As we get more renewables online, it actually makes more sense to have people charge their cars during the day than during the overnight hours. Demand management that is coordinated by the ISO will be key to integrating more renewables. Of course, grid scale batteries help too, but the increasing EV population is a good sink for daytime solar and it will reduce fossil generation during overnight hours. We just need more plugs for all the EVs where they normally park during the day.
Yes, exactly, and this is something I've been shouting about for years on here, and you put my mouth where your action is by actually building out such projects (mostly at work parking lots). Followup is even more buildout of plugs and rate plans, as you say, via the free market (in this case, a government run ISO market), so that the cheaper daytime energy can be used up that way. It is absolutely insane today that we have this huge surplus of energy during the middle of the day that is actually charged at a higher rate than the times that PG&E has a huge deficit of energy available.
Given the surplus solar/renewable energy and poor ROI, does this really make sense...
Why California's new solar mandate could cost new homeowners up to an extra $10,000
Key Points
- California became the first state in the nation to make solar mandatory for new houses.
- Beginning in 2020, newly constructed homes must have solar panels, which could be costly for homeowners.
- The state estimates that the cost will be offset by savings on utility bills.
- Yet the added costs could hit “the affordable side of the market,” an expert told CNBC.
If the mandate was upgraded to also require an equal or greater amount of battery, whether fixed or via daytime car charging, then it would make sense. The daytime car charging could be a certified reserved plug for that homeowner with their own owned EV during sunlight hours, and if they're not retired, that would require a form filled in by their boss with their hours they work, and if they don't work 7 days a week, then would also require home charging that charges from sun. That would require software upgrades and CPUC rate plan upgrades, as already discussed by
@miimura a few posts above, but that's all software and paperwork, not hardware, at that point.
Since many homes are made by developers and sold later, the devs could either put in fixed batteries, or sell the homes with a requirement that the buyer either also pay for fixed batteries or get the certs for their EVs. Obviously, this would push more daytime charging EV sales greatly.
Why this hasn't already happened is why I point at the one-party Democrat system as totally corrupt on the environment.