Quote:
Originally Posted by mleskovar
Most people don't realize that the infrastructure for increased electrical energy distribution is not there nor do they understand what it would require to get them there if it were possible. And the closer you get to the answer the more damage and money squandered. EVs have a niche that doesn't fit many/most people.
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More problematic than car infrastructure is the charging infrastructure required for transport trucks. With Tesla about to launch the electric semi, they will rarely be at a “home” base for charging. With about 300 billion truck-kilometres (180 billion miles) per year requiring about 1.6kWh per mile travelled and Tesla suggesting solar infrastructure for power generation and delivery via megawatt charging infrastructure, here are some of the ballpark stats if all semis were electric:
- 288TWh (Terawatt hours) of power required.
- 3,000 locations required to replicate current interstate / Canadian freeway truck stops.
- Leading to an average truck stop delivering about 100GWh per year.
- To deal with peak demand with minimum delays, using MW chargers, 35 charge points would be needed per truck stop (assuming 3 times capacity for peaks).
- Assuming about 90% storage efficiency of power and the ability to top up from the national grid or supply excess power to the grid from a local solar system, about 350kWh per year can be produced per square metre for an average North American location, so the truck stop would need about 286,000 square metres of panels, but angled ground-mounted panels would need to be spread over several times that area for the sun at low angles, so would likely spread over about a square kilometre (probably double that in Canada and half that in Florida). Solar panel cost would be about $200 per square metre, or about $57m for the farm.
- to smooth supply and demand relative to amount of sun and time of year even with grid feed, likely at least 48 hours of battery storage would be advisable, so about 550MWh of battery capacity at a cost of about $160/kWh for $88m in total.
- total construction and installation cost (including inverters, connection to grid, buildings, solar panel mounting and cabling, etc) will be at least double or more likely triple the panel and battery costs, so about $400m per truck stop in total, or $1.2 trillion for North America, not including amortization and operating costs.