Californian tractors discharge power back to the grid
Gridtractor, Monarch Tractor and Borg Warner have successfully demonstrated vehicle to grid (V2G) capabilities from a Monarch MK-V tractor.
The consortium team, which consists of Gridtractor, a platform to optimise rural and farm vehicle charging, MK-V supplier Monarch and bi-directional tech developer Borg Warner, got $3 million in funding from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to develop Vehicle to Building technology.
The announcement, states the partners in a release, marks the first deployment of vehicle to grid capabilities from a 100% electric Monarch MK-V tractor.
The demonstration was conducted at PG&E’s Applied Technology Services (ATS) centre in San Ramon, California.
Additionally, the demonstration signals the completion of technology development for high-power export from the Monarch MK-V tractor and Gridtractor’s open-standards charge management system, integrated with Borg Warner’s 60kW DC Fast Charger.
The MK-V utility vehicle was designed as a versatile 3-in-1 electrification tool and a powerful electric generator, enabling high-capacity energy exports.
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Once available, the integrated system will enable owners to minimise charging costs, earn revenue by participating in dynamic rate and demand response programmes, and save on fuel from EV operations.
This will be facilitated using Gridtractor’s energy market integrations and load scheduling applications.
The system will also facilitate automated load management, coordinating charging and discharging with other site loads to maximise the use of existing electrical services without exceeding their capacity. This will extend to irrigation pump sites, wineries and any facility convenient for charging.
The partners also cite flexible, scalable IoT and market integrations, as well as native OCPP-based architecture, allowing the platform to connect with energy markets or programmes with a Vehicle Grid Integration (VGI) application.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.