Skeptics were quick to doubt the electricity grid's ability to feed an all-EV future fleet when California asked residents to reduce their energy usage during a heat wave.
The same state will force everyone to buy electric cars by the year 2035. The look of Democrat control is what they want nationwide. It's a joke.
California needs to build capacity to meet the growing demand for electricity that will accompany a transition from gasoline powered cars to electric vehicles. If utility companies adopt the right policies, the lights will stay on, according to most experts. That is a huge if.
The Smart Electric Power Alliance, a nonprofit with utility companies among its members, believes that everyone sees electric vehicles coming. Would the grid be able to deal with it? That is not going to happen. The transition of over 300 million vehicles will take a long time. We have time to invest.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there were 70,871 electric vehicles sold in the US in August, a 43% increase from the previous August. The variation between states is wide when it comes to EV sales. In the second quarter of this year, California had the highest percentage of fully electric cars sold in the country. All cars sold in the state will have to produce zero greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the 20th century.
The recently signed Inflation Reduction Act includes tax credits of up to $7,500 for consumers making less than $150,000 per year buying an electric vehicle that costs less than $55,000 for a sedan and $80,000 for a van, pickup truck or SUV. Estimates of how many electric cars will be sold in the US by the end of the decade range from 34% to 52%.
The electricity grids in many states are facing challenges. Over the last decade, the number of weather-related power failures in the US has increased. According to a new poll by the energy company Goal Zero, 32% of Americans are concerned about the possibility of a power failure in their home.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions can be done by relying on even more electricity. In order to eliminate emissions in sectors like transportation, heating and industrial processes, they need to be powered by electricity. California doesn't just want to phase out the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, it also wants to have 50% of its energy come from renewable sources by the year 2030.
The United States will need to increase transmission capacity by at least 60 percent by the year 2030.
The senior director of modeling and analysis at Energy Innovation told Yahoo News that there needs to be more capacity across the board. There is more work that needs to be done to make sure the capacity is there.
Orvis is one of many experts who say that the U.S. energy grid will be able to meet the growing reliance on electricity. Demand won't suddenly and unexpectedly go up. Gradually, the transition to electric vehicles will take place. The IRA gives subsidies for clean energy production.
The model's electricity load is quite low. If you begin to think about all the cost-effective new capacity that we think will be built under the IRA, I don't see any problem.
When the grid isn't under the most stress from less flexible demands, such as air conditioning, charging can be done at times.
Fitzgerald said that the California alert has existed for a while and are not targeted at EV. Time-of-use pricing is a program where it is cheaper to charge your car at certain times of the day.
There is an incentive to charge when there is less demand on the grid. When the sun goes down, solar power generation doesn't happen.
Jordan Cunningham, a Republican from the Central Coast, told Yahoo News that housing was being built at the fastest pace in state history. You have more AC units on the grid because it is getting hotter.
At night, we import a lot of our power, which is when people tend to plug in their electric vehicles and charge them. When California's solar production drops to zero after dark, it will shift some of the load over to the night.
The governor's office said that cars only account for a small share of electricity use.
Alex Stack wrote to Yahoo News that the idea that moving toward zero emissions vehicles is to blame for the grid strain is idiotic. Electric cars make up 0.4% of demand during peak hours, but are expected to account for 4% of demand by the year 2034. Our energy challenges are caused by extreme weather. The grid is strained by extreme heat, transmission lines are damaged, and the ability to generate hydroelectric power is affected by the weather.
If states can't sacrifice generating capacity, it will be harder for them to retire fossil fuel or nuclear plants. The Legislature appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars to buy emergency power from natural gas-fired power plants. Lawmakers agreed to delay the closing of the last nuclear power plant in the state by loaning Pacific Gas & Electric more than one billion dollars for safety improvements.
The administration plans to increase clean energy generation to meet the demands of its EV deployment and other goals.
We are going to triple California's current electricity grid capacity in the next two decades. The state has built on average 1 gig of utility solar over the last decade. Electricity providers regulated by the California Public Utility Commission will increase their clean energy resources over the next three years.
A lack of storage capacity is preventing California from relying on wind and solar power when it is needed most.
The economics professor at the University of California at Davis told the Washington Post that it all comes down to when and where the energy is produced. It's in the wrong places and at the wrong times.
Centralized permitting for new renewable resources and storage is what we need to do. If you want to run a modern electricity grid, you have to use renewable power like wind and solar with storage facilities.
While a congressional effort to simplify and speed up federal permitting for energy projects just failed, California has its own work to do.
The feds have jurisdiction over wind power when it's out in the ocean, but as you bring the lines in to state waters and onto shore, you're talking about a whole panoply.
Electric vehicles are being used as storage for clean energy, which is known as vehicle-grid integration, according to Pacific Gas and Electric. When the sun is bright and demand is low, it's possible to charge an EV in the morning and then plug it into the grid in the evening.
The grid needs to be prepared for 12,000 gigawatt hours of EV-related electric load by the year 2030. 2 million EVs will be able to participate in vehicle-grid integration applications in order to allow them to be a cornerstone of both reliability and resilience.
The time of EV charging is being managed by the company through innovative rate structures.
Californians are skeptical of reassurances from their utilities. A transmission line owned by Pacific Gas and Electric caused a fire that killed 85 people. Customers and lawmakers criticized the company for being unprepared for the fire danger that led to the shutdown.
By planning ahead and meeting the challenge, utilities can show customers that they will be able to charge their car and meet other needs.
Ari Kahn, carbon-free mobility manager of the think tank, told Yahoo News that everyone needs to be focused on the problem. The grid needs to be made ready so utilities can support larger electricity loads.
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