Biting The Grid That Powers You
The future wave of electric vehicles (EV) could strain the customer’s patience and the electricity grid infrastructure to the breaking point.
In order for EVs to become ubiquitous, consumers will need to feel secure that energy will be available to them regardless of terrain, temperature, distance and traffic conditions and unforeseen circumstances like January’s multi-day traffic jam on I 95. For example, the U.S. has approximately 150,0001 filling stations. Each station features an average of eight filling nozzles that totals 1.200,0002 filling ports across the U.S.A. However, the average liquid fossil-fuel fill-up only takes approximately 3 minutes. Whereas, a current technology Level-3 DC fast charge takes approximately thirty minutes to charge. Considering that a liquid fill up is ten times faster than a Level-3 recharge. It would stand to reason that to avoid multi-hour waits on our interstate highways especially during high traffic volume times such as holidays we need quite a few Level-3 DC fast chargers at the ready.
Currently, we become impatient when we have to wait ten or more minutes to fill up at an interstate highway service plaza during the holidays. We need to equip highway rest stops and service plazas with a significant number of Level-3 DC fast chargers. Just imagine being third in line and having to wait up to two hours before you can connect for your half hour long charge with family in the car. There is also a security issue, before long snatch and grab criminals will realize that affluent tethered EV drivers are easy prey.
One solution this impending challenge is to install Wind & Solar Towers (WST) at interstate rest stops. In larger utilization locations such s interstate service plazas WSTs can be installed in a diamond pattern (which increases the combined output by 20%) that provide twenty-four charging cords. Subsequently, to ease range and soon to be problem of consumer aggravation, WSTs should be installed at every interstate highway rest stop and service plaza across our country.