There’s a number of assumptions you make in your article that have been long disproven. Given that the grid has no energy storage capacity there’s lots of surplus generation capacity at night to charge EVs. And typically, most who already drive EVs do exactly that. Time of use (TOU) electricity rates that are already being adopted in many markets can also incentivize charging at night.

So, what is more esthetically displeasing: the Grand Canyon disappearing in a haze of particulate air pollution emanating from a dozen coal plants on the Colorado Plateau and entire mountains – and communities – disappearing in West Virgina as a result of mountain top removal or the lazily turning blades of a wind farm powering our homes and businesses with, fuel and pollution free, energy?

I think the choice is clear. But lets say it’s not (for certain people) then would you think better of wind energy if you had the opportunity to invest in a wind farm – you and a coop of friends own the turbines and get an 8 to 10 percent return on your investment? That’s a heck of a lot better than the rate a bank will give you!

That’s how they do it in Germany with their feed-in tariff (FIT) program which allows everyone to participate equally – and meaningfully – in energy production. Hey, ones own pigs don’t stink, eh?

There’s way more solar, wind, geo-thermal, landfill gas, biogas, and other resources than we need. Here checkout John Farrell’s recent paper “Energy Self-Reliant States: Second and Expanded Edition” which can be downloaded at this link .

Also, once you distribute the generation capacity across wide geographical area it tends to mitigate the intermittency problem as has been examined in several recent papers from NREL, Berkeley, and others. Also, energy storage technology is beginning to come online and there’s also those large battery packs that can be tapped in the EVs. In fact, the state of Delaware allows EV owners to net-meter energy back into the grid – and PJM Interconnection will purchase from consumers that right to use a small portion of their battery packs for frequency regulation. Hey, get paid to plug-in your car! Beats the heck out of going to the gas station, eh?

We’re not going to meet future energy production goals unless we allow everyone to participate in generation equally. Many technologies and micro-grids spread over large areas will provide a hedge against future fossil-fuel price volatility, insure better grid reliability while making Americans more energy independent. Large-centralized facilities are rife with patristic costs, dis-economies-of-scale from transmission expenses and lost (not to mention rampant NIMBYism), absentee ownership that removes money from our communities, fuel expenses that are volatile and often result in massive amounts of money leaving for parts unknown as well, &c.

Anyway, got to run. Have a show to do interviewing Dr. Benjamin Sovacool of the University of Singapore. You should pick up his book “The Dirty Energy Dilemma.”

Bob Tregilus
Co-host –
This Week In Energy (TWiEpodcast)

There is a corresponding question that needs to be asked in a very direct way: will the increased demand on the grid represented by EVs mean that they will effectively be nuclear powered cars?

If so, then they will represent a major step backward from sustainability.