Bill.Satellite wrote:
wgriswold wrote:
I got interested in this and so went to Google.
Californians drive 306 billion miles per year.
If we want to replace 75% of that with electric cars getting the equivalent of 40 mpg that will take the equivalent of 5.7 billion gallons of gas per year.
A gallon of gas contains 33.4 kW hr of energy. If we assume 75% efficiency in producing electricity that means we need 256 billion KW hr of energy.
Hoover dam produces 4 billion KW hr of energy a year so we need 64 Hoover dams to make this much electricity.
So the goal of moving to electric cars means an astounding increase in electricity production.
Of course, I could be wrong, so check my calculations.
Hoover Dam is not our only source of electricity so the first question is what is the overall US electric output currently? How close to 256 billion is our current output? How much more will we be producing by the time electric cars become the standard? How much solar would I need to install at home to take car of my own car? Why must I be stuck in the past due to those who fear the future?
Yes, you are right about Hoover dam not being a very good relative measure. I tried to find the total electricity usage of California in a year but couldn't. I am sure the number is available but not with my casual search.
A better metric would be the percent of California's total electricity use required for the electric cars.
