Detroit-based NextEnergy was awarded a $150,000 grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission to develop and host a web-based fleet processing tool. The tool is designed to assist fleet managers in determining “what kind of technology would be best suited for how they use their vehicles,” explains NextEnergy’s director of program development Jim Saber.
NextEnergy is a nonprofit corporation founded to advance alternative energy in Michigan and is based in Detroit's
TechTown research park.
The new tool can calculate fuel cost the percent reduction in emissions that would be saved by using a particular type of fuel, whether it be E85 or D20 diesel fuel or even operating a hydro-electric powertrain vehicle.
The program can be manipulated in several ways. The fleet can be divided up—i.e., the manager can opt to run half of his or her fleet on biodiesel and the other half on gasoline—and the type of driving characterized. Saber explains that this will “allow the user to understand the benefits of the vehicle for that given application.”
While the tool was designed with large fleets in mind—it was tested on the state of Michigan’s 8,000-vehicle fleet—it is just as applicable when used on one personal vehicle. It is free to access and “it allows users to save information on their own computer, save the file, log out, come back and load data from their computer,” says Saber.
NextEnergy will be updating the fleet processing tool regularly as fuel costs and technologies change. Saber says that NextEnergy hopes “that if there is more information available, more resources that [lead] people to make better decisions, that there will be more opportunity, more demand for alternative fuels and alternative powertrain vehicles.”
Click here to learn more about the fleet processing tool.
Source: Jim Saber, NextEnergy
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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