Germany and California’s largest cities — Berlin and Los Angeles — are eyeing two starkly different transportation alternatives, seeking different ways to displace gasoline dependence.

In Los Angeles, the first field demonstrations began last Tuesday on a micro “fueling station in a box” technology for refueling compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered fleet vehicles at Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) utility, one of several public and private organizations participating in the demonstration.

Meanwhile, the German capital city-state was setting an ambitious goal of having more than one million clean (mostly electric) vehicles by 2020, establishing an agency to make the pursuit of faster, more efficient and cleaner transportation overall an economic driver for the city’s 3.5 million inhabitants and broader (six million population) Brandenburg-Berlin region.

Without the alternative of plentiful and cheap natural gas supplies and facing ever-higher petroleum prices, Berlin, which serves as an icon for a nation still adjusting to reunification, has set a decidedly high goal for making itself Europe’s clean transportation capital. With the byproducts of natural gas being less viable here, Berlin envisions an electrified transportation system.

Officials in Berlin told NGI earlier in October that their plan is to electrify the transportation sector without having to rely on traditional power from natural gas, coal or nuclear electric generation plants. Public transportation, energy utilities and auto manufacturers are slowing coming on board, they said.

All of Berlin’s future transportation projects are tied to green energy, said Gernot Lobenberg, head of Berlin’s Agency for Electromobility.

“There is no more discussion about green and classic [traditional] sources of energy having to share the load,” Lobenberg said.

In the SoCalGas demonstration, the maker of the equipment, Argentina-based Galileo Natural Gas Technologies, is seeking to showcase its relatively small CNG fueling station for the first time in the United States. Beside SoCalGas, demonstrations of the compact natural gas fueling technology will include the city and county of Riverside, CA, AT&T, regional school bus and taxi companies, and individual CNG vehicle owners.

SoCalGas called the Microbox a streamlined CNG fueling approach that is part of the Sempra utility’s ongoing research/development efforts focused on ways to advance innovative technologies.

For the nation’s largest gas-only utility the modular fueling technology offers what it called “the potential for lower construction and maintenance costs, faster fueling, minimized installation time and a smaller physical footprint.”

Galileo’s equipment is described by SoCalGas as being compact and self-contained, and providing CNG at the gasoline equivalent cost of about $2/gal.

Drawing on the abundance and currently low prices for natural gas, SoCalGas’ Hal Snyder, vice president for customer solutions, said the demonstration program’s goal from the utility’s standpoint is to “advance new technology” that can also lower upfront capital costs for cities, counties and private operators.

State officials supported the effort and lauded Riverside for its leadership on this project, operating natural gas throughout its fleet of 250 vehicles, including 60 sedans, 73 pickup trucks, 39 vans and buses, 13 street sweepers, 25 refuse trucks and 39 other heavy-duty trucks.

Noting that his city values innovation, technology advancement and environmentally sound solutions, Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge called the small-size fueling station a “groundbreaking” advancement in the clean fuels sector. He called it a “positive statement for our region.” Loveridge also serves on the California Air Resources Board and is a member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s business and economic development head, Joel Ayala, praised the demonstration effort, noting that advancing more clean technology use helps create new jobs in the emerging green renewable market. Southern California now has nearly 300 CNG fueling outlets, serving more than 17,000 fleet and individually owned gas-powered vehicles.

Berlin’s goal, meanwhile, using a strong city/state-led initiative to develop a Silicon Valley-like reputation for energy technology advances, will permit the city to “produce, consume and store” all of its energy in Brandenburg-Berlin. To date, nearly 60% of the state of Brandenburg’s available land, which forms a “donut” shape around Berlin, is devoted to wind farms, according to Lobenberg.

An outgrowth of his agency is an initiative to combine public and private transportation into a one-card rental/pay system covering trains, trams, the subway, bicycles and autos. “The trick is how do you integrate all of these electric conveyances to the power grid,” said Frank Wolter, head of the program called “BeMobility.” The long-term goal would be to have almost no privately owned automobile for individuals, who would rent their transportation needs on a day-to-day basis.

Wolter’s vision for transportation cries out for a decentralized energy system that conflicts with today’s grid-connected centralized focus for electric generation. It also expects little or no support from traditional gas or coal-fired generation.

“What we are trying here is a new, decentralized energy model,” said Wolter, while giving a visitor a tour of his sprawling campus in southwest Berlin on the site of a late 19th/early 20th century coal gasification plant and gas storage facility now converted to a mini-green energy test site. Still known in the city as Berlin’s “Gasometer” site, it includes small wind and solar generation facilities producing power for various electric-powered vehicles, bicycles and other conveyances and sending excess supplies to the grid.

Wolter believes that during the next 40 years Germany will move to 100% renewable sources for its electricity. It is currently at about 17%.

Transportation and “mobility” makes up one of four “clusters” that Berlin’s city-state government is focusing on as it attempts to greatly accelerate economic development in the German capital through an economic development effort headed by a privately held firm, Berlin Partner, that holds a contract with the city/state. Energy is another cluster in the mix.

In both areas, green energy is emphasized because it plays into what Berliners consider their strengths — research universities and a growing list of high-technology companies, according to Martin Schipper, the head of energy technology for TSB Innovations Berlin GmbH and part of the Berlin-Brandenburg Cluster Energy Technologies program that began at the start of this year.

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