Study focuses on electric cars' effect on power grid

AUSTIN, TX (KTRK) -- Electric cars could be the wave of the future, but as they hit the roads, they have to get their charges. And that means they'll pull power from the state's power grid.

Researchers in Austin are working to figure out what kind of strain that would put on energy resources, and here's how they're doing it.

University of Texas researcher Tuttle is what you might call an automobile enthusiast.

"I enjoy anything mechanical with a motor or engine that goes," he said.

But his latest love is maybe not what you'd expect from a car nut.

"If you enjoy driving, you'll actually enjoy an electric vehicle in terms of the driving experience," Tuttle said.

You heard him right -- an electric vehicle.

"You put your foot on the brake pedal and push the button and it powers up," he said.

Tuttle drives a Chevy Volt. But as he tools around in his 15-month-old Volt, he's not just any driver.

"Were you surprised at how quick it was when you first drove it?" we asked him.

"Yes, yes," he said.

Tuttle is also a research fellow at the University of Texas, studying how these electric cars affect energy use and how they impact the electric grid when they're in the garage charging for hours. They're biggest impact on the grid since the air conditioner.

"These are unique loads for the grid," Tuttle said.

And he's doing some the research in an Austin neighborhood that has the greatest residential concentration of electric vehicles in the country.

"It's a great car," Kathy Sokolic said.

Sokolic is one of those residents.

"I'm pretty cheap, but I like to do things that make a difference," she said.

And she's part of a unique program that monitors her energy habits, part of which include the use and charging of her all-electric Nissan Leaf.

"The Leaf is definitely a step up in luxury. It's got lots of bells and whistles, but it doesn't use any gasoline so it's fantastic," Sokolic said.

The project is called Pecan Street, and Sokolic is one of 50 drivers in the study, which hopes to answer questions about the viability of dense electric car clusters.

"If everybody comes home at 6-7pm and plugs in their car at the same time on a summer evening, what happens to the stability of your electric grid?" said Brewster McCracken with Pecan Street Inc.

It's a question that still needs answers, questions Tuttle is excited to try and help answer as he pushes the pedal on his latest passion.

"There are so many benefits from us getting to the point where we can eliminate imported oil, and if we do that by having a combination of conventional vehicles where they're needed and these new technologies, then we have the best of both worlds," Tuttle said.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Austin community participates in energy-saving study

AUSTIN, TX (KTRK) -- It's a neighborhood that could set to trend for others in the future. It's helping companies look at the use of energy.

Several folks in Austin are now part of this study, so we went to see how it may help people save money in the future.

In an idyllic neighborhood in the middle of Austin, Grant Fisher is playing the perfect guinea pig.

"I'm passionate about the research they're doing. I think it's going to have a lot of long-lasting implications," he said.

Fisher is part of what's called the Pecan Street Project. It's an effort, that in part, studies how people use energy.

"Right now, we're producing 1.24 kilowatts, right now," Fisher said.

As part of the study, Fisher put large solar panels on the roof of his house.

"We actually don't have an electric bill. Nine months out of the year, we actually sell power back to Austin Energy," Fisher said.

Fisher, though, is not the only guinea pig on his street or his neighborhood. An incredible one in three homes here have solar panels and are part of the Pecan Street Project.

"The people in our research trials, like this one, the best and another one that we're going with that are smaller," said Brewster McCracken, who runs Pecan Street.

McCracken says their research helps companies figure out the best way to market and sell emerging technology, most of which has an energy-related component.

"We're working with these companies and real customers to find out what it is that people like enough that they'll go spend their own dollars buying," McCracken said.

To that end, Pecan Street gave homeowners an average of $2,500 towards the purchase of their solar panels, which can cost up to $25,000 but with rebates can pay for themselves in as little as five years. They also give up to $7,500 to purchase electric cars.

But it's more than about money. To be successful, Pecan Street picked a specific trial community -- Mueller, which is on the site of the old Austin airport. It's a place designed to encourage green living with large parks and sidewalks and nearby shopping.

"All in all, it's great for the world. It's an environmental impact, but it's also from a sense of community, a sense of health and sustainability, it's a smart thing," said.

Smart enough that Pecan Street knows when and how much electricity Fisher is creating and using. He's already adjusted his habits.

"Honestly, my A/C is only 40 percent of my bill and so everything else was 60 percent. It wasn't any one particular thing. It was just a lot of little things," Fisher said.

They're little things that will someday help all of us conserve or better use energy in our homes -- long after Fisher's guinea pig days are over.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Rice study on Hobby international flights due out today

  HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Rice study on adding international flights to Hobby Airport will come out today.

The study was commissioned by United, which says allowing southwest to fly to Central and south America from Hobby will kill jobs at the big airport.

However, the Greater Houston Partnership came out in favor of the expansion at Hobby yesterday, saying it will bring jobs and travelers to Houston.

Residents around the commuter airport will make their feelings known at a meeting at Ripley House this weekend.

(Copyright ©2012 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
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Study finds fewer students graduating from HS

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Graduation rates in Harris County are higher than they were a decade ago. But a new report from the Houston-based research group Children at Risk shows a third of students are still dropping out.

The study shows Harris County public schools are graduating more students than they did 10 years ago, but says one-third of students are still leaving without a diploma. Some districts, including HISD, dispute that.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Children at Risk found that the graduation rate for public schools in Harris County is at 61 percent with students from low income households graduating at a lower rate than those from more affluent families. The study was done on students who entered 9th grade in 2004 and graduated in 2010.

While Children at Risk finds graduation rates for all public schools in the county are about eight points higher when using its own calculations, for HISD -- the largest district in Texas -- Children at Risk finds its graduation rate at 60 percent. But the state disputes that and says HISD's rate is higher, at 74 percent.

The TEA and some local school districts, including HISD, say it stands by the state's calculations and questions Children at Risk's data.

(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Study: Houston police stop blacks more often

  HOUSTON -- Houston police officers continue to stop black motorists more often than those of any other racial or ethnic group, according to a Police Department study.

About 33 percent of the 494,000 motorists stopped by Houston police in 2010 were black, while the city's overall population is 23 percent black, the department analysis showed. Hispanics made up 32 percent of the traffic stops but 44 percent of the city's population, while whites accounted for 30 percent of the traffic stops.

The disproportionate number of blacks stopped by police likely results from the high number of police calls in black neighborhoods drawing more police patrols, said Clete Snell, chairman of the criminal justice department at the University of Houston-Downtown.

"Police tend to patrol more frequently in African-American neighborhoods, and in minority neighborhoods in general, and tend to make more stops in minority neighborhoods," he told the Houston Chronicle.

Because not all stops lead to an arrest, residents in those neighborhoods may feel like they are targeted, he said.

The Houston Police Department stopped 175,000 black residents in 2010, ticketed 48 percent, issued warnings to 17 percent and released 18 percent, according to the report. About 18 percent of the white motorists stopped were arrested, while black and Hispanic motorists were each arrested at a 16 percent rate.

"If you've been pulled over by the police multiple times in a year and haven't done anything wrong, that doesn't leave a good taste in your mouth about police," Snell said.

The Rev. James Nash, pastor of the mostly black congregation at St. Paul Baptist Church, said he has complained to police officials about what seems to be undeserved police stops of black motorists. "I've always questioned why they stop so many

African-Americans, especially the young blacks," he told the Chronicle. "I guet calls all the time where officers stopped them for no apparent reason and questioned them."

City Council member C.O. Bradford, a former Houston police chief who also is black, said the department has done a "pretty good job" of reducing racially motivated stops but that the situation should continue to be monitored closely.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Local »

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Scientists study dolphins to assess oil spill damage

This week marks the one year anniversary of the deadly explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

Eleven workers were killed in that explosion, which sparked the largest oil spill in American history.

While the oil didn't seem to have as big of an impact as originally feared, some researchers say it is still affecting the wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico.

Scientists working for the federal government still don't know how much damage the BP spill caused, meaning they don't know how much BP will be fined.

There's practically no visible oil anymore on the Gulf or in marshes, but there are signs that it was there.

Among them, nearly 400 dead dolphins washed up on Gulf shorelines.

Last summer, Louisiana's Barataria Bay was one of the busiest spots on the Gulf. Hundreds of BP's cleanup boats made the bay busier than I-10 at rush hour.

These days, there really isn't anything to block scientist Suzanne Lane's view. She's tracking and photographing bottlenosed dolphins in this bay for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"[I take] kind of like a dolphin census, and then see how the population does throughout the year," Lane explained.

It's all part of a huge effort to figure out just how much damage was caused by BP's record-setting oil spill.

"Dolphins are top-level predators in the estuaries. Looking at them tells you something about how the ecosystem is doing," said Lori Schwacke with NOAA. "What we see in the dolphins is an indicator of what we see in the food web."

The size and health of the population of dolphins that are alive will tell scientists a great deal, but as we near this one year anniversary, they're concerned about the abnormally large number of dolphins that have died.

"We want to know -- A, number one -- why these dolphins are dying. But we also want to know how these dolphins are dying," said Blair Mase, NOAA marine mammal stranding coordinator. "It's such a complex situation because we've never really dealt with anything like this before."

Officials say 375 dead dolphins have washed up on Gulf coast beaches since last February -- six times above average.

At least 12 of the dead dolphins washed up with visible oil on their bodies. The most recent washed up just two weeks ago.

The die-off started before the Deepwater Horizon accident, but spiked dramatically right after the spill and increased again this year.

Scientists want to know what effect the oil is having.

Even more troubling is that many of the dead dolphins were either stillborn or died shortly after birth.

"It is unusual to see that many dolphins -- likely pre-term, aborted fetuses -- washing ashore," Mase said.

Dolphins are pregnant for 12 months, meaning any who died since the spill likely swam through oil & dispersant-filled water at some point while pregnant.

Out on the water a year after the blowout, Deepwater oil may not be visible, but scientists want to know just how much trouble it's still causing dolphins.

"Dolphins can avoid oil; however, the magnitude of this event, you know, it was covering estuaries and bays, and this is their habitat. There was nowhere for them to go," Mase said.

NOAA is testing the blubber of every dolphin that watches ashore. That should tell them what the dolphins died of and how much oil was ingested by the animals.

Bcause that evidence may be needed in court against BP one day, the government won't share any of those results yet.

(Copyright ©2011 KTRK-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) 

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