Discussion on:

Electric vehicles are arriving. What about the infrastructure?

We have excessive overnight power reserves but just in case, bring on more nukes, wind and solar. Nukes will be more necessary than in the past. If France can do it Americans need to think out of the box.

"The commercial imperative is an important goal that we dare not take our eyes off."

We have taken our eyes off the commercial imperative available through renewable energy (all this technology has been around, in some form, for a hundred years or more). We do take our eyes, as a country, off of that fact. The US power base will, for the most part, ignore this and try to dig in further.

It is certainly an opportunity.

We will need about 30% more power lines and generating plants along with charging stations at every restaurant, hotel, shopping center and every mile along the interstate hwy system. We will also have to have a credit card to operate the charging stations. Several million tones of aluminum and copper wire for transformers and conductors to the charging stations will also be needed. The lithium for the batteries will exceed the worlds current proven reserves just to supply the needs for the United States. Afghanistan has the largest supply which could be problematic.

I'm not sure I buy the fact that we have a lot of electric overcapacity that can be used to charge cars, especially if electric becomes the dominate form of transportation. Because electricity is so much cheaper per mile than gasoline, building solar or wind power plants just to charge cars is the only use that pays for itself without government subsidies. Yes, it could be done a lot cheaper still using power from coal plants, but if the greens want to push renewables, this is their best case.

A 100 mile range is not practical in many parts of the country, recharging takes to long and the electorate should decide whether they want to pay for the infrastructure to support electric cars.

In my opinion converting or building cars to burn natural gas and converting coal to synthetic gas (South Africa has done it for decades) are better immediate alternatives.

Hydrogen should be our long range goal.

Buying and operating an electric vehicle is ecologically irresponsible -- in a nation that generates so much of its electricity from the combustion of coal and oil. In the U.S., the typical electric vehicle has a larger carbon footprint than the typical mid-size gasoline powered vehicle.

I am very interested in your view on how electric vehicles are ecologically irresponsible. I would think electric vehicles would have a lower carbon footprint than a gas-powered car because to me it seems electric is a cleaner source of energy.

Look at the power grid map in the July issue of National Geographic and you will see how far behind the U.S. lags in electric generation methods and infrastructure, compared to much of the industrial world. The unfortunate truth is, most of the electricity generated in the U.S. is "dirty".

This is a very relevant report. How often to we hear elected officials, news pundits, and industry reps take up this subject without ever mentioning infrastructure? I am amazed when I hear these people talk about recharging your electric vehicle at home. I live in a city where most people live in apartments or townhouses that have no garages.

quote: "The real benefit of electricity is that it?s about one-fifth of the price of electricity at today?s prices."

do you guys proofread your column before posting? I proofread scientific journals for PhD.s for whom English is a second language, so when I see this it is natural to correct you, not trying to put you on the spot ; )

Read these February 2010 Nissan website informative posts:

http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/news/infrastructure#/leaf-electric-car/news/infrastructure/renault_nissan_alliance_forms_zero_emission_vehicle_partnership_with_city_of_orlando

here GM plans to have personal charging stations in your home:

http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/news/news_detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2010/Jun/0616_voltcharge

I would say that the home charging station will generate more sales but the typical green person may also be a renter, so expect apartment communities to install charging stations also.

On a public gas station approach, I would expect that method would involved changing out batteries such as is done in forklifts in warehouses.

Just like universities have had to upgrade their power grids to provide laptop outlets at every desk and in lecture halls, so will the parking garages in major urban centers, by installing chargers in certain areas. You would insert a credit card and pay for charging time.

This is not as much of a crisis as the hype suggests. The media wants everything to be a crisis to sell more advertising.

The electric grid is underutilized and the switch to electric cars will not overburden the system, but we do have to ask the environmentalists why they wont allow nuclear plants to be built, yet they forced the oil companies to drill in dangerous offshore deep locations.

Charging infrastructure might be erected via public private partnership models. Please take a few minute to answer that survey, being part of an European project:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C36NKKF
many thanks for your precious time