5 ms·
Thanks. And how is this formula derived?
by remarkEon 4y ago
Thanks. And how is this formula derived?
- falcolas 4y agoThe magic number of 12000 is the average number of miles a car is driven in a year. So, multiply that by kilowatt hours per mile, and you’ll get the energy consumption of one car per year. Times the number of cars in CA, and you have the amount of power used by cars in CA, and by association the power consumed to charge cars. There are some inefficiencies, but they’re in the 2% range.
- remarkEon 4y agoThanks again. So if your numbers are right, California needs to increase it's electricity production by ~25%. This seems hard, but I think that only because I'm used to other things where increasing output by 25% is very difficult. How much does California increase its electricity output each year? Does PG&E et. al. publish data on that? A quick google is failing me.
- frumper 4y agoWell, it’s more complicated than just A + B. Power is currently more constrained by peak, and most car charging isn’t done during peak. It is easier to produce more off peak than to increase peak. There is also a question of how efficient EVs might be in 13 years. Cars have tended to get incrementally more efficient over time and there is no reason to believe that won’t also happen with EVs.
- falcolas 4y agoHere’s a starting point for finding that data. https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/electric-generation-capacity-and-energy https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/califo...
- rconti 4y agoIt's not that hard. Also, conservation plays a part. CA energy consumption peaked in 2006 and then again came very close to it in 2017. Consumption has been roughly flat for 2 decades. https://www.caiso.com/documents/californiaisopeakloadhistory.pdf https://www.caiso.com/documents/californiaisopeakloadhistory...