California's grid can't support more electric cars
Turns out, when there's demand, we're pretty good at expansion infrastructure. In an emergency it could be a great project for the market too, like the highway expansion.
Current capacity 43,777 MW
Current demand 29,361 MW
Difference 14,315 MW
If you’re going sixty miles each way, no matter how you commute (aside from maybe a bus), it’s going to be a disaster from a fuel and environment perspective regardless of drivetrain.
Californians drive 340 billion miles a year. If that were all EV's then they would consume 85 billion kwh/year.
Solar insolation is about 2000 hours a year.
So you would need 42.5 GW of solar. With say 30 million cars that would be 1500W per car.
Check, average car drives 35 miles a day. So needs 8.75 kwh. 6 hours of sunlight so you'd need 1460 watts or solar.
That's $1500 worth of solar per car.
Set and match. Totally totally doable.
In any case, the grid can improve in capacity as more electric cars are sold in the state.