Research project launched to study electric car use in practice, Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy
Release Date: 2009-05-07
Aarhus Technical Institute's sustainable transport department prepares to start acquiring the knowledge that Denmark will need to manage the future electric mass transport systems
Just this week the Danish Energy Authority has announced the publication of a tender for Denmark's latest, and biggest, offshore wind farm that in just three years' time will be producing 400 MW – enough electricity to satisfy the needs of 40 thousand households, or 4% of Denmark's total electricity consumption.
Meanwhile there are two other large-scale offshore wind farms under construction that will come on stream in 2009 and 2010. The clean, green electrification of Denmark is under way, without a shadow of a doubt. And there is no doubt either that Denmark's future will bring with it clean, green electric cars. Lots of them.
The challenge right now is to start learning how ordinary Danish families will adapt to these conscience soothing CO2-free vehicles, which differ from internal combustion engine cars in another important respect – you can't just zip down to the local pump, tank up, and zip off again.
Charging takes time, and also draws heaps of current from a grid that also has to supply electricity for the countless other things that Denmark needs to keep itself going. Electric cars can't be allowed to muscle in en masse and grab the juice any time they like. That would simply crash the grid. What is needed is an intelligent grid infrastructure, and like all things intelligent, it needs to be based on knowledge.
Just down the coast from where the massive new offshore wind farm will be built, is Denmark's second city of Aarhus. And at the Technical Institute's sustainable transport department they are preparing to start acquiring the knowledge that Denmark will need to manage the future electric mass transport systems, reports regional newspaper Århus Stiftstidende.
With funding from the Danish Energy Authority and the local regional authority, 8 electric cars will be made available for selected families across the socio-economic spectrum to try out for a three month period. There's enough funding to run the project for 4 years, which will allow data from at least 100 families to be accumulated.
The knowledge collected from this sizeable sample will provide broad insight into what ordinary people experience as the advantages and disadvantages of future-oriented electric cars compared with their 'old' combustion-engined cousins. It will provide Danish companies and research institutions with the information they need to modify existing technologies, develop new ones, and altogether provide innovative momentum to deliver ever-improving solutions for e-transport. And this in turn can attract investment and create knowledge-based jobs in a completely new industrial sector for Denmark – electric automotive technology.
The knowledge-gathering model that the Technical Institute in Aarhus is pioneering will no doubt be refined and developed over time too. And given the need and the thirst for knowledge in the new and rapidly evolving area of electric transport, it will be no surprise to see the Aarhus initiative providing the model for further studies in other conurbations around Denmark, or for that matter, the world.
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy |
| Country: | Denmark |
| Url: | http://www.denmark.dk/en/servicemenu/news/environment-energy-climate-news/researchprojectlaunchedtostudyelectriccaruseinpractice.htm |