V2G Vehicle To Grid

Discussion

Trevor Decker Cohen:

"The need for energy storage may work symbiotically with the rise of electric cars. During the workday, when most vehicles are parked, the noon sun creates more electricity than we use in our buildings. Those extra electrons can be saved in our car batteries and be put to use after work as we drive home on the sunshine.

When the sun sets, demand for electricity surges. A chorus of dishwashers, TVs, and appliances rises in the evening as solar generation drops off a cliff. It’s during this peak that we may call upon our parked cars and their well-fed batteries to share some supply with a strained grid. They release their stored sunshine, lighting homes across a darkening horizon. As twilight fades to night, demand bottoms out. Prairie winds pick up, charging our cars as we dream. In the morning, we drive to work on the breeze.

This technology, in which electricity flows the other way from cars to grid, is known as “vehicle-to-grid” or V2G. It was largely theoretical for several decades. In 2018, pilot programs in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Germany have shown that it works. Importantly, the fears around battery degradation have been calmed by tests that show Tesla batteries can run for over 300,000 miles and still work at 85 percent capacity.

Other studies reveal the yet untapped potential of V2G. It’s estimated that one million electric vehicles with a range of 200 miles would be enough to back up the entire California grid with energy storage. There are currently 15 million vehicles in the state.

V2G may fundamentally change the economics of car ownership. A pilot program in the UK led by the battery company Moixa paid Nissan Leaf owners up to $75 a month for discharging onto the grid. Over the course of the year, that may work out to $900. Every year, the average US household spends $9,000 on transportation. It’s the second biggest expense after housing. Electric cars cost about one-third as much to maintain as do internal combustion cars, and the electricity that powers them is about half the price of gasoline per mile. When we combine these savings with payments from V2G, we may transform one of the biggest costs for families into a source of income."

(https://www.shareable.net/the-future-of-energy-is-a-symbiotic-grid/)