I'm surprised that Tesla vehicles don't have solar panels on the bodywork so they can charge when in the sun.
The sad reality is that only about 4% of the world's surface can make an economic go of renewable energy in its current technological form. Not to say that that won't change, but the green revolution is not going to happen next week. Germany spent two trillion euro's trying to do it and they're now burning not just coal but the worst kind of coal there is for emissions.
As far as I can see your calculation is still wrong, you are still working on the same flawed assumptions.
1, You are still assuming EV's use the same amount of energy as Gasoline cars, when infact gasoline cars are only 30% - 40% efficient and EV's are about 85% - 90% efficient. (that would halve your energy requirement straight away)
2, You aren't allowing for the fact that once you stop refining gasoline you will have freed up a lot of electricity capacity that normally goes towards refining that gasoline. (That would cover about at least 50% of the Evs that need charging)
3, you are assuming the grid is already operating at 100% capacity, ignoring the fact that EV's could be charged at off peak times when the grid is only operating at 30% of its full capacity. (that use of the latent capacity would easily charge the bulk of Ev's by itself)
4, Natural growth in Solar by the Ev owners themselves and the charging companies.
Some great points brought up by all, an interesting topic, that will be ongoing for a long time IMO.
I'm sure you are right, there are several aspects that haven't been addressed, the power generation currently used to make petrol, is fossil fuel fired so therefore it will have to be replaced anyway.We can jump down this rabbit hole; however it will take up an enormous amount of our time and mental energy.
To get a precise metric we would need to factor in many variables like the energy cost to produce batteries relative to internal combustion engines, how often batteries need to be changed over, capacity factors of energy supply, transmission loss of network, battery power loss at recharge stations, recycling energy costs of batteries, stranded asset costs, associated infrastructure costs for battery stations, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I am happy knowing that it will cost trillions of dollars in the USA, and hundreds of billions of dollars in Australia; hopefully not at the expense of the taxpayer.
Here is an interesting read: https://www.masterresource.org/electric-vehicles/energy-usage-cost-gasoline-vs-electric/
Scomo can ask our Chief Scientist to get a team together and produce a full report on this issue. These people get paid to do this work.
I'm sure you are right, there are several aspects that haven't been addressed, the power generation currently used to make petrol, is fossil fuel fired so therefore it will have to be replaced anyway.
Then there is the issue of the rissidual chemical waste from depleted batteries, in their current configuration, cars can be quite easily recycled.
Then the issue of finite resources to make the batteries, there is always talk of new battery technology around the corner, untill now the road leading to the corner is proving long and straight.
15 million gallons of gasoline an hour = 1,875 billion BTU an hour
1,875 billion BTU an hour = 549508197 KW used every hour = ~549GW used every hour
549GW per hour x 24 hours a day x 365 days a week = 4809240 GW hours of electricity needed per year.
We would however be using far less of it.People seem to forget that we still need to burn the gas/oil to produce the electricity, to then recharge the batteries
The first thing with the report is, they are quoting land area required for molten salt storage generators, which in 2013 was the holy grail.How much solar would it take to power the U.S.?
Critics claim that there simply isn’t enough land in the U.S. for solar to power the country. While it’s not an immediately practical question, it’s still fun to ponder. So, ignoring practical constraints like storage and grid technology, let’s explore whether we can fit enough solar to electrify the U.S.
https://www.freeingenergy.com/how-much-solar-would-it-take-to-power-the-u-s/
We would however be using far less of it.
Even the worst power station currently operating in the main grid in Australia achieves efficiency comparable to an average petrol car engine. Any modern power station is very much better than that.
The step missing in the calculations is the thermodynamic efficiency of the gasoline fuelled engine versus the efficiency of batteries and an electric motor.
There's no need for electricity to replace the heat input from gasoline, since heat itself from a car engine is not useful beyond minor amounts, it only needs to produce the same motive power to the wheels.
Rough is an understatement, I can see you logic but as I said its just flawed for the reasons I have statedWell my assumptions are very rough,
If the electrical grid capacity isn't a big deal, then the private sector shouldn't need any government funding or support.
Rough is an understatement, I can see you logic but as I said its just flawed for the reasons I have stated
I agree, thats what I said from the start, it won't require much support at all, electric charging infrastructure is cheaper and simpler than petrol refuelling infrastructure, its so simple most of us just charge in our garage, and the public chargers are unmanned systems that install much quicker than building a petrol station.
I still expect that we will be burning oil, gas and coal in our power stations to generate the electricity to recharge the batteries.
It was a simple and quick calculation to get a rough idea of the energy involved and the costs.
You can try to persuade our politicians that it isn't a big deal to go 100% EV.
yes for a while at least.
but 100% of gasoline comes from oil.
where as electricity comes from multiple sources, such as coal, gas, oil, nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, biomass and others.
Even if you decide to continue using oil for some of the electrical demand its still better than a combustion engine and refinery model, an you have a whole list of alternatives that can compete, your aren't stuck with one energy source.
For a country that is a net importer of oil, having alternatives is a very good thing
People seem to forget that we still need to burn the gas/oil to produce the electricity, to then recharge the batteries
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