RICHLAND, Wash. – If all the cars and light trucks in the nation switched from oil to electrons, idle capacity in the existing electric power system could generate most of the electricity consumed by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. A new study for the Department of Energy finds that "off-peak" electricity production and transmission capacity could fuel 84 percent of the country's 220 million vehicles if they were plug-in hybrid electrics.If you've ever looked at the electric grid's power output chart, you've seen the daily sine-wave shape of it and all the unused generating capacity that occurs at night. In places such as along the Stanislaus river, you can see the river rise and fall daily as hydroelectric plants retain water at night and release it through the turbines during the day.
A further benefit to the grid of a nation of plug-in EVs is the possibility of avoiding brown-outs by using all those batteries as load balancers during moments of peak demand.
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