2019 Chevy BOLT

[freebeard]

I'm given to understand...

How was the eclipse?

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Is $20k in repairs an annual budget, cause that's a ton of money. Seems you could replace the charging cable every month and spend less than $20k per year, so why is it so expensive?

That's the big problem with DCFC, that it has no path towards sustainability. If consumers paid the actual cost to install and operate them, they'd probably be paying $2/kWh, in which case rational people would just drive an ICE.

My prior research found that chargers need to be utilized 8hrs per day to break even on cost, and that's for the cheap 50kW units. Higher output units cost more to install, cost more in demand charges, and require even higher levels of utilization to break even on cost.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1)There is absolutely zero specificity in TEXDOT's reporting, so we don't really 'know' what it that they're telling us.
2) a guess is that: Electrifyamerica pays $ 150,000 for the land, permits, ditching, cabling, transformers, ABB-manufactured charge station, labor, telephone network, global support staff, etc.. to place a single new service 'port' into service for the 1st time.
3) After that, the hardware will require $ 19,565 at some 'interval' in order to keep that port in service ( we don't know this time interval ).
4) Three-years is currently the repayment interval for a solar farm or wind turbine. If so for an EV charging port, then ElectrifyAmerica is grossing $50,000/year/port, will break even @ 36-months, then begin returning a 'profit' in the 37th month, selling at $ 0.42/kWh for EA phone APP members ( $0.64-kWh for 'non-members' .
5) All expenses are tax-deductable, including parts and labor to repair/replace/upgrade.................
6) Texas alone is getting $80-million/ year, for five years, from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, for EV charging.
7) North Central Texas Council of Governments is being awarded tens of $ millions from other sources for EV infrastructure.
8) ElectrifyAmerica is currently getting $ 15.024/gallon for their 'electrolene,'in the Walmart parking lot, while REGULAR UNLEADED is selling 50-yards away at 'Murphy's' for $ 3.299/gallon.
9) To compete with a 32-mpg Chevy TRAX CUV, the BOLT needs to return 141-mpg, which it will just do if I keep my foot out of the go-pedal.
10) Charging at home cuts my 'fuel' cost by 69%, @ $ 4.3816/gallon-e.
11) Aerostealth has just under 10-kW of onsite solar PV he can charge with, and then $ 0.047/kWh, time-of-use from El Paso Electric ( $ 2.527/Gallon-e ).

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by aerohead

-
3) After that, the hardware will require $ 19,565 at some 'interval' in order to keep that port in service ( we don't know this time interval ).
4) Three-years is currently the repayment interval for a solar farm or wind turbine. I so for an EV charging port, then ElectrifyAmerica is grossing $50,000/year/port, will break even @ 36-months, then begin returning a 'profit' in the 37th month, selling at $ 0.42/kWh for EA phone APP members ( $0.64-kWh for 'non-members'.

$20k might include demand and electricity costs?

A charger needs to gross more than $50k to break even given that demand and electricity costs need to be accounted for, and maintenance, and interest on the construction loan, and repaying the principal amount.

Assuming your $50k gross figure, and assuming an average of 50 kW rate of charge, that's 2000 hours of charging that needs to occur for each and every charger. That's about 6 hours of utilization each and every day, which represents a 25% utilization rate. The figures I've seen said it needs to be a 33% or more utilization rate to break even, especially for the faster chargers.

Gas pumps need something like 5% utilization rate to break even.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by freebeard

How was the eclipse?

Our 'eclipse' was mostly 'eclipsed' by clouds. We ended up in Uvalde's public park. Got only a few 'glimpses' between clouds. 4.5-minutes of 'night time' , a temperature drop.
No regrets. I had an advancing respiratory infection. It's a miracle I'm not on a ventilator in an UCU somewhere. Five days without sleep.
Basket case right now.

[freebeard]

No regrets. I had an advancing respiratory infection.

I'm empathetic to your plight.

On an unrelated topic, I just updated my signature.

In 1979 my little brother and I went to the Stonehenge replica at Marysville, WA. and my [future-ex]wife took our son to Shaniko, OR. Shaniko was completely overcast, whereas at the Stonehenge replica the Druids pushed a cloud about the size of the Battlestar Galactica out of the way at the last moment.

[redpoint5]

I prefer the 14 side of the river to the 84 side, and Stonehenge is among the delights. There's always someone wanting to drive 40 MPH on that single-lane though.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

$20k might include demand and electricity costs?

A charger needs to gross more than $50k to break even given that demand and electricity costs need to be accounted for, and maintenance, and interest on the construction loan, and repaying the principal amount.

Assuming your $50k gross figure, and assuming an average of 50 kW rate of charge, that's 2000 hours of charging that needs to occur for each and every charger. That's about 6 hours of utilization each and every day, which represents a 25% utilization rate. The figures I've seen said it needs to be a 33% or more utilization rate to break even, especially for the faster chargers.

Gas pumps need something like 5% utilization rate to break even.

The money would be for hardware:
1) on the 'amplifier' portion of the DC-fast-charge power electronics, a 277- 480 VAC, 3-phase power input must be converted to up to 920- volts, involving some sort of forced-air cooled power transistors ( MOSFET, IGFET, ect. ) thermally bedded onto a heat sink.
2) after ' amplification', this AC voltage must pass through a rectifier section full of Shotkey barrier diodes, also thermally bonded to a forced-air-cooled heat sink.
3) if you've lived off the grid, you'll know that inverters and PV power limiters/ trackers, have a limited service lifespan ( PACE, Heart-interface, Sunny-Boy ).
4) perhaps the CCS connectors wear out after so many 'plug/ un-plug' cycles.
5) the oil-cooled, 11,794-lb, 1500 KVA transformer, which all power passes through may also have some fixed lifespan.
6) same for the single ' Trilliant' electric meter.
7) 'Carrington events '

[Piotrsko]

240 rms is about 410 peak to peak, 480 is like 820 +/-a bit. Can get to higher via capacitance doublers, but 800 and 1200 are commercially available although expensive and need a substation. Up to a Kwatt just needs a heatsink or paralleling igbts. Got 300 kw switched load under the hood of the ranger being cooled with two computer fans even on a hot Reno summer day. My motor is the heat limited item.

20 year lifespan on my power electronics, so far. On the DIY solar forum I frequent, the not cheapo chinese inverters have a 20 year life, or so the forum indicates, but that isn't MTBF. Jury is out on vicious EMP events, evidence so far is erratic and inconclusive. Tree falling on system is more hazardous to solar generation so far.

[freebeard]

A Carrington Event would bring additional problems. A Charlemagne Event would moot all the problems.

[aerohead]

Since light travels faster than ions, and since there are solar observatories, around the world, continuously observing the Sun, plus satellites surrounding the Sun, if and when a CME event takes place, and NASA calculates that it's path will intersect that of Earth's magnetosphere, utilities around the planet will have a matter of minutes warning, to 'open-circuit' there infrastructure, until the threat passes.
Even the 'earth-ground' protection of transformers will be interrupted, to prevent telluric currents traveling from the ground, 'upwards' into the transformers from 'below.'
There won't be any 'surprises,' and less risk of service interruptions than ever before.
Even Earth-orbiting satellites can be 'powered down' temporarily in order to protect their electronics from static charges penetrating the magnetosheath.
On-site power generators and grid-scale batteries/ inverters can handle emergency loads until the grid comes back up.
Presently, hotels in Tokyo, Japan can 'run' off the ' micro-grid' bi-directional electric flow from Nissan Leafs parked outside in their parking lots, and onsite hydrogen fuel cells.