When we are all EV drivers

The Natural Philosopher formulated the question :

So put in a bigger substation then. Which is what National Grid and the DNOs are doing (as well as three phase connections for new supplies). Although, as I said before, load balancing helps quite a bit with reducing the peak loading, which is mostly what the substation is concerned about.

Theo

When you look at the energy we use in terms of transport fuel and the energy we use as electricity, its at least a 2:1 grid and power-station upgrade is needed.

If we want electric heating as well, make that 3:1. somewhere north of

And if you want to decarbonise industry as well, make that 5:1 - getting on for 300GW capacity

Only way that's going to happen is a massive investment in nuclear

All costs money, all goes on your bill.

You offering to pay the bill for replacements and upgrades then?

Some people just fail to understand what will be needed for this massive switch to green sources.

ArtStudents? all think that you simple do political agitation, politicians make laws and the right stuff will simply happen. At no cost to them...

Beneath contempt really...

From next May, home and workplace EVSE won't charge (by default) during 9 peak hours

Diesel engines aren't as efficient, maybe 30-40%, so you can reduce that.

It's actually only about 3MW.

Sorry, did I say Only? ;)

Andy

I suspect that most car owners either park on the street or in a car park. You are not alone.

Andy

It's a bit embarrassing actually. Ask me in a year!

Bill

So during the night there's no telling how charged up the car will be? That's no good. The whole idea of having a car is so that you can set off when you need to. I'm writing this at 3.30am and I could easily decide to nip to the supermarket in a bit.

Bill

There is already an inductive charging method, but the transfer efficiency is not all that good. Only useful if you have lots of windmill power to waste :-)

The system was able to charge the truck at a rate of 45 kilowatts, according to Smartroad Gotland."

I was looking for the stationary version of that, and didn't know someone was trying to invent charging while in motion. The article says the next attempt, will be at a higher kilowatt level.

Tesla also has its "electric snake" demo, where a smart cable moves up to a car and plugs into the glowing electric charge input. This was presumably invented so users could go to a Tesla SuperCharger on a rainy day and not have to get out of their car to charge up. There is a video of the demo available. Since a gadget like that is expensive, and likely to be easily damaged, I don't see much chance of that being deployed.

According to this, the snake is not dead yet. There's still a chance it will make it to a SuperCharger.

The pricing on portable gadgets like that ("power packs"), is way too expensive per kilowatt hour. It's probably at least 5X the price of the batteries inside. Small battery power packs are a ripoff.

Sure, it's amusing and all, but the electric petrol pail is only for rich people.

A certain power pack a couple years ago, was £1000 for a single kilowatt-hour pack. The pack was equipped with AC outlets, for convenient usage as a portable power source. In other words, an inverter was included in the design. The battery cells aren't nearly that expensive, if you could get them in quantity from the battery plant.

The price of batteries will only remain reasonable, as long as the large companies duke it out on gigafactories. The history of the battery industry, always led to monopoly situations, which has a negative effect on the usefulness of batteries. Here is hoping there will be lots of gigafactories competing for consumer money.

Paul

You don't always need to fill a BEV.

They don't have to be full, to drive them.

When you have a large large battery, you can speculatively fill them, and have several days of range sitting in the "tank".

Paul

We have a 100A circuit. 2 EV's, 2 EV chargers, 3kW immersion heater for hot water, 14.4kW electric boiler for central heating plus the usual 3kW kettle, 12kW cooker/oven and a microwave, telly, blow dryer washer lighting etc. All works flawlessly with a couple of CT's and timers. It can be done. Never blown the main fuse.

As I have here. Over 200 miles range

Indeed, investment has to be paid for. Otherwise we'd still be on DC supplies from the municipal coal-powered generator and rural folks would have no electricity at all.

Theo