Will we choose as green as possible over as soon as possible in mobility?
But imagine how this will change the way we look at transport in general. Our ‘just in time’ mantra which obliges transport to act ‘as quickly as possible’, might just get challenged by a ‘as green as possible’ option. Another thing Covid-19 teaches us, is the resilience of the online shopping industry to crisis moments like these. ‘Order today, get it tomorrow’ might become 1 of the options, next to ‘get it delivered green & cheap’. In the latter option, the electric delivery vans will remain parked until they got charged with abundant sun & wind generation. A couple of days delay versus a cheaper, carbon-free delivery. What option will you choose?
Nearly 1000 electric buses will join De Lijn bus fleet over the next 15 years. As they are usually parked during the night, bus depots are getting equipped with significant upgrades of their electrical installation. As such, buses can contribute to the electrical grid stability.
Let’s expand our dream with new future technologies such as vehicle-to-grid. In a nutshell: your car can discharge its’ battery back into the grid when necessary. 80 kWh of flexibility. Or roughly 9 days of an average household electricity consumption. Charge it during that sunny day, or that windy storm, and run on it for a week since your car is able to provide this stock. Or have that online shop deliver your order to you at an even lower cost, as the delivery vans help the system when sun & wind are absent for a couple hours/days, and gain a profit from your time flexibility. Accurate production forecasting of weather conditions might even provide you with a clear view on when your car is best plugged in. As such, transport might move from a CO2 emitting sector to a solution that helps us phase out fossil fuel generation by 2030.