The current generation of fossil fuel powered cars are really efficient at returning things. Be it:
– carbon into the atmosphere
– pollution into the air and/or
– you and your books to the library.
But image an electric car that could, would, and does, return power into a towns electricity grid.
That's the brainchild of renewable-energy professor Willett Kempton, and a team of engineers at the University of Delaware. This car may look like a standard issue Toyota Scion, but this Scion is the first electric car able to store and return power on behalf of the national electric grid.
According to the website eta.co.uk:
"The prototype car works much like any other plug-in electric car except
that once charged it is able to return any unused power to the grid as
and when it is needed.
Water companies have the benefit of reservoirs, but the National Grid
has no such storage system and must second guess our habits in order to
match supply with demand. If electricity could be stored in a cost
effective way then, power stations could operate in a more efficient
way."
