New Zealand power company and the Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland have teamed up to use electric cars as a means of easily supplying electricity for temporary student accommodation during a two-day festival.
Vector says it will use a ‘Vehicle to Home’ (V2H) system to draw power from two Nissan Leaf G2 electric cars to provide all the power needed to run nine different light installations over two days of the GLOW@Artweek that runs from Friday October 12 to Saturday October 13 in Auckland’s Windsor Reserve.
The Nissan Leaf Gen2 has a battery capacity of 30kWh that can provide up to nine hours of power for a typical household, according to Vector.
Vector says the V2H technology is new to New Zealand and not yet commercially available. “However, the demonstration will show what will soon be possible for EV owners; a portable, rechargeable power source for their own personal use.”
Vector’s New Technology Lead, Moonis Vegdani, said, “Two-way EV chargers are an example of the future of energy. They basically transform electric vehicles into mobile storage batteries, enabling energy to be charged or discharged anywhere there is a two-way charger. It’s perfect for a temporary light installation such as GLOW@Artweek.”
During the festival nine teams of second-year Unitec architecture students will design and prefabricate a diverse range of interactive light installations on Devonport’s Windsor Reserve working to a zero-waste, zero-budget brief. Students will seek sponsorship for their designs, which will also feature a range of sustainable materials.
V2H, or V2G (vehicle to grid) has been a feature of the Toyota Prius in some markets since 2012. According to this report“An AC100V inverter [mains voltage in Japan is 100v] onboard the Prius PHV converts stored power into AC suitable for home use, while power flow is controlled according to communication between vehicle, charging stand and the home.”
Nissan introduced its version to the UK in mid 2016in conjunction with energy company Enel, but using a V2G unit external to the vehicle to enable electric vehicle owners to sell power back to the grid.
One hundred V2G units were installed at locations agreed to by private and fleet owners of the Nissan Leaf and e-NV200 electric van.
“By giving Nissan electric vehicle owners the ability to plug their vehicles into the V2G system, owners will have the flexibility and power to sell stored energy from their vehicle battery back to the National Grid,” Nissan said.
