down home wrote:
I saw an article and a photo of a diesel generator with a charge point for a vehicle.
There is no magic decrease in energy consumption when converting from one for to another. Exactly the opposite is true! And the losses in efficiency cause the cost of net energy delivery to be a lot lot more.Lots of losses in producing electricity and changing it and then transmitting it on those high tension 80kv and higher lines. Those things get very hot, as in consuming energy and all along the way. Going on a long trip, take a sleeping bag and a portable generator with fuel in the trunk. Maybe an extra ten thousand invested in a roof that is a solar system? Work somewhat well in the Southwest maybe, if you don't drive at night. The first part of this year and last part of last year was mostly cloudy, damp and cold, so you don't and won't see many solar installations here. There use to be more but they are now defunct not enough sunshine.
Can you imagine one of the thousand room motels in Vegas with cars all plugged in over night to charge or during the day? They will have to greatly expand the coal fired generator in Az and burn lots and lots more coal. Of course California will have clean air courtesy of Az and the rest of the Country choking on coal soot. And the electrical bills, a lot lot more than what the gas and diesel was
That photo was a one off of a prototype from a guy who is suggesting something like that as an interim measure to cover the nullarbor in Australia. Extremely uncommon. I have never seen one anywhere.
Presently the average EV uses about 6 kwh per day. Commuting with an electric vehicle is a fraction of the cost of commuting with gas or diesel. Typical EV gets better than 6.2 km per KWh. Our lifetime car average is 6.7 after 4 years.
