And... Let The Fun Begin

[Spyderman24_7]

Saw this pop up on a Google feed and found it interesting (funny as well). Just makes one wonder what will happen when there are 5 gazillion EVs on the road in 10 yrs.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/tesla-asks-texan-owners-to-limit-charging-due-to-heat-wave

 

[billt460]

You mean countless EV's could possibly overload an already overtaxed electrical grid? My God, how shocking!!

 

[RooflessVW]

You mean countless EV's could possibly overload an already overtaxed electrical grid? My God, how shocking!!

And the grid is overtaxed because...?

 

[billt460]

And the grid is overtaxed because...?

What difference does it make? The fact is, in most areas of the country, it is. "We should have planned for this!", they all exclaim. We did.... By banning nuclear power. Stopping drilling and gas and oil exploration. Shutting down pipeline construction. And for God's sake, don't even think about building power plants that burn coal. Are you crazy?

And of course be stupid enough to actually believe you can replace all of it with windmills and solar panels.

And make sure you have enough environmentalists in your state to scream and whine each and every time the power companies try to clear trees and undergrowth from under existing power lines, that are causing never ending brownouts. Because God forbid, that might disturb some endangered 3 legged mouse.

Now salt all of this over by selling EV's as fast as you can make them, to every greenie out there with a heartbeat, who is actually dumb enough to believe they're actually "green". And there you have it..... Enjoy.

 

[dbias]

Oh Texas.

 

[joekingcorvette]

In before the lockdown. Yes, this could be a huge problem for EV owners. Personally, I prefer the hybrids like a Prius or Toyota Corolla. 52 miles per gallon and no wait time at the charging station. Plus charging stations are not free anyway.

 

[Trav]

That has been my concern since all this EV cars started, here in MA the grid is like Sub Saharan third world, outages at the drop of a hat. We had a 18 day outage, my mother was 21 days because of an ice storm and now they want to load it up with EV. We will all be cooking on BBQ grills and lighting the place with candles all in the name of an agenda.

 

[Kira]

Going "cleaner" is the ultimate goal, no?

That we're stupid as a nation (won't acknowledge/plan/pay for reality) isn't cleanliness's fault.

 

[Vercingetorix]

Love the hypocrisy around here. On the one hand you shouldn’t buy an electric car because the grid can’t handle it. On the other nobody wants to pay to upgrade the grid to provide for electric cars. The only way the grid will ever improve is when it fails. America has in a lot of ways always been reactive, not proactive.

 

[Spyderman24_7]

Going "cleaner" is the ultimate goal, no?

That we're stupid as a nation (won't acknowledge/plan/pay for reality) isn't cleanliness's fault.

I question the whole 'green' effect as we really have no way to know how our daily living will impact the planet in the future. Who's to say that taking a drastically different route now will make any real difference? What concerns me by far more than fuel sources is all the constant littering I see everywhere. Might be a bit off topic, but there are some things that can be changed for a positive difference.

 

[MacManus99]

I question the whole 'green' effect as we really have no way to know how our daily living will impact the planet in the future. Who's to say that taking a drastically different route now will make any real difference? What concerns me by far more than fuel sources is all the constant littering I see everywhere. Might be a bit off topic, but there are some things that can be changed for a positive difference.

I appreciate this tangent. People who litter absolutely baffle me. (And enrage me). If we can't be bothered to place our beer cans in the proper receptacle, what makes one think we, as a whole, are ready to take on an energy production and distribution upheaval?

 

[billt460]

Love the hypocrisy around here. On the one hand you shouldn’t buy an electric car because the grid can’t handle it. On the other nobody wants to pay to upgrade the grid to provide for electric cars. The only way the grid will ever improve is when it fails. America has in a lot of ways always been reactive, not proactive.

I don't think it is because people, "don't want to pay". But rather how is it going to be done? This is where the conflict lies. We only have so many options available to us now, in order to produce the electrical power we require today, and in the near future.

Most of those options, the very people who want "green" EV's in the first place, are against. (Nuclear and fossil fuel). What's left? Wind and solar just won't cut it.

Remember, just a few years ago we were completely energy independent. Now we're not. We did this to ourselves because of an agenda. Not because we can't make enough energy. We have enough coal, oil, and natural gas to last generations. We're no closer to "running out of oil" now, than when Jimmy Carter told us we would by 2011.

We need to get our collective heads out of our rear ends, and use what we have, to make what we need....... NOW! You don't allow an infrastructure to fall apart, until you have a better one to replace it. Right now we simply don't.

 

[Job]

We get all the food we eat from the sun, and I know from driving across Texas in the summer, we can get all the electricity we need from the sun, and the sun doesn't charge anything for it. It is quite amazing we finally learned how to capture the suns energy just like green leaves that make all of our food. So there ya go. I guess there are a few other colors we see of leaves making energy too, but most are green.

 

[wpod]

Saw this pop up on a Google feed and found it interesting (funny as well). Just makes one wonder what will happen when there are 5 gazillion EVs on the road in 10 yrs.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/tesla-asks-texan-owners-to-limit-charging-due-to-heat-wave

Stick a glass up a ducks behind and you could have seen that coming. [wise words from a Navy Chief using harsher wording]

 

[Ronsant]

When we speak about the “grid” aren’t we talking about the system?
Up here in the Northeast, most of the electrical wires are on poles and run under trees. So when we get wet heavy snow or ice, or heavy winds, trees go down and take the wires with them.
the other part is the capacity, which many posters have addressed. We need to ramp up both delivery and capacity.
It would seem that investment in the delivery infrastructure and increases in energy production are needed. Too bad that the US is afraid of nuclear power, as that is pretty clean although you do have the real problem of what to do with the spent rods. How does France handle that problem?
New England seems to think we can use solar, wind, and hydro to replace coal and natural gas, but we are not even close to that now. We need leaders who live in reality and have an actual plan instead of pandering to get re-elected as both major parties do now.

 

[wpod]

We get all the food we eat from the sun, and I know from driving across Texas in the summer, we can get all the electricity we need from the sun, and the sun doesn't charge anything for it. It is quite amazing we finally learned how to capture the suns energy just like green leaves that make all of our food. So there ya go. I guess there are a few other colors we see of leaves making energy too, but most are green.

The sun doesn't shine at night.

 

[Job]

The sun doesn't shine at night.

It's always on, even at night. Plants make do, they store the energy. We harvest the stored energy and eat it and feed it to animals so we can eat them. Lets be proactive instead of reactive like someone said. Solar, which is nuclear power, could produce all the electricity, but it isn't black and white thinking, there are still other sources as we develop.

 

[Cujet]

we can get all the electricity we need from the sun, and the sun doesn't charge anything for it.

Yes, solar could provide 100% of our energy needs. However many don't understand just how incredibly difficult and troublesome this is. For example, to equal the annual output of one average nuclear power plant here in FL, 81,000 acres of land must be populated with the very best solar panes. That's over 120 square miles! 4.7 hours of sunlight per day, means that we must store the rest somehow. Then we must dispose of 120 square miles of panels, the storage batteries and inverters at various times ranging from 15-30 years.

To do the same in Vermont would require over 100K acres of land.

We really must overcome our reluctance to use nuclear power and learn to love it.

Consider that nuclear power can be used to easily pull CO2 from the atmosphere and make dry-ice. Then using the Sabatier process (nickel catalyst, 300°c and H), the CO2 can be converted to methane (natural gas) and water/oxygen. The fuel can then be used for portable forms of energy. Along with sequestering some of the carbon. The end result is an energy abundance, and near total freedom to use the various forms of energy as needed.

 

[wpod]

We really must overcome our reluctance to use nuclear power and learn to love it.

A rapid die off of a huge part of the population due to food shortages cold ,heat drinking water will happen when we live like cave men.

 

[Ronsant]

Yes, solar could provide 100% of our energy needs. However many don't understand just how incredibly difficult and troublesome this is. For example, to equal the annual output of one average nuclear power plant here in FL, 81,000 acres of land must be populated with the very best solar panes. That's over 120 square miles! 4.7 hours of sunlight per day, means that we must store the rest somehow. Then we must dispose of 120 square miles of panels, the storage batteries and inverters at various times ranging from 15-30 years.

To do the same in Vermont would require over 100K acres of land.

We really must overcome our reluctance to use nuclear power and learn to love it.

Consider that nuclear power can be used to easily pull CO2 from the atmosphere and make dry-ice. Then using the Sabatier process (nickel catalyst, 300°c and H), the CO2 can be converted to methane (natural gas) and water/oxygen. The fuel can then be used for portable forms of energy.

Here in RI we have “solar farms” where acres and acres of trees have been cut down and replaced with solar panels. These “solar farms“ output a small fraction of the energy that a similar sized natural gas power plant would provide. But no one will allow a new power plant to be built anywhere near them. So we lose the carbon absorbing trees, that also produce oxygen, and get a very small amount of electricity for all the dollars spent to erect these solar panels.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that very little of the parts that go into the “solar farm” are made in the US.