Have you read about solid state batteries, George ? This is just one new technology that is being produced.
With respect Harold, there is ALWAYS some new Cutting edge, game changing world revolutionizing vaporware in the pipeline. About .5% of them (if that) ever make it through the investor stimulating media feel good reports. I learned a long time ago these " New technology's" are not worth a cracker till you can go buy them off the showroom floor. How many new revolutionary engines have you read about in the last 10, 20, or 30 years? how many of them amounted to ANYTHING. None is how many. Last new engine design to be put into real use was the Rotary back in the early 70's.
Fact is every thing running around today bar the insignificant number of ev's still use steam engine technology at the heart of them.
If enough people put up solar panels and can charge from them, it will help with reducing demand on the grid.
Most people here at least have 2-5 Kw on their roofs. That's still going to be a powerful shortfall if everyone is trying to charge an electric car.
With houses and blocks getting smaller, the amount of space to put panels is very restricted and what about Unit blocks? Where my mate is there are 50 car spots and that's probably about half what is needed. Can you imagine 50 cars in the one place plugging in? Many may only need 10Kwh say but multiply that times 50 and divide by 8 hours to charge.... World is going to run out of copper and Aluminium to make enough cables capable of carrying that sort of current to everyone.
Yes, after hours will need to be dealt with for conserving/storing generated power. Flow batteries are being used for power station backup during peak demands. They could be stored anywhere alt energy is produced and used for powering homes, etc. after hours.
What does this all cost? What are the spin offs of these things as far as resources, emissions, contamination etc in the cradle to grave lifecycle? I know things are always reported in the most favorable way possible but that's never the real picture. When you look into them objectively, a lot of these green and supposedly clean technologies are far worse than the the evil, terrible ones they are supposed to replace. What Pollution do they cause?
I'm wondering how all these tons of lead, lithium etc are going to go and how much of it will find it's way to the environment? anyone other than a dreamer would have to see by sheer numbers even a minuscule percentage is going to add up to a LOT of this stuff being released so we are back to square one and may just be better off with the emissions we have now.
Reducing USAGE is where this will all come into play.
No one is good at reducing usage and again, you could use NO power other than that to charge your electric and you are still going to sucking down Gigawatts more power than before.
Just think about all the overhead canopies at all the gasoline stations that could have solar panels feeding batteries and charge cars. NO, they can't charge 10 cars at a time, but, every little bit will help.
Maybe... but honestly, I doubt it.
The reality is there is simply no practical way to offset the demand of these things. It would be huge and like nothing ever seen before.
I remember maybe 8-9 years back there was a LOT of concern with our electricity Grid. My Mates father was the CEO of the biggest utility in the country and they were having a heart attack over the increase in power demand due to the uptake of AC systems. My mates father was concerned they were 18 Months away from Meltdown. By a stroke of blind dumb luck, solar also started to be taken up quickly and the interest free schemes and higher FITS the gubbermint offered in the name of clean energy was really to try and prop up the grid by having localised power. It was touch and go there for a while but they scraped through. Like my friends Dad whom had a massive heart attack and quad bypass and decided to call the job quits before it made him quit.
From what he has told me, there has still been relatively little spent on the grid and when the sun don't shine it's far from a 100% reliable proposition.
I reckon maybe as few as 5K electrics could cause a lot of concerns in the greater metro area.
I saw some articles last night on the web media about the UK banning Diesel and petrol car sales by 2040. I thought what a total and utter wank which will never happen but I bet everyone laps it up like Koolaid. Much to my surprise, there were a significant amount of comments from people basically saying " Where is all the power going to come from?" Many cited rolling blackouts and problems with adequate power supply now and foresaw the problems when you at least doubled the demand. A savvy few pointed out the huge infrastructure the electric transport sector would need and noted that power in their region either came from coal or nuke so even with nuke, the amount of waste piling up would quickly become a bigger problem that it is now. And there is NO real soloution to nuke waste.
Mostly a LOT of people are just too lazy to help themselves, so, need these fast services to get them over the hump, while they play games on phones, facebook, twitter, etc. and waste a LOT of their lives on stupid crap.
CORRECT!
But.... I have seen reason for that to a degree.
I just purchased a new home. In looking around I was amazed to see how homes built in the last 20 years are all dedicated to incompetent, useless people and cut the legs from under those that can change a lightbulb or tap washer themselves. There is barely room in these places for a cheap screwdriver set let alone a practical place to put a proper tool set nor anywhere you could use it.
Every agent is putting the title of " Entertainer" on their homes which means anything practical is just not a possibility. And I'm talking about a house here, they are being out out done about 3:1 by flats and duplexes atm.
People are being dumbed down at a frightening rate because to a significant degree, they have no way to be independent and do things for themselves.
I had to move a long way from the city to get some space for a shed and workshop let alone decent garden.
I $#|+ you not, I went to an auto parts store today and bought a couple of stop/ tail lamps for my trailer. The guy rang them up and asked if I needed them fitted? The sand went through my mental gears as I was trying to figure out WTF he was talking about fitting. I finally asked ans said sorry mate, need what fitted. He held up the Pkt of tail light globes. I just looked and said are your fing serious? He said yes we offer a fitting service.
I said great, next time my 4WD needs a clutch you can fit that because it's a bastard of a job and I don't want to do it again.
He said we don't do clutches. I said well it will be hard for you to fit those for me because they are for the trailer I just completely re wired this morning and it's at home.
I was in my filthy clothes, had filthy hands and the guy asks me if I need a tail light fitted?
Never been so insulted in all my life and I can tell you, there are plenty of people whom have gone out their way to insult me to the best of their ability!
We all saw the effects of $5.00 gasoline and diesel. Got a LOT of people thinking, changing lifestyles. If anyone doesn't think this will happen again, just wait a little longer.
Hmm. Americans complain about fuel prices much of the rest of the western world would think was a bargain. It's regularly over $6 of your gallons here and that's cheap compared to the UK or NZ. I have never cease to be amazed at the fixation Americans have with "gas" prices yet year after year the biggest selling Vehicle is a V8 f-150/250. Seems people always want cheaper but rarely do you hear them talk of downsizing and using less?.
Hmm, you need a ute to haul bales of hay in the City or to drop the kids off and pick them up from soccer in right?
Also Amazes me how people in the US always seem to talk about the source of their oil being the middle east when the great majority of it comes from Canada.
[/quote] I don't know about Aus, but, down here, in the jungle, gasoline is still nearly $5.00 a gallon and electricity, which I make part of myself, is nearing 30 cents per Kwh. We cut back to just 300 Kwh per month and am going much lower IF I ever get the damn crate that should have been here 2 months ago.
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Where my dad is 3.5 Hours from Sydney Fuel is cheap at $6.50 per gal ( More for Diesel!) and electricity is 36c Kwh but I think it just went up as did our power here. I was looking at feed in tarrifs just last night and the highest anywhere ( with surprise , surprise, a high supply cost is 12C kwh. the sell rate from that company was .41C. Most FIT's are 6-8C.
It's all well and good to be green and environmental when big biz or Gummermints are making money but the second they stand to loose a buck, all goes out the window. If they really were committed to all they say, they would make it financially viable and fair for people to generate their own power.
I hope to be picking up 7Kw worth of panels this weekend ( Providing the sellers hold true to their word which seems rare these days) and will be back feeding into my analogue meters so I get a 1:1 return on the power I generate instead of an insult.
I actually wouldn't mind an electric Run around. I have looked at doing an EV conversion but it's cost would be way beyond something you'd just do for fun with no real return Value. I can run around now for nothing and keep all the greenwashed happy in my 3 Ton 4WD that runs on used Veg oil. Put some drums of oil in the back and do a 2500Km round trip once or twice a year with no problems.
Other than Novelty Value, there is no reason or benefit in an electric and loads of drawbacks as far as practicality goes. For an electric, I would provide my own power for it either by panels or a Veg fueled Generator. Like Bio fuels, they are fine for the nutters like me and people like us that are happy to get off our arses and do something for ourselves.
As for mainstream use of EV's, looking into it I have realised that it's far from a matter of batterys, it's how are you going to generate the extra Gigawatts of power that would be needed for a largely electric private fleet. No matter how far they go or what battery's are in them, the power has to come from somewhere and the amount required would easily be a doubling of domestic consumption as it is now.
That's going to take a lot of solar panels and when it rains for a week or month, it's going to be a lot of power that has to be sent from afar.