It’s simple and yet so clever. If conscientious drivers turn to electric vehicles on a grand scale, utilities stand to benefit when those long-touted plug-ins finally start plugging in. Now, several electric power companies are considering purchasing thousands of electric vehicles as a way to give car manufacturers a boost and encourage consumer comfort with a new way of driving, the Wall Street Journalreports. Though the cars wouldn’t be ready until 2010 or 2011, the interest on the part of the power industry could form a solid commercial ground for the carmakers as they struggle to stay solvent.
Should utilities become the first major adopters of electric cars, they will also be the first to assess how recharging affects the grid. There’s good reason for their optimism regarding EVs: an assessment released last year by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that more than three-fourths of regional driving needs, including light-duty-vehicles like small trucks, could go electric and be supported by existing infrastructure. The effect of that would be to eliminate the need for more than half of the nation’s oil imports.
The obvious follow-up is to question how utilities produce the power for these gas-snubbing cars. Analyses indicate that the net effect is enormously positive – the WSJ story says that in terms of emissions it would equate to removing 82 million cars from the road – but that’s just the beginning. Think of how much easier it would be to implement carbon capture and sequestration at a handful of power plants, rather than trying to mitigate the emissions from millions of roving vehicles. Consider that new solar and wind farms could add substantially more clean capacity. There’s a vision for clean transport here — one that can arise entirely from existing technology.
But before our streets are transformed into an electric utopia — so quiet! so un-noxious! — a few lingering questions remain. For one, the power industry needs to somehow keep car owners from plugging in during the day en masse. If they are mainly charged at night, as anticipated, the net effect on utilities is anticipated to be low, because that’s the time of day when power plants have idle capacity and don’t require the dirty services of inefficient peaker plants. The estimated 40 miles per charge that most EVs and PIHs are going to get will be sufficient for 80 percent of daily trips, one study shows, but it isn’t enough for everyone. Presumably a lot of car owners would recharge at home during the night and then top off again during the day at or near their offices. Several corporate campuses, including Google’s Mountain View headquarters, provide EV drivers with places to plug in while they work. Perhaps cars will simply charge more slowly during the day, or public awareness campaigns will educate drivers on their charging patterns – those methods could provide a meager beginning. Let’s hope the power industry has more glamorous ideas than I do.
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