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Serious question, how would we charge these new high density batteries? Just to charge our current EV's, we need to run dedicated circuits at max capacity and i
by Ralo 3y ago
Serious question, how would we charge these new high density batteries? Just to charge our current EV's, we need to run dedicated circuits at max capacity and it still takes a couple hours. Are we going be running 1000v circuits in our homes? How do we upgrade the local grids to have this amperage in each home? I'm not an EE, but are our current batteries just poor at "absorbing" this energy while our chargers just waste tons? While these new solid state batteries will hold it all? There's high power fast chargers, but I want to come home and plug in my car after work.
It just seems like batteries aren't the bottle neck. It's our efficiency to produce and distribute this electricity.
ICE isn't perfect, but it's an extreme dense form of energy and the output of it rotational energy. Which is exactly what our end goal is.
In electricity production we outsource it, then store it. Basically the same concept as winding up a spring loaded toy then letting it go when we want to use it. The spring isn't the source of power, it's just the energy storage. Just because we made the spring bigger and output more doesn't make it more efficient. Simply mean we need to spin it more, and with more energy.
We cannot even make the electric motors more efficient, we already run at 80-90% efficiency. What will we see? 1% more? 2% more?
It really depends where your energy comes from. If your energy comes from dams/solar/wind, those have low impacts and can be an efficient way to "wind up your spring" but they generally aren't extremely reliable and cannot power an entire city of EVs. If your energy is from coal, those are horribly inefficient. They run around 33% efficency [0].
All this electricity needs to transported but the power lines waste power, the charger wastes power, the AC-DC converters waste power, the EV motor wastes power. It's so many little losses outsourced to someone else.
I like the idea of EV. There's many pros, but far too many cons still. And it's not the cars fault. It's already maximizing what it can do with what it can get.
Personally, the battery pack prices are the biggest killer for me. I drive a 90s Toyota pickup. It's been problem free. I've driven it for years. Unless it rots to the ground, I'll never see a surprise bill in 10-20 years saying I need a new battery pack. My motor could entirely fail and it would be a $500 fix. Not to mention, it's entirely recyclable. People will give me money just for the metal.
It seems like EV is a nice option for rich people at the moment but if the majority switch over, the concept really falls on its face.
Although, high capacity cell phone/laptop batteries would be pretty sweet. However, we already have problems with phones being pretty dangerous.
[0] https://www.energy.gov/fecm/transformative-power-systems#:~:text=The%20average%20coal%2Dfired%20power,States%20operates%20near%2033%25%20efficiency https://www.energy.gov/fecm/transformative-power-systems#:~:....
- recursive 3y ago> How do we upgrade the local grids to have this amperage in each home? Anecdote alert: The solar panels on my roof generate more power than I use driving my EV. Maybe the future is distributed.
- Ralo 3y agoI love the idea of solar panels, and being fully independent without reliance on government systems. Not to mention, the sun hitting your roof is energy you don't even want. Why not convert that back into electricity? But that price tag is brutal. I assume to solar panel your roof would be around $20k+. Plus the price of an EV. These aren't items you can really buy used either. Old/weak EV batteries aren't "repairable" like an old car is. It just comes back to my point of it being a nice luxury for rich people. I keep my budget for my vehicles at $5k max. I will never see a new/used EV & solar panel system for that price.
- Diederich 3y agoWe do 95+% of our charging at home on 120VAC at 12 amps, which is about 1500 watts. For our mileage use we're charging perhaps 75% of the time. I found at 1200W panel on Amazon for less than $400. Various realities will substantially increase that number, but it's still not too expensive just to solar charge your car at home if you don't have a substantial commute.
- baking 3y agoDo you only recharge during the day? How do you think that solar energy gets to your car at night? You rely on the network to consume your solar power during the day AND charge your car at night.
- recursive 3y agoI only do that because it's stable and reliable. If it wasn't I'd get a power wall or similar. Instability seems to happen at times of peak demand. Which is notable in that it pretty much never overlaps with times I charge my car.