$300 Million for Advanced Vehicles
advanced vehicle
The U.S. Department of Energy made an announcement just recently that could really be beneficial for our cities. The department will provide $300M in stimulus funds to 25 projects aimed at putting 9,000 more alternative-fuel vehicles of America. These projects is also aimed at building the infrastructure needed to power them, including 542 fueling and charging stations across the country. These are big projects indeed under the banner of the DOE’s “clean cities” program.
This is surely a novel concept. It could cut petroleum use by up to 38 million dollars a year. That’s nearly a million barrels of oil. That’s good for the country’s economy, good for nature and definitely good for the people.
But before the money is given, each of the 25 projects need to raise twice the matching funds allocated for them. This will allow more capital-intensive projects. The bulk of the funding will be used to advance adoption os hybrids, electric vehicles, plug-in electric hybrids, as well as natural gas and biofuel-powered vehicles. Imagine these vehicles running around America. I wonder what it’s like to have one of those?
Of course having this different type of vehicles means needing different type of refueling stations. That’s why part of the plan is to have refueling stations designed to power cars running on natural gas, propane, biodiesel, ethanol and electricity. Right now, the designers of this concept are probably having interesting imaginations.
DOE is not awarding the money on companies tackling in these areas. It, instead, funds the local government organizations assigned with greening transportations in their jurisdiction. It also encourages recipients to introduce these advanced vehicles with industry partners in order to incite eventual commercial adoption. If this concept is starting to be realized, I’m sure it will not be hard to commercialize.
The “Clean Cities” program is not created by the stimulus package. It is said that 15 years ago, the goal of this program has always been to cut the country’s petroleum consumption in transportation. With this new stimulating concept, “Clean Cities” program will be a step closer to it’s goal.