Cars give energy to cities

Cars give energy to cities

Electric cars that can store clean energy and inject it into the grid to power the daily life of our cities

Four-wheel mobile plants

Electric cars that can store clean energy and inject it into the grid to power the daily life of our cities. It’s not a futuristic project, but rather the result of a revolution that Enel is making possible with the Vehicle 2 Grid (V2G) project.

We collaborate with Nissan to develop this innovative system that allows car owners and energy consumers to use their vehicles as real “four-wheel mobile plants”, to store and feed back into the grid the energy that has not been used.

We presented the V2G project at the United Nations 21st. Climate Conference (COP21) in Paris, since it represents a unique possibility to meet the challenges of climate change starting from the cities.

In France, for instance, where 38 million cars are driving and the current electricity generation is 130 GW, in a future in which all vehicles will be electric or hybrid, integration between the grid and vehicles will be able to generate the equivalent of a 380 GW virtual electric plant (three times the present generation capacity).

"Thanks to Enel’s e-mobility technologies, the energy stored by the Nissan Leaf is managed smartly, based on the grid’s actual needs, and electric vehicle owners become real energy distributors"

 

Clean and shared energy

Vehicle 2 Grid originates from our experience in the field of infrastructure and e-mobility management systems combined with that of Nissan, which manufactured Leaf, the electric car that is most sold in the world.

Cars using the V2G system can convey electricity to any other vehicle that needs to be recharged, to a home that simultaneously uses several home appliances, thus increasing the electricity demand, or to street lights that must ensure continuous lighting to roads.

Thanks to Enel’s e-mobility technologies, the energy stored by the Nissan Leaf is managed smartly, based on the grid’s actual needs, and electric vehicle owners become real energy distributors.

“Electric drivers” can recharge the batteries of their cars when energy costs and demand are lower, and can then use the stored electricity or feed it back into the grid just like an energy producer, with direct economic returns.

"The Vehicle 2 Grid system is an innovation that can improve our lives and make the world a better world for present and future generations"
Ernesto Ciorra, Enel Head of Innovation and Sustainability
 

Cities have a new look

Transport is among the main producers of air pollution in urban centres. And if electric cars make an essential contribution in reducing CO2 emissions in cities, V2G vehicle help even more by turning cars into a strategic element for the development of smart cities.

The “four-wheel mobile plants” become a way to enhance clean energy as much as possible, increasing energy efficiency and better managing electricity consumption, reducing waste and costs of both producers and citizens.

We are opening a new era in which electric mobility fully becomes part of the domestic distribution grids of the whole of Europe. V2G creates an eco system that stably interconnects cars, the electric grid and citizens.

The first tests on this innovative system will take place in Denmark and Germany and will then extend to other northern European countries and finally spread throughout the continent.