How does a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system work, and what role do Nuvve Corporation’s products and services play in such a system?
Vehicle-to-grid is the ability of the vehicle to charge, but also to take the energy from the battery and push it back to the grid. Then, at the core of it, an aggregation platform gathers many of those vehicles and makes them look like a big battery, which functions like a virtual power plant that allows you to address various energy markets, whether at the transmission level, supporting the distribution system, or behind the meter.
Vehicle-to-grid allows more renewable energy onto the system, increases EV utilization, generates revenue while parked, and reduces the total cost of ownership.
The type of grid services depends on where you are. In Denmark, we have been doing frequency regulation, FCR and FCRD, for nearly nine years. In the US, you can participate in the ISO markets like PJM or ISO New England. In New England, you can also do a service called Connected Solution, which requires about 50 discharges every summer, paying $200 per kilowatt summer. As you scale from a few vehicles to larger fleets, the distribution system can get overwhelmed. Instead of drastically upgrading the grid, which is costly, we deploy cost-effective microgrids that combine EVs, generation, and storage to create self-sustainable power islands. With fluctuating loads and generation, optimizing the existing infrastructure is critical, making grid modernization a key focus alongside vehicle-to-grid.
Which of Nuvve Corporation’s markets has the most advanced vehicle-to-grid ecosystems?
I think Denmark is not just the most advanced, but it has been there for some time. You have an ecosystem where you can access the market with those resources, with a lot of renewable energy from wind and some solar. By 2030, all fleets will have to be electrified, adding more fluctuation on the load side from EVs. Denmark and its access to markets like FCRN and FCRD are very representative of this advancement.
How would you compare the European and U.S. markets?
In Europe as a whole, there is stronger alignment between TSOs, ISOs, and market access, whereas in the US, it is still very divergent. In Texas, for example, you extract value at the spot market level, and the market is very volatile. Tesla is active there, and because they only have the spot market to balance the grid, there is a lot of value in that market. California definitely remains at the forefront, and New Mexico is going to be very interesting.
In the U.S., we recently announced a stationary storage product for co-ops because they pass benefits to co-owners and are exposed to coincidental peaks, where energy costs can go up to $10 per kilowatt hour. Reducing peaks becomes critical, and by putting a battery at the substation level and EVs at the end of the distribution system, we can optimize energy use between the substation and the end customer.
What policies or regulations would support the maturing of the U.S. market?
One is accessing the markets in the same way we can in Denmark. Even where we can access the market, it is not true everywhere. It is regulated under the FERC 2222, an order whose main goal is to better enable distributed energy resources, but the problem is that FERC 2222 calls on actions from entities where the federal level does not have jurisdiction.
For example, access to the market in a fair way requires some type of net metering at the distribution level, which is controlled by PUCs at the state level, not the federal level. So there is a coordination issue, and FERC 2222 is still struggling to be fully implemented. In California, the best value is behind the meter, where optimizing energy use saves on demand charges, potentially up to $300 per kilowatt year.
2025 has been pegged as a pivotal year for V2G technology. What will shape the market, and what important developments will we see from Nuvve Corporation?
The OEMs’ readiness to launch V2G-compatible vehicles is important, and some of the things we are working on now should firm that up. Also, deployments like the one in New Mexico, where we won a contract including EV infrastructure, charging hubs, fast chargers, stationary storage, and working with co-ops, will be key. Demonstrating the technology’s capabilities and benefits — especially keeping the cost of energy equitable — is crucial.
Japan will also be important. They have been opening the market for stationary storage, starting with large batteries, but by 2026, we will be able to access the market through the aggregation of distributed batteries, allowing full-scale vehicle-to-grid. We are launching a new entity there and bringing in local investors. The value per kilowatt year is very high in Japan, around $500, compared to $300 in Europe and $200 in the US.
