200 Bidirectional EV Chargers To Be Used In Trial
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April 19, 20263 hours ago
Jake Richardson
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Vattenfall, Energy Bank, and Volkswagen are collaborating on a new bidirectional EV charger project in Sweden. Vattenfall is Sweden’s state-owned power company. Two hundred bidirectional EV chargers will be installed in the country — these chargers can transmit electricity to electric vehicles and from electric vehicles back to the grid.
Electric vehicles are essentially batteries on wheels, and their battery packs contain quite a bit of electricity, especially if their electricity can be used all together or partially together. If each of the 200 bidirectional chargers is connected to an electric vehicle at the same time, the electricity in 200 battery packs can be used to support the grid depending on demand within it. Most vehicles used for personal transportation sit around when they are not in use. If they are EVs that are connected to a grid with bidirectional chargers, their electricity can be used for purposes other than only operating the electric vehicles.
EV owners who allow their electric vehicles to be connected to grids could someday generate some income. “If the battery can support the grid while also generating revenue, it could improve the economics and value of owning an electric car and contribute to continued electrification,” explained Magnus Berg, head of customer products and solutions at Vattenfall. The bidirectional chargers will be installed at some households and Volkswagen dealerships.
Gas and diesel vehicles can not be used collectively to back up grids and provide grid flexibility in the same way EVs can be used to make virtual power plants. They also can not be operated using clean, renewable fuel, unlike electric vehicles which can be run on electricity from hydropower, solar power, wind power, and geothermal power. Gas and diesel vehicles can only operate using dirty fossil fuels.
Electric vehicles also have many other benefits: among them are cleaning up air polluted by internal combustion engine vehicles, reducing carbon emissions which contribute to climate change, being operated with clean, renewable electricity instead of toxic fossil fuels, disconnecting from corrupt politicians and petrodictators such as Putin, choosing sustainable solutions rather than inaction and apathy, and choosing the much better energy efficiency provided by electric vehicles.
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