cromwell wrote:I know the electric revolution is coming Suff.
There are a fair few worried voices about the economic effect of zero carbon policies though.
It's not coming. That's the problem, it is here. These V2.0 electric vehicles have a longer range than either of my big bikes. They charge fast and they last a loooong time. None of this passive battery management which did for so many Nissan leaf's.
Lots of people in the US worried about affordable healthcare. But, in the end, it made very little difference to the lives of most people and a very large difference to a broad segment of the population who would never be able to afford their own.
People worry about change. The problem, as always, comes in trusting that your government will do the right thing so you don't wind up holding the bag and nowhere to go.
I know I've mentioned this before but it is worth repeating. We sell around 2m vehicles in the UK every year. That 2m will have to be EV or PHEV by 2030 and fully EV by 2035. Even then, assuming that we have only transitioned some 10% of our vehicles to EV, it will take another 15 years before we fully make it to EV vehicles only. 29 years is a long time even for politicians. It is enough time to get the current Nuclear power station finished, get two more built and have both solar and wind power fully ramped up along with biomass as backup. Gas too if we need it but the plant which is currently in build now will be EOL by 30 years from now.
Even then, there is the concept of sharing which doesn't exist today and a sharing market which can, done properly, actually net people money who take and store renewable power to get us over the humps of the lulls. The UK is heavily invested in Vehicle 2 Grid (V2G). We are leading standards for it and pushing to get this technology rolled out so that we can have a balance to our grid. At the same time it is always worth searching for
Tesla Autobidder to understand the opportuntiy. It is trade right now but the long term goal is to get it to car owners.
If we look at massive solar roll out it puts an entirely different twist on our energy market. Today daytime power is peak and the most expensive. But in a heavily rolled out solar world, mid day is peak renewable power. We want people to take it, store it and give it back when it is needed (night time). Equally wind is peak in the early morning and late evening. So top your car up mid day, drive the 19 miles home, donate half your power to the grid overnight and then top up on early morning wind power before going your 19 miles back to work, with anywhere up to 290 miles left in your battery. Charge it up all day on solar at work. What is even more important is that you actually need to donate some of your battery to the grid in order to have enough space to fill up during the day. Food for thought.
Everything about our energy map will have to change. Nuclear is there to get us over the flat spots, the whole week with cloudy skies and no wind. But we don't see these weeks very often, once every 1-2 years really. However, once is once too many so we have to have a fallback baseload power. Yes we could do it with baterries, oversupply of wind and solar and other solutions such as Hydrogen and stored air. But the risk with Nuclear is far more known and the benefits are also known. Then again we haven't even talked about energy interconnects.
The generations that follow will see how we generate and use energy in a very different way. Just like the WWW and how my generation couldn't see the opportunity. Because of my interest in the whole climate issue, I have become plugged into the entire ecosystem of change and see what people bring up every day. The opportunities are HUGE.
