pnichols wrote:
Renewable energy sourcing of our stick-house electricity can be provided - if we choose it - by our power company. BUT ... they want to charge MORE for it than getting it from their other regular sources for our home's electrictiy. Go figure!
EV owners should not get free or below-market cost electricty for their vehicles. If so, the rest of us our paying for it for them. That's not right.
Correct on BOTH counts.
Electric customers in PA has had for many years the option to choose where and how the power for their home or business is generated. I could choose a "renewable" only power source, but if I did, it would easily increase my power bill by 50%!
Dyed in the wool pro "renewable" folks stick their heads in the sand believing that "renewable" energy is "clean" AND "CHEAP", it is neither.
Solar only works when the sun shines AND it HAS to be a pretty CLEAR DAY, heavy cloudy, overcast, rainy, snowy day(s) IT DOESN'T WORK well enough to produce enough energy to PAY BACK THE MONEY SPENT ON SOLAR!
Not to mention, solar power MUST be "converted" from DC to AC, that takes HUGE EXPENSIVE INVERTERS.
Wind generation only happens when there is enough wind, that means they must find suitable sites which have at least CONSTANT 12 MPH and higher winds, less than 12 MPH and not enough power to light a single LED..
TOO MUCH wind and they MUST turn the wind turbine out of the wind..
Typically anything over 20 MPH and they must shut down the turbines to prevent overspeeding which can easily destroy hundreds of thousands of Dollars invested in one wind turbine..
The cost of purchasing, installation and ongoing maintenance MUST be accounted for and in the end those supposed "renewables" end up costing the POCO much more to generate power than traditional methods.
The cost of buying, installing, maintaining is cost averaged over the "expected" life of the installation. And you the consumer takes it on the chin..
As far as EV owners getting a "free ride" or subsidized low cost charge, yeah, you might be getting that now, but eventually it WILL catch up to you in one way or another..
It may mean you pay a yearly "use tax" to register your car, it may mean a special smart meter system on your car that computes and reports your use to a tax office and you get a bill in the mail..
Or it could simply mean that EVERYONE MUST SUFFER WITH ADDITIONAL TAXES ADDED TO THE ELECTRIC BILLS..
It may even mean that you might even get BOTH a smart meter AND much higher electric bill taxes..
IF everyone changed from gas/Diesel to electric only then State and Federal road use taxes revenue stream would drop to zero.. Those taxes are used to build and maintain the roads we ALL use and without that revenue stream the Government WILL have to FIND ANOTHER WAY TO GET THAT MONEY..
Something else to consider, your batteries lose capacity EACH TIME YOU CHARGE/DISCHARGE, eventually you WILL be forced to spend an outrageous cost of replacement batteries or buying a new vehicle, IF the manufacturer is still "supporting" your vehicle..
Most likely will happen before you ever get it paid off..
Then there will be the mountains of spend EV batteries laying around that are simply not economically feasible to recycle. It costs MORE to recycle Lithium based batteries than if you use all new materials..
At least with Lead acid batteries, they can reclaim nearly 100% of the lead at much lower cost than the raw materials..
There is no "common" battery pack for any EVs, you can't plant just any battery into any EV.. The only way EV can make some sort of economical sense is if ALL of manufacturers would agree to ONE COMMON battery standard..
Standardization is key to making a product at a lower cost, Henry Ford understood that and that is how he was able to make a Model T at a much lower cost than anyone else at that time.
