This Dutch city wants to turn electric cars into a ‘mobile power source’ for the city
We are seeing two major trends: the growth of renewable energy and the increase in electric vehicles.
Therefore, the way forward to ensure a smooth energy transition without investing heavily in the grid and storage facilities is to combine these two trends.
Robin Berg explains. He heads the We Drive Solar project, and by ‘combining two trends’ he means turning electric vehicles into ‘batteries’ for cities.
We Drive Solar is now working with the Dutch city of Utrecht to test this new model locally, and ideally Utrecht will be the first city in the world to turn electric cars into part of the grid infrastructure through two-way charging technology.
Already, the project has placed over 2,000 solar panels in a building in the city and 250 two-way charging units for electric vehicles in the building’s car park.
The solar panels use solar energy to power the offices in the building and the cars in the car park when the weather is good. When it is dark, the cars reverse the power supply to the building’s grid, allowing the offices to continue to use ‘solar power’.
Of course, when the system uses the cars for energy storage, it does not use up the energy in the batteries, but “uses a little bit of power and then charges it back up again, a process that does not reach a full charge/discharge cycle” and therefore does not lead to rapid battery depletion.
The project is now working with several car manufacturers to create vehicles that support bi-directional charging. One of these is the Hyundai Ioniq 5 with bi-directional charging, which will be available in 2022. A fleet of 150 Ioniq 5s will be set up in Utrecht to test the project.
Utrecht University predicts that 10,000 cars that support two-way charging will have the potential to balance the electricity needs of the entire city.
Interestingly, Utrecht, where this trial is taking place, is probably one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, with the largest bicycle car park, one of the best set of bicycle lane plans in the world, and even a ‘car-free community’ of 20,000 residents being planned.
Despite this, the city doesn’t think cars are going away.
So it might be more practical to make better use of the cars that spend most of their time parked in the car park.
Post time: Jan-20-2022
