Quote:
Originally Posted by tonybelding
|
Your link is to a press release from an electric car advocacy group, not the DOE.
But accepting the press release at face, it contains two statements that you might want to consider more carefully.
The first is this statement:
"...Researchers found that in the Midwest and East, there is sufficient off-peak generation, transmission and distribution capacity to provide for all of today’s vehicles if they ran on batteries..."
Unfortunately, electric cars in the West cannot be charged using power from the Midwest and East. And I think that if you research the matter you'll also find that cars in the Midwest cannot be charged using power from the East, and vice-versa.
The second statement is the following.
"...The study also looked at the impact on the environment of an all-out move to PHEVs. The added electricity would come from a combination of coal-fired and natural gas-fired plants..."
Unstated is the unavoidable balance of the conclusion that, if the currently available off-peak Midwest and East capacity were absorbed today to charge batteries to run all existing vehicles, then any future off-peak load growth of any kind, including "an all-out move to PHEVs", would force the addition of coal and natural gas plants.
So, put in practical context, your press release says, in effect, that if ohm's law were suspended (an impossibility), and it is assumed that there will be no future off-peak load growth (a most unlikely future), then there is enough off-peak capacity in the Midwest and East to charge all of today's vehicles if they ran on batteries.