Transportation
Considering an EV? Here are Some Quick Shopping Tips.
I thought it would be fun to share some EV buying thoughts I’ve developed over my time with Pecan Street and several years with a fully electric car and a plug-in hybrid. I’ve been thinking a lot about these things lately, as my wife and I will be trading in our 2021 Mustang Mach-E early next year.
Your EV Webinar Questions Answered
By Scott Hinson – Thank you for joining Cavan Merski and me for our recent webinar about EV charging trends. We’re following up with answers to some great participant questions.
Want to Save the Planet? Call an Electrician First. Better Yet, Become an Electrician Yourself.
By Richard Smith – We’ve heard for years that “we all have a role to play” in creating a cleaner economy. As the electrification trend ramps up, we’re about to see just how critical electricians will be.
Inflation Reduction Act Sets United States on Path to Clean Energy Economy
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 sparks the country’s largest investment to address climate emissions and rapidly accelerate the transition to clean energy. Following is a statement from Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street Inc.
Pecan Street on KXAN: Why One Austin Neighborhood Tracks Energy Use Down to the Circuit
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Every light bulb, microwave and electric vehicle charger — tracked! That’s what around 300 homes are doing in the Mueller neighborhood in east Austin. They’re doing it as part of a research project called Pecan Street, and the data they’re collecting could reshape energy usage in the years to come.
During Texas’ Heatwave, Every Degree Matters. And so Do Conservation and Efficiency.
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street – For the second time in a week, Texas’ grid operator (ERCOT) and local utilities yesterday issued “calls for conservation” as the state bakes under a prolonged heatwave. Among the requests: increase your thermostat setpoint to 78 degrees to reduce state-wide air conditioner load. It’s unsurprising that air conditioning increases electricity demand during a heatwave. But it may surprise you to know just how powerful a driver it is and how close it can push the state toward a real problem.
A Tale of Two February Freezes – Can Last Year’s Grid Failure and This Month’s Storm be Compared?
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street – The recent freeze gave us an opportunity to compare electricity use in our research network before and during the event to how people used power during last year’s crisis. Did they learn any tips or tricks? Did they panic heat their homes to prepare for power outages? Did they charge their cars any differently? Here's what we saw.
A Year After Winter Storm Uri, a Look at Smart Solutions to Strengthen the Grid
By Cavan Merski, data analyst, Pecan Street Inc. – Microgrids get name-dropped a lot. And for good reason. The promise of a smarter, more resilient, and cleaner grid is enough to make any energy geek swoon. But given all the buzz, there’s a short supply of guidance on how we can deploy microgrid technology at scale. Pecan Street’s new analysis puts our energy data expertise to work to answer part of the microgrid riddle – how can big data enable widespread microgrid deployment?
Biden’s EV Charging Agenda Could be a Game Changer for Transportation Emissions
As climate action takes center stage this week at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Pecan Street will reflect on some of the issues we believe will be key to keeping global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees. Topics will include, AI applications for soil carbon sequestration, energy equity, water equity, and electrified transportation infrastructure. Next up are our recommendations for federal EV charging infrastructure spending.
EVs and the Texas Grid (KXAN)
Pecan Street's Colin Rowan spoke with Eric Henrikson (KXAN-Austin) about whether the Texas grid can handle an influx of electric vehicles (yes!) and how these "rolling batteries" could (and should) be a solution for Texas leaders trying to increase the grid's resilience.
Addressing an Electrification Roadblock: Residential Electric Panel Capacity
Pecan Street’s new analysis explores the opportunities for policymakers and utilities to remove a significant barrier to residential electrification. By incentivizing electric service panel upgrades for existing homes and requiring larger capacity panels for new construction, we can clear the path for full residential electrification.
Turning Biden’s EV charging agenda into a game-changer for American transportation
By Colin Rowan, director of strategy & communication, Pecan Street – We outline the principles the Biden administration’s electric vehicle charging strategy should follow to maximize the impact its investment will have on EV adoption. Download our new paper here.
Grist: Your electric vehicle could become a mini power plant
Grist's Maria Gallucci recently spoke to Pecan Street CEO Suzanne Russo and Pecan Street Board Member Michael Webber about the potential grid impacts of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. Read a snippet of the article below or read the full article on Grist's website.
Pecan Street Launches the Center for Race, Energy & Climate Justice
Pecan Street is launching the Center for Race, Energy & Climate Justice to bring its unique data and research capabilities to help create an equitable energy future. The center and its year one agenda are funded by the Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation, Energy Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
New Analysis from Pecan Street Finds Opportunity for Utility Savings with Smart EV Charging
Pecan Street’s new Charging Smart whitepaper concludes that utilities can save up to 41% on serving their residential electric vehicle charging loads by deploying smart charging technologies. Charging Smart analyzes future residential EV charging scenarios to identify opportunities and challenges for the grid and makes policy recommendations for utilities on how to advance smart charging technologies that will unlock EV charging as a significant grid management resource tool.
Pecan Street Announces the Winner of its Vehicle-to-Grid University Challenge
Pecan Street selected a team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne as the winners of the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) University Challenge. Pecan Street launched the global competition in October 2020 for university teams to develop V2G control algorithms that optimize residential fleets of electric vehicles for grid decarbonization and increased resiliency. The winning team will receive a $2,500 award.
Behind the Meter Storage and 4CP in Texas
A new case study from Pecan Street summarizes the benefits of behind-the-meter (BTM) assets that can decrease a utility’s net transmission cost through 4 Coincident Peaks (4CP) reduction.
What’s Holding Back the Energy Future We’ve Been Promised?
Over the last 10 years of conducting research on electricity use and advanced technologies like electric vehicles and solar systems, my colleagues at Pecan Street have found there are four key technology roadblocks that are holding back innovation and adoption of cleantech products, services and systems.
Pecan Street’s V2G University Challenge is Underway!
In October, Pecan Street launched a global competition for university students to develop a robust Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) control algorithm that optimizes residential fleets of electric vehicles for grid decarbonization and increased resiliency.
We Don’t Have Time to Solve Problems One-at-a-Time. And We Don’t Have To.
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street - We can’t solve all of our problems independently – we don’t have time. And science tells us we don’t have to. So Pecan Street is adopting a Wicked Solutions approach to all our work. We will apply our unique capabilities to identify and prioritize the wicked problems that sit at the nexus of climate change mitigation and adaptation and focus our effort toward developing wicked solutions.
COVID Five Months in: A Sustained Increase in Residential Electricity
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street - Pecan Street has been monitoring electricity use and generation from hundreds of homes in our research network for nearly a decade. Many of these homes have rooftop solar and electric vehicles, and we’ve been measuring each home’s total energy use as well as use from individual circuits, like heating/cooling, EV charging, refrigerator, etc. With all this data at our fingertips, we decided to take a look at how our participants’ energy profiles have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pecan Street Featured on CNN’s “The Global Energy Challenge”
Pecan Street's Chief Technology Officer, Scott Hinson, was interviewed for CNN's "The Global Energy Challenge" about shifting energy usage due to COVID-19.
Pecan Street CTO Speaks with The Weather Channel About Summer Peak Energy Use and COVID Pandemic
Pecan Street's Chief Technology Officer, Scott Hinson, was interviewed by the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore today about the coincidence of summer peak energy usage and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pecan Street Deepens COVID-19 Home Energy Analysis with Survey of Volunteer Network
We surveyed participants to learn what behavioral changes might be affecting their energy profile under shelter-in-place. Learn more here.
COVID-19 is Changing Residential Electricity Demand
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street - As the patterns of our lives shift in response to COVID-19, we decided to take a look at how our research participants’ energy profiles have changed. Not surprisingly, they’re using more energy. But how much, and for what?
Pecan Street Welcomes 9 Companies to PLATFORM Program
By Bart Bohn and Elisa Gilson, Pecan Street – Pecan Street has filled its second cohort of companies participating in its PLATFORM for Product Launch program. Let's meet them!
Fully Charged Show Visits Pecan Street
The Pecan Street staff hosted Chelsea Sexton from Fully Charged a few weeks ago as they toured some of Austin’s energy-tech hotspots. Watch the Pecan Street episode here.
E&E News Visits Pecan Street on their Electric Road Trip
Pecan Street hosted Edward Klump and Mike Lee from E&E News as they started their 1,000 mile journey from Houston to Nashville in an EV. Along the way, they're stopping to write and share news about what's happening in this fast-growing market. Review their Week One video recap and read their blog post that dives into our vehicle to grid research.
Pecan Street @ 10: An Innovation Lab in the Heart of Texas’ Innovation Capital
By Scott Hinson, CTO, Pecan Street – We need our electricity generation, use, and storage to be smarter, better connected, and more efficient. Thanks to what we’ve built over the last 10 years, these are the kinds of advances we are able to accelerate at Pecan Street’s lab.
How is an Electric Grid Like an Octopus?
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street – We know that achieving the kind of emission reductions we’ll need to ward off the worst consequences of climate change will require a more flexible, responsive and sophisticated grid. And that will take new thinking. But when it comes to rethinking our grid, we may have some guidance from natural systems that were designed long before the first watt ever powered a lightbulb.