Coulomb Technologies: An interview with Richard Lowenthal by Donna Austin

I met with Richard Lowenthal on Friday,
January 9th to discuss Coulomb Technologies ChargePoint Network. He said there
are approximately 241 million cars in the U.S. and 54 million garages.

Drivers can become subscribers to a
curbside network of charging stations for electric cars. These stations are
wirelessly controlled and communicate with Utilities.

Interestingly 10 years ago the City of
Cupertino had electric vans that they plugged in at City Hall parking lot. I
remember as a Planning Commissioner taking a field trip in one of them. Why did
we ever change back to gasoline
motors? The city of San Jose is now in
the fore front. They bought 3 stations for the city hall parking lot.

When asked about the cost for the average
person, Richard said it would cost roughly $48 a month for a grid friendly
customer. That is someone willing to be interupted by utilities because of
crisis. Each customer has a tag which allows them access to plug in.

This is a clean energy source. Some
hybrids like Richard's Prius can be converted to plug in technology. His car
gets 100 miles to the gallon this way. He says most people travel around 26
miles a day to work and on errands. You can drive you car on battery alone
after charging. When driving more than 26 miles, you can use the gas electric
combo if you have a hybrid that is convertible. In the future carmakers will
add this feature as an option to hybrids.

Electric motors are 90% efficient and
generate 10% heat gas engines are 20 % efficient and generate 80% heat. Cost is approximately 2 cents a mile for
electric cars and 10 cents a mile for gas cars.

In San Francisco
only 2 in 6 cars is parked in a private garage. people who live in apartments
or condominiums will need a place to plug in. 80% of users will want to charge
more than once a day.

Columb Technology is a fascinating concept.
But I still have questions about how this technology would affect our overall
electricity grid and infr- structure. I
also wonder how secure are the cars plugs and equipment while charging. But
that is another interview for another time.

You can read more about this new concept on
their webpage and see actual demonstrations.

www.coulombtech.com

Tags: clean-tech, coulomb, electric, plugin

Posted by donna on Jan 10th, 2009 and filed under Business, Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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