There may be no wind power in Georgia, but your electricity network may be
interconnected with other networks far away where there is wind power,
that's the nicety of these networks (makes up for their ugliness).
Now would potential US wind power be enough to recharge all US automobiles
at some time or other of the night do you think?
Michel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jed Rothwell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2006 11:45 PM
Subject: Re: Simple comparison electric car versus gasoline
Michel Jullian wrote:
Jed you made an excellent point here, as amazing as it may seem no
additional generator capacity would be needed (if your maths are right
which they seem to be).
Actually, several authors have pointed this out and they have done more
sophisticated analyses. I just ran a quick "reality check" to confirm
them.
Recharging electric automobiles with Internet connected "smart meters"
would be an ideal application for intermittent wind generated electricity.
As long as it gets done in less than 10 hours or so nobody cares whether
it happens at 11 p.m. or 3 a.m. A regular 120 VAC connector is only
supposed to carry 1.5 kW (although we had more powerful room heaters when
I was a kid!), but you can use a heavy-duty 5 kW line such the ones for
washing machines. Then you could charge the car in 3 hours when the wind
blows and power is available, and cut the power when the wind stops. In
Georgia we have no wind power but this would ensure that most of the
electricity used to charge cars comes from nuclear power plants.
- Jed
