The University of Delaware’s ground-breaking vehicle to grid program has moved overseas.
UDaily reported that a town in Denmark would adopt the program that uses a fleet of all-electric vehicles that provide clean transportation and store electricity.
The effort will also extend to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Global auto giant Nissan is providing the vehicles.
The university in partnership with electricity supplier NRG has been operating a similar vehicle- to-grid program on the University of Delaware STAR campus.
Vehicle-to-grid in Europe could hold a key to dealing with the ups and downs in generation in a continent that has moved rapidly toward the wind and solar power.
University of Delaware professor and vehicle-to-grid researcher Willett Kempton is involved in the European effort
“Locally in Delaware, we provide storage used for the service of balancing power on the PJM grid, and they pay us at the end of each month for the amount of balancing power that we provided. We are now doing the same thing in Denmark, although the technical requirements and rules are somewhat different,” Kempton told UDaily.
Kempton is also co-founder and chief technology officer for NUVVE, a start-up company based near San Diego that is working to widen the use of vehicle-to-grid. The company has licensed University of Delaware technology developed through Kempton’s research efforts.
NUVVE aims to build a vehicle-to-grid network that would function like a power plant in moving electricity stored in vehicles to the grid.
The technology could lower the cost of buying and operating electric vehicles, with owners getting payments for that electricity.
Kempton is also involved in research on offshore wind power. UD research indicates offshore wind is capable of providing most of the power needed on the East Coast.
Offshore wind has faced regulatory, financial and not in my backyard 0pposition that included Kennedy family members in Massachusetts.
