All Electric – New Energy Alternative
The world around us is rapidly moving away from traditional fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources in a bid to reduce climate change and meet carbon emission commitments that nations signed up to in the legally binding climate change Paris agreement in 2015. Developing a sustainable, carbon-free planet is of vital importance as the world population is projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050. This will be catastrophic if we keep pumping pollution into the atmosphere and creating toxic environment for our future generations. It’s clear we need to take drastic action now as time is not in our favor.
A major polluter of our environment is the transport sector, with cars, trucks, trains, aircraft and marine vessels contributing to 14% of global greenhouse emissions according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. This is steadily increasing as the demand for transportation rises due to an ever increasing population. While combustion engines have commercially dominated the transport since the late 1800’s, the world can no longer sustain high levels of carbon pollution. In recent years, the automotive industry has been instrumental in developing alternative technologies with hybrid cars (gas-electric) coming out in the early 2000’s, with a clear move to only electric.
I see that electric transportation will be the next predominant technology and will be adopted by all transportation sectors in order to bring down emission levels. This technology faced a number of technical challenges during its early years related to battery charging time, limited mileage and charging locations. But within the last few years, electric technology has advanced significantly with a new generation of electric vehicles that can be rapidly charged with adequate mileage capacity, not less than petrol based vehicles. Technology is being standardized, bringing down costs and making the ownership of such electric vehicles more feasible.
While at the beginning, the needed infrastructures for electric cars –charging locations- was not sufficiently available countries like the UK, have had a massive push to equip their petrol stations with electric chargers, as well as installing in charging spots in supermarket car parks, shopping malls and other convenient locations around the country. The ownership of electric vehicles has also been incentivized by the UK government, allowing owners to drive in dedicated lanes for hybrid/electric cars, as well as subsidizing the purchase of zero emission vehicles, helping consumers to make the swap from petrol to electric.
We need similar ecosystems in other countries to promote purchase of electric cars. I have heard arguments that this is a short term ‘band aid’ as the term electric cars is an oxymoron as the electricity they use is produced by traditional fossil fuels. I don’t see this as a valid argument with the current availability of ample renewable energy sources. If the UK can generate 30% of its electric need using wind power alone, I believe many countries can use wind, solar power and other viable renewable sources to generate much, if not all, of their electricity needs. This is a matter of will and commitment for change, as this technology has been tried and tested and it is both available and affordable. Governments need to be serious in their efforts to accelerate change which can only happen from the top down. If the people see that electric is a real alternative and an attractive option, they will go down the electric route with confidence.
As well as passenger vehicles, I see that electric power will take over all transportation modes. As electric engines have much fewer moving parts than combustion engines, there is less to go wrong, which means lower maintenance costs. It has also been estimated that the cost of the electricity required to charge an electric vehicle is around 40% less than the cost of petrol for a similar sized vehicle driving the same distance. These factors account for major savings for transportation sectors and have huge implications on marine shipping, the airline industry and rail networks.
I see electricity taking over in all of these sectors, bringing down cost and producing greener environments. To show how serious this is being taken, I will give you the example of Airbus that has dedicated research to developing electric aircraft, and having much success in developing smaller electric aircraft. This will be a game changer and will soon see the advent of fully electric planes with zero emissions and almost noise free. I’m sure this will be met by electric innovations in other areas of transport as it gains further momentum.
We need to develop the needed policies, put in the needed infrastructure and train highly skilled technicians in order to develop similar success stories in our region.
Electric usage is no longer a fantasy and has now come of age. Those looking to secure employment and business in the future would be wise to develop capacity in this area, something I highly promote as the Chair of the Honorary Council of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization in the USA.