Post Category → Transport

Energy stored in electric car batteries could power your home or stabilise the grid — and save you money

A very well researched piece by James Purtill for Catalyst in ABC Online https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-08-10/v2g-vehicle-to-grid-pays-ev-owners-for-electricity/100353072

Until recently, Gary Hogben did not expect he would ever be paid to simply plug his car into the wall every night.

And yet, over the past year, that’s exactly what’s happened. He and his wife have earned more than $1,000 while their car sits in the driveway.

The service is called V2G, or “vehicle to grid”, and it could be an important component of Australia’s electricity grid in coming years, plus a way for car owners to make a little extra income.

The concept is fairly straightforward: electric vehicles (EVs) are essentially very large batteries on wheels. Most of the time they sit idle.

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Check your mirrors: 3 things rooftop solar can teach us about Australia’s electric car rollout

“The electric vehicle transition is about more than just doing away with vehicles powered by fossil fuels. We must also ensure quality technology and infrastructure, anticipate the future and avoid unwanted outcomes, such as entrenching disadvantage.

Australia’s world-leading rollout of rooftop solar power systems offers a guide to help navigate the transition. We’ve identified three key lessons on what’s gone well, and in hindsight, what could have been done differently.”

Full piece in The Conversation https://theconversation.com/check-your-mirrors-3-things-rooftop-solar-can-teach-us-about-australias-electric-car-rollout-162085

REVS video for CAETS competition

Communicating big issues and big projects into a short video is always a challenge. Tackling this one with the incredible Rosemary Barnes was a total blast.

This video introduces the role of #electricvehicles in the #smartgrid and how #v2g can provide valuable #gridservices. It also provides a perspective on how the fast dynamics of #inverters and #batteries are well suited to managing #gridstability.

Filmed for a competition with the Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering

Owners of electric vehicles to be paid to plug into the grid to help avoid blackouts

Electric vehicles can help keep the air clean in our cities – as we’ve seen recently with the reduction of traffic through COVID-19 lockdowns – but they face two obstacles.

In the short term they’re still expensive. In the long term charging millions of vehicles from the electricity grid presents challenges.

I’m part of a new project, launched today, that tackles both of these obstacles head-on, and it could mean owners earn more money than they’re likely to pay for charging their electric vehicles.

Full piece in The Conversation https://theconversation.com/owners-of-electric-vehicles-to-be-paid-to-plug-into-the-grid-to-help-avoid-blackouts-132519

ABC piece on EV policy

Excerpt from ABC TV interview on Australian EV policy has been featured in an online story here.

“The fact that Australia has a small number of people in a global market — that hasn’t stopped us from being world-leading in adopting solar.

“We’re one of the world leaders in adopting home batteries — there’s no reason why we can’t get the latest and greatest in electric vehicles as well.”

Batteries on wheels

Sarah Wilson reports on the bold initiative using electric vehicles to power our energy grids in The ANU reporter.

To make sure we have low or zero carbon emissions, we need to electrify as much as possible as quickly as possible.

This may seem like a herculean task. The good news is we don’t need to double the size of our electricity network in order to get there. In fact, the keys to solving the problem are, in some cases, literally in our hands.

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The driving force behind REVS (Realising Electric Vehicles-to-grid Services)

A bold initiative of the ACT Government, to electrify its fleet of vehicles, has grown into a world-leading research and demonstration project that is setting the scene for large-scale adoption of vehicle-to-grid technology in Australia.

A story by Sarah Wilson on the BSGIP website.

There is a buzzword in Europe’s energy business sector, and in particular in Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition). It’s called ‘sector coupling’. Instead of the traditional separation of the energy sectors – electricity, heating and cooling, transport and industrial processes, ‘sector coupling’ refers to the integration of two or more sectors to create synergies.

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