Gridpoint lands another smart grid deal

Will manage wind power battery storage

According to GreenTech Media GridPoint will use it's smart grid technology to help a Minnesota wind farm manage it's power storage. Gridpoint "will control the flow of power between an 11-megawatt wind farm in Luverne, Minn. and NGK Insulators' 1-megawatt, sodium-sulfur battery that is capable of holding 7.2 megawatt-hours of energy, the companies announced. The battery storage project is expected to be complete in January 2009."

The alternative energy future, including the electrification of the automobile, is very dependent upon a new smart electrical grid, and GridPoint appears to look more and more like a major player in that new smart grid.

Gridpoint's V2G technology continues to develop business

The leader of V2G technology

One of the keys to the potential success of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles will be vehicle to grid technology, otherwise known as V2G technology.

Currently, there are a number of utilities across the country that have converted hybrid cars into plug-in hybrid cars to fully test the feasibility of these vehicles upon the electric grid. In many of these tests, technology developed by V2Green, now owned by Gridpoint, is being utilized.

Makes me wonder whether V2G will be an especially smart green investment if Barack and Democrats take over the White House and Congress?

PG&E, Tesla partner on V2G

Tesla isn't dead yet

Over the last few months, a few knowledgeable sources have told me that Tesla Motors is having problems, and that delivery of already ordered Roadsters could be significantly delayed. Ultimately, this doesn't surprise me greatly. It's not as if Tesla is producing toasters, they are producing some of the most advanced automobiles ever produced.

Fortunately, even if Tesla is having problems they are still moving forward, and they have now partnered with PG&E on Vehicle 2 Grid (V2G) technology. Sadly, the two are only partnering on one way charging, or Smart Charging, as PG&E calls it - at least for now.

"We are focusing our initial V2G implementation on smart charging," said JB Straubel, Chief Technology Officer, Tesla Motors. "Smart charging is a form of V2G in which the vehicle does not provide power back to the grid. Instead, the vehicle charging rate is controlled remotely in order to support the operation of the grid or to best match load to the availability of intermittent renewable energy resources such as wind and solar."

In the long run, it is hoped that V2G technology will enable electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles to not just smart charge, but to actually pump electricity back into the grid, thereby making the cost of electricity cheaper for such vehicles.

V2G Technology Update

Pacific Gas and Electric, one of California's electric utilities, recently held a demo of V2G Technology, or vehicle to grid technology, where battery charging stations not only charge up electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, but enable these vehicles to also sell power back to the grid.

"In addition to reducing energy costs, V2G technology could provide the ability for customers to sell energy back to the utility during hot afternoons when demand is highest and most costly to avoid blackouts," Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said in a statement. "Vehicle owners will select a price threshold at which they are willing to sell energy, and when the price reaches this point the utility will be able to automatically draw energy out of the vehicle, leaving enough for the drive home if necessary. The utility's customers would then earn credit in the amount of energy used by the utility toward their monthly energy bill."

(Source: InsideLine)