TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Power Grid to Get Boost from Wind, Electric Vehicles

R. Colin Johnson | Date: 01-21-10 | Comments

The Department of Energy claims 20 percent of the Eastern Interconnect grid can be powered by renewable, sustainable wind turbines by 2024, while Delaware is moving ahead with a plan to enable electric vehicle owners to charge up at night and then sell electricity back to the grid during the day.

The U.S. power grid will be getting a boost from both renewable wind turbines and electric cars using a new vehicle-to-grid technology.

The Department of Energy predicts that 20 percent of the Eastern Interconnect grid can be powered by renewable, sustainable wind turbines by 2024. Separately, Delaware will be the first state to enable electric vehicle owners to charge up at night, then sell the electricity back to the grid during the day (at a profit).

The DoE's wind-power predictions were included in the newest study by its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) called the Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (EWITS). The two-and-one-half-year study covered only the Eastern Interconnect grid, which supplies power to 70 percent of the U.S. population.

The bad news is that to achieve a 20 percent share for wind power, the grid infrastructure will need a $90 billion investment, including 22,000 miles of energy-efficient high-voltage power lines. The hefty investment is necessary because the wind blows most consistently in areas that have poor power line infrastructure support today.

The good news is that energy savings will more than offset the infrastructure expenditure by virtue of a reduced need for the fossil fuels that are burned to make electricity today.

Separately, the University of Delaware claims it will ease the burden on the Eastern Interconnect grid by promoting its vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology that allows electric vehicle owners to charge up at night (when rates are cheap) and then sell the energy back to the grid during the day at a profit. Just 60 vehicles will be able to provide 1 megawatt of power back to the grid during times of peak demand.

A prototype V2G vehicle has already been developed by University of Delaware professor Willett Kempton with research fellow Jasna Tomic. That prototype will serve as the model for commercial conversion services. AC Propulsion (San Dimas, Calif.) will manufacture the electric drive system for the all-electric vehicle, called the eBox.

The first licensee of V2G technology is AutoPort (New Castle, Del.), which specializes in converting commercial fleets of vehicles. For the V2G technology, AutoPort plans to offer both fleets and individual owners of electric vehicles the opportunity to make a profit by selling excess power back to the grid during peak demand periods.

AutoPort has already converted four Toyota Scions, which it is delivering to the state of Delaware for testing, and expects to have its first 100 vehicles converted to the V2G technology by the end of 2010. If the pilot proves successful, AutoPort will begin offering commercial conversion services for the Scion and other vehicle brands, including fleets of Chevy vans, starting next year. The Department of Energy and the U.S. Postal Service also plan to convert existing mail trucks to use the V2G technology.