STANFORD, Calif. — Leaving your luxury electric car charging overnight to have it ready in the morning seems like a good idea in theory. But in reality, research suggests doing so does more harm in the long run. Stanford scientists say that it’s more costly to charge your electric car at night and it could stress out your local electric grid.
Instead, researchers suggest drivers should switch to charging their vehicle at work or in public charging stations. Another added benefit to charging in the daytime at a public station is that it reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
With the effects of climate change more apparent than ever—frequent forest fires, widespread flooding, and stronger hurricanes—car companies are expecting people to start investing in electric-powered cars in the future. For example, California residents are expected to buy more electric cars as the state is planning to ban sales of gasoline-powered cars and light trucks in 2035.
“We encourage policymakers to consider utility rates that encourage day charging and incentivize investment in charging infrastructure to shift drivers from home to work for charging,” says study’s co-senior author, Ram Rajagopal, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, in a statement.
So far, electric cars make up one million or 6% of automobile sales in California. The state’s goal is to increase that number to five million electric vehicles by 2030. However, the study authors say that the change from gas to electric will cause a strain in the electric grid when there’s 30% to 40% of cars on the road.
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“We were able to show that with less home charging and more daytime charging, the Western U.S. would need less generating capacity and storage, and it would not waste as much solar and wind power,” explains Siobhan Powell, a doctor of mechanical engineering and lead study author. “And it’s not just California and Western states. All states may need to rethink electricity pricing structures as their EV charging needs increase and their grid changes.”
If half of vehicles in the western United States are electric, the team estimates it would take over 5.4 gigawatts of energy storage—equivalent to five large nuclear power reactors—to charge the cars. However, if people charged their electric cars at work instead of home, the electric demand is expected to go down to 4.2 gigawatts.
California currently uses time-of-use rates to encourage people to use electricity at night such as running the dishwasher and charging cars. However, the authors argue that with growing demand of electric cars, this strategy is outdated and will soon incur high demand with low supply. More specifically, the teams says if a third of homes were to charge their electric cars at 11 PM or whenever electricity rates go down, the local grid would become unstable.
“The findings from this paper have two profound implications: the first is that the price signals are not aligned with what would be best for the grid – and for ratepayers. The second is that it calls for considering investments in a charging infrastructure for where people work,” says Ines Azevedo, associate professor of energy science and engineering and co-senior author.
“We need to move quickly toward decarbonizing the transportation sector, which accounts for the bulk of emissions in California,” Azevedo adds. “This work provides insight on how to get there. Let’s ensure that we pursue policies and investment strategies that allow us to do so in a way that is sustainable.”
The study is published in Nature Energy.
These are the morons teaching our kids
That’s why we encourage individual microgrids. One of our Green Tornado wind turbines is enough to power you house, two EV’s and two storage panels.
Exactly! Charging at night is a red herring in the article- the problem is that Cali and the rest of the country have been paying for poorly maintained and managed centralized utilities that can’t adapt to new lifestyles. We need to phase them out
The link the author provided as evidence that hurricanes are stronger due to climate change presents no such evidence, while multiple studies in the past 2 decades have found otherwise
Today, a typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds. It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds of cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.
It should concern you that all those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for just ONE battery.
So, the next time you are thinking about purchasing an electric vehicle or driving your EV, before congratulating yourself on saving the environment, remember that it came at a cost of entire mountains in poor developing countries, with documented human rights abuses, thousands of square miles of land, and billions of gallons of oil and fuel.
Today, a typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds. It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds of cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.
It should concern you that all those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for just ONE battery.
So, the next time you are thinking about purchasing an electric vehicle or driving your EV, before congratulating yourself on saving the environment, remember that it came at a cost of entire mountains in poor developing countries, with documented human rights abuses, thousands of square miles of land, and billions of gallons of oil and fuel.
The solution to all this problem is, follow the advice of our Australian Prime Minister ..
Have Solar Panels installed on the roof of your house to produce electric power for recharging your Tesla car overnight ..
A simple back of the envelope calculation indicates that even if the entire personal automobile market consisted 100% of EVs and all of those EVs charged at night, night-time electricity demand would only increase by 16%. This is far below today’s daytime peak. This article is complete nonsense and the authors lack even rudimentary math skills.
The only way you can come remotely close to the bogus conclusions of this “study” is if you assume that every car is an electric vehicle and every electric vehicle starts every night at 0% battery and needs to charge to 100%.
These ‘if this goes on’ fear mongering articles have one flaw. This doesn’t go on. The Y2k did not destroy the computer networks. The depletion of oil did not extinguish the lamps of USA. etc.
Two factors to consider. One is grid scale storage which allows energy flows to be ‘evened out’ to compensate for time of use, not matter how that goes.
The other is the rise in solar (with maximum power in the daytime). This will drive the ‘storage’ concept as much as anything. This is where the driving force to ‘grid stabilization’ will come from as the lower costs of power generation and the rising falling profile of the power output will necessitate power storage anyway (and it saves enough to cover the cost). Best practices is to oversize the solar array so that more of the day meets demand (which also has a daytime peak, so nice bonus) while storing the excess for the ‘tail’s where generation is lower than demand. This makes for ‘dispactable power’ with guaranteed levels.
One way to start find a way to turn our oldschool cars to an eco friendly way for gas. Electric cars though are deffiantly not for everyone right now. Ev’s are the thing of the future not a right now thing just my opinion. If you care about the planet and your work force something should be done in that manner to help us reach to getting an EV. But I do not see anything wrong with making an eco friendly gas for people that want to drive that and let others have electric cars. A middle ground right now would be nice because a lot of us dont wanna go in debt being forced to go to EVs right now and also most work places dont have that. It’s a lot more expensive to pay at a public charger and most people dont even know how to work on EVs where I live. So good luck to ya forcing all America to do it because we all know how to make homecooked meals, grow gardens down in the country and make things work in our favor tell the time comes.
Something for all the greenies to think about. Stars eventually become super novas. Then they collapse on themselves becoming black holes from which no light can escape. Before becoming a supernova there is a period of enhanced solar activity. Our sun is a star. Everything has a life span. How old is our sun? How much time does it have left? There could be a solar eruption tomorrow and we would cease to exist. In the context of a universe that has no boundaries (no beginning or end) we are soooooo insignificant. Put your faith in God and enjoy the time He has allowed us.
With all this heat in the summer you need all the power for A/C during the day. Maybe during the cooler months this could work most charging during the day. However, A/C has always been the big user of electricity that is where peak power usage came from
When the article starts off with the unproven statement that hurricanes are worse, and flooding and wildfires are more numerous because of climate change/global warming, I really can’t read anymore. Stick to the facts, these statements can’t be backed up by.
I worked at a utility optimizing and leveling costs some time ago – and I find this rather difficult to swallow. Electricity prices at night are lower than the day for a reason.
Baseload power is cheaper and the distribution system is infrastructure that doesn’t care.
Now California, in their stupidity of getting rid of baseload power might be straining their gas turbines to keep up, but blame the morons that got rid of baseload capacity.
And I also once had a commercial size windmill on my farm and I can assure you they turn at night.
Academics, politicians, and journalists are not problem solvers.
I have completely different take away from that study- you can go to Stanford’s site and read the original- The solution isn’t to continue to accommodate an old unreliable centralized utility. If we are saying that we want to get off fossil fuels then we have to skip these half measures. Certainly public charging stations are built to handle more use- but homes can handle personal use if they get off the grid and make use of house battery tech. In fact, in sunny Cali, a house battery neighborhood can send an immense amount of energy back to the grid cutting everyone’s costs (of course, we know the folks at the energy company aren’t about to give anyone a cost break). I love how these articles slant everything to keep us thinking we need fossil fuels…
Charging at work is definitely smarter. You won’t burn your house down when the batteries ignite.
The study makes no sense whatever. There can’t be a decline in the energy required to charge EV’s regardless of the time of day or night.
So the difference is 5 to 4 nuclear plants. That CA for one won’t build.
But you can’t charge when there are conditions for forest fires.
You can’t charge when it’s hot because grid is overloaded with 5 % of sales per year electric cars. What % of total cars are electric in CA ? 1%
Good luck you will need it when it’s closer to 20% never mind 50 or 100 %
Charging ev vehicles during the night when the majority of people are in bed sleeping so the only real electrical power draw is the ev vehicles charging and that’s causing problems with the power grid yet in CA which gets the majority of it’s electricity from Arizona has had the governor Gavin Newsom issue an executive order for the production of new vehicles to be 💯% electric by 2035 and within the last week he has pushed through something that bans natural gas water heaters and ocen/range stove’s. And that’s not even including the fact that he made an executive order/law that bans the production and sales of small gas engine equipment
It is unthinkable how we are in a society of a majority of experts who offer no constructive solutions, just criticism and occasionally insults.
Much of the cited content is based on science that has a foundation on data.
When tribal factions emerge to support whatever the narrative is that they support much gets lost.
To support the solution keep a mind open to the possibilities.
I am an electrical contractor and I have an EV for commuting, as well as ICE equipment for work, I am building out an RE system with storage with expansion capability on my property. I must concede the possibility that all the pollution has been contributing to the damage to the Ozone, as well as the CO2
Levels, but there are also many cyclical changes that have occurred on our planet through the millennium as core samples in ice dating back through at least 2 ice ages confirm this as well.
There is no need to get hysterical, or abuse others who don’t read all the studies, as it is not possible.
Some people approach this as a religion, when we have enough data to understand or indicate scientific theories that are supported by evidence.
To discredit both of those obvious points is being irrational and irresponsible.
Ignorance is far more dangerous that anything what is being ranted about.
Take the time to read all points of the science, don’t read one person’s opinion and climb on a soap box and then presume to be such an expert as to insult another American who shares a possibly uniform or partially informed opinion on such things.
I admittedly am not an expert on Rewable Energy though I am licensed to install it. I have experience and there are many segments of the industry that I am familiar with, but I think it is is Hubris to read or watch something for a few minutes, and adopt it as my “expert” opinion. Having experience may qualify me to install it safely, but I am certainly not going to develop my identity around such things, Nor am I a better person for having read about things or done things on a certain subject. That is simply acting out on insecurity.
It’s actually generated by the earth, ongoing. So is oil. Oil is not dead dinosaurs, and natural gas isn’t dead dinosaur farts. These are facts that the greenies don’t want to get out. Hell, even big oil wants us to believe there is only so much out there, like the diamond industry.
There has been a natural gas fire burning constantly in a desert for over 50 years. Yes, I do think it should be put out, yes, I do think we should cap and pipe that gas to be used elsewhere. But the earth just keeps on supplying that gas…