I was thinking. The way the price of fossil fuels is going up, there is bound to be an increase in the ownership of electric cars. Now I know hydrogen fuel cells are the way forwards, but let's assume for now that the main seller is the good old battery-powered electric car.
Let's assume the daily electricity requirements of an average household of 4 people are:
4 x 10 minute 9.5kW showers = 6.3kWh
30 minutes of cooking in an electric oven = 1.5kWh
Assorted other electricity use = 2kWh
Total = about 10kWh/day.
Now, this family buys 2 electric cars, and commute for roughly 1 hour a day each (30 minutes each way). Now, an average Mondeo-sized car uses around 30bhp for driving along a straight and level road at 60mph or so. Whilst the electric car may have regenerative braking etc., remember it is considerably heavier than it's petrol equivalent so we will take 30bhp as our figure. That's about 22kW.
So, car electricity usage:
2 x 1hour x 22kW = 44kWh/day
Now, if everyone is to drive around in electric cars, the average household electricity requirement is going to increase from 10 to 54 kWh per day!
Can the national grid cope with this? Are there any plans to increase the number of power stations (let alone nuclear stations) to meet this increased requirement? Can we foresee a programme of "grid rewiring"?
Don't get me wrong, I would love it if we all woke up tomorrow and someone had replaced our smelly noisy fossil-fuel engines with batteries, invertor and motor. Especially if I get my flying car. But I think the government needs to take this seriously, produce a plan, and tell us all what it is.
Let's assume the daily electricity requirements of an average household of 4 people are:
4 x 10 minute 9.5kW showers = 6.3kWh
30 minutes of cooking in an electric oven = 1.5kWh
Assorted other electricity use = 2kWh
Total = about 10kWh/day.
Now, this family buys 2 electric cars, and commute for roughly 1 hour a day each (30 minutes each way). Now, an average Mondeo-sized car uses around 30bhp for driving along a straight and level road at 60mph or so. Whilst the electric car may have regenerative braking etc., remember it is considerably heavier than it's petrol equivalent so we will take 30bhp as our figure. That's about 22kW.
So, car electricity usage:
2 x 1hour x 22kW = 44kWh/day
Now, if everyone is to drive around in electric cars, the average household electricity requirement is going to increase from 10 to 54 kWh per day!
Can the national grid cope with this? Are there any plans to increase the number of power stations (let alone nuclear stations) to meet this increased requirement? Can we foresee a programme of "grid rewiring"?
Don't get me wrong, I would love it if we all woke up tomorrow and someone had replaced our smelly noisy fossil-fuel engines with batteries, invertor and motor. Especially if I get my flying car. But I think the government needs to take this seriously, produce a plan, and tell us all what it is.