A $21 million effort among federal, state and industry sources was announced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on Wednesday to support the development of natural gas engines and vehicles.

Increasingly, the search for clean vehicle initiatives in response to climate change include natural gas vehicles (NGV) and electric vehicles (EV), and NREL officials indicated the increasingly plentiful domestic gas supplies driven by shale gas are rekindling interest in natural gas as a transportation fuel.

The Department of Energy’s NREL, California Energy Commission and South Coast Air Quality Management District will collectively put up $13.5 million, and as part of cost-shared projects, companies will invest nearly another $8 million, NREL said. Four projects in British Columbia, California, Texas and Indiana have been selected for awards to do pieces of the research and development.

NREL will oversee the natural gas engine research and development projects seeking to develop more efficient engines meeting or exceeding the 2010 emission standards, integrating the engines into different chassis and vehicle platforms, and verifying fuel efficiency, petroleum reduction and emissions benefits. The focus is on medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses that currently represent 22% of the fuel used in on-road vehicles.

“More engine and vehicle choices are needed, however, for natural gas to be a practical alternative to petroleum-based fuels for medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses,” said NREL Project Manager Margo Melendez. “That’s where this project comes in.”

The EV segment of the automotive market is expanding rapidly and driving new opportunities for both smart grid technologies and related infrastructure requirements, according to Clasma Events, which is hosting an EV Grid Summit in Washington, DC, on Oct. 21 as part of GridWeek 2010. Pike Research, one of the companies participating in the summit, predicts that there will be some 4.7 million new electric vehicle recharging stations in place worldwide by 2015, generating an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue.

“When we consider the game-changing impact that the smart grid will have for consumers, industry and our national energy policy, it may be the role of the smart grid in enabling electric vehicles that generates the most interest and potential,” said Anto Budiardjo, president of Clasma Events.

Last Tuesday Hertz Corp. announced a commitment to action at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to bring the next generation of EVs to the general public through its car rental and car sharing operations.

Hertz and its partners are planning to roll out the EV rental program starting this autumn with full-scale deployment in both the U.S. and other countries beginning in 2011. Hertz Global EV will be the first to provide a range of EVs and plug-in hybrid EV and charging stations on a rental and car sharing basis at this scale.

“Our Hertz Global EV program will galvanize support for building out the infrastructure platform necessary to make electric vehicle travel an everyday reality,” said Hertz CEO Mark P. Frissora. “With our rental and car sharing expertise, industry relationships and global footprint, we are in an ideal position to lead this new frontier in transportation. This is the game-changer for electric mobility.”

In putting more EVs on the road, experts note that the EV grid infrastructure will need to be in place. Verify Markets, in a just released market research report on the North American EV charging industry, notes that the “charging” market is expected to grow rapidly over the next five to seven years, reaching $3.09 billion by 2017.

The key factors that are driving the sale of EVs, and in consequence EV charging equipment, are the low costs to operate and maintain an electric vehicle, the desire for countries to be energy dependent and more green, and advances in technology, the report found. This includes better performing batteries and improved charger to grid/vehicle to charger communications. The market is expected to reach unit shipments of 2.8 million by 2017, with more than 85% of unit sales comprised of residential and multi-unit housing chargers. The level three charging industry, which will follow right behind the level two infrastructure, is expected to have more than 10,000 unit shipments by 2017 and revenues of more than $250 million on unit installations alone. More information from the Verify Markets report is available on its website.

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