Imagine for a moment that your utility company draws power on occasion from your EV to stabilise the grid and pays you for it. Pretty far-out right? Well, apparently not!
Google, the IEEE, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a former CIA director, a U.S. senator held a symposium on the 19th of September and discussed just this, along with other relevant topics. The discussion revolved around the concept of a “smart grid” which allows EV’s to communicate with the grid and charge itself when demand and price is at its lowest, and when demand is at high levels, the grid can syphon off a small percentage of power from those EV’s that are plugged in and not in use. So basically, you’re only paying the lowest possible rate, and being paid for power that’s drawn from your EV’s battery from time to time.
There are, of course some difficulties with this concept. One concern is how this would affect battery life of the EV. Periodic demands from the grid, even if for only a tiny amount of the battery’s stored energy, would obviously affect the cells’ life span, but no one knows how much. Utility and finance companies are looking into the idea of leasing the batteries to EV owners and then charge a fixed rate to recharge it, and pay back when “drawing” a small amount of electrical power from it to the grid. Then once your battery performance becomes too low to use in your EV, the company swaps it out with a new one, refurbishes the old one and utilises it for storage of power generated from renewable source power stations - something power companies have thus far never accommodated for at any scale.
For this concept to work, technology and policy advances are required, and is under intense development all around the world.
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February 28th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
This would be the smartest energy grid of all time.You can charge your electric vehicle with PV cells and plug into the grid at work then sell your own solar generated power to the utility company.No need to build more power plants.
March 13th, 2008 at 1:06 am
This concept is excellent. It makes so much sense on so many levels. Hopefully the electric cars being sold today will eventually adapt to this concept. Very, very good article!
March 13th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Hey PM. Your comment re-opened a chain of thought I had on this topic. What if your EV had renewable energy sources, such as solar panels? What if hundreds of thousands or even millions of EV’s also did? If the technology comes to being, can you imagine the huge relief on the grid, not to mention the massive reduction in pollution and improvement in conserving our earth’s resources etc? I mean, in the new world of all cars being electric, if we parked every EV next to each other and each one were equipped with solar panels on the roof, just how many square meters of panels do you think we’d have? A HELL of a lot! Imagine THAT being integrated into the grid! Thanks for your comment and compliment
March 13th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Rus, that’s a great idea. Imagine the sheer square footage of solar paneling, on all the cars out there on the road. But this is on the level that would affect society at a fundamental level, it would change politics. Freedom of access to energy for all would be as revolutionary as the advent of the internet in terms of how people decide how to spend their time. The whole work-taxes-die routine might not be as appealing as other pursuits. It would be a mind-opener for a lot of people if you channeled your chain of thought about this into an article speculating on such a future!
March 14th, 2008 at 6:52 am
PM - I only scratched the surface, but you’re absolutely right! The world you describe is an amazing beautiful one, it literally sends tingles up my spine! What a revelation! No pollution (or very little - at least to levels where the earth may finally be able to “metabolise” it) and the world’s economies would change completely! Suddenly everybody needs each other on a fundamental level, where the more cars on the road and houses being built, the better (that’s pretty ironic!) Taxes would take on a whole new slant, as I presume they’d relieve property and vehicle taxes (since you’re actually participating in the community via grid contribution) and probably increase taxes on things like “unhealthy” habits such as tobacco & alcohol, all in all making the world a better place!
What ultimately drives the economies of the world (super-simplified?) Control over energy. We all need it in some shape or form. It’s also a great pity that this is the case, since those in power now because of that control will not “go silently into the night!” (Thanks Shakespeare!) I suppose we have a long way to go before we see that kind of revolution, but it’s wonderful to believe and know that it’s quite possible!
March 31st, 2008 at 3:01 pm
This is a win win situation.. ZAp is the way out !