With nanoparticle batteries and supercharge capacitors the world of near instantaneous charging is approaching. Once you can fully charge at a stop in under 10 minutes the world will move to electric with or without us. Soon, people will not have ever heard the sound of a muscle car.
There’s something I’ve always wondered about these rapid charging ideas.
Let’s assume the technology is developed by which a LOT of electricity can be taken on by the battery.
The charger still has to provide that immense amount of juice in a short period. What kind of power connection can do that? Not household current.
To recharge the Tesla’s 85 kwh battery in 10 minutes, it would have to feed in 510 kw. Is that right? My understanding of the relationships here is a little vague.
Seems like a LOT of juice. What size cable would be needed to handle such a load?
Would seem to create pretty significant safety challenges, though those can be handled with good engineering.
“Once you can fully charge at a stop in under 10 minutes the world will move to electric with or without us. Soon, people will not have ever heard the sound of a muscle car.”
Assume the problem of fast charging is solved. Consider the power generating capacity behind the electric grid does not exist to provide power to charge even 10% of the motor fleet in the USA nor does the grid have the capacity to deliver the power to charge 10% of the fleet to all of the charging stations that will be needed. At the same time the federal government is encouraging the replacement of fossil fuel powered vehicles with electric it is doing everything it can to force the shut down of coal generating capacity and will not take action to streamline the permitting process for nuclear power much less eliminate the thousands of frivolous lawsuits that would be filed by every green organization should a utility apply to build and license a nuclear power plant.
This leaves solar and wind as the only acceptable power generating sources for progressive regulators and public interest groups. Unfortunately solar requires massive use of land area which implies cutting down forests near urban areas to be a viable source of power generation. Solar also has the limitation of not generating power at night or on overcast days. Look at the amount of traffic on highways in urban areas at night when the need to constantly run head and tail lights increases the rate at which batteries are depleted.
Wind power to generate electricity has its own set of issues. First significant land area is required. Second, there are a limited number of locations where the wind blows consistently enough hours during a day for it to be a viable generation source. Third, wealthy progressives fight the installation of wind turbines in viable offshore locations where it will disturb the view from their multimillion dollar homes. Fourth, wind turbines are opposed by environmentalists because they kill birds. Fifth, wind turbines create noise pollution.
All renewable green energy generating options require reliable backup generating capacity from fossil fuel generators for times when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Increase the total demand for electric power to charge motor vehicle batteries by 20%, 30%, 50% and even if renewable energy (solar and wind) provides much of the increased capacity someone will have to fund the building of capacity and the upgrades to the grid.
I spoke to an executive at one of the largest electric utilities in the country. He said the land area doesn’t exist close enough to the urban areas where most vehicles are located for solar power to come close to supplying the needs of transportation. The same with wind. It was his point of view that if the government is serious about converting transportation to electric power in a decade or two there needs to be a plan in place to provide the generating capacity for the charging stations. If coal will not be permitted as a fuel source, the only viable solution today is to start building nuclear power plants which have a minimum 10 year lead time with all of the current regulatory and legal hurdles. Today the government isn’t even thinking about the upgrades required to the electrical grid and generating capacity because the environmentalists leading the charge know it is not possible to to provide the power through renewable resources and they will not support the construction of nuclear power plants. If they even think about the need for power generating capacity, they dismiss concerns with assertions “new technologies” will solve the problem. As far as the availability of capital to fund generating capacity expansion, no matter the source, they don’t even consider the billions and possibly trillions of investment dollars required.
Who will provide this investment? The heavily regulated power companies who are absorbing the shutdown costs of coal generation facilities and will over the next 20 years be funding the shutdown costs of the nuclear facilities built in the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s? The same power companies who are forced by government to buy excess renewable energy power from individuals and businesses when they don’t need it, and provide those same individuals and businesses with fossil fuel power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing?
Electric car lovers may think they are saving the planet from fossil fuels but the electricity to run the factory that makes the batteries and to charge those batteries once they are in service must come from some place. Today, and for the foreseeable future that generating capacity will be coming from fossil fuels. If that is the case, is it really more eco friendly to drive an electric car?
We haven’t even begun to cover the environmental issues associated with battery production and disposal.