Ever get stuck with a bunch of gas in your tank you've got no use for? Ever wish you could sell it back to Shell or Exxon? Yeah, me neither.
Still, research by professors at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont and the University of Delaware found that electric-powered cars could one day offer their excess energy back to the nation s power grid — as much as 20 percent of the power needed by mid-century, the researchers say.
They call the concept vehicle to grid or (because what we really need is more letter/number abbreviations) V2G. Because most electric-drive vehicles sit idle 90 percent of the time, their owners could allocate a portion of unspent power supply to utilities companies, presumably for a profit.
Hey, I'm all for a more efficient solution to our power consumption needs. I just don't know if I'm organized enough to plan out my driving such that the E light doesn't come on every time I use a tank of gas. Electrical? I can't even remember to charge my iPod.