Walk around most city and town centres and there is undoubtedly a higher visibility of electric car charging stations. They’re often the most prized parking spaces, after all. However, fast forward to 2030 and according to National Grid, as reported by The Guardian, we can expect some 9m plug-in vehicles to be creating huge electrical demand across the UK.
This is undoubtedly great news for the country in terms of emissions, but it does raise the question of exactly where this jump in electricity demand, supposedly exceeding the capacity of Hinkley Point C, is going to come from.
National Grid explains that, if electric cars are not charged smartly i.e. avoiding peaks and troughs in power demand, the country’s peak demand could be as much as 8GW higher in 2030 than it is now. Shifting the charging of cars to times when demand is lower would help to reduce peak demand to around 3.5GW.
With manufacturers such as Volvo announcing that all of its vehicles will be electric or hybrid by 2019 and France pledging to ban all new petrol and diesel cars by 2040, the trend is sure to be mirrored across the UK. With battery vehicles expected to take off across the UK in earnest in the mid 2020’s, it seems the clock really is ticking and one assumes that the clock has ample battery life to cope with demand.
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