The trouble with plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles is that they soak up more of our power supply. The upside is that most of them will charge up at night when wind power is stronger and there's excess energy on the grid. Increasing power usage at night helps even out demand on the grid, which is good news for baseload plants that don't like to quickly fluctuate their output. And yes, even a plug-in car powered from a fossil fuel plant has lower life-cycle carbon emissions than a regular gasoline engine.
But, that's only half the benefit. Plug-ins will reach their full potential by storing energy at night that can be used to offset or produce power at peak-demand times during the day. By developing smart grid technology, utilities could automatically stop charging plug-ins for short periods of time during peak demand and even use some of the stored battery power.
The CTO of Duke Energy, which is retiring some of its oldest coal plants, sees strong potential.
Car batteries can provide a buffer to lighten the load on the grid during peak times and potentially provide back-up power to homeowners. Down the line, old plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) batteries could be recycled as storage devices, they said.
"I think PHEVs will be the killer application for the smart grid," said David Mohler, the chief technology officer of Duke Energy. "They are able to both consume and provide energy like no other device can and can really change storage."
The infrastructure needed to facilitate plug-ins is much closer to being in place than starting from scratch with a natural gas or hydrogen fuel-cell network. The always-forward-thinking Rocky Mountain Institute thinks the barrier is one of commitment, not a lack of technological capability. They held a summit which called the solution a "Smart Garage."
"What proved most surprising was the concept of the Smart Garage is a lot closer to realization than we previously thought," said Laura Schewel, a transportation systems expert with MOVE and manager of the Smart Garage project.
"We found there were many misconceptions -- including that technology to make all this possible was not available -- when in fact the opposite is true," Schewel said.
"There are still definitely some barriers currently preventing the immediate adoption of Smart Garage. To move forward, the group at the summit created several key initiatives, which RMI is driving, to further break down these barriers. Initiatives range from research into advanced batteries and their potential second life options, to convening a group of leading 'seed' cities to make themselves a welcoming 'ecosystem' for electrified vehicles."
A major investment by General Electric in China suggests they're moving faster on this technology than the United States, just as they are with fuel economy standards and the installation of new solar and wind. People hear a lot about China building coal plants but they're also beating us in the development of new clean energy sources.
Google has already done successful tests using plug-in hybrids as a power source. The only question is which businesses, governments and utilities will move first to make it happen on a larger scale.