Rolling Blackouts - Move To Electric Vehicles - Our Electric Grid - Infrastructure.....

[global1]

I'm hearing of growing rolling blackouts around the country and at the same time I'm hearing about major automobile manufacturers moving swiftly into electric vehicles.

It sounds like our electric grid is pushed to it's limits now. What's going to happen in the next 3 to 9 years when more and more electric vehicles are put on the road?

Seems to me that we need to move fast when it comes to upgrading the infrastructure and electric grid in this country or face even greater blackouts in the future.

Am I missing something here? Anyone else want to chime in on this conversation?

[MineralMan]

1. No. You're not missing anything.

You seem to have your finger right on the problem.

And here is a lithium mine in China:



And here is some lithium processing in progress:



Nice, huh?

"if you don't think twice, it's alright!"

[Budi]

8. I have some worries about lithium. Just read this about using Lithium in Nuc Reactors

I see so much with moving to alternative by the use of lithium & see the destruction of mining of it as well as cobalt.
None of it is good & I hope lithium is not the new 'fossile fuel' of the future, in the way it's mining is as destructive as drilling, flaring & fracking of petroleum.

Here's the newest possible use for lithium in Nuc Fusion.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Scientists-Use-Lithium-To-Control-Heat-In-Nuclear-Fusion-Reactors.amp.html

Scientists Use Lithium To Control Heat In Nuclear Fusion Reactors
By MINING.com - Feb 15, 2021, 11:30 AM CST
Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have created a plan using liquid lithium to control the extreme heat that could strike the exhaust system inside tokamak fusion reactors.

A tokamak is a confinement device that uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus and whose work is to produce controlled thermonuclear fusion power.
More...
**********

Not sure where all within the US lithium could be mined, think I've only heard of Nevada so far.

Not a big fan here...😬

[MineralMan]

9. There are Lithium resources here in the US.

California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada. Death Valley, for example, is just loaded with lithium. There's an enormous salt mound in Texas that could be exploited. However, we don't mine in the US any more. It's too ugly and polluting. So, we buy that stuff from countries that don't care about such things. Same with copper, another important metal anywhere electricity is used. And cobalt. And rare earth minerals.

We have those resources here, but we don't mine here. It's not popular to mine in the US. So all that stuff is imported from poor countries that can't be picky about the industries that feed their economies.

As long as we don't see the destruction of nature, the pollution, the near slavery, it's OK with us. We want a nice Tesla.

The reality is not what the picture we see looks like. It never is.

[Budi]

11. I hear ya. Anyone buy the line that Elon is on the cutting edge of Clean Climate...

...with the soaring production of Tesla & push for electric vehicles needs to look again.

I've heard rumors (only rumors) of the Tx lithium resource. That big future idea better not be why he's building his Tesla plant in Austin.

With the panic of the west Tx Permian oil basin, I would not think twice that the money & machine that runs our Tx govt has its sights set on mining in the future.

Tx Republican stronghold in govt, would not hesitate could they see a way to open that mega $$$$ investment.

1st is to create the need.
Then the approval of lithium mining becomes more palatable.

This is what I fear about this whole matter.

[tinrobot]

13. And here is an image of an oil spill

And here is an image of a coal mine:



And here is an image of global temperature rise because of fossil fuels like oil and coal.



OK?

[MineralMan]

17. Whataboutism is not an argument.

[tinrobot]

18. But "What about lithium mines" is an argument?

Please.

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. I just installed solar panels with battery backup.

The panels are on my garage, so I also included a EV charging station. I may not be around when we finally make the total conversion from combustible engines, but it made sense to include a charging station during the install.

[Budi]

3. The charging station was a smart install.

Without it, how do people charge their electric vehicles?

Think ahead~
👍

[Xolodno]

4. Here in California, we've addressed the problem.

Particularly since the Enron debacle.

All new homes built have solar panels. And where I live, there are solar farms up the whazoo. But we still have rolling blackouts, not so much as overloading the grid, but high winds that could spark wildfires. But slowly, those cables are being buried. And the cost of solar is dropping so there are more and more homes putting up panels.

And of course, any high wind areas from Tehachapi to Palm Springs have wind farms.

[sarcasmo]

5. I've been tinkering around with solar for my off grid cabin, many new options and setups.

[JCMach1]

6. Smart grid will actually help all around

Your car becomes a Home emergency storage battery

[bullimiami]

7. If we were smart we would incorporate the evs into the storage grid.

Parked at night, charging, huge reservoir.
In fact all the chargers could all be grid connected two way.

[FakeNoose]

10. One good thing is that batteries can be recharged on down-time

If midnight to 6 a.m. is an off-peak time, batteries can be recharged then. Or whenever it can be worked in, even odd times during the day. Rush hour would be a bad time.

Maybe some cars will carry their own solar-powered collectors for on-the-go recharging.

[Takket]

12. You are absolutely correct

Electric vehicles are going to require a massive infrastructure upgrade to charge them all. We can’t just expect every person to install a charging station at their hone or apartment. Must be coupled with green energy initiatives as well or we are just going to burn fossil fuels to charge our cars which doesn’t help much.

[tinrobot]

14. Gas pumps also stop working when the power goes out.

It's not like you'll be able to fill up in severe outage.

My car has at least 200 miles in the battery right now. I don't think I'd be more inconvenienced by a power outage than anyone else.

[genxlib]

15. One thing that helps

Present problems excluded, most rolling blackouts are related to heat waves.

To a certain extent, peak heat coincides with peak solar. So that at least gives us a way to increase that capacity while still being green. A bigger problem is actually overnight and windless periods which will require a substantial amount of battery storage. That will be the key technology advancement we need to move ahead.

I think this particular rolling blackout problem indicates that the mid-south relies on a lot electric heat which is different that many northern climates which relies directly on fossil fuels. That brings up questions of its own about going green.

[Kaleva]

16. Can't buy gas during a blackout either.