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> By contrast, a combined cycle power plant gets over 60%. Over 25% of this is then lost in transmission and distribution[0] (down to 45%). Then 10-25% of that
by philipallstar 6mo ago
> By contrast, a combined cycle power plant gets over 60%.
Over 25% of this is then lost in transmission and distribution[0] (down to 45%). Then 10-25% of that lost in charging the car[1] (down to 40%). Finally, the car itself loses about 10-15% of that[2] (down to 35%).
[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/322834/transmission-distribution-and-other-losses-of-the-public-electricity-distribution-system-in-the-united-kingdom-uk https://www.statista.com/statistics/322834/transmission-dist...
[1] https://go-e.com/en/magazine/ev-charging-losses https://go-e.com/en/magazine/ev-charging-losses
[2] https://evreporter.com/understanding-the-complete-efficiency-picture-of-electric-vehicles https://evreporter.com/understanding-the-complete-efficiency...
- 0cf8612b2e1e 6mo agoThat first chart is in absolute units, not percentage. 25TWh annual distribution losses off of ~300TWh usage per year is 8% loss.
- philipallstar 6mo agoOh! Sorry, yes. @dang can I edit it, please?
- hgomersall 6mo agoTotal UK electricity consumption is around 300 TWh annually. That would put the grid losses at less than 10% based on your link. The charging is never as bad as 25% (internal house losses are negligible for any sensible charging rate) and the car is typically ~12% charging loss. Moreover, EVs recover quite a bit too. Even in purely dissipative driving (highway driving), I get around 4 miles/kWh, which is about 4 times better than an ICE vehicle. Furthermore, if you're going to include distributional losses, then let's also drop the available petrol by 10-15% to account for refining etc. Finally, on anything resembling a sunny day, my car charges entirely of rooftop solar, so what efficiency do we assign to that?