Page - 76 - in Our Car as Power Plant

76 Not only the transport system is changing, also the power system is changing. All over the world the capacity in renewable electricity production is growing with double- digit percentages per year. Especially wind and solar capacity are growing rapidly. So the power system is changing towards a renewable power system. This means that especially intermittent electricity production, wind and solar, is coming online. This intermittent electricity production capacity, wind and solar, only produces electricity when the wind blows or the sun is present. And this implies that we have to design a new power system. We do not longer need base-load power plants, plants that run all the time at full capacity. To balance demand and supply we need capacity that is very flexible, that can react fast on fluctuating supply and demand. And we need energy storage. At moments that there is an excess of electricity production we need to be able to store it somewhere. Classically we can store electricity by pump- ing up water. But also the batteries in electric cars could store electricity which we can use when the car is parked, so called vehicle-to-grid use.