EVs will "store more total energy than the U.S. grid presently produces" in 2020

BB.

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REV says EVs will "store more total energy than the U.S. grid presently produces" in 2020

Part of the Canadian company's future relies on the success of electric vehicles, which may explain why it is so gung-ho about the technology's future. In fact, REV expects that by 2020, "electric cars will store more total energy than the U.S. grid presently produces." Of course, that depends on the number of electric vehicles out on the roads. To that end, REV submitted a proposal to the U.S. Department of Defense on June 16, 2011 to support The Autogrid. The company now awaits a response.

What could possibly go wrong...

niel

Re: EVs will "store more total energy than the U.S. grid presently produces" in 2020

the grid is flailing now and for that many evs to load it down would prove catastrophic long before 2020 if utilities don't start owning up to their failure to maintain and upgrade the grid that they have been charging customers for all this while.

icarus

Re: EVs will "store more total energy than the U.S. grid presently produces" in 2020

The up side however is that EVs have the potential to both buy and sell to the grid, creating a large potential battery bank for solar and wind. Will they use energy net/net? Of course, but with they be a net benefit? I think so.

Tony

solar_dave

Re: EVs will "store more total energy than the U.S. grid presently produces" in 2020

Well it is a ripe opportunity for solar generation. Plus most plug ins will charge off peak when most of grid is in the valley of production, which should better utilize the grid.

Frxddy

Re: EVs will "store more total energy than the U.S. grid presently produces" in 2020

niel wrote: »

the grid is flailing now and for that many evs to load it down would prove catastrophic long before 2020 if utilities don't start owning up to their failure to maintain and upgrade the grid that they have been charging customers for all this while.

We're trying! Here in Maine they are feverishly working on a $1.4 BILLION upgrade to the grid. A new 345,000 volt line should be complete in a couple of years. They are planning on it carrying gigawatts of windpower into, around, and out of the state. I live across the street from a HUGE substation & they have been working on making it ready for this new line to land there.

Also, a separate $98 million project was finished last year across the street. They added the largest array of capacitors in the NE. They will act as a giant shock absorber in case we ever have another cascade black out like in '63 (or was it '65?) and/or like the one in 2005.