The last time I ran the numbers I think Alberta would need about 10% more grid capacity for 50% of regular vehicles(including trucks and suv's) being EV's, not including any large commercial vehicles. So it's not a huge leap, but we will need that mostly as baseload.
Watching generation this cold week we have essentially nothing from solar and wind ranged from about 3% to 10%(currently around 0.4%, so incredibly variable), while we imported about 7% net. To put that in perspective, 7% is about 1 Shepard Energy Centre(the big one for Calgary). So we'd probably need to add 2 of those at minimum, but we also have to replace ~3000MW coal, which is another 4-5. So we should be planning to build at least 6 large NG generating stations to maintain baseload capacity, as we can't rely on wind that fluctuates from near nothing to 10%. Maybe some of that can be offloaded to batteries, but the variable downtime makes that either really expensive or a massive gamble. For instance, if wind represented 30% of our capacity, but drops to only making 5% for a few days, that's 2500MW, or 3-4 large NG plants. I don't imagine batteries would help much in that situation. It's a huge amount of power.
The largest grid battery currently is about 129MWh, so to store 2500MW for 2 days, that's 120 000MWh. 100 times the largest installed.
Sorry, veered a little off topic.
Last edited by Fuzz; 02-13-2021 at 07:40 AM.
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But that assumes there will be baseload generators like coal and nuclear that generally don't deviate their output significantly over a 24 hour period. But many of them are retiring in areas pushing EV sales, like Western Europe or California, and where peak demand (cold winter mornings and evenings in Europe, hot summer late afternoon and evening in California) are already very challenging. And these same areas are trying to electrify heating and cooking and move away from natural gas which will further strain their weakening systems.
Yes Nuclear base load power plants should be built as part of the long term plan to phase out Gas and Coal.
Depends where you are. In Quebec it might make sense with near free hydro. In Alberta it makes no sense to burn gas, turn it into electricity, the turn it back into heat.
But that assumes there will be baseload generators like coal and nuclear that generally don't deviate their output significantly over a 24 hour period. But many of them are retiring in areas pushing EV sales, like Western Europe or California, and where peak demand (cold winter mornings and evenings in Europe, hot summer late afternoon and evening in California) are already very challenging. And these same areas are trying to electrify heating and cooking and move away from natural gas which will further strain their weakening systems.
EV's help this more than hinder. It doesn't matter what time of day an EV charges, as 95% of the cars on the road are only going to use a small portion of the battery and will be plugged in for long periods of time. EV's are the ideal way to balance the grid because their draw is flexible, and they could be changed to provide power and thereby grid balancing
There's nothing wrong with heating with electricity if you live in an area where heat pumps are an option and your electricity source isn't primarily coal or gas. I heat my house in BC with a heat pump and it costs me less in electricity than natural gas would while producing a tiny fraction of the emissions. And I get super efficient air conditioning when I need it in the summer.
In moderate to warm heating-dominated climates that need air conditioning in the summer, heat pumps are a no brainer as long as the electricity is fairly cleanly generated and not prohibitively expensive.
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My new office has electric charging in the parkade, I think this means it's time for a Tesla Model 3 in the spring. I was holding off since my condo does not allow charging.
With the $5000 federal incentive only covering $5K and under base plus so Standard Range and Standard Range plus, this means on the RWD models qualify for the $5000 rebate.
For people who live in cities the transition to electric vehicles cannot happen soon enough in my opinion.
EVs will have a huge impact on our local air quality and health. Air pollution is tied to asthma, bronchitis, dementia, lung cancer, migraines and reduces life expectancy for city dwelling Canadians by 6 months. For the worst cities in the world, air pollution reduces life span by 2.5 years.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I am willing to be pay extra for an extra 6 months of life expectancy and breathing quality.
And although the upfront cost of EVs right now is still high, medium term I see EVs saving us money
-Electric vehicles will increase grid demand, but they will improve grid utilization (cars charge overnight during low use periods). Higher utilization means cheaper fixed costs per MWh.
-Healthcare costs related to air pollution will decrease ($5.5 billion in Canadian healthcare costs are tied to air pollution)
-Sick days and lost economic opportunity due to air pollution will decrease
-Between economy of scale and competition, the upfront consumer cost of electric vehicles is dropping to the point that consumers will save money over the lifetime of their vehicles. We're almost at that level now.
Truthfully, I’m not even fully on board with EVs. My ideal for Canada would be a nuclear electricity – hydrogen fuel car economy. Regardless, I want combustion vehicles off city streets.
Future generations will look back and us wonder “Those people knew that combustion pollution is literally killing them, they had the technology, they had the money, they would have saved money in the medium term, and a subset of them still fought tooth and nail against it”.
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I was holding off since my condo does not allow charging.
Anyone living in a older condo get their board to consider adding plugs for EV's or even heard it brought up during board meetings? I'm sure where I live now will probably be the last place in the city to have plugins in its underground indoor parking stalls. I imagine the cost to upgrade would be pretty steep likely involving a transformer and breaker box upgrade along with the plugins/wiring. However, the main impediment would be the older board members who would vote down anything that would add a cent to their condo fees.
Anyone living in a older condo get their board to consider adding plugs for EV's or even heard it brought up during board meetings? I'm sure where I live now will probably be the last place in the city to have plugins in its underground indoor parking stalls. I imagine the cost to upgrade would be pretty steep likely involving a transformer and breaker box upgrade along with the plugins/wiring. However, the main impediment would be the older board members who would vote down anything that would add a cent to their condo fees.
I bet if you played it right and got involved you could get enough proxy’s to push it through without anyone noticing before it was too late.
Presumably you do not want to eat Doritos while driving that. Interesting they went with the philosophy that they are trying to grab drivers from gas SUV's, not steal them from Tesla, hence the design. Probably a good strategy. Nice to see more companies getting in on the market.
Presumably you do not want to eat Doritos while driving that. Interesting they went with the philosophy that they are trying to grab drivers from gas SUV's, not steal them from Tesla, hence the design. Probably a good strategy. Nice to see more companies getting in on the market.
Yeah, neat to see a company veer away from Tesla's designs so we can get more choice out there. It is too bad they're all based off a CUV design, though, which is my least favourite type of car. It's so car-guy cliche I barely want to even write it, but imagine an affordable-ish electric station wagon. How cool would that be with its low centre of gravity, awesome dynamics, sweet styling and practical use of space. I guess it wouldn't sell, but it's impossible to understand why the general public doesn't like them.
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I feel like the opposite of what they're offering right now might also be true. A relatively barebones but modular upgradeable minivan EV might be of interest. It could be used for work or personal purposes.
Give the front passenger/drivers a premium seat, often times it doesn't matter that the back seats and stuff are basic. Kids are disgusting. Work gets dirty. Heck, in both situations, there are plenty of reasons why I'd like to remove the back row seats and just operate a vehicle with only 4 seats vs 7 or 8.
Yeah, neat to see a company veer away from Tesla's designs so we can get more choice out there. It is too bad they're all based off a CUV design, though, which is my least favourite type of car. It's so car-guy cliche I barely want to even write it, but imagine an affordable-ish electric station wagon. How cool would that be with its low centre of gravity, awesome dynamics, sweet styling and practical use of space. I guess it wouldn't sell, but it's impossible to understand why the general public doesn't like them.
I did love the Bolt for its dimensions, fairly small length and width, taller than a “normal” car. Hatchback made it pretty adaptable for space.
I feel like the opposite of what they're offering right now might also be true. A relatively barebones but modular upgradeable minivan EV might be of interest. It could be used for work or personal purposes.
Give the front passenger/drivers a premium seat, often times it doesn't matter that the back seats and stuff are basic. Kids are disgusting. Work gets dirty. Heck, in both situations, there are plenty of reasons why I'd like to remove the back row seats and just operate a vehicle with only 4 seats vs 7 or 8.
A hoseable back seat would a great feature for families. Maybe people with unusual hobbies too...
