Print Version: Electric Vehicles
HISTORICAL CONTEXT | A BRIEF HISTORY OF BATTERIES | SOME ISSUES-PROBLEMS | CHARGING METHODS | CHARGING FACILITIES, EVs & THE GRID |
Introduction
When you talk to people about Electric Vehicles (EVs) there are usually 4 factors which worry them, and these are.
a) Lack of the noise, sound of the engine and exhaust
b) A ‘range’ Issues (mileage per charge) and charging times
c) Charging facilities: Comparative efficiencies and availability
d) Electricity grid problems. Current and future solutions.
To understand how these became the main issues it is necessary to look back to see the historical context within which EV’s have developed.
Historical Context
The First Non (Horse-Drawn) Vehicles
During the onset of the industrial era in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries there were a number of different attempts to replace the horse and carriage with mechanical transport, but in the early years they were all constrained by the poor condition of the roads outside of towns. This meant that they were produced in limited numbers and there was little public awareness of them.
French Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot as early, as 1769 had built one of the first steam-powered automobiles for people[1]. In 1794 Robert Street patented an internal combustion engine, which was one of the first to use liquid petroleum. By the 1870s four and two stroke cycle engines were patented and by the 1890 the compression ignition engine was developed. This breakthrough enabled the evolution of the modern internal combustion engine (ICE)[2].
Although today Electric Vehicles (EVs) are considered a new technology, the reality is that people have been researching and making working prototypes models[3] of them as far back as the late 1820s[4]. This first interest was a good 55-60 years before the so-called War of the Currents [5] between Thomas Edison's DC current and Nikola Tesla AC current. From 1878-1882 some of the very first DC power generating stations were being opened both in Europe and the US [6]. By 1891 by the London Electric Supply Corporation in Deptford UK[7]. In 1896 Westinghouse and the Niagara Falls Power Company [8] helped prove AC powers superiority to DC power, mostly due to the fact that it could easily and reliably be converted to higher or lower voltages with the use of transformers. The interest in EVs dates even earlier than discussion about the electrification of towns across Europe and America. So EVs have been a contender in the automobile market for a long time.
Electric automobiles were easy to use, quiet and non pollutant. This made them popular among[9] the rich and well-to-do women[10]. They contrasted favourably with the often hard-to-start, noisy and polluting internal combustion engines[11]. They also competed well against steam road engines[12] which could take up to an hour to heat up and get going[13]. Electric automobiles were easy to use, quiet and non pollutant. This made them popular among[14] the rich and well-to-do women[15]. They contrasted favourably with the often hard-to-start, noisy and polluting internal combustion engines[16]. They also competed well against steam road engines[17] which could take up to an hour to heat up and get going[18].
Because Clara Bryant Ford refused to drive gasoline powered cars[19] her husband Henry Ford bought her a new Detroit Electric every couple of years from 1908 to 1914. Clara used a Detroit Electric into the 1930’s[20].
The early competitive advantages of EVs were diminished by the early 20th century. Just as 100 years later Elon Musk and Tesla’s forward thinking are pushing new boundaries in the car industry for the 21st Century. Teslas first production line is housed in a re fitted Ex General Motors factory in Fremont California along with its acquired component manufacturing factories like the Seat factory just 2.5Miles (4Km)[21] away. Tesla has backward vertically integrated[22] many such components of its electric cars. From the production of the battery cells / packs and there cooling systems, the electric motors, the self driving algorithms run on a powerful custom built processor and central control system. These combined with new, optimised and advanced construction techniques such as the use of the Giga Press for the cars frame, a new wiring systems and car/battery pack cooling/heating systems have all led to a much faster build, much safer and stronger cars. In 1908 Henry Ford’s ingenuity[23] with the Ford T Model, pushed the innovations that lead to the ICE’s market domination throughout the 20thCentury.
When Henry Ford introduced Vertical Integration and other innovations in his production lines in Michigan he marked the beginning of the end of the Evs. With the standardisation of and vertical in-house production of parts, ICE vehicles became easier and cheaper to build than Evs. Something that if the Ev producers had done we could have had a much different present. Some of Henry Fords innovations included[24], large production plants, the assembly line and in-house component manufacture. He made standardized and interchangeable parts a priority. His cars were both much faster and easier to fill than EVs and as filling stations proliferated ICE cars also got a longer range. These advantages coupled with the discovery of large oil deposits world wide and better roads made it very hard for EVs to compete. The problem for the EVs back in the late 1800 to early 1900 was that electricity as a form of energy was still very new “in its infancy”, people were still trying to learn and understand how to use it. Storing it was and is a whole different problem. You can't just put electricity into a container, even a specially celled & compressed one as for CNG or LPG. Electricity because its electrons, needs molecules and some sort of matter to store it in and not just a container. At the end of the day the technology and knowledge of the day favored the production of the ICE cars rather than the EVs.
General Motors (GM) was one of the very few car companies who persisted with the idea of EVs[25]. GM first mass produced EVs in 1912 with the production of 682 Electric Trucks. In the 1960’s when global concerns about pollution and environmental damage became widespread, GM introduced their ‘Electrovair’. When battery technologies considerably improved, GM introduced their “Impact”. After a lot of modification and development the ‘Impact” evolved into one of the first modern mass produced Electric Vehicles the GM''EV1 ``.
Only when battery power developed very much further could EVs come back onto the scene.
A Brief History of Batteries
Around 1832 Robert Anderson[26] a Scot, developed the first crude electric carriage which used a non-rechargable battery. With the invention of the lead acid battery in 1859 by the French physicist Guston Plante, EVs gained ascendancy. It wasn’t however until the 1870’s onward that they became practical and even popular. By 1897[27] there was even a fleet of electric taxis[28] in London. One notable example was the fleet owned by Walter C. Bersey[29].
In order to understand the challenges facing battery development it is necessary to have a sense of how they work.
In an ideal electric car there would be a lot of electrical energy flowing to the engine for a very long time thus allowing it to go faster or pull heavier loads longer. The amount of electrical energy stored[30] in a battery of a certain mass or volume (X) is called its ‘Energy Density’ and is measured in Watts/Kg. The rate at which the battery can give off that energy is called its Power Density and is measured in Watt Hours/Kg. Unfortunately batteries have a high Energy Density meaning that they carry lots of energy but a low Power Density meaning that they lose that energy slowly. In order to get more electricity out of them you have to increase their size.
Capacitors in direct contrast, while similar in size to the (X) battery have a small Energy Density with a high Power Density. This means that they carry little energy and they lose it all quickly so in order to have a longer discharge rate their size needs to be increased.
The two components that disadvantaged the Electric Vehicles back in the late 19th century and again in the 21st century were firstly the achievable ‘range’ of the cars due to the Energy Density of the batteries and secondly their charging times.
A very efficient internal combustion engine, by comparison, has an approximate Energy Density of 12KWh/Kg[31] or liter of fuel whereas a 1Kg battery delivers around 120 to 210Wh/Kg. However EV engines run at 90% efficiency upward[32], while internal combustion engines lose about 60%[33] of their chemical potential energy in heat created just from the combustion. Add to that 60% the energy lost in an internal combustion car’s transmission and differential and we realize that the energy density gap between Internal Combustion and Electric Vehicles isn’t that big after all.
A very good comparison in a YouTube video[34] made by Mr Jonathan Porterfield from eco-cars.net compares two same modeled vans. One is the “Nissan eNV200” electric van and the other is the “Nissan NV200 Acenta 1.5DCi diesel van”. In the video he compares the cost of running, servicing and the degradation, if any, of the electric eNV200 which when the video was made had traveled a total of 100,300 Miles (161,417 Km) with a diesel Nissan NV200 that would have traveled 100,000 Miles (160,934 Km) over a 5 year period. As he quite thoroughly and fairly shows in the video, the running and maintenance cost of the diesel van (running time in video 2:28 to 5:57) comes out at £16,398 (€18,417). In the electric van the same running and maintenance cost while charging the van at a relatively average cost of £0.15/kWh (€0.17kWh ) (Running time in video 6:00 to 7:23) come out to £4,050 (€4,548) saving someone £12,348 (€13,868) over the diesel for running and maintenance costs.
If one had an even better electrical tariff of £0.05/kWh (€0.06kWh ) (running time in video 7:40 to 8:34) the running and maintenance cost of the van would be £1,550 (€1,740) saving someone £14,848 (€16,676) over the diesel for running and maintenance costs.
In the 21st century in order for EVs to gain competitive advantage over the internal combustion engines they need to increase their Energy Density and Power Density (how much energy they store and how quickly they can throughput this to the cars motor).
From the 1970’s till the mid 1980’s[35] there was considerable experimentation with battery development. Various combinations of lithium and other materials were tried in various combinations. One example was the combining of cathode and anode battery materials. A prototype of the Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery[36] was developed in 1985 by Akira Yoshino who along with John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham, Rachid Yazami and Koichi Mizushima are considered the forefathers of the Li-ion battery. By the early 1990s the first commercial Li-ion battery was developed.
Li-ion batteries’ ability to recharge daily at any stage of their charge combined with their very good energy density[37] is what gives them the edge over other rechargeable batteries such as those using lead acid which has a very low comparative energy density. Nickel-cadmium and nickel–metal hydride batteries[38] also have a relatively low[39] comparative energy density and suffer from memory effect. In memory effect[40] a battery remembers how much it was discharged in previous discharges due to some crystal formation and doesn’t fully charge again giving the impression that it has lost its capability to be fully charged again. These advantages of a much superior power density and the lack of the memory effect helped Li-ion batteries become the ideal choice for use in Electric Cars.
In 2008 Tesla was one of the first companies to introduce to the world a fully electric, road legal, mass produced, Li-ion battery electric car capable of travelling more than 200mi (320Km) on a single charge. This was the “Roadster”[41]. The “Tesla Roadster” was developed as a rival to many of the fastest sports cars with the main difference being that the Roadster was ‘full electric’ whereas the other comparable sports cars were gas powered. The Roadster showed the world that electric cars[42] could rival and match gas powered cars and were in no way inferior to them. On the contrary the Roadster was in some ways better and safer that the other sports cars.
Li-ion batteries however have problems. One of the most serious is their dependence on a good supply of the mineral ‘cobalt’. Originally cobalt constituted around 33% of a Li-ion battery. Today that component is as low as 3% and diminishing to a likely 0% in the very near future.
Since long before its first known isolation from other minerals in 1735[43] and until the early 20th century cobalt has been well known for its excellent heat and oxidation resistance. It has been used as a blue dye for glass and pottery[44]. For those same properties it has also been used in the construction of jet and gas turbines[45]. Cobalts abilities to act as a catalyst in the desulphurisation reactions[46] of refining crude oil in the creation and increasing of octanes in fuels such as petrol, diesel, kerosine, natural gas and others[47] have made cobalt a key ingredient for the oil industry.
While cobalt is essential to li-ion batteries, the mining of it has come under attack in recent years[48]. Some of the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo especially, are said to use hand mining operations involving the use of child labor. Although there has been a great increase in global demand for cobalt the amount attributable to EVs is still a relatively small percentage of the overall demand.
Some Issues / Problems:
The following explanations give greater depth to understanding the current issues in EV development. As mentioned in the beginning of the article they are: A Lack of noise, Range anxiety, Charging facilities & theoretic electric Grid problems.
1. Lack of the noise, sound of the engine and exhaust
EVs, unlike internal combustion engines are silent. This can seem weird to drivers used to understanding vehicle function by the sound of the engine. The silence of EVs can also be dangerous for pedestrians used to hearing cars approaching.
Many car and motorbike enthusiasts claim that EVs are too quiet for them. They like the sound of the power given by a V6 to V12 500+ horsepower sports, super cars. As of late 2009 Japan, USA and some other countries issued guidelines or approved legislation[49] on the use of sound based warning devices usually known as ‘Virtual Engine Sound Systems’ (VESS). The European Union (EU) as of 1July2019[50] passed a mandate requiring all new electric and hybrid cars to automatically use a VESS from start up to 20 to 30 km/h, and also during reversing[51]. On average, the requirement[52] is that the VESS should be 56 decibels at 10 kph and 50 decibels at 20 kph. A maximum of 75 decibels applies to any speed. EV makers like Jaguar, Audi, BMW and others have all developed their own brand specific characteristic sounds. EV sound designers such as Rudolf Halbmeir at Audi, Hans Zimmer at BMW and Richard Devine at Jaguar, have all faced the challenge of making the required car sounds. Tesla[53] have also found that some of their owners like the familiar sound of a V8,V10 or V12 engine[54]
The VESS system has also been implemented as a safety feature to protect pedestrians, cyclists and animals. Humans over the course of history have relied on their hearing to protect them from various moving vehicles, whether it was horse and carriage or loud fuel burning engines. With the advent of hybrid, electric and some could say ever quieter ‘Internal Combustion Engines’ (ICE) the need for VESS has accelerated. Companies like Harman, Sound-Booster, Soundracer and others[55] are all providing custom VESS systems.
2. A ‘range’ Issues (mileage per charge) and charging times
Until the introduction of Li-ion batteries, the charging time of both Nickel-metal hybrid and lead acid batteries was a problem for EVs. The memory effect of the Nickel-metal batteries also contributed to making EVs unpopular in the driving world. Li-ion development has changed that. Li-ion technology still has problems but it is constantly being developed with ever better energy density. In addition, other new battery types for energy storage are under development. Some not using cobalt at all and others such as the Solid-State and Graphene batteries.
Car manufacturers are also thinking of using ultracapacitors[56] which have very good power density and their energy density is constantly increasing due to the use of modern materials such as graphene. An ultracapacitors ability to charge and discharge very quickly[57] can help batteries deal with the sudden heavy loads required in getting a car moving in the first place or acceleration both of which put a lot of stress on the battery packs and thus weaken them. So far ultra capacity technology for use in EVs has not increased to a point of being competitive. Currently an EVs battery pack energy density varies from 120 to 210 Wh/Kg[58] while ultracapicitors have an energy density of 7Wh/Kg but steadily increasing to 60Wh/Kg[59].
Charging Methods:
Li-ion batteries in common with all other batteries face an interesting problem. This is their charging time. As the energy density of Li-ion batteries increases their standard charging time increases as well. People are not known for their patience especially in developed, populated cities where most of the world’s population live. In order to counter the ever increasing charging time due to the increasing energy density in electrical / electronic appliances, phones, tools, cameras & especially electric vehicles, manufacturers have had to find ways to shorten the charging time. They have most often achieved this by increasing the amount of amps of electrical energy (electrons) that a battery charger sends to a battery.
There are typically 2 charging methods for Electric Vehicles Regenerative Braking and an External Charger.
Regenerative Braking (Regen) is when an EV uses its electric mort to convert its original kinetic energy back into electricity by working in reverse and thus decelerating the EV. This way the kinetic energy is not lost as heat in the EVs brake pads which in turn adds some mileage to the EV and reduces the wear and tear of the car’s brake pads. This effect is discussed by David Drive Electric[60]. Each time an EV slows down using regen it converts about 60-70% of the kinetic energy back to electricity[61]. The rest is lost as friction due to aerodynamics, tyres on road and some other losses during the regeneration process.
A very clear explanation of how regen works is also found as a youtube video on the The Fast Lane Car[62] channel. This video demonstrates how much mileage and electrical power, regenerative braking can give back to a car. It shows Roman & Tommy Mica doing a regenerative braking comparison between a Tesla Model 3 (All-Wheel Drive) and a Nissan Leaf Plus (Extended Range) in a 154.2 Mile (248.2Km) round trip up a 77.1 Mile (124.1Km) one way trip up a mountain with an elevation difference of 6,500Ft (1,981m). The Tesla was charged at 236Mi (379Km) range which is the Nissan Leafs max range. After their first 77.1 Mile (124.1Km) trip the Tesla had 36% battery left and 112Mi (180Km) traveling miles left, while the Nissan had 46% battery left and 80Mi (128Km) traveling miles left (running time in video 6:25 to 22:24). After their second 77.1 Mile (124.1Km) trip the Tesla had approximately 34% battery left and 83Mi (133Km) traveling mile left while the Nissan had 29% battery left and 84Mi (135Km) traveling miles left (running time in video 23:40 to 34:41).
As shown in table above regenerative braking can give back 1-2Mi (2-4Km) to a car after a 154.2Mile (248.2Km) round trip up a mountain.
The amount of regenerative braking that a car can do is restricted by the speed at which the car’s batteries can be charged safely[63]. As mentioned earlier batteries do not charge rapidly whereas ultracapacitors do. The constant increase in energy density of ultracapacitors combined with ever more effective regenerative braking is what makes them the ultimate allies in the historic EV battery struggle with range.
External chargers
Where and how charging stations can be installed and how many and at what frequency they can be found are further issues for EVs. External chargers, where an EV plugs into[64] an external power supply, have 3 charging speeds Slow, Fast and Rapid or Ultra Rapid[65].
Slow charging:
Slow charging uses approximately 06 to 13A at 230V AC giving approximately a 3 to 6 kW charging speed. It charges an empty EV battery in about 8 to 12+ hours. This is the sort of charging you would get if you plugged a car directly to a regular or heavy household wall power socket.
Fast charging:
Fast charging uses approximately 13 to 70A to usually at 240V AC giving approximately a 7 to 22kW charging speed. This method will charge an empty EV battery in about 3 to 8 hours. For fast charging a dedicated circuit and appropriate cabling is required if charging at home.
Rapid or Ultra Rapid charging:
Rapid or ultra rapid charging is achieved at a charging station with special cables because of its use of extremely high power 43 to 350 or 400 kW. This is done using direct current (DC) electricity which bypasses the cars alternate current (AC) to DC converter which is normally used for slow or fast charging. Ultrarapid charge goes directly to the car’s DC battery packs thus doing away with the time consuming and heat producing power conversion. With rapid charging an empty EV battery can be charged in about an hour or less.
Rapid charging can be achieved at 43kW AC by using 3-phase 240V and approximately 60A electricity.
Charging Facilities, EVs & the Grid: (Comparative Efficiencies and Availability)
Seven of the currently most innovative methods used in public and private charging of electric vehicles are,
1. For neighbourhood on-street parking there are the Urban Electric “pop-up charging hubs”[67] which offer App operated 7kW fast charging. This is shown how it works in video[68]. The good thing with these pop-up chargers is that they are only visible when they are in use ie. charging a car. The rest of the time they can be recessed below the surface and out of the way. This can be important in older cities like Athens Greece where the pedestrian sidewalks are already very narrow and cluttered.
2. Ubitricity’s “smart cable”[69] is another neighbourhood street parking solution. Ubitricity charging points can be easily installed almost anywhere[70], such as on walls, electricity poles, street lamp posts and even on sidewalk poles/rails. This easy integration into already existing infrastructures coupled with its extremely safe,easy to use intelligent multitasking cable, makes it ideal for public use in cities.
3. A third charging solution for public transport buses, taxis and private use is “Wireless Inductive Charging”[71] Wireless EV charging can be easily installed into taxi ranks or bus terminals[72] (time of video 00:55) so that electric taxis and buses can easily wirelessly charge along the entire length of the rank[73] while waiting for their next customer or route. With a 5 minute stop, over a wireless charging plate, a BYD “K92 Electric Bus” gets enough electric power to travel 9-13Km.[74] Norway’s capital Oslo is going to be one of the first city in the world[75] to install wireless inductive charging for its electric taxis. If the wireless charging technology was installed along highways EVs travelling up to or over 100km/h or 60mi/h[76] (time of video 16:19) could be charging at a rate of 20kW.
4. Fastned’s rapid charging stations[77] get their power simultaneously from photovoltaic cells and the grid. Their stations provide 50, 175 and up to 300kW[78] rapid charging stations. An 8 charging point station[79] (time of video 05:09) of 4 x 50kW and 4 x 175kW charging points, working simultaneously, would need about 1 MW. That 1to 2MW mostly comes from the grid which it can currently handle, but if this demand increases too much there would be a grid problem. However as the charging units are housed under a roof covered with photovoltaic cells that directly feed the chargers, these can produce enough power to charge up to 3 electric cars[80] (time of video02:40) independently from the Grid.
The City of Dundee creatively implemented such a system[81] (time of video 06:42). They used a 90kW battery storage unit connected simultaneously to the grid and to a 40kW photovoltaic cell array covering the charging station roof. As a result rapidly charging EVs are being charged by the battery storage unit which itself is being recharged by the photovoltaic cells and the grid.
If the photovoltaic cells used in this type of solution were bifacial solar panels and used solar tracking then on a clear day and with relatively good reflective surfaces they could generate 20% to 50% more electricity.[82] (Time of video 00) Bifacial panels mean that they convert sun energy both from the top and from reflected light underneath[83].
Solar Panels aren’t the only renewable energy system that could be used in these charging stations. Relatively small[84] yet powerful wind turbines[85] like those produced by Britwind[86], can produce from 1 to 80 kW of power.
This use of renewable energy be it solar or wind coupled with a battery system of some sort if needed makes the Fastned or Dundee concept ideal for highway rest areas and parking stations which is how they are currently being used.
5. Some individual, home electric car chargers like MyEnergi Zappi[87] or Wallbox[88] can charge a car at a speed of 7-22 kW. Zappi can be used with power provided from the grid, some sort of renewable energy (wind, sun) or a combination of both. Zappi is fully programmable with Fast, Eco & Eco+ modes. Fast for constant charging using both the grid and renewable energy. Eco with an emphasis on renewable power. Eco+ where charging is only done with renewable energy. Zappi is a smart and intelligent charger as it uses dynamic load balancing[89] (time of video 02:55) which means it takes into account the maximum (power contract) capacity and a house’s main fuse size. By doing this Zappi regulates the cars charging by slowing down or even pausing if needed depending on what sort of energy consumption is going on in the house. It will do this if there is a kettle, a heater, a washing machine, an oven or any other sort of household appliance working which pulls on supply[90] (time of video 12:46). This is done so that charging the car doesn’t overload the house’s power circuit and burn a fuse. All this power monitoring easily shows you how much your car’s charging is costing you at home. If you have some sort of renewable energy at the house, the charging of the car can be free.
6. Portable rapid charging stations. The US SparkCharge[91] is a modular portable rapid charging station. At its most basic configuration it has a 3.5kWh battery and a 20kW power charger[92] (time of video 08:40) making it the equivalent of having a 5 to 10lt jerry can in the trunk of a car. Another 4 battery modules can be added to this making a total of 5 battery units and 17.5 kWh.
When Roadside Assist is equipped with a Spark Charge EV drivers can call them to give enough emergency power till the EV can be fully charged. SparkCharge systems can also be used privately.
The Chinese “NIO Power Mobile”[93] (time of video 10:02) electric vans are another similar custom made portable rapid charging solution for EV driver road assistance.
7. Battery swapping. “NIO Power Swap” battery swapping facilities are an innovation which can help, as the name suggests, by swapping out an empty battery and replacing it with a full one in about 3min[94] (time of video 06:05). Chinese NIO[95] car manufacturer has already sold over 50,000 EVs, completed 650,000 battery swaps and all of these EVs have combined travel distances of around 800 million miles (1.287475 billion kilometers)[96] (time on video 01:29). Battery swapping in the USA and Europe is made very difficult because of the plethora of power sizes, dimensions and shapes of battery packs used by different manufacturers. They do not interchange easily or at all[97].
EV’s and the Grid
In many countries the main source of electric power is via a supply system known as ‘the grid’.
The electrical grid works on system frequency[98] (time of video 00:59), balancing power generation and supply or demand. The electricity being provided must always be kept at a specific frequency of 50 or 60 Hz and the permissible tolerance to its fluctuation is close to 0.050Hz[99].
Electricity has to be consumed the moment it is produced or else it is lost and black-outs occur. The frequency has to be maintained[100]. If the demand for electricity all of a sudden increases and its production doesn’t follow almost instantly, the electric frequency drops and there are problems, and vice versa. The frequency will increase if there is a drop in power consumption but the power production remains the same. The demand curve usually looks like a tall (big amplitude) Sinusoidal Wave (a horizontal repetitive S). During the day the power supply demand increases, creating the peak or crest and during the night when everyone is sleeping and businesses are closed the energy demand decreases creating a trough. The problem with the trough in power consumption is that so as not to overload the grid and burn it out the grid managers usually have to shut down a power plant or deactivate some wind turbines[101] (running time in video 4:42 to 5:44) which is a complicated and expensive thing to do. The ideal situation is when the amplitude in the demand curve is small meaning that the production of electricity is the same as the demand (consumption) of it.
This is where bidirectional charging comes in. Bidirectional charging, is when a plugged in or wirelessly charging car ceases to only draw power from the electrical grid and starts to have a more symbiotic relationship with it and cars give power back to the grid when it’s needed most.
During the night when the energy demand is low and the grid managers are trying to avoid shutting down a power plant or wind turbine which as already noted, is an expensive and difficult thing to do, electric vehicles, be it cars, buses or trucks could be charging and acting as an energy storage system or grid equalizer.
In the UK the power grid sometimes pays people[102] (time of video 16:00) to charge their EVs at night because it’s cheaper to do that than close down a wind turbine. Private cars which are also the majority of cars may be useful to their owner but they are a wasteful commodity. A person spends a lot of money to buy a machine which for most of 24 hours sits in a garage or parking facility. The UK plans to build huge batteries to store renewable energy[103] but there’s a much cheaper solution[104] During the substantial amount of time an EV sits idle it could be making money by selling a predetermined amount of power back to the grid when it was needed. The amount it sells back can be set by the EV owner taking into account their current travelling needs. The more EVs that are doing this, potentially hundreds of thousands to millions, the less energy per car or residential / grid battery packs “containers” that the grid would be using to keep the grid stable and running efficiently and without needing to shut down sources of power.
If more and more people install solar panels on the roofs of their homes, offices, businesses or factories and or have a wind turbine on their premises and use their cars or the ever cheaper house or domestic sized battery packs being developed, then the demand on the city grid will be reduced and the power grid will change from being the main or only source of power to being a supplementary source. Even more importantly with the grid becoming less centralized (dependent on the big traditional power plants or massive wind, solar farms) and more and more localized the need for very high powered power lines, which are environmentally unfriendly, will decrease.
Another new way of helping balance the electrical grid surplus or deficit was demonstrated by Lightsource BP[105], a developer and manager of solar energy projects. In November 2019[106] Lightsource stated that with a relatively inexpensive tweak to the inverters (the hardware that turns solar power into electricity) at one of their solar farms in East Sussex UK[107] they helped stabilize the grid through reactive power[108]. Reactive power is the ability to maintain voltage levels by reducing or increasing it on a grid[109]. This was achieved at the solar farm by its inverters.
As discussed in greater depth in the “Fully Charged Show”[110] at least 8 of the YouTube videos mentioned above, all lead back to Fastned’s or City of Dundee’s rapid charging station solution which is to use renewable energy to charge battery storage units like the Tesla ‘Powerpack’[111], the ESS Inc ‘EW’[112], the NEC Energy[113] and Ambri[114] ‘Liquid Metal Battery’ or RedFlow’s[115] ‘zinc-bromine flow batteries’ and then in tandem with the renewable energy and maybe a small contribution from the grid, it becomes possible to charge a number of EVs.
Urban electric pop up charging hubs, Ubitricity and its SmartCable, wireless inductive charging WiTricity, Electroad and Myenergi Zappi, Wallbox[116] are all or could be made bidirectional charging capable. Bidirectional charging is a possible future source for needed extra grid power.
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