American drivers hungry for powerful pickup trucks that are kinder to both the environment and their wallets will get a taste this year of what one Big-Three automaker has planned for the near future.

Chrysler Group LLC, the Detroit automaker now controlled by Italian automaker Fiat, said it will start selling natural-gas–powered pickups in the U.S. this year. Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of both Chrysler and Fiat, made the announcement at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Jan. 10. The first deliveries will be made to fleet customers.

Marchionne said that natural-gas vehicles — liquid natural gas (LNG) for large commercial trucks and compressed natural gas (CNG) for cars and pickups — are the best green option for automakers. Electric hybrids are too expensive and the recharge times for all-electric cars present too large an obstacle for mass consumption, Marchionne said.

According to Fiat, the additional cost of a natural gas engine is $3,000, compared with $3,300 diesel and $8,000 for an electric hybrid.

Fiat already has CNG vehicles throughout Europe and plans on bringing them to the U.S. by 2017. Ultimately, Fiat would like to bring CNG vehicles to the retail U.S. market faster, but the company cited a lack of infrastructure for refueling natural gas vehicles. There were only 1,000 refueling stations and 112,000 natural-gas vehicles in the U.S. as of Dec. 2010, according to the International Association of Natural Gas Vehicles.

Currently, Honda is the only automaker selling CNG cars to U.S. retail customers. Its Civic Natural Gas sedan, formerly the Civic GX and now branded the Civic NG, is sold by 200 dealers in 36 states.

Do you own a CNG car? What about your business? How is it working for you?

Sources

“Chrysler to Begin Natural-Gas Truck Sales,” Bloomberg, Jan. 11, 2012.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a massive campaign of funding for the research and development of key energy efficiency technologies.

Between Sept. 1 and Sept. 8, the DOE announced that it would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to advance four energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, including solar power, hydropower, offshore wind energy and geothermal power. Funding for a fifth series of projects to develop and produce drop-in biofuels was announced Aug. 31.

Funding for the research will be provided through the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the advances that result from the research will play an important role in helping achieve President Obama’s goal of ensuring that the United States is able to generate 80 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.

The DOE will provide more than $145 million in funds for its ambitious SunShot Initiative, a series of 69 projects across 24 states that seek to make solar power systems more affordable — without the use of long-term federal or state subsidies — by reducing the cost of the systems by about 75 percent by the end of the decade.

The DOE and the U.S. Department of the Interior will partner to provide almost $17 million in funding over the next three years to 16 projects in 11 states that will advance sustainable renewable energy generation from small hydropower resources, improve the environmental impact of hydropower, test cost-effective technologies and increase the deployment of pumped storage hydropower, which can improve the reliability of the electric grid in times of peak demand.

Forty-one projects across 20 states will receive $43 million in DOE funding over the next five years to support research leading to faster innovation in wind energy technologies, decrease costs and decrease the amount of time it takes to deploy offshore wind energy systems.

In an effort to reduce the cost of geothermal power technology and make it more competitive with conventional sources of electricity, the DOE is providing $38 million in funding over three years to support 32 geothermal research and development projects in 14 states.

Three small-scale projects in Illinois, Wisconsin and North Carolina will receive up to $12 million in DOE funding to accelerate the development of advanced drop-in biofuels and other bio-based chemicals. Drop-in biofuels are fuels that can serve as replacements or supplements to existing gasoline, diesel fuels and jet fuels without requiring changes to existing engines or fuel distribution networks and technologies. Many hope that drop-in biofuels will lead directly to the reduction of the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.

Sources

“Department of Energy Announces up to $12 Million in Investments to Support Development and Production of Drop-In Biofuels,” U.S. Department of Energy press release, Aug. 31, 2011.

“DOE Awards More Than $145 Million for Advanced Solar Technologies,” U.S. Department of Energy press release, Sept. 1, 2011.

“Energy and Interior Award Nearly $17 Million for Hydropower Technologies,” U.S. Department of Energy press release, Sept. 6, 2011.

“Department of Energy Awards $43 Million to Spur Offshore Wind Energy,” U.S. Department of Energy press release, Sept. 8, 2011.

“$38 Million Awarded to Advance Technology and Reduce Cost of Geothermal Energy,” U.S. Department of Energy press release, Sept. 8, 2011.

For alternative-fuel automobiles and commercial trucking, there may be no friendlier place right now than Texas.

The state recently installed 13 new fueling stations along the so-called Texas Clean Transportation Triangle that offer natural gas for commercial and consumer vehicles.

The new fueling stations are the result of statewide efforts by natural gas producers and legislators, who have been working since 2010 on a plan to connect San Antonio, Dallas and Houston — three of the nation’s largest cities — with fueling stations for natural gas vehicles. The efforts culminated with the creation of the Texas Clean Transportation Triangle, an organization developed to identify legislation promoting the use of vehicles that run on natural gas, which should result in cleaner air for Texas.

The organization received support from Sen. Tommy Williams, a Republican from The Woodlands, who authored Senate Bill 20. The legislation allocated $16 million for the Natural Gas Rebate Program, which will provide cash rebates for converting medium- or heavy-duty vehicles to run on natural gas and $4 million for the installation of the natural gas fueling stations. The bill passed the state Senate and was signed into law July 15.

“We determined that a good, conservative start was the need to get 500 trucks on the road and to get 13 fueling stations along the triangle to ensure drivers could travel between the three cities with no fueling issues,” said Lynn Lyon, manager for strategic projects within domestic operations at Pioneer Natural Resources, a Texas Clean Transportation Triangle partner.

The fueling stations currently offer either compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG, which is 600 times more compact than CNG, is the only alternative fuel option for heavy-duty trucks. Although LNG must be kept at a cooler temperature, tanks can hold 50 percent more LNG compared to CNG, which makes LNG ideal for commercial applications, like trucking, that benefit greatly from extended fuel ranges. Consumer vehicles that run on natural gas exclusively use CNG.

Move Toward Natural Gas Vehicles Would Provide Significant Benefits

Natural gas vehicles are popular outside the United States. According to NGV Global, an international association that promotes natural gas vehicles, there were 12.7 million such vehicles worldwide in 2010, including 2.7 million in Pakistan, 1.95 million in Iran, 1.9 million in Argentina, 1.7 million in Brazil and 1.1 million in India. Most natural gas vehicles were located in the Asia-Pacific region, with 6.8 million, followed by Latin America, with 4.2 million.

However, the Honda Civic GX — which first appeared in 1998 — is still the only consumer natural gas vehicle commercially available in the United States. Members of the Texas Clean Transportation Triangle hope to change that, while at the same time encouraging people and business to convert existing gas cars to natural gas.

The group’s initial efforts will concentrate on medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and fleet vehicles, a move that the group hopes will result in more industry for the state, higher air quality in cities, a lower dependence on foreign oil and, ultimately, more consumer natural gas vehicles on roads and highways in Texas.

One Houston-based company is already making plans to take advantage of the expansion of natural gas infrastructure for vehicles. Apache Corporation, an oil and gas exploration company, is converting its fleet of 900 Chevrolet Silverado trucks to run on natural gas.

“By year end, we will have 230 of those, or 25 percent, converted to run on natural gas,” said Frank Chapel, Apache’s director of natural gas transportation fuels. “By 2015, our goal is to have 80 percent [of the vehicles] operating on natural gas. To support that, we will be constructing fueling stations at field offices.” Four of the five fueling stations, including the locations in Houston, Midland, Texas and Lafayette, La., will also be available for public use.

Chapel said the construction of more natural gas fueling stations could encourage more industries to relocate to Houston. With more natural gas vehicles on the roads, Houston’s air quality would improve, resulting in a removal of the city’s nonattainment air quality rating by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“If we get our transit system and more private vehicles doing this [fueling with natural gas], it could encourage more industry to come into the area,” Chapel said.

Additionally, the move toward natural gas would also lower the United States’ dependence of foreign oil, according to Ana Hargrove, manager of marketing and sales for CenterPoint Energy. “At current consumption levels, we send $1 billion a day to foreign countries,” Hargrove said.

The Honda Civic GX is currently available for fleet sales in all 50 states but retail sale in only four states — California, New York, Utah and Oklahoma. The GX is expected to go on sale throughout the United States in 2012.

Sources

“Natural Gas Fueling Stations Planned for Houston Area,” Community Impact Newspaper, Sept. 16, 2011.

“Volt and Leaf Fail to Topple Honda Civic GX From Green Book List,” The New York Times, Feb. 16, 2011.