GOOGLE SEARCHING FOR V-2-G FIX

Google working on 'smart' plug-in hybrid charging
Poornima Gupta (w/Carol Bishopric), September 29, 2009 (Reuters)

"Google Inc is in the early stages of looking at ways to write software that would fully integrate plug-in hybrid vehicles to the power grid, minimize strain on the grid and help utilities manage vehicle charging load [according to Dan Reicher, Google's director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives]…

"Google, known for its Internet search engine, in 2007 announced a program to test Toyota Prius and Ford Escape gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles that were converted to rechargeable plug-in hybrids that run mostly on electricity."

Department of Energy Secretary Chu recently raised the question. (click to enlarge)

"One of the experimental technologies that was being tested by the Web search giant allowed parked plug-ins to transfer stored energy back to the electric grid, opening a potential back-up source of power for the system in peak hours…

"Reicher said Google has been testing its fleet of plug-in hybrids "pretty intensely" for the last couple of years…[T]he company is trying to figure out how to manage the impact of having millions of future electric vehicle owners plugging in their vehicles at the same time…"

Google can connect the pieces. (click to enlarge)

"Reicher laid out a scenario where power utilities, during a time of high demand, could turn on or off the charging of electric vehicles. The owner of these vehicles, who have agreed to such an arrangement, would get a credit from the utility in turn…

"…Google also is working on…its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more, and looking at gas turbines that would run on solar power rather than natural gas…The often-quirky company also said in late 2007 that it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce [New Energy] at a price less than burning coal…casting the move as a philanthropic effort to address climate change."