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Ive tried to explain this issue to EVs fanatics, but nobody listens. Anytime you mention energy transmision issues - you get total backlash. We wasted EU mone
by pojzon 4y ago
Ive tried to explain this issue to EVs fanatics, but nobody listens.
Anytime you mention energy transmision issues - you get total backlash.
We wasted EU money on pointless stuff while we could have upgraded our transit cables etc.
- pornel 4y agoBacklash is probably because such argument can sound like “better give up on EVs and go back to ICE” rather than “let’s invest more in the energy infrastructure”. If you call people fanatics, they won’t believe you’re making a good faith argument.
- kitbrennan 4y agoNeither investment in EVs and repairing transmission issues live in isolation and both can be invested in at the same time. Solving one issue might also help solve the other (e.g. charging EVs can occur at non-peak times which balances energy demands, and in future EVs could be used as batteries to discharge into the grid during peak times).
- vorpalhex 4y agoCalifornia has to shut down their grid occasionally just because it's in such poor repair that wildfires are a risk. I can't imagine how they are going to handle everyone getting EVs.
- gibolt 4y agoSolar and distributed storage help fight this. A significant amount of charging off peak also actually reduces the load, making things more reliable and cleaner. Fire related grid shutdowns are usually hyperlocal, meaning the few who need to charge during that time can just run a town over. (keep in mind that EVs can be charged just less than once a week for average use)
- iso1631 4y agoEVs are literally distributed storage, a Tesla Model S has a 90kWh battery -- that's enough to run the owner's house for 3 days.
- chrisseaton 4y agoIn most places electricity cables are buried. In California they have them blowing around in the trees so they start fires.
- formerly_proven 4y agoStreet-level and medium-voltage distribution, sure, but nobody wants to bury 100+ kV lines unless they really have to, because it's hugely expensive and also has much higher losses.
- mbreese 4y agoThis isn’t true. In most places I’ve been, electrical lines have all been elevated on poles. Where I currently live, there is a pretty intensive line clearing program each spring to keep the lines clear. Even in places where house level lines were buried, the middle transmission lines were still elevated. And I believe all high voltage transmission lines are above ground. The difference is that California historically has fire prone conditions. It’s not like the rest of the country is doing something different and California has done something inherently wrong. It’s that California did what the rest of the country was doing, but without conditions to support it.
- chrisseaton 4y ago> This isn’t true. Most countries don’t have regular residential streets with power lines up in the air.
- grandmczeb 4y agoThe fires are mostly caused by large transmission lines outside of urban areas, not local lines on residential streets.
- chrisseaton 4y agoFor example https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/10/15/pge-voluntarily-shut-off-power-north-california-wildfires/1646686002/ https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/10/15/pg... - these are normally buried elsewhere.
- Reason077 4y agoThe transmission issues will be solved: more and more HVDC interconnections start construction in Europe every year. Grids that still rely heavily on coal and natural gas can, and will, be improved. An EV bought today will only get cleaner as the grid gets cleaner. A new fossil-fuel vehicle today will always be dependent on fossil fuels, and will always pollute at least as much as the day it was purchased.
- foxhill 4y agoeven if it ran on gasoline created from carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere?
- adrianN 4y agoWe don't have perfectly impact-free ways of creating energy. So using less energy to achieve the same goal is always better. And carbon dioxide is not the only pollutant that cars emit.
- zionic 4y agoThat gasoline wouldn’t be an energy source, it’d be an extremely crappy battery. Far better to just send the power via grid to an EV @95% then toss 60% or more of it to make a gallon of gas
- foxhill 4y ago
- spaceman_2020 4y agoGermany’s obsession with solar and wind is absolutely baffling. It takes very little to know that Germany simply does not have the conditions for large scale solar. Yet it was pushed so heavily in lieu of nuclear power. Absurd.
- number6 4y agoNuclear isn't going well for France right now. And most of the EU uran comes from Russia
- spaceman_2020 4y agoYeah but nuclear fuel can be sourced from elsewhere - it does not have the steep physical barriers of nat gas. And any existing nuclear power issues can be solved. The amount of sunlight your receive, however, will always be the same.
- number6 4y agoHow do you solve that the rivers are too hot to cool the reactors to produce more energy?
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoWe have built reactors in literal deserts, but the cooling system needs to bw different ofcourse https://min.news/en/tech/30bdf6748162428883857d361132e177.html https://min.news/en/tech/30bdf6748162428883857d361132e177.ht...
- voqv 4y agoThis meme has to end, there’s only one nuclear power plant in France (Blayais) that has no cooling towers, and another 4 have to occasionally throttle power output due to ecological concerns (used water is too hot, they currently have temporary exceptions).
- pyrale 4y ago
- zionic 4y agoI’m just exhausted from arguing with the electrically illiterate. HVDC makes transmission from state to state trivial at almost no loss. We should have a national HVDC grid so that a breeze in Texas might power a toaster in Connecticut. Instead we have another $XX Billion for Ukraine. Another $13B here for a new carrier we’ll never need etc etc. So much waste everywhere while fundamental problems go unsolved.
- atemerev 4y agoThe fall of Ukraine will mean the beginning of the new Soviet Union (but even _more_ evil), and most probably a world war, so it should be prevented at all costs possible. Not event to mention that the invasion is plainly evil, and should be repealed.
- effie 4y ago> new Soviet Union Any reason to think this? Did Soviet Union form by Russia invading and conquering another country? No, it was a result of fall of the Russian empire and the Russian civil war. The conditions now are very different. Fall of Ukraine would mean political win for Putin and his acolytes, maybe another invasion later on. But Soviet Union? More like stronger Russia, a revert to the Russian Empire.
- PeterisP 4y agoIt's not a matter of cost, there's no political desire for a national HVDC grid so that a breeze in Texas might power a toaster in Connecticut - Texas has explicitly refused connecting to the rest of the country for many years.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]