The soaring adoption of electric vehicles promises to be a “game changer” for storage networks, Alexa Capital chief executive Gerard Reid has claimed.
Speaking at the ongoing Solar Finance and Investment conference in London, Reid said that the potential for electric vehicles to be used as battery storage devices when stationary would pose an important step forward for the technology.
Reid said that the potential was for electric vehicles to provide auxiliary grid services such as balancing and in particular pointed towards the schematics of Tesla’s range of EVs. “At the end of the day, that vehicle has an 85kWh battery in it,” Reid said.
Also speaking on the panel was Baringa partner Ilesh Patel, who said that he believed companies in the energy sector would “not make the mistake of ignoring electric vehicles” and even suggested that some utilities would look to them for uses beyond renewable transport.
Reid noted a particular pilot project currently ongoing in France, which collates an electric vehicle’s use, its owner’s diary and the national grid.
If the owner is listed as going away on holiday or is not expected to use the vehicle for an extended period of time for any other reason, that vehicle can be left connected to a charging station at a central location – an airport, for example – and its battery used to contribute towards a collative storage network or to help resolve balancing issues.
