Doron Shalvi briefs the club on the new charging stations at NIH

About 25 people attended the EVA/DC meeting held on August 15, 2012 at the Silver Spring Library. Many of the attendees arrived in electric vehicles and the parking lot was full of Chevy Volts, Nissan LEAFs and a few other EVs. One person reported that he is expecting delivery of a Zero electric motorcycle within a few days. Another has a Tesla Model S scheduled to be delivered in October and shared his experience trying to find an insurance company willing to insure it.

Lanny Hartmann reported on the MD Volt Meetup at FedExField that was organized by Mark Czajka and hosted by Phil Ovitt of NRG Energy. 27 people and 21 electric vehicles came to the event and all ten eVgo charging stations were used.

Eric Cardwell gave the group his evaluation of the Ford Focus Electric that he drove at the MD Volt Meetup. He had driven a pre-production version in 2010 and he is impressed with the improvements Ford has made since then. Eric also wrote a Ford Focus Electric review.

Chip Gribben gave us the details on the upcoming 2012 Power of DC.

Joe Lado updated us on plans for National Plug In Day in front of the Capitol Building on September 23.

Jill Sorensen spoke about BEVI’s participation in the Maryland Customer Investment Fund (CIF) hearings.  BEVI submitted a proposal to fund electric vehicle fleet and infrastructure development in Maryland as part of the $113.5M available as a result of the Exelon merger with Constellation Energy Group.  BEVI’s was the only transportation-related proposal out of the 98 that the Public Service Commission received in response to its request for proposals.  Though the BEVI proposal was Not Recommended for funding, Jill reported that BEVI is pursuing its appeal to include transportation in how we define clean energy and energy efficiency, particularly through EVs and renewable energy sources that can power our EVs.  Click here to read Jill’s PSC Statement.

John Lippert is again organizing the Green Transportation Rally section of the Greenbelt Labor Day Parade. He said there are plans to include two Fisker Karmas

 in the parade.

Elvia Thompson told us of plans for EV Days in Annapolis. Volunteers who can bring cars on Saturday September 15 should contact Elvia. starboard@annapolisgreen.com

Katherine Arredondo, karredondo@cleancurrents.com Director of Solar PPA at Clean Currents gave a presentation about green energy solutions for powering electric vehicles.

An announcement was made about a grand unveiling of charging stations for PMI Parking garage in Crystal City. The event will be sometime in September, possibly the 9th or 16th.

Doron Shalvi talked to the group about a pilot program at NIH to install charging stations to encourage commuters to use electric vehicles.

Dave Goldstein gave us an update on EV policy issues including a vote in U.S. Congress on a tax credit for certain electric vehicles and a General Motors plan to study Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology.

Submitted by Lanny Hartmann

EVA/DC Monthly Meeting held on July 18, 2012 at White Oak Library in Silver Spring, MD.

Jill Sorensen, jatsorensen@gmail.com Baltimore Electric Vehicle Initiative’s executive director, came out to talk about Maryland’s Youth Energy Service (YES) Corps internship program. Sorensen is the internship coordinator of 21 participants in the first year of the six week program. Interns are from Charles, Baltimore and Howard counties, Baltimore city, and are all high school and college age. Students are working on various projects, including developing posters promoting EV awareness and helping to plan a route across the country for an electric car to travel from the West to the East Coast and charge along the way. At the end of the program, students will receive a $500 stipend. If your company might be interested in hosting one or two interns next summer, visit www.b-evi.net/yes-corps/ or contact Jill jatsorensen@gmail.com.

Eric Rees, erees@atrcorp.com COO & CFO of Advanced Technology & Research Corp., gave a presentation about their Solar Power Pole with EV Chargers. ATR started as a robotics and automation engineering company 35 years ago, focusing on DoD, Postal Service and Commercial Customers. Today they have added solar and wind turbine products to their offerings. Of note are their sun-tracking solar products. One of these EV charging stations is based not far from White Flint Mall near a bank in Bethesda. Solar tracking chargers are 30-45% more efficient than solar canopies. For more information, visit www.atrsolartech.com. PowerPoint PDF

Robert Atkins, ratkins@evatran.com Co-Founder of Evatran, LLC, gave a presentation about their Plugless Power EV charging system. The system uses a centuries-old concept called inductive power transfer – the same technology used in both household products and electrical transformers around the world. Using magnetic fields, energy is transferred from the transmitting coil in the parking pad and converted into an electrical current by the receiving coil in the vehicle adapter. This system is currently being tested and will be available for the Volt and Leaf. Atkins said that Plugless Power technology has achieved over 90% efficiency as measured from your home’s 208/240V electrical outlet to your vehicle’s existing on-board battery charger. For more information, visit www.pluglesspower.com.

Al Lococo, the Secretary of both the Central Florida EVA and the Sun Coast EVA was a guest at our meeting. He came to the meeting in his Nissan LEAF that he brought all the way from Florida via the AutoTrain. Al gave out a few copies of his book, Turning Point in History, about Energy and Transportation and how they affect many areas of our lives. The book can be downloaded free from his website, www.evprogress.org

Submitted by Mark Czajka.