[MortMan]

"We were able to show that with less home charging and more daytime charging, the Western U.S. would need less generating capacity and storage, and it would not waste as much solar and wind power," said Powell, mechanical engineering Ph.D. '22.

So, charge during peak usage hours and you need less generation resources? Huh?

[Dr. Sivana]

Here in Arizona, a western state, we need our grid during the day for constant air conditioning. Nighttime charging for cars SHOULD make more sense.

Of course, gasoline and diesel are stored forma of energy. They are quite flexible.

[Brian Griffin]

The sunshine shines during the day.

Solar panels need sunshine to do their thing.

Solar panel farms will be developed to support daytime charging.

Folks in Cleveland should however retain their gasoline credit card. Their ICE cars will need gasoline.

[packagingguy]

Well solar energy would have to be stored if night time charging is used.

Also the wind doesn’t blow at night so the windmills stop working. /sarc.

Why not put a motor in the car to charge the batteries? Don’t we already do that?

[Repealthe17thAmendment]

Kaiser Permanente has about 7,000 workers in their Oakland headquarters. Can we expect them to provide charging stations for their employees to charge their cars during work?

How about all the other large employers who have thousands of workers who drive an hour or more each way to work?

With more than 20 million cars in California, many of which will need to be charged daily, they had better get to work putting in those charging stations!

[KarlInOhio]

The key sentence from the article:

Today, California has excess electricity during late mornings and early afternoons, thanks mainly to its solar capacity.

So rather than charging at night to even the load for sources like gas, coal, nuclear or hydroelectric which are most efficient when run at a constant rate, we'll have to live our lives based on the vagaries of solar power.

[TexasGator]

“So, charge during peak usage hours and you need less generation resources? Huh?”

No. They are using the California model where solar power is a significant part of the mix and the sun don’t shine at night.

[heartwood]

Solar panels on roofs and parking lots direct to car chargers?

The article mentioned “electrical storage”, i.e. giant battery banks.

You only avoid that by massive solar generation and daytime charging. Or wind power, more wind during the day usually.

[GOPJ]

Years ago in Dubai a zillionair Arab built a snow ski slope in a desert Hotel. It costs him something like $10,000 an hour to operate - and tickets were around $12 a person. Fewer than 20 people could ski at a time. He thought it was a wonderful idea and that indoor skiing would take off.

Reminds me of this battery car thing...

[SauronOfMordor]

A Tesla battery is 100 kWh. Charging that will take more power than everything else in your house combined.

The load this places on the electric network gets masked when there is just one EV in the neighborhood. But once there are several, charging load will dominate.

[redcatcherb412]

So, charge during peak usage hours and you need less generation resources?

Of course not focusing on the higher rates charged during 'high demand' periods. Much more money to be made with demand period charges on your bill.