While at the Charleston Public Library, I spotted one of the eleven Plug-In Hybrid Prius that are on the road in South Carolina.

 

Anybody bother to check the bare truth of that matter...??

How many gallons/equivalent had to be burned at the power plant to get that plug-in to go the distance?

Anybody ever bother to look at the (lack of) base efficiency of the US power generation and distribution grid..??

Not good.

 

Were plug-in hybrids, or just plain plug-ins, to become commonplace I suspect a new power distribution control system would have to be developed. As in the plug-in wouldn't begin charging, or continue charging, absent "permission" from the power grid network. Such permission only being granted except with obvious over-generation, excess generation capability.

BUt maybe that's the direction we're headed anyway, home appliances, electric clothes dryers, water heaters, etc, that cannot go "on line" absent permission from the grid.

 

Solar power to homes could make plug-in's even more cost effective as solar panel prices decline over the next few years. Additionally, I would think that a power company could generate electricity more effectively and cleaner than a 4 or 6 cylinder motor.

 

I've done a bit of studying of this PHEV and grid scenario. There are several problems with the current grid that should be addressed, but one of them is storage --- which PHEV's could actually help with. That won't be a reality until the grid gets a lot smarter. When it does, we may yet see customers leasing use of their plugged-in PHEV's to utility companies to balance the power loads, in a similar way that utilities pay solar and wind customers for their energy input to the grid today.

As far as concern about our dirty grid running our cars, the detailed study from the power industry folks, EPRI (http://www.epri-reports.org/) states, even given a "high carbon intensity" (read: dirty) grid, the changeover to plug-in hybrids yields significant greenhouse gas reductions. We're talking hundreds of millions of tons that aren't emitted.

If dirty coal yielding fewer emissions than clean gasoline seems counter intuitive, note that a good gasoline engine might be 20% efficient at converting fuel energy to motion. A good electric engine might be 97% efficient at the same task. Think about that!

Therefore, even considering dirtier fuel + transmission line losses, the less you use that 20% engine (and the more you use the 97% one), the better off you are.

Also, if we create an energy policy that slowly moves our grid towards carbon-free sources, we'll get even more pollution reductions for powering our cars via the grid.