How much more power is needed if we all drove a EV?
That has been asked a lot. Yesterday I was running listening Bill Gates on a pod cast mention USA needs 3 times its current total power use.
How much is that? "As of February 2022, America has more than 1.2 million megawatts of generation capacity"
I suspect that is made up of using Electricity for everything removing methane gas from industry, home heating and hot water as well as transport.
If that is correct Australia may if similar aims are assumed would be 3 times about "In 2020-21 total electricity generation in Australia was nearly steady at around 266 TWh (956 PJ), the highest total generation on record for Australia. COVID-19 affected sectoral usage and time of demand."
Gates was also very dismissive or the minute hyped up battery storage. Currently US has "At the end of 2021, the United States had 4,605 megawatts (MW) of operational utility-scale battery storage power capacity"
Gates and SMR Nuclear terra power belongs in another thread[bigrolf]
So the answer to 'Do We have Enough Power' is No we do not.
Plans to expand are not on the Governments drawing boards at all. Its all about removing coal at present[bigwhistle]
How much C02 free power will needed? Every bit of wind, solar, hydro and about 81% more than 2021 level to just "Renewables contributed 29% of total electricity generation in 2021" and then add 300% more than that again. That's a whooping 798 TWH or 2868PJ!
My thought is that is not possible in our very lucky country, with out all C02 Free options being used.
Weekends long runs can be productive in more ways than one [biggrin]