Random EV thoughts.....

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118013582#Comment_118013582

Can it make it a sales pitch to ESB? Sell the network to someone competent?

garo

ESB will look at the 7.9% utilisation and say sure we have more than enough on this island.

cannco253

Slightly off topic, but can you imagine the response to something like this here...

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/10/13/its-time-to-ban-gas-powered-landscaping-equipment/

"Landscaping equipment will be electric in California soon, as a new bill moves to ban gas-powered lawn equipment in the state — including lawn mowers and leaf blowers — in an effort to limit air pollution. Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill on Saturday that will stop sales of gas-powered equipment with small off-road engines by January 1, 2024. That prohibition could also come sooner, if the California Air Resources Board (CARB) says such a law is “feasible.”

It’s not only landscaping equipment that is part of the law. Portable gas-powered generators will need to be zero-emission by 2028, according to the Los Angeles Times. Again, CARB has final say in that end date. The law requires all newly sold small-motor equipment primarily used for landscaping to be zero-emission — essentially to be battery-operated or plug-in — and includes any engine that produces less than 25 gross horsepower, such as lawn mowers, weed trimmers, chain saws, golf carts, specialty vehicles, generators, and pumps.

It does not apply to on-road motor vehicles, off-road motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, boats, snowmobiles, or model airplanes, cars or boats — yet.

The EPA says a new gas powered lawn mower produces as much air pollution in 1 hour of operation as 11 new cars each being driven for 1 hour. Using a gas-powered leaf blower for one hour causes the same amount of pollution to be emitted into the air as does a 2017 Toyota Camry driving from Los Angeles to Denver, which spans roughly 1,100 miles. "

slave1

California cannot be compared to either any other US state or any other country when it comes to their overt sensitivity to emissions (fair dues to them though)

the_amazing_raisin

Found this podcast recently and I have to say it's very interesting. Listening to the episode about long term energy storage at the moment

https://www.spreaker.com/user/10802082/59-ldes

Spoiler alert: There's no technology gaps, we just need to retrofit lots of our existing hydro to make them pumped hydro and build more pumped hydro. Use batteries as short term storage and pumped hydro and interconnectors as long term storage

The only thing needed is the drive to actually build this stuff

PS - This is more of a renewables thing, but there's no "random renewables thoughs" thread in that forum and I'm not starting one 😁

innrain

Have you ever seen 10 EVs charging at the same time and the same "hub"?

Who said 10 is plenty?

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118028912#Comment_118028912

There's only 9 cars on the left. What's the Audi at the end?

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118018313#Comment_118018313

Or their lack of electricity. It's the largest importer of electricity in the country, and has some significant power supply issues.

https://www.generac.com/be-prepared/power-outages/top-5-states-where-power-outage-occur

It has been observed that before the State mandatorily pushes everyone to electrics for things that they need on a daily basis to work and live (eg cars, lawnscaping things etc), they need to have a reliable electricity infrastructure first.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118029761#Comment_118029761

Etron

Peppa Cig

So how does it work for most if you have a company car EV?

does company cover cost of home charger?

how do you measure the home charger electricity consumption to claim back from company?

(sorry if covered already but could not find answer in forum).

thanks

Busman Paddy Lasty

No set rules AFAIK, it is between you and your employer come to any arrangement that suits.

I charge in work at no personal cost. Don't have a home charger yet but intend to get one as there is now a grant for employees who drive an EV.

I'll be paying for any installation costs over the grant because don't want any hassle such as measuring kWh and dealing with claims. The bulk of charging will be done in work. Any power used at home will be pennies.

MightyMunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118031429#Comment_118031429

I have a zappi which displays kWh used per week/month/year. Submit a photo of this regularly to show electricity usage

Pivot Eoin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117987184#Comment_117987184

Used Car Prices are very high at the moment, so 20% Depreciation in year 1 isn't the reality for desirable cars (Like the Ioniq 5) at the moment.

Chip shortage is not the main blocker to people buying EVs at the moment (EcoSystem and Range Fear is).

Batteries will always continue to improve - this will never not be the case, and it is not unique to 2021/2022.

In 2 years time you could probably drum up a few more reasons as to why you shouldn't buy now. You could also probably look back and say why you maybe should have bought a 221.

Its apples and nuts stuff really. I'd bet large sums of money that Good EVs will hold their value far more than ICE Cars in the next 3-5 years.

AndyBoBandy

re the used EV's holding their value far better than ICE's...

a guy on Boards sold his Model 3 Performance a few weeks ago, it was 20 months old and he only lost about €8k from the initial purchase price...

So got to own a M3P for 20 months, and only cost him €400pm in depreciation.

garo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118031251#Comment_118031251

Texas residents should probably sit this one out 😛

eagerv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118034927#Comment_118034927

Looks like our Ioniq 28 has only lost about 7 or 8 K in 5 years. ( Depend if you paid unkel price or not lol)

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117987184#Comment_117987184

The SEAI grant will disappear and instantly your car will be worth more….

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118023489#Comment_118023489

we don’t have mountains in Ireland. We have hills. So the head height for hydro is really low. Add that to the ecological disaster of flooding some natural beauty and we have little options

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118037948#Comment_118037948

Touché, though in fairness, it's much cheaper to switch to electrical here and it's more reliable. For starters, the cost per kWh is much lower from the major power companies than from CA's PG&E (Folks who used those fly-by-night-entities are on their own), about 50% less, and they have made my solar install much more affordable than what I'd have paid in California. We even generate more electricity from renewable sources than California does (About 1million mWh more, in June, according to the Energy Information Administration). Texas may be oil country, but just because we don't shove renewables in folks' faces doesn't mean we're not heavily into it.

It comes down to money and practicality. It's not as if we don't have battery-powered lawnmowers here just because it's Texas. It's convenient and fairly cheap to run, so we use them.

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039950#Comment_118039950

I assume the previous comment was in relation to the lack of interconnection, the poorly Winter-proofed generators and other factors that led to last winters massive multi-day load shedding event and Texas being under 10 seconds away from a black-start event.

Not that Ca is much better. I mean, it would be great if the utilities would spend a few dollars fixing old equipment so it doesn’t start any more fires.

garo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039950#Comment_118039950

That's pretty impressive. I didn't know that Texas produces the same order of magnitude renewable energy as CA does. One fact pops out from EIA data. You are in a small minority of people who have small scale solar in TX. CA has about 10 times as much rooftop solar (but smaller utility scale). This is strange if as you say TX makes it easier than CA to install rooftop solar.

PG&E is a complete mess and a poster child of unregulated capitalism. Short-termism to the extreme and no planning or investment for the future because the US economic system makes it irrational to do so. Rather let 100 year old power lines stay in place and then pay the fines when they cause a fire because it is cheaper than proactively replacing them. And this after the highest electricity costs in the country. The state should just take over PG&E and fix it.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118038845#Comment_118038845

Well even a few metres of hieght difference gives you a lot of potential power, and the incline doesn't matter. For example where I live (Swords) isn't a hilly area, but there's a 60 metre height difference to sea level, and Malahide estuary is just down the road. That height difference would give you plenty of power

We do have a lot of lakes and rivers, some of which already have dams. What other coutries have done with these is to add pumping stations downriver which can refill the lake when there's excess electricity, effectively turning the whole thing into one big pumped hydro. There's also the added advantage of better control of water resources and flood defenses.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118040014#Comment_118040014

Ah the wonders of deregulation...

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.electrive.com/2021/10/18/easygo-secures-e15m-for-charging-across-ireland/

Looks like EasyGo just got handed the chequebook, I wonder will our gallant government match the funding like they did with the ESB?

Good news overall I'd say, we need some real competition in the charging space. Hopefully EasyGo use the funding to get into the HPC market at motorway services, instead of installing 22kW units in Lidls

Fingleberries

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118041054#Comment_118041054

Could you imagine what they could do if the Government matched the investment? A combined €30M could go a long way with an interested and motivated company like EasyGo.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118041054#Comment_118041054

I believe they are going the 50kW DC route, with some 75kW units, but to have them everywhere.. (see Supervalu & Eir Phonebox announcements).

So if they get this right, they could be a big factor in convincing people to go EV.....

If you live in an apartment, and are thinking about going EV, do you want to go to your grocery store and see an AC22, or do you want to go and see a few 50kW DC chargers? or if your down the country in your holiday rental, are you going to Tesco with its AC plug, or are you going to SuperValu because there's a 50kW DC unit there.

Let eCars have the route networks (but just bloody do it already!!!), and let EasyGo handle the local needs...

PhoneMain

Hi, apologies if I've posted this in the wrong place and feel free to move if needed.

It'll be a year or 2 yet but I've been thinking that my 1.6l diesel will need upgrading and with 3 kids, I was thinking an SUV might be the way to go. To help the environment I thought it's probably time to start looking at electric cars. The electric SUVS that seem to be available in Ireland look (limited enough research mind!) a bit on the small size, nothing say as big as a Kodiaq or Peugeot 5008 for example. For exampe the Id4 of Skodas model (name escapes me) I'm just wondering is this the way electric SUVs are going to be or will the technology catch up to allow efficient large SUVs (granted this might be contradicting the environment issue). Tho I have seen the electric mini vans but wouldnt be the most stylish! Just a q if anyone can help. Thanks

Pivot Eoin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118041952#Comment_118041952

The Skoda you're talking about is the Enyaq. I would definitely test drive the Enyaq if you can. Generally EVs can be a bit roomier Interior wise because all the batteries are under the floor and no Drivetrain. This means more footroom and because the Electric Motors take up far less space than ICEs and all that comes with, The vast Majority of the length of the car is dedicated to Cabin Space.

The Skoda Enyaq has the roomiest boot in the class. The Hyundai Ioniq is so spacious in the interior and the boot space is still excellent due to the 3m Wheel Axle to Axle length.

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118040014#Comment_118040014

All that money that they haven't been spent preparing equipment for events which happen once for a week in thirty years has been being spent on renewables which are used 364 days of the year. Being grid-isolated is one thing, but I can live with the lack of winterisation. Honestly, water was more of an issue, burst pipes caused a lot more damage and hardship to people.

The reason residential solar is less popular here in TX is that there's less incentive to switch to it. As I said, the standard electricity prices around here are very cheap. So what ends up happening is that you pay less for your install, but it takes you much longer to earn your money back. I looked into Solar when I was living in California, it would have taken 6-7 years before showing a 'profit'. but the upfront cost was much higher, not least because you needed to get a battery to get most use out of it. PG&E would give you peanuts in cash for your excess power, and charge you full rate. My local group, CPS (Actually a "semi-state" owned by the city) gives me full credit on a 1:1 basis for my generation making the battery mostly redundant. That knocked most of ten grand off the cost of installation to start with, before other cheaper costs like labor/installation. However, I don't expect to start earning a 'profit' for about 30 years. So, more people can afford their installations, but with cheap kilowatts coming out of the plug, more and more of which is green, and CPS also permits 'fractional ownership' of solar farms, only the folks with long-term plans are mounting panels on their roofs.

PhoneMain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118042297#Comment_118042297

Good stuff, thanks for the info!