Yunshi Wang, director of the new ITS-Davis China Center for Energy and Transportation (C-CET), has just returned from a five-week trip to China

SPREADING THE WORD: China Center Director Returns from Five Week Tour

Yunshi Wang, director of the new ITS-Davis China Center for Energy and Transportation (C-CET), has just returned from a five-week trip to China to introduce the Institute’s newest international automotive research program and explore opportunities for collaboration.

Wang visited universities, government officials and industry representatives in seven cities. He presented a paper at the Shanghai Forum hosted by Shanghai Fudan University and visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He represented ITS-Davis at the ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of Tongji University, also in Shanghai. UC Davis and Tongji have a reciprocal relationship; two ITS-Davis students, Jonathan Weinert and Jason Ni, have been conducting their PhD research at Tongji for the past two years. In Beijing, he visited Tsinghua University, met with a California government representative stationed in China, and stopped by the Energy Foundation’s China office. He also visited General Motors’ China headquarters and, accompanied by ITS-Davis alums Ling Li, Ph.D. and Wenlong Jin, Ph.D. (now professors at the University of Science and Technology of China), Chery Automobile, China’s largest domestic auto company.

The overarching goal of C-CET is to forge research partnerships with premier Chinese universities to enhance understanding of China’s evolving energy and transportation sectors and to provide input to policymaking in the U.S. and China. Nissan has generously provided initial start-up support for C-CET.

C-CET is pursuing five near-term activities. They are:

• Establish collaborative research and information relationships
• Analyze consumer demand for vehicles and fuels
• Analyze fuel distribution and supply
• Develop transport energy models and databases
• Analyze government policy

Wang seeks to make C-CET the leading international center for the study of transportation energy activities in China – one that builds on ITS-Davis’s existing network of leading analysts and scholars from around the world. In addition to coordinating research projects by ITS-Davis students and researchers and collaborating with researchers in China, Wang also will conduct his own research on China’s energy supply and demand.

“China has significant energy security issues,” he explains. Prior to 1993, China was a large exporter of petroleum products. But now it’s the world’s third-largest importer and second largest consumer of petroleum, he says. “Close to 50 percent of China’s petroleum products are imported -- and it’s growing.

“Because of the explosive growth of China’s energy use and cars, there are many synergies between China and the U.S. Energy is one of the few issues where there’s an opportunity for strategic dialogue between the two countries,” says Wang, an economist with a background in international relations.

Wang grew up in Shanghai, and came to the U.S. 18 years ago for grad school. He has worked at the United Nations and World Bank. In addition to his position at ITS-Davis, he is co-authoring a book on China’s economy with MIT Dean Emeritus and Professor Lester Thurow.

The UC Davis Sustainable Transportation Center has launched a Visiting Practitioner Program

VISITING PRACTITIONER PROGRAM: Weaving Together Research, Education and Outreach

The UC Davis Sustainable Transportation Center is launching its Visiting Practitioner Program with the arrival this month of Ellen Greenberg.

Greenberg has been a city planning and urban design consultant in both large and small firms for 25 years. She currently maintains a specialized consulting practice focusing on implementing the goals of smart growth, sustainability and livable communities through an integrated approach to land use, transportation and urban design.

“Ellen’s lifelong work and passion to make communities more livable for people and sustainable for the planet match the mission of STC,” said STC Director Susan Handy.

The goal of the Visiting Practitioner Program is to strengthen ties between the research and education elements of the STC and ITS-Davis and transportation practice. Each year, the program will support one visitor who will work on an applied research project, conduct seminars for ITS-Davis students, and organize workshops on selected topics for the transportation planning community.

During her six-month term with STC, Greenberg will launch an effort to document urban planning designs that support transit-oriented development and non-motorized travel modes. Currently, such design measures are not recognized in state and municipal design manuals—even though they are being used. The lack of documentation results in sometimes challenging and lengthy local government reviews. Greenberg proposes to develop a standard format for documenting the design, approval and implementation process for an initial set of projects, and track the communities’ experience post-construction. The resulting publication could serve as “Volume I” of a continuing effort and serve as a tool for technology transfer. She plans to engage students in the research and community outreach components of the project.

Established in 2005, the UC Davis STC is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, with matching funds from the California Department of Transportation.

IMPLEMENTING CALIFORNIA’S LOW CARBON FUELS STANDARD

IMPLEMENTING CALIFORNIA’S LOW CARBON FUELS STANDARD: UC Researchers Deliver on First Phase of Work

Alex Farrell and Dan Sperling

For the last few months, a team of UC researchers led by ITS-Davis’s Dan Sperling and UC Berkeley’s Alex Farrell have been working feverishly to develop recommendations for implementing California’s much-heralded Low Carbon Fuel Standard. The first phase of their work is completed and next steps are being planned.

In late June, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) adopted the LCFS as one of three “early action measures” for implementation under AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. As an early action measure, the LCFS must be in place by 2010. Established under executive order by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the LCFS sets as a goal a minimum 10% reduction in the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuels by 2020.

The UC researchers have almost completed the second of two comprehensive reports that serve as the foundation for the regulatory process that is now getting underway at ARB. The first study assesses the low carbon fuels options that might be used to meet the proposed standard and presents a number of scenarios for mixes of fuels that might meet a 5, 10, and 15 percent standard. The second study, now under review by stakeholders and others, examines key policy issues associated with the LCFS.

“One of the wonderful outcomes is that UC Davis and UC Berkeley researchers worked together truly as a team. The other is that economists, engineers, environmental researchers and policy analysts transcended the barriers that sometimes exist between their disciplines to work together effectively,” reflects Sperling. The UC Davis team included Mark Delucchi, Anthony Eggert, Jonathan Hughes, Bryan Jenkins, Chris Knittel, Marc Melaina, Joan Ogden, and Chris Yang. In all, 21 UC researchers contributed blood, sweat and tears to the effort.

“It was a very creative process. We were inventing something that no one had ever done before – on an incredibly tight timeframe and with huge implications.”

The UC team’s work was generously funded by the Energy Foundation. Sperling expects the team to continue working on the project—with continued Energy Foundation support—over the next 18 months of ARB’s rulemaking.

The policy report includes 15 initial recommendations, but Sperling notes not all issues are easily resolved. Among the thorny issues are the need for better research on emissions associated with biofuels (especially from conversion of land to biofuel crops), establishing a baseline emission level for all fuels, and determining how to integrate the LCFS with a cap and trade program for refineries and electric utilities.

“Doing this in a way that keeps the policy as simple, transparent, and incentive-based as possible, is critically important and a huge challenge,” Sperling adds.

Sperling cites numerous lessons from the experience so far. “Transferring even the most elegant research into regulation and law is tremendously challenging. Accommodating the real world of unique circumstances, data limitations, and demands for equitable treatment is difficult.”

He adds that the LCFS is one of those few policies that really can have a transforming effect. In fact, that is the goal – to transform the energy industries into low-carbon fuel suppliers.

UC’s Washington Center (UCDC) & UC Davis energy policy advisors fostering information exchange on energy policy with fed officials

EFFECTING CHANGE: Serving as an Information Conduit

Anthony Eggert, center, with UCDC colleagues
David Brown and Carolyn Henrich at the UCDC
federal government relations office.

Mid-way through a six-month assignment as an energy policy advisor at the University of California’s Washington Center (UCDC), Anthony Eggert, an ITS-Davis doctoral student, is gaining hands-on experience in Washington and playing a critically important and new role fostering information exchange on energy policy.

Eggert’s goal is to help the UCDC staff connect the UC system’s bioenergy, alternative fuels, climate and innovation expertise with the information needs of members of Congress and their staffs through briefings, seminars and workshops.

“People here need and greatly appreciate good, objective information,” Eggert says, adding that he’s very excited about his interactions to date with “bright, intelligent Congressional and committee staffers.”

Eggert and his colleagues have found their hands full with this summer’s focus on energy legislation. In early June, UCDC hosted a briefing on California’s proposed Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Approximately 120 people, including members of Congress and their staff, government agency staff, public interest groups, academia, lobbying firms and industry, and international embassies attended the briefing. In the following days, Eggert linked Congressional policymakers with several UC researchers in response to the policymakers’ requests for additional information on California’s unique and successful efficiency programs.

“To be able to provide some of the world’s most up-to-date, relevant and cutting edge research and statistics, and to get this information to the people who needed it on a short timeframe is truly rewarding,” Eggert said.

“The pace of activity and the need for information here is immediate. In most cases we have, at most, a day to get information to the person who needs it. Our ability to make an impact is based on how effective we are at making a connection – person-to-person or person-to-information.”

The 375,000 students, faculty and staff are generating valuable research findings, much of it potentially valuable to policy makers, Eggert notes. “But it requires an extra step to take that information from its original format, usually a research report, and massage it into an easily digestible form where it can be applied by policymakers to solve real-world problems.”

Eggert’s assignment continues through October.

UC Davis Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways off to a Great Start with 20 confirmed sponsors

Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways off to a Great Start

Kristin Zimmerman, GM, and TTP student Wayne
Leighty discuss points of shared interest at the
STEPS Symposium.

STEPS Sponsors

Energy	Auto	Government
BP	DaimlerChrysler	Natural Resources Canada
Chevron	Toyota	U.S. DOE
ConocoPhillips	Honda	U.S. EPA
TOTAL	Nissan	U.S. DOT
Shell Hydrogen	Subaru	Caltrans
PG&E	Ford
	GM
	BMW
	Volkswagen

Launched in January, the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways program (STEPS), already has 20 confirmed sponsors including six major energy companies, nine auto companies and five government agencies. STEPS is a four-year research consortium created to compare promising alternative fuel pathways including hydrogen, biofuels, electricity and fossil fuels.

The first UC Davis STEPS Research Symposium drew more than 80 sponsors and invited guests to campus in May. The symposium highlighted the current direction of STEPS research and follow-on projects continued from theInstitute’s now completed Hydrogen Pathways Program. The focus was on transitioning to a sustainable transportation solution. This was the first of two annual STEPS gatherings planned for each year.

UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center (EEC) receives a $1 million award from California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF)

Energy Efficiency Center to Facilitate Technology Transfer

Susan Kennedy, chief of staff to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with
Mike Peevey, chairman, California Clean Energy Fund and president,
California Public Utilities Commission.

The UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center (EEC) is off to a great start with a $1 million award from California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF). California’s primary utility companies—Edison International, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Sempra Energy—provided additional leadership support by each granting $500,000 over five years. The utilities are also significant funding partners in specific EEC research projects. The EEC was founded to spur the development of energy efficiency technologies and bring them to market through the creation of viable businesses within established companies and via start-ups.

The EEC held its inaugural Board of Advisors meeting in early June on campus. Comprised of experts in energy efficiency and market development from the public, private and nonprofit sectors, the board heard presentations about the Center’s first year progress, venture innovation, business development education and market facilitation. Among the highlights was a talk by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Chief of Staff, Susan Kennedy.

In 2006-2007, ITS-Davis and the new UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center (EEC) attracted a record-setting $3.5 million in gift support from individuals, foundations and corporations to support education and research. With those funds and a number of large grants, the following new programs were launched in the past few months.

$5 Million for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Research

The State of California is funding the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Research Center with almost $5 million announced since December 2006. Launched by a three-year, $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program, the PHEV Center also recently received $1.5 million from the California Air Resources Board Alternative Fuels Incentive Program through a one-time allocation pursuant to AB 1811. These funds will supplement the Center’s planned research on consumer response to this new plug-in hybrid technology. Researcher Tom Turrentine Directs the PHEV Center. A second grant under the same CARB program has awarded $350,000 for battery research conducted by Researcher Andy Burke. The PHEV Center will provide technology and policy guidance to the state and to help solve research questions and address commercialization issues.

ITS - Faculty and Student Accomplishments

ITS-DAVIS PEOPLE: Faculty and Student Accomplishments

David Lin accepts HYSYSDAYS award from
Alessandro Battaglino, CEO, Environment Park.

Cynthia Lin, an assistant professor in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department and the Environmental Science and Policy Department has been appointed to a new Controller’s Council of Economic Advisors. The seven-member panel will advise the state controller on emerging strengths and vulnerabilities in California’s economy, major issues and trends that may affect the state’s fiscal health, and how to make the best use of limited government revenues and resources.

Professor Joan Ogden and graduate researcher Nils Johnson were invited to present their research at the U.S. Department of Energy's 3rd Annual Carbon Capture and Transportation Working Group Workshop in North Dakota in June. Johnson's dissertation will examine strategies for developing a more "greenhouse-friendly" fossil energy system with capture and storage of carbon. Ogden and Johnson also toured the Dakota Gasification Plant, one of the few coal plants in the world where CO2 is captured rather than emitted to the atmosphere.

Zhenhong (David) Lin won an award from the Scientific Committee of the 2nd World Congress of Young Scientists on Hydrogen Energy Systems for a paper he co-authored with Chien-Wei Chen, Joan Ogden, and Yueyue Fan. Lin traveled to the “HYSYSDAYS - 2nd World Congress” in Turin, Italy, in June to accept the award. The paper, “Optimized Pathways for Regional H2 Infrastructure Transitions: A Case Study for Southern California” was deemed the best work in the strategic and socio-economic analysis session. Lin is a Ph.D. candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Tai Stillwater received the 2006-2007 CH2M Hill fellowship, and David McCollum received the 2006-2007 fellowship from Chevron. Corporate fellowships recognize outstanding ITS-Davis students and provide funding for their studies. Stillwater and McCollum also received an award from the 2007-2008 Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation. Stillwater is a master’s student and McCollum is a Ph.D. student, both in Transportation Technology and Policy.

Pat Mokhtarian, Tai Stillwater, with Hans
Strandgaard and Elaine Jones of CH2M Hill.

Friends of ITS-Davis announces its 2006 Outstanding Dissertation and Thesis Awards. The awards are granted each year for one Ph.D. dissertation and one master’s thesis to recognize and promote the highest-quality research conducted by ITS-Davis graduate students in the previous calendar year:

Xinyu Cao was awarded the Friends Outstanding Dissertation Award for: “The Causal Relationship between the Built Environment and Personal Travel Choice: Evidence from Northern California.” His major professor is Pat Mokhtarian. Professor Susan Handy also lent considerable input.

David McCollum, second right, with Chevron’s
Jeffrey Jacobs, Jim Uihlein and Harry Sigworth

Davis and UC Davis ITS Researchers in the News

EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! ITS-Davis and UC Davis ITS Researchers in the News

Andy Frank, July 20, in The Christian Science Monitor and San Francisco Chronicle, on plug-in hybrids.

Andy Frank, July 6, in San Jose Mercury News, in an article on hybrid vehicle fuel efficiency failing to meet consumer expectations.

Dan Sperling, June 21, in The Los Angeles Times, in an op-ed on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

Dan Sperling, Marc Melaina, Bryan Jenkins, and Joan Ogden on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard; Andy Frank on Plug-in Hybrids; Zuhair Munir on fuel cells materials science, June 2007, in UC Davis Magazine, on the cover story on energy research at UC Davis.

Pat Mokhtarian, June 11, in the New York Daily News, on telecommuting and productivity.

Pat Mokhtarian, May 25, in the Dallas Morning News, on the effects of rising gas prices on travel behavior.

Joshua Cunningham, May 2007, in Popular Science, on the STEPS program, part of a feature on future transportation.

Dan Sperling, May 20, in The Washington Post, in an article on vehicle design, fuel efficiency and America’s love affair with big trucks.

Dan Sperling, May 12, in the Wall Street Journal, in an article on the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

Mark Delucchi, April 18 & 19, in an Associated Press article, responding to a new study that finds increased ethanol use may create more air pollution and result in more smog-related deaths.

Dan Sperling, April 18, in The Sacramento Bee, on study with Christopher Knittel and Jonathan Hughes on the inelasticity of gasoline demand

PG&E To Buy Electricity From Massive Mojave Solar Park

PG&E To Buy Electricity From Massive Solar Park

SAN FRANCISCO, Jul. 25, 2007 - Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced plans Wednesday to buy enough electricity to power 400,000 homes from a massive solar park covering up to nine square miles in California's Mojave Desert.

The San Francisco-based utility signed a 25-year contract with Solel Solar Systems, based in Beit Shemesh, Israel, to purchase 553 megawatts of electricity -- equivalent to the amount generated by a large coal-fired power plant. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Mojave Solar Park, estimated to cost $2 billion, would dwarf the largest solar plants operating today, which generate less than 100 megawatts of electricity.

Solel, which would build and operate the park, still needs approval from California's Public Utilities Commission, Energy Commission and other state and local agencies. But Solel and PG&E officials said they were confident state regulators would support the project because it would help California reach its clean-energy goals.

"Preliminary research suggests the environmental impact will be minimal," said Keely Wachs, a spokesman for PG&E, which supplies electricity to 5.1 million customers in northern and central California.

Company officials hope to begin constructing the park in 2009 and begin generating carbon-free electricity in 2011. Three sites are being considered for the project, which would cover up to 6,000 acres and use transmission lines formerly used by a now-defunct coal plant near Laughlin, Nev.

The contract filed with the PUC Wednesday would help PG&E comply with a state law that requires electric utilities to secure at least 20 percent of their electricity supplies from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar by 2010.

The plant would employ solar-thermal technology that would use 1.2 million mirrors to harness the desert sun's power. Rows of trough-like mirrors would heat fluid that generates steam, powering turbines that produce electricity that would be fed into PG&E's electric grid.

Currently, most solar power projects use photovoltaic technology in which electricity is generated onsite from rooftop panels on homes, businesses and public buildings. California is pushing photovoltaics with its "Million Solar Roofs" initiative that offers $3 billion in rebates to install solar panels.

Solar-thermal is less expensive and easier to build at a large-scale than photovoltaic technology, officials said.

"We see solar-thermal as one of the most promising sources of renewable energy," Wachs said.

Solel, one of the world's largest solar-thermal companies, is building similar projects in Israel and southern Spain. Nine plants using Solel technology currently generate 354 megawatts of electricity in the Mojave Desert.

"The sun is shining there at a very high intensity," making it one of the best locations for solar-thermal power, said Solel CEO Avi Brenmiller.

Two years ago, Southern California Edison signed a contract with Phoenix-based Stirling Energy Systems to secure 500 megawatts of electricity from a 4,500-acre solar-thermal project in the California Desert.

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