California has a power grid that doesn't immediately fail when it gets too cold or too hot. No, californian power utilities just kills 12 people each year and regularly starts forest fires.
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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Texan here. Those are rookie numbers. We post into the triple digits down where everything is bigger.
I'll be honest, this summer hasn't had any rolling blackouts in North Texas. Oh, I bet it has nothing to do with the expanded wind/solar/battery farms. Can't be the renewables!
In fairness, I don't think you guys got hit by the hurricane quite as hard as we did.
I'm looking at it from ercot not having enough energy for demand like the last few years. Obviously, a hurricane will take down service.
In the case of the '18 February snap-freeze, the problem was gas plant lines freezing over so they couldn't run their generators as demand peaked.
Ironically, that sky-high crisis pricing causes green energy investment to surge, as wind and solar got to ride the $3000 Mwh rates during the peak of summer while gas companies had to spend a small fortune retrofitting all their lines.
Actually, I think CA regularly has more power outages than Texas. https://poweroutage.us/ Though I'm not sure how many people your utilities are found to manslaughter in a given year.
PG&E is shit enough to make me think there are worse things than ERCOT. But it's been a race to the bottom.
The sierra nevadas have pretty extreme weather for a lot of the year.
I live in CA and have had one power outage in the last 3 years.
Also, that's a model Y, which starts at $45k and maxes out at $55k before the $7.5k EV tax rebate. Add 8K if you think full self driving is a good idea for some reason.
I live here as well. Power works just fine. Only been here for about 7 months but still. Occasionally when it's 110° they'll pre-cool my house with my thermostat then raise the temp during peak hours but that's just smart. For all its problems, California isn't as bad as the rep it gets.
Had a friend from back home (Midwest) giving me shit for living in a dystopian hell hole and paying more taxes for the privilege. I pointed out he pays more taxes than I do plus I was hiking in the mountains last week because I got tired of going to the beaches.
I've had zero in the last 9 or so years of living in California.
Literally zero.
That's a Model Y that costs about $50,000. And yeah, let's see if the gas pumps still work during a power outage.
Lol people forget this. Had a major storm roll through the area a few years back (Iowa) and everyone was lined up at the gas stations bitching while I was doin Dandy with a full battery (along with the others who keep their tanks full or recently filled up). A lack of preparation will not be mitigated magically by technology.
A generator is one option, solar panels or just regular battery backups are another option.
If the grid is up but overloaded you can also just charge slower, which for 99% of people will work.
At least you can charge your car at all, if there is an actual power outage, the gas pumps won't be working at all, and even if they are, it requires so much infrastructure to deliver gas to the pumps that they won't be working for long.
Edit: since when did an expensive car equal easy to operate? Historically, the more expensive the car gets the more caveats to the operation there are.
Also of note, this is still more fuel efficient than using an ICE vehicle.
no it isnt... what the fuck are u talking about that generator has an extra shitty ice engine in it plus the losses on the generator, batteries, and motors. its way less efficient, theres no need to lie, EV are marginally better than ICE cars even if u dont lie about extreme edge cases like this.
Yes, I have read that it is. The generator runs at most efficient RPM and doesn't have idle time, etc.
first, they arent running at the optimum rpm, the electric load on it slows it down and most generators are rated such that when outputting their maximum power they are above the load when they would be most efficient and u better fucking believe that charging a car has it at its limit. Its still much closer to optimal than an ice engine in a car but certainly not optimal.
second and more importantly small generators like that are usually at most 18% efficient where as modern ice cars are usually a little over 20% efficient and then that 18% gets multiplied by the around 95% efficiency of evs so yeah no theres no fucking way that is more efficient. If it was even a small "portable" powerplant it would be a different story even a small gas turbine would be more efficient than an ice car, but not that shitty little thing.
and again theres no need to pretend, this is an extreme case that would only happen rarely even taking it into account evs are better (even tho they are still cars and therefore dont fix 99.9% of the problems with cars)
That’s a good point! How much energy gets lost through the generator, do you reckon?
So I've heard this lots of places but never done the math, so I sat down this afternoon to try and work it out and...it's super complicated. The generator in the picture might not charge the car at all...if it is, it's probably a trickle charge like plugging into a 120v outlet...which means running the generator for a very long time for a very small charge which means it's super inefficient...depending on your starting assumptions you get anywhere from 11 - 20 miles of charge out of a gallon of fuel for the generator, which is less efficient than tha average of 31 mpg for a 2022 sedan...so in that case, it's less efficient. The more normal use case would be a whole-home generator powering a level 2 or 3 charger in your garage... which can be more efficient than an ICE engine assuming a high-efficiency generator and EV. Additionally, generators don't typically have emissions controls, so from a carbon standpoint, it's WAY worse than an ICE with a catalytic converter.
Edit: since when did an expensive car equal easy to operate? Historically, the more expensive the car gets the more caveats to the operation there are.
My favorite example of this is the BMW i8. Here is a video which shows how to open the hood. Even the dealership recommends to the sales team taking the car into the shop and having trained technicians....open the hood. I guess its "Fuck You" if you ever break down on the side of the road. https://youtu.be/fxe_b2GRwok?si=MGy3lwov8bd36-4m
Where is the super car? I just see a shitty Tesla in this picture.
Generator efficiencies are much higher than when a combustion engine is used to propel a vehicle.
Power plant, yes, doubt that little gas generator is though.
Much higher? Yeah, might not be. But definitely still higher efficiency than when a human is controlling the output of a combustion engine to get it to be efficient at pushing loads. (ie driving a non-electric)
If you're running the generator at it's efficient output. If you're running at max load it gets murky on efficiency. You'd probably need an evse that can manually set a current limit to get the best efficiency
You'd probably need an evse that can manually set a current limit to get the best efficiency
The Tesla model 3/Y can do that when charging from AC like this.
But is the Electric Motor efficient enough to get further away with the same amount of gas a combustiom engine would use?
I don't think that's a 'super car'.
Disappointed in comments for no one doing the energy transfer math proposed here
Was just going to ask if anyone ran the mpg equivalent yet.
Californians: California's grid rocks!
Also Californians: Texas' grid is a fucking joke!
ALSO Californians: PG&E raped my dog and keeps failing!
Never lived there, which is it?
(I know there's much more to all this, but surely you see the irony?)
Grid does rock, but PG&E and SCE both suck bull eggs.
Hey hey, don't forget SDG&E. FUCK SDG&E!
Word. Luckily never had to deal with those particular 🤡
The grid is excellent, but the power companies are fucking awful and corrupt.
We have he highest rates in the entire nation in San Diego.
But yeah, our power doesn't go out like Texas and other shitty states.
Easy. Just mount the generator on/in the trunk and get unlimited* power.
*depending on fuel capacity/charge rate.
As far as I know, no EV lets you shift out of park while charging
Not irony, don't have to love it, and having a giant battery as backup if the grid keeps failing seems prudent.
California doesn't produce water either. Or more accurately if you are trying to live in the late-stage capitalist hell-hole that is california, it doesn't produce power or water for you.
Lol, okay buddy.
I believe California will actually get wetter with climate change, at least parts off it. And our reservoirs are pretty high right now last year they were higher than any point I can remember and I'm not a spring chicken.
As a former Californian, want to know something even funnier?
This is just banning the sale of low efficiency generators. You want an inverter in your generator these days, it saves you gas/propane over time. They're also quieter and produce more stable and "clean" power for potentially sensitive electronics.
The zero-emission in 2028 is really restrictive. There aren't going to be any small engine that's zero-emission. It's going to end up becoming portable battery banks. And those those might be okay to get you through a power outage. They aren't the same as generation.