Published

2 years ago

December 30, 2024

Alice Rush

Here’s an article on the use of EVs as a tool to power our homes and/or send electricity back to the grid. My comments are in italics.

A study by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute shows how electric vehicles (EVs) could double as home storage batteries using bidirectional charging. Yes, this is called “vehicle-to-grid,” aka “V2G.”

It was an interesting concept in the 2000-aughts but has gone essentially nowhere over the last two decades, largely because amount of electrical energy in an EV’s battery is not worth the inconvenience and the cost of the vast amount of technology necessary to make all his happen.

Also, let’s suppose that an EV owner wants to commit to having a certain number of kWhrs taken from his battery every day at a given time, but his plans change, he needs to use his car for some purpose that he couldn’t have foreseen, and now he’s stranded. That’s not an appealing deal.

Most EVs in Germany are driven for just 1 hour daily, leaving 23 hours of idle time. During this downtime, EVs could stabilize energy grids by storing and sharing power when demand peaks.

The amount of time EVs are not driven is totally irrelevant to this discussion.

This strategy could boost solar and wind energy use, as EVs could store excess daytime energy and release it at night.

Sorry, but no. Part of the reason that V2G will never be implemented is that it would have an infinitesimal impact on our grid-mix, while coming along with a huge price tag.

For individual EV owners, this could mean annual savings of €31 to €780 by sharing stored energy with their home or the grid.

Doubtless, if an individual EV owner wants to make this investment, there will some return. €31/year is less than $0.09 per day. That doesn’t sound too motivating to me, but maybe I’m just a hard sell.

BTW, I can’t find this “study.” I’m thinking that, if it exists at all, it was written about 20 years ago, when this subject was actually under consideration.

Vehicle-to-Grid

Renewable Energy

Trumpism Has Its Humorous Side

Published

18 hours ago

September 15, 2026

Alice Rush

Apparently, this guy believes that the majority of Americans think poorly of Trump supporters, and wonders if this the message we want to send.

News flash: This is precisely the message we want to send.

I wonder what his doctorate is in. Filth? Debauchery? White collar felonies? War crimes?

Trumpism Has Its Humorous Side

Renewable Energy

What Does “Support” Actually Mean?

Published

19 hours ago

September 15, 2026

Alice Rush

The idiot’s t-shirt shown here raises the question: How do you define the word “support?”

In a certain sense, I support all countries, insofar as the people living in each deserve to live freely.

As an American, I support the United States. I revere it for its strengths, while I advocate for remedying its considerable set of weaknesses: corruption, injustice, racism, indifference to human suffering, militarism, and greed.

What Does “Support” Actually Mean?

Renewable Energy

Stupidity and Racism: A Lethal Combination

Published

20 hours ago

September 15, 2026

Alice Rush

BREAKING: Texas Republicans are flailing after a party nominee posted vile racist commentary and refused to take it back.

The firestorm started Sunday when Bo French, the GOP nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, posted a photo of University of Texas football fans, “most of them people of color,” writing that “the problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” according to Politico.

The post appeared to target South Asian students and sent Texas Republicans into a panic over the damage it could do “down the ballot,” including Attorney General Ken Paxton’s struggling Senate bid and Abbott’s own reelection.

Before the Republican party aligned itself with rank stupidity, tacit racism was not really a huge problem. Now, however, we have the equivalent of mixing alcohol with opiates, a deadly combination, which has made the midterms very tough for the GOP–even in Texas.