The head of the biggest installer of electric vehicle charging equipment in Australia predicts that EVs will ultimately displace residential battery storage, and become a key asset for the market operator to manage the grid.
Tim Washington, the founder and CEO of Jet Charge, which has installed thousands of charging stations in homes and businesses, and is also involved in the roll out of fast-charging stations, says vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies will likely make home batteries redundant in the long run.
Currently, Australia has seen only one EV that has V2G technology – the new Nissan Leaf – but while the car has just arrived in the country, the V2G part has not yet been rolled out as it is still undergoing testing with Australian networks and the Australian Energy Market Operator.
Still, Washington says the proposed offering from Nissan is significant. Nissan is the first maker of EVs to say that V2G technology will not void the warranty of its car battery, and within 5 years the major plug suppliers will provide V2G technology as standard.
“Bi-directional charging though EVs will spell the end of residential storage as we know it … it will completely displace it,” Washington told the Electric Vehicle Transition conference co-hosted by The Driven and RenewEconomy late last month. (See more stories here).
“By 2024, every (electric) vehicle coming out to the market will be (V2H and V2G) capable. It’s just a question of whether you use it.”
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Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of The Driven, and also edits and founded the Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid web sites. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review, and owns a Tesla Model 3.