by Matt Piotrowski | September 12, 2017
Gregory Poilasne is the co-founder and CEO of Nuvve Corp., a California-based start-up that develops vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. V2G uses electric vehicles as an energy storage solution while they are parked, which is on average more than 80 percent of the time. This process helps smooth grid imbalances and offers consumers economic opportunities.
He spoke to The Fuse about the consumer benefits of V2G, energy storage, and autonomous vehicles.
What is the main mission of Nuvve? What do you hope to accomplish with V2G technology?
Our mission as a whole is integration of electric vehicles and integration of renewable energy sources. The integration of renewable energy sources will only happen if we have enough storage, and the integration of electric vehicles also requires the optimization of energy use. If you combine those two without balancing the grid, there will be a very, very big problem. That’s where V2G comes in. If you mix electric vehicles and renewables while adding V2G, the distribution and transmission of the grid will operate smoothly.
V2G’s goal is to fully optimize the charging of the vehicle and the use of local generation.
Our role is to optimize the use of energy with demand charge management and storage that can be used over a longer period of time. We want to fully optimize the charging of the vehicle and the use of local generation while accessing markets that can generate revenue and reduce the total cost of car ownership.
Critics of electric vehicles say that they will overload the grid. Should that be a worry?
What we are seeing now is volatile generation and we need a system to smooth it out.
We need a platform that provides flexibility and frequency regulation. With V2G, not all of the energy from the battery flows back to the grid at the same interval. V2G will take only about 20 percent of a vehicle’s battery at one time. And not all vehicles will provide energy back to the grid at the same time, so there shouldn’t be concerns about overloading the grid. We will look at the needs of the grid and then dispatch those needs onto vehicles and stationary storage. It’s super-critical that average consumption will also be peak consumption.
