This is something I have been wondering about ever since more and more things are being converted to electricity, even mandated within a short time - where is the electricity going to come from? Many places already suffer from electricity shortages, what happens when we add to the load?
This article is about California, a leader in the "green" movement, and how they are going to provide charging power to its rapidly expanding electric vehicle fleet. It does not look pretty from here.
In Texas, we will have the same problem. Texas is already on the brink of grid failure due to lack of generating capacity, we cannot build power plants to keep up with the demand and we are shutting down plants left and right. To top it off, I don't think the politicians want to solve the problem, it's easier just to kick it down the road until the whole thing collapses.
I'm not sure generation capacity could be increased in time even if we wanted to do it. There are too many roadblocks preventing it ranging from investors to government regulations to environmental activists etc.
SOURCEAs California rapidly boosts sales of electric cars and trucks over the next decade, the answer to a critical question remains uncertain: Will there be enough electricity to power them?
State officials claim that the 12.5 million electric vehicles expected on California’s roads in 2035 will not strain the grid. But their confidence that the state can avoid brownouts relies on a best-case — some say unrealistic — scenario: massive and rapid construction of offshore wind and solar farms, and drivers charging their cars in off-peak hours.
Under a groundbreaking new state regulation, 35% of new 2026 car models sold in California must be zero-emissions, ramping up to 100% in 2035. Powering the vehicles means the state must triple the amount of electricity produced and deploy new solar and wind energy at almost five times the pace of the past decade.
The Air Resources Board enacted the mandate last August — and just six days later, California’s power grid was so taxed by heat waves that an unprecedented, 10-day emergency alert warned residents to cut electricity use or face outages. The juxtaposition of the mandate and the grid crisis sparked widespread skepticism: How can the state require Californians to buy electric cars if the grid couldn’t even supply enough power to make it through the summer?
Reply With Quote
...Ben
Originally Posted by Truckman
