Energy

The discussions about the energy needed by the grid to accommodate the need when the country uses all EV's is misunderstood. Energy is a commodity like gallons of gasoline or kilowatt hours (kWh). Power is the amount of energy that can be delivered in one second. On the grid, power demand and supply fluctuate during the day. Power is generated at the power plant and measured in kW while energy is delivered at the charging station and measured in kWh. At peak times the demand is for power not energy. Energy is what does useful work like moving a car or cooling a home. Power is the rate that energy flows. We don't need to increase the power of the grid to charge more cars but we need to produce more energy. In physics, energy equals power times time. E=Pt. If a charging station provides 10kW of power and the car charges for one hour then the energy is 10 kWh. The higher the power the faster the EV will charge. Solar panels and windmills create power much like fossil fired and nuclear plants. It changes to energy when the power is used such as driving an EV. The plan is to add power to the grid from solar and wind as the energy used by EV's increases.