Skip to main content

UK government launches funding competition for vehicle to grid technology

The UK government is to invest US$25.7 million (£20 million) in vehicle to grid projects as part of its Industrial Strategy to create a smarter energy system, while increasing the numbers of electric cars on UK roads.
July 10, 2017 Read time: 1 min

The UK government is to invest US$25.7 million (£20 million) in vehicle to grid projects as part of its Industrial Strategy to create a smarter energy system, while increasing the numbers of electric cars on UK roads.

The projects will investigate technology that allows plug-in electric vehicles to not only draw power from the grid when charging but return it to people’s homes or back to the grid.
There are already 100,000 electric cars and 11,000 charge points and as this number grows they become a resource for a smart electricity grid, bringing benefits for drivers and creating a more flexible and efficient energy system.

The funding will be awarded to three types of innovative vehicle to grid projects: feasibility studies; industrial research or experimental development; and demonstrator trials in the real-world environment.

The competition process will start in the next few weeks with the aim of winners being notified in December and projects starting in early 2018.

UTC

Related Content

  • October 28, 2021
    Cost Benefit: Don’t waste your energy
    There are ways that we can harvest power from the world’s roads – without necessarily building new infrastructure. David Crawford investigates some of these new approaches
  • February 3, 2012
    Detection analysis technology successfully predicts traffic flows
    David Crawford investigates new detection analysis technology from IBM. Locations on both the East and West Coasts of the US are scheduled for early deployments of IBM's new Traffic Prediction Tool (TPT) statistical analysis model for the fine-time resolution and near-term prediction of road flow conditions. Developed by IBM's Watson Research Laboratories, TPT is designed to analyse data from the the key detection indicators - average vehicle volumes and speeds passing a location in a given time interval -
  • October 22, 2014
    Using electricity to power road freight
    Next year sees the start of the first real-life electrified road system for transporting freight. Worldwide freight transportation is predicted to double by 2050 but despite expansion of global rail infrastructure only one third of this additional freight transport can be handled by trains. This means that the largest proportion of freight transport will continue to be by road and as a result, experts expect global CO2 emissions from road freight traffic to more than double by 2050.
  • January 31, 2012
    Wireless traffic data in real time
    The effect of moving objects on the electromagnetic landscape set up by cellular telephony networks can be detected and interpreted to give real-time traffic data across large geographical areas at low cost. Here, we revisit the Celldar concept. Global economic downturn has pushed public-sector agencies, transport administrations among them, to push even harder for cost efficiencies. Unfortunately, when it comes to transport safety and efficiency the public sector often has to work up to a cost rather than