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Speakers at an LSU Clean Fuels Symposium this week said meeting the challenges of bringing “green” cars to the marketplace will rely heavily on fueling networks.

Guy Mannino, the chief executive of Atlanta-based Verdek offered forecasts that electric cars will prevail as the key green transportation option. By 2015, three million electric cars will be on roads worldwide, with about one-third each in the U.S., Europe and Asia, he said.

Mannino cited a forecast from Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn that electric vehicles (Nissan is now taking orders for its all-electric Leaf) will command 10 percent of the U.S. market by 2020, with 25 million vehicles. He also cited a forecast by investment executive Warren Buffett that all cars will be made with electric power plants by 2030.

Charging systems will be needed on corridors throughout the nation, Mannino said, with consumers opting for two- to three-hour charges at home and 15- to 20-minute “fast charges” at service stations, rest stops and other roadside facilities. Websites will inform drivers when they’re near a charging station, he said, but because of the power grid demand “there is a need for a network system to manage all these charging systems.”

Infrastructure also ranks as a big challenge for propane-powered and compressed natural gas vehicles, other speakers said.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is converting its 3,500-vehicle fleet over time to natural gas-powered engines, said Chesapeake’s Sarie Joubert, with three stations expected to offer the fuel at Shreveport-Bossier City stations within the next nine months.

April Dents drove a propane-powered pickup converted by CleanFuels USA more than 400 miles from Austin, Texas, to the LSU event with fuel to spare. Her company is helping school buses and business fleets switch to propane. Though the fuel gets about 10 percent less mileage on a per-gallon-equivalent basis, propane is less expensive, she said.

Dents said Clean Fuels is working to place more pumps to improve the fueling infrastructure. It offers a skid-and-tank propane fueling station costing $50,000, before tax credits, and works with suppliers such as Ferrell Gas to offer refueling services seven days a week

Buck