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SpiritualTwo5256 t1_jdqjc00 wrote

Reply to comment by grundar in There Is Still Plenty We Can Do to Slow Climate Change by nastratin

Higher voltage allows more wattage. It’s the amps that create the heat which makes things fry.
And if we don’t have nuclear as a base load carrier, we will need most cars connected to the grid during the day and especially a commute times. The duck curve sucks!

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grundar t1_jdr9dkj wrote

> > Changing home voltage from 120v to 240v is unlikely to do anything to help the grid, as the higher-voltage transmission lines would carry the same amount of energy (and current) either way.
>
> Higher voltage allows more wattage. It’s the amps that create the heat which makes things fry.

Sure, but changing homes from 120v to 240v does nothing to lessen the amperage being carried by the high-voltage transmission lines, and those are where the grid is constrained.

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Alpha3031 t1_jdqm51m wrote

Actually, in the US least-cost pathways with adequate transmission capacity show much less deployment of diurnal storage (about half), solar and nuclear compared to the scenario where transmission is constrained. Sufficient transmission capacity to minimise cost is about 2 to 3 times current levels (compared with up to about 20% increase for constrained), and results in close to double the deployed wind substituting for the ~30% decrease in solar.

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