Robin <mixent...@aussiebroadband.com.au> wrote:
> When electric cars become more common, they can contribute to grid > storage, allowing higher percentages of renewable > energy sources. > This also reduces CO2 from the transport sector. > Yup. There has been a lot of talk about that in the media lately. I think there may be a problem, though. Most cars are used to commute. At an office park there may be one or two chargers, but not one for every car. Yet the daytime peak is when you need the contribution from the car battery. If the peak was at night when cars were at home, it would work out better. Most people with houses who have EV will soon have chargers. My daughter has a 240 VAC charger that cost her only ~$100. Here is what I wrote about this over at LENR Forum. Electric vehicle makers have recently begun introducing bidirectional charging, also called vehicle-to-load (V2L). This means you can use an electric car as a generator. This would be handy in Atlanta where the power often fails. A Leaf, or Hyundai Ioniq 5 - V2L put out 3.6 kW, which is a lot. The Ford F-150 can power your whole house, according to this article. Another source says it is 9.6 kW. That would not be your whole house with air conditioning or a clothes dryer, but it is a lot. https://www.cars.com/articles/whats-bidirectional-charging-and-which-evs-offer-it-457608/ Vehicle to Load (V2L) Archives I use an inverter with a Prius during power failures. It is very convenient. The car ICE turns on occasionally for a few minutes and then stops. Unfortunately, this is limited to 1 kW because the starter battery is small and the manual says if I go up to 1.2 kW (1.5 kW?) a fuse will blow. Some people put large inverters on the Prius traction battery. That looks complicated and dangerous. I might have some local dealer do it for me. 1 kW is much better than nothing. It is enough to power the refrigerator, some lights, and the internet. One advantage of this may show up in the future. It says that V2L can be used to recharge another electric car. If an electric car runs out of power and is stranded, you cannot bring a can of gasoline to get it moving again. You have to bring a generator on a tow truck. I think the AAA and others are already doing this. If V2L cars become common, anyone will be able to pull up ahead of a stranded car and recharge it for 10 minutes with a jumper cable, enough to drive several miles to a regular charger. Jumper cables may not be common in the future but I expect police cars, tow trucks, road emergency trucks and so on will soon have them, just as they have ICE battery jumper cables.
