Vehicle To Grid: Growing Very Slowly
I used to help my daughter with her math, and so when the coronavirus hit the news, it gave me the opportunity to apply some of this stuff. I asked her, “What is the doubling time of the virus, given that the number of cases in the U.S. went from about 49,500 yesterday to about 60,600 today?” We worked it through as follows:
Another way of asking this question is, “How many times we need to multiply the ratio (606/495) by itself to get 2? As an algebraic equation, that’s:
(606/495)x = 2
Now, the only way to get x out of that exponent so we can isolate it is as follows:
log (606/495)x = log 2 —- take the log of both sides
x log (606/495) = log 2 —– log ab = b log a
x = log 2 / log (606/495) —– solve for x and simplify
x = 3.43 days
I had done this calc yesterday, and got 4.45 days, so that, I would surmise, is bad news.
Also in the news is another (oblique) reference to doubling time, this one in the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) space:
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has announced that Fermata Energy’s bidirectional EV charging system is the first in the world to be certified to a new North American safety standard, UL 9741. The standard covers bidirectional equipment that charges EVs from an electric power system (EPS) and also allows the vehicle to export power to an EPS, potentially enabling EV owners to earn money by helping to stabilize the electric power grid when the vehicles are parked.
“By unlocking the full potential of electric vehicles, Fermata Energy is helping to accelerate the shift to more electric vehicle usage,” said Fermata founder and CEO David Slutzky. “We believe bidirectional energy solutions such as Fermata Energy’s V2G system will play an important role in reducing energy costs, improving grid resilience and combating climate change.”
Unlike the coronavirus, this is good news, I suppose. The problem is that this industry hasn’t doubled in size in the 11+ years I’ve been keeping my finger on its (feeble) pulse. At this rate, we will have colonized Mars long before we have V2G at any scale here at home.
