Reply #29: Electric cars will be charging almost exclusively at night [View All]

[wtmusic]

when there is very little load. Excessive loads occur during peak power usage in the middle of the day (mostly due to air conditioning). So there is plenty of excess capacity -- estimates for Los Angeles, where I live, suggest we could add 100,000 electric cars to the grid without touching the infrastructure. And if we could convince 100,000 drivers to drive electric it would be well worth it to add capacity. Same plant, bigger generators.

The fuel source can be anything -- nuclear, wind, sun, natural gas, even coal (an electric car powered by electricity generated from coal is still significantly cleaner than a non-hybrid internal combustion car). Whatever you use, you are only decreasing efficiency by making a big detour through hydrogen.

Have I addressed the issue? I want to be absolutely clear that even if you don't believe there's a conspiracy (what conspiracy...it's just good business) hydrogen, right now, is a really awful choice to make.

Have you ever heard of National City Lines? I suppose it's only "conspiracy nuts" who believe that GM, Firestone, Standard Oil, and others bought up electric street cars and replaced them with city buses?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_City_Lines