Polestar is part of a five-partner project in Sweden to accelerate the development of Vehicle-to-X (V2X) technology, including Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Home (V2H). Supported by the Swedish Energy Agency, Polestar is joined by Chalmers University of Technology, the Gothenburg energy grid supplier Göteborg Energi, charging solution provider CTEK and energy solution provider Ferroamp, in the study which spans 2 years and 9 months.
“V2X will really revolutionise the future of power grids all over the world,” says Polestar’s Head of Research and Development, Hans Pehrson. “I can imagine a world where thousands of electric vehicles, all plugged in to the grid, act as an important part of a fully renewable energy system. For example a V2H solution could maximise the storage of local green energy and provide back-up capacity for peak periods. This is a step towards a world without the need for coal or nuclear power plants.”
Part of the project will see the construction of two V2X demonstration charging stations in Gothenburg – one at the Polestar global headquarters and one on the Chalmers University campus.
V2X technology allows electric vehicles to act as power sources when they are plugged in to the grid. Having ideally charged an EV with green energy – wind or solar, for example – the vehicle can then supply its stored energy back to the grid, much like advanced off-grid power solutions that currently utilise battery packs with relatively small capacities to store energy for later use.
“This is exciting for us – we have been exploring this bidirectional technology for some time now and we want to bring it to life in our future products,” continues Hans Pehrson. “It gives our R&D team great pleasure to be involved in this project with such fantastic future potential!”