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I worked this out previously and came to the conclusion that electricity production needed to rise more like 50%. it was a while ago, but the vague calculation

by RobinL 6y ago

I worked this out previously and came to the conclusion that electricity production needed to rise more like 50%. it was a while ago, but the vague calculation was something like this: UK electricity consumption/year: 301.7 TWh Miles driven per year in UK: 327e9 [1] Convert into TWh if vehicle is petrol: 470TWh [2] Electric cars need about a third the energy of petrol vehicles: 160TWh See here: https://observablehq.com/d/e02d09be8794978c https://observablehq.com/d/e02d09be8794978c [1]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/741953/road-traffic-estimates-in-great-britain-2017.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... [2] https://github.com/robinl/energy_usage https://github.com/robinl/energy_usage (Apologies some figures are not sourced)

ourlordcaffeine 6y ago
Yep. That's why I think energy to fuel is potentially a better solution. It will also be a good fit for solar power, as you can just make then stockpile the fuel when the sun is out. For the UK though, I think most fuel would then be imported from sunny places. I'm not sure that the UK will increase it's grid capacity enough to get all cars electric in the next 10 or 15 years. I have a feeling the UK will end up relying on interconnectors.
- iso1631 6y ago
  > I have a feeling the UK will end up relying on interconnectors. Gridwatch used to allow you to download an entire year (or more) with a 5 minute resolution. Based on my last download from Sep 2018 to Sep 2019, a net of 7.6% of UK's electricity usage was from interconnectors Not sure how much those brexit effects these, the UK government has ripped out the conditions that allow these to work, put all the blame on the interconnector companies, and still have no idea what the relationship will look like in 11 weeks time https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trading-electricity-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/trading-electricity-if-theres-no-brexit-deal https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trading-electrici...
  - ourlordcaffeine 6y ago
    > Not sure how much those brexit effects these Implicit auctions across the interconnector to end. Also gridwatch isn't 100% accurate. Accurate enough to get a good picture though. And if you want to download data, just download from elexon/bmreports. No point gong via a 3rd party.
guerby 6y ago
Current electric cars are about 160 Wh/km. 327.0e9 miles = 526.0e9 km => 85 TWh. You overestimated the efficiency of petrol vehicules by a factor of two :) Note: heavy vehicules are 5% of miles travelled according to your [1]

by RobinL 6y ago

ourlordcaffeine 6y ago

Yep. That's why I think energy to fuel is potentially a better solution. It will also be a good fit for solar power, as you can just make then stockpile the fuel when the sun is out. For the UK though, I think most fuel would then be imported from sunny places. I'm not sure that the UK will increase it's grid capacity enough to get all cars electric in the next 10 or 15 years. I have a feeling the UK will end up relying on interconnectors.

iso1631 6y ago
> I have a feeling the UK will end up relying on interconnectors. Gridwatch used to allow you to download an entire year (or more) with a 5 minute resolution. Based on my last download from Sep 2018 to Sep 2019, a net of 7.6% of UK's electricity usage was from interconnectors Not sure how much those brexit effects these, the UK government has ripped out the conditions that allow these to work, put all the blame on the interconnector companies, and still have no idea what the relationship will look like in 11 weeks time https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trading-electricity-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/trading-electricity-if-theres-no-brexit-deal https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trading-electrici...
- ourlordcaffeine 6y ago
  > Not sure how much those brexit effects these Implicit auctions across the interconnector to end. Also gridwatch isn't 100% accurate. Accurate enough to get a good picture though. And if you want to download data, just download from elexon/bmreports. No point gong via a 3rd party.

guerby 6y ago

Current electric cars are about 160 Wh/km. 327.0e9 miles = 526.0e9 km => 85 TWh. You overestimated the efficiency of petrol vehicules by a factor of two :) Note: heavy vehicules are 5% of miles travelled according to your [1]