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posted by janrinok on Tuesday November 23 2021, @12:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the grid-locked dept.

New homes in England to have electric car chargers by law:

New homes and buildings in England will be required by law to install electric vehicle charging points from next year, the prime minister is set to announce.

The government said the move will see up to 145,000 charging points installed across the country each year.

New-build supermarkets, workplaces and buildings undergoing major renovations will also come under the new law.

The move comes as the UK aims to switch to electric cars, with new petrol and diesel cars sales banned from 2030.

A turkey in every pot, and a charge point in every garage...


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Spamalope on Tuesday November 23 2021, @12:56AM (13 children)

    by Spamalope (5233) on Tuesday November 23 2021, @12:56AM (#1198763) Homepage

    There were just news stories about power grid problems in New England. Add up fast charger current x 2 cars a house and where does that leave you? Now try a house with driving teenagers.
    Where is the plan to build the power plants needed? Nuke plants to be green, right?

    Starting Score:    1  point
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       Offtopic=3, Insightful=3, Interesting=1, Disagree=1, Total=8
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 23 2021, @02:31AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 23 2021, @02:31AM (#1198789)

    The story is about England, not New England.

    Also, cars charge at night when power demand is low, so it won't stress the grid much.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by maxwell demon on Tuesday November 23 2021, @08:20AM (4 children)

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday November 23 2021, @08:20AM (#1198837) Journal

      When everyone charges the car at night, the power demand at night won't be low any longer. Note that those charging points are in residential areas where power requirements were low.

      On the other hand, electric power companies are interested in selling power, so they have an incentive to make the grid able to handle it.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 5, Funny) by choose another one on Tuesday November 23 2021, @02:36PM (1 child)

        by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 23 2021, @02:36PM (#1198882)

        > When everyone charges the car at night, the power demand at night won't be low any longer.

        Oh they've already thought of that, the flip side to this announcement is one that snuck out a few weeks ago that said (roughly) that _all_ new domestic charging points will be required to be "smart". Small print: "smart" means "turns off/on when we say so, not you". Pretty soon it'll decide to run in reverse, and discharge your car, when they want it to. Obviously (well, maybe) it'll credit your account for the leccy they took (because someone more important than you needed it), but when you get in in the morning five mins late to start the journey to work and find the car's got zero range your smart charger will allow you to fast-charge at a special premium "disorganized person shoulda planned better" rate.

        Don't mod this funny, it's not a joke.

        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 23 2021, @03:18PM

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 23 2021, @03:18PM (#1198898) Journal

          You obviously have the misconception that government policy favoring the rich is not a joke. [knowyourmeme.com]

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday November 23 2021, @07:44PM (1 child)

        by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday November 23 2021, @07:44PM (#1198997)

        How about we do the math, like I'm sure the UK government did?

        According to the sources I found, current electric cars take about 30 Kwh to travel 100 miles. According to what statistics UK government sources were suggesting, England has 56 million people, and according to national stats has 2.4 people per household and 1.2 cars per household, so that translates to roughly 28 million cars, and each car travels an average of 7400 miles per year, so we need to come up with 2220 KwH per car, or about 60 TwH per year to charge all cars in the UK.

        Currently the UK uses about 310 TwH of electricity total. And overall there's approximately 25% less electricity used 18:00-06:00 (night) than 06:00-18:00 (day), so about 125 KwH is at night vs 185 KwH during the day.

        Which means yes, every car charging at night would potentially even out the day/night electrical usage to approximately flat, but that assumes that retailers, offices, and industry don't convert any of their mostly-daytime non-electric energy use (e.g. natural gas heating) to electricity. What it definitely wouldn't do is create higher nighttime usage nationwide.

        Yes, I'm sure grid improvements will be in order for all of this, but again I would expect that to be a part of any wider effort to convert away from fossil fuels.

        In short, it looks to me like the UK government made a completely reasonable decision here.

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
        • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday November 24 2021, @05:36PM

          by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday November 24 2021, @05:36PM (#1199239)

          You seriously think the UK government can do maths?

  • (Score: 5, Touché) by janrinok on Tuesday November 23 2021, @09:19AM (2 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 23 2021, @09:19AM (#1198842) Journal
    Wrong country! How can this be 'Insightful' if you don't even know where in the world it is happening?
    • (Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday November 23 2021, @03:19PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 23 2021, @03:19PM (#1198899) Journal

      American asks: Friend, you use such strange words. What are these 'other countries' that you speak of?

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 24 2021, @03:01AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 24 2021, @03:01AM (#1199119)

        Its just a couple states over.

  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday November 23 2021, @11:28AM (1 child)

    by driverless (4770) on Tuesday November 23 2021, @11:28AM (#1198853)

    A turkey in every pot,

    Well, at least one very big turkey at No.10.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 23 2021, @09:12PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 23 2021, @09:12PM (#1199027) Journal

      Pot for every turkey!

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday November 23 2021, @07:18PM

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday November 23 2021, @07:18PM (#1198983) Journal

    Where is the plan to build the power plants needed? Nuke plants to be green, right?

    According to England (the old one), yes.

    UK commits to decarbonise electricity system by 2035 [world-nuclear-news.org]

    The UK government has announced plans to decarbonise the country's power system by 2035, instead of the previous target of 2050. The plan focuses on building a secure, home-grown energy sector - including nuclear energy - that reduces reliance on fossil fuels and exposure to volatile global wholesale energy prices.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Tuesday November 23 2021, @07:41PM

    by crafoo (6639) on Tuesday November 23 2021, @07:41PM (#1198995)

    I dunno, I guess this strikes me as a very, very conservative mindset. Who is to say teens will be driving? Who is to say you will be allowed 2 cars per family? Who is to say energy capacity will increase to meet these economic desires rather than government dictating a change in lifestyle instead? I mean, the Authoritarian-Greens are already trying to phase out meats, they crippled the energy supply in the UK, and the government set price controls but then didn't subsidize the companies they were essentially forcing out of business. I think you make quite a few assumptions about decisions you will have no say in.