Thinking differently about EV charging
Shifting current EV charging from home to work, and night to day, could cut costs and help the grid.
Summary: Many analysts think EV charging is something that will happen at night and at home, adding to electricity demand. But researchers at Stanford argue that shifting EV charging from home to work, and night to day, could cut costs and help the grid by matching demand with the supply from solar and wind. This could change which business model is the winner.
Why this is important: We should be using the cheapest and greenest source of electricity generation we have available for use in EV charging.
The big theme: Investing in the infrastructure required to charge the growing number of EV’s should be a massive opportunity, potentially allowing investors to make a real difference to the transitions and earn a fair financial return. But what if the big opportunity isn't in at home EV chargers and/or fast chargers on motorways, but actually mid-sized, mid-speed chargers that can be used at workplaces and at travel and/or shopping destinations - integrated with battery storage and demand management tools!
The details
Summary of a story from Stanford University:
Researchers from Stanford University, in a research paper snappily titled, “Scalable probabilistic estimates of electric vehicle charging given observed driver behavior” looked at how EV driver charging behaviour could increase future stress on the Western United States electricity grid. In a little over a decade, they found that rapid EV growth alone could increase peak electricity demand by up to 25%, assuming a continued dominance of residential, night time charging.
