My husband was driving up from Atlanta to NC and heard on a talk show that there wasn’t enough on the power grid to charge electric cars if everyone switched. Only about 18% would be charged at any one time and charging stations would be miles long waits.
I had this neighbor whose son would drive a 2- 2.5 hr trip, depending on traffic, to see her. When he switched to some electric car the trip took him usually over 5 hours as he had to stop to charge and many times had to wait.
“and heard on a talk show that there wasn’t enough on the power grid to charge electric cars if everyone switched.”
Red Herring. Impossible for everyone to ‘switch’.
We would need more power generation capacity. Someone suggested there is enough capacity if we run power plants at full capacity around the clock and people only charge at night when other demands are low. Good luck coordinating that. We're going to need more capacity.
Oh, but building more coal or gas powered plants kind of goes against the theme. So we're going to need a lot more solar farms and wind farms. The EPA and environmentalists are just going to have to get over it - we're going to cover most anything that isn't farm land with solar panels, we're going to put up wind turbines where-ever the wind blows. We're going to damn every river with a drop sufficient to support hydro-power.
Of course we're going to have to significantly ramp up mining of copper to provide enough reliable, redundant power transmission grid capability.
Ditto we're going to have to significantly ramp up mining of various other minerals and metals to provide magnets for motors and batteries for storage. After all, night falls and storm clouds block the sun so we are going to need a lot of excess battery capacity.
We're going to need various new technologies to economically recycle/refurbish motors and batteries. Also going to have to figure out if/when/how to recycle the double-digit tons of non-decomposing waste from every wind turbine at end-of-life.
So yeah, just a few technical, environmental, and economic challenges with this whole notion of "going green." ;-/ But sure, let's just decree it 'cause it sounds good and makes us feel good about ourselves, like we're really doing something!
“I had this neighbor whose son would drive a 2- 2.5 hr trip, depending on traffic, to see her. When he switched to some electric car the trip took him usually over 5 hours as he had to stop to charge and many times had to wait.”
BS. EV’s can make that trip non-stop.
That must have been one shitty electric car. Which model was it?
I know that I am going to roasted over this, but I wish someone would start cheerleading for hydrogen fuel cells.
Yes, we would have to put a hydrogen distribution system in place at the scale of the existing gasoline/diesel system
Yes, hydrogen is currently expensive compared to gasoline (or maybe not these days). Expect prices to go down along the supply/demand curve
But there are significant advantages.
No Chinese, lithium dependent batteries to catch fire
No replacement costs - the fuel cells will last the lifetime of the vehicle
Absolutely zero emissions as there is no combustion - the byproduct is water
Most abundant element in the universe
OK. Flame on me!
These idiots are a bunch of kids clomping around in their parents shoes playing dress up while Granpa Joe is snoozing on the couch, drooling.
Three more years of this?
We are so screwed.