France's Renault SA will supply electric cars for a project in Denmark that aims to set up the conditions to encourage widespread marketing of the clean vehicles.

Renault's announcement today follows the Renault-Nissan alliance's decision earlier this year to participate in a similar project in Israel with Project Better Place, a firm dedicated to installing the infrastructure to support electric cars.

The projects highlight a renewed interest in electric cars. Although electric car technology is not new, the vehicles failed to catch on with consumers in the past because their driving range was too limited.

But most automakers now believe the development of better, more powerful batteries will make electric cars a viable option.

Separately, Ford Motor Co. and the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Electric Power Research Institute announced a three year agreement Thursday to study ways to integrate plug-in hybrid electric vehicles into the U.S. electric grid system.

The institute will coordinate tests in the New York-New Jersey area. Ford, which is also working with Southern California Edison, has designed and is building 20 Escape electric SUVs for testing in the Los Angeles area.

Under the terms of the Danish project outlined Thursday, Renault is scheduled in 2011 to provide customers with zero-emission electric cars equipped with advanced lithium-ion battery packs made by Nissan Motor Co.'s battery venture with NEC of Japan. The Danish government will provide tax incentives for the electric vehicles, while Better Place Denmark will construct and operate an electric recharge grid across the country.

On Jan. 21, Renault and Project Better Place signed an accord to establish mass-marketing of electric cars in Israel, with Renault producing the cars and Project Better Place agreement to provide 500,000 battery-charging stations. Renault said at the time that the project might be duplicated in other sites.

Shai Agassi, an Israeli entrepreneur and former executive with German software giant SAP, is the CEO of Project Better Place. Its investors include the U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley.

On its Web site, Project Better Place says its goals reflect two trends -- the rise in oil prices and a drop in the cost of production of advanced batteries. "Within a decade," it says, "the cost of energy production and storage for the lifetime of an electric vehicle will fall below the fuel costs for a single year of a traditional automobile."