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I like EVs, except for their cost. ...
And the pollution created in generating the electricity. I don't want to sidetrack this thread with an extended discussion on that, we've had them before, but the short version is that EVs will add demand to the grid, and as long as renewable electricity is less than 100%, those EVs are tapping into the dirty electricity. It's a matter of marginal generation, averages don't matter much.
Currently, 70% of oil usage in the US is for transportation, so this is where EVs can help.
But how much of that is long distance driving, (semis getting ~ 5 mpg, trains getting higher mpg, but still consuming a lot of oil), where EVs are not even a consideration for the foreseeable future?
... The cost of solar power keeps coming down, but we have no place to store the production excess of the day. An EV is just as good a place as any to store the excess energy captured daily.
That always sounds good on the surface, but that means a large % of those EVs have to plugged in at midday to be available to absorb any excess. And many days, there will be no excess, but those EVs need to be 'run down', ready to absorb it if there is, and also ready to be charged if the sun isn't shining, since they were run down to begin with. A smart charging system (overcast tomorrow, so fully charge tonight) could overcome some of this.
But also consider, in many parts of the country, you would need a LOT of solar PV to have excesses often enough to even make it worthwhile to absorb with a system like a bunch of scattered EVs. We now have ~ 0.4% of our electricity from solar. We would need a LOT more to see excesses routinely. And here in the Midwest, the output of panels is so much lower in winter, that you wouldn't have near year-round excesses to recover until there was REALLY a LOT of solar PV. And if you can't do it routinely, and during most of the year, it's harder to get the costs back (chargers available during the day in company parking lots, instead of charging at home at night).
Add to that - these batteries will be degraded by extra charge/discharge cycles. EV batteries are among the highest cost batteries we have, since they need to be small, light, withstand a crash, and last many years. I'll wager that cheap, stationary batteries, or some other energy storage will be a LOT more practical than using up precious kWh of EV batteries.
IIRC, only one of the Tesla PowerWalls is designed for daily charge/discharge - and it is far more $/kWh than the one designed for occasional backup use.
However, with oil price so low, that makes it more difficult for the EV to compete. It is interesting to see how it will play out.
True, but I think it is also keeping NG low, and that helps to offset coal, which might be doing more good than EVs?
-ERD50