BYD electric bus, London [image credit: China Daily]
What effect this could have on the life of the bus batteries remains to be seen, but it’s unlikely to be beneficial. The efficiency or otherwise of the power transfer process is also open to question.
– – –
A north London bus garage is to become the world’s largest trial site for a new eco-friendly method of generating electricity, reports the Evening Standard.
Northumberland Park garage is to be transformed into a “virtual power station” – taking energy stored in the batteries of parked electric buses and feeding it back into the electricity network.
Putting energy back into the grid when demand is high and recharging buses when demand is low helps make the network more efficient by balancing the peaks and troughs.
The Government-funded Bus2Grid project will become operational in November and will run for three years.
Energy firm SSE Enterprise is leading the project in a partnership including the Mayor of London, Transport for London, bus operator Go-Ahead London and the University of Leeds.
The trial will initially use the batteries of 28 double-decker buses which are capable of returning more than one megawatt of energy to the grid.
If the entire London bus fleet of around 9,000 vehicles was converted with the technology, it could meet the energy needs of more than 150,000 homes, according to SSE Enterprise.
Full report here.
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
August 13, 2020 at 02:57AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 