Shared car club
We strongly believe that our transport habits need to change, and we need to drastically reduce reliance on fossil fuels for moving around. We intend to provide a pool of electric cars and bikes, which can be booked by the hour or longer by tenants, to eliminate the need for householders to have two cars each. The car pool will be easy to book and more affordable per mile than running your own petrol or diesel car. Vehicle to grid We had previously hoped that we could include Vehicle to Grid charging as part of our energy strategy at Springfield Orchard. So, the cars would charge up when there is a big supply of electricity, during the day, when the sun is shining and there is less demand, then discharge their batteries in the evening when people get home and cook dinner etc. This is called ‘balancing’ it would help the site to make use of as much of its own solar energy as possible and reduce the need to import electricity from the grid. However running a V2G balanced microgrid is not yet commercially viable, and has not yet been done. Although not completely ruled out, it is now looking unlikely that V2G will be used here. Our SDCE team is very small, and working on such a complex innovation proposal is very challenging. We would love to hear from anyone who thinks they can make this work for us, if that's you, please get in touch. Rapid charging There will also be at least 2 rapid charging points available for public use, these will provide a useful rapid charge facility to other residents of Ivybridge and Ugborough who may not have their own private charging, or just need a quick top up before a journey. Next... |