CURRENTLY:
"Electricity consumption by 107 million U.S. households in 2001 totaled 1,140 billion kWh. The most significant end uses were central air-conditioning and refrigerators, each of which accounted for about 14 percent of the U.S. total." But that's only houses. Wikipedia tells us the US uses 4,104,900,000,000 kWh per year. We can divide by 365 to get kWh per day and by 1000 to get megaWatt-hours per day. That is 11,246,301 mWh per day. That's a lot!
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070503142008AAYDVBe
Still the QUESTION:
If ( 4,104,900,000,000 kWh per year. ) is the annual U.S consumption.... WHAT is the percent of electricity increase to the grid needed to meet increased electric needs of charging 80 million additional vehicles 1 to 2 times per day?
WHAT is the percent of electricity increase to the grid needed to meet increased electric needs of charging 80 million additional vehicles 1 to 2 times per day?
.........
beats me. but given that batteries don’t work so well in cold climates— you can bet that volume increases will most affect the grid in places like California Arizona Nevada and other southern states.
The desert states will likely solve the needed extra electricity problem by putting up more solar panels. That’s what they’re doing now anyhow—and will be doing for the next three years.
(imho the best solution to the needed added extra energy is lftr portable nuclear power plants.)
I haven’t done the math but my wag would be that for electric cars to become one third of the auto inventory in the USA — electric cars would have to maintain current high growth rates of 20+% annually for 10-20 years.
A lot is going to happen in the energy space and everywhere else between now and then.