Where is the Electricity going to come to charge EVs ?

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I see that many are excited about EVs, I can understand part of it but I myself stand by my thoughts that it will not be possible for EVs to come close to replacing gasoline vehicles for at least 20 years, more or less I can see EVs maybe getting to a saturation point of 20% of new vehicle sales, if that much, I think maybe closer to 10%. I think once people see the cost of charging them AND the fact that we do not have the power plants and infrastructure to carry the electricity to everyones home to charge the cars.
So where is the power going to come from to charge these cars? We barely have enough power in the USA to run our home air conditioners at any time of the day.
Until people wake up to the fact that we need nuclear plants, its just not going to happen.

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Source = https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/04/map-of-nuclear-power-in-the-us-see-where-reactors-are-located.html

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"..I see that many are excited about EVs, I can understand part of it but I myself stand by my thoughts that it will not be possible for EVs to come close to replacing gasoline vehicles for at least 20 years, more or less I can see EVs maybe getting to a saturation point of 20% of new vehicle sales, if that much, I think maybe closer to 10%. I think once people see the cost of charging them AND the fact that we do not have the power plants and infrastructure to carry the electricity to everyones home to charge the cars. So where is the power going to come from to charge these cars? We barely have enough power in the USA to run our home air conditioners at any time of the day. Until people wake up to the fact that we need nuclear plants, its just not going to happen.."

This is a strawman btw.

Look for a mixture of NatGas peaker plants combined with more renewables (Wind/solar) and upgrades to the grid.
 
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At least here in Phoenix, more people should be adopting solar. It'll easily charge the car during the day. But what happens at night? Well, we have 200A panels here. The A/C isn't running full tilt, I don't run the oven while I sleep, and I everything else in the house is powered off. So there's plenty of power during the night.

And with a Tesla at least, you can slow down the charge so you aren't pulling the full 32A. If you need to charge to 90% and it'll take 3 hours at 32A, you can dial it down to 16A and it'll charge in 6 hours (just tossing out numbers, haven't charged a Tesla in a while).

With 200+ mile ranges and the average American only driving 50 miles a day or so, you only need to charge every few days. Not everyone is charging at the same time. And even if everyone charged everyday, it wouldn't be for very long. And it would alternate throughout the day when they would charge.

And some people would just be using a normal 115V 15A outlet to charge. If you don't have enough power on your panel for an extra 12A to pull on a 15A breaker, you've got bigger problems.
 
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Only slightly off topic, but if I had 2 EV's (let's say Model 3 performance) that could directly DC charge from 15,000w worth of solar panels, I could switch between them every other day for local driving. Total cost: $150,000. Seems worthwhile, no?

From a more practical standpoint, EV's will become an ever increasing grid load over a period of time measured in decades. Plenty of time to upgrade power production if we plan properly.
 
AG, we have at least 2 coal fired plants in our region that will be closed within the next five years. The local utility is positioning that they will replace that capacity with wind and solar. They just installed a smart meter on my house (not by my choice) under the guise of offering "off peak rates". I am somewhat concerned that they will use that technology to throttle my power demand at their will.
 
At least here in Phoenix, more people should be adopting solar. It'll easily charge the car during the day. But what happens at night? Well, we have 200A panels here. The A/C isn't running full tilt, I don't run the oven while I sleep, and I everything else in the house is powered off. So there's plenty of power during the night.

And with a Tesla at least, you can slow down the charge so you aren't pulling the full 32A. If you need to charge to 90% and it'll take 3 hours at 32A, you can dial it down to 16A and it'll charge in 6 hours (just tossing out numbers, haven't charged a Tesla in a while).

With 200+ mile ranges and the average American only driving 50 miles a day or so, you only need to charge every few days. Not everyone is charging at the same time. And even if everyone charged everyday, it wouldn't be for very long. And it would alternate throughout the day when they would charge.

And some people would just be using a normal 115V 15A outlet to charge. If you don't have enough power on your panel for an extra 12A to pull on a 15A breaker, you've got bigger problems.
Here's my home's actual energy usage last July. There is plenty of power to charge at night. A drop in the bucket.

4BFEF729-45DE-4D99-9B43-C463A7CB3789.jpg
 
It’s only 30% extra production over the next 25+ years, and most of that is overnight when demand is already low.

The grid had grown every single day for the last 100+ years, and it’ll continue to grow to meet demand.

 
I see that many are excited about EVs, I can understand part of it but I myself stand by my thoughts that it will not be possible for EVs to come close to replacing gasoline vehicles for at least 20 years, more or less I can see EVs maybe getting to a saturation point of 20% of new vehicle sales, if that much, I think maybe closer to 10%. I think once people see the cost of charging them AND the fact that we do not have the power plants and infrastructure to carry the electricity to everyones home to charge the cars.
So where is the power going to come from to charge these cars? We barely have enough power in the USA to run our home air conditioners at any time of the day.
Until people wake up to the fact that we need nuclear plants, its just not going to happen.

View attachment 95148

Source = https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/04/map-of-nuclear-power-in-the-us-see-where-reactors-are-located.html

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You are correct.

I've heard California is already telling people not to charge, the grid can't handle it.

But, hey...
 
Even if we used gasoline to produce the electricity we would probably need 70% less gas than currently even if electricity was produced at power plants using gasoline as the fuel source. Internal combustion engines are woefully inefficient, their thermal efficiency averages around 20% of fuel being turned into propulsion. Electric motors turn around 98% of energy into propulsion making them almost five times as efficient. In addition power plants are close to 98% efficient as well with all of their ways of recouping heat(citing coal). It is much more efficient (from a money standpoint and efficiency standpoint and emissions standpoint) to make one or several large power plants that are highly efficient than a separate one in each vehicle (millions).

As far as the price to charge an EV you need to look at your calculations. I used to own a Chevy Volt and a full charge required 16-kilowatt hours and it enabled me to drive 40 to 55 miles. My current three-year contract for electricity is at 5.5 cents a kWh. That puts me at$0.88 for a full charge to drive 40 plus miles....not expensive. At your state's average of 13 cents a kWh, it would cost around $2....not expensive.

In addition, electric cars allow us to get our fuel (electricity) from whatever means is cheapest. I.E. If coal goes up then use natural gas. However, I believe solar and wind are about the cheapest form of energy we can currently make and we are in the process of scaling up our output from these sources. I predict that someday electricity will be almost free other than utility system maintenance.

Credentials: Operated a large electrical distribution system in the Midwest and have a degree in economics
 
At least here in Phoenix, more people should be adopting solar. It'll easily charge the car during the day. But what happens at night? Well, we have 200A panels here. The A/C isn't running full tilt, I don't run the oven while I sleep, and I everything else in the house is powered off. So there's plenty of power during the night.

And with a Tesla at least, you can slow down the charge so you aren't pulling the full 32A. If you need to charge to 90% and it'll take 3 hours at 32A, you can dial it down to 16A and it'll charge in 6 hours (just tossing out numbers, haven't charged a Tesla in a while).

With 200+ mile ranges and the average American only driving 50 miles a day or so, you only need to charge every few days. Not everyone is charging at the same time. And even if everyone charged everyday, it wouldn't be for very long. And it would alternate throughout the day when they would charge.

And some people would just be using a normal 115V 15A outlet to charge. If you don't have enough power on your panel for an extra 12A to pull on a 15A breaker, you've got bigger problems.
Solar works when the sun is hitting it. That's not necessarily the case at night, unless you live near the north and south poles, where at night during specific timeframes in the summer, it's still bright outside.

If you have batteries for your panels, then it can store excess energy that you don't use during the day, so it can be used at night, otherwise, you'll be using the grid energy.
 
Solar works when the sun is hitting it. That's not necessarily the case at night, unless you live near the north and south poles, where at night during specific timeframes in the summer, it's still bright outside.

If you have batteries for your panels, then it can store excess energy that you don't use during the day, so it can be used at night, otherwise, you'll be using the grid energy.
Did you read my whole post?
 
When these vehicles start needing battery replacements people will wake up to the fact the got a pig in a poke and robbed blind.
Battery technology, the grid, the public transportation system are all nowhere near what it needs to be, good God the USA grid is not much better than Sub Saharan third world, wooden sticks holding power wires up is nothing to hang your hat on in an all electric system.
They keep talking about how the Europeans can do it but Europe and the USA have nothing in common. They are small countries with advanced infrastructure and public transportation systems because of their draconian high tax rates, but even they are sucking wind having done away with the nuke plants.

This is a battery for a 2016 Spark EV.

 
Here in progressive California all new home construction is mandated to have solar panels on the roof. Nice of the politicians to add $10-$15 thousand to the already outrageous price of a home here, but that's the way people voted.

Anyway, I suspect a lot of EV's will be sold to the same people who are buying those homes and they won't think much about the cost of charging, they will just plug right in to the outlet in their garage.

In some cities, certain electricity providers are charging rates way beyond what others are paying. I'll bet those customers will find the break even point for installing solar systems comes a lot sooner than they anticipated.
 
Did you read my whole post?
Yes, but still doesn't overcome the fact solar panels work on solar energy, and AZ is no where near the poles.

Also, people in NorCal, with the fires, thought that with solar, when they are in a blackout induced by their energy company, they still have power.... nope... not without batteries.

 
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