Saturday's mini-workshop, the first collaborative venture between Bucks County Renewables & the Green Jobs Academy of Bucks County Community College, went really well. The class was completely sold out with 18 participants, and I talked to at least half of the attendees afterwards. With big smiles they all told me they had a great time and learned a whole lot! One gentleman had driven 4 hours (from Waynesboro PA) to take the class, and said it was well worth both the registration fee & the drive. Some of the enthusiastic students were complete novices to the EV conversion process, some had already done a lot of background research, and one actually has a conversion underway already -- so that tells me we have done a good job of crafting a program that can meet the needs of a range of participants with different backgrounds. Yay, us!
This new iteration of our mini-workshop was a true group effort. Clorece Kulp & Ira Weissman of the Green Jobs Academy and Chris Gillespie of Bucks County Community College were incredibly helpful behind the scenes -- and out front on Saturday in Ira's case, as he introduced the class and walked us through all the college procedures we needed to follow. BCR intern Adam Khorshin sacrificed a lot of sleep to work on the graphic images for our new "Conversion Considerations" slideshow, while Brandon Hollinger of BH Electrics generated the outline and some key slides in addition to providing the incredibly useful closing video of parts building up in the Miata engine bay -- along with lots of moral support & good cheer.
Brandon also brought some helpful show-and-tell items with him on Saturday, while Dan Monroe hauled along all the pieces of his conversion kit that are not already in his Saturn-in-progress. In addition to bringing in the e-Vanagon with Intern Adam (who does graphics AND owns a truck & dolly -- be still my heart!) Saint Bill brought along his gorgeous EV go-kart to display, so we had lots of EV gear & gizmos to share with the group.
With Brandon, Dan, and Bill all participating in the informational presentation and answering specific questions during the last part of class we were able to cover a lot of material, with a nice range of experiences represented: from DC to AC, lead-acid to lithium-ion, clutch-in or clutchless conversions, etc. I am so grateful to all three of these guys for serving as the brain trust for this workshop, and I can't wait to do it again in the fall. I was pretty thrilled with how it went this weekend, but I know it will be even better the 2nd time around!
I had a number of inquiries from folks on Saturday about the 6-day hands-on workshop July 25-30, and I have received at least 2 dozen email inquiries about it in the last couple of months (before any official promotion even took place!). Registration will be opening shortly through Bucks County Community College and it looks like demand for the limited spaces will be high so if you are interested and haven't already emailed me to receive an announcement the instant registration officially opens, do it NOW and be in the first wave to hear.
Please note that Ken Ekegren will be putting on his 4th (!) hands-on conversion workshop out at North Central State College in Ohio this summer. This is a 2-week workshop (July 25-August 5) so the pace is a little more leisurely. Here are the details if that timing or location would suit you better: 2011 Conversion Workshop NC State. ASE technicians & automotive technology teachers take note: the NC State workshop provides 20 hours of instructor training required for NATEF-certified programs.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
EV News Roundup Week of 3/21: It is Spring Here, Folks
EV History, My Favorite Category
So I learned tonight that down in Philadelphia, which actually touches Bucks County, there were two early electric car-makers named Pedro Salom & Henry Morris who built their own EV. This was back in 1894 and it was one of the first automobiles in the country. Our original DIY boys built their car in two months. It was basically a super-heavy box of batteries on spoked wheels weighing in at 4400 pounds (including sixteen hundred pounds of lead-acid fuel). Also, it was named the Electrobat, which is probably the Best EV Name Ever.
5 years later (1899-1900) the intrepid pair of Salom & Morris could be found in New York City running a whole bunch of Electrobat 2.0's in an all-electric taxi fleet (!). Furthermore, they were resolving their time-to-recharge problem with a battery-swapping scheme highly reminiscent of Shai Agassi's contemporary Project Better Place. Shortly afterwards our heroes got tangled up wtih robber barons and the editor of the automotive trade magazine Horseless Age (who hated hated hated electric cars), and subsequently disappeared from history. Except of course from EV history, which is my favorite kind and interests folks like the clearly intelligent and apparently fabulously handsome Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at the Atlantic. The Atlantic is a REAL MAGAZINE my friends and a very classy one! There is something for everyone to love in this article if you love derbies, mighty mechanical feats involving hydraulic pistons and swappable battery packs weighing 1,300 lbs, plus words like 'autoelectrophobe' (be still my heart). Maybe I love those things enough for all of us, come to think of it.
Pure EV News
Ahahahahah it was a normal cute little Geo Metro but now it is crazy aerodynamic! Read all about this $3,000 conversion -- done by a guy who has some experience, having converted some 45 vehicles.
YES! News from the folks at Carnegie Mellon who are working to harness robotics in the service of EV conversions -- their 2002 Honda Civic production prototype is complete and they are taking orders from folks who want their gas cars converted to quiet, efficient, and peaceful electric operation. Go CREATE Lab, go.
Nissan Leaf review plus interview with Chris Paine from Men's Journal, hey that is another actual magazine, this is EV News in Magazines week I guess!
EV & Hybrid Business News
From the New York Times via TorqueNews, which I suspect added the deadpan conclusion: "$8,000 seems like an awful lot of money for a car that has already garnered a reputation for catching fire."
From Autobloggreen -- when gas prices soar, used car buyers go crazy for fuel-efficient cars.
Post-Quake-Specific Business News
Charging Stations
On the Technological Horizon
In Other Alternative Fuel & Renewable Energy News
Science Daily reports from the lab on batteries with a "three-dimensional nanostructure" process that achieves both high capacity and large current. Over at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign they apparently have these clever little bicontinuous electrodes charging and discharging 10 to 100 times faster than equivalent bulk electrodes.
Elon Musk is wondering, reports GreenBeat.
Not Just EV's But Other Solutions to Our Transportation Problems
We at Bucks County Renewables do not think much of genetic engineering as a solution to our transportation problems or any others.
It Could Be Electric, and Look How Cute It Is
I am a big admirer of Buckminster Fuller and also, apparently, of cars that look like catfish and can hold eleven people. Despite its super-cool name which sounds almost electric, this is not an EV. I nearly omitted it from the blog on account of Relevancy Rules, but then I had to let it back in because who can resist a car that looks at you with such sad eyes begging not to be excluded? Not me, Dymaxion. This interesting post is from METROPOLISMAG.COM (that is how they spell it) and my gosh it is the website of another actual magazine, go figure! And here I thought paper publishing was dead, but as you know spring is a time of renewal ...
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