Cars: the future's rechargeable batteries
"Expected to be priced at around 3 million yen, electric vehicles are still regarded as an expensive transportation medium. However, if they become able to serve as a storage battery as well, they could improve their cost performance."
Hiroyuki Noguchi, chief researcher at the Japanse Tostem Housing Institute Co., continues at Green Car Congress: "It is thought that a fully charged electric car can supply enough electricity to meet one or two days of power consumption needs in a house. For instance, an owner of two vehicles can always park one unit in a garage and charge it with cleaner energies like solar power to use it exclusively for power supply at home. This way of living would allow people to lead eco-friendly lives almost free from CO2 emissions."
Together with Mitsubishi Corporation and the Tokyo Institute of Technology (T. Tech) and others, Noguchi's institute aims to develop an infrastructure system to charge electric vehicles (EVs) using renewable energy such as solar photovoltaic (PV), solar thermal energy and wind power.
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