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If you're adding marginal consumption to the grid that does not exist today, you can't account for it as being in part powered by renewables. You are producing

If you're adding marginal consumption to the grid that does not exist today, you can't account for it as being in part powered by renewables. You are producing no more renewable energy than previously, and fossil fuel consumption will increase by exactly the amount you're adding to the grid. I'm not arguing that EVs aren't a good idea. I'm just in favor of being clear about the choice that's being made; a switch to 100% EVs would result in significantly increased electricity consumption powered by fossil fuels until renewables catch up, but lower overall carbon emissions since you're burning the fossil fuels more efficiently.

_ph_ 8y ago
No. At best we could add 6% more electric cars per year - if only electric cars would be sold. That is the renewal rate for cars in Germany. This means, the energy consumption would increase by 1.5% per year. The addition of reneweable energy to the grid per year far exceeds the amount of energy that could be used by electric cars even at 100% market share. Which they are unfortunately far from. So the mix gets cleaner even after accounting all new reneweable energy for the electricity demands of electric cars.
- reitzensteinm 8y ago
  It is simply not relevant that renewable energy is being added to the grid faster than EVs are increasing energy consumption. If you add energy consumption to the grid, you are powering it with your dirtiest power, which you'd otherwise be shutting off. EVs are still superior when powering them entirely with fossil fuels. I'm not trying to argue against them. But it's important to be truthful about where the energy is coming from.
  - _ph_ 8y ago
    The argumentation with the marginal mix sounds nice, but is wrong. You cannot assign a certain power source to a certain electrical device unless they are directly connected. Your lightbulb isn't running on 100% coal, just because you switch it on. Yes, if there is a difference between the demand and the amount of reneweable energy produced, that has to come from carbon sources. So increasing the demand might increase that. On the other side, in Germany we are already at the point where we have excess energy production. Mostly because coal and nuclear plants cannot be throttled quickly. So quite often we have to take reneweable energy off the grid to keep it stable. Equally, we have negative electricity prices on the spot market. Here you would even have to calculate a negative CO2 content in the energy mix for electric cars which could absorbe that wasted reneweable energy. In the end, electric cars are rather accellerating than slowing down the switch to more renweables in the mix and as said, the addition of reneweable sources far exceeds the addition of electric cars - at the moment even by orders of magnitude.
    - reitzensteinm 8y ago
      An electric car powering on otherwise wasted renewable energy does not have negative CO2 emissions, just zero. Germany had 134 hours of negative power prices last year, and this would indeed mean that a marginal electric car added to the grid would be proportionally powered by renewables - 1.5% in 2018. In that sense, my argument of 0% is too extreme especially as the number grows, but it is still a negligible amount even in Germany today, which is significantly ahead of most countries on the renewable transition. It is fair to count renewable energy that could not be produced without the assistance of BEVs, via demand dispatch or battery to grid transfers. And the full amount of this energy should be counted, not just its share of contribution to the grid.

_ph_ 8y ago

No. At best we could add 6% more electric cars per year - if only electric cars would be sold. That is the renewal rate for cars in Germany. This means, the energy consumption would increase by 1.5% per year. The addition of reneweable energy to the grid per year far exceeds the amount of energy that could be used by electric cars even at 100% market share. Which they are unfortunately far from. So the mix gets cleaner even after accounting all new reneweable energy for the electricity demands of electric cars.

reitzensteinm 8y ago
It is simply not relevant that renewable energy is being added to the grid faster than EVs are increasing energy consumption. If you add energy consumption to the grid, you are powering it with your dirtiest power, which you'd otherwise be shutting off. EVs are still superior when powering them entirely with fossil fuels. I'm not trying to argue against them. But it's important to be truthful about where the energy is coming from.
- _ph_ 8y ago
  The argumentation with the marginal mix sounds nice, but is wrong. You cannot assign a certain power source to a certain electrical device unless they are directly connected. Your lightbulb isn't running on 100% coal, just because you switch it on. Yes, if there is a difference between the demand and the amount of reneweable energy produced, that has to come from carbon sources. So increasing the demand might increase that. On the other side, in Germany we are already at the point where we have excess energy production. Mostly because coal and nuclear plants cannot be throttled quickly. So quite often we have to take reneweable energy off the grid to keep it stable. Equally, we have negative electricity prices on the spot market. Here you would even have to calculate a negative CO2 content in the energy mix for electric cars which could absorbe that wasted reneweable energy. In the end, electric cars are rather accellerating than slowing down the switch to more renweables in the mix and as said, the addition of reneweable sources far exceeds the addition of electric cars - at the moment even by orders of magnitude.
  - reitzensteinm 8y ago
    An electric car powering on otherwise wasted renewable energy does not have negative CO2 emissions, just zero. Germany had 134 hours of negative power prices last year, and this would indeed mean that a marginal electric car added to the grid would be proportionally powered by renewables - 1.5% in 2018. In that sense, my argument of 0% is too extreme especially as the number grows, but it is still a negligible amount even in Germany today, which is significantly ahead of most countries on the renewable transition. It is fair to count renewable energy that could not be produced without the assistance of BEVs, via demand dispatch or battery to grid transfers. And the full amount of this energy should be counted, not just its share of contribution to the grid.