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The march towards an all-EV future hit a major roadblock. What went wrong?
(www.businessinsider.com)
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this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2024
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Technology
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This article neglects the state of charging and grid infrastructure. We can't immediately convert all cars to EV, we don't have the grid capacity or enough charging stations, yet. Each level 3 (fast charging station) is a custom layout and they take time to design and implement.
Source: I design EV charging stations across the US.
For those not in the industry, "grid capacity" here doesn't refer to power generation, but power distribution. With renewables, generation is comparatively easy (storage notwithstanding). But getting the power where it needs to go is not. Right now, thanks to a grain-oriented steel squeeze, the lead time on transformers is longer than the commissioning time for an entire solar farm. Switchgear is also hard to get your hands on, especially with SF6 being phased out.
The good news is that these long lead times are caused by demand. Right now, utilities are racing to expand and reinforce the grid in preparation for the next 30 year's worth of EV demand, renewable storage/transmission, and distributed generation. Utilities are risk-averse by nature, and do not move without conviction, so it's rare and noteworthy to see this kind of industrial momentum.
Source: I design MV distribution equipment in the US.
I agree, but personally I'm glad they're putting a strain on the grid. The grid has been crumbling for decades, I'm happy to see new infrastructure being built to support the loads - and most of it renewable.
Also, while EVs do take a lot of power, it’s less than an average amarican air conditioner. We rolled those out to most american homes in just twenty years. The current grid build out is less an unprecedented increase, and more a return to form after decades of coasting on our past success by using efficiency gains to avoid capacity expansion.
Exactly. California and Texas were struggling to keep up before EVs (probably because of AC actually). There is no reason they can't upgrade their infrastructure to compensate.
Well sure, but there's no suggestion of converting "all cars" to EVs "immediately". Even if ICE cars were banned for new sales tomorrow, it'd still take a decade and more for the existing rolling stock to gradually be replaced by new vehicles.
A 10 year period for utility companies to gradually upgrade their infrastructure doesn't sound desperately unrealistic.
China built an international train system in less, surely something that's basically a fancy outlet can be well executed by the Greatest Nation
We also don't have the grid support for everyone to start charging at home. At least not where I live. At the moment even solar panels are becoming a problem, major peaks during sunny days, where energy prices even go negative and people with dynamic energy contracts turn panels off.