Millions of people are driving electric vehicles (EV) which, with bidirectional charging, can provide value to the electrical grid and back up homes and businesses during outages.
What’s standing in the way of unlocking these benefits? Steve Letendre, an energy economist, senior advisor to the Vehicle-Grid Integration Council and the founder and editor of V2G News, says bidirectional charging technology is trapped behind one-way rules. He offers policy ideas that could advance bidirectional charging.
Listen to his interview with Clean Energy Today:
Other recent podcasts:
A Utility’s Effort to Boost EV Use
Since 2021, Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G), New Jersey’s largest utility, has added 30,000 electric vehicles (EV) to its system, in part by offering rebates and other incentives. Before January 2026, the growth rate was double-digit, but is now flat, because of the loss of the federal EV tax credit and changes in the market.
Dawn Neville, senior manager of electric transportation at PSE&G, describes the program’s successes and challenges. How to get more chargers installed at multi-family housing complexes? How much do demand response programs for EV drivers help out in the summer? And how might a new time-of-use rate that varies from 9 cents/kWh (off peak) to 60 cents/kWh (on peak) help save money for people who charge at home?
Listen on Apple Podcasts: A Utility’s Efforts to Boost EV Use–Before and After the EV Tax Credit Loss
Vineyard’s Floating Solar to Slash its Utility Costs in Northern California by about $90k a year
Nelson Family Vineyards in Mendocino County, Calif., will soon power up its floating solar system, deployed on pontoons on an irrigation pond, expecting to cut utility costs, which jumped 180% over the last three years, by about $90,000 annually.
Researchers at the University of California Davis are studying how the system will affect wildlife–the focus of our next podcast, which will touch on how songbirds at the farm are affected by the system–and how alligators in Florida climb onto these systems.
The Nelsons are looking into selling or transferring a 30% investment tax credit to help pay for the system.
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Vineyard’s Floating Solar to Slash its Utility Costs in Northern California by about $90k a year