Advanced Energy Perspectives

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2016 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research.

The global market for light-duty natural gas vehicles (NGVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) has grown significantly over the past five years. This growth is a result of finding a viable path in navigating the chicken-and-egg problem of vehicles and infrastructure. FCVs are grappling with an even more difficult form of that challenge. While BEVs and NGVs built off of existing electrical grids and natural gas distribution systems, hydrogen fuel infrastructure is essentially starting from scratch.

On November 30, 2015, 12 months after its official deadline to propose the RFS levels for 2014 (that’s right, 2014), EPA released the final annual percent standards for 2014, 2015, and 2016, and for the 2017 Biodiesel volume.

For 2014, EPA played it safe, matching the annual percent standards with the actual consumption of biofuels in transportation fuel, heating oil, and jet fuel in the contiguous United States and Hawaii. EPA increased slightly the total mandate from 9.2% to 10.1% of U.S. fuel consumption in the next two years. Under the new mandate, there are separate carve-outs for advanced biofuels, which include biomass-based diesel (biodiesel or renewable diesel produced from vegetable oils or animal fats) and cellulosic fuels (biofuel including biogas that is produced from plant matter), and a general pool that can be fulfilled with other biofuels including grain-based ethanol (defined as starch-based ethanol).