The impacts of COVID-19 likely mean flat electric vehicle (EV) sales this year, but a trio of new reports say the long-term outlook is for strong growth — which means the electric grid will need to respond.
Home battery systems can help during power outages. So can the battery packs rolling around in electric vehicles. Last month’s preventative power shutoffs in California highlighted the vulnerability of the electricity grid to threats exacerbated by a changing climate. In the wake of the forced outages, much has been written about the ability of solar PV arrays working in tandem with stationary battery storage systems to keep the lights on when the grid goes down. But what about the mobile battery packs carried in the hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles now on the road in California?
A new pilot to demonstrate a solar-powered car park supported by battery storage for drivers to charge their electric vehicles has been launched. The Smart Hubs Demonstrator R&D project will manage the integration of solar, EV charging, and vehicle to grid systems at car parks and transport hubs. Smart hubs that incorporate energy storage systems are expected to increase the ability to charge large amounts of EVs without placing further pressure on the grid as well as bring revenue streams for car park owners, including airports, train operators, local authorities, hospitals and retail centers.
Energy research organization Pecan Street Inc. launched Texas’ first grid-tied vehicle-to-grid (V2G) testing center at its lab in Austin, Texas, turning electric vehicles into a dispatchable load shaving tool for the municipally-owned electric utility, Austin Energy. The V2G testing center is part of Austin SHINES, an Austin Energy project that is testing how energy storage at grid, commercial-, and residential applications-scale to help increase the penetration of solar energy to reduce peak demand, increase grid resiliency and achieve the City of Austin’s renewable energy and storage goals by 2027.
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG and its partners have begun research and development work at the company’s Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA) to integrate the battery capacities of automated guided container transport vehicles that are in use at CTA into the German energy network as flexible storage units that contribute to the grid stability of the power supply. In less busy times, free container transport vehicles could provide battery capacity as mobile power stores to safeguard grid stability.
Battery storage firm Moixa and National Grid are among the transport and energy organisations working on a project to support vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. The consortium, which also includes Western Power Distribution, Nissan and Element Energy, aims to incentivise the V2G roll out by sharing increased revenue with drivers of electric vehicles (EVs), owners of smart chargers, managers of charging sites and operators of battery storage.
It's no secret that European utilities have made grid edge technology investments a strategic priority, with a growing focus on e-mobility solutions. This week, that trend continued with a new investment from EDF Renewable Energy. EDF RE announced Monday that it has closed on Series A financing for vehicle-to-grid technology company Nuvve Corporation in partnership with Toyota Tsusho, and with additional support from an unnamed private equity fund.
A number of companies have, as of late, been testing the potential of using electric vehicles (particularly, their charging systems) as part of energy management systems. And now, it appears that Nissan has decided to get on that wagon as well — recently announcing that it was participating with other businesses and government authorities in Japan in the testing of a new “demand response” energy supply and demand system.
Today, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with current electricity generation capacity of about 230 GW to meet the needs of over 1.25 billion population. India's per capita annual consumption of energy at approximately 600 kWh is one of the lowest in the world, even when compared to developing countries like Brazil and China. This is a decade where India needs a clean energy revolution for transforming the electricity infrastructure to provide energy access to over 400 million of households that still lack basic access to electricity.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies have been in development since the beginning of the modern electric vehicle era, but are only now beginning to emerge in revenue-generating applications, according to Navigant Research. Though negligible today, the market for plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) equipped with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies -- which enable the vehicles to participate in ancillary services for the power grid -- is predicted by Navigant to expand steadily in the coming years.
...
Honda has joined a demonstration project for experimental vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology aimed at providing a potentially valuable energy storage resource to the electrical grid while providing for more cost-effective ownership of plug-in electric vehicles.
The Palo Alto City Council recently passed a new ordinance that changed the building code to include a residential EV charging requirement. The Council’s decision was unanimous, and ultimately, meant to save homeowners money.
Boulder Electric Vehicle's new charging system that can move energy between electric trucks and the local power grid could prove to be a boon for the electric-vehicle industry.
New E2 (Energy + Environment) research ... finds that American consumers are becoming less optimistic about electric vehicles (EVs) and their expectations of EV ownership, in great part due to concerns about battery life and recharging infrastructure.
Doug Staker, the VP of Business Development at Demand Energy, led a conversation with CPUC Sr. Energy Analyst Adam Langton about the challenges for electric vehicle charging on the distribution grid...
The vehicle-to- grid (V2G) charging includes power factor correction, which is a growing concern at locations such as Fort Carson that are experiencing a growth in on-site solar power generation resulting in utility rate penalties. ... The chargers are ...
AllCell Technologies and Windfree announced the completion of the Chicago area's first lithium-ion energy storage system connected to a solar powered electric vehicle (EV) charging station.
The intelligent networking of energy storage systems, electric vehicles and battery powered machines could make an important contribution to easing the burden on and stabilization of our power grids in just a few years' time.
Chrysler engineers have been helping to determine if electric-vehicle (EV) batteries can generate revenue as well as power. (It) has partnered with NextEnergy to evaluate vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology ...
Tesla plans to (provide) Supercharger stations (with) solar panels and batteries. The solar power would be stored in batteries and lessen the amount of electricity drawn from the grid. Also, the system could help utilities monitor major changes in the grid, and Tesla could charge them for this service -- hence keeping costs down.
OnStar gave TimberRock access to its Smart Grid application programming interface so it can determine when to start, stop or modify the charge going to a Volt. TimberRock has software that determines when an electric vehicle can be used to support the electric grid and sell energy back to help peak demand, GM said.
Among the many sustainable energy programs recently launched by the U.S. military, the Defense Department’s new military electric-vehicles-to-grid initiative is especially worth noting.
An effort by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to test “vehicle-to-grid” or “V2G” technology on all-electric trucks starting this year may breathe new life into the cost-saving potentials for such equipment,
The vehicle to grid (V2G) project at the University of Delaware seeks to meet this need using electric vehicles, whose high power capacity and existing power electronics make them a promising energy storage solution.