Stanford-Woods Energy Seminar - Spring 2010

Sherif Marakby, Director of Electrification Programs and Engineering, Ford Motor Company

Electrification of transportation has been in the making for over 100 years. Clearly, today, there is a high degree of interest in the three E's - environment, economy, and energy. At Ford we want to make sure we are doing our part. The biggest impact we can make is ensuring the vehicles we produce are delivering the best possible value to our customers including not only their quality, safety, reliability and features, functions and connectivity, but also ensuring that their energy efficiency is best in class and reason to buy. On this last point, keys for success are vehicle and fuel delivery technologies with the capability and costs to meet customer needs affordably while at the same time delivering a sustainable business for all involved in the value chain. At Ford Motor Company, we view electrified transportation as including full hybrids, plug-in hybrids and full battery electric vehicles - vehicles that directly displace oil with use of electricity and can be propelled for some distance and usable speed down the road entirely in electric drive mode. This session shall explore Ford's approach to making electrification a growing and sustainable part of the vehicle fleet including the technologies, challenges, and enablers.

Sherif currently is responsible for global Electrification programs and Engineering at Ford Motor Company. This includes Hybrid, Plug-in Hybrid, and Electric Vehicle Powertrains and vehicle. Prior to his current position, he was the Core Chief Engineer for Hybrid systems and components. His team recently delivered the Fusion Hybrid sedan Powertrain system. Sherif has 20 years of automotive experience at Ford Motor Company in various areas including Powertrain systems and components, Electronic systems and modules, Program Management, Electromechanical systems, and Manufacturing and Assembly. Sherif's education includes a Masters in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

April 7, 2010

Part 2 of a 4 part mini-series on electric vehicles. Showcase of electric and fuel cell vehicles. During the Showcase from 4:15 to 5:45, groups will rotate through stations to hear from each vehicle representative. Please arrive on time. At 5:45 a reception will begin adjacent to the cars, in the parking structure. Vehicles provided by: Daimler, Tesla Motors, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, AC Propulsion eBox from PG&E's fleet, Pi Mobility

 

April 14, 2010

Consumer Behavioral Responses to and Perceptions of Electric Vehicles

Tom Turrentine, Director, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center and Research Anthropologist, University of California at Davis



We are in historic times for the auto industry, along many dimensions, from the expanding of car ownership in developing nations, to the peaking of oil, and to the challenges of climate change. In the past, automobile products have changed slowly compared to other “tech” markets. Today, most automobiles are in many basic ways much like vehicles of the past few decades. A few clean and efficient vehicles are having successes in the market and bigger technological changes seem to loom ahead; in particular, in the next few years, automobile makers will attempt to commercialize electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles around the world. Are these products that only a few engineers, enthusiasts and devoted environmentalists want or are these products that will transform the auto industry, embraced by the wide consumer market? For 20 years, researchers at UC Davis have been probing this question, surveying and interviewing car owners about their fuel use, actual or potential use of green cars, alternative fuels, want for small urban or neighborhood cars and electric drive vehicles in particular. UCD researchers have studied consumer response to the basic practical issues, such as purchase costs, operating costs, the constraints of vehicle range, the use of charging stations as well as more cultural arenas such as the development of new symbols, values, the role of information in car owner’s social networks, environmental concepts, efficient driving practices, and the use of energy feedback instruments. Dr. Turrentine reviews the relevant lessons he and his research team at UC Davis have learned in the past 20 years about the electrification of transportation and shares recent findings from his work with BMW in the MINI E program and from the 70 Northern California Automobile Association households who have participated in the PH&EV center PRIUS PHEV conversion program.



Bio: Tom Turrentine is Director of the California Energy Commission’s Plug-in Hybrid Electric & Vehicle Research Center and Research Anthropologist at the Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis. For the past 20 years, Tom has been adapting methods and theory from anthropology to guide research on consumer response to alternative fuels, vehicle technologies, road systems, and policies with environmental benefits. His most recent work includes studies of consumers using the MINI E, PRIUS PHEV conversions, and new types of energy use feedback displays in their vehicles. His center will be working with utilities and car companies on the use patterns of new electric and plug-in hybrids being deployed in the next few years, developing tools to advise deployment of infrastructure and ways to restructure the cost of lithium batteries.

April 21, 2010

Thomas Jaramillo, Stanford University

Solar energy is an attractive option that could potentially provide our energy needs in sustainable fashion, but a number of major scientific challenges stand in the way of developing cost-effective methods to capture and store solar energy at the terrestrial scale. One means to store this energy is in the form of fuels, i.e. using solar energy to drive redox reactions such as splitting water into H2 and O2 or the conversion of atmospheric CO2 to alcohols and hydrocarbons. This talk will focus on the development of the three key components needed to synthesize liquid and gaseous fuels from sunlight: (1) semiconductors with appropriate electronic band structure for solar photon absorption and for sufficient photovoltage to drive redox reactions, (2) water oxidation catalysis to provide the protons and electrons needed for the fuel synthesis reduction reactions, and (3) electro-reduction catalysis for the evolution of hydrogen and/or the reduction of CO2 to liquid fuels. The exploitation of nano-scale effects will be discussed as a means to tailor material surface and bulk properties to fit these needs.

April 28, 2010

Margot Gerritsen, Stanford University

Most stakeholders agree that solar energy can provide a significant percentage of U.S. electrical needs over the coming decades. National public support of solar energy projects, and large scale solar projects, is strong. Despite the support and excitement, the first of the newly proposed, and fast-tracked, large scale solar projects are facing significant hurdles. Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment recently hosted a two-day forum in which industry, NGOs, policy makers and scientists discussed these challenges and brainstormed ideas to meet them. Margot Gerritsen, who led the forum, will discuss the outcomes of this fascinating forum. Questions addressed in her talk include: Why is there broad excitement about large scale solar? What are fast track projects, and why are they facing high hurdles? What do tortoises have to do with large scale solar projects? How can we make large scale solar work, and what role can Stanford play?



Bio:

I was born and raised in the Netherlands, but left the country in 1990 in search for hillier and sunnier places. After spending some time in various places in Northern Europe, Colorado and Georgia, I ended up at Stanford for my Ph.D. After completion in 1997, I moved to New Zealand and back to Stanford in 2001.

I’m now a professor in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford, interested in computer simulation and mathematical analysis of engineering processes. I specialize in renewable and fossil energy production. I am also active in coastal ocean dynamics and yacht design, as well as several areas in computational mathematics including search algorithm design and matrix computations.

Apart from research, I enjoy teaching and thinking about energy issues. Check out www.smartenergyshow.com for thoughts and discussions on energy issues and policies.

And then, there is a whole life outside academia. I love the outdoors, music, writing, reading, horse back riding, motorcycling, scuba, yoga, arts and travel with my son.

May 5, 2010

Burton Richter, Director Emeritus, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Prof. Burton Richter’s book, Beyond Smoke and Mirrors, is now available. It is written for the non-expert and goes over climate change (what we know, how we know it, uncertainties), energy options (supply, emissions, potential), and policy options (sensible, senseless, and self-serving). Nuclear energy is one of the options discussed and that will be the main focus of this seminar.



Nuclear energy as a source of electricity is growing worldwide. In Europe, even Germany is reconsidering its commitment to shut down its nuclear plants soon. Other countries like Italy, which abandoned its nuclear energy program after the Chernobyl accident, are returning to nuclear power as a way to meet their greenhouse gas reduction targets. In Asia, China, India, Japan, and South Korea are undergoing a major nuclear energy expansion, some because of the need for more secure energy supplies, others for reasons similar to Europe’s. Opponents of nuclear energy cite four issues: cost, radiation and accident potential, waste disposal, and risk of more proliferation of weapons. All of these issues will be reviewed.



Bio: Burton Richter, Paul Pigott Professor of Physical Sciences Emeritus at Stanford University, is a Nobel Laureate (Physics 1976) and specialized in elementary particle physics. His current work emphasizes science policy and energy supply issues, particularly nuclear energy.