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> Baseline power is less of an issue for EVs, since they a) have their own energy storage built in, and b) generally just run ~ 1 hour a day, making it pretty
by pengaru 6y ago
> Baseline power is less of an issue for EVs, since they a) have their own energy storage built in, and b) generally just run ~ 1 hour a day, making it pretty easy to come up with schemes to shift demand around.
Is that really true when much of the employed population falls on a relatively uniform commute schedule?
I'd expect similar congestion to what's seen on roadways to recur on an inadequate power grid.
- adrianN 6y agoYes it's still true. To charge an EV the average person needs around 10kWh a day, distributed over 23h of parking time. That's not a lot of current. You just need to teach the car to talk to the grid so that not all cars charge at once.
- pengaru 6y ago23h? That strikes me as ridiculously optimistic on a population-scale level. When only charged at home it's just an overnight charging window.
- adrianN 6y agoCars are parked about 23h a day. Eventually most parking spots will also have a charger, because that's pretty much the only way EVs will be adopted in cities where people don't have garages.
- pengaru 6y agoI'm not sure how this looks WRT grid limits/congestion, but there's an alternative mass-adoption scenario where battery tech matures to the point of charge rates becoming equal or better than "gassing up" today. We don't have gas pumps at every parking spot and drivers are generally content with the current situation.
- adrianN 6y agoAh yes, that's of course also possible, but I think it's a lot less likely, because the shift to EVs needs to happen quite quickly, imho before batteries had time to improve sufficiently.
- tjoff 6y agoAnyone having charger at home will never voluntarily connect the charger at work or in town unless they actually are desperate for charge.
- adrianN 6y agoWhy? Also, most people live in cities. Most people in cities don't have a charger at home.
- jfengel 6y agoMost people in cities don't have cars at all. They use public transportation or ride sharing. Parking a car in a city is expensive, especially since you need to park it both at home and at your destination. Cities are full of cars during the day, but the parking lots empty out at night. They live in less-dense suburbs, where it's comparatively easy to park and comparatively easy to have a charger installed. In the city, many of those who are willing to afford a car at all will also find ways to charge it (including sharing a few charging stations at their garage).
- tjoff 6y ago1. It is a hassle with no benefit. 2. At least one but perhaps several orders of magnitudes more expensive than doing it at home. In part because you can charge overnight when pricing is the lowest. I'd guess most people that have a EV-vehicle have a charger at home.
- adrianN 6y agoBoth points are true today, but need not be true in the future. If everyone plugging in and charging at 20kW around 6pm becomes a problem (at it probably would be one), then the incentives will change.
- greendesk 6y agoThe median driving distance in the EU is 30 km. The electric cars on sale use 15-20 kWh per 100 km. Thus daily routine per median will be 5-7.5 kWh. The current will be even less than the parent’s statement. I recall a study that if 80% of cars were electric in the U.K., it will increase the load on the grid by 10-20%.