By Gary S. Vasilash

“A cumulative national capital investment of $53-$127 billion in charging infrastructure is needed by 2030 (including private residential charging) to support 33 million PEVs.” That’s according to a report from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), “The 2030 National Charging Network: Estimating U.S. Light-Duty Demand for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure.”

The ”PEV” is for “plug-in electric vehicle.”

The way the NREL figures it, there will be:

• 26.8 million Level 1 and Level 2 chargers at single-family homes, multifamily properties and workplaces
• 182,000 fast-charging ports on highways and within local communities
• 1 million Level 2 ports in high-density neighborhood, office buildings and retail outlets.

That is quite a span in the estimated spend to put in all those chargers.

Note that much of the investment will be made by individual homeowners. There is the cost of the equipment, the cost of an electrician, the cost of things an electrician will find when making the installation, and, if there is Level 2 rather than Level 1, then the probable need to get 240-Volts to the garage, and. . . .

It is likely to be more than a grand.

But let’s say all of that is done. Let’s say that the $53-$127 billion has been spent.

All good, right?

Well, there is something else in the report that probably deserves considerably more attention:

“The cost of grid upgrades and distributed energy resources have been excluded from these estimates. While these excluded costs can be significant in many cases and will ultimately be critical in building out the national charging network, they tend to be site specific and have been deemed out of scope for this analysis.”

“Significant” means “a whole, whole lot” on top of the aforementioned billions.