Originally Posted by atpcliff

Hi!

For the guys who've posted about electric/hybrid electric cars requiring LOTS of new electrical power, that is wrong, in the short term.

Electrical power plants run generators, with produce "X" amount of energy. They run 24 hours a day, basically producing the same amount of energy all the time. We have enough plants to cover (normally) the max electrical energy use, which is normally about 1300-1700 local time.

During the night, approx. 2300-0600 local, the electrical demand drops WAY off. During this time period, electric/hybrid electric cars could be plugged in, and draw the electrical energy that is being wasted.

So, in the short term, we don't need more electricity.

In the LONG term, if most cars ran off of electricity, then we WOULD need more electricity than is currently being generated.

cliff
LRD