2 ms·
As an certified electrical engineer, this is certainly a problem. The main issue is of course how much copper is burried underground and how big transformer cap
by atoav 7mo ago
As an certified electrical engineer, this is certainly a problem. The main issue is of course how much copper is burried underground and how big transformer capacity is.
The first solution is of course to try avoiding farst charging if possible by charging at home or at work over hours if possible. A faster charge will have to be a more expensive charge. Another solution that could ease things a little is to spread the load on the grid over time by drawing it from some local source (e.g. battery)
Imagine a gas station has a beefy energy storage from which it draws the current in short blasts while the battery itself draws it much more spread out over hours.
This is essentially how it is done in much smaller scales (in terms of time, energy and actual physical size) on printed circuit boards using capacitors. If you'd draw the current all the way back from the power supply any bursty load would affect the voltage on the power supply and thus show up in other psrts of the circuit.
But in the end more electrical energy demand by mobility will lead to more electrical demand, period. And as you rightly pointed out that means more infrastructure, more copper in the ground, bigger transformers, more powerplants.
- torginus 7mo agoAh thanks for the expert opinion. I used to be an EE, but I've not been working in the field for a long time Forgive me, but afaik you can't really run truly high voltage AC lines underground - the main issues are electrical arcing and capacitive ground coupling, which leads to losses. HVDC has its own issues as well, mostly having to do with electrolysis, and it being crazy dangerous. I mean, you can, but it's going to be very expensive. By the way, have there been studies of what a 100% EV society's infrastructure look like, especially in countries without access to cheap and abundant renewables? I feel it's going to be quite a challenge, and would only make sense economically as part of a broader reindustrialization effor (which for the record, I support). As for batteries, I think solar/wind require those anyway, and if a solar farm is backed by a huge battery bank, those can probably supply these ludicrous kWs these chargers would need, but transmission is going to be a challenge. I would love to read something that would go in depth on how we would support a renewable based grid that also supports powerful fast chargers, as this I feel this needs to be a part of a society-level project, and I'm growing tired of these 'China's building better electric chargers!!!'-style alarmist articles.
- atoav 7mo agoYeah but I am not talking about high voltage AC under the ground, the bigger problem IMO is literally the last few kilometers to peoples houses. Everything before that costs money as well, but is usually better upgradable by design (at least over here in Europe).