| Researchers have come up with the
ultimate vehicle - an environmentally friendly electric car
that plugs into the wall to sell power back to the electricity
company.
The delights of a car that lets you get one up on the power
suppliers comes via research funded by the US National
Science Foundation (NSF).
The goal is to develop “plug-in hybrid electric vehicles”
(PHEV) that not only use grid electricity to meet their power
needs, but can also collect electricity from the wind or sun
and then sell this back into the national electricity grid.
“Cars sit most of the time,” said Prof Jeff Stein, a mechanical
engineering professor at the University of Michigan, who heads
the NSF effort. “What if it could work for you while it sits
there?”
He raised the question during a session on 'green mobility'
that took place at the American Association for the Advancement
of Science’s (AAAS)
annual meeting in San Diego.
Chief executive and president of AC Propulsion, Tom Gage,
drove the 150-odd miles from his base in San Dimas to San
Diego in a V2G (vehicle-to-grid) vehicle, making a steady
60mph all the way down. It has a maximum speed of 90mph and
the firm likes to describe itself as a developer of electric
cars “that people want to drive”.
The idea is that the car would accumulate power from a range
of environmental sources, explained Prof Willett Kempton,
director of the Centre for Carbon-free Power Integration at
the University of Delaware, who chaired the session.
The car would be plugged in at home to charge its batteries,
but solar or wind or even brakes would give the car a top-up
of electricity on a long journey. Once back at home, leftover
power stored in the car could then be routed back into the
grid for payment at an agreed rate per kilowatt.
This is not pie in the sky. Prof Kempton described how his
university had three V2G electric vehicles on the road that
were actively earning money selling power back to the local
grid. Each car can charge or discharge at a maximum power
of 19.2 kilowatts.
Because electricity is ubiquitous, there would be little
difficulty setting up 'fuelling' points for such vehicles
- something that has slowed the use of liquefied natural gas
or hydrogen gas as a fuel source.
Source - The Irish Times
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