Electric cars could help householders’ energy bills

Two recent news stories about electric cars could benefit Midlands householders in the future believes an energy expert.

The first was Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Budget proposals with a £400m investment in electric vehicles, and boosting the purchase of clean fuel cars with more roadside chargers.

The second was the £80 million Government funding for a national centre in Coventry to develop electric vehicles batteries which will lead to 10,000 new jobs in the city.

“Obviously that is good news for the environment and the economy,” said Ron Fox, of Noreus Ltd at Keele, Staffordshire.

“The added bonus is that every electric car has a big battery which will be a huge benefit as the problem in the future will not be generating electricity, but storing it.”

With green energy becoming increasingly abundant and cheaper as once the wind turbine or the solar panels have been built there are only maintenance costs. Wind and sun are free whereas coal, gas and nuclear are losing ground.

Already wind-generated electricity is on offer at 5.75p a kilowatt hour compared to the 9.25p a kilowatt hour to be charged by the new Hinckley Point nuclear power station.

Because green energy is intermittent with the weather so the search is on for better storage to prevent paying big consumers to switch off their power at peak times or returning to the old technologies of coal, gas and diesel.

Ron added: “Just as the car engine is left unused for much of the time so the solution may be to pay electric car owners to take excess power from their vehicles’ batteries.”

That is already starting to happen with Britain’ biggest domestic battery company, Moixa, who under their Gridshare scheme give a £50 bonus to customers willing to sell some of their capacity with the Grid.

But by 2040 when the Government plans to ban the sale of new diesel and petrol cars there are predicted to be more than 25 million electric cars in the UK.

“Charging them all at once would crash the Grid,” added Ron. “To avoid this our existing centralised energy system with big power plants transmitting large amounts of electricity over a long distance to passive consumers will have to change.

“The system of the future will have to be decentralised and interactive like the internet on our computers. Customers will become producers supplying power from their rooftop solar panels or their car battery back into the Grid when needed.

“Electric car owners will also be able to charge their vehicles overnight using cheap electricity as some do already with storage heaters.”

Dieter Helm, the economist who reviewed energy costs for the Government, says the future is both exciting and daunting.

He adds that it will present challenges on a scale and magnitude not seen since the reconstruction of our electricity system after 1945. But the benefits could be huge with much cheaper power for our homes.

Any residents wanting advice about green energy should call Ron on 01782 756995 or go to www.noreus.co.uk