Careful planning of EV charging station placement could lessen or eliminate need for new power plants, study shows

MIT researchers say it's possible to mitigate or eliminate need for new power plants to meet peak loads in the evening when cars are plugged in after the workday.

Overproduction of power from solar farms during the daytime can waste valuable electricity-generation capacity.

MIT researchers used data collected in two sample cities: New York and Dallas.

Delayed home charging could make a surprising amount of difference, the team found.

Such a program would require some advance commitment on the part of participants.

It's not a given that all this would line up just right, and putting in place the right mix of incentives would be crucial.

"If you want electric vehicles to act as an effective storage technology for solar energy," Jessika Trancik says.