Nissan’s offices in France will be the test-bed for the world’s largest grid-integrated electric vehicle system. It lets drivers park, plug in, and power up vehicles at off-peak times, storing energy for use elsewhere or to sell back to the grid during periods of higher demand.
“We are disrupting our business before someone else does.” Ernesto Ciorra,
Head of Innovation and Sustainability, Enel
The system is powered by 100 V2G chargers supplied by Italy’s Enel, the only company in the world to make commercially available two-way chargers that can also discharge vehicle battery packs.
One of Europe’s biggest energy players, Enel connects over 61 million people worldwide to power from ever cleaner sources. Almost half its 89GW generation capacity is carbon neutral and the company is committed to reaching 100% by 2050, so working with the world’s leading electric car manufacturer was an obvious choice.
“For us, an electric car is a battery with wheels,” explains Ernesto Ciorra, Enel’s head of innovation and sustainability. “We can aggregate numerous cars to power the grid when their owners are not using them. You don’t have to do anything; the battery is connected to the V2G charger and we enable it to sell its energy-generating revenue for you. We are turning consumers into entrepreneurs.”
An entrepreneur himself, former innovation consultant and university lecturer, Ciorra was appointed to Enel’s senior management team as head of innovation and sustain- ability in 2014, giving him a voice and a vote when the company commits to major investments. His job is to ensure that whatever the future brings does not come at any price: “If you are not innovative, you can’t act on sustainability in an effective way,” he declares.
Ciorra is a firm believer in Enel’s culture of open innovation that creates alliances with external partners, from start-ups to multinationals like Nissan, and from individual inventors to international universities: “Open innovation is admitting you cannot always be the best,” he says. “You have to be determined to change. What we are trying to do is open minds.”
