In response to growing demand from countries seeking support for increased electric vehicle (EV) deployment to bolster climate change objectives, the USAID-NREL Partnership has developed several different projects aimed at streamlining development of EV charging infrastructure, workforce training, and grid management, which build upon the recently launched global Greening the Grid EV Toolkit. Here are some highlights from recent projects around the world.
In the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), the Lao government recently passed the “Strategy on Clean Energy Use and Promotion in the Transportation Sector, Development Plan 2025, Strategy 2030, and Vision 2050.” To support strategy implementation, the Lao PDR Ministry of Energy and Mines requested support from NREL and USAID in the development of Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) business models, technical standards, and associated EVSE tariff designs that support broader policy goals. The USAID-NREL Partnership facilitated a series of capacity building meetings on EVSE with the Ministry of Energy and Mines and a broader Lao government EV Working Group. To learn more, view the presentations:
- EV Supply Equipment: An Overview of Technical Standards to Support Lao PDR EV Market Development;
- EV Charging Infrastructure: Business Model and Tariff Design Support to the Lao PDR; and
- EV Supply Equipment: Tariff Design Support to the Lao PDR
Through the Advanced Energy Partnership for Asia, NREL will host a 6-week virtual course on EV deployment and management strategies. The course is aimed at enhancing coordination between policymakers and professionals from the transportation and energy sectors (from both the public and private sectors) from countries in Southeast Asia that are exploring or have recently initiated electric vehicle deployment strategies for their cities and/or countries.
With support from USAID, NREL researchers completed an award-winning study that employed mathematical models to enable transportation decarbonization and combat climate change. Researchers assessed the electrification potential of transit fleets in two Mexican cities and determined that at least 80% of the operational bus days for the studied routes were suitable for electrification. To meet 80% of the operation, the buses in Mexico City would need a 250-kWh battery and the buses in León would need a 300-kWh battery. The methodology and study findings are detailed in a conference paper that earned a best paper award at the 2020 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference. The paper, "Transit Bus Electrification Evaluation from GPS Speed Traces," was based on data collected in Mexico three years prior. Read more about the Transit Bus Electrification Evaluation in Mexico project.
