerfully combines torque, battery capacity, 2-inch OLED touchscreen, remote controls, and a charger/supercharger.”
According to the company, the motor system includes a compound planetary gearset that helps it provide its “industry-leading power-to-size ratio.”
The 600 Wh battery is quite svelte, too, weighing just 2.9 kg (6.3 lb), with the entire bike tipping the scales at a lightweight 19.2 kg (42 lb). Sure, that’d be a chunky normal mountain bike, but it’s quite an easy lift for an eMTB.
An 800 Wh battery is also available, as is a 500W fast charger that can send the bike from 0-75% charge level in just 1.5 hours.
That DJI Avinox mid-drive motor is said to output 850W of peak power in standard riding modes and up to 1,000W in Boost Mode (despite the cute little sticker reading “250W”). Perhaps even more impressive though is the torque. The Avinox is said to provide 105 Nm of torque that jumps up to 120 Nm of torque in Boost Mode.
Among other ride modes is Auto Mode, that adapts assistance in real-time based on surface conditions and riding position.
“As engineers with a passion for mountain biking, we have seen a lot of tech innovation that has never found its way into the eMTB scene,” said Peter Archer, Amflow Senior Product Specialist at Amflow. “We have married our tech expertise with our passion and today we’re introducing Amflow to the mountain biking community with our very first product, the Amflow PL. We believe this is a significant moment for the eMTB industry with innovative technology and ultra-light material combining to turn any terrain into a wonderland of possibilities for eMTB riders.”
The Avinox drive system uses a 2-inch OLED full-color control built-in touchscreen display that also functions as the interactive center of the system. Riders can connect their smartphones via the Avinox app to access a range of smart features, including bike security, data recording and sharing, assist parameter adjustments, and real-time bike status checking. The system is tech savvy enough to include “innovative dual Wireless Controllers with Bluetooth connectivity for added convenience and a clutter-free handlebar setup.”
As much as we’ve learned about DJI’s new motor system, we still don’t know much about the bike itself, other than that it apparently has a super lightweight carbon fiber frame.
With any luck, we’ll learn more about the bike’s details soon. But suffice it to say that DJI has come out swinging with its first e-bike drive system, ready to shake up the status quo that typically sees German mid-drive motors on high-end bikes competing against Chinese mid-drives on more affordable options. With DJI’s design prowess, Chinese mid-drives might be heading for higher end e-bikes near you.
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Hydrogen fuel cell specialists Hyzon have announced plans to quit Australia even as sales of battery electric commercial trucks climb.
For a while, it seemed like Hyzon had found something of a home in Australia. Recently, the American startup had announced pilot programs that would see its hydrogen fuel cells put to work in transit buses in Brisbane, tow trucks (above) in Victoria, and five 154-ton severe duty trucks scheduled to service a zinc refinery operation in north Queensland.
Alas, it seems like it’s not enough – Hyzon said Monday that, after a review of its business operations, it has “started realigning its strategic priorities along several lines to focus on the company’s core North American markets and the refuse industry.”
The company said it was hoping to raise new capital to get its 200 kW HFCs into series production, and has retained investment bank PJT Partners to evaluate a number of options, up to and including an outright sale of the company.
Meanwhile, BEVs are doing great
Meanwhile, Australia’s commercial BEV sales are booming. The entire country saw just under 100 battery electric trucks sold in 2022, but that number jumped to 256 in 2023 and continues to climb in 2024.
As if to underscore that fact, ANC (a leading, UPS-style last mile delivery partner for many of the Australia’s large retailers) has announced plans to spend more than $45 million.
ANC is calling the initiative “Project Spark,” and it’s being backed by a $12.8 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) specifically designed to address the barrier presented by the initially higher up-front costs of EVs. ARENA is also working to provide EV buyers with discounted leasing options, and generally “improved” EV charging infrastructure.
Project Spark is expected to add 112 new BEVs to Australia’s roads within the next year.
“It promises to kick-start a step change in electrifying last mile delivery in Australia by lowering the total costs to own and run electric trucks,” said Darren Miller, CEO of ARENA. “The project demonstrates use cases for battery electric trucks in last mile operations, tackling constraints that have so far made it hard for the industry to transition away from internal combustion engine vehicles.”
Electrek’s Take
No one said it better than MAN CEO, Alexander Vlaskamp, who said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen trucks to effectively compete with BEVs. That interview is definitely worth a re-read, but to see companies like Hyzon suffering in even the most hydrogen-friendly markets out there is to believe Vlaskamp, even if you already believed him, just that little bit more.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Hyzon, ANC; via the Driven.
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