Better Together
The upcoming meeting on climate change in Copenhagen will surely further motivate governments and businesses worldwide to build more renewable energy generation. That is a worthwhile goal in and of itself, but from the electric utilities’ perspective, more wind and solar will increasingly pose a challenge.
20th century utilities could not predict when demand would show up, so they built supply in the form of power plants they could control.
Today, the new renewable sources coming online such as wind and solar are not predictable, so utilities today need demand in a form they can control.
Enter electric vehicles. Consider these two numbers:
~ a wind turbine produces about 10,500 MWh per year. (1)
~ an electric vehicle (EV) requires about 3 MWh per year. (2)
If you combine the two smartly the wind turbine will power over 3,000 cars generating zero emissions.
There’s a long list of reasons most of us here at Better Place work hard to make that vision a reality. Couple the two together, and we eliminate 3,153 tailpipes and the emissions they emit. We reduce petrol use, local air pollution, and cases of asthma, bronchitis, and other unwelcome health effects. Mike Granoff did a good job summarizing the many reasons why EVs are a worthy policy priority. I want to share why EVs are the perfect complement for greater renewable power penetration.
Over the last century, electricity has been the only industry that had no such thing as inventory. Power cannot be stored in a barrel. What you use is what is produced at this very instant. The electricity powering the lights above you as you read these words was generated only moments ago, and the reality of the utility industry is that even if you had turned your monitor off, some of that unused electricity would have still been generated – and wasted.
Every grid system maintains extra power capacity online, called “active reserve,” which guarantees immediate availability of power to cover unexpected demand spikes. That margin is typically pretty small, but as we add more and more power coming from wind, sun, and wave, the margin grows. Through renewable portfolio standards and other policies, we are trying to combine already uncontrolled demand with uncontrollable supply. That poses a problem for grid operators, who inevitably generate more active reserve power to make sure that if the wind dies down right as we all come home and turn our lights, TVs, and microwaves on, we don’t have a blackout.
Not only does Better Place make sure that all EVs don’t start charging at that very time, compounding the problem, but we are building the architecture that will enable EVs to charge smartly and represent intelligent demand for the utility, demand that turns on at night while you sleep, exactly at the time when the utility has extra power that would go to waste. This software system is at the heart of the Better Place network.
EVs can charge smartly and help utilities bring more renewable energy online faster, something we need to remember as we approach Copenhagen later this year. If we take 2 million cars and couple them with 635 wind turbines, we not only help transition beyond oil, but we help the utility transition beyond coal. EVs and renewables are better together!
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(1) Assuming 3 MW capacity, 40% capacity factor and 10% transmission losses
(2) Assuming 4 miles per kWh for a vehicle that drives 12,000 miles per year
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