Saving Gas While Fighting Crime

Saving Gas While Fighting Crime in Tallahassee

March 20, 2012 

Police cars in Tallahassee, FL are using EECBG funding from the Recovery Act to reduce idle time and save fuel and taxpayer money. | Courtesy of Tallahassee Police Department.

John Johansen

If you’ve ever watched an episode of the TV show “Cops,” you might have noticed that police cars are often idling – whether from the frequency of ‘routine’ traffic stops, highway incident responses or being on the scene for investigations. This idling can add up to hundreds of gallons of fuel wasted every month -- not the best average for a city during a time of high gas prices and tight city budgets.

To help reverse this trend, the City of Tallahassee, Florida’s Fleet Management Division has designed and built its own Less Idle Time (LIT) package and has installed the equipment in 27 police cars using EECBG funding through the Recovery Act.

The LIT uses batteries and other features to allow police cruisers to have full electrical capability while the engine is off, including the use of emergency lights and air conditioning. Additionally, significant fuel and carbon emissions savings are expected over the normal eight-year vehicle life of a police car. Thanks to reduced engine idle time, LIT could increase the vehicle lifespan by 30 percent (or another two years.)

As with any design built from scratch, there has been a learning curve, but the city's fleet personnel have worked together to resolve each challenge they’ve encountered. The city intends to eventually outfit all police cars with LIT packages. Similar equipment is being developed for other fleet vehicles that idle for several hours a day such as the city’s utility bucket trucks.

More LIT benefits: 

• Can save up to $2,000 a year in fuel per vehicle (based on a 2-hour-per-day usage per vehicle).
• Can eliminate up to 73 pounds of CO2 emissions per-vehicle every day.
• Is installed in the trunk and runs the entire electrical system, including emergency lights and AC
• Works from one to five hours depending on ambient air temperature and thermostat settings.
• Recharges while the engine is running. 

Learn more about the strategies vehicle fleets are using to increase efficiency and reduce petroleum use by joining our Live Twitter Q&A today, March 20 at 12PM EST. Or for more information about energy efficiency projects happening in communities across the country, visit the EECBG website or read about the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 

Energy Dept. & Volvo Build More Efficient Trucks & Mfg. Plants

News release from the U.S. Department of Energy:

Energy Department, Volvo Partnership Builds More Efficient Trucks and Manufacturing Plants

January 27, 2012 

Washington, D.C. –Today, Acting Under Secretary of Energy Arun Majumdar joined with North Carolina Congressman Howard Coble (NC-6) to tour the Volvo Group’s truck headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, and highlight the blueprint for an America built to last laid out by President Obama in his State of the Union address earlier this week. The Department of Energy is partnering with companies like the Volvo Group to help harness American ingenuity to commercialize and deploy cutting-edge trucking technologies that will help boost the competitiveness of the U.S. auto and manufacturing industry, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and create jobs for American workers.

“Earlier this week in his State of the Union address, President Obama outlined a blueprint for a stronger American economy based on a resurgence in American manufacturing and innovations in the way we use energy,” said Dr. Majumdar. “Companies like the Volvo Group that are pursuing energy efficiency in their operations, putting Americans to work, and building more fuel-efficient vehicles underscore how investments in clean energy technology are helping to secure America’s future economic prosperity.”

In partnership with the Energy Department, the Volvo Group is helping to lead the industry to advance innovative clean energy vehicle technologies and energy-efficient manufacturing. Through the Department’s SuperTruck program, the Volvo Group was awarded $19 million – which the company is matching dollar for dollar – to improve the efficiency of heavy-duty vehicles like the Mack and Volvo Trucks. Volvo Group has also embraced manufacturing efficiency as part of the DOE’s Better Buildings, Better Plants Program, pledging to reduce the energy intensity of its manufacturing plants with assistance and guidance from the Energy Department. These steps to become more energy-efficient will reduce operating costs at the facility, improving the competitiveness of the company’s products and manufacturing plants.

Dr. Majumdar and Congressman Coble were hosted by Dennis Slagle, Executive Vice President of Volvo Group Trucks Sales & Marketing - Americas, on the tour of the Volvo Group’s Technical Center, which is in the midst of an $8 million expansion.

The Volvo Group’s award was one of four Energy Department-sponsored SuperTruck development projects, which focus on increasing the fuel efficiency of Class 8 trucks – better known as 18-wheelers – by 50 percent.  To achieve this goal, companies like the Volvo Group are developing and improving vehicle technologies in engine efficiency, aerodynamics, waste heat recovery,  and hybridization, among other approaches.  Through the SuperTruck program, the Energy Department expects fuel economy increases from 6.5 miles per gallon to 9.75 miles per gallon – saving long-haul truckers more than $15,000 per truck per year in fuel costs.

Class 8 trucks represent only 4 percent of the on-road vehicles in America, but are responsible for almost 20 percent of the country’s on-road fuel consumption.  Implementation of SuperTruck technologies will not only lessen the nation’s dependence on petroleum, but also improve the global competitiveness of U.S. truck manufacturers.

While Volvo is building more efficient vehicles, the company is also improving the energy efficiency of the manufacturing plants that make them. In December 2009, the company joined the Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now LEADER initiative, now known as the Better Buildings, Better Plants Program, to begin an ambitious effort to significantly reduce the energy intensity of its operations as a way to increase competitiveness. Since then, Volvo’s New River Valley plant, located in Dublin, Virginia, has implemented a range of measures with guidance from the Department’s technical experts that reduced its energy intensity by almost 30 percent in just one year. Embracing energy efficiency measures helped Volvo cut costs and keep operations—and jobs—for its truck manufacturing business here in the United States.

Volvo Truck Corporation is one of the leading heavy truck and engine manufacturers in the world. Volvo Trucks manufactures a line of Class 8 trucks, and is known as a major innovator in the heavy-vehicle industry, selling products in more than 180 markets worldwide.

Library Patrons in New York Check-Out Renewable Energy

The following was gleaned from a December 27 blog post on the U.S. Department of Energy's web site.

Library Patrons in New York Check-Out Renewable Energy

December 27, 2011

 

The public library in Esopus, New York, used Recovery Act funds to install two photovoltaic arrays expected to generate 31,200 kWh of electricity annually -- approximately 30 percent of the library’s electricity use and a savings of nearly $4,000 in energy costs each year. | Photo courtesy of New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

Julie McAlpin

Communications Liaison, State Energy Program

In a hamlet on the Hudson River in upstate New York, two newly installed photovoltaic arrays at the local library are generating electricity, interest in renewable energy, and community pride.

Recognizing its role as an educator and community leader, the Esopus Library used a $96,790 award from the Recovery Act to install the 22.5kW roof-mounted and 5.5kW ground-mounted photovoltaic systems.

The new solar system is expected to generate approximately 31,200 kWh of electricity annually -- approximately 30 percent of the library’s electricity use and a savings of $4,000 in energy costs each year.

The ninety-six 230-watt Sharp® photovoltaic panels, made in Memphis, Tennessee, along with the PVPowered™ 30 kW inverter and rooftop DPW Solar Mounting System were installed by a crew of eight electricians over a period of three days.

After completing the 22.5kW roof system, the city still had funds to spare. In turn, the library worked with NYSERDA to modify the project contract and spend the remaining money to add the 5.5kW ground system. The unexpected second array will deliver approximately 120 percent of the electricity that the grant was based on, while still staying within the original cost.