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Battery not included
Electricity needs to be perfectly timed for when you decide to use it. Unpredictable sources, including solar panels, require large battery systems to ensure power is there when you need it.
Photo credit: Jaidee, Pixabay contributor
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The future of electric vehicles
Some developers predict that within five years, wireless dynamic charging systems for electric vehicles will be built into special high-occupancy-vehicle lanes in large cities.
Photo Credit: Leon Wallis, Pixabay contributor
Electricity turns dark into light, makes hot foods cold and cold foods hot, washes the dishes and searches the internet. It is essential to our everyday lives, so much so that we rarely think about it. But behind the scenes, interesting things are happening. Here are three facts about electricity that may amaze you.
Electricity must be used or stored after it’s generated
Electricity produced from power plants, solar panels, wind turbines and hydro dams in the U.S. needs to be perfectly timed for when you decide to cook dinner, wash clothes or watch TV. The national grid of power generators, wires and substations is an incredibly complex network that makes electricity flow smoothly.
A vast and intricate system of devices controls that power flow in a precisely balanced way. It’s one reason utility operators must be strategic when adding renewable energy to the nation’s fuel mix—a coal or natural gas plant can ramp generation up or down fairly quickly to meet changing energy demands. But solar energy and wind power depend more on the whims of nature, which adds an extra degree of difficulty to power management. However, technology advances could be a game changer.
Large-scale battery storage technology is rapidly improving, allowing big batteries to offer another way for electric utilities to better balance the flow and timing of electricity. Wider use of large, utility-scale batteries could also make it much easier to add more solar and wind energy to our grid––by storing energy when it’s breezy and sunny then using it at night and during calm weather.
Power out? Blame a squirrel
We all know to play it safe around electricity, but squirrels don’t. They scamper and chew around transformers, substations and utility poles, where they can disrupt high-voltage equipment, shutting down power for you and me.
But it’s not just squirrels. Snakes, birds and other critters can find their way into dangerous places. There’s no official recordkeeping of wildlife-caused power outages, but estimates run as high as 20%.
Electric utilities are constantly devising new ways to keep wildlife away from dangerous electrical equipment—the resulting power disruptions are inconvenient for us energy consumers and always fatal for the squirrel.
Highways could charge electric vehicles in the future
Futurists predict that within five years, electric trucks will stay on the road longer, thanks to wireless dynamic charging systems built into special high-occupancy-vehicle lanes in large cities.
Test projects are underway around the world, and the basic idea is similar to using those wireless chargers you can buy for your home electronics. Charging cars while they’re driving along the freeway is, of course, a lot more ambitious.
Electric trucks would be the most likely users of wireless charging lanes. Most electric cars, after all, can charge overnight in a residential garage. Wireless dynamic truck charging could keep the deliveries rolling rather than having drivers sitting and drinking coffee for the several hours it could take a conventional plug-in to get trucks back to full power.
Electricity is such a basic part of our everyday life, so it’s easy to forget about it. But every now and then, it’s good to think about all its benefits and mysteries.