Electric vehicles and grid energy storage

Will electric vehicle batteries satisfy grid storage demand by 2030?

Renewable energy and electric vehicles will be required for the energy transition, but the global electric vehicle battery capacity available for grid storage is not constrained. Here the authors find that electric vehicle batteries alone could satisfy short-term grid storage demand by as early as 2030.

Why is energy storage management important for EVs?

We offer an overview of the technical challenges to solve and trends for better energy storage management of EVs. Energy storage management is essential for increasing the range and efficiency of electric vehicles (EVs), to increase their lifetime and to reduce their energy demands.

Can EV batteries be used as energy storage devices?

Batteries in EVs can serve as distributed energy storage devices via vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, which stores electricity and pushes it back to the power grid at peak times. Given the flexible charging and discharging profiles of EVs and the cost reduction, V2G has been considered for short-term power grid energy storage 193.

Are electric vehicles a good option for the energy transition?

Our estimates are generally conservative and offer a lower bound of future opportunities. Renewable energy and electric vehicles will be required for the energy transition, but the global electric vehicle battery capacity available for grid storage is not constrained.

Does technical EV capacity meet grid storage capacity demand?

Technical vehicle-to-grid capacity or second-use capacity are each, on their own, sufficient to meet the short-term grid storage capacity demand of 3.4-19.2 TWh by 2050. This is also true on a regional basis where technical EV capacity meets regional grid storage capacity demand (see Supplementary Fig. 9).

Can EV batteries supply short-term storage facilities?

For higher vehicle utilisation, neglecting battery pack thermal management in the degradation model will generally result in worse battery lifetimes, leading to a conservative estimate of electric vehicle lifetime. As such our modelling suggests a conservative lower bound of the potential for EV batteries to supply short-term storage facilities.