(April 3, 2020 at 3:57 am)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Prior to electrification, private residences were heated by inefficient and comparatively dirtier means than a coal fired power plant. We saw gains in heat and in energy efficiency, without needing to switch out the fuel.
The DoE estimates that increased electrification will necessitate a 38% increase in production over the next 30 years, mostly from EVs. That's nationally, some states have it better or worse than others. The big issue with electric cars isn't whether or not we can make the energy or whether or not it would be cleaner - we can and it would be...but how to distribute it, how to manage the new peaks. Some states are running charging stations for the express purpose of collecting the data that would be required to plan for that.
(iirc, there are a few states that already make more electricity than the projected requirements, a consequence of seeing power generation grow while consumer demand remained flat for the last decade or so - so they do that, burn enough coal to produce the energy..... and people are driving around.)
We burnt a lot of peat when I was a kid. Even dirtier than coal, but it smelled amazing.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
