Cars ‘powered by offshore wind’
ENVIRONMENT: Electric cars powered by offshore wind, which put energy back into the National Grid, will be the reality for most drivers in 15 years, a leading academic believes.
Prof Dan Parsons, of the University of Hull, said in future “cars would be more than just cars,” playing a key role as “mobile storage” for energy.
ELECTRIC CARS powered by offshore wind, which can put energy back into the National Grid, will be the reality for most motorists within the next 15 years, a leading Yorkshire academic believes.
Prof Dan Parsons, Director of the Energy & Environment Institute at the University of Hull, said in future “cars would be more than just cars,” playing a key role as “mobile storage” for the energy from vast offshore windfarms in the North Sea.
In the near future people would be charging cars overnight, before driving into work and plugging in, offloading surplus energy back into the grid.
Last week a new £48bn deal was agreed between the Government and the offshore wind industry, which will triple the amount of energy produced to at least 30 gigawatts (GW) by 2030. It means for the first time in history, there will be more electricity from renewables than fossil fuels.
The Government has granted £5.5m towards the Aura Centre for Doctoral Training, based at the £12m Aura innovation centre being built at Hessle, near Hull, which aims to boost offshore wind skills and investment in the Humber.
The first intake of Phd students is this September. Prof Parsons said: “In 10 or 15 years most of us will be driving round in electric cars, it’s just what we will do.
“Our lives will have been predicted in terms of what we need and that will optimise our energy use. Our cars will become mobile battery storage devices, connected into networks.
“You will be able to programme into the car, what you are doing later on.
“That car could then effectively supply some energy back into the network.
“It’s about making the smart grid more intelligent so cars are not just a storage device, they are dynamic in how they interact with the smart network overall.
“Our challenge will be storing the energy produced by energy from offshore wind – crack that and the transformation to zero carbon will be even faster than it’s going at the moment.”
Nissan has sold 400,000 of its electric Leaf models, which together could store more than 10GW of electricity – or enough to power one of the world’s largest theme parks for 170s days.
The Leaf model already has bi-directional charging which allows power to be pulled from its battery.
Volvo is launching its first allelectric car next year, and its ambition is that 50 per cent of global sales will be fully electric by 2025.
Prof Parsons said developing an adaptable, highly-skilled workforce was also crucial, with areas of specialism ranging from wave forecasting – crucial to knowing when service vessels should be sent out to the wind farms – to autonomous robotic vehicles - like the Mars Rover but carrying out underwater surveys. There would also be jobs “you can’t even imagine yet.”
He said: “The whole point is about moving to a knowledgebased economy...The key is moving the centre of gravity to the Humber.”
The sector’s growth is being spurred by the drop in the price of wind, which has halved in price.
“Everyone in the world is looking to us,” added Prof Parsons. “They are looking to us in terms of our knowledge capacity, capability and intellectual property. They will be taking our knowledge and paying for it because we are exporting it to them.”
Everyone in the world is looking to us, they will take our knowledge.
Prof Dan Parsons, Director of the Energy & Environment Institute at the University of Hull.