Shortly after being named the most innovative electric vehicle readiness project in the country (Green Tech Media, Dec 2012), some 30 stakeholders of Maui Electric Vehicle Alliance gathered to meet on a weekly basis for several months to discuss how to get Maui ready for EVs. Their 105-page report “EVs in Paradise: Planning for Developing Infrastructure in Maui County” examines the barriers, incentives, and a host of other issues that can serve as templates for other isolated grids and island communities with similar challenges.
Ann Ku and Ethan Elkind, of the Maui EV Alliance, will give the talk next Tuesday.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES:
Anne Ku, Ph.D., project director, Maui EVA, also lectures in mathematics and music (piano) at UH Maui College. Prior to moving to Maui in late 2010, she participated actively in the performing arts scene in the Netherlands, travelled widely as editor of two energy magazines from her base in London, and worked in the financial sector in Singapore. She has degrees in electrical engineering, operations research/decision sciences, and music. She writes a regular column for Maui Weekly, a free print & internet-based weekly newspaper, called “EV in Paradise,” and directs the monthly cable television program “Maui EVA TV” which is also available on YouTube.
Ethan Elkind, J.D., Climate Policy Associate at the UC Berkeley School of Law, has organized and facilitated high-level stakeholder meetings on various energy-related topics in California, such as energy storage, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles. Based on these discussions, he has written and published a number of well-read documents on energy-related matters for California policy makers. The latest, published in September 2012, “Electric Drive by ’25: How California can Catalyze Mass Adoption of Electric Vehicles by 2025” is available for download at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/ccelp/Electric_Drive_by_25-2.pdf and was written in consultation with the California Governor’s Office. He has also researched renewable energy issues on the island of Moloka’i and met with stakeholders there to further the community’s renewable energy goals. Biography and background: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/6897.htm
Maui Electric Vehicle Alliance (Maui EVA) is the name given to an EV readiness project to UH Maui — the only education institution to receive one of 16 planning grants awarded on 1st October 2011 by the Dept of Energy Clean Cities. We identified and organized relevant stakeholders on discussions through a year-long journey on EV adoption in Maui. Our subawardees and grant partners are the State Energy Office/DBEDT, Honolulu Clean Cities, and UC San Diego. More at http://www.mauieva.org The grant and project both end on 30th June 2013.