In some science fiction novels, “swarm intelligence” often strikes relentlessly, guided like a swarm of bees that proceeds to enslave humanity (and, ironically, is usually defeated by individuals). “Swarm intelligence” in reality determines the tenor of public discussion, and now the eco-knights are invoking it to put electromobility and its batteries to a secondary use for good.
Bidirectional charging
German Economics Minister Robert Habeck has just discovered something new. The storage capability of electric cars – but not to get from A to B, but as parking monuments to do something for energy security.
He envisions that through bidirectional charging, the cars will stabilize the power grid when they’re not needed, thus taking the scare out of the so-called “dark power outage” (which, according to the eco-activists’ reading, doesn’t exist anyway).
The Dunkelflaute and grid frequency
The elephant in the room of renewable energy generation from solar and wind is intermittent power generation. If the wind blows and the sun shines, there are hardly any problems, even in the country with the “dumbest energy policy” (the Wall Street Journal on Germany) and the CO2 content per kWh only levels off at three to four times that of the nuclear country France. But intermittent power generation also increases the problems of keeping the grid frequency constant. This is vital because if it drops or rises too much, there is a threat of a blackout.
With the bidirectional capabilities of millions of electric cars, one could thus use a gigantic storage facility on the fly, and all the problems of intermittent power generation would be solved, right? Provided: the cars are ready for it. The OEMs, at any rate, have already signaled that they want to offer this in the future – for an additional charge, of course. They are probably just waiting for the EU Commission and NGOs to give the go-ahead.
V2G & V2H
Vehicle to Grid and Vehicle to Home are the terms for this special feature of electric cars. So far, only a few electric cars can do this, such as the latest Kias and Hyundais, some Chinese models, some Renaults, and, quite hidden, even some VWs. If at all, the vehicles are only referred to as “power generators.”
These “power generators” are misused for camping and sometimes power a coffee machine or, quite ecologically correct, the electric grill. In fact, their large battery capacities could supply entire family homes for days. But this usually only works with special wall boxes that can feed the electricity into the household grid. Currently, these are mainly DC boxes and are incredibly expensive (around €6,000 euros upwards) and rare.
Only for the rich?
As a result, the possibilities for use are currently limited to homeowners who have the wherewithal both for the “right” electric car and for the accompanying technology. Because, of course, the house network also has to be equipped.
The situation is quite different with Habeck’s “ultimate goal.” Millions of electric cars (by 2030, there are supposed to be a whopping 15 million in Germany), will lead us to an energy utopia. Then almost all electric cars, including those parked on the side of the road (for the sake of fairness), would have to supply electricity to the general public when the grid is in danger.
The digital and network architecture infrastructure required for this is not likely to be trivial, to say the least. After all, the costs of delivering electricity and the charging/discharging cycles of the vehicles must be mapped realistically in some way. And with each additional charging cycle, the expensive Li-ion battery degenerates a little more.
They blew it
This could prove difficult in a country that has grandly missed out on the digital revolution of the last 40 years and no longer seems capable of handling major projects. The Berlin Airport (BER), the Stuttgart train station, the rail infrastructure in general, the state of the roads, bridges, and, last but not least, high-voltage north-south connections in the power grid that have yet to be built – these are all things that show how dysfunctional Germany has become.
Let’s be clear: the idea behind “swarm storage” is compelling. But the financial, bureaucratic, and political effort behind it will become astronomical. Chaos is programmed. This is where the next Zeitenwende or sea change is called for.
This does not give much hope, because the previous German sea change has yet to provide the proof in the pudding.
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