Parking lot Solar Panels/Shade Structure

If you have a garage, I would not get hung up on "infrastructure." I looked today, I haven't used public charging in a year in my car. We sold our last gas car in August, 2015. There are no "yeah-buts." When you start thinking about how to roll in an EV, you stop thinking about it being an EV.

I mean, down here, where the cars are common, sometimes you have the place all to yourself. (Sarasota, 7/2019, in the now-totaled car)

And that is honestly no different than a gas station. Sometimes I have to wait for a pump, other times I have the whole place to myself. The annoying thing about waiting for a pump though, is that it's almost always due to someone who finished pumping but went inside to do what seems to be their entire weekly grocery shopping.

I imagine the design & layout of Gas Stations, errrrrrrrr Fueling Stations will gradually change over the next several years as EV's become more prolific. For example, yesterday I pulled into the chaotic Buc-ees along I-10 near Foley AL. There had to be over 100 gas pumps under the massive awning structure. They kind of encourage folks to leave the car at a pump & come inside to spend money. The EV charging area was along the perimeter of the lot, not under an awning. There was maybe 15 -20 spots set up like parking spaces, two were in use.

As things evolve I suppose there will be some stations that will be designed efficiently and others will be a cluster mess difficult to navigate. No different than the Car Care gas station I used to pump full service gas at in the mid-70's at Warren & Triskett in Cleveland.

I'm surprised Alabama even allows them to put EV chargers in. In my mind I just picture the locals immediately destroying them with some combination of turbo diesel trucks and shotguns. If there's any 'bama Buzzers on here, no offense. Maybe take it as a compliment?

I think Wawa already has it figured out. They typically have parking around the perimeter of the property, with numbered spots so they can bring stuff out to you. Many of them down here already have Tesla superchargers at them.

Also, to give you an idea of how common the cars are here, I tried to get into one today that was not mine. I was getting frustrated that it didn't recognize my phone or my backup keycard. Then the dude that it belonged to came out and was like, "I think you've got the wrong car." I turned around and realized mine was behind me.

Nah - that just means you are getting old.

Because I can't tell two identical things apart?

What I mean by infrastructure is the power grids being strained by more electrical uses than I was referring to charging at a local station (I should've been more specific). That being said, California already has brown and blackouts due to huge strains on their electrical grids from A/C being used, let alone adding EV's to the mix.

Data centers are a bigger problem than EV's at this point. But the constraint perception is also based on the idea that generation is centralized instead of distributed. The grid matters less if you have many smaller plants than large big ones.

Also, Europe of course has this figured out. You can replace existing high transmission cables with new ones that allow for 40%+ more power, but the patchwork of utilities can't decide who should pay for it.

This goes back to the original topic, but I would think it would be helpful if you have solar panels on your home, would it not?

I mean, it's two grand a year in power that I don't have to pay for (relative to an ROI schedule for the installation, at least). But yes, it reduced demand on the grid, and because it's net-metered where I live, I'm actually "helping" the neighborhood during the hottest part of the day.

99er:

The annoying thing about waiting for a pump though, is that it's almost always due to someone who finished pumping but went inside to do what seems to be their entire weekly grocery shopping.

Funny enough - I was at the gas station grabbing a Red Bull on the way in to work a few weeks ago - and I observed this scenario in real time with a twist.

A car had pulled in to the pumps, parked about 6 feet away, and sprawling across the gap between the 2 so no one could get to either of those pumps. He just got out and went inside. There was no fueling happening, because it was a Tesla Model S. He just parked there for the sake of parking there to go inside.

Did you key them? I think you’re supposed to key them.

^That's a good one! But these days it's "Did you FOB them? I think you're supposed toFOB them."

I did one better than that. He was clearly in a hurry, and I cut him off on his way to the register and checked out before he did.

Take *that*