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| BYD eBus in New York City |
Around the world many
transport services are purchasing the Zero
emission battery electric buses, whilst TFL in London are purchasing another
200 three door two staircase hybrid buses called the New Routemaster. I gave
some quick updates on the situation with the electric buses in London in my recent article.
Here are some news
reports of the electric buses from around the world. I know some may be a week
or two old, but still, news is news.
St.
Albert, Canada
Electric
buses hit road this fall
St.
Albert has become one of the first places in Canada to add an electric bus to
its transit fleet.
City
council announced this week that it had purchased three long-range battery electric transit buses for its transit fleet.
The actual decision was made during the in camera portion of the Feb. 22
council meeting.
Council
decided to pursue the purchase last August after hearing the results of the
city’s August 2014 and March 2015 electric bus trials. The trials found that
the buses were about five times more energy efficient than conventional diesel
ones, produced about 51 per cent fewer
greenhouse gas emissions, and were significantly cheaper to operate.
Each
35-foot bus cost $980,000 for a total of
$2.94 million. Two-thirds of this cash came from the province’s GreenTRIP
program, meaning that the city is paying about $323,400 per bus, reports city
transit director Kevin Bamber.
GreenTRIP
doesn’t normally fund replacement buses, but the city won the Capital Region
Board’s support for this grant because the buses were electric, said Mayor
Nolan Crouse.
Getting
that provincial grant was a big factor in making this decision, Crouse said.
“The
payback is long if you don’t have capital to supplement it.”
These
buses will produce less noise and air pollution in operation than diesel buses
and will be less expensive to maintain and run, Crouse said. They can also
charge at night during off-peak hours when power is cheaper.
“They
have a positive impact on the environment.”
While
other Canadian cities have electric buses in their fleets, those are all test
models rented or leased from manufacturers, Bamber said. St. Albert is likely the first place in Canada to actually buy an
electric bus for its fleet and the first to buy this particular model.
Cape
Town, South Africa
Cape
Town to be first African city to use electric buses
Cape
Town, one of the Global Lead City Network on Sustainable Procurement
participants, has issued tenders for the procurement of electric buses for its Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and feeder service, in
line with its commitment to lowering carbon emissions.
A
tender for the procurement of a fleet of 12-metre
electric buses was advertised in February. The city is also considering
electric double-decker buses that provide more seating for longer distance
trips. The tender specifies that the electric buses should be able to travel at
least 250 kilometres in traffic
before the batteries need recharging. Apart from the buses, the successful
bidder must also provide the city with the charging stations for the buses and
the necessary training for the bus drivers and mechanical engineers.
“If
all goes according to plan, Transport for Cape Town will be the first
municipality in the country to benefit from the latest alternative fuel
technology and we will be the first city in Africa to use electric buses for
public transport,” said Patricia De Lille, Mayor of Cape Town. “This initiative
directly supports the city’s commitment to the Paris Pledge for Action at COP21
and as member of the C40 Cities to take progressive action and lead the way in
reducing energy consumption and emissions.”
In
addition to the carbon credits that the city will earn for operating a green
fleet, Cape Town will be able to sell these onto developed countries that are
signatories to the Kyoto Protocol, generating extra revenue for the city.
Helsinki,
Finland
Finnish
electric buses serve as mobile testing platforms in the Helsinki region
Finnish electric buses
serve as mobile testing platforms in the Helsinki region Finnish electric buses will soon be acting
as development platforms for smart
mobility services in the Helsinki region, used for boosting the creation of
new user-centric solutions and product development of businesses.
The
Living Lab Bus joint project, coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of
Finland and launched at the beginning of 2016, uses the Finnish electric buses
acquired by Helsinki Region Transport as concrete development and testing
platforms for businesses to validate
their solutions in a real use environment. The buses can be used for
testing user-oriented smart services and
technologies, ranging from user interfaces and passenger services to sensors
and transport operators' solutions.
"The
goal is to create a new type of everyday development environment for
accelerating the product development of businesses by means of agile
experiments, in close cooperation with end-users and research institutions.
Potential new solutions include easy-to-use passenger feedback solutions,
automated passenger counting, and automated road condition observations,"
describes VTT Project Manager Raine Hautala.
"Helsinki
Region Transport expects the project to provide a flood of fresh ideas that
will bring joy to passengers and make bus travel more appealing. Developing
smart mobility services may be the order of the day, but Helsinki Region
Transport is equally drawn to innovations designed to go in the cabin
space," says Reijo Mäkinen, Director of the Transport Services Department
at Helsinki Region Transport.
In
addition to the Helsinki region, the City of Tampere is also participating in
the project, exploiting the results in its own public transport development.
United
States of America
Electric
buses could dominate battery market by mid-2020s
Electric
bus sales worldwide are growing at a rate of 20 per cent a year and could prove a "game changer" for
the fast-expanding global battery market, according to a new report from
research firm IDTechEx.
The
large size of batteries required for electric buses, which can range from 74kWh
for fast-charging buses to over 300kWh for slow-charging models, mean rapid growth could see the e-bus
battery market reach $30bn by 2026. The surge in demand for e-buses could
see the market overtake demand from the consumer electronics sector by 2019,
making it the largest single segment of the global battery market, the report
said.
"We
expect that this sector will alter the entire value chain for battery
production from material suppliers, battery manufacturers through to original
equipment manufacturers," said IDTechEx in a release.
Nearly all the world's
electric buses are currently produced in China, while three-quarters
of batteries are also manufactured there, with the report arguing the country
is attempting to dominate the battery market by keeping the whole supply chain
of electric vehicles and batteries within its borders.
Lithium iron phosphate
(LFP) batteries currently make up over 80 per cent of the market - a contrast to the
electric car market, which uses more of a mix of different battery chemistries,
the report added.
While
the large-sized batteries needed for buses means LFPs are currently safer than
alternative technologies such as nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) lithium-ion
technology, IDTechEx predicts non-LFP battery technology could yet account for
almost half the market in 2025 as safety improves and the technology takes
advantage of the higher density and charging rate it enjoys over LFP batteries.
Proterra
for 2 Million All-Battery Bus
Proterra
said this week that its national fleet of all-electric transit buses has
surpassed two million miles of revenue service, “providing communities coast to
coast with clean, quiet transportation.”
The
battery buses have saved transit
agencies more over 420,000 gallons
in fuel and prevented more than 7.6
million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, states a release.
“With
63 buses on the road today in Texas, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina and Washington, Proterra is ramping up
production in 2016 to meet the market’s growing need for clean, quiet,
efficient transit solutions,” the company said.
“For
the last five years, we’ve been operating Proterra zero-emission buses and are
excited to expand our electric fleet with 13
new Catalyst vehicles coming into service,” Foothill Transit executive
director Doran Barnes says in the Proterra announcement.
“With
the latest round of Catalyst buses,
nearly 10% of our fleet will be all-electric.”
“Transit
solutions like Proterra’s,” said Clemson Area Transit executive director Al
Babinicz, “address the economic and environmental hurdles we’re facing as a
nation.” In 2014, Proterra says, South
Carolina’s CatBus “became the first
transit system in North America to completely electrify its entire fleet,
following the deployment of Proterra battery-electric buses.”
“This
latest milestone exemplifies the economic, environmental and civic value of
electric mass transit and demonstrates to the transit agencies that diesel – often viewed as a necessary evil –
is no longer necessary,” said Proterra CEO Ryan Popple.
And here’s some bad
news from San Francisco,
USA.
Muni’s
brand new buses struggle with SF’s hills, test results show
San
Francisco is on a bus-buying spree. In the name of shoring up service, Mayor Ed
Lee has invested nearly $26 million
in purchasing new Muni buses since last year.
There
is, however, a bump in the road: Some of Muni’s newest buses appear to struggle
up San Francisco’s hills.
While
the buses aren’t exactly rolling back down The City’s slopes, underpowered
buses slow down Muni’s system, operators tell the San Francisco Examiner.
The
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency tested its newest buses last
November before letting rubber hit the cement, but the results of those tests —
obtained by the Examiner — show Muni’s
new
60-foot electric buses don’t meet the agency’s own acceleration requirements
for even moderately steep hills.
SFMTA
officials told the Examiner they knew the buses couldn’t handle grades above 10
percent, so the agency would run them only on The City’s flatter routes.
Among
the steepest routes in the Muni system are the 1-California and the
22-Fillmore. One portion of Fillmore is graded at over 18 percent, according to
topographical maps.
Hills
that steep will be off limits to the new buses.
The
tests show, however, that the buses struggled even on the more modest hills —
those measured in grades of 5 to 10 percent.
Additionally,
the approximately 100 new electric buses
may not be available to supplement out of service vehicles on steeper routes.
The buses won’t be able to be plugged in as backups anywhere on the system, and
are only usable on flatter terrain.
“That’s
a reasonable decision,” said Peter Straus, a former SFMTA planner and now
member of the San Francisco Transit Riders, an advocacy group.
“Not
every bus needs to go everywhere and do everything,” he said.
Ordering
double-engine, double length buses that could handle The City’s hills, Straus
said, is an “additional cost, additional weight, and it’s a nonstandard
product. You have to cross your fingers.”
Transit
officials say they are satisfied with the new buses’ performance.
“They
go up the hills, they carry people every day,” said John Haley, SFMTA’s
director of transit.
Haley
said the buses pass the “official” New Flyer diagnostics on moderately steep
grades, and provided documentation which showed those tests were passed.
But
a different document from Nov. 30, 2015, titled “SR1849 XT60 Performance Test
Results — Coach 7210” indicates the new 60-foot trolleys failed key benchmarks
for tackling San Francisco’s hilly topography at “required” speeds, as defined
by SFMTA engineers.
This is a quick
article to show news reports on the progress of the electric buses around the
world.
I’ve also like to have
a quick mention about the bus company named The Big Lemon in the south of
England which had raised £160,000 to purchase an electric bus.
£100,000
raised for an electric bus… plus £60,000 towards a second one
The
Big Lemon launched a fundraising
campaign last month, to raise £100,000 for an electric bus, in the form of community bonds
And
just a few weeks later the community
interest company has raised £160,000 – enough
for one bus, and half the sum needed for a second one. The money was raised
by selling two-year bonds of £100 each to members of the local community at an
interest rate of 6 per cent a year.
Tom
Druitt, managing director of The Big Lemon, said: “We are all incredibly
excited with the prospect of running zero-emissions
electric buses in Brighton and Hove and humbled by the level of support we
have received from the public.
“We
would like to thank everyone who has supported us with our fundraising efforts
the thought of running two electric buses in the city is very exciting indeed.
We call on members of the public who might be interested to get in touch and
help us improve air quality in Brighton and Hove.”
Ryan
Wrotny, one of The Big Lemon’s drivers, said: “I’m really looking forward to
driving electric buses on our routes in Brighton and Hove; it’ll be an exciting
development for us and help us offer a better service to our passengers. I
don’t know of anyone running electric vehicles on 100 per cent renewable energy
so it might even be a UK first.”
Andrew
Boag, chair of Brighton Area Buswatch, said: “This is a fantastic achievement.
The Big Lemon fundraising scheme has far exceeded expectations and we congratulate
them. It would be great to see one or hopefully two electric zero emission
buses running in Brighton later this year. They will show the way and we hope
other bus companies will follow.”
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By AEMoreira042281 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28365100