Imagining and enacting the future of the German energy transition: electric vehicles as grid infrastructure

Abstract

The electrification of transportation in Germany has failed so far, but the disappointment has given way to more radical visions and new coalitions. Utilities, grid operators, and ICT companies have started to challenge the traditional image of the car. In their future scenarios, transportation, energy, and communication infrastructures must be aligned in order to achieve a sustainable society. This paper explores the co-production and enactment of this technological vision using the analytical framework of sociotechnical imaginaries. First, I describe how the idea of the electric vehicle as energy infrastructure was able to take hold within the German expert community. To understand how this approach might transform the existing mobility and energy practices, I examine two of the first R&D experiments that have enacted this vision in two radically different ways. Both reflect unarticulated assumptions about social life, including implicit cultural notions of self-determination, ownership, living arrangements, privacy, and control.

Keywords:

• electric vehicles
• energy transition
• smart grid
• sustainability
• infrastructures
• imaginaries
• futures

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Werner Rammert, Nona Schulte-Römer, and Janine Bernhardt for reviewing an early draft of this paper, anonymous referees for their comments, and Roisin Cronin and Jacob Watson for their editorial support.

Notes

1. There are some remarkable, but slightly dated exceptions, which highlight the social, political, and semantic dimensions of previous attempts to electrify transportation in France, the USA, and other countries (Callon 1980; Brown 2001; Hård and Knie 2001).

2. Most scientists and international organizations agree that in order to mitigate climate change, extraordinary measures have to be taken to reduce CO₂ emissions (IEA 2009; IPCC 2015; OECD/ITF 2015). In its Energy Roadmap 2050, the European Union presented ambitious climate goals. By the year 2050, it aims at a reduction by 80–95% in comparison to the levels registered in 1990. A decarbonization to this degree requires an estimated share of renewable energy sources in electricity consumption of nearly 97% (European Commission 2011, 12). The report suggests drastic cuts in the transportation sector as well. In order to meet the suggested goal, at least 65% of traffic on the streets would to need be fueled by carbon-free energy (European Commission 2011, 6). It has become self-evident among policymakers and also scholars that in order to achieve this vision, the highly resilient sociotechnical regime based on fossil fuels will have to be replaced by an economy and infrastructure that hinges on renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydraulic power (Haas, Watson, and Eichhammer 2008; Rohracher 2008).

3. The literature on “smart” vehicle-grid interactions is abundant and has been reviewed several times, concluding that the technology cannot keep up with its promise yet (Mullan et al. 2012; Habib, Kamran, and Rashid 2015; Liu et al. 2015). V2G requires bidirectional battery charging, a technology that asks for its own plug features, software standards, and server systems that combine large numbers of EVs into distributed virtual networks of batteries. Critics object that this approach carries significant risks and costs, while providing little benefit for the grid (Srivastava, Annabathina, and Kamalasadan 2010), not to mention for drivers. Batteries could degrade or fail, making V2G technically unreliable and economically unfeasible, so the counterargument goes.