DOE funding next generation vehicle projects

Source: Technology Digital

Date :6/6/2007 8:43:14 AM

DOE provides up to $19 Million for Advanced Vehicle Technologies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has [[[recently]]] announced the selection of five next-generation vehicle research projects, which will receive up to $19 million in DOE funding to further the development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs).

The five projects will support advanced power electronics and electric motor technologies to help bring advanced PHEV, HEV, and FCV applications to market in support of President Bush’s Twenty in Ten plan. That initiative seeks to reduce U.S. gas consumption by twenty percent within the decade, by increasing the use of alternative and renewable sources of energy and modernizing the current Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards.

“These projects will not only help alleviate our ‘addiction to oil’ but also play a critical role in accelerating commercialization and making more clean and efficient alternative vehicles available to consumers,” DOE ??? Assistant Secretary Andy Karsner says. “Not only will more alternative vehicles on the road help reduce our reliance on imported sources of energy, it’s also critical to confronting climate change.”

The projects will focus on reducing the cost, weight, and size of electric drive and power conversion devices, while also increasing vehicle efficiency. Karsner says selected projects focus on advancing research on four areas: high-temperature three-phase inverters; high-speed motors; integrated traction drive systems and; bi-directional DC/DC converters.

Selected projects are as follows:

Delphi Automotive Systems in Troy, Michigan, has been selected for negotiation of an award of up to $4.9 million for high-temperature three-phase inverter research. Three-phase inverters control and regulate the speed of electric motors. Other team members IN THIS PROJECT? include Dow Corning, GE Global Research, GeneSiC, Argonne National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University of Blacksburg, Virginia, has been selected for negotiation of an award of up to $1.7 million for a project that will focus on developing an advanced soft switching inverter for reducing switching and power losses. Other team members IN THIS AWARD? include Azure Dynamics, Powerex, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

General Electric Global Research of Niskayuna, New York, has been selected for negotiation of an award of up to $3.4 million for work on developing high-speed electric motors. Specifically, this work will focus on increasing the traction motor drive power density and efficiency at reduced costs for PHEVs, HEVs and FCVs by developing an electric motor of at least 55kW peak power and capable of high speed operation – with a goal of at least 14,000 revolutions per minute (RPM). Team members include GE Motors and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.