A clean energy update
Posted by Dan Reicher, Director,
Climate and Energy Initiatives, Google.org
Today Google.org is launching an
exciting project that offers a glimpse of a smarter energy future:
cars that plug into an electric grid powered by solar energy.
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (“plug-in hybrids”) can achieve 70
-100 miles per gallon, quadrupling the fuel economy of the average
car on the road today (~20 mpg). As we demonstrated at today’s
event, plug-in hybrids can sell power back to the electric grid
when it's needed most through vehicle-to-grid (V2G)
technology
As you may know, one of Google.org's core missions is to
address climate change. In the U.S., transportation contributes
about one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions –- with more than
60 percent of those emissions coming from personal vehicles. By
accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrids and vehicle-to-grid
("V2G") technologies, this new project,
reduce emissions and dependence on oil while promoting clean energy
technologies and increasing consumer choice. Linking the U.S.
transportation system to the electricity grid maximizes the
efficiency of our energy system. From these efforts, we believe the
environment will benefit — and consumers will have more choices to
fuel their cars.
We've been working with Google engineers and
fleet of plug-in hybrids, adding an external plug and additional
batteries to a regular hybrid car so that it runs on electricity
with gasoline (or even better, biofuels) to extend the driving
range for longer trips. Here's what it looks like:
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Since most Americans drive less than 35 miles per day, you easily
could drive mostly on electricity with the gas tank as a
"safety net." Our goal is to demonstrate the plug-in
hybrid and V2G technology, get people excited about having their
own plug-in hybrid, and encourage car companies to start building
them soon.
In the preliminary results from our test fleet, on average the
plug-in hybrid gas mileage was 30 mpg higher than that of the
regular hybrids. In conjunction with Pacific Gas and Electric, we
also demonstrated the bidirectional flow of electricity through V2G
technology, and have awarded $1 million in grants and announced
plans for a $10 million request for proposals (RFP) to fund
development, adoption and commercialization of plug-ins, fully
electric cars and related vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.
(Here's the
full release.)
As for Google Inc., today the
solar panel installation we announced last October is now
producing clean, renewable electricity for our Mountain View, CA
headquarters.
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The system will offset peak electricity consumption at the solar
powered offices and the newly constructed solar carports have
charging stations for the plug-in hybrids. At 1.6 megawatts — with
an electricity output capable of powering approximately 1,000
average California homes — the Google project is the largest solar
installation on any corporate campus in the U.S. to date, and one
of the largest on any corporate site in the world. To see how much
electricity these panels are producing right now, visit our new
monitoring site.
To learn more about the initiative, we encourage you to explore the
rest of
see what others are saying about plug-in hybrids and V2G
technology, be sure to watch this video.
Tags: , climate, Dan, Director, Energy, Initiatives, Posted, Reicher
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