Germany's utility industry says recharging one million EVs in 2020 will not cause grid problems
Fri 03 December 2010
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Germany's utility industry believes that the federal government's objective of having a million electric vehicles on the country's roads by 2020 would not pose any problems for the electricity grid.
The report, prepared by an industry group chaired by leading representatives of Siemens and E.On for the German Federal Government, says that in the future, electric vehicles could be used to as storage devices and help balance supply and demand. This would also ensure better integration of green electricity.
It says that smart meters would make it possible to charge the vehicles' batteries at times when renewables output exceeds system demand, such as on windy nights. The vehicles could be powered by green electricity owing to planned increases in the country's renewables capacity.
The Government's target number of electric cars could easily be powered by renewable-source electricity according to the report. One million electric cars would consume at most 2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. According to current forecasts of renewables growth, Germany will produce significantly more than 100 billion kilowatt-hours of green electricity in 2020.
These are some of the key findings of the interim report that the National Electromobility Platform's "Charging Infrastructure and Network Integration Working Group" submitted to the German government in November 2010. The working group is chaired by Klaus-Dieter Maubach, a member of the E.ON AG Board of Management, and Wolfgang Dehen, a member of the Siemens AG Managing Board and CEO of Siemens Energy Sector.
The group s said that it expects rapid advances in charging technology. By 2020, cable-free inductive charging and higher-voltage direct-current charging will make charging faster and more convenient. This would make e-mobility more attractive to motorists and increase its applications.
The report is available on request from E.On and Siemens or downloadable from the German Federal Government website
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