Make money from your Hybrid car

Imagine making money from your car while it parked in the garage while at the same time easing an energy crisis. This what Google hopes to do with its sponsporship of the vehicle-to-grid program. Google has invested $1M in this program with another $9M pledged through its philanthropic division, Google.org.

The idea is that when the battery is fully charged, the excess electrcity can be put on the grid to help relieve power shortages in cities. If a large number of these hybrid vehicles are plugged into the grid providing supplemental power, it could really ease the need for utility companies to rely on non-renewable energy sources such as coal. The incentive for the hybrid car owners would be the compensation from utility companies. Selling power to the utilities would require the development of special links. The investment that Google has commited is to encourage innovation in these areas.

Google’s vision is that in the future, plug-in hybrids would be mass produced and would use bio-fuels instead of gasoline. Google also envisions carports that use solar power to charge hybrid cars. Infact, Google has installed a large solar power plant which uses 9,200 solar panels installed on campus buildings and parking lots. Google has partnered with Pacific Gas & Electric to demonstrate the vehicle-to-grid program with 6 specially designed cars. These cars use the solar carport to charge when not in use and put excess power on the grid. Today utility companies are paying billions of dollars to power plants to remain on standby or to produce small amounts of power during crunch times. If this idea of hybrid cars selling power to the utilities becomes a reality, it could easy the pain for the utilities during short spikes.

Though all of this sounds great, it is still in its infancy and it might take years before we see large scale adoption.