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The EPN Consulting Newsletter - 068 - April 2016
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Dear Colleague,
Recently the piece of news regarding the Tesla3 electric car launched with an appealing price of US$ 35,000 (Ł24,700; €31,000) was published in many papers, websites, blogs worldwide.
Certainly it is a commercially disruptive move that could incentivise the purchase of electric cars and change the way we face mobility and perceive travelling autonomy.
As a matter of fact, electric cars in general don't have -yet- the autonomy we are used to and charging stations are not - yet- as numerous as fuel stations are. This has been recognised as a major problem and that's why many scientific studies&implementations are being carried out to make roads themselves able to charge electric cars during their journey. Examples using the piezoelectric effect and solar energy (as in the article mentioned below in this newsletter) are currently being tested.
Charging e-cars batteries at suitable stations generate another aspect we will have to deal with: the charging time. At present the fastest charging operations last for 30 minutes and if we are on the go, what are we going to do in that time? It may happen we will need to charge them when in are in a hurry (it is known that energy consumption of e-cars depends dramatically not only on driving styles but also on weather conditions and traffic conditions). Maybe should charging stations offer side facilities like cafes and newsagents?
Finally, the action of charging requires that these stations are networked to smart (energy supply) grids and this is something that has to involve a number of stakeholders.
In these days charging stations are mainly connected with fleets of e-car sharing schemes when the design of these stations is carried out with definite numbers but what is it going to happen when the use of e-cars become more popular? New charging stations will have to be built in cities and it may happen that in a certain moment, all stations will be in use and with fast-charge option on. In that case, will the energy supply grid be able to provide this service and in the same time maintain the regular energy supply to houses, offices and factories? That's when the Smart Grid concept comes up.
I guess we still have a jeopardised situation in our cities with too many pilot schemes (some of them funded with EU money) and too little long-term vision.
Founder, CEO
You receive this newsletter because you have been in touch directly or indirectly with EPN Consulting and/or its Founder & CEO. Please be assured that all your data stored in our systems will never be given away/sold/disclosed as EPN Consulting enforces a strict privacy policy.
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Horizon 2020 & other calls close to deadline
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Will we soon be riding on Solar Roads?
10 Mar 2016 - The sun's rays can hit some roads for up to 90 percent of the daylight hours, so companies in Europe and the U.S. are experimenting with building solar panels along or above roads.
The Netherlands built the first solar road, a bike path, in 2014. France announced a bolder move in January-over the next five years, it plans to install 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of solar roads, designed to supply power to five million people.
The German company Solmove aims to bring solar panels to German roads, and Idaho-based Solar Roadways has received three rounds of U.S. government funding (plus $2 million in venture capital) to test its technology. |
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Urban Big Data
11 Mar 2016 - For as long as data has been generated about cities various kinds of data-informed urbanism have been occurring.
The data employed is typically sampled, generated on a one-off or occasional basis, limited in scope, and often produced by state agencies such as national statistics offices. Such data includes censuses, household, transport, environment and mapping surveys, and commissioned interviews and focus groups, complemented with various forms of public administration records.
In general, this data is analysed at the aggregate level and provides snapshots of cities at particular moments. Rather than data being derived from a travel survey with a handful of city dwellers during a specific time period, transport big data consists of a continual survey of every traveller: for example, collecting all the tap-ins and tap-outs of Oyster cards on the London Underground, or using automatic number plate recognition-enabled cameras to track all vehicles.
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The EC announced finalists of the European Sustainable Urban Mobility Awards
15 Mar 2016 - The European Commission revealed the names of the cities and towns at the forefront of innovation in Urban Mobility. The winner of the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award 2015 and of the award for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning will be announced by Commissioner Violeta Bulc, responsible for Transport, and Commissioner Karmenu Vella, responsible for the Environment, at an award ceremony on 20 April in Brussels.
The EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award 2015 honours the local authorities who promote sustainable urban mobility exceptionally well and who successfully focus their efforts on a shift towards more sustainable means of transport. Shortlisted cities and finalists (in bold) are: Bacau (Romania), Lárnaka (Cyprus), Lisbon (Portugal), Miskolc (Hungary), Murcia (Spain), Nottingham (UK), Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Sofia (Bulgaria), Tríkala (Greece) and Vienna (Austria).
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Inrix 2015 Traffic scorecards
15 Mar 2016 - Urbanisation continues to drive increased congestion in many major cities worldwide. Strong economies, population growth, higher employment rates and declining gas prices have resulted in more drivers on the road - and more time wasted in traffic.
The INRIX 2015 Traffic Scorecard analyzes and compares the state of traffic congestion in countries and 100 major metropolitan areas worldwide. The report reveals the cities most impacted by worsened traffic conditions are those that experienced the most economic improvement during the past year. The UK situation can be read here.
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Who pays the most tax in the EU?
16 Mar 2016 - The data, from between 2012 and 2015, shows several interesting trends across the EU. As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Denmark collects the most tax - at nearly 50%. Interestingly, compared to other countries, a much larger proportion of this was from indirect taxes. The Nordic nations all return high levels of tax revenue as a percentage of GDP.
Sweden and Finland both have figures of around 44%. Europe's biggest economies also return high tax revenues as a percentage of GDP - generally 40% or more - with the exception of the UK.
An East/West split emerges when it comes to the importance of indirect versus direct taxes. Western European nations broadly see higher revenues from indirect taxes, while in the east of the continent the opposite is true.
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10 years of .eu
04 Apr 2016 - Since 7 April 2006 .eu has provided a unique European domain for people and organisations in the European Union.
At the end of 2015 .eu was the eleventh largest top level domain in the world, with almost 4 million registrants. Compared to the largest country extensions - .de, .cn, .uk, .nl and .ru - the .eu domain ranks sixth in the world.
".eu" is catching up both with the top level domains that have existed since the late nineties, such as .com, .info, .net and .org and is competing with new top-level domains introduced in 2014 such as .guru, .expert, .book or .london.
The ".eu" domain connects more than 500 million people across 31 countries to one Internet identity. Many companies and organisations use a .eu website to convey a clear European identity and reach their cross-border business ambitions and audience.
EPN Consulting, with its main focus on EU affairs, policies and funding schemes, decided to register the ".eu" domain for its corporate website since its incorporation in 2009.
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EPN Consulting News
On 18 March 2016 in Turin (Italy), EPN Consulting attended a conference on the Future of Sustainable Mobility. During that event it was launched the 100% electric car sharing facility named BlueTorino. The Blue Solutions system is designed by the French Bollorč Group that already launched this service in Paris, Bordeaux and Lyon in France and Indianapolis in the USA.
To celebrate this new e-car sharing scheme there was the Mayor of Turin Mr Piero Fassino and the Italian Ministry of Transport Mr Graziano Del Rio.
The citycar has four seats and an innovative batteries system named LMP® (Lithium-Metal-Polimers) developed by the Bollorč Group. It supplies 30-kw/h energy that assures 250-km autonomy in urban environment.
In March 2016 EPN Consulting became member of AIOTI, the Alliance for Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation, launched by the European Commission and various IoT players in 2015. The overall goal of the AlOTI is the creation of a dynamic European IoT ecosystem to unleash the potentials of the IoT. This ecosystem is going to build on the work of the IoT Research Cluster (IERC) and spill over innovation across industries and business sectors of IoT transforming ideas into solutions and business models.
The Alliance will also assist the European Commission in the preparation of future IoT research as well as innovation and standardisation policies. EPN Consulting, always looking to the future, recognises the high impact IoT is going to have on our lives and it is committed to provide its contribution. |
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Upcoming Professional Events in Europe
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The Website of the Month:
EUROPEAN DATA PORTAL
The European Data Portal harvests the metadata of Public Sector Information available on public data portals across European countries. Information regarding the provision of data and the benefits of re-using data is also included.
Going beyond the harvesting of metadata, the strategic objective of the European Data Portal is to improve accessibility and increase the value of Open Data:
- Accessibility: How to access this information? Where to find it? How to make it available in the first place? In domains, across domains, across countries? In what language?
- Value: For what purpose and what economic gain? Societal gain? Democratic gain? In what format? What is the critical mass?
The European Data Portal addresses the whole data value chain: from data publishing to data re-use. |
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The EPN Consulting Galaxy
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EPN Consulting
Based in London. Engaged with Europe. |
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