Electric car charging at night causes more harm than good

It has ben shown by an article published by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, that charging electric vehicles at night causes more harm than good. The reason for this statement is that while charging electric cars at night is more cost effective for grid operators (they are cutting their power generation costs from a quarter to a third), it increases air emissions which, at the same time, increases air pollution consequences for human health and the environment (it is causing 50% higher costs).

To be more specific, what happens is that, at night, the electricity needed to charge electric cars is produced by coal-fired power plants (as they are below full capacity). These plants produce sulfur dioxide, being sulfur dioxide the single source of cost to human health resulting from electric vehicle charging. This finding made regulators to be stricter concerning sulfur dioxide emissions at night, resulting in a lot of coal-fired power plants thinking about retiring from providing electricity to charge electric cars.

I was really surprised after reading the article. I would have never thought of charging an electric car in determined hours being a cause of increased air emissions and health problems. In order to avoid so, I have thought of two different solutions: society being aware of this fact, or finding a new way to provide electricity in such hours.

In order to increase awareness through society, it is very important that all the actors related to “electric car charging” (electric cars manufacturers, distributors and sellers, charging points builders and electricity providers) involved. This means that they should all work together in order to be consistent when sharing the message of “try not to charge your electric car during the night, as it would damage you and the environment”.

On the other hand, finding a new environmentally friendly way to provide electricity during the night would be a bit more difficult, but definitely more useful, as it would not be avoiding the problem, but solving it. Being that said, I really encourage researchers to investigate deeper in this field in order to be able to find an alternative to the current way of supplying electricity during the night.