Silicon Valley is often described as the hub of California’s clean technology economy, but Los Angeles and Orange counties are in the forefront of innovations in advanced transportation, according to a new report.
Researchers for Next 10, a San Francisco-based think tank focused on alternative energy, found that collaboration among Southern California companies, local agencies and universities has spawned a host of new companies and initiatives to launch electric vehicles, build charging infrastructure and invent related software applications.
“The region constitutes California’s largest and fastest-growing Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) market, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electricity, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles,” according to the 20-page survey of local efforts.
From 2012 through 2013, the number of electric vehicle (EV) registrations in Los Angeles and Orange counties nearly doubled, to 23,000. That represented an above-average, 39 percent share of California’s ZEVs.
The two counties also were host in 2013 to 16,000 natural gas vehicles, which emit fewer pollutants than gasoline- or diesel-fueled vehicles. That represented nearly half the state’s total.
Severe air pollution spurred “progressive state policies stimulating company growth,” the report found. “As a result, the core clean economy has become an important driver of California’s overall economic vitality, employing over 185,000 workers as of January 2014, while protecting the state’s natural resources.”
California has been in the forefront of cleaner vehicle technology since the 1960s. In 2006, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act, mandating a cut in greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Gov. Jerry Brown is pushing to get 1.5 million ZEVs on the road by 2025.
The report highlights several Orange County companies and institutions, as well as groundbreaking initiatives at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach:
• In Orange County, EV fast-charging stations are available at four major malls. A Newport Beach company, Clean Energy Fuels, sells compressed and liquefied natural gas to power over 1,000 trucks moving goods at the ports. It also operates natural-gas stations along I-10 from Los Angeles to Texas to Florida.
• Aliso Viejo-based Telogis is an award-winning connected intelligence software company. It works with customers and vehicle manufacturers, including Ford and General Motors, to provide telematics and fleet-management services.
• Lake Forest-based Quantum Technologies was awarded a California Energy Commission grant to develop and test natural gas fuel systems with bus, medium-duty and port truck applications.
• The National Fuel Cell Research Center at UC Irvine launched a demonstration site at the Orange County Sanitation District of the world’s first high-temperature Tri-Generation system, using biogas from wastewater treatment to produce electricity, heat, and bio-hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles.
• The Port of Long Beach is partnering with government agencies to test a one-mile overhead “eHighway” system to power short-haul trucks. The all-electric technology will be similar to cable car lines.
Contact the writer: mroosevelt@ocregister.com; on Twitter @MargotRoosevelt