The multiple benefits of plug-in hybrids
Technology Review has a future-looking story about how the widespread adoption of plug-in hybrids could have a number of benefits on top of lowering vehicle emissions. By requiring that people charge their cars during periods of low demand, power plants can operate at a higher, more level output that leads to greater efficiencies. And because more power is being sold throughout the day a greater incentive may be there for power producers to invest in clean coal and carbon sequestration technologies. The story also talks about how millions of battery-powered cars connected to the grid could stabilize the electricity system, preventing things like blackouts by letting the grid draw from the cars during high-peak periods. And, of course, each vehicle could have intelligent charging systems — connected to the Web with a unique IP address — that charge vehicles when rates are lowest or, in the case of intermittent renewables, when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca
December 25th, 2006 at 7:39 am
Check out ‘The Electric Car Revisited‘. Oh, and be sure to watch the X-1 movie – you’ll see an electric car blow a top Ferrari and Porche into the dust.