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| News and Events: Technical Assistance, Incentives, and Funding Opportunities:
Upcoming Events and Activities: Resources and Guides:
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| TDEC Releases Volkswagen Diesel Settlement Request for Information TDEC is in the process of gathering information to inform the State’s Volkswagen Diesel Settlement Beneficiary Mitigation Plan (BMP). As a part of this process, TDEC has developed a web-based public comment form to allow stakeholders to submit comments regarding the State’s utilization of its VW Environmental Mitigation Trust. All comments are received by TDEC OEP for review. This comment period will close on January 15, 2018 at 11:59 PM CST.
TDEC has also released a Request for Information (RFI) to seek cost information on eligible mitigation actions under the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust, in order to inform Tennessee's BMP. Responses are due to TDEC by January 23, 2018 at 11:59 PM CST.
To respond to this RFI, please submit the requested information for any or all project types outlined within the corresponding Excel Workbook, titled "Cost Information Workbook for TDEC VW RFI," to TDEC.OEP@tn.gov with the subject line "Response to TDEC VW RFI." Please note that an eligible mitigation action project type’s inclusion within the Cost Information Workbook is not indicative of a decision to fund such project type in the future.
Please note: This RFI is not a solicitation for projects. Submitting a response to this RFI is voluntary and is not a prerequisite for responding to any future solicitation for projects issued by TDEC with regard to the State's allocation under the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust funds. All questions concerning this RFI should be directed to the TDEC Office of Energy Programs via email with the subject line, "Questions on TDEC VW RFI."
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| Knoxville Tests Renewable Diesel The City of Knoxville began investigating Renewable Diesel (RD) in 2016 after hearing of its use in more than thirty cities and fleets in the western United States. East Tennessee Clean Fuels assisted the City in finding a RD fuel supplier for its fleet, and, since then, City staff have produced a report on their overall RD experience. This report includes details on their experiments when using the fuel in its pure state (100% RD, not a blend mixed with petroleum diesel), and speaks to the cost savings that the City realized as a result of RD use. Check out the City’s report on its use of RD here.
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| Nissan Launches New LEAF Production in Smyrna
Nissan recently launched production of its second generation electric LEAF model at the company’s Smyrna plant. The production launch marks the latest milestone with regard to Nissan's 30-year presence in Smyrna, where the Japanese company employs 8,400 people and makes 640,000 vehicles a year. Nissan has been manufacturing the first generation of LEAFs at the company's Smyrna site, the largest producing auto assembly plant in North America, since 2013.
Speaking to a crowd of Nissan employees and leaders, Governor Bill Haslam praised the company’s contributions to the state’s automotive sector. "In the over 30 years since Nissan decided to locate a plant here, it is no exaggeration to say you have literally changed the face of Tennessee," Haslam said. "We have become known as an automotive manufacturing state primarily because of a decision that Nissan made to build here." Since opening the Smyrna plant in 1983, Nissan has invested $6.4 billion in the area, with an additional $110 million spent on the new LEAF model.
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| VW to Build Electric Vehicles in Chattanooga
Volkswagen (VW) recently announced that it will build one or two electric vehicles in the U.S. by 2023, most likely at its Chattanooga factory. VW’s only U.S. factory is located in Chattanooga, where it produces its popular Atlas 7-seater sport-utility vehicle.
VW cites tougher emissions rules as one driver of the global auto industry’s move toward mass production of battery powered cars. The first models in the company’s new electric car series, currently dubbed I.D., are expected to launch in 2020 and will first be built at the company’s factory in Zwickau, Germany. VW is also investing around $12 billion to build electric vehicles in China. To read further, click here.
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| TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, INCENTIVES, AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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| NOI: TDEC OEP to Issue Second Round of Funding for Tennessee Natural Gas and Propane Vehicle Grant Program
The second round of the program, managed by TDEC OEP, is limited to one application per grantee, per location. Applications may address a variety of eligible vehicle types (heavy, medium, and light-duty) and uses. Application forms for the second round of the Tennessee Natural Gas and Propane Vehicle Grant Program are expected to be released in the coming months. For more information about this program, or about other TDEC OEP sustainable transportation efforts, contact Alexa Voytek at Alexa.Voytek@tn.gov or 615-532-0238.
Funding: - $1,700,000 will be available under this competitive funding opportunity.
- Each grant will provide up to 70% of the incremental purchase cost of eligible vehicles, with a maximum grant of $25,000 for each eligible vehicle.
- The maximum amount that may be awarded to a grantee shall not exceed $250,000.
Eligibility: - A project must propose to receive funding for a minimum of one vehicle.
- Eligible vehicles must either (1) be purchased new, from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or OEM-authorized dealer or (2) be converted to run on natural gas or propane through an EPA-certified, after-market conversion.
- Vehicles must be registered within the State of Tennessee, unless the vehicle is to receive International Registration Plan (IRP) apportioned registration. In the case of the latter, the entity applying for a grant must submit a letter, certifying the percentage of time that the vehicle is expected to operate within the State of Tennessee.
- Eligible vehicles include dedicated compressed natural gas vehicles, dedicated liquefied natural gas vehicles, and dedicated propane-powered vehicles. Natural gas or propane-powered bi-fuel vehicles, or vehicles that are capable of operating on gasoline or diesel in addition to natural gas or propane, shall be eligible for emergency response vehicles only. (All bi-fuel vehicles will be required to utilize either natural gas or propane for no less than 75% of the vehicle's fuel use for a period of no less than five years. The grant amount available to bi-fuel vehicles will be 75% that of dedicated vehicles. Bi-fuel vehicles will therefore only be eligible to receive no more than 52.5% of the conversion or incremental purchase cost, up to $25,000 for each eligible vehicle.)
- Light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles will be considered eligible, as there will be no gross vehicle weight restrictions or requirements.
- Applicants must intend to maintain operations in Tennessee for a minimum of six years.
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| Reducing Diesel Emissions for a Healthier Tennessee to Open Third Round of Funding
A third round of funding for “Reducing Diesel Emissions for a Healthier Tennessee” is expected to open in December 2017. $222,000 will be available for diesel vehicle replacement projects. This opportunity is supported by state EPA Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) funding that East Tennessee Clean Fuels manages on behalf of TDEC. Up to 100% of the incremental cost of new vehicles can be requested at up to $16,700 per vehicle. There is no maximum or minimum number of vehicles or total amount that can be requested, and funding is available in any county in Tennessee. Scrappage of replaced vehicle engines is required. The Request for Proposal period is expected to close in mid-February, and funding winners would then be notified in early March. Fleets would need to purchase and begin operation of their replacement vehicles by June 2018.
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| Internship Opportunity: Institute for Advanced Composite Manufacturing Innovation
The Institute for Advanced Composite Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) Internship Program offers undergraduate and graduate students a chance to participate in a research experience with an assigned mentor at one of IACMI’s partner sites. The experience provides a maximum of 400 hours of participation either in a 10 week short-term appointment or a long-term appointment spanning the course of one year. Interested applicants have the opportunity to apply for internships specializing in various composite and materials research in the five IACMI technology areas – Wind, Vehicles, Compressed Gas Storage, Composite Materials and Processes, and Design, Modeling and Simulation. Selected candidates will develop and deliver a brief presentation and poster at the IACMI Members’ Meeting. This event provides participants the opportunity to network and showcase their research with 300+ IACMI members, to include industry, government, and academic partners. To learn more about the program and apply, click here. The application deadline is December 31, 2017 at 11:59 PM EST.
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| UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
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| Register Now for 2018 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting
Register now for the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) 97th Annual Meeting, to take place January 7-11, 2018, in Washington, D.C. The meeting program will cover all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops, addressing topics of interest to policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. Among these presentations are 160 dealing with energy and environmental topics as it pertains to transportation fuels, efficiency, emissions, planning, and more (you can review the full program here). More than 13,000 transportation professionals from around the world are expected to attend.
Professional Development Hours (PDHs) may be claimed by professional engineers for attending the meeting, and each hour of participation earns one PDH. For more information, click here. TRB is also an approved provider of American Institute of Certified Planners Certification Maintenance (AICP CM) credits. The approved sessions will be identified in the Interactive Program and available on the TRB Annual Meeting website in December.
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| Energy Independence Summit 2018
The 2018 Energy Independence Summit is the nation's premier clean transportation policy event and will be held February 11-14, 2018 in Washington D.C. The Summit provides a unique opportunity for leaders in the clean transportation industry to network and build partnerships with each other, and with key Congressional and Administration policymakers.
East TN Clean Fuels is in the process of gathering a team from Tennessee to represent the state’s unique alternative fuels market and needs at the Summit. This team will meet prior to the Summit to discuss the importance of continued support for alternative fuels in Tennessee and across the U.S. Please contact East TN Clean Fuels Coordinator Jonathan Overly at jonathan@etcleanfuels.org to become involved. For more information on the Summit, click here.
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| 2018 Fuel Economy Guide Helps Consumers Save Money
Just in time for the New Year, the 2018 Fuel Economy Guide is now available at FuelEconomy.gov. The guide is published annually by U.S. DOE and EPA with data on current model year vehicles. This year’s guide provides fuel economy ratings for over 1,000 light-duty vehicles, along with projected annual fuel costs and other information for prospective purchasers. The guide is designed to help car buyers choose the most fuel-efficient vehicles that fit their needs.
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| Happy, Healthy, Smart Cities Symposium in Knoxville
The Transportation Planning Capacity Building Peer Program of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) published a new peer exchange report, titled “Healthy, Happy, Smart Cities Symposium in Knoxville, Tennessee.” The report highlights key recommendations and noteworthy practices identified at a peer exchange that took place in Knoxville in March 2017. The two-day event, hosted by the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization and the East Tennessee Community Design Center, explored the impacts that transportation and land use decisions have on health, safety, and quality of life. Read the full report, including an overview of the event’s takeaways for future urban planning, here.
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| How an Automated Car Platoon Works
With the advancement of automated driving technology, self-driving cars may soon have the capability to travel in close proximity to one another, forming a platoon on the highway. Platoons of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) could improve travel time, increase lane capacity, and reduce congestion. A car platooning proof-of-concept was tested and evaluated recently at a U.S. Army facility in Maryland. Click here to learn how platoons work and to find out what the researchers discovered.
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| Use the Freight/Fuel Transportation Optimization Tool to Estimate Emissions for Road, Rail, Water, and Pipeline Transport
What’s the best way for raw fuel material to get to a refinery? Is it by road, rail, water, or pipeline transport? What emissions are associated with moving raw material and fuel? These are just a few of the questions that the Freight and Fuel Transportation Optimization Tool (FTOT) can help answer. FTOT has two core components: a GIS-mapping module and an optimization module. With the GIS component, FTOT looks at how commodities and materials flow over the transportation enterprise, using either actual or hypothetical infrastructure (such as anticipated network links or potential refineries). FTOT then knits parameters on costs, emissions, and other factors into the transportation scenario, generating route options that optimize transportation and emission/cost reductions. Read more about FTOT here.
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| Guide to Deploying Clean Truck Freight Strategies
The Transportation Research Board recently released guidance to decision makers regarding the deployment of fuel-efficient and low-emission truck freight strategies. The guide includes an analytical tool and a user manual to identify and evaluate appropriate strategies that can be deployed at the state, regional, and local levels. The guide will allow transportation practitioners to encourage the best use of technological, operational, and infrastructure investment alternatives that mitigate truck freight impacts on criteria air pollutants, fuel efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions.
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| Report: Public Transit's Impact on Rural and Small Towns
According to a report by the American Public Transit Association (APTA), the number of rural and small town public transit agencies has increased over the past two decades to approximately 1,400 agencies. America’s rural population is declining, but rural transit ridership has increased from 2007 to 2015. This equates to an 8.6% increase in per-capita rural ridership over the past 8 years, and a 7.8% increase in total rural ridership. For comparison, urban public transit ridership increased by 2.3% in the same time period. Older Americans make up a larger portion of rural populations (17%) than urban populations (13%), and rural residents with disabilities often rely on public transit, taking about 50%more public transit trips than unimpaired people do. Rural poverty rates also exceed urban poverty rates in all regions. With this in mind, rural public transit can help reduce personal travel expenditures through avoidance of gas and other vehicle maintenance expenditures (rural households spend about 7% more of their budgets on transportation than urban households do). For the full report, click here.
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| Five Electric Vehicle Reports
1) Bloomberg New Energy Finance Predicts That Electric Vehicles (EVs) Will Displace 8M Barrels of Oil per Day by 2040
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) expects that there will be 530 million EVs on the road by 2040. Moreover, BNEF researchers anticipate higher adoption and utilization of electric buses and trucks, as that segment of the transportation market becomes more attractive for electrification. In this prediction, EVs would displace eight million barrels of daily oil demand by 2040. In the long-term, BNEF predicts that EVs will likely account for 8% of total vehicle sales by 2025, 24% by 2030, and 54% by 2040. For more information, click here.
2) The Barriers to Acceptance of Plug-in Electric Vehicles: 2017 Update
U.S. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released a report that outlines American public sentiments toward EVs. Understanding consumer sentiments can influence the prioritization of implementation efforts for new technologies. The data detailed in this report represents three years of annual studies, which were completed to track public perceptions associated with EV implementation efforts. According to the report, a variety of knowledge barriers impacted how respondents perceived EVs. Respondents aware of EV charging stations were more likely to view EVs positively and be willing to consider purchasing them, as were both respondents aged 35 or younger and respondents aware of EV tax incentives and/or maintenance and refueling savings.
3) Going from Pump to Plug: Adding Up the Savings from Electric Vehicles
EVs are significantly cheaper than gasoline-powered vehicles with regard to fueling and operational costs, according to a recent Union of Concerned Scientists analysis. Even with today’s relatively low gasoline prices, every electricity provider surveyed in the 50 largest U.S. cities offers a rate plan that would generate savings for the average EV owner on fuel costs. For example, the report predicts that an annual fuel savings of $696 could be expected per electric vehicle in Nashville when compared with a new gasoline powered vehicle. Memphis residents could expect a greater savings, of about $733 per year.
4) Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Needs Nationwide Coverage
As EVs become more popular, there is greater need for a comprehensive charging network to allow these vehicles to travel across the country as easily as gasoline vehicles do. But how many charging stations are needed to create a nationwide network? A recent study by NREL estimates that about 8,000 fast-charging stations would be required to provide a minimum level of urban and rural coverage nationwide. Click here to see a map of NREL’s scenario for minimum fast-charging station coverage.
5) Four Tips to Improve Electric Vehicle Battery Range this Winter
EV batteries charge by moving ions through a liquid electrolyte. As the temperatures outside drop, the electrolyte in lithium ion batteries thickens and becomes more difficult for ions to move through (much like the challenge of walking through snow versus dry pavement). This increased resistance results in less EV battery range as more energy is needed for each ion to move. In this article, U.S. DOE identifies four ways to improve your cold-weather EV range: 1) Warm the battery/cabin while your vehicle is still plugged in. 2) Use your vehicle’s heated accessories (steering wheel, seats, etc.). 3) Practice eco-driving (i.e. watch your speed, minimize hard starts, and maximize your regenerative breaking by coasting). 4) Be sure to brush off your car before driving—snow or ice adds extra weight, and, since your EV doesn’t produce waste heat from the engine, that snow on your hood will stay put if you don’t move it.
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