Electric vehicles are a welcome switch and advance from gas and diesel vehicles. Pollution is down. Noise is down. Health-related afflictions are down. What might also go up is the cost of the infrastructure supporting electric vehicles. Electric vehicles remove the need for such ubiquitous things as gas stations, but it switches the energy load from tankers delivering fuel to power lines delivering electricity to homes and any place with a charging station. That is doable and necessary, but it is not trivial.
“The improvements and replacements to the grid’s 8,000 power-generation units and 600,000 circuit miles of AC transmission lines (240,000 circuit miles being high-voltage lines) and 70,000 substations to support increased renewable energy and battery storage is estimated to be more than $2.5 trillion in capital, operations, and maintenance costs by 2035.” – Lawrence Livermore
Heavier electrical use can mean literally heavier infrastructure in terms of cables, transformers, and even power poles. The other good news/bad news is that other electrification efforts like home appliances and heat pumps add to the power load. Doable and necessary, but not trivial. The challenges aren’t likely to stop the EV and electric appliance adoption, but it means that the adoption will be uneven as different municipalities can afford upgrades at different rates, if at all.
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