Parked electric vehicles may be more valuable than the industry has treated them
As renewable electricity grows, power systems are confronting a familiar technical problem in a sharper form: generation and demand do not always line up. Solar and wind output can surge when demand is low and fall when consumption peaks. A pilot project in Delaware now suggests that electric vehicles could help absorb that imbalance, with owners potentially earning meaningful income in the process.
According to the supplied New Scientist source text, researchers led by Willett Kempton at the University of Delaware monitored four Ford electric vehicles owned by Delmarva Power through 2025 after retrofitting them for vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, charging. Based on the amount of electricity those vehicles supplied back to the system, each EV could have earned as much as $3,359 annually if that energy had been sold at market price.
That figure is attention-grabbing, but the broader point is more important: electric cars may be able to function as distributed storage assets rather than just transportation devices. If so, they could help make renewable-heavy grids cheaper and more reliable without requiring all balancing capacity to come from dedicated stationary battery projects.
The logic is straightforward: most cars sit parked most of the time
The case for V2G starts with a simple utilization fact. The source text says some data suggests the average EV is driving as little as 5 percent of the time. For the remaining 95 percent, it is often parked and plugged in. That means a large amount of battery capacity exists but is idle from the grid’s point of view.
Kempton argues that plugged-in EVs can provide storage at about one-tenth the cost of building batteries for the same purpose. The concept is to charge vehicles when electricity supply is abundant and discharge some of that energy back to the grid during morning and evening peaks. Owners would still have mobility, but the battery would also perform paid balancing work for the power system.
In a grid increasingly supplied by renewables, that kind of flexibility is valuable. More flexible storage makes it easier to integrate intermittent generation while avoiding curtailment during high-output periods and reducing stress during demand surges.
Why a decades-old idea is still not mainstream
Vehicle-to-grid is not a new idea. The source text says Kempton began investigating it in 1997 and initially thought it could become commercially real within a few years. Nearly three decades later, it largely remains confined to test programs in the United States, Europe, Japan and China.
The main reason, according to the article, is that reversing the flow of energy between vehicle and grid is more complex than it sounds. It requires coordination between vehicle-makers and charging infrastructure, and automakers do not agree on the best approach. That disagreement has slowed standardization and broader deployment.
This is a familiar pattern in infrastructure transitions. A concept can be technically sound and economically attractive, yet still struggle because it crosses institutional boundaries. Utilities, automakers, charging companies and regulators all have to align on hardware, software, market participation rules and battery-use assumptions. Without that coordination, pilots remain pilots.
The Delaware project shows the value proposition more clearly
What makes the Delaware demonstration notable is not simply that V2G worked, but that the economics appear tangible at the vehicle level. An annual figure above $3,000 per vehicle, even if tied to market-price assumptions, is enough to change the conversation. It suggests that distributed battery services may be valuable enough to matter to fleet operators, utilities and eventually households.
The project also illustrates why utilities could be interested. Drawing on parked EVs during peaks may cost less than building more dedicated storage, and it creates a way to use assets already being purchased for transportation. If the cars are connected anyway, the incremental value of making them grid-interactive can be substantial.
For owners, the appeal is straightforward. An expensive asset that mostly sits idle could generate revenue while supporting the wider electricity system. That does not eliminate questions about battery wear, availability or customer control, but it gives the model a concrete financial foundation.
The renewable transition needs flexibility as much as generation
The source text notes that at least 90 percent of the electricity generation being built today is renewable. That makes storage and load flexibility increasingly central. Building more clean generation is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Systems also need ways to shift energy across time.
EVs are uniquely interesting in that context because they combine two large transitions: transport electrification and power-sector decarbonization. If their batteries can support both sectors, the efficiency gains could be significant. Instead of treating cars and the grid as separate systems, V2G treats them as linked infrastructure.
That linkage is not guaranteed to become universal. Commercial models, customer preferences and technical standards could push the market in different directions. But the Delaware data suggests the potential remains substantial enough that the concept deserves renewed attention.
The real barrier now is coordination
The strongest conclusion from the pilot is not that V2G is proven at full scale. It is that the economic and technical case is strong enough that institutional friction now looks like the main obstacle. The energy is there. The batteries are there. The need for flexibility is growing. What is missing is broader agreement on how to connect those pieces into a standard market system.
If that alignment happens, EVs could become one of the most widely distributed storage resources on the grid. And for owners, the parked car in the driveway might become not just a vehicle, but a small power plant that gets paid for waiting.
This article is based on reporting by New Scientist. Read the original article.
Originally published on newscientist.com
