Renault will use a fleet of 150 Zoe’s as part of a Smart Solar Charging project run in the Netherlands. The French manufacturer will join Utrect City Council, charge point provider ElaadNL, and residents’ initiative LomboXnet which provides solar power and vehicle to grid (V2G) systems.
The fleet of Renault’s will be provided to the Dutch city throughout 2017 once the first phase of the project has been completed. This will see 1,000 smart solar-charging stations, using 10,000 photovoltaic cells, set up in Utrecht. The power supply infrastructure will run alongside the development of EV car-sharing services – powered by renewable energy – for residents in the city.
The second phase will see all partners develop a V2G system, which uses the solar chargers to both power the vehicles, and use the Zoe’s as mobile energy storage devices, feeding electricity back into the grid during peak periods. The system is something Renault’s partner company Nissan is working on too, with EVs potentially set to be important power sources for owners, not just transport devices.
The project will be used to develop a framework of smart solar charging stations in France and the Netherlands as intelligent energy use and storage becomes a priority.
