Demonstration adaptation project : Demonstrating shared community use of a sustainably fuelled vehicle in a rural area.

Location:  Based in Aviemore, but available and widely demonstrated around the Badenoch & Strathspey (B&S) area, Scotland

Official launch 16th November 2009, Kingussie High School, Scotland

The project will demonstrate the practical aspects of the rural use of a community shared, used and administered Electric Vehicle (EV) in Cairngorms National Park (CNP). Based in Aviemore, but available and widely demonstrated around the Badenoch & Strathspey (B&S) area, it will be available to residents in the locality through the Badenoch & Strathspey Community Transport Company (B&SCTC). The project will run from January 2009 until February 2011.

B&S is 1,600sqkm in area and has approximately 12,000 residents spread over several small towns, the biggest being Aviemore. There are 1.4million visitors a year to the Park, around 1 million to B&S.

The area is remote and rural, but benefits from a mainline train link to Inverness (40 Minutes by train) and Edinburgh & Glasgow (both around 3 hours away). There are also inter-city buses and a local bus network to some villages. Most people arrive by, and rely on, a car.

The area, like many rural areas, will be affected by changes to the environment and economy caused by climate change and adaptation will be required sooner rather than later to minimise the impacts. With the distances involved in living, working and visiting the Park, transport is a vital part of life. It is one that is becoming more expensive, and being increasingly recognised as damaging to the local and wider environment. Currently fossil fuels are used to power trains, buses and road vehicles. It is expected that both a demand for better environmental protection and economics will slowly drive a shift from fossil fuel for transport use, but adaptation to new forms of energy is urgently required.

Fossil fuels are supplied globally on a large scale and thus their supply is vulnerable to disruption – climate change impacts are very likely to disrupt global supplies either directly through extreme weather events or indirectly through civil unrest as conflicts arise over limited resources.

One solution is own an to move to an electric vehicle (EV). This can be powered in a number of ways all of them more efficiently than an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). Power can come from green sources via the National Grid, or locally produced renewable energy. It can be refuelled at home or work reducing the need for vulnerable fuel infrastructure, fuel supply & transportation. Cost is far lower at around 1/10th of the cost of running an ICE allowing residents and visitors to adapt to Climate Change through reducing the percentage of their budgets on transportation.

The impacts of climate change, particularly extreme weather events are likely to increasingly affect travelling conditions. The current dependence on, and high ownership of vehicles has already resulted in a number of recent grid lock or traffic jam situations on main routes within the Highlands as a result of recent extreme weather events e.g. damage to bridges at  river crossings.

One solution to this is to move away from this high car ownership mentality and to look at sharing the use of a car within a community. In this project the Electric Vehicle will be used by a number of volunteer drivers on a system administered by the Aviemore by the Badenoch & Strathspey Community Transport Company (B&SCTC). They already administer 70 volunteer drivers who use their own cars to give lifts to mainly elderly residents. B&SCTC will lend the EV out to its volunteers for their use replacing the use of ICE cars. The EV will be shown to visitors and residents at local Games and Shows.

The EV will be bought and converted by a specialist engineer based in Wales, John Lilley of Dragon Electric Vehicles. Perth College – UHI will purchase the EV and be the owner for the duration of the project, and in February 2011 it will be sold. 

There is currently no EV use or re-charge network in the area, and there is a knowledge gap in what EVs can achieve. Lack of knowledge is affecting people’s capacity to make informed adaptation decisions in response to Climate Change. In the UK, EV current activity is urban-based. With the improvement in range of EVs it is now possible to demonstrate their use in remote, rural areas. The project will aim to raise awareness of electric vehicles, as well as other sustainable fuels and promote car sharing by moving the EV around B&S to showcase it in different villages. It will also be widely marketed at local Highland Games and Shows, and taken to schools and relevant organisations. The car will be branded with the Clim-ATIC and project partner logos. A media strategy will be developed to maximise publicity.

The project will begin to build a network of EV recharge points, putting in the infrastructure to encourage new EV owners and visiting EVs. These Elektrobay points will re-fuel EVs via a 13amp connection. The project’s EV will also have access to outdoor recharge points including a fast-charge facility. This is important, as the range is 140km, or around 3-4 hours driving. To get the best use from the vehicle it will be rechargeable over a lunchtime for extended use. In addition the project will purchase a trailer and a small wind turbine that will be able to contribute to the charging of the EV when parked. It is recognised that this element of the project will be unable to fully meet the charging demands ,but depending of wind conditions and charging time the demonstration of such a piece of equipment with give added value to this project. It will also certainly help raid eth profile of the EV at events.

The project will demonstrate the positive aspects of rural EV ownership and operation. This is easily transferable across other rural areas and does not rely on a National Park situation. An important part of the project is promoting transnational cooperation in getting more rural EVs and visits will be sought and encouraged from other countries. Although the other two Clim-ATIC transport themed demonstration projects are not EV based, visits and links to other EV projects in partner countries will be contacted.

The EV fuel costs will be covered by payments made through B&SCTC to their drivers. A small amount of re-charging will be required for marketing which will be absorbed into the budget (it costs under 10% of an ICE vehicle to fuel).

The total cost of the project for the full 2 years will be around £77,000. The Clim-ATIC project will be providing up to £35,000 in staff time and project management costs, some travel costs, and vehicle purchase and conversion costs. Other funding has been secured from the Scottish Government's Climate Challenge Fund and other energy related organisations to meet the remaining costs.

Driving the Clim-ATIC EV

Project plan