New System Provides Hybrid Electric Autos With Power to Spare

An advancement in hybrid electric vehicle technology is providing powerful benefits beyond transportation.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have designed, fabricated and demonstrated a PHEV traction drive power electronics system that provides significant mobile power generation and vehicle-to-grid support capabilities.

“The new technology eliminates the separate charging mechanism typically used in PHEVs, reducing both cost and volume under the hood,” said Gui-Jia Su of ORNL’s Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center. “The PHEV’s traction drive system is used to charge the battery, power the vehicle and enable its mobile energy source capabilities.”

Providing more power than typical freestanding portable generators, the PHEV can be used in emergency situations such as power outages and roadside breakdowns or leisure occasions such as camping. Day-to-day, the PHEV can be used to power homes or businesses or supply power to the grid when power load is high, according to Su.

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Tags: bright idea, electric autos, electric machinery research center, electric vehicle technology, grid support, hybrid electric vehicle, mobile power, phev, portable generators, power electronics system, power outages, propulsion system, traction drive system

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Automotive, Cutting-edge Research, Innovation, Project Energy, Promising for so many reasons, Science Digest / Science Daily, Shape of Things to Come?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.