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Another tactic that I quite like is using battery powered cars in combination with a smart grid to generate power during peak usage. If a car is plugged in and

Another tactic that I quite like is using battery powered cars in combination with a smart grid to generate power during peak usage. If a car is plugged in and is fully charged, it will use a percentage of that to feed back into the grid. Presumably, you'd give quite high incentives to doing this. If someone only charges their car when the grid has excess power, and allows up to 50% of that power to go back into the grid at peak usage, that electricity could even be free. There'd likely be a setting on your charging station to handle this. You don't need many cars generating 5kW before you're talking about quite a serious amount of power. Of course, there are problems with this approach - most people park their cars somewhere else during the day, the accounting is an issue, and it seems to be more suited to wind than solar, but I really like the idea of repurposing the massive batteries that we're going to have laying around anyway. For reference, a Tesla battery pack holds 53kWh [1], which will supply an average home with power for two days [2]. So the numbers really do add up for using it to help during spikes. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster#Battery_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster#Battery_system [2]: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/esr/table5.html http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/esr/table5.html

bruce511 16y ago
The only problem with this of course is that the range of a car is already limited. Plugging in your car overnight, and then discovering half the charge is gone might be a tad, shall we say, unwelcome. One could imagine though a big incentive (cost wise) not to charge the car during the day, or early evening but have the charger kick in after say 10pm. Then if your range is sufficient to get to work and back you're not motivated to charge during the day. While all those batteries sitting there is somewhat appealing, the highest demand for grid power is also likely to be around the time you want to use your car.
- cabalamat 16y ago
  > The only problem with this of course is that the range of a car is already limited. Plugging in your car overnight, and then discovering half the charge is gone might be a tad, shall we say, unwelcome. Indeed. However, electric cars could have a part to play in equalising electricity production & demand. Electric cars could be re-powered by removing the battery pack and inserting a new one (this would be done at the successor to petrol stations; obviously battery packs would all be the same size and have the same interface). The battery station would then need to recharge all its spare packs -- and it could do it at the times when electricity supply exceeds demand.
  - gmazzotti 16y ago
    I would love that to happen but I doubt it. Batteries are too expensive and last a relatively small number of charges, so if you leave your battery in the station and they give you another, nobody says that this battery is not worn and it lasts very little
    - jokermatt999 16y ago
      Actually, it's already being tried. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place

bruce511 16y ago

The only problem with this of course is that the range of a car is already limited. Plugging in your car overnight, and then discovering half the charge is gone might be a tad, shall we say, unwelcome. One could imagine though a big incentive (cost wise) not to charge the car during the day, or early evening but have the charger kick in after say 10pm. Then if your range is sufficient to get to work and back you're not motivated to charge during the day. While all those batteries sitting there is somewhat appealing, the highest demand for grid power is also likely to be around the time you want to use your car.

cabalamat 16y ago
> The only problem with this of course is that the range of a car is already limited. Plugging in your car overnight, and then discovering half the charge is gone might be a tad, shall we say, unwelcome. Indeed. However, electric cars could have a part to play in equalising electricity production & demand. Electric cars could be re-powered by removing the battery pack and inserting a new one (this would be done at the successor to petrol stations; obviously battery packs would all be the same size and have the same interface). The battery station would then need to recharge all its spare packs -- and it could do it at the times when electricity supply exceeds demand.
- gmazzotti 16y ago
  I would love that to happen but I doubt it. Batteries are too expensive and last a relatively small number of charges, so if you leave your battery in the station and they give you another, nobody says that this battery is not worn and it lasts very little
  - jokermatt999 16y ago
    Actually, it's already being tried. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place