Willett Kempton is an anthropologist. And an electrical engineer.
On this winter morning at the University of Delaware, both skill sets come in handy as he courts two Japanese businessmen. They’ve traveled here from Tokyo to see how much progress he’s made toward a revolutionary idea: electric cars that will make several thousand dollars a year for their owners, and speed the switch to renewable energy sources.
Observing Japanese business etiquette, Kempton presents his business card to the senior visitor, Makoto Horiguchi, then the two exchange bows. He repeats the ceremony with Horiguchi’s junior colleague and with their translator. Then Horiguchi steps to the front of the classroom to give a short talk describing the work that his employer, the industry-funded Japan Automobile Research Institute, does on electric vehicles. Kempton listens attentively and asks questions. Then he makes his pitch.
For 15 years, Kempton, who directs the University of Delaware’s Center for Carbon-Free Power Integration, has pushed the idea that fleets of electric vehicles — rather than being another big draw on the electric grid — could provide valuable backup power on demand to utilities. This would reduce the need for costly new generating plants, and help ensure a reliable supply of electricity.
Utilities pay each other billions of dollars a year for such backup power through wholesale electricity markets, and Kempton believes that a hefty slice of that pie could be paid to electric-vehicle owners instead. Some industry analysts agree that the approach, known as “vehicle-to-grid,” could take off; a December 2010 report from the business research firm Global Data conservatively projected a global market for vehicle-to-grid that would pay $2.3 billion to electric vehicle owners by 2012 — and $40 billion by 2020.
Kempton and his colleagues have made some influential converts in policy circles, too. Marc Spitzer, a commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has described the plan as “the salvation of the automotive industry in the United States.”
Automakers, however, have been slow to warm to the idea, and the first crop of mass-market battery electric vehicles, including the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf, can only plug and charge themselves. A small number of 2012-model electric vehicles from a few manufacturers, including the BMW Mini E, Daimler Smart E, and Detroit Electric e63, however, could provide power to the grid because they each contain a proprietary electric drivetrain built by AC Propulsion, a California-based maker of electric vehicle technology that has collaborated with Kempton.
But Kempton wants to take vehicle-to-grid to the mass market, and he pushed for years, unsuccessfully, to convince major automakers to ramp up their vehicle-to-grid work. Now, on this December morning, he has a chance to find a new ally.
For the next few minutes, as three graduate students on his team watch, Kempton presents results from his team’s vehicle-to-grid demonstration project to his Japanese visitors. He gives them calculations that show that electric vehicles could provide plenty of valuable electricity to the grid without inconveniencing drivers.
“These numbers are why we think the electric vehicle will become an important part of the electric system,” Kempton explains. The Japanese duo does not seem convinced, and they ask polite but challenging questions. Kempton answers smoothly, and the visitors ask for a tour.
A few minutes later, Nat Pearre, a graduate student in Kempton’s group, is showing off one of the university’s five grid-enabled electric cars, a small, boxy Scion xB. Pearre pops the hood, the Japanese visitors crowd in for a look, and Horiguchi’s colleague snaps some photos. There’s no engine in the engine compartment — just an aluminum box containing the power electronics that control the car.
As Kempton could explain to his guests, after he plugged this car into a smart charging station at his house in late 2009, it began earning $300 a month. This Scion became the first car ever to earn cash for its owner while it sat parked.
Ummm let's see; I drove it to work today and then parked it in my garage for the night, plugging it in so it will recharge. Then, in the morning, since there was no solar or wind power to be had overnight, The Grid used what was left in my batteries to run air conditioners all night and now I have to get to work. My batteries are drained, I get fired for being an idiot with an electric car that's dead every day, but there's a check in the mailbox for $300 from The Grid.
ReplyDeleteExcept I can't get to the bank to cash it because my batteries are dead.
Ok, maybe I'll need 2 electric cars?