Electric vehicle battery storage displacement of grid storage in Australia’s renewable future

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology offer a dual solution to decarbonise the energy and transport sectors. This paper evaluates the potential for Australia’s passenger and light commercial EV fleet to replace large-scale battery storage under a 100% renewable energy system in the National Electricity Market. By simulating various levels of V2G battery availability, we assess the impact on energy production costs, renewable energy capacity and storage needs in a grid that includes a fully electrified residential sector. Our results show that leveraging 10%-50% of the available V2G battery capacity can significantly lower grid storage costs while providing all the storage requirements needed for a full year of energy balancing. With infrastructure costs considerably lower than large-scale grid batteries, V2G presents a cost-effective path to decarbonisation. We also explore policy mechanisms, such as competitive V2G feed-in tariffs, to incentivise early adoption and promote large-scale EV participation in the energy market.