Tag Archives: electric vehicle charging infrastruccture

EVs and the Power Shortage

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By Gary S. Vasilash

Although U.S. Congress approved $7.5 billion for the construction of EV chargers a couple years ago—the Biden administration has a target of 500,000 by 2030—things aren’t going particularly well in that regard.

The Washington Post reported in late March that the number of charging stations that have been opened as a result of that funding is. . .seven.

Those seven stations provide a combined 38 chargers.

However, private companies are installing chargers at a more rapid pace.

According to the most recent report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL):

“In Q3 2023, the number of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) ports in the Station Locator grew by 7.7%, or 12,986 EVSE ports, bringing the total number of ports to 181,026.”

However, the NREL estimates that if there are 33 million EVs on the road in the U.S. by 2030 that will require 28 million EV charging ports.

Which is a far cry from that 181,026 number.

But the NREL figures that of the 28 million charging ports, 25.7 million of them will be at private residences. That’s right: 92% of the chargers will be in garages and car ports across the land.

So consumers who are going to buy an EV ought to save up some more money to hire electricians.

However, the Inflation Reduction Act has money in it for people who install equipment in their garages.

According to the U.S. Dept. of Energy:

“If you purchase EV charging equipment for your principal residence, you may be eligible for a tax credit for the charging station. This credit is generally 30% of the item’s cost, up to $1,000.”

Those tax credits are supposed to be good until 2032.

Meanwhile, over in the European Union, the number of chargers is severely lagging the number of vehicles.

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has released a report showing that while slightly over 150,000 public charging points were installed in the EU last year, or about 3,000 per week, in order to reach the 8.8 million charging points that will be needed overall by 2030, the pace of installation would have to be more than 22,000 per week—some eight times the current rate.

ACEA Director General, Sigrid de Vries:

“Easy access to public charging points is not ‘nice to have’, but an essential condition to decarbonize road transport, in addition to market support and a competitive manufacturing framework in Europe. Investments in public charging infrastructure must be urgently ramped up if we are to close the infrastructure gap and meet climate targets.”

Of course, as the available billions of dollars for public charging infrastructure in the U.S. shows, it will take more than money to get the necessary chargers installed.

A Billion Here, a Billion There

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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.