While I am pet-sitting for my sister in California, she is letting me use her beach-community house and electric car. It has been nice driving past gas stations with prices so high. She also has residential solar panels to charge her car (and run her other devices). The panels generate enough power that she is almost always "off the grid" with no electricity bill. So is the cost of driving zero? Should I be driving all over the place?
Almost. The opportunity cost is what she would do with the surplus power she produces. Her utility will buyback her surplus power at $0.05-$0.08 per kwh while her retail rate is $0.45-$0.47 per kwh. Back in Texas these would be $0.07-$0.08 per kwh and $0.13-$0.19 per kwh. The opportunity cost in California is nearly 1/10 of the price while it is close to 1/2 in Texas. In Texas, I might drive a bit more if I had an EV and solar panels. In California, I would drive a lot more.
No comments:
Post a Comment