Electric power is no panacea, may cost more in the end!?

Question

We still need energy to produce the Electricity and burn fossil fuel to do it. We now incure "Brown-outs" during the summer when people run their Air conditioners and overload the grids. What is going to happen to the supply system when more and more people are charging their vehicle? If the price per kw keeps going up and it will, we may end up paying more to fuel our cars than we do now. True! we get cleaner car exhaust but we still have to use fossil fuel to produce the electricity and the battery disposal is still a problem. Solar power harvested through individual solar panels on each home does show some promise and so does wind power but the technology needs improvements to be practical and again batteries are a problem. Is it possible to convert solar power directly through transformers without using battery storage?

Answer 1

I agree that we need to find energy sources other than fossil fuel.  Even so, electricity and power grids seem the most efficient current technology for transmitting energy from the point of generation to the point of use.

Answer 2

Solar panels produce D ,C.  D.c. into a transformer will just burn it up. Transformers are for A.C.

All of the above need storage batteries.

Answer 3

The reality of the situation is that we not only need to stop our dependence on foreign oil, but at the same time we need to develop alternative sources of electricity.

home solar panel do not require batteries for storage, utility companies will and do install a "net meter" that is a Bi-directional meter, that not only spins forward when you are using more power than your solar system supplies, but it spins backward when you are using less, and have power going into the grid.

and batteries are and have been reconditioned, and reused.

the solar panel that are being produced today are only converting 40 to 60 percent of the energy that is available, but improvement in technology should and could improve this.

as it stands now there is not enough surface on the automobiles to sustain the surface needed for solar panels to supply enough energy to propel the auto.

this could change in the future with improved technology.

Answer 4

Let me give you some info:

solar power is mostly grid-connected which means that the power is produced. If the solar power is connected to the grid AND a user (e.g. private person), the electricity grid does the balancing of the supply and demand:

- it brings electricity to the user if he consumes more than he produces with photovoltaic.

- it buys and uses the excess electricity if the user consumes less than his production.

Electricity can be generated in large quantities through wind power and new wind parks (mostly off shore) are getting closer and closer to a power produced equivalent to a nuclear power plant. Indeed, wind power already adds more generation capacity than nuclear power worldwide.

Batteries connected to the grid can make the electricity cheaper as they can be loaded at any time... so preferably during the night when the demand for other applications is low.

Answer 5

1) Studies have shown that if EVs are charged at off-peak hours, it will require that few new power plants be built to meed the increased demand.

http://gas2.org/2008/03/14/plug-in-hybri...

2) Recharging an EV currently costs about 3-4 times less than refueling a Prius.  So unless gas prices stay constant (they won't) and electric rates increase by a factor of 3-4 (unlikely), refueling an EV will still be cheaper than even the most efficient cars currently available.

3) Battery disposal is not a problem.  Most of the battery is recycled and reused already.

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog4/?p=66

4) Even if most of our energy came from coal (as opposed to the ~50% in reality), EVs would still produce lower emissions than gas cars.

http://www.pluginamerica.org/images/Emis...

To answer your final question - no, you cannot power an EV directly with solar without a storage medium like a battery.  Nor do you need to.

Answer 6

1. The supply of power will grow as the demand grows.  Electric cars aren't going to take over overnight, it will take many years.  The generation industry will have time to respond.

2. The price per mile driven on electricity will NEVER come close to that per mile on gas/diesel.  Electricity can rise and rise, it will never catch up to petroleum fuels.

3. Not all electricity is produced with fossil fuels.  The grid has the potential to get cleaner over time, meaning the car becomes less polluting as it ages.  Gas cars pollute more as they age.

4. Car batteries, especially modern ones in electric/hybrid cars, are almost always recycled.  Companies like toyota pay significant sums to recover their batteries.

5. Grid-intertied solar panels do not need battery storage.