Kickstarting the Widespread Adoption of Automotive Carbon Fiber Composites: Key Findings and Next Steps

This report details the results of RMI's 2012 Autocomposites Workshop. During the course of a three-day workshop, ~40 leading experts from across the automotive carbon fiber composite value chain, industry experts, and government representatives convened to develop approaches to break down the barriers that have stifled advancements in vehicle weight reduction made possible by widespread penetration of carbon fiber composite into mainstream vehicles. This report summarizes the key findings from the workshop.

 

A Farewell to Fossil Fuels: Answering the Energy Challenge

In this article published in Foreign Affairs, Amory Lovins describes a U.S. transition from fossil fuels--a blueprint detailed in Reinventing Fire-- that requires pursuing transformational change in automotive efficiency, design of buildings and factories, and the electric system.

 

Autocomposites Workshop Pre-Read

RMI is committed to reducing U.S. oil dependence and enhancing the competitive positioning of the U.S. automotive sector by catalyzing a shift to ultralight, ultrastrong autobodies made of advanced materials, particularly carbon fiber composites. Light autobodies dramatically improve fuel efficiency and allow powertrains to be smaller, lighter, more efficient, and more cost-effectively electrified. Understanding the barriers, developing consensus on the way forward, and spurring a transition through collaborative risk sharing, policy, and government support of research and development will be critical to success. This pre-read document prepared participants for the 2012 Autocomposites Workshop. It provides an overview of the autocomposites project, an overview of the carbon fiber industry, summary of major barriers to implementation, and possible solutions to overcome those challenges.

 

Reinventing Fire Transportation Sector Methodology

This document provides RMI's methodology for the analysis of the transportation sector in Reinventing Fire.

 

Federal Freight Efficiency Authority

This paper proposes a federal agency to increase heavy-duty vehicle efficiency as a means to reduce U.S. dependence on oil. The paper lays out the structure, costs, benefits, and results of the proposed agency.

 

2010 Micropower Database (May)

2010 (May) Edition: The purpose of the micropower database is to present a clear, rigorous, and independent assessment of the global capacity and electrical output of micropower (all renewables, except large hydro, and cogeneration), showing its development over time and documenting all data and assumptions. With minor exceptions, this information is based on bottom-up, transaction-by-transaction equipment counts reported by the relevant suppliers and operators, cross-checked against assessments by reputable governmental and intergovernmental technical agencies. For most technologies, historic data from 1990 through 2008 or 2009 is available, as well as forecasts through 2013. Available information includes global annual capacity additions and output, global cumulative capacity, and capacity factor. The Micropower Database Methodology is also included here. The 2008 Micropower Database (RMI ID E05-04) is also available.

Note: A more recent version of The Micropower Database from September 2010 (RMI ID 2010-14) is now available. This update to the database incorporates recently released data that change the total installed micropower capacity by 2.9%.

 

2010 Micropower Database (September)

2010 (September) Edition: The purpose of the micropower database is to present a clear, rigorous, and independent assessment of the global capacity and electrical output of micropower (all renewables, except large hydro, and cogeneration), showing its development over time and documenting all data and assumptions. With minor exceptions, this information is based on bottom-up, transaction-by-transaction equipment counts reported by the relevant suppliers and operators, cross-checked against assessments by reputable governmental and intergovernmental technical agencies. For most technologies, historic data from 1990 through 2008 or 2009 is available, as well as forecasts through 2013. Available information includes global annual capacity additions and output, global cumulative capacity, and capacity factor. The Micropower Database Methodology is also included here. The 2008 Micropower Database (RMI ID E05-04) and the 2010 (May) Edition (RMI ID 2010-06) are also available.

Note: This update to the database incorporates recently released data that change the total installed micropower capacity by 2.9%.

 

Freeing America From Its Addiction to Oil

This article was originally published on CNN.com in 2010 and expands on Amory Lovins' TED talk from 2005. In the article Lovins describes the progress made since RMI's 2004 book, Winning the Oil Endgame.

 

Smart Planes Save Oil

This article, published in the Japanese Nikkei Ecology, explains how next generation air traffic control technologies could save 10-12% of the oil consumed by air travel by 2030.

 

U.S. Transformational Trucking--Environment and Efficiency in Freight Mobility

The American trucking industry moves 60 percent of America’s goods using 3.5 million tractors and 5.3 million trailers. Yet despite their ubiquity, tractor-trailer designs have remained fundamentally unchanged for fifty years. According to a recent analysis by Rocky Mountain Institute, the technology already exists to double trucking efficiency.

 

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