The city of Utrecht is turning electric cars into mobile energy storage units to stabilize the grid. This is made possible by Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology, which allows electric cars to give back to the grid when it needs it. We Drive Solar and Renault are behind this project, which involves 500 Renault R5 E-Tech cars and 50 bidirectional charging points.
These cars can absorb energy at night and return it to the grid during the day when it’s needed. This is a win-win: the cars get charged, and the grid gets stabilized. The technology has been around for years, but Utrecht is one of the first to test it on a large scale.
The investment is massive – around 100 million euros. But the payoff could be huge. Utrecht has a lot of solar panels, which can sometimes produce more energy than the city needs. The electric cars can soak up this excess energy and then give it back when the grid is under strain.
This project is just the beginning. The rest of Europe is still in the early stages, with most projects still in the pilot phase. Volkswagen is launching a similar project in Sweden, and Portugal is also testing V2G technology.
In Portugal, a pilot project on the island of S. Miguel used 10 electric cars to stabilize the grid and inject excess energy back into the system. The project was a success, with the cars generating around 9 euros per month in revenue. Other projects are underway in Lisbon and Porto, involving municipal and corporate fleets.
The European project XL-Connect is also testing V2G technology in several cities, including in Portugal. The goal is to create a network of intelligent charging points that can talk to each other and to the grid.
This is more than just a local experiment – it’s a glimpse into the future of energy storage. Instead of building huge industrial batteries, we could use thousands of electric cars to store energy in a distributed, silent, and efficient way. What’s being tested in Utrecht today could become a common infrastructure in many cities around the world tomorrow.