How Electric Car Batteries Might Aid the Grid (and Win Over Drivers)
By Jack Ewing, The New York Times.
Excerpt: Electric cars are more expensive than gasoline models largely because batteries cost so much. But new technology could turn those pricey devices into an asset, giving owners benefits like reduced utility bills, lower lease payments or free parking. Ford Motor, General Motors, BMW and other automakers are exploring how electric-car batteries could be used to store excess renewable energy to help utilities deal with fluctuations in supply and demand for power. Automakers would make money by serving as intermediaries between car owners and power suppliers. Millions of cars could be thought of as a huge energy system that, for the first time, will be connected to another enormous energy system, the electrical grid, said Matthias Preindl, an associate professor of power electronic systems at Columbia University. ...Mobility House, a firm whose investors include Mercedes-Benz and Renault, ...buys power when solar and wind power is abundant and cheap, storing it in electric vehicles that are part of its system and plugged in around Europe. When demand and prices climb, the company resells the electricity. It’s a classic play: Buy low, sell high....