Grid energy storage – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Grid energy storage – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“When plug-in hybrid vehicles are mass-produced[8] these mobile energy sinks could be utilized for their energy storage capabilities. Vehicle-to-grid technology can be employed, turning each vehicle with its 20 to 50 kWh battery pack into a distributed load-balancing device or emergency power source. This represents 2 to 5 days per vehicle of average household requirements of 10 kWh per day, assuming annual consumption of 3650 kWh. This quantity of energy is equivalent to between 40 and 300 miles of range in such vehicles consuming 0.5 to 0.16 kWh per mile. These figures can be achieved even in home-made electric vehicle conversions. Some electric utilities plan to use old plug-in vehicle batteries (sometimes resulting in a giant battery) to store electricity[9][10] Newer Li-ion batteries can be deep discharged for over 25,000 cycles.[11]”
(7 February 2008)

That’s a good idea for the transition to more electrical storage in the grid. Plug-in recharge units for electric vehicles or hybrids in home garages could be made so that flow of energy could be reversible. Smart meters could be used to work out which was more economical to power household appliances – taking energy from the grid or from the electric car battery. That would be one way to – indirectly – introduce electrical storage into the grid. It may also be better if the plug-in recharge unit also had some batteries in it as well.

It would also be a good hedge against blackouts. If storms knock out power lines to an area, people with these units might still have power for a few days. To recharge people could drive to a place that was still powered by the grid, recharge the batteries in the car, drive back home and then power the home from the electric car batteries, until the power is restored.

As mentioned in the last post, many plug-in electric cars in an area may dramatically increase the load in the electric grid. I think that these cars can not be sold in large volumes without also increasing the renewable sources of electricity to cope with the increased demand for electricity to power these cars. Unfortunately, with mobile storage of electricity people may well be willing to travel to find cheaper electricity. Carbon trading schemes and a price on carbon are needed to make polluting forms of electricity generation relatively uneconomical. Without this price on carbon these plug-in electric cars may accelerate the production of greenhouse gas wastes.