2 ms·

> The pitch is still compelling, but the elephant in the room is cost: renewables (including storage) are cheaper and getting cheaper still. We need to ramp up

> The pitch is still compelling, but the elephant in the room is cost: renewables (including storage) are cheaper and getting cheaper still. We need to ramp up base load capacity so everyone can charge their EVs at night, or run their heat pumps through a cold winter night. We’re not shooting at a static electric usage target. In our house, we have been electrifying everything and it’s quite surprising how much our electricity usage has gone up. In much of the country, you have design-point winter days where you need 90k BTU that’s currently being supplied by heating oil. Even with an efficient heat pump, that’s 12-13 kW, for everyone at the same time, all night. That’s an insane amount of energy storage.

Gibbon1 1y ago
We need people to charge their EV's when the sun is shining. At least in California. But perhaps not Scotland and Germany. Given Californians drive 340 billion miles a year at 3.5 kwh per mile and 2200 hours of sunlight a year. I get you'd need 45 GW of solar to power them. California has something like 16-20 GW. Notable at 35mpg cars use 10 billion gallons of gas. At $4 gallon. $40 billion a year. Solar to power cars would pay for itself economically in a couple of a years.