Nissan Leaf, Picture by Nick Zart
13 groups are banding to pressure the U.S. government to adopt measures for the quick adoption of electric vehicles, EV. (more…)
November 16, 2009
August 19, 2009
A Daily Jolt Of Electric Cars
The dust never settles on the revamped electric drive industry.
July 29, 2009
Smart Grid Implications For Electric Cars
The race for a Smart Grid is fascinating as its aspects touch everything from national security to the environment to better energy management, as well as electric cars, but it also comes with risks.
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September 25, 2008
Green Merger
Remember a while back when we spoke of V2G and smart grids?
The gist, GridPoint announced it is flush with an extra $120 million in equity funding and acquired V2Green, a start-up with software to charge electric cars, according to CNET News. It came from existing investors Goldman Sachs, New Enterprise Associates, Robeco, Susquehanna International Group, and Quercus Trust. This means the infrastructure for electric vehicles, EV has taken a big step forward. In order to have a feasible system that can support the electric flow to and from our EVs and plug-in hybrids, PHEVs, the cars should be able to charge smartly, via an on-board program that can charge at the right time, as much as possible charge for how much you will need and also acts as sub-station when the grid needs extra electricity. The question then becomes, how to manage that.
V2G, is a term used for smart grids, grids that can accept electricity from other sources and use sub-station either in the form or static electric storing stations or mobile, as in the case of cars.
Practically, what will happen? By purchasing V2Green’s technology, GridPoint will offer extra capacity for utilities to manage EVs electricity demand and pull on the grid. With software for utilities that integrates distributed generation units (think collaborative resources), solar panels, home devices, etc, could plug into the power grid which is also available for home consumers to track their energy usage.
What will it look like? By bringing in more alternative energy sources, right down to the consumer’s, V2Green’s software helps utilities manage their resources so that charging can take place at night at off-peak times. It could also let utilities draw power from EVs’ batteries, which would ease the load on the grid.
This is very big news with far reaching applications. It’s a stepping stone int how will our aging grid infrastructure meet the demand of EVs and PHEVs. By intelligently managing the charge and load, utilities can handle and shuffle resource to function at a somewhat peak point.