Google stretch wings and mileage
Never out of these pages for long, Google are now gaining attention for more than their ubiquitous search engine. In conjunction with Pacific Gas and Electric PG&E, the company that provides energy for much of Northern California, Google recently unveiled their vision of the future of the electric car. The vehicle would be powered from the electricity grid yet would itself power the grid in return.
The confidently named Larry Brilliant heads Google's philanthropic foundation Google.org that has led the creation of the Toyota and Ford hybrids which, running partly on power from the electricity grid, can travel up to 75 miles on a gallon of fuel (3.75litres). This is nearly double the number of miles of a regular hybrid car. Google claim that the new models produce “68 per cent fewer CO2 emissions than the average American car”.
A further innovation is the extra batteries fitted into these hybrids that hold extra energy created by the power companies. If enough cars were plugged into the grid, the power companies could use the car batteries as a type of store for power produced in slack hours until the energy was needed at peak times, according to PG&E's Brad Whitcomb. Many cars would be needed, as each one would only provide a few kilowatt-hours at a time. If successful, the plan could avoid the need for power plants to be always ready to produce extra power or to maintain the frequency of the system, which is costly in monetary and environmental terms.
The idea of private cars selling electricity back to the power companies is still very much experimental. A problem would occur if a car gave back all of its energy to the grid as it would then have to run on petrol, negating the environmental benefits of the hybrid. One proposal is for the car to communicate wirelessly with the power company to determine its state of charge. Google plans on investing $10m (€7.4m) to accelerate the development of battery technology, plug-in-hybrids and vehicles capable of returning stored energy to the grid.