The Oil Drum

197 comments on Why wind power works in Denmark

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alistairC on September 1, 2006 - 8:57am

In order for this to work with wind, in particular, you have to postulate that the typical EV has excess battery capacity.
e.g. 50% more than I actually need for my daily commute.

... so if there's a windy night, my battery gets a full charge. And if there's a week without wind, my battery only charges to 50% every night. And I need an override button to charge it to 100% (at a higher price), because I've got a longer trip tomorrow.

Something like that.

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Nick on September 1, 2006 - 11:34am

I would think that the first step would be automating the charging process, based on electricity pricing. A smart meter would tell your car the price of electricity, and the car would charge based on the price you told it you were willing to pay. You'd likely charge up to your daily commute needs as long as the price was less than the equivalent price of gas (for a plug-in), but weather forecasting would likely give a projected pricing pattern, which would allow the software on the car to maximize use of the cheapest electricity.

This would smooth out demand during the 12 or so hours at night that the car was available for charging, as well as eventually during the day at work, when charging stations were installed in parking garages and at meters, like in Minnesota and Canada for engine heaters.

As battery size grows, the period of time for which the battery can provide smoothing would grow from the daily cycle, to a weekly cycle and more.