Around 25 cubic meters of dry wood chips are sufficient to supply an electric car with electricity each year. The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy regards electro mobility as the "Key to climate-friendly mobility" worldwide - especially if the required electricity is generated using renewable energy sources.
The number of electric cars in Germany is rising continuously - currently still below expectations. Nevertheless, there is a noticeable change in mobility that renowned car manufacturers have been experiencing for years.
Electricity generated from wood for electric cars
Spanner Re² GmbH has been committed to renewable energies for over 10 years. The Lower Bavarian plant manufacturer develops and sells wood-based combined heat and power plants. These generate electricity and heat from CO2-neutral wood chips, pellets or briquettes. There are over 700 Re² wood-fired power plants in operation worldwide. "Our technology has proven itself with over 20,000,000 operating hours and delivers energy reliably and independently, regardless of the weather," reports Thomas Bleul, Managing Director of Spanner Re² GmbH.
The electricity produced by the wood-fired power plants can be fed into the public grid for a fee. It also be used for the supplying the power for electric vehicles. The heat can be used for heating buildings, providing hot water, in local heating networks or for wood or wood-fired heating systems and grain drying. "Many of our customers would like their homes and vehicles to be energy self-sufficient, without the use of fossil raw materials. We supply them with environmentally friendly technology, which they use to turn their own wood into an electricity and heat for their home and electric vehicles," Bleul explains further.
Saving 3.5 tons of CO2eq annually with "wood-powered electricity" in electric vehicles
Around 25 cubic meters of dry wood chips are sufficient to supply an electric car with electricity each year calculated at 30,000 kilometers driven and a consumption of 20 kWh/100 km. This allows a newly registered conventional car with an average of 130 g CO2/km to save about 3.5 tons of CO2 equivalent annually. With approx. 9.1 tons of CO2-equivalent generated each year per capita in Germany, this corresponds to a reduction in CO2 emissions of around 40 percent.
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