Better Place to lead efforts to develop EV network in Australia

Articles — By forcechange on October 24, 2008 11:50 am

The recently announced electric vehicle (EV) charging network to be built in Australia is being led by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi and his company Better Place.  Better Place will implement the model it has already developed for Israel and Denmark to build up the EV network in Australia.  Better Place is partnering with AGL Energy and financial advisor Macquarie Capital Group to raise just under $700 million to develop the project.  AGL Energy will provide electricity from renewable sources to power the network.

Agassi notes that one of the main criticisms of renewable energy sources like wind and solar is that they are unpredictable.  As a result, under normal conditions, when the wind stops blowing or the clouds cover the sun, the electricity on the grid dips.  But with EVs, the energy created by the renewable sources would be stored in the batteries of those cars, which would act as a buffer against power dips.  In effect, “the EV’s batteries become a distributed storage system for alternative energy sources.”

The EV network in Australia is also being strongly supported by government policies such as the Green Car Innovation Fund, where government contributions are to be matched by private industry three-to-one.  

Agassi declared, “We are investing in Australia’s economy and adding jobs while helping the country take a generational leap forward toward oil independence.”  The first mass market EV models are slated to be available in Australia by the end of 2011, a year after its mass market launch in Israel and Denmark.