Our Progress Blog FP Stories Headline October is Energy Month: A Sustainable Energy Future
Thursday, 01 October 2009 17:37
October is Energy Month!!! What an exciting month for EcoCAR teams, with teams receiving their GM-donated vehicle, the US Department of Energy (DOE) is raising awareness of the future state of sustainable energy.
The attached material outlines some of the ways in which we can contribute to A Sustainable Energy Future. The worlds energy demand is a puzzle and the theme for this energy awareness month shows that everyone can be part of the solution. We can do so by:- Change to compact fluorescent bulbs
- Purchase ENERGY STAR equipment
- Turn off lights when not in use
- Combine trips and share rides
- Use mass transit
- Drive a hybrid or fuel-efficient car
The EcoCAR competition is contributing to the list above by creating hybrids and fuel-efficient cars, in our case fuel-efficient sport utility vehicles (SUV's). At UOIT we are working hard to contribute to this cause with our involvement in the competition. With an electric vehicle architecture, we believe that this architecture will play a major role in the future.
Scenario:
With the adoption of electric vehicles in the household, this opens the door to energy storage during non peak hours. It has been known that the cost for electricity is cheaper in the night. With much research and money being placed in "smart grid" technologies, the need to maintain an average level of power production is ideal which results in a more efficient generation of power. Currently the energy usage is minimum in the night from the periods 9:00 P.M. to 5:00 A.M., during this time the cost of consumption is a minimum. As households wake up, there is an increase in demand with the majority of the power consumption occurs during the evening when individuals get home, at this time the cost is at a maximum.
So how can electric vehicle's help?
With the adoption of electric vehicles in the household, the energy consumption would increase during the night when the vehicle is plugged into the grid. Plugging into the grid at night will cause the average generation of power to increase, which results in a more efficient power generation scheme.
The image below describes the above scenario. The black graph is the current energy consumption for a typical household. As you can see, there is a peak during hours 16-22 and little consumption from hours 23-15 (cheap electricity). With initiatives like the EcoCAR challenge the consumption would theoretically follow the green line. As one would note from the graph the electricity consumption averages out with the implementation of more "EcoCAR's".
Written by:
UOIT EcoCAR
