Matthew Clapham
1 min readSep 10, 2023

--

Does this take into account losses through storage also, Paul? EVs mainly need charging at night, when in Spain at least (and Australia I guess) renewables are generating little. Spain's grid at night is mainly CCGT + nuclear, unless it's very windy. Obviously more tidal and offshore wind help with that, but Spain's greatest (easiest) potential is with simple PV panels.

Storage is a problem - pumped hydro is supposed to be doubled in the next 10 years - but political instability means that may not happen.

Solar thermal with heat storage has good potential (and Spain was a pioneer here), but has received very little support, and wouldn't be enough to power up a nationwide fleet of EVs over night, ready for the morning commute.

Green hydrogen is getting a lot of attention here (above all for industrial use) because it can turn that surplus renewable energy during the day into fuel that can be used whenever, and delivered via similar infrastructure to what already exists.

It seems that every solution to the storage problem comes with a big efficiency cost. But there's also the timing of when and where you can generate the amount of energy you need to power your vehicle fleet, and when, where and how that energy can be delivered for use.

--

--

Matthew Clapham
Matthew Clapham

Written by Matthew Clapham

Professional translator by day. Writer of silly and serious stuff by night. Also by day, when I get fed up of tedious translations. Founder of Iberospherical.

Responses (1)