The Conundrum of Electric Vehicles:
New Concepts Hooked on Old Wires
November 20, 2009
Electricity is the cleanest source of domestic energy and it's also the number one source of energy consumption in the U.S. But electricity doesn't just fall from the sky like rain. It has to be generated, transmitted and distributed.
(Photo: Tesla Roadster)
Electric vehicles (EVs) are better, cleaner and quieter. Major automakers can no longer dispute these claims in order to defend oil-burning combustion engines. But what about the aging power grids that EVs can't live without? Electric vehicles are nothing without an infrastructure to support them just as gas-guzzling SUVs would be roadside heaps of metal without gas stations to fuel them.
Some opponents of EVs add "power grid strain" to their list of grievances, right after complaints about EV battery life.
But EV manufacturers have steadily tackled the biggest concerns for consumers who are considering buying electric cars, namely, the high cost of these cars, the number of miles one can travel on a single battery charge, the prevalence of charging stations and the length of time it takes to charge a battery.
Some opponents of EVs add "power grid strain" to their list of grievances, right after complaints about EV battery life.
But EV manufacturers have steadily tackled the biggest concerns for consumers who are considering buying electric cars, namely, the high cost of these cars, the number of miles one can travel on a single battery charge, the prevalence of charging stations and the length of time it takes to charge a battery.
They've even handled the long-standing issue of clunky, inefficient batteries that barely produced enough power to take a day-trip out of town. With a design breakthrough in lithium ion, today's EV batteries are twice as powerful and half the size of their mid-1990s predecessors. Toyota's RAV4 EV, which ended production in 2003, averages 100 miles on a single charge that costs roughly $3 (charged to your electric bill if you plug in at home). The next generation of EVs will perform even better.
Another plus: charging stations have been steadily proliferating across the country, making longer commutes more conceivable while easing the minds of drivers who don't have to worry that the only place they can plug in is in their garage.
What they've sidestepped, however, is the most pressing issue: the power grid.
The power grid with pre-World War II parts
Before the entire world crumbles and puts on an apocalyptic show, it's far more likely that our aging power grid will disintegrate. Energy experts, municipal planners and everyday citizens know that the matrix of redundant power lines, switches, controls, transformers and relays, with parts that are exposed to the elements and are over 60-years-old, weren’t built to last forever -- or even into the next century. With roughly 200,000 miles of high-voltage lines and 5.2 million miles of local distribution lines, the labyrinthian power grid traverses the country through tunnels, over mountains, across streets, underwater, underground and into our homes.
Before the entire world crumbles and puts on an apocalyptic show, it's far more likely that our aging power grid will disintegrate. Energy experts, municipal planners and everyday citizens know that the matrix of redundant power lines, switches, controls, transformers and relays, with parts that are exposed to the elements and are over 60-years-old, weren’t built to last forever -- or even into the next century. With roughly 200,000 miles of high-voltage lines and 5.2 million miles of local distribution lines, the labyrinthian power grid traverses the country through tunnels, over mountains, across streets, underwater, underground and into our homes.
Aligning the Two: Green Dreams and the Old Grid • For a fascinating, first-hand account inside New York's maxed-out grid, read an excerpt from Amanda Little's Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells—Our Ride to the Renewable Future sip it
Real opportunities and solutions might come with ingenuity. EV manufacturers and sponsors can either attempt to pour money into overhauling an old, aging and outdated system that has barely managed to keep pace with the growing domestic electricity demands of households and businesses or they can change course, rethink, redesign, reinvent and build something new.
"The solution—building transmission lines—is very expensive, even though it can yield attractive financial returns. The Energy Department estimated that about 12,500 miles of strategically situated new transmission lines would enable the U.S., several decades from now, to derive 20% of its power from wind turbines...
The problem, however, is that those 12,500 miles of lines would cost $60 billion." —Alexander Mishkin, January 15, 2009, Forbes sip it
Photo credit: Electrical Substation by Kelly Martin
