The Future?

As a nation we in the UK will adapt to not using Fossil Fuels for vehicle propulsion.   As a short stopgap there will be an upsurge in hybrid vehicles and range extenders.  But fully electric propelled vehicles are the ultimate wayforward.  I am looking forward to the future. 

K 

Please do not get worried that there will not be sufficient extra electricity available in the future to replace all the giga-watts of power currently generated from liquid fossil fuel in motor vehicles.

The Smart Meter will be the saviour!

This is because it can be controlled remotely by the power company. The power can be turrned off whenever they fancy. Such as when demand is begining to exceed supply.  Consumers will be able to sign up to different schemes at different costs where the higher rate one pays give less likelyhood to be cut off.

The New Dark Ages commeth.

As things stand it looks like electric will be the way forward and current research indicates that much larger battery capacity and very rapid charging times are possible. Tesla are working on EV lorries so anything is possible. This is based on batteries currently being researched and tested. If the technology fails to deliver then of course it may not happen.

Irrespective of EVs I agree that new power stations will be required. 

The Smart Meter will be the saviour!

Smart meters assume that you have your vehicle plugged in overnight to take advantage of the dip in demand. OK if the technology or infrastructure existed but it doesn't and even if it did the dips are not big enough to support the required energy needs. 

Still its good to know that the roll out of domestic smart meters is only 10 years late and still giving no measurable benefit to the tiny proportion of those who have a working one! Rolling out smart chargers should be a doddle.

Regardless of all this the national grid only has one way of supplying this energy and that is by burning fossil fuels. This is less efficient than burning fossil fuels in engines as the energy chain losses mean more pollution. EVs are emission deferred vehicles not energy efficient vehicles, unless you live in France.

Renewable energy will save us! Well it could if we cover every square inch of our island with turbines and solar farms. But this not a solution as it is just not dependable.

I believe EVs have a substantial part in the future and will become the norm for urban travel.

I also think these will not be cars owned by the public.

Car ownership will be a thing of the past.

EVs can only happen if the UK builds more new nuclear reactors, any other solution is not reliable or is as polluting as internal combustion engines.

There is another way, build every new house with the highest energy rating and with a solar roof. This has two main benefits, the grid is supported by millions of small generators and the major source of city air pollution  (gas boilers) are removed. Unfortunately the house building lobby keep this off the agenda. 

I think there's a well known song somewhere about they all laughed at Christopher Columbus, when he said the world was round, They all laughed when Edison recorded sound...they told Marconi, wireless was a phony...

Still its good to know that the roll out of domestic smart meters is only 10 years late and still giving no measurable benefit to the tiny proportion of those who have a working one! Rolling out smart chargers should be a doddle.

Of course the roll out is slow, There is no compulsion and few want one.

Yes but the whole concept of the smart meter was to make us all efficient and thus reduce the load on the grid. It was our wonderful government (cheap) solution to the inevitable fact that unless they invest in nuclear stations and infrastructure then we will run out of power within 20 years.

Now if EVs need 30% additional increase in demand then what?