Denmark outlines plans for wind-car smart grid

The Danish government has this week stepped up plans to build a genuinely zero carbon electric car network that draws on the country's wind energy to power car batteries, inking an alliance that will see IBM roll out the smart grid technologies required to manage the charging infrastructure.

The government has joined the Electric Vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated Market using Sustainable Energy and Open Networks (EDISON) project, which aims to build a recharging infrastructure capable of supporting the 10 per cent of Danish cars that are expected to be electric in 10 years' time.

The government is keen to develop the network quickly as the batteries in electric cars will provide storage capacity for the power the country already derives from wind turbines. It is hoped that the infrastructure will simultaneously help Denmark manage peaks and troughs in power supply, while allowing cars to run using genuinely zero carbon energy.

"There is already broad consensus that both wind energy and electric vehicles have enormous potential for a sustainable energy future – bringing the two together promises to be a winning combination," said Guido Bartels, general manager of IBM’s Global Energy & Utilities industry.

IBM will join a consortium consisting of Danish energy company DONG Energy, regional energy company of Oestkraft, the Technical University of Denmark, Siemens, Eurisco and the Danish Energy Association.

The IT giant, which has invested heavily in developing smart grid technologies over recent years, will provide intelligent grid management systems that synchronise the charging of the electric vehicles with the availability of wind power in the grid, so that charging happens when most power is available. Conversely, the system will also be used to draw spare power from car batteries back onto the grid when the availability of wind power drops.

IBM has also contributed a hardware platform to the Technical University of Denmark that will be used for large-scale real-time simulations of the energy system and the impact of electric vehicles on the wider grid.

The first phase of the project will see the consortium develop a test grid on the Danish island of Bornholm to look at integrating wind power into an electric car-based grid supply.

Danish Minister of Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard welcomed the expansion of the consortium and reiterated Denmark's commmitment to building a nationwide recharging network.

"Electric vehicles are one of the technologies we can use to incorporate renewable energy into transportation," she said. "That is why we are making it possible for electric cars to enter the market in order to replace conventional fuel. Projects like Edison show how it's possible to create sustainable solutions in real life."