Low Carbon Transport on the Move: What’s up in Australia?

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Electrics, fuel cell vehicles, smart cars, biofuels for road and sky, and greening the grid come under the microscope Down Under. In Sydney this week, a number of US and Australian leaders gathered at the Australian Technology Park to debate the models and options offered by the cleantech revolution in decarbonizing road transport.

“Road transport represents 40 percent of our overall emissions,” said conference convenor Dr. Susan Pond, the founder of the Australian Initiative for Sustainable Aviation Fuels, “and it is the sector most related to energy security because it is based in petroleum.”

Let’s look at some of the highlighed options and high-level thinking in Australia.

Fuel Cell Vehicles: Hyundai moving towards a new generation of vehicles that offer “the best of both worlds”

Hyundai’s Scott Nargar presented Hyundai’s growing prowess in fuel cell vehicles, while noting how FCVs could solve the “limited range and the weight and size of electric vehicles”.

Hugh Bradlow, Chief Scientist from Telstra gave a substantive address on the future of information and its impact on technology.

Bruce Godfrey raised eyebrows with a sobering assessment of the options and realities in improving Australia’s grid emissions, but offered optimism with respect to opportunities in distributed power generation.

“Another important question? For sure, EVs and Fuel Cell’s have no tailpipe emissions, but beware, the greenness depends on the carbon intensity of your grid.

According to Godfrey, there’s two we should have dialogue around. That is the risk that those least able to make transition to something like distributed generation will end up paying more for power as the customers leave the utility, who will have to charge more to or go out of business.

Second, that we put in an electric vehicle infrastructure at great cost and effort, without a strategy for who is going to pay, and when and how, for the greening of the grid. That’s like building a chain of movie theaters and then not making any movies — expensive and without point.

CAAFI’s Executive Director Emeritus Rich Altman gave a lively presentation focused on State Initiatives executed under the “Farm to Fly 2.0″ banner for which the goal was offer up the U.S. F2F2 State model as one that can be executed here in Australia to start up initiatives in Australian states.

“The US model can work in Australia,” Altman said, referring to the CAAFI Private/Public partnership vehicle, the USDA/CAAFI “Farm to Fly” 2.0 structure which is “building a future,”, the F2F2 – Focus on State and Local Projects. Altman offered US state start-up case studies for Connecticut, Vermont, South Carolina and Florida. You can view Altman’s entire presentation here.

Joelle Simonpietri of the the US Pacific Command spoke on US Navy and Defense Department initiatives relevant to the Australian and international landscape, noting (from the Quadrennial Defense Review):

• “Competition for resources, including energy and water, will worsen tensions in the coming years and could escalate regional confrontations into broader conflicts – particularly in fragile states.”

• “The pace of technological and scientific innovation in the private sector, particularly in energy markets, has the potential not only to revolutionize entire industries but also to enable new ways of providing for U.S. security in the future.”

“The Department has invested in energy efficiency, new technologies, and renewable energy sources to make us a stronger and more effective fighting force. Energy improvements enhance range, endurance, and agility, particularly in the future security environment where logistics may be constrained.”

Simonpietri highlighted the 2016 Great Green Fleet activities, a year-long event throughout calendar year 2016 that will “highlight deploying ships and aircraft with energy conservation measures (ECMs) or alternative energy for propulsion,” and “ushers in a New Normal”, while working “with existing fleet schedules, therefore no dedicated group or itinerary for 2016″.