Renewable energy supply for electric vehicle operations in California

Due to technological progress, policy thrust and economic circumstances, the large scale integration of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power is becoming a reality in California, however the variable and unpredictable supply of these renewable resources poses a significant obstacle to their integration. At the same time we are witnessing a strong thrust towards the large scale deployment of electric vehicles which can ideally complement renewable power supply by acting as storage buffers for maintaining stability in the presence of large amounts of renewable power. In this paper we use California system data for identifying the degree to which wind and solar power supply correlate with battery electric vehicle loads. Moreover, in order to assess the economic viability of utilizing renewable resources for powering electric vehicles we adopt the point of view of a profit maximizing electric vehicle service provider which seeks an optimal portfolio of energy supply contracts for satisfying electric vehicle energy demand, and we find that wind generation is a cost competitive option, whereas solar power supply does not appear to be an economically viable option. We also demonstrate how smart charging strategies for satisfying electric vehicle energy demand can lead to significant cost savings for the electric vehicle service provider