11499 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

VicWatcher: I appreciate the article but it does not address my question at all. I dont think that the article even properly addresses the US unless you want to fire up even more coal plants.

My question is very specific does BC have enough hydro electric power to power all its present needs and also to power all the vehicles in BC. I am assuming Site C is on line but I dont think they are even seriously considering any new dams at the moment.

BC isn’t Texas though. We are not isolated. Many times every single day we import and export electricity trading with multiple partners.

In short, we buy what is cheapest and do not discriminate about the original fuel source.

If every car is electric we will buy more gas produced electricity from Alberta.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 December 2021 - 09:08 AM.

[Barrrister]

Marko< When you say we need a few more Site C plus solar that strongly suggests that the answer is that we dont have enough hydro power at the moment. Exactly how many more Site C's especially since we are adding population and hydro heating. 

 

I am starting to wonder if the engineer might be right about capacity problems.

Ultimately it is not my problem since I am not going to live to see any of this but I wonder how well thought out this actually is at this point. If we obviously need more Site C dams should we not be getting a start on building them?

Edited by Barrrister, 06 December 2021 - 09:08 AM.

[spanky123]

BC isn’t Texas though. We are not isolated. Many times every single day we import and export electricity trading with multiple partners.

In short, we buy what is cheapest and do not discriminate about the original fuel source.

If every car is electric we will buy more gas produced electricity from Alberta.

 

Yes but this isn't just a BC issue. NA doesn't have enough power capacity.

[Mike K.]

Well, we buy a tiny fraction and sell whatever we are able to sell. BC Hydro would love to have more people on solar so that they can sell more power to other jurisdictions at high rates.

[spanky123]

It will take 20+ years for everyone to switch to EVs, plus majority of EVs you can charge between 2-5am when load on the grid is lowest. Solar and a few more site Cs, it isn't rocket science. 

 

It is not just passenger vehicles however. 

[sebberry]

Marko< When you say we need a few more Site C plus solar that strongly suggests that the answer is that we dont have enough hydro power at the moment. Exactly how many more Site C's especially since we are adding population and hydro heating. 

 

I am starting to wonder if the engineer might be right about capacity problems.

Ultimately it is not my problem since I am not going to live to see any of this but I wonder how well thought out this actually is at this point. If we obviously need more Site C dams should we not be getting a start on building them?

 

Most people who can afford electric cars have houses with hot water tanks.  The car takes less current than the water heater.  If it becomes a problem, some load balancing to shut off the heater for a bit while the car charges would be just fine.  

[Victoria Watcher]

Marko< When you say we need a few more Site C plus solar that strongly suggests that the answer is that we dont have enough hydro power at the moment. Exactly how many more Site C's especially since we are adding population and hydro heating. 

 

I am starting to wonder if the engineer might be right about capacity problems.

Ultimately it is not my problem since I am not going to live to see any of this but I wonder how well thought out this actually is at this point. If we obviously need more Site C dams should we not be getting a start on building them?

 

If BC had zero power production today, we'd still get by with imports.  So to add 27% to our load is not a big deal.

[Victoria Watcher]

Yes but this isn't just a BC issue. NA doesn't have enough power capacity.

 

Yes it does, as the Forbes article shows.

[Victoria Watcher]

(EVs are -very- heavy, and they will cause more damage to roads over the long term than comparable ICE vehicles).

 

I cry fowl!  Or foul.  Cars don't wreck roads.

 

 

 

An off-quoted federal study once found that road damage from one 18-wheeler is equivalent to the impact of 9,600 cars. A fully loaded tractor-trailer weighs 80,000 pounds, 20 times more than a typical passenger car at 4,000 pounds, but the wear and tear caused by the truck is exponentially greater.

 

One analysis contends freight-hauling trucks cause 99 percent of wear-and-tear on US roads, but only pay for 35 percent of the maintenance.

 

Big trucks take a toll even on interstate highways designed to handle heavy loads, but the far bigger damage comes to state and local roads that aren’t designed for the massive impact of 80,000-pound trucks. One study estimated the average traffic by large trucks on non-arterial rural roads in the U.S. increased 16 percent from 2000 to 2012.

 

 

https://urbanmilwauk...troy-our-roads/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 December 2021 - 09:17 AM.

[spanky123]

 

That means an American car, if it were an EV, would need 3,857kWh per year, assuming the average efficiency figures above. If all US cars were EVs, they would need a total of 1,106.6TWh, which is 27.6% of what the American grid produced in 2020. .

 

What isn't mentioned is that about 60% of this capacity comes from the burning of fossil fuels. 

 

https://www.eia.gov/...y-and-sales.php

[spanky123]

Yes it does, as the Forbes article shows.

 

The Forbes article says we would need to come up with another 27%.

[Victoria Watcher]

What isn't mentioned is that about 60% of this capacity comes from the burning of fossil fuels. 

 

https://www.eia.gov/...y-and-sales.php

 

Oh, I think so.  But electric cars burning gas-fired electricity is still much better for the environment than ICE vehicles.

 

Look the only reason we burn oil and gas is because it's cheap.  North America could set up a solar power plant the size of a fraction of Nevada and power the entire continent.  We don't because of the cost.  And the complaints.

 

https://www.vivintso...e Mojave desert.

 

 

With the conservative numbers from NREL's land use report, we can estimate that roughly 14,000,000 acres or 22,000 square miles of solar panel-filled land would be required to generate enough electricity to solar-power the U.S. This is about the size of the Mojave desert.

 

(Nevada is 110,000 square miles)

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 December 2021 - 09:26 AM.

[Mike K.]

I cry fowl! Or foul. Cars don't wreck roads.



An off-quoted federal study once found that road damage from one 18-wheeler is equivalent to the impact of 9,600 cars. A fully loaded tractor-trailer weighs 80,000 pounds, 20 times more than a typical passenger car at 4,000 pounds, but the wear and tear caused by the truck is exponentially greater.

One analysis contends freight-hauling trucks cause 99 percent of wear-and-tear on US roads, but only pay for 35 percent of the maintenance.

Big trucks take a toll even on interstate highways designed to handle heavy loads, but the far bigger damage comes to state and local roads that aren’t designed for the massive impact of 80,000-pound trucks. One study estimated the average traffic by large trucks on non-arterial rural roads in the U.S. increased 16 percent from 2000 to 2012.


https://urbanmilwauk...troy-our-roads/

Now just wait for EV trucks!

[Victoria Watcher]

The Forbes article says we would need to come up with another 27%.

 

It actually says we will need to load the system another 27%.  Right now, many power plants slow at night, they do not run 24/7/365 at their highest output.  We will need them to increase output by 27%, average.  That can all be done with current resources or input fuel.  The very best thing about electric cars is that we can fuel them at night.

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 December 2021 - 09:30 AM.

[sebberry]

With the conservative numbers from NREL's land use report, we can estimate that roughly 14,000,000 acres or 22,000 square miles of solar panel-filled land would be required to generate enough electricity to solar-power the U.S. This is about the size of the Mojave desert.

 

We're worried about having enough power to charge some cars up.  You really think we're going to fill the Mojave desert with solar panels and run cables to batteries all over the US for when the sun goes down? 

[Victoria Watcher]

We're worried about having enough power to charge some cars up.  You really think we're going to fill the Mojave desert with solar panels and run cables to batteries all over the US for when the sun goes down? 

 

I'm actually sacrificing a part of Nevada.  You can keep the Mohave for Burning Man, if that's what you are worried about.

 

I've already done all the engineering:

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 December 2021 - 09:42 AM.

[MarkoJ]

Marko< When you say we need a few more Site C plus solar that strongly suggests that the answer is that we dont have enough hydro power at the moment. Exactly how many more Site C's especially since we are adding population and hydro heating. 

 

I am starting to wonder if the engineer might be right about capacity problems.

Ultimately it is not my problem since I am not going to live to see any of this but I wonder how well thought out this actually is at this point. If we obviously need more Site C dams should we not be getting a start on building them?

 

I am sure there are plenty of bright engineers at BC Hydro running the calculations. As I said we have 20+ years to adapt to this problem. One solution is just hiking the price of electricity to the point where solar panels make sense on the private side of things.

 

Right now, it costs me about $5 to fill up my Tesla at home. If you 4x the price of electricity it is still substantially cheaper than gas and at 4x the price solar panels, make a lot of sense. 

 

You would think if we were close to a problem they would be offering cheaper rates between 2am-5am? 

Edited by MarkoJ, 06 December 2021 - 10:36 AM.

[MarkoJ]

The scenario that is more than likely to play out is rising electricity rates, high second and third tier rates, plus significant taxes added to EV charging (EVs are -very- heavy, and they will cause more damage to roads over the long term than comparable ICE vehicles).

 

The old ones are heavy, but new ones are coming down in weight. Base Tesla Model 3 is 3,500 lb (same weight as similar cars, A4, C-Class, 3 series). 

 

By the time Tesla comes out with a G2 Model 3 it will probably be 3,200 or less. A 2022 Civic is 3000 lb.

Edited by MarkoJ, 06 December 2021 - 10:39 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The U.S. securities regulator has asked Lucid Group Inc (LCID.O) for documents related to an investigation into its blank-check deal, joining a growing list of companies that have come under scrutiny for their merger with shell entities.

 

Shares of the luxury electric-car maker fell as much as 19.5% on Monday after it disclosed it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Dec. 3.

 

 

 

https://www.reuters....sec-2021-12-06/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 December 2021 - 10:55 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Elon Musk hints at steer-by-wire yoke steering in Cybertruck, confirms it will be a ‘tech bandwagon’


https://driveteslaca...tech-bandwagon/



Steering by wire is neat.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 December 2021 - 12:55 PM.