Electric vehicles

Electric vehicles are in themselves environmentally clean. The question of course is what is the energy source that generated the electricity that powers them. If it comes from renewable, clean energy sources then the impact on the environment is minimal.

Most of the current petrol and diesel cars will be replaced by electric cars over the next twenty years and these cars will mostly be charged overnight from an electric plug.

Electricity stations where the cars can be recharged will be needed. In reality, charging batteries will will take a long time. Therefore charging points will be sited at train stations, airports, car parks and and workplaces where the vehicles are parked for a reasonably long time.

Electric cars which have removable battery packs will be able to switch their flat batteries with fully charged batteries and the driver would pay for the additional electricity in the fully charged batteries. This has the potential to become the main function of electricity stations as we currently have petrol stations.

Sources of Electricity

So to what extent will these electric cars save our planet from global warming? It may not be as much as people expect! Most global economies will not be able to generate the required amount of electricty from renewable sources. Current renewable energy resources will be doing well if they generate 50% of the electricty demand in any of the industrial nations by 2030! Even allowing electricity from nuclear power stations to be considered as renewable energy will not be enough for most countries.

I still expect that fossil fuel power stations, particularly coal fired stations, will continue to generate the bulk of the electricity demand. These power stations should be fitted with carbon capture and sequestration capabilities!

However the hydrogen fuel cell has the potential to become the power source for all the electric cars. When, or do I mean if, this technology is made to work, then all electric cars will generate the required electricity on demand. No more batteries, no more overnight charging of electric cars!