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Remember when we didn't have enough electricity for electric cars?
by rconti 3mo ago
Remember when we didn't have enough electricity for electric cars?
- buckle8017 3mo agoHave you seen the price of electricity? That's with only about 5% of cars being electric. We've consumed nearly all of the slack in transmission capacity. I'm expecting transmission costs to balloon.
- odie5533 3mo agoIs that from the popularity of evs, or from data centers?
- warumdarum 3mo agoThe thoughtfull hyped reality downvoter must know before doing the deed ..
- asdff 3mo agoAt least in California it is felt really among people who have private power providers that need to both turn a profit and appease shareholders while also paying out various lawsuits and penalties from causing wildfires with poorly maintained equipment. Compare those rates to what you'd get under a municipal power company like LADWP and the difference is dramatic.
- kulahan 3mo agoIt doesn’t really matter if, at the end of the day, our current usage is too high and consumers see EVs as a pro-social purchase. I don’t really think they’re a problem, personally, but it IS the topic of this comment thread, so it’s an appropriate place to complain about this particular issue. Edit: also, the problem with charging vehicles isn’t really home owner cars, it’s tractor-trailers.
- michaelmrose 3mo agoIt's more like 2% of cars on the road you are thinking about portion of new cars sold.
- Schiendelman 3mo agoThe price of electricity in Seattle has effectively dropped - we went from a flat 13.4c/kWh to an opt-in time of use system with an overnight rate of 8c/kWh. My bill dropped by a third.
- gessha 3mo agoIs capacity a static quantity?
- kalleboo 3mo agoThe article discusses how the biggest problem is peak demand, but that midday electric prices have fallen as solar has grown. EVs are perfect for charging during solar peak and making use of energy that would have had to be curtailed, they can even feed back into the grid helping during peak demand.
- asdff 3mo agoFrom the headline: >the problem is getting it where it's needed. Same issue with EV rollout. EVs are great if you have a single family home and a few grand to spend on outfitting a fast charger. Most apartment renters however are shit out of luck. I mean it has been how many years now of EV cars on the road and virtually no sweeping buildout of EV chargers in apartment complexes that I can see at least. There was a push for like maybe a half dozen token ev charging spots in new parking garage construction but that has been it for years in terms of that scale, a sort of nicety not something you can bank on having when you go to one of these garages. Street parking EV hookup has also not been rolling out at any serious scale. There is 1 single ev street parking spot in my neighborhood; they put it in years ago and nothing more has been built since. I know someone with an EV in an apartment without a hookup for them, and charging it is a legitimate constant chore as they have to plan to go somewhere offsite to do it. Frequently they can't take the EV and have to resort to the gas car because the EV is at 20% charge or something. I think what we are seeing with EVs is akin to general K shaped economy phenomenon. The rich and rich government leadership assume rollout must be going well, since they can charge conveniently at their house and they see many other Teslas in the parking lot of the country club or the luxury shopping center. Never mind actually considering how a renter's experience might be different, and renters are the bulk of our cities.
- Terr_ 3mo agoThere's definitely a gulf between living-situations, and people assuming their local experience is nationally representative. I had a car-purchase decision a few years ago, and ultimately I had to choose based on the housing I had, not the housing I wish I had. It was frustrating to hear a lot of "you can just X" from folks who couldn't seem to imagine an apartment or chaotic street-parking.
- lostlogin 3mo agoThere is another sibling comment saying that it works just fine with charging at fast chargers. I would find that irritating as it’s still time consuming - slow charging at home suits me, but as you say, requires a suitable home.
- noosphr 3mo agoWe still don't. Until free/at cost car charging is provided at work when the sun shines you're just moving the place where combustion happens. This may be a worth while trade in downtowns where the main form of car pollution is engine exhaust at an average of 20mph.
- Schiendelman 3mo agoAll three employers I've had over the last ten years now offer free charging at work. New houses everywhere have been putting in extra circuits for charging for years. Apartment buildings are commonly built with chargers now, and older ones are starting to see retrofits. Electricity generation is almost always much, much cleaner than burning fuel in an internal combustion engine, and has been since long before EVs became available. I think you may need to reset some of your assumptions. :)
- noosphr 3mo agoAnd in Singapore I can get 10Gbps home internet. The future is not evenly distributed and the outliers matter little. >Electricity generation is almost always much, much cleaner than burning fuel in an internal combustion engine, and has been since long before EVs became available. Depends entirely on your assumptions about where you draw the line for emissions from second and third order effects. Saudi oil is so easy to get out of the ground that compared to coal it's practically green.
- Schiendelman 3mo agoYou've replied to me before - I really wish you would engage positively.
- arjie 3mo agoI think Elon Musk would have happily built gas turbines on high-rises if we let him build them in the middle of the city to power those electric cars. I don't think that's a good idea, though.
- alightsoul 3mo agoYeah seemingly this is not a problem with data centers. I am sure it was astroturfing all along. Also you never hear about climate change even though that's the cause of the heat wave in Europe and the US