What if you could get cash for parking your electric car? Vehicle owners in Denmark have been able to do just that, bringing in around 1,300 Euros, or around $1,530, a year by feeding excess power back into the grid. Nissan Motor Company conducted trials in the country with Italy’s utility company Enel SpA to show how EV batteries could help ease constraints on the electrical grid.
Nissan has run trials with over 100 cars throughout Europe, but so far only owners in Denmark have been able to earn cash by parking their vehicle and sending power to the grid. Using two-way charge points, owners have been able to rake in $1,530 annually, according to Nissan Europe energy services director Francisco Carranza.
Related: Tesla is doubling its Supercharger network by the end of the year to 10,000 chargers
Electric car owners in the United Kingdom could be next to score a payday – due to restrictions on accessing the market, Nissan needs to get up to 150 cars before people can earn money. Carranza estimates they could hit that number later this year. He told Bloomberg, “It’s just a matter of finding the appropriate business model to deploy the business wide-scale.”
Electric car demand, expected to grow around the world, could place a strain on local electrical grid operators trying to figure out ways to balance demand. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, power consumption from cars will climb from around six terawatt-hours today to 1,800 terawatt-hours in 2040. The scheme of using car batteries to balance supply and demand could help grid operators while potentially allowing car owners to earn some extra money with minimal effort.
According to a July 2017 Business Insider article, the Danish government recently cut back subsidies for electric vehicles and sales fell – at that point in 2017 a mere 182 electric cars had been sold in the country. But Denmark also has more EV charging docks than petrol stations.
Via Bloomberg
Images via Wikimedia Commons (1,2)
