In a recent study by Navigant Research, the market research firm reports that nearly 200,000 plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) equipped with vehicle-to-building (V2B) technology will be sold from 2012 through 2020. (This should be a standard option on all PEVs sold.)
The V2B technology allows the energy stored in the PEV batteries to be available to commercial and residential buildings. The PEVs can compete with both traditional local generation and stationary storage for offsetting demand charges or providing peak shaving services.
Since the 1990s, V2B technology has been studied for emergency backup power and, with all the new PEV sales, it is gaining more attention. Many building owners and residential customers are looking for ways to manage energy cost.
There were many reports during hurricane Sandy of PEV owners who were able to power their homes during the black-out period for days, just from the charge that was stored in their PEV batteries.
“V2B technology can benefit both vehicle and building owners, by offsetting some of the cost of PEVs, by lowering the energy costs of the building, and by providing reliable emergency backup services,” says John Gartner, research director with Navigant Research. “Numerous pilot projects around the world are developing and testing V2B technologies, most of them as part of larger microgrid and smart grid projects.”
While the V2B projects have not yet hit large-scale — only a few hundred vehicles participate in the more ambitious projects. In Japan, however, automotive and building companies have been developing V2B programs, mostly focusing on residential buildings after the 2011 tsunami that affected the electric grid.
The Navigant Research study analyzes both the technology issues and government policy factors associated with the growth of V2B, as well as key barriers to adoption. Key market participants are profiled, and forecasts are provided for V2B-enabled vehicles and service revenues through 2020.
Some of the other key highlights of the report show the market opportunity for V2B technologies targeted at demand charge avoidance, peak shaving, time-of-use pricing, and other utility energy pricing programs to reduce the cost of building operations and to provide emergency backup power. As stated before, this should be a standard option on all plug-in electric vehicles.
Check out the report for more: “Vehicle to Building Technologies.”
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