Officials: Florida not lagging but ‘early’ in developing electric vehicle infrastructure

By John Haughey
The Center Square
September 27, 2021

 

By 2040, nearly 60% of passenger vehicle sales in Florida will be electric and 35% of cars on Sunshine State roads will be electric vehicles (EVs), according to estimates by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

“EVs are coming. It is not a matter of if, it’s simply when,” Florida Power& Light (FR&L) Vice President Matt Valle told the Senate Transportation Committee Wednesday.

FP&L’s Valle and Assistant DOT Secretary Brad Thoburn delivered presentations on the Florida Electric Vehicle Roadmap to the Senate panel in the afternoon after doing so before the House Tourism, Infrastructure & Energy Subcommittee that morning.

The proposed EV network master plan was completed in December 2020 at the behest of state lawmakers when they adopted an “essential infrastructure” omnibus package in 2019.

“This is really a jumping off point,” Thoburn said. “We’re early on this. We’re watching a ton of other activities and pilots and different policy conversations coming on.”

Thoburn emphasized that Florida is not lagging in EV development, contrary to common misperception that the state does not have the infrastructure to support them. The report cites this “lack of education (as) one of the biggest barriers to EV adoption” and recommends the state “develop a statewide EV educational campaign that can be rebranded locally.”

The FDOT EV road map contradicts some of the findings posted in October 2020 by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) and Atlas Public Policy in their Transportation Electrification in Florida study.

According to the study, Florida is second in the nation in EV sales, but near the bottom in terms of government and utility investment.

“Utility engagement and supportive state policies are needed to ensure Floridians can fully access the economic, public health and climate benefits that EVs deliver,” the SACE/Atlas study said.

According to FDOT’s EV Road Map, there is ample Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) in the state to meet current and near-future demand.

As of June 2020, the report states, there were 3,907 Level 2 charging plugs and 844 direct current fast charges (DCFC) plugs in Florida, including the Tesla charging network that serves roughly half of the EVs in Florida.

“Based on our analysis, projected counts reveal that there is enough DCFC to meet charging demand until 2025 and enough Level 2 chargers exists throughout the state to meet infrastructure needs for the next ten years,” the report states. “These projections will surprise many that believe Florida lacks sufficient EVSE to meet current charging demand. Addressing misconceptions like this one is critical to widespread EV adoption.”

As EVs gradually become more prominent on roads, gas taxes that fund transportation infrastructure will correspondingly decline by as much as 20% by 2040.

Thoburn said finding alternate revenue sources to gas taxes will be a key component to developing the state’s EV networks.

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, who said he has owned an EV for years, wondered if there was a way electric utility taxes generated by those who charge EVs at home could be allocated to the FDOH.

“If I’m consuming power,” he said, “I’m paying taxes on that.”

Senate Transportation Committee Chair Sen. Gayle Harrell said the road map will “orient” lawmakers as they ponder EV-related bills during the 2022 legislative session, which kicks off its 60-day run on Jan. 11.

“I think within five years we’re going to have a huge number of them on the road, and we have got to be prepared to do that,” she said.

 

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Barnes Moore
Barnes Moore(@barnes-moore)
2 years ago

We need a dose of reality. Search on weakest-link-to-ev-growth-is-the-material-supply-chain for a start, then for those thinking we can get to net zero ever, search on bright-green-impossibilities or on bright-green-californian-impossibilities. Few people have any idea of the amount of energy derive and use from fossil fuels. A teaser from bright green impossibilities:

Starting from today, January 25, 2021, there are 10,568 days until January 1, 2050. So we need to install, test, commission, and add to the grid about 22 TW / 10568 days ≈ adding 2.1 gigawatts (GW, or 109 watts) of generating capacity each and every day from now until 2050.

We can do that in a couple of ways. We could go all nuclear. In that case, we’d need to build, commission, and bring on-line a brand-new 2.1 GW nuclear power plant every single day from now until 2050. Easy, right? …

Don’t like nukes? Well, we could use wind power. Now, the wind doesn’t blow all the time. Typical wind “capacity factor”, the percentage of actual energy generated compared to the nameplate capacity, is about 35%. So we’d have to build, install, commission and bring online just under 3,000 medium-sized (2 megawatt, MW = 106 watts) wind turbines every single day from now until 2050. No problemo, right? …

Don’t like wind? Well, we could use solar. Per the NREL, actual delivery from grid-scale solar panel installations on a 24/7/365 basis is on the order of 8.3 watts per square metre depending on location. So we’d have to cover ≈ 100 square miles (250 square kilometres) with solar panels, wire them up, test them, and connect them to the grid every single day from now until 2050. Child’s play, right? …

Of course, if we go with wind or solar, they are highly intermittent sources. So we’d still need somewhere between 50% – 90% of the total generating capacity in nuclear, for the all-too-frequent times when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing”.

DAVID LOTT
DAVID LOTT(@dave-l)
2 years ago

Barnes is exactly right about the fallacies around ‘green energy’ being able to support the current energy needs of our country. One-third of the cars in FL will be electric. Let’s be realistic with a $20,000 – $25,000 premium over a gasoline powered car, how many consumers will go that route despite the promise of lower maintenance/operating costs (until it becomes necessary to replace the batteries) and adding the need to provide a charging station at your home?.