Some guy on a news forum:
They’ve been looking for a much more ENERGY DENSE battery. There are at least four major conceptual problems with EVs:
1. Energy density — a 700-lb 70 kWh EV battery holds about the same energy as 2 gallons of gas (14 lb).
2. Charging time — pumping 70 kWh into an EV battery takes a long time — dependent, of course, on the available power of the charger and grid. No amount of tinkering with battery chemistry will overcome this problem.
3. Power availability — where does this power come from? The eco nut jobs insist on wind and solar. These are not only intermittent and unreliable. They are extremely capital intensive for the low amount of power generated per dollar spent. The transportation sector of the US economy uses the equivalent power of all of the nuclear plants in the USA combined. Wind and solar cannot match this.
4. COST — EV batteries are extremely expensive and have a relatively short life. Once the virtue signaling morons have all bought theirs, normal car buyers are not interested in buying an expensive impractical vehicle that has a depreciation curve like a rock dropped off a cliff.
There are numerous other issues that the fan boys/ shills try to lie away, but these alone should be enough to turn any sensible buyer away.
From elsewhere in the thread:
“Einstein:
Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler”
Nothing some more tax money won’t fix, eventually. Maybe.
Lots of Florida EV’s are about to become torches. (Saltwater+Lithium Battery=Get the marshmallows, we’re making s’mores!)
Studies also show that heavier vehicles cause more fatalities in accidents (duh) and EV’s weigh a ton.
Much of the “Microplastics” in the water come from tires. Heavy EV’s wear through tires faster.
Heavier vehicles cause more damage to roads, requiring more frequent road maintenance.
Studies show the majority of current EV owners next vehicles will be gas powered.
Car manufacturer’s are slowing or halting production of many EV’s, as they aren’t selling and dealers have too many sitting on lots.
Charging at public chargers can cost as much or more per mile than gas.
None of these are problems Big brother can’t solve with a little mandate though.
Sheesh. I feel like I’ve said that exact same thing before.
Next you’re going to post a guy complaining that grid connected solar increases the cost of energy by displacing cheap and efficient base load generators.
… But does it displace them, since they have to run in tandem with solar, to ensure constant delivery?
I hoped I’d hook in at least one engineer with this post!
“Next you’re going to post . . . “ . . . something insane about Mika’s rack, probably, before Walrus institutes that mandatory drug testing thingy.
They can’t run in tandem. That’s the problem. Take a look at this chart of demand:
https://www.caiso.com/todays-outlook#section-demand-trend
That’s California’s expected energy usage for today. You can change the date to see yesterday. Typically peak usage is in the morning as people are getting ready for work, and in the evening when they get home. Energy used during the day is shared among more people while they are at work, so demand is quite low.
Now look at solar production.
https://www.caiso.com/todays-outlook/supply
Solar begins to come online right after people have left for work, and comes back offline right after they leave work. Solar peaks during a demand minimum.
The problem with this is that energy supplied to the grid has to exactly match the energy load on the grid. If there’s too much energy and not enough demand, all the grid connected load devices get too much voltage at the wrong frequency. If there’s not enough energy and too much demand all the grid connected load devices get too little voltage at the wrong frequency.
The power company solves this challenge of energy / demand balance by splitting the demand into three categories. Base load, intermediate load, and peak load.
Base load generators are the types California wants to get rid of. They are coal fired, and nuclear powered. They take a long time to fire up, and a long time to shut down. They are not easily ramped up and down without wasting energy (think $$$$) You can’t just put out the coal in your boiler and save it for later. It just gets wasted if the plant has to shut down. They are super efficient, and quite cheap to run at a constant rate, however.
Intermediate load generators take up the expected difference between the expected morning and evening loads. These types are more costly because they are less efficient than coal, but they can be more easily ramped up and down at specific times. These are natural gas, oil, and hydro powered plants.
The least efficient are the peaking generators. These are need to instantly ramp up and down to meet instantaneous demand. Ideally you want to set your intermediates to handle everything below the instantaneous fluctuations, and have your peakers handle the little minute to minute bumps in the road that occur. Basically they need to be online in case Elon Musk decides to fiddle with the assembly line E-Stop at Tesla.
There’s no energy storage on the grid. We can’t save it there for later. So if there’s too much we have to shut generators down. It’s okay to shut down peakers. It’s okay to shut down intermediate. Shutting down base load generators waste millions of dollars of coal.
So what does California do when grid connected solar is producing 110% of supply? I’ll tell you what they do:
The first time it happened 2017 the energy companies scrambled to sell their power out of the state, with no takers, they offered negative prices. That means they had to pay people to take it. Doing that was cheaper for them than shutting down base load generators.
But then the energy companies wised up. They did what California wanted them to do. They used up their remaining energy in their base generators and shut them down.
Cue the brownouts and “planned” outages. Now California has to import energy during peak demand periods and they still have to export energy at noon during peak solar production. Grid connected solar providers get paid pennies for their supply and they pay a tarrif on their usage during peak. It’s all because California law demanded the production of energy when it couldn’t be used, and the removal of energy that could be produced when it was needed.
Thanks!
Not going to be mandatory. You will only be kicked out if you don’t. Your choice.
Solar on new home construction in CA is mandatory. The first people to buy into Solar were coerced into the program with NEM 1.0 This is the net metering policy that says solar supply gets paid off at a handsome amount and there’s a reduced rate to draw off the grid when the solar isn’t producing. There’s also a subsidy that pays for the cost of your installation. This caused the explosion of solar installations in CA.
Now it’s regulated by NEM 3.0. This went into effect when the realized they screwed the pooch and created too much supply. Now they are trying to punish solar owners off the grid and force them to buy battery storage systems so that the grid can be more stable.
So not only is it mandatory, but it’s also mandatory for you to pay for the mistake we made when we realize it should have never have been made mandatory.
Ah, but if they just mandate everybody to buy an EV to plug in, they can use all that extra power produced during the day!!!100!!! Then we’ll mandate all employers install one charger per employee and ban home charging at night!!!! What could possibly go wrong! (That’s not a question)
Oh, I think Walrus was talking about the mandatory drug testing that he and the right-thinking people will impose upon poor me.
Yes, I remember reading an article about how California changed the “rules of the game” (i.e., bait and switch) on adopters of home solar panels.
Major Solar Company Files for Bankruptcy after California Slashes Subsidies
Slay News | August 6, 2024 | Frank Bergman
A major solar company has just filed for bankruptcy as its business model is no longer viable in America’s current climate.
SunPower announced that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.
SunPower filed for bankruptcy in Delaware after a string of corporate struggles…
Changes to California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs and high interest rates in Democrat President Joe Biden’s economy have weighed down its business.
Before it collapsed, SunPower was among America’s leading solar companies.
SunPower will look to sell some of its assets to rival solar company Complete Solaria.
Meanwhile, the company and some of its other subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy, SunPower said in its Monday announcement.
Tom Werner, SunPower’s executive chairman, said he hopes the bankruptcy and the Complete Solaria transaction will save some jobs. …
In 2023, state policymakers changed California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs, according to CalMatters.
The changes weakened the incentive for companies to push rooftop solar by reducing payments to homeowners who sell back excess power the panels generate.
Those changes negatively affected SunPower’s business, culminating in its bankruptcy filing.