WHERE DOES THE POWER TO ELECTRIC CARS COME FROM?

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A few hundred thousand electric cars spread all over the country can have their electrical storage devices charged from sockets in their garages, or at charging stations installed at petrol pumps

The idea is FUTURISTIC and may get accepted because it will fit in with Modi's showy style of decision-making. RMI and Niti Aayog have sweetened the pill by claiming it will reduce once-a-year GHG by one billion tonnes. A few moments reflection, however, shows its very wide flaws. The number of privately owned motorised vehicles rose from 29 million in 2002 to 160 million in 2013. This figure will probably rise again, to over 500 million, by 2030. This immediately raises the question, "Where will the electricity they consume come from?"

 

A few hundred thousand electric cars spread all over the country can have their electrical storage devices charged from sockets in their garages, or at charging stations installed at petrol pumps, without a sudden increase in the load on the existing power stations. So this will really help to lower one. But when 350 million vehicles have to be charged every day, at any time of the day or night, anywhere in the country, not only will a whole nation-wide, and therefore expensive, recharging booths have to be built, but the power these vehicles will consume will have to be created first. Given the limited ability (to hold or do something) of solar PV power to meet this demand and the tiny amount of nuclear power in India's energy mix, nearly all of this will have to come from coal.

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