Quote:
Originally Posted by ConnClark
So driving an electric car for about one hour a day will double a household's energy usage.
How do you propose to increase electrical efficiency in home to cover that?
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There have been excellent replies to the problem you propose, but I suggest a few more to consider...
As sheepdog points out, the average person doesn't drive anywhere near enough to consume an additional 31 kWh per day. Additionally, electric cars won't replace 100% of the passenger vehicles on the road any time soon. If we're being honest, we clearly aren't talking about doubling the demand of electricity due to EV use. But we are talking about increasing electricity demand by some amount.
One way the increased demand for electricity can be met at minimal monetary and environmental cost is to time EVs to recharge at off-peak periods of the day. Electricity pricing should be structured to give incentive for consuming at off-peak hours. Running electrical production facilities at more consistent output increases efficiency and reduces the need for additional production capacity to be built. (As an aside, the kWh meter at my parent's house was changed to digital and I believe it self-reports now. Strangely, there is no distinction between peak and off-peak pricing.)
Another thing to offset the burden to the electricity infrastructure is to offer consumers an incentive to use their grid connected vehicles as an auxiliary source of power during peak times of electricity demand.
At last, the most likely way that the problem of increased electricity demand will be met is to gradually increase production capacity. Our vehicle fleet isn't going to convert to EV overnight, so the expansion of production capacity will take place over time, keeping relative pace with demand.