EDISON electric car infrastructure project officially starts, Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy
Release Date: 2009-03-11
The EDISON project officially starts as research consortium members sign a collaboration contract
The EDISON project, which stands for "Electric Vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated Market using Sustainable Energy and Open Networks" officially started on Wednesday 25 February with the research consortium members signing a collaboration contract.
The signing took place at the Danish Design centre and was attended by the Minister for Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard, who has recently returned from the US where she addressed the National Governors' Association on the theme of sustainable development, with particular reference to transportation.
EDISON project participants include IBM, Siemens, Eurisco, Denmark's largest energy company DONG Energy, regional energy company of Østkraft, Risø/DTU (Technical University of Denmark) and the Danish Energy Association.
General manager of IBM's Global Energy & Utilities industry, Guido Bartels, is quoted by Commodity Online as saying: "Denmark, the host of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change conference and the most energy-efficient country in the EU, further underscores its ambitions here with the EDISON project announcement." Bartels adds: "There is already broad consensus that both wind energy and electric vehicles have enormous potential for a sustainable energy future. Bringing the two together promises to be a winning combination."
The EDISON project will play a valuable part in developing the smart infrastructure required for the large-scale roll-out of electric cars in Denmark. New power infrastructure thinking is necessary because - to put it in simple terms - if lots of electric cars all plugged into the grid for recharging in an uncontrolled and unmanaged way, it could easily lead to situations where the grid could be swamped with demand.
To avoid this, a new breed of infrastructure needs to be developed so that electric cars can communicate intelligently with the grid to dynamically determine the time periods when charging can take place - this will be influenced by fluctuating power inputs to the grid from renewable energy sources like wind, as well as cumulative demand on the grid at any point in time.
The EDISON project has three phases: research, technological development and demonstration. The latter will take place on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, which has a population of 40,000 and a large proportion of wind energy in the total energy mix.
IBM Denmark and from IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory will develop, among other contributions, smart technologies that synchronize the charging of the electric vehicles with the availability of wind energy in the grid.
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy |
| Country: | Denmark |
| Url: | http://www.denmark.dk/en/servicemenu/news/environment-energy-climate-news/edisonelectriccarinfrastructureprojectofficiallystarts.htm |