Turn your gas guzzler into a cash cow!?
source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100219/ts_alt_afp/scienceelectricityenvironmentautomobiletechn...
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- CarlosIsDown
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SAN DIEGO, California (AFP) –
US researchers unveiled a vehicle Thursday that earns money for its driver instead of guzzling it up in gasoline and maintenance costs.
The converted Toyota Scion xB, shown at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science here, is the first electric car to be linked to a power grid and serve as a cash cow.
"This is the first vehicle that's ever been paid to participate in the grid -- the first proof of concept vehicle," Ken Huber, who oversees technological development at wholesale electricity coordinator PJM Interconnection, told AFP.
The presentation of the box-like, unassuming looking Scion was the researchers' way of introducing the "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) concept as it begins to gain momentum in the United States and around the world.
V2G projects with hybrid cars that use electricity and gas to store energy in their batteries and feed it back into the power grid are up and running in the United States, and the drive now is to produce all electric vehicles to plug into the power grid.
"This makes the car useful not only when it's being driven, but also when it's parked, as long as you remember to plug it in," said Willett Kempton, who is leading a V2G project at the University of Delaware.
A V2G car is connected via an Internet-over-powerline connection that sends a signal from inside the car's computer to an aggregator's server.
The aggregator acts as the middleman between the car owner and power grid management companies, which are constantly trying to keep electricity output at a constant level.
When the grid needs more power due to a surge in demand, power companies usually draw from traditional power plants, which in the United States are often coal-fired and leave a large carbon footprint...
(rest of article at link)
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- groups:
- Green
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- tags:
- Green, Cars, Electricity, Electric Cars, 3 more
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Wetdog
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So, how does this work? Does the management company drain your batteries so that every time you get into your car to go somewhere, you have to wait for the batteries to charge? That is a good way to ruin rechargeable batteries, which are very expensive.
Or, do they turn on your car when they want more power? Would you park your car somewhere, and then come back to find that they started up your car while it was parked-----and someone came along while you were gone and decided to break out the window and take your car for a little joy ride-----already warmed up and running for them curtesy of a middleman computer somewhere?
Doesn't sound like such a great idea to me.
- 2 years ago
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Wetdog
