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Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
I'm reading the links, but I don't see where it says it'll have the most in the nation. Maybe the first large-scale plan to be sponsored by a large energy company.
and some of these stations have been up for a decade or so. Meanwhile, LA is slated to be one of the cities to benefit from an expansion through the EV Project.
Houston's power grid made it an ideal launch. Meaning that more stations built, it would be more sustainable because the city can harness more energy power than anywhere else in the rest of the country to keep it afloat without any power lockdowns.
I'm sure Los Angeles has made quite a nice debut with it, but it never went into a mass scale or buildings those out of no where, it built them one at a time. Houston's literally bringing to life 150 or so within a year and a half.
An excerpt:
Quote:
Houston's title as the world's Energy Capital will gain a bit more luster when the city becomes home to the nation's largest network of electric vehicle chargers.
Power plant operator NRG Energy on Thursday unveiled plans to install 150 charging stations within 25 miles of downtown Houston and offer monthly plans for in-home chargers as a way to ease consumers into the idea of buying one of the many new electric vehicles scheduled for production in the next few years.
Houston to install electric car charging stations | Bryan/College Station, Texas - The Eagle (http://www.theeagle.com/business/Houston-going-electric - broken link)
Remember, what Houston is doing is making it a package deal too, not only are they building them in stations for use but they're also making them more "home appropriate" and making this into a business. It requires a certain level of kilowatt energy to be exerted at a time, and that's where Houston of all places has its ultimate advantage to doing a mass scale launch of this kind, because comparably to the rest of the country, it has more energy power that it can harness to fuel the at home systems (on a mass scale) without energy blackouts.
Houston's power grid made it an ideal launch. Meaning that more stations built, it would be more sustainable because the city can harness more energy power than anywhere else in the rest of the country to keep it afloat without any power lockdowns.
I'm sure Los Angeles has made quite a nice debut with it, but it never went into a mass scale or buildings those out of no where, it built them one at a time. Houston's literally bringing to life 150 or so within a year and a half.
An excerpt:
Remember, what Houston is doing is making it a package deal too, not only are they building them in stations for use but they're also making them more "home appropriate" and making this into a business. It requires a certain level of kilowatt energy to be exerted at a time, and that's where Houston of all places has its ultimate advantage to doing a mass scale launch of this kind, because comparably to the rest of the country, it has more energy power that it can harness to fuel the at home systems (on a mass scale) without energy blackouts.
I think Green Energy initiatives are pretty neat.
Which is pretty neat. I think Los Angeles is bringing online a few hundred more in the next few years as part of the EV Project. It does make sense for both Houston and Los Angeles to work on this as Houston is the energy capital and Los Angeles is also very automobile-dependent and currently has by far the largest fleet of consumer electric vehicles. I guess Los Angeles's advantage is that it did roll these electric vehicles and charging stations out rather slowly so the ramp up to more infrastructure to support these doesn't have to be as dramatic.
I still wish both cities would work more on mass transit though, because sitting in traffic whether in an electric vehicle or a hybrid or a gas-guzzler, is still sitting in traffic.
It kind of has to, as long as its the energy demon it is and is the U.S. face of Big Oil. Some of these companies like Exxon Mobile claim they are "green" by purchasing carbon offset credits on the free market, which for those who don't know, is CO2 saved by OTHER companies and then sold to companies that pollute so they can show CO2 reductions. I believe this process is being investigated and potentially discontinued, but I'm not sure.
Honestly, it's all about profit which I'm sure is no surprise. Of course the companies are going to be making investments in green energy because it becoming very profitable, but these are still same companies that are trying to undermine the EPA behind the scenes every chance they get. I don't know if anyone remembers this, but before the big oil spill in the gulf, BP had this huge marketing campaign about eco-friendly the were because of all the investments they where making in renewable energy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
LA did have this a long time ago and still has them now. Actually, many cities now have electric car charging stations. Maybe Houston's claim is to having the most?
I'm not sure. I read Danny's article links and I'm not sure what he was talking about. Although the article did seem to suggest that Houston is going to be the next city to get the eVgo stations, so maybe that's what Danny was referring to. Regardless, it does seem like quite the undertaking if they can pull it off and hopefully it will be quite the success in Harris County. The more cities we can get doing this, better.
[quote=wpmeads;17650339]Honestly, it's all about profit which I'm sure is no surprise. Of course the companies are going to be making investments in green energy because it becoming very profitable, but these are still same companies that are trying to undermine the EPA behind the scenes every chance they get. I don't know if anyone remembers this, but before the big oil spill in the gulf, BP had this huge marketing campaign about eco-friendly the were because of all the investments they where making in renewable energy. [quote]
I was the lead chairman of a Sustainability effort of a major corporation, and at the end of the day the only projects that received approval for budgeting were those with the highest return on investment (or those that made/saved the most money). Some companies are green to be green, but most are green to save green. Hey, it's a win-win either way I guess. But the carbon credits is total BS and has GOT TO GO! There is no easy way to measure true carbon savings -- believe me, we tried!
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,785 posts, read 23,964,276 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MDAllstar
I agree! And make that 100 years to stop using cars in America. As of now, no metro area outside of NYC, D.C., Chi, Bos, and Philly give you an option to live without a car.
WRONG. The NE is not the only area with urban density. One could easily live without a car and several do in Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 01-30-2011 at 11:49 PM..
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,126,392 times
Reputation: 4047
Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
Which is pretty neat. I think Los Angeles is bringing online a few hundred more in the next few years as part of the EV Project. It does make sense for both Houston and Los Angeles to work on this as Houston is the energy capital and Los Angeles is also very automobile-dependent and currently has by far the largest fleet of consumer electric vehicles.
Exactly, if you think about it, it makes the most sense to start off with these two. In the country Los Angeles & Houston are numbers 1 & 2 when it comes to auto-dependency. What better way to market electric energy, electric cars, & environmentally sound conditions than promoting them with the two largest gas emission pollutant cities in the entire country?
In a way, this will be a huge favor to both cities, their economy, and to the public message and public good. I hope this shoots off and becomes a national level success, more green energy and less pollution would be a very good scenario for the United States.
People put these things out to make sales pitches and try to draw attention to their projects. It's highly unlikely this will move forward on anywhere near that scale in that timeframe. You can find pitches and plans out there like this for many many cities.
Adding 30,000,000 square feet of office space in 20 year to just one submarket of the DC area?? That's just a LOT of space, and I've been dealing in commecial real estate in the Washington DC area for 8 years now. You've got Crystal City/Pentagon City, Tysons Corner, Rosslyn, all the areas in Maryland, The Dullas corridor, etc. etc. etc. Not to mention the huge beast that's central Washington DC itself. Given the already bloated state of the Federal Government (which obviously drives a lot of this), you're not going to see the need for (assuming 30 million comes to just the Tysons area) what would probably be well over 100 million square feet of office space in the immediate DC area.
People put these things out to make sales pitches and try to draw attention to their projects. It's highly unlikely this will move forward on anywhere near that scale in that timeframe. You can find pitches and plans out there like this for many many cities.
Adding 30,000,000 square feet of office space in 20 year to just one submarket of the DC area?? That's just a LOT of space, and I've been dealing in commecial real estate in the Washington DC area for 8 years now. You've got Crystal City/Pentagon City, Tysons Corner, Rosslyn, all the areas in Maryland, The Dullas corridor, etc. etc. etc. Not to mention the huge beast that's central Washington DC itself. Given the already bloated state of the Federal Government (which obviously drives a lot of this), you're not going to see the need for (assuming 30 million comes to just the Tysons area) what would probably be well over 100 million square feet of office space in the immediate DC area.
Thank you, every submarket in DC thinks that it will be the next major job hub for the area and add a ton a office space in the next 20 years. That simply won't happen everywhere. Alot of the IT & Cyber Security work that normally boosts Tysons Corner is shifting from Northern Virginia to Central Maryland so that need for office space normally in Fairfax & Arlington is now shifting to Ann Arundel and & Howard. Also suburban Maryland mainly the I-270 corridor is looking to become alot more competitive with NoVa for commercial growth so I don't think job growth will be as great in Fairfax/Tyson Corner as the past
I just hope with whatever development they make Tysons a little more appealing, when I worked there it seemed like all the nuisance of a large city with none of the character, much like KOP in Philly. It seems like the plan is trying to make better in that respect but of all the DMV business centers Tysons always seemed the most disjointed (Car dealer, container store, office building, ruth's chris, hotel etc. all with feeders and disjointed parking and virtually zero walkability)
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