Across Europe, cities are rapidly transitioning to renewable energy. Solar panels, wind turbines and EVs are everywhere. But this sudden success brings an invisible crisis: our century-old energy grids were never designed for such fluctuations. Utrecht, a forward-thinking Dutch city, wanted to pioneer a solution that could serve as a blueprint for the rest of the world.
When the sun shines, we generate too much power. But when the city lights up at night, there isn’t enough. The result: congestion, instability and the real risk of blackouts. Expanding the physical grid would take decades. Utrecht needed a smarter, faster way to balance energy supply and demand.
Together with Renault, We Drive Solar, MyWheels and the city of Utrecht, we launched Utrecht Energized. A fleet of 500 Renault 5 E-Tech Electrics equipped with Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology. These cars don’t just charge on renewable energy, they give energy back to the city whenever demand peaks. One car is clever, hundreds become a mobile power plant. By embedding this innovation in everyday car-sharing, we created the world’s first bi-directional charging city.