On Decem­ber 3, 2024, MDR published an artic­le about Vehic­le-to-Grid (V2G), in which Alex­an­der Grah­le, Depu­ty Mana­ging Direc­tor of Mobility2Grid e.V., dis­cus­sed the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges of this tech­no­lo­gy. Mobility2Grid has been com­mit­ted to inno­va­ti­ve solu­ti­ons at the inter­sec­tion of ener­gy and mobi­li­ty for over a deca­de, vie­w­ing V2G as a pivo­tal tech­no­lo­gy for advan­cing the ener­gy transition.

Vehic­le-to-Grid: More Than Just Charging

Vehic­le-to-Grid refers to the capa­bi­li­ty of elec­tric vehic­les to store excess elec­tri­ci­ty in their bat­te­ries and feed it back into the grid when nee­ded. This can help impro­ve grid sta­bi­li­ty, bet­ter inte­gra­te rene­wa­ble ener­gy, and redu­ce elec­tri­ci­ty cos­ts for users. While count­ries like France and the Net­her­lands are alre­a­dy see­ing suc­cess in imple­men­ting V2G, Ger­ma­ny still faces signi­fi­cant hurd­les, such as the nati­on­wi­de roll­out of intel­li­gent meter­ing sys­tems and the ali­gnment of stan­dards among a wide ran­ge of mar­ket participants.

Alex­an­der Grah­le on Chal­lenges and Potential

Accor­ding to Alex­an­der Grah­le, imple­men­ting V2G in Ger­ma­ny is com­pli­ca­ted by the lar­ge num­ber of stake­hol­ders in the ener­gy sec­tor who need to agree on stan­dards and business models. He high­ligh­ted that intel­li­gent meter­ing sys­tems are cri­ti­cal, as they enable com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and coor­di­na­ti­on bet­ween vehic­les and the grid.

Ano­ther key point is the importance of slow char­ging, which is par­ti­cu­lar­ly sui­ta­ble for V2G. Slow char­ging allows users to take advan­ta­ge of mar­ket pri­ce fluc­tua­tions while pro­tec­ting the bat­tery from pre­ma­tu­re aging. Grah­le also noted that crea­ti­ve solu­ti­ons, such as inte­gra­ting char­ging infra­struc­tu­re into street­lights, are essen­ti­al to make V2G fea­si­ble in urban areas.

Mobility2Grid: Dri­ving Inno­va­ti­on for the Ener­gy Transition

Mobility2Grid views V2G as a ground­brea­king tech­no­lo­gy to redu­ce grid infra­struc­tu­re stress, opti­mi­ze the use of rene­wa­ble ener­gy, and actively con­tri­bu­te to the ener­gy tran­si­ti­on. The MDR artic­le unders­cores the importance of an inter­di­sci­pli­na­ry approach and col­la­bo­ra­ti­on among all stake­hol­ders to bring this visi­on to life.

In col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with the Ber­lin Agen­cy for Elec­tro­mo­bi­li­ty eMO, the fourth “Inno­va­ti­ons­bör­se zum Auto­no­men Fah­ren” (Inno­va­ti­on Exch­an­ge on Auto­no­mous Dri­ving) took place on Sep­tem­ber 12.

This time, the event was hos­ted by our transfer area “Das Neue Gar­ten­feld” (DNG) in Span­dau. In two work­shops mode­ra­ted by Nina Weber (Mobility2Grid) and others, imple­men­ta­ti­on opti­ons for mobi­li­ty solu­ti­ons were explo­red with the stake­hol­ders pre­sent and a pos­si­ble net­wor­king of dif­fe­rent are­as in north-west Ber­lin was considered.

In addi­ti­on to the KIS’M pro­ject team, par­ti­ci­pan­ts included initia­tors such as Mela­nie Jacht­ner (Sena­te Depart­ment for Urban Mobi­li­ty, Trans­port, Cli­ma­te Action and the Envi­ron­ment), Johan­nes Jäh­ne (Ber­li­ner Ver­kehrs­be­trie­be (BVG)) and Chris­toph Zie­gen­mey­er (MOIA). In the second part, the sta­tus of the site was pre­sen­ted by Tho­mas Best­gen (UTB Pro­jekt­ma­nage­ment GmbH); the mobi­li­ty con­cept was explai­ned by Tho­mas Kre­her (inno2grid GmbH) and M2G board mem­ber Prof. Tho­mas Rich­ter explai­ned the trans­port planning.

For the first time, the M2G team con­duc­ted the annu­al sym­po­si­um as a hybrid vari­ant in Kyo­to (Japan) on the topic of “Mobility2Grid: Elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on of public trans­por­ta­ti­on in Japan and Ger­ma­ny — Tran­si­ti­on Pro­cess, Impacts and Risks”, tog­e­ther with partners from Kyo­to Uni­ver­si­ty under the lead of Prof. Dr. Jan-Dirk Schmöcker’s Intel­li­gent Trans­port Sys­tem Lab. The scientific exch­an­ge was then con­tin­ued in an in-depth work­shop with col­le­agues from the Lab, having a the­ma­tic focus on bus simu­la­ti­ons, TCO ana­ly­ses and an intro­duc­tion to sce­na­rio techniques.

By inte­gra­ting scientific rese­arch in com­bi­na­ti­on with prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence from public trans­port com­pa­nies (BVG in Ber­lin / Kei­han in Kyo­to-Osa­ka), we were able to suc­cessful­ly demons­tra­te the poten­ti­als and chal­lenges of elec­tri­fied public trans­port in Ger­ma­ny and Japan. Public trans­por­ta­ti­on con­tri­bu­tes to green­house gas emis­si­ons, but to a much les­ser ext­ent than pri­va­te trans­port. Com­pared to a car, which emits 147 grams of CO2 per pas­sen­ger kilo­me­ter, buses in Ger­ma­ny emit 80 grams on avera­ge, trams and sub­way trains 58 grams and long-distance trains 32 grams of CO2 per pas­sen­ger kilo­me­ter (Ger­man Envi­ron­ment Agen­cy (Umwelt­bun­des­amt — UBA), 2024). Despi­te having a bet­ter CO2 per­for­mance than pri­va­te moto­ri­zed trans­port, buses and trains powered by die­sel or petrol also pro­du­ce nitro­gen oxi­des, par­ti­cu­la­tes and noise.

Both Japan and Ger­ma­ny are working on tech­ni­cal, plan­ning and poli­ti­cal approa­ches to fur­ther decar­bo­ni­ze public trans­port. Our Ger­man-Japa­ne­se col­lo­qui­um, which was held from the 7th-9th May 2024 at the renow­ned Kyo­to Uni­ver­si­ty, shed light on both sides and deve­lo­ped initi­al stra­te­gies on how both count­ries can fur­ther coope­ra­te and com­ple­ment each other on a scientific-prac­ti­cal level.

Our dis­cus­sions and know­ledge exch­an­ge will make a major con­tri­bu­ti­on to advan­cing the com­mon goals towards sus­tainable and effi­ci­ent public trans­port sys­tems. Tog­e­ther with our partners in Kyo­to and Nago­ya, we will con­ti­nue to deepen the exch­an­ge on topics rela­ted to the elec­tri­fi­ca­ti­on of buses and micro mobi­li­ty.
All pre­sen­ta­ti­ons of our sym­po­si­um can be found here.

Logi­MAT, Euro­pe’s lea­ding trade fair for intra­lo­gi­stics solu­ti­ons, was once again a mee­ting point for num­e­rous spe­cia­lists and experts this year. This time, the focus lay on the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties that can ari­se from digi­ta­liza­ti­on and con­nec­ti­vi­ty. Inter­na­tio­nal exhi­bi­tors show­ca­sed their latest deve­lo­p­ments and solutions.

Repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of Mobility2Grid took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to talk to indus­try dele­ga­tes about the appli­ca­ti­on of cli­ma­te-fri­end­ly mobi­li­ty tech­no­lo­gies in logi­stics. Alex­an­der Grah­le, Nina Weber and Lars Tasche dis­cus­sed cur­rent deve­lo­p­ments in the field of hydro­gen trucks with experts from DB Schen­ker and the com­pa­ny Hylane.

One high­light was the visit to DB Schen­ker’s air freight site in Stutt­gart. Not only were real-world tri­als of hydro­gen trucks pre­sen­ted here, but reports on the use of the bat­tery-elec­tric eAc­tros were also shared. The­se prac­ti­cal expe­ri­en­ces offer valuable insights into the fea­si­bi­li­ty and effi­ci­en­cy of alter­na­ti­ve dri­ve con­cepts in the logi­stics sector.

Through a clo­se exch­an­ge of rese­arch with com­pa­nies that are test­ing solu­ti­ons in prac­ti­ce, know­ledge can be poo­led in order to achie­ve valuable results. This cor­re­sponds to the core idea of the Mobility2Grid Campus.