RegGuheert
Well-known member
IME, BEV batteries offer an outstanding opportunity to add real amounts of storage to the electrical grid with a minimal amount of environmental impact. For this to become a reality, several things need to happen:
- EV batteries need to become more durable. In other words, adding a second function to the batteries should not shorten the life of the primary function to the point where more EV batteries need to be produced.
- EV batteries need to have more capacity. Some already have enough today so that some capacity could be shared each day without impacting the primary function of the EV.
- EV chargers (both off-board and on-board) need to be upgraded to allow bi-directional power flow. Some ChaDeMo chargers already have this capability.
- A control and communications system needs to be implemented to allow the grid to optimize generation and consumption with access to the instant, on-demand, distributed storage capabilities which EVs offer. This implementation needs to included rate-plan updates to compensate EV owners for battery access, ways to define how much capacity must remain at certain times, and also many other details.
My expectation is that EV batteries WILL become much more durable and have much more capacity as time and technology march on, to the point where those two current limitations really become enablers of EV-based grid storage rather than barriers. The other two items will require some action from both the utilities and the governing bodies to enable this idea to move foreward.
For now, let's just assume all of this is in place today and have a look at how much EV storage might be brought online as the EV market grows. I'll do this for the U.S. for now.
I'll use InsideEVs scorecard and evnow's comparison chart to estimate total EV battery capacity.
So, all-told, including the other entries, about 4 GWh of BEV battery capacity and about 1.5 GWh of PHEV battery capacity has been delivered. That's about five times the total storage capacity used by an island of about 10,000 people.
Since we are talking about 225,000 EVs which probably represent about 500,000 people, we are talking about 5 times as much storage for about 50 times as many people. Plus, the EV storage is not nearly all available. In fact, MOST of it is not available. So, clearly, today's overall EV fleet is not suitable for this purpose.
So, let's just take the Model S as the prototype of the "everyday" car of the future. And let's put two such vehicles in each garage for each three people. In that case, you would have about 4 MWh for each 75,000 people, or about 4 times the storage of the small island for 8 times the number of people. But perhaps only about 50% of that capacity would be available for grid use, so perhaps twice the storage for 8 times the number of people.
So I will conclude that BEV storage will likely never cover ALL of our future grid storage needs, but perhaps it can cover as much as 25% of it if we are smart about how we use it.
Of course, the major barrier to this type of technology is that CA electricity rate plans are already entirely incomprehensible, so it is quite inconceivable to add further considerations into any of those plans. :lol: :lol: But perhaps some of the rest of us have a chance to get this working!
- EV batteries need to become more durable. In other words, adding a second function to the batteries should not shorten the life of the primary function to the point where more EV batteries need to be produced.
- EV batteries need to have more capacity. Some already have enough today so that some capacity could be shared each day without impacting the primary function of the EV.
- EV chargers (both off-board and on-board) need to be upgraded to allow bi-directional power flow. Some ChaDeMo chargers already have this capability.
- A control and communications system needs to be implemented to allow the grid to optimize generation and consumption with access to the instant, on-demand, distributed storage capabilities which EVs offer. This implementation needs to included rate-plan updates to compensate EV owners for battery access, ways to define how much capacity must remain at certain times, and also many other details.
My expectation is that EV batteries WILL become much more durable and have much more capacity as time and technology march on, to the point where those two current limitations really become enablers of EV-based grid storage rather than barriers. The other two items will require some action from both the utilities and the governing bodies to enable this idea to move foreward.
For now, let's just assume all of this is in place today and have a look at how much EV storage might be brought online as the EV market grows. I'll do this for the U.S. for now.
I'll use InsideEVs scorecard and evnow's comparison chart to estimate total EV battery capacity.
Code:
BEVs:
Vehicle Sold Avg. Bat. Cap Total Bat. Cap.
Make & Model (kWh) (MWh)
Tesla Model S 27,700 75 2078
Nissan LEAF 54,839 24 1316
Toyota Rav4EV 1836 42 77
Ford Focus Electric 3319 23 76
PHEVs:
Chevy Volt 62,841 16.3 1024
Toyota Prius PiP 34,138 4.4 150
Ford C-Max Energi 12,391 7.5 93
Ford Fusion Energi 12,324 7.5 92
So, all-told, including the other entries, about 4 GWh of BEV battery capacity and about 1.5 GWh of PHEV battery capacity has been delivered. That's about five times the total storage capacity used by an island of about 10,000 people.
Since we are talking about 225,000 EVs which probably represent about 500,000 people, we are talking about 5 times as much storage for about 50 times as many people. Plus, the EV storage is not nearly all available. In fact, MOST of it is not available. So, clearly, today's overall EV fleet is not suitable for this purpose.
So, let's just take the Model S as the prototype of the "everyday" car of the future. And let's put two such vehicles in each garage for each three people. In that case, you would have about 4 MWh for each 75,000 people, or about 4 times the storage of the small island for 8 times the number of people. But perhaps only about 50% of that capacity would be available for grid use, so perhaps twice the storage for 8 times the number of people.
So I will conclude that BEV storage will likely never cover ALL of our future grid storage needs, but perhaps it can cover as much as 25% of it if we are smart about how we use it.
Of course, the major barrier to this type of technology is that CA electricity rate plans are already entirely incomprehensible, so it is quite inconceivable to add further considerations into any of those plans. :lol: :lol: But perhaps some of the rest of us have a chance to get this working!