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PG&E, Tesla team up to boost battery backups for power grid

Green Car Reports

Utilities are racing to expand battery storage on the electrical grid. which submitted a request Friday to the California Public Utilities Commission to build and install four large banks of lithium-ion battery storage, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The latest example is Pacific Gas and Electric Co.,

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Energy Impact Partners invests €5M in EV fleet efficiency company ViriCiti

Green Car Congress

The company currently serves more than 50% of the e-bus market in Europe and North America, with its solution integrated into some of the largest urban transit networks, including New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. —Shayle Kann, EIP Senior Vice President of Research & Strategy.

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Ford, Volkswagen, and GM Explore EV-Powered Houses

Cars That Think

Starting this year, thousands of battery-powered electric drive Volkswagen vehicles capable of both loading and offloading current—bidirectional charging, as industry calls it—have been rolling off production lines in eastern Germany. Volkswagen's current ID models with 77 kWh battery option now come ready for bidirectional charging.

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Coming Soon – The Electric City

Revenge of the Electric Car

From the article: “The San Francisco building code will soon be revised to require that new structures be wired for car chargers. And at the headquarters of Pacific Gas and Electric, utility executives are preparing “heat maps” of neighborhoods that they fear may overload the power grid in their exuberance for electric cars.&#.

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Soot and Spin: Two Plug-in Paradoxes

Plugs and Cars

Paradox 1 - Soot: There's an apparent emissions paradox with plug-in hybrids (PHEV): Driving longer distances on battery power means more cold starts as the internal combustion engine (ICE) stops and starts up again after the batteries deplete. Cold starts mean more pollution. What is possible? What is preferable?

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Xerox Parc’s Engineers on How They Invented the Future—and How Xerox Lost It

Cars That Think

In 1974 the laser printer first became available outside PARC when a small group of PARC researchers under John Ellenby—who built the Alto II, a production-line version of the Alto, and who is now vice president of development at Grid Systems Corp., The 1985 Siggraph art show in San Francisco alone received 4000 entries.

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