Olmsted County’s Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle — Powered by Garbage The first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in Olmsted charge the lithium polymer 5 kilowatt hour bat- County’s fleet of vehicles is hitting the road. Olmsted tery comes from its Waste-to Energy Plant. County has converted a 2008 Toyota Steam and electricity are generated locally mak- Prius Hybrid into a plug-in hybrid ing beneficial use of waste (garbage) by burning electric vehicle (PHEV). the renewable resource. WHAT IS A PHEV? The PHEV can travel up to 30 miles on electricity PHEV’s use the same technology as before using the standard, hybrid gas-electric popular hybrids on the road today, operating system. but add a large capacity battery that can be recharged by plugging into a standard home Standard hybrids and PHEV’s are powered by the outlet. In Olmsted County, the electricity used to re- combination of electricity and gasoline. PHEV’s WHY WOULD A COUNTY SUPPORT THE IMMERGING PHEV TECHNOLOGY? The plug-in hybrid vehicle technology is another example of the County being a leader and innovator in renewable energy and transportation systems. The County PHEV makes use of the locally generated renewable resource, garbage, to produce electric- ity to recharge the vehicle’s battery. The vehicle and Olmsted Waste-to-Energy Facil- For more information on ity (OWEF) will produce lower emissions and lower operating costs for the County’s the OWEF go to fleet. www.olmstedwaste.com draw their battery charge not only from the engine and captured brake energy but from electricity by plug- ging into a standard 120 volt electri- CLEAN LOCAL ENERGY cal outlet. PHEV’s have traditional The County’s PHEV will have its fuel tanks and internal combustion batteries recharged from electricity engines, so they do not face the produced by the Olmsted Waste-to- range limitation of electric-only cars. The battery takes approxi- Energy Facility (OWEF). The OWEF burns garbage, making beneficial mately one hour to charge for each 20% of the battery capacity. use of a waste product. It is a For a fully discharged battery, it will take about five hours to charge renewable resource and produces the battery and cost about 50 cents. So, for the 30 miles the vehi- steam and electricity locally. cle would operate on electricity alone it would cost about 50 cents LOW EMISIONS or about 1.7 cents per mile. An average gasoline en- The PHEV has very low gine vehicle gets 20 miles per gallon. With gas at emissions since the $3.75 per gallon, it will cost 18.75 cents per mile or gasoline internal $4.60 for a 30 mile trip. A PHEV electrical cost for the combustion engine is used less. The OWEF uses the same 30 mile trip would be about 50 cents or less latest state of the art than one tenth the cost of the gasoline engine. equipment to reduce emission levels. About half the cars in America are driven less than 25 miles per day. A 30 mile range PHEV could virtually eliminate gaso- GREATER ENERGY INDEPENDENCE The US imports one quarter of the line use in the daily commute. Given the right driving conditions, world’s total oil production, about 20 PHEV owners have achieved 100 + miles per gallon fuel economy. million barrels a day. This costs the economy about 700 billion dollars The new County PHEV is one of two hundred in the world. Battery annually to import foreign oil. The conversion kits such as a Hymotion PHEV technology could help the L5 Lithium Polymer 5 kilowatt hour transition to the “electrification of batteries have just been made avail- transportation” to reduce the demand for petroleum by the able to the general public. The bat- transportation sector and reduce the tery cost $9,995. demand for oil imports. Electricity can be generated by existing Olmsted County has joined a na- domestic power plants and use the existing power grid. The technology tional campaign called “Plug-In Part- and infrastructure are in place today ners” to urge auto makers to accel- to make the transition to electric transportation. erate development of the PHEV technology to provide lower cost mass produced vehicles. You can learn more about PHEV technol- HEALTHY ECONOMY Generating the market for PHEV’s ogy by visiting these resources. will preserve US jobs and create new opportunities in manufacturing www.pluginpartners.org vehicles and batteries. The dollars www.hymotion.com that would have been spent on www.pluginamerica.org foreign oil will remain in the US to www.calcars.org produce new jobs, increase technology research and development and strengthen the domestic economy. Consumers who save money by powering their vehicles with electricity and less gas will have greater spending power. Olmstedcounty.com .