GE Audio & Video: Podcasts, Stream GE, On Demand
skip to main contentskip to secondary navigationClick on any phrase to jump to that point in the video.
[[Robert King] I'll give you just a quick overview of the type of work we do]
[This is GE's global research hybrid and electric vehicle test laboratory.]
[We actually test everything from the motors or either motors of that type,]
[which we're doing research on advanced interior permanent magnet motors,]
[as well as this behind is a motor that's used for a mid-size hybrid truck application.]
[We have an ABC170, digitally-controlled bi-directional power supply]
[that is used to test out either the battery system alone ]
[or to simulate a battery and test out the propulsion system, the motor and controls.]
[So we have the capability to test everything from -- in fact, as small as a golf cart.]
[We've done a hybrid golf cart in the past, some test research programs --]
[up to a significant portion of the traction drive for a locomotive, for example.]
[So we do all that work right here in this laboratory, and right now, ]
[I guess I would like to turn it over to Herman Wiegman.]
[[Herman Wiegman] It's kind of exciting and fun to work on things you can actually drive.]
[This has been a great little car.]
[It's a two-seater, but this vehicle is being sold on the market,]
[and it's a lot of fun to work with.]
[My name is Herman Wiegman, and I work for Nicole Levers on the ]
[A123 Engineering Assistance program where we are helping A123]
[engineer a Lithium ion battery pack for the Think City vehicle.]
[This right here is a Think City made in Norway,]
[and they are integrating lithium battery pack technology into it.]
[And this here is our engineered pack, which is a nano iron phosphate lithium ion battery]
[We worked very closely with A123 out of Boston,]
[and with Think out of Oslo to make this combination work. ]
[So the Think company is sourcing three different batteries from three different vendors]
[to meet its production goals and needs,]
[and we're one of those, and we're proud to provide this battery and engineering for A123.]
[Now also is able to charge and run the dynamometer.]
[We're going through a design validation stage where we're verifying all the functions]
[of our battery pack with the vehicle.]
[That's why it's outside the car right now.]
[I'll just jump in and give it a little spin, okay?]
[Okay, and we're ready to drive.]
[[ ] Welcome. This is our advanced battery research laboratory.]
[[Glen Merfeld] This is one of several laboratories that we have ]
[where we're looking at electric chemistry developments for high performance batteries.]
[The real impotence for the program that we have here is to develop energy storage]
[And our goal is to actually save 10% of the fuel, ]
[and for a single locomotive over the course of a year]
[that's about 35,000 gallons of fuel.]
[Okay, so that's pretty significant.]
[You can imagine the benefits, both to you and I when it becomes cheaper for us hopefully]
[to transport our goods that we want, certainly for our customers who we sell]
[Chuck can give you a little more detail about some of the efforts]
[that we actually have going on in the lab.]
[[Charles Jacovangelo] This is the guts of the battery.]
[This is what we would call an individual cell,]
[so this is where the chemistry goes on.]
[This is the size that we would use for our hybrid locomotive.]
[There are several hundred of these cells inside this package.]
[On the hybrid locomotive we store about a megawatt hour of energy,]
[We save about 10% of the fuel.]
[>> We've talked about off-highway vehicles.]
[We have a public announcement about a demonstration for a marine tugboat.]
[We have a big growing opportunity potentially in our renewables,]
[and we're looking closely at these opportunities.]
[We're trying to understand what the cost economics are.]
[Certainly understanding capacity and live performance factor in really heavily ]
[in those types of calculations, so we think this technology potentially]
[could open up new opportunities for GE well beyond the hybrid locomotive.]
[I'm currently the manager for the electric power and propulsion systems lab]
[here at the research center.]
[We're standing in our new Smart Grid lab facility]
[that we started up early this year.]
[There are a lot of things right now that I think we're all very familiar with]
[that are driving changes in the grid as we know it today.]
[Climate change across energy, and all of these things are demanding more power ]
[Those drivers are going to force changes in the grid.]
[We believe this is inevitable, and it's a great opportunity for GE to deliver things]
[like better energy efficiency, better utilization of the grid is key,]
[as well as better productivity in the power, and consumer empowerment,]
[That's a GE Smart meter that in this particular case can accept a Ymax signal --]
[It's kind of a long-range wireless -- and take that signal into the home within a region.]
[Your preferences are taken into account, and they can be controlled ]
[with this example of an ecodashboard.]
[For instance, based on your preferences, you can dim the intensity of that lamp,]
[hardly notice it, and save about 50% of the power.]
[What I'm doing is setting up a profile to tell that meter the cost of energy is going to go up,]
[and let it make the decision based on the preferences that I've set ahead of time. ]
[Now, in this case, it's going to be very rudimentary. ]
[I'm just going to flip off, for example, that light.]
[Flipping a light off in and of itself isn't all that exciting, ]
[but try to imagine it on a grand scale now, where we've got say 10,000 homes]
[in a neighborhood, and we're turning off a bunch of hot water heaters]
[based on people's preferences, and allowing them to save some money on their bills.]
[That's really the kind of thing we're working on here.]
[We think it's a huge opportunity.]
[There are a lot of things converging right now, ]
[and we think this is a great place to be right now.]
[So you're in a bus that's not quite as nice as CDTA bus,]
[but this one's about 15 years older, and theirs needs fuel; this one does not.]
[We're basically converting this from an all-electric bus going 130 miles]
[We once again are lucky enough and fortunate enough to have ]
[STA sponsoring this project as well.]
[And what they're going to pay us to do now --]
[ -- and we're cost sharing this effort practically 50-50 --]
[We're going to be using Hydrogengenics for our fuel cell supplier,]
[and GE to make a commercial design.]
[We want to bring people through, show them, as part of our charter from STA]
[is to raise awareness of, in this case, hydrogen and hybrids,]
[is really our big push, and while we're doing that we're developing models,]
[and basically understanding how can I best use these different battery technologies]
[in the right order, in the right priority, I guess, is the right answer.]
[Then we're going to validate those models with this platform.]
[So what we've got in the rear of the bus is the stack, a little goldish in color]
[is 3 zebra Z-5 batteries made by Mes-Dea, a company in Switzerland,]
[We use those as our energy batteries, and we expect those to get us]
[to where we're going long term.]
[But what's nice for us is that we can develop technology]
[that has an outlet, at least today, through transit buses ]
[that we're going to be leveraging for other applications like I alluded to before in mining,]
[but if you can make something go here, you can also put it onto a delivery truck.]
