this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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Climate
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Oil refineries use so much energy that they quite often have a dedicated power plant. The energy required to refine enough fuel to drive 100km could instead be used to drive an EV more than 50km.
Switching to EVs will have much less of an impact on the grid than it initially appears. With overnight or midday charging, EVs can even help spread the load throughout the day and help reduce the evening peak.
V2G/V2H can reduce this peak even further, while only using a tiny amount from each car battery.
Air-conditioning is also a big concern for the energy grid, but as with all new technologies, the grid will be upgraded to handle it. Unless you are employed by a grid operator to plan for the future, you don't need to worry about it.
At the scale of minutes and seconds, this isn't wrong. It just misses a few nuances like frequency maintenance issues due to lack of inertia in a majority solar grid
My local grid frequently hits 100% renewable power, and has even exceeded 100% of demand from only rooftop solar with commercial solar and wind also producing at that time.
The grid needed a few modifications, and there was some brief instability, but everyone survived it and the grid has been stable for over a year.
I think we'll be fine.
For sure and it'll need to be done, one way or another. It'll just take a longer time for the unprepared grids
I'm a electrical designer and this is a discussion we have nearly weekly. Charging EVs on a commercial scale is very different on a residential scale. Our energy grid is in shambles.