Willett Kempton
Professor, Marine Science and Policy | University of Delaware
Newark, DE, UNITED STATES
Prof. Kempton invented vehicle-to-grid power (V2G); he researches, publishes and lectures on offshore wind power and on electric vehicles.
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Biography
Willett Kempton is Professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, at the University of Delaware. Dr. Kempton directs ~15 researchers and students in research on clean energy technologies, is active in public testimony, and lectures widely on offshore wind power and on electric vehicles. He has published scientific and technical articles on offshore wind power, electric transportation, energy analysis, and the beliefs and values that citizens and policymakers apply to environmental issues.
Industry Expertise (2)
Research
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (2)
Vehicle-to-Grid Power
Offshore Wind Policy
Media Appearances (7)
EVs are one step closer to becoming roaming grid batteries
Canary Media online
2024-02-20
The big challenge is providing utilities with all of the data points they need in order to feel comfortable receiving power from EVs, said Willett Kempton, professor and associate director of UD's Center for Research in Wind (CReW).
Meet the UD researchers who are shaping the future of electric vehicles
The News Journal/Delaware Online online
2024-01-22
Local paper spotlights the work of Willett Kempton, professor of marine science an policy, and Rodney McGee, director of UD's Center for Transportation Electrification. Their research team has been fine-tuning publishing standards that could change the electric vehicle industry in a matter of years.
Get Over Your Range Anxiety: Study Shows Small EV Batteries Meet Most Drivers’ Needs
Carscoops online
2023-03-03
The study, led by Willett Kempton at the University of Delaware, and published in the journal Energies, looked at 333 drivers with internal combustion vehicles around Atlanta, Georgia. The team looked at their driving habits since 2004, and then compared annual mileage needs against a selection of hypothetical EVs with varying ranges.
Why it’s time to get over your EV range anxiety
Ars Technica online
2023-03-02
Willett Kempton, a University of Delaware professor, and his team looked at driving data for 333 gasoline vehicles over one year in the Atlanta area and then created a model to see the extent to which various EV options would have been able to meet the needs of those drivers.
EV ‘range anxiety’ may be misplaced, survey finds
Air Quality News online
2023-02-23
Prof. Willett Kempton said ‘What we did was figure out how much people drive a year, distinguishing every single trip and stop, and then overlaid that with all the possible EVs you could buy. If you know how far you need to drive, our data on range and charging speed will tell you what EVs will work for you.’
Meet the Little-Known Inventor of Vehicle-to-Grid Tech. It is Not a Mere Fad
The Mobilist online
2021-05-18
Yet it turns out that V2G is no faddish notion, but a term going back to a paper about a quarter century ago. Its inventor, a little-known University of Delaware professor named Willett Kempton, is armed with a fistful of patents for his idea. And Nuvve, a company he co-founded that went public in a Spac in March, saw its share price soar as much as 56% yesterday before ending the day up 30.9%.
Offshore wind report says Delaware could procure power at less than half current cost
Delaware Public Media online
2022-04-07
Willett Kempton, a University of Delaware professor who is a technical advisor to the offshore wind group, said the cost of offshore wind has plunged to about half of what it was in 2018 when a state task force decided the time wasn’t right for Delaware to commit to buying power generated offshore.
Articles (6)
Influence of Battery Energy, Charging Power, and Charging Locations upon EVs’ Ability to Meet Trip Needs
Energies2023 One year of high-resolution driving data from a sample of 333 instrumented gasoline passenger vehicles are used to create a trip inventory of U.S. vehicle travel requirements. A set of electric vehicles (EVs) is modeled, differing in battery size (kWh), recharging power (kW), and locations for charging when parked. Each modeled EV’s remaining energy is tracked while traversing the entire sample’s trip inventory in order to estimate how well each EV meets all U.S. driving requirements.
Marshaling ports required to meet US policy targets for offshore wind power
Energy Policy2022 We analyze infrastructure needed for offshore wind power targets set by U.S. state and federal policies—specifically, manufacturing, vessels, and offshore wind ports. By examining cost-competitive turbine and project sizes and infrastructure challenges, we identify marshaling ports as a key bottleneck.
Metering Requirements and Design for an Electric Vehicle Charging System Providing Grid Services
SAE International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, Energy, Environment, & Policy2020 Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology is capable of providing grid services from electric vehicles (EVs). To do so, it imposes more demanding engineering design requirements on electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE). To provide grid services, bidirectional power flow and accumulated energy between grid and EVs must be metered and uploaded to a remote server participating in electricity markets.
Electric power from offshore wind via synoptic-scale interconnection
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences2010 World wind power resources are abundant, but their utilization could be limited because wind fluctuates rather than providing steady power. We hypothesize that wind power output could be stabilized if wind generators were located in a meteorologically designed configuration and electrically connected. Based on 5 yr of wind data from 11 meteorological stations, distributed over a 2,500 km extent along the U.S. East Coast, power output for each hour at each site is calculated.
Large CO2 reductions via offshore wind power matched to inherent storage in energy end-uses
Geophysical Research Letters2007 We develop methods for assessing offshore wind resources, using a model of the vertical structure of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) over water and a wind-electric technology analysis linking turbine and tower limitations to bathymetry and continental shelf geology. These methods are tested by matching the winds of the Middle-Atlantic Bight (MAB) to energy demand in the adjacent states (Massachusetts through North Carolina, U.S.A.).
Vehicle-to-grid power fundamentals: Calculating capacity and net revenue
Journal of Power Sources2005 As the light vehicle fleet moves to electric drive (hybrid, battery, and fuel cell vehicles), an opportunity opens for “vehicle-to-grid” (V2G) power. This article defines the three vehicle types that can produce V2G power, and the power markets they can sell into. V2G only makes sense if the vehicle and power market are matched. For example, V2G appears to be unsuitable for baseload power—the constant round-the-clock electricity supply—because baseload power can be provided more cheaply by large generators, as it is today.
Research Grants (3)
Demonstration Of Vehicle-To-Grid (V2G) Power And Value Of V2G Grid Services
Exelon Corp. $603000
June 2020-May 2023
Demonstration Of Storage From Electric Vehicles Used For Both Grid Market Participation And Emergency Power
DNREC $200000
Oct 2020-May 2023
Grid Integrated Vehicles and Aggregation Server
Nuvve Corp $400000
2017-2024
Education (3)
Univeristy of California, Berkeley: Postdoctoral Training, Quantitative Anthropology with Public Policy emphasis 1978
University of Texas at Austin: PhD, Anthropology 1977
University of Virginia, Charlottesville: BA, Sociology, Anthropology 1972
Affiliations (4)
- Journal of Ecological Anthropology : Advisory Board
- ENERGY - The International Journal : Member of the Editorial Board
- Technical University of Denmark, DTU Elektro : Affiliated Professor
- Nuvve Corp. : Co-Founder and Chair of Technical Advisory Board
Links (5)
Patents (3)
Aggregation Server for Grid-Integrated Vehicles
US Patent No. 9043038
2015
Electric Vehicle Equipment for Grid-Integrated Vehicles
US Patent No. 8509976
2013
Hierarchical Priority and Control Algorithms for the Grid-Integrated Vehicle
US Patent No. 8116915
2012
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