Electric Cars

I just got back from a presentation by one of my class-mates who was giving his PhD dissertation proposal. His topic was the performance of the future "smart grid" and one of the major factors was the impact that electric cars will have. He said, and I'm assuming he did the research and isn't making this up (a bad thing to do if you're trying to get your PhD), that the Chevy Volt is estimated to use in two months of operation the same amount of energy an average household would in one year.

Think about that. It may be cheaper per mile to operate an electric vehicle but that may only be true if you're the only one that has one. Utilities will have to build more power plants, the distribution grid will all have to be massively upgraded for all the additional energy it will have to provide, rates may go up. Buying a Chevy Volt and parking it in your garage will, to the power company, look like you just built six more homes to live in and are powering them all from the same wires that are running to your house right now.

This seems like big deal to me. I'm glad people like my friend are doing the research on how to make this work now before it becomes a huge issue.