TECHNOLOGY

‘clean’ Electricity – the false messiah PART 2

ELECTRIC CAR RECHARGING WILL CRASH THE ELECTRIC GRID SYSTEM

Aside from the problems mentioned in Part 1 re: electric car distance range, the real ‘killer’ is the recharging. At 8 hours using 240volts, recharging will be such a drain on the grid system as to ensure immediate and continual crashing!

Don’t believe me? Well maybe you will trust Anthony Haines, the head of
Toronto Hydro -- which handles the electricity needs of Canada’s largest city.

According to the article in Toronto Metro, September 2, 2010, page 04,
Haines is quoted as saying “If you connect 10% of the homes on any given street with an electric car, the electricity system fails.” “It basically can’t handle that load.”

Why?

a. Electric cars are electricity HOGS!!!

1. recharging a electric car takes 3 times the power a home normally uses in a day (according to Haines)
2. if you recharge as soon as you get home you overload the grid since early evening is the peak home use time already
3. recharging at work or during the daytime is instant blackout as the grid is already at max from commercial and industrial use

b. Our electrical grid is OLD and already having trouble coping with new
housing, new malls, new industry etc. as it was designed in the 1970s
and 1980s.

c. To cover the cost of ‘maintaining the current grid needs and replacing frayed wire lines and worn out parts, electricity costs across North America will be skyrocketing upward. In the Toronto area, word is that next year electricity will go up 25% just to cover current ‘urgent’ repair/replacement needs.

So, where will all the extra electricity come from to recharge – in future -- the over 120,000,000 ( yes, 120+ million!!!) cars, vans and trucks currently used in the USA alone? What will be the cost of electricity if it is also needed to run the equivalent of 360,000,000 extra houses every day? (Remember, a 1. Each 8 hour recharge equals the electricity usage of
3 houses.)




And, finally, that electricity you plug in comes from some power plant that either uses coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power to make your nice electric car run ‘emissions free’. So you really have only shifted the problem.

That’s NIMBY thinking.